As the 2015-16 school year draws to a close, it's time to start looking back in reflection. My goal was to make at least one blog post a month, but that didn't happen. My OCD gets super frustrated when I try to start writing about something that I feel is still in progress, so if I don't have all of the data about an issue I want to think about, my brain rejects it, tells me, "Eh, we should wait until we have more information." That's something I want to try to work on next year because it's still helpful to work on an ongoing issue. I don't have to wait until the end to make conclusions. Wait.. poor word choice. :)
Here is a list of topics I want to try and cover:
-Student-designed calendars
-More Shakespeare stuff
-QFT (and student-created Beowulf tests)
-My month of PBL and log-books (with quarter-size notebook problem solving)
-Flexible seating classroom environment
-"I wish my teacher knew..." activity
-Weekly goals
-10 minute writing and writer's notebooks
-MCHS visit
Based on previous experience, I probably won't get to each topic, though that's the goal I'm shooting for. Every time I make a list like this, I inevitably feel like I don't have enough information to write about something or just put off writing until it doesn't seem relevant or pertinent anymore. Regardless, my main goal to focus on from now until the end of school is going to be focusing on these ideas and articulating my thoughts about them. Wish me luck!
What I can say already, though, is what I feel is the biggest lesson learned the hard way this year: To make any real change, I need to make sure to get everyone on board--coworkers, administration, parents, students themselves. I have the capacity to create change, but I CAN'T do it alone, no matter how hard I push. I can't push down this brick wall by myself, but the more people I get to help me, the easier it falls. Get people on board. Stop waiting for "leadership" that doesn't yet exist. BE the leadership. If I want to make something happen, start the process and get others to help.
Showing posts with label Notes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Notes. Show all posts
Saturday, April 2, 2016
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
Notes from Bulletin Board Spring 2015
I have a bulletin board directly behind my desk I use to hang the school calendar, lunch menu, schedule, and any time sensitive notices from other teachers I need to remember. As the school year wore down this past year, I started keeping small notes to myself that I wanted to remember for next year. They were scattered and various half-thoughts, exactly the sort of thing that I need to write down before they disappear from my brain forever. On my last work day before vacation, I compiled them all into one sheet, organizing them by topic and expanding on anything that didn't make sense by itself. Here's the final analyzed list:
*Add to pledge -- seeing multiple sides to issues / arguments
*Add to pledge -- "viewing new perspectives" or similar language
*Add to Practices handout -- my stance on standing / stretching during class
*Answer questions each day / week for Lit. R. -- essential questions?
-"What is the plot of x?"
-"What is important about x?"
-"Who is the author of x? What do you know about them?"
*Literary terms -- one/week?
*Lots of practice playing devil's advocate. Create some sort of game?
*Perspectives throughout the year. Reflections from various perspectives
*Start the year w/ Doing Hard Things convo (Dave Stuart)
*"What to look for when you read" lesson should be one of the first lessons of the year (so that when we read excerpts, they can look for style, etc.)
*Plagiarism discussion at beginning of the year. "We usually look at content online, but we need to write our own content. Either about the content we read or something it makes us think about, something it inspires us to create, etc." / "If you copy paste, use quotations. That's totally acceptable and gives more context to your reader. It just doesn't count towards YOUR word count because they aren't YOUR words."
*Create a template for informative AoWs, not just argumentative
*For summaries, teach how to combine sentences.
-"The Old Man and the Sea was written by Ernest Hemingway. It was written in 1951. It was written in Cuba. The Old Man and the Sea is a novella."
-"The Old Man and the Sea was written in 1951 in Cuba and was written by Ernest Hemingway. This book is a novella."
-"The Old Man and the Sea is a 1951 novella by Cuba resident Ernest Hemingway."
*There are two ways to handle any situation. Take situation X (I accidentally ate a bug?):
-The Emotional way: ... (Freak out!)
-The Rational way: ... (Well, I hope I don't get sick, but I suppose it's okay. I wonder how many people accidentally eat bugs each day? I wonder what bugs are made of. Protein?)
-Which way is better?
*Feedback: "I want to read more books." / "Explain better. Use models, exemplars. Write down exactly what you want to say."
