A tale of two competitions

I dropped by at my son's school to have lunch with him today and after I picked up my food, he led me back to his classroom instead of sitting with his other classmates in the lunchroom. I noticed a sub-section of his classmates joined us in the classroom. It's Sundae party lunch day they excitedly exclaimed. Apparently, the members of the classroom who passed the multiplication test for the trimester won the privilege of lunching in the classroom and eating a sundae courtesy of the teacher. When I looked back at the classmates who failed the test, they were sitting quietly eating and avoided my eyes. I don't know exactly how they were feeling, but they certainly were not happy.

When I looked in the classroom of the kids who won the party, they were mostly who I expected. They were the motivated-to-excel and/or well supported at home group. I believe the goal of the teacher was to motivate everyone to succeed and make an effort to learn their multiplication. However, when she turned it into a high stakes contest (party only once each trimester), I wonder if the pressure and the impression of an insurmountable goal ended up discouraging the kids who NEEDED the motivation and support the most. I think the kids who were eating sundaes were those who would have passed the test anyway.

Last year, I observed a teacher who held competitions in math all the time. Because they happen so frequently, they were low stakes and there were many more opportunities to succeed. It never became a high pressure cooker or ended up looking like an insurmountable goal. She also mix the kids up in different teams each time so kids doing poorly in math would eventually end up on winning teams. I didn't feel anyone felt left out or if they did, they would have another chance in the next few days. I wonder how her math scores compare and how well her students learn. In her case, I wonder if the kids who needed motivation were better serviced. I certainly have a preference for her classroom.

My digital slideshow experiment

I want to post this because I'm just tickled with the ease of Photostory3. I can see how it could be used in the classroom as another medium for literacy learning. It took me about an hour to put this together but I put one together for a class and that took 40 minutes. My 9 year old son did one with no training in 40 minutes. Can you tell who did which?

Where's David?

I'm not really sure how to start this post. I want to talk about a problem that every educator faces and each solution has problems. There is a student in my dyad placement, we'll call him David, who is pulled out of the classroom so to work with various specialists. I think he is on an IEP, but for what I don't know. He has some kind of learning disability and the nature of the disability is not really important for the purposes of the post. The thing is, on most of the days that I'm in the classroom it seems as if Daniel is out of the class more than he is in it. This poor kid is missing the second grade. I have read that having a kid repeat a grade tends to do more harm than good and that makes sense. I am in support of the inclusion model with intensive support in specific areas by specialists. This seems to be the most workable model given the finacial restraints placed on schools. But to see this kid leave the class so often seems sad. I'm wondering if the classroom teacher could meet with the specialists and find ways to differentiate the instruction so that David could spend more time in the classroom?

I'm curious.

So here's the deal, I'm actually curious what you think about this video. On one hand I'm thinking that is so cool, I think that the students would really think that was cool. On the other hand there is a small part of me that sees this guy bouncin' around and I think OMG what a goofball. Do you think this would be a good way to get students to think about and remember the concepts or would they just laugh at you?

Earning It Back.

I was recently involved in a discussion with my sister who is a teacher in Montana. We were talking about classroom management when she surprised me. She said that it is her belief that once a student incurs a consequence like the loss of a privilege, it is gone. There is no chance for them to earn it back. This is different than what I believe. It is my belief that once the student has lost a privilege they can earn it back through good behavior. It is my belief that without this possibility, what incentive does the student have to improve the behavior? My sister however, believes that if the student can earn back the lost privilege then they don't learn from the behavior. I'm sure there are many opinions out there about this and reasons behind them. I'm curious to hear what you think.

Cheating

Last week CNN featured a story about the impacts of high-stakes testing. One of the side effects born from a culture of narrow assessment is the pressure for students to cheat. I must admit, the innovation these students have demonstrated is most impressive. The reality, however, is tradgic. What will happen if we continue to assess students for purposes other than guiding instruction? What will be the implicit lesson for students?

Click on the link below to view How Students Cheat; a documentarty that explores some of the creative methods student employ to cheat in school. What would you do to begin to address this problem in your classroom?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZbcMMjEdP8

Are Grades Bad?

I was wondering if giving grades is bad or if lazy teachers can make it bad. Obviously if a teacher looks at a piece of work done by a student and just arbitrarily gives it a letter grade, that is bad. In a situation like that there are so many external factors that could influence the grade. Even thing like if the teacher likes the student or if they are having a bad day could influence the students grade. But I'm forced to wonder if that's the grades fault?
If a teacher does a thoughtful and careful evaluation of the work citing it's strengths and weaknesses and then attaches a letter grade to that, it seems to me that that is appropriate. As long as there is a way for a student to see the evaluation that went into the awarding of that grade then it can be useful I think. But I'm wondering if perhaps I'm just used to grades and so that seems normal to me? What do you think, should we be giving grades or not?

Supporting Critical Media Literacy

Everyday I am reminded of my second class status as a technology immigrant. My students, conversely, are technology natives - most of them do not remember a time when research was conducted primarily in libraries and when classrooms featured volume after volume of encyclopedias. (What's an encyclopedia? Is that anything like wikipedia??)

Aside from trying to keep up with my students on the technology track, I find my second largest challenge is getting them to understand the importance of finding reputable resources when conducting research online. With endless resources at hand, students critical consumers of research. This involves but is not limited to critically examining the source. Who is the source? What is their mission? How is it funded? The answers to these questions provide additional insight to the motives a particular source may have for publishing certain materials. One might feel different when reading an article that rejects global warming if that piece was published by a source that receives a large percentage of their funding from large oil companies.

What strategies are you using in your classrooms to support the development of critical media literacy skills in your students?

Oh really?