*Add to pledge -- seeing multiple sides to issues / arguments
*Add to pledge -- "viewing new perspectives" or similar language
*Add to Practices handout -- my stance on standing / stretching during class
*Answer questions each day / week for Lit. R. -- essential questions?
-"What is the plot of x?"
-"What is important about x?"
-"Who is the author of x? What do you know about them?"
*Literary terms -- one/week?
*Lots of practice playing devil's advocate. Create some sort of game?
*Perspectives throughout the year. Reflections from various perspectives
*Start the year w/ Doing Hard Things convo (Dave Stuart)
*"What to look for when you read" lesson should be one of the first lessons of the year (so that when we read excerpts, they can look for style, etc.)
*Plagiarism discussion at beginning of the year. "We usually look at content online, but we need to write our own content. Either about the content we read or something it makes us think about, something it inspires us to create, etc." / "If you copy paste, use quotations. That's totally acceptable and gives more context to your reader. It just doesn't count towards YOUR word count because they aren't YOUR words."
*Create a template for informative AoWs, not just argumentative
*For summaries, teach how to combine sentences.
-"The Old Man and the Sea was written by Ernest Hemingway. It was written in 1951. It was written in Cuba. The Old Man and the Sea is a novella."
-"The Old Man and the Sea was written in 1951 in Cuba and was written by Ernest Hemingway. This book is a novella."
-"The Old Man and the Sea is a 1951 novella by Cuba resident Ernest Hemingway."
*There are two ways to handle any situation. Take situation X (I accidentally ate a bug?):
-The Emotional way: ... (Freak out!)
-The Rational way: ... (Well, I hope I don't get sick, but I suppose it's okay. I wonder how many people accidentally eat bugs each day? I wonder what bugs are made of. Protein?)
-Which way is better?
*Feedback: "I want to read more books." / "Explain better. Use models, exemplars. Write down exactly what you want to say."
Saturday, January 3, 2015
HS English Spring Semester plan
Here's what I want to accomplish with my second semester of teaching high school English:
*Continued Article of the Week project
*Continued Lit Research project (one text per week for seniors, one every other week for juniors, and one a month for freshmen and sophomores)
*A small writing assignment for journals every day for all classes, even on days we're working on other assignments. That means it may be homework some days. Consider putting prompts on a website students/parents can access from home.
*A big writing/research project integrated with History class. Possibly integrated, also, with blog writing. Much of this depends on when we receive Chromebooks.
*Speeches, presentations, communication. PVLEGS. I need more curricula material for this.
*Practical life assignments for seniors. How to write a resume, have an interview, fill out documents, file taxes, etc.
*Continued Article of the Week project
*Continued Lit Research project (one text per week for seniors, one every other week for juniors, and one a month for freshmen and sophomores)
*A small writing assignment for journals every day for all classes, even on days we're working on other assignments. That means it may be homework some days. Consider putting prompts on a website students/parents can access from home.
*A big writing/research project integrated with History class. Possibly integrated, also, with blog writing. Much of this depends on when we receive Chromebooks.
*Speeches, presentations, communication. PVLEGS. I need more curricula material for this.
*Practical life assignments for seniors. How to write a resume, have an interview, fill out documents, file taxes, etc.
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
Notes from a Week of Exploring Teaching the Core
Ooooh my goodness, my brain is so full of all of the things. Dave of Teaching the Core is a wonderful writer, but his blog posts are so chock full of all of the great information I want to learn and links to other pages that are also full of information. He's pretty prolific, too, so there are already so many posts he's published I want to read through. But I don't just want to read them, I want to devour them. I want to scour them for every morsel of useful information, analyze them, and decide how I want to use them.
I feel as though I'm at a big feast, and every time I finish a course, Dave just brings out another plate full of deliciousness and sets it in front of me expectantly.
I have all of the tabs open in my browser. Tabs from Teaching the Core, tabs for other Teaching the Core posts the original ones linked back to, tabs from awesome resources that those blog posts linked to, tabs from interesting articles that those links linked to... *groan* So let's try to get a little more organized, shall we?
Article of the Week and Making Annotations
It didn't take me long after finding myself in this click-hole to realize that I wanted/needed to implement this in my class. I'd been trying to find some way to incorporate more nonfiction reading but was hesitant to try something like this because I didn't want to start printing off a lot of pages. 1) because I'm a hippie and don't like "wasting paper" 2) because it seemed like a slippery slope to worksheets, and 3) because we live in a digital age and why print off something that could just be viewed and manipulated online? But all of these reasons were immediately out the window when I started reading Dave's blog. Hush, now. It's worth it.
Next semester, we may be getting Chrome books (one for each student), but until then, if we don't have print off articles, how could we make annotations? (I'd considered allowing them to write lightly in pencil in their books, but I hadn't gotten that desperate yet.) Annotations? Oh yeah, that's that "close reading" I'd been hearing so much about in CCSS articles. I learned about it for the first time at the summer conference I attended and didn't quite understand what all the hype was about. Alright, we're teaching kids to make annotations while they read. I do that when I read, so it made sense to me. It seemed like there was something more to it that I was missing.
Turns out, "close reading" is a super conflated buzzword that people are looking too much into. Dave recommends just sticking with teaching how to annotate and leaving it at that. Sweet, that's probably what I was going to do, anyway.
Links about annotation:
TtC - Purposeful Annotation - What annotations are and how to use them
Harvard Library Reasearch Guides - Six Habits for Thinking-Intensive Reading - some useful guides on how to annotate to share with students
TtC - Close Reading - Dave's original post on the matter, which he says is outdated but still has some interesting things, such as a modeling video
Articles of the Week
The Article of the Week is a child of Kelly Gallagher, one of Dave's heroes. We take a nonfiction article from an authentic source, read and annotate it, and then write a paper responding to it. Sometimes we can share our thoughts in a Socratic circle or debate. Awesome. I can't wait to get started.
Links about AoW:
TtC - There and Back Again - What AoW is, how to get started, and how Dave adapted Gallagher's work to fit his own needs
TtC - Articles of the Week - Backlog and current articles to get'cha started
Kelly Gallagher - AoW Archive - Gallagher's AoW backlog
TtC - Getting Started with AoW - more information
TtC - Getting Started with AoW - more information
Argument:
Teaching students to make a claim and support it with evidence.
Links about argument:
TtC - They Say / I Say Two Paragraph Essay - a basic way to introduce argument writing
Amazon - They Say / I Say by Graff and Birkenstein - the book Dave referenced above
TtC - Argument and Debate - what and how to (including video!)
TtC - Popup Debates - a debate starter kit Dave sells
And~
Links to other stuff!:
B10LovesBooks - Erica Beaton, Dave's coworker who also runs a sweet blog I need to explore further
B10 - Whole Class Novels vs. Choice Reading - This is part 3. There's so much to consider...
Jim Burke - Verbs to Live By - a phenomenal chart that defines and explains frequently used academic verbs in easy-to-understand language
Baka desu yo - 6 Things the Most Organized People Do Every Day - Just a reminder on how to stay focused and in control. Not sure if it's something to show to students or if it's just for me.
And there we have it! Not the most productive post, but at least it helped clear my head and leave some bread crumbs to come back to later.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Notes from the end of the semester
*By teaching our students differently (based on SES, culture, race, etc.), we are securing their position in society. Break the mold.
*Students must learn to self-advocate. They need to know how to stick up for themselves, their beliefs, interests, and passions. They need to learn to have the confidence to do this while remaining respectful.
*Overcoming a learning disorder is NOT done through motivation. Offering bribes or punishments will not help a student that simply cannot do the task.
*Comprehension has more to do with background knowledge than vocabulary. A student may understand all vocabulary but still not comprehend the question. On the other hand, a student may answer a question correctly but not understand why.
*If you want to reduct the risk of plagiarism, decrease the opportunities to plagiarize. Students cheat because it's easy. Make it hard. Alternate and personalize assignments.
*Discuss what plagiarism is. "I want to know what you know, not what your neighbor knows. You will not get in trouble for not knowing content. Just be honest!"
*Introduce Stephen Hawking during science. He is one of the smartest people alive, and he has a disability. Encouragement that anyone can succeed.
*Cute math jingle: "Dividing fractions is as easy as pie; just flip the denominator and multiply."
*If something is boring, there is a reason why. It may be too hard or a skill they've already mastered. It may just not catch their interests. Let students feel free to tell you, and make efforts to make their learning more fun!
*Students must learn to self-advocate. They need to know how to stick up for themselves, their beliefs, interests, and passions. They need to learn to have the confidence to do this while remaining respectful.
*Overcoming a learning disorder is NOT done through motivation. Offering bribes or punishments will not help a student that simply cannot do the task.
*Comprehension has more to do with background knowledge than vocabulary. A student may understand all vocabulary but still not comprehend the question. On the other hand, a student may answer a question correctly but not understand why.
*If you want to reduct the risk of plagiarism, decrease the opportunities to plagiarize. Students cheat because it's easy. Make it hard. Alternate and personalize assignments.
*Discuss what plagiarism is. "I want to know what you know, not what your neighbor knows. You will not get in trouble for not knowing content. Just be honest!"
*Introduce Stephen Hawking during science. He is one of the smartest people alive, and he has a disability. Encouragement that anyone can succeed.
*Cute math jingle: "Dividing fractions is as easy as pie; just flip the denominator and multiply."
*If something is boring, there is a reason why. It may be too hard or a skill they've already mastered. It may just not catch their interests. Let students feel free to tell you, and make efforts to make their learning more fun!
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Observation explanation and Notes
This semester at my university, I am required to take an Observation class. It seemed a bit below me at first, being in my fourth semester of working as a Para-educator through the Co-op, but now entering a classroom where I am not allowed to interact. I've grown to love it, however, because I take notes during the two hours a week I am there. The notes sometimes come from watching the teacher I am observing, but most often from little things I've been thinking about but have not had a chance to write down yet. Previously, I had just been taking notes (about things that are truly important to me, not the class itself per se) during my classes at the university and occasionally when I got home from work, but now I usually save them for writing during my observation time--unless one of my instructors say something incredibly important, then I scribble it in the margin of my paper. I need to organize my notes into categories (Classroom Organization, Instruction, Discipline, etc.), but, as I am still compiling them, I'll leave them as jumbled as when they enter my head.
Also since the beginning of this semester, I've realized the importance of observation. There's something to be said about allowing yourself to merely sit, relax, watch, and reflect. Often, the teacher I am observing makes a small comment or does a small action that normally I wouldn't think twice about, but because I am watching from an outsider's perspective, I have the time to think, "Could this have been handled differently?" In your own classroom, everything happens so fast, you have to think on your feet, and you don't have the liberty to reflect until later--later enough that you most likely have forgotten what it was you were thinking about. Besides, it's always wonderful to watch the teaching of another. Everyone has something to learn, even if it's the incorrect way of doing something. I hope to remain humble enough to observe other classrooms throughout my career.
* On the board of my observation teacher's classroom--"I am responsible!" and bullet points of chores. What a great mantra.
* Observation teacher's alphabet letters (first grade)--"My name is [letter], and I stand for [sound]." "My name is B, and I stand for buh."
* Observation teacher seems to let students sit for a long while. Let students be readers; let them keep a book in their desk for downtime when work is finished. I did as a child, but would it work for all students? Specifically, would it work for younger grades?
* Observation teacher's library is separated by subject--Fantasy, Nonfiction, Pets, Seasons, etc. Might consider organizing my library as such.
* Observation school has an extra recess! Lunch recess plus 15 minutes in the morning or afternoon, depending on when specials are. Is this unheard of in today's schools? Even the Montessori school I volunteered at only got one recess. Could I include a scheduled extra recess even if the rest of the school I teach at doesn't have one?
* What would I do with a playground as big as this one!? Just the same as I would with a smaller one, what I learned from the Montessori school--call the student that needs behavior modification over and talk with them. But I might have to blow a whistle to get their attention.
* Observation teacher to student talking with a classmate: "What was your question?" "Can you tie my shoe?" "What should be added into that question?" "Can you please tie my shoe?" "That's better!"
* Poster in the hallway of Observation school:
Be a STAR Student!
S-afety first!
T-hink before you act
A-ct responsibly
R-espect for everyone
* Observation teacher's assignment: "______ is the best sport. I like to ______." Slightly advanced for first graders because the paper doesn't begin with "I like _______." Although, I might teach my students to write more objectively.
* Bookmarks! Made from colored construction paper, with the students' names written beautifully at the top by the teacher and laminated. They're gorgeous.
* I think I prefer writing the day's schedule on the board every morning as opposed to arranging pre-made schedule cards. And each task should have a place to be checked off upon completion, not a set time. Sure, set times help students keep track of the time, but I just prefer a more fluid time table when it comes to education.
* At the beginning of the year, let students browse all the way through their textbooks, as much as they want! They're going to anyway, and if I don't give them the instruction to do so at the beginning, they'll do it at inopportune times--namely, when I'm in the middle of a lesson.
* Obviously, ask students what they want to learn. Do mini lessons on whatever topic they're interested in. Students learn better in other subjects when they can learn about a topic they're interested in.
* Voice scale used at observation school:
5 - Screaming, Emergency - Red
4 - Recess, Outside Voice - Orange
3 - Classroom voice, talking - Yellow
2 - Soft voice, whisper - Blue
1 - No talking at all, silence - Green
They don't seem to use it much. I, however, want to base a lot of my classroom off a scale similar to this. I want to find a nice decibel reader I can set to whatever decibel I want and the class can self regulate itself to. Third grade teacher at Griffith has a decibel reader shaped like a stop light that beeps when the light is red. I'm not sure how it works, but she doesn't use it often. I would use mine almost constantly.
* Criss-cross applesauce, Indian style, pretzel style--is there anything else I can call this, specifically with older students? Peaceful style? I suppose they'd say they don't need a cute name for it.
* I like observation teacher's classroom because a lot of decorations are close to the floor. It makes it seem more cozy somehow.
* I need to have awesome posters in my room: beautiful pictures from NASA and geographical wonders.
* No matter what grade I teach, I will not put up cutesy traditional school posters of cartoon students.
* No matter what grade I teach, I will not patronize my students. I will treat them with respect and speak using words worthy enough to be added to anyone's vocabulary. I will not dumb down my speech when I talk to my students.
* Remember Teacher Tom's hot glue story. Don't think, "My kids can't do this." Think, "How can I help my kids do this for themselves?"
* Remember K, Montessori teacher, "Is this your most beautiful work?"
* "What you focus on is what you get more of." Not sure where I learned that, but remember to focus on the positive.
* Third grade teacher from Griffith teaches "Social skills," getting along with your peers. I need to look more into this and learn more from him.
* Part of teaching students to be respectful to others is teaching them to speak respectfully. Use "I-statements." (e.g., "I feel angry when you cut in front of me," "I feel ignored when you don't play with me.")
* Respectful speaking should be taught with modeling. Para in observation teacher's room, "You need to be quiet because you are not the teacher." I believe Montessori teacher, K, would have said, "I am speaking now, so please control your voice," or something similar.
* My friend, Jana, told me about a boy that wrote bad words on the bottom of his paper. I loved her conversation with him about it. My first response would have been, "Why did you do this?" and "This is unacceptable." Her first response was, "Were you angry when you did this?" and "You could get into big trouble for this." I need to think more about what I say.
* Idea from another friend, "I was never allowed to use the word 'hate' growing up." I could disallow my students to say "hate." Is this a good idea?
*Lesson plan idea from a long time ago--teach students about future career prospects. Teach them about different occupations and then let them role play or write about what it would be like to have that job.
*First grade teacher from Griffith has a sounds chart her students go over every morning that illustrates different letter blends: "B-R, br" while shivering, "C-R, cr" while crying. It includes sounds that have different spellings, "I-R, E-R, er and ends with "...and A-E-I-O-U are the vowels."
* I watched a student in observation teacher's class lean back in his chair and balance a pencil on his face. Watching him, I realized that the work he had been given really was boring. "What's the point of this worksheet?" I asked myself. It was boring for everyone involved, wasted paper and ink, and didn't even have much for the students to write. Here's a better way: "I just want to see if we know the parts of a book." Discus first--title, illustrator, author, publisher. Then point them out on a book in the classroom. The assignment? Create your own book cover. Worksheet? Who cares.
* Keep in mind what's boring for my students. It may be more than what's boring to me. More discussion, less worksheets.
* Also, use more blank paper. Get creative.
Also since the beginning of this semester, I've realized the importance of observation. There's something to be said about allowing yourself to merely sit, relax, watch, and reflect. Often, the teacher I am observing makes a small comment or does a small action that normally I wouldn't think twice about, but because I am watching from an outsider's perspective, I have the time to think, "Could this have been handled differently?" In your own classroom, everything happens so fast, you have to think on your feet, and you don't have the liberty to reflect until later--later enough that you most likely have forgotten what it was you were thinking about. Besides, it's always wonderful to watch the teaching of another. Everyone has something to learn, even if it's the incorrect way of doing something. I hope to remain humble enough to observe other classrooms throughout my career.
* On the board of my observation teacher's classroom--"I am responsible!" and bullet points of chores. What a great mantra.
* Observation teacher's alphabet letters (first grade)--"My name is [letter], and I stand for [sound]." "My name is B, and I stand for buh."
* Observation teacher seems to let students sit for a long while. Let students be readers; let them keep a book in their desk for downtime when work is finished. I did as a child, but would it work for all students? Specifically, would it work for younger grades?
* Observation teacher's library is separated by subject--Fantasy, Nonfiction, Pets, Seasons, etc. Might consider organizing my library as such.
* Observation school has an extra recess! Lunch recess plus 15 minutes in the morning or afternoon, depending on when specials are. Is this unheard of in today's schools? Even the Montessori school I volunteered at only got one recess. Could I include a scheduled extra recess even if the rest of the school I teach at doesn't have one?
* What would I do with a playground as big as this one!? Just the same as I would with a smaller one, what I learned from the Montessori school--call the student that needs behavior modification over and talk with them. But I might have to blow a whistle to get their attention.
* Observation teacher to student talking with a classmate: "What was your question?" "Can you tie my shoe?" "What should be added into that question?" "Can you please tie my shoe?" "That's better!"
* Poster in the hallway of Observation school:
Be a STAR Student!
S-afety first!
T-hink before you act
A-ct responsibly
R-espect for everyone
* Observation teacher's assignment: "______ is the best sport. I like to ______." Slightly advanced for first graders because the paper doesn't begin with "I like _______." Although, I might teach my students to write more objectively.
* Bookmarks! Made from colored construction paper, with the students' names written beautifully at the top by the teacher and laminated. They're gorgeous.
* I think I prefer writing the day's schedule on the board every morning as opposed to arranging pre-made schedule cards. And each task should have a place to be checked off upon completion, not a set time. Sure, set times help students keep track of the time, but I just prefer a more fluid time table when it comes to education.
* At the beginning of the year, let students browse all the way through their textbooks, as much as they want! They're going to anyway, and if I don't give them the instruction to do so at the beginning, they'll do it at inopportune times--namely, when I'm in the middle of a lesson.
* Obviously, ask students what they want to learn. Do mini lessons on whatever topic they're interested in. Students learn better in other subjects when they can learn about a topic they're interested in.
* Voice scale used at observation school:
5 - Screaming, Emergency - Red
4 - Recess, Outside Voice - Orange
3 - Classroom voice, talking - Yellow
2 - Soft voice, whisper - Blue
1 - No talking at all, silence - Green
They don't seem to use it much. I, however, want to base a lot of my classroom off a scale similar to this. I want to find a nice decibel reader I can set to whatever decibel I want and the class can self regulate itself to. Third grade teacher at Griffith has a decibel reader shaped like a stop light that beeps when the light is red. I'm not sure how it works, but she doesn't use it often. I would use mine almost constantly.
* Criss-cross applesauce, Indian style, pretzel style--is there anything else I can call this, specifically with older students? Peaceful style? I suppose they'd say they don't need a cute name for it.
* I like observation teacher's classroom because a lot of decorations are close to the floor. It makes it seem more cozy somehow.
* I need to have awesome posters in my room: beautiful pictures from NASA and geographical wonders.
* No matter what grade I teach, I will not put up cutesy traditional school posters of cartoon students.
* No matter what grade I teach, I will not patronize my students. I will treat them with respect and speak using words worthy enough to be added to anyone's vocabulary. I will not dumb down my speech when I talk to my students.
* Remember Teacher Tom's hot glue story. Don't think, "My kids can't do this." Think, "How can I help my kids do this for themselves?"
* Remember K, Montessori teacher, "Is this your most beautiful work?"
* "What you focus on is what you get more of." Not sure where I learned that, but remember to focus on the positive.
* Third grade teacher from Griffith teaches "Social skills," getting along with your peers. I need to look more into this and learn more from him.
* Part of teaching students to be respectful to others is teaching them to speak respectfully. Use "I-statements." (e.g., "I feel angry when you cut in front of me," "I feel ignored when you don't play with me.")
* Respectful speaking should be taught with modeling. Para in observation teacher's room, "You need to be quiet because you are not the teacher." I believe Montessori teacher, K, would have said, "I am speaking now, so please control your voice," or something similar.
* My friend, Jana, told me about a boy that wrote bad words on the bottom of his paper. I loved her conversation with him about it. My first response would have been, "Why did you do this?" and "This is unacceptable." Her first response was, "Were you angry when you did this?" and "You could get into big trouble for this." I need to think more about what I say.
* Idea from another friend, "I was never allowed to use the word 'hate' growing up." I could disallow my students to say "hate." Is this a good idea?
*Lesson plan idea from a long time ago--teach students about future career prospects. Teach them about different occupations and then let them role play or write about what it would be like to have that job.
*First grade teacher from Griffith has a sounds chart her students go over every morning that illustrates different letter blends: "B-R, br" while shivering, "C-R, cr" while crying. It includes sounds that have different spellings, "I-R, E-R, er and ends with "...and A-E-I-O-U are the vowels."
* I watched a student in observation teacher's class lean back in his chair and balance a pencil on his face. Watching him, I realized that the work he had been given really was boring. "What's the point of this worksheet?" I asked myself. It was boring for everyone involved, wasted paper and ink, and didn't even have much for the students to write. Here's a better way: "I just want to see if we know the parts of a book." Discus first--title, illustrator, author, publisher. Then point them out on a book in the classroom. The assignment? Create your own book cover. Worksheet? Who cares.
* Keep in mind what's boring for my students. It may be more than what's boring to me. More discussion, less worksheets.
* Also, use more blank paper. Get creative.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Notes
Teach to every student. Every student is special and every student counts. Keep notes about each student on an individual page in a notebook. The whole page gives you a lot of room to write, and it becomes easy to see if you are forgetting anyone.
As a positive reinforcement incentive, count with tallies on the board or marbles in a jar. Count anything pertinent (compliments from other teachers, books read, homework turned in, attendance, etc.), and the reward can be anything the teacher likes, as little as 15 minutes of recess, or as big as a day-long party. My favorites include a special themed day, such as Pajama Day, Art Day, or Story Day.
When children are excited about learning, they need to talk about it. Get them talking! Let them express what they are learning verbally, it means you are teaching them well! When children come home from school, the first thing they are usually asked by their parents is, “What did you learn in school today, Sweetie?” We ask our own children, why not our students?
As a positive reinforcement incentive, count with tallies on the board or marbles in a jar. Count anything pertinent (compliments from other teachers, books read, homework turned in, attendance, etc.), and the reward can be anything the teacher likes, as little as 15 minutes of recess, or as big as a day-long party. My favorites include a special themed day, such as Pajama Day, Art Day, or Story Day.
When children are excited about learning, they need to talk about it. Get them talking! Let them express what they are learning verbally, it means you are teaching them well! When children come home from school, the first thing they are usually asked by their parents is, “What did you learn in school today, Sweetie?” We ask our own children, why not our students?
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