Here is a little levity and at the same time some evidence of how well we are being prepared.
We all know about and have experience with Differentiated Instruction.
Not only that but many of these things we have already experienced due to the programs integrated approach. I like this video, not because it is particularly funny but because it make me feel more prepared to enter the workforce as a professional educator.

Does that seem weird to you?

In my dyad placement there is a high spectrum autistic boy, we'll call him Sam. This is a second grade classroom and the kids are getting to that age where some of his unusual behaviors are beginning to stand out. What I was told by the teacher is that in kindergarten and first grade some of these antisocial behaviors don't stand out as much, but as the children get older the behaviors begin to stand out.
His therapist and parents are asking for us to help them implement this technique where they label the behavior. When Sam does something antisocial the therapist and parents give him a red stick and say, "That's weird." The teacher told us that the parents and therapist have told her that this is having good benefits for Sam and they want us to do it in the classroom. We wouldn't be handing out red sticks, but if we saw him doing something antisocial we would walk up to him and say, "That's weird."
I'm not sure how I feel about that. Far be it from me to argue with this kids parents and caregiver, but the way we are being told to say it gives me pause.
I'm a big believer in the idea that it is not what you say, but how you say it. I'm wondering if this is the best way to let Sam know that this behavior is unusual.

Educational Opportunity at Bellevue Regional Library

Visit the Bellevue Regional Library on December 6, 2008 between 10am and 2pm to take part in TechConnect, an interactive open house to showcase the many ways King County Library System technology can be used in your professional, academic and recreational pursuits.

Community members of all ages are welcome at this free event suitable for everyone from the tech-challenged to the tech-savvy. Click on the image above for additional details.

Everything I Need to Know I Learned from Schoolhouse Rock

Schoolhouse Rock is a timeless resource for educators of all grade levels. Its colorful animation paired with catchy lyrics reinforce key learnings by appealing to auditory and visual senses.

This particular piece, Interplanet Janet, supports 4th grade science EALR component 1.2. requiring that students understand how components, structures, organizations, and interconnections describe systems. Look for the special encore at the end which allows you fto search for old favorites.

A Perfect Circle

This sure would be a fun way to keep kids awake in class! I'm wondering now what skills I might have to share with a class...

Holiday celebrations in the class?

With the holidays coming up I think it is a good time to think about to what degree would we be willing to celebrate in our classrooms and schools. What do we celebrate, if anything? What do we teach our children about religions and the celebrations that they partake in?

I believe that much of this is governed by the culture of our community and school. Given that, it is my belief that when we say that we will not be having any references to Christmas I think we are doing the kids a disservice. Look around and we see holiday decorations all around us. They permeate our culture. If we try to eliminate this and censor ourselves in the classroom, I think we are alienating ourselves from one another. The holidays can be approached with in a secular manner. In fact the Supreme Court has ruled as such, saying things like Santa Claus and Christmas Trees are indeed secular symbols. A teacher can and in my opinion should teach about the spirit of family and giving that permeate the holiday season. It doesn't have to, and in fact shouldn't be an indoctrination in a religious point of view. But I think that pretending the fact that the holiday break and Christmas occur at the same time is some kind of happy coincidence is folly.

As I mentioned before the culture of your classroom should be your guide as to what you do in the class. Take time to teach about how other cultures may or may not celebrate during this time of year. Show other perspectives and validate them for kids because I truly feel that one of the best things we can teach our children is respect and compassion for all others. This however should not be at the expense of what we have come to celebrate.

Parent-Teacher Conferences

I observed a few parent-teacher conferences this week at my 4th grade main placement, and there were many aspects I had overlooked going into the process. First, the conferences my teacher held included both parents, the student, me, and the master teacher. Every conference included both parents, which I did not expect (and know I should not expect for every student), and I also did not expect the student to be present at parent-teacher conferences. The conferences were also not just an assessment of the student, but an assessment of the parents as well.

"Jimmy" excels in math, but the problems he misses are almost always due to his tendency to not fully read the question being asked. My mentor teacher pulled out a quiz from earlier in the year, where Jimmy had answered a 3-part question: trapezoid, hexagon, rhombus. The question asked which of the following are a trapezoid, hexagon, and parallelogram. The teacher brought a few similar missed questions to the parents attention, and they discussed placing an emphasis on Jimmy taking his time and fully reading through questions.

Jimmy is behind the curve in his reading and writing skills, but the improvement he has made over the last year has been much higher than his classmates. My mentor teacher praised both Jimmy AND his parents for the tremendous improvement, because the improvement is a family process.

The parent-teacher conference with "Ralph" also showed me how these conferences are not only an assessment of the student and parents, but also the teacher. At the end of the conference, my teacher would ask the student to wait in the hall for a few minutes while we discussed a few more points with the parents. Ralph's parents asked if my mentor teacher could help Ralph when it comes to social awkwardness. Ralph is the kid who sees bullying out on the playground and reports it to the teacher. There is nothing wrong with this, but he has been called a tattle-tail. Ralph does not see anything wrong with tattling on bullies, but 4th and 5th grade is when a lot of students let bullying happen by shutting their mouths. His parents are concerned that Ralph's high moral fiber will cost him friends in the next few years, but do not know what to do. They asked my mentor teacher to try and impress upon Ralph the social aspects of his decisions.

This was a very weird conversation, because it seemed like the issue Ralph's parents were concerned with will solve itself over time. Some kids choose to always tell the truth at the expense of being friends with some of their classmates--and they make friends who value that truth-telling trait. Other kids are more concerned with the social aspect of school and would rather make friends than report bullying. In this case, it seems like Ralph's parents are concerned with the social aspect, but Ralph is not. My mentor teacher said he would try to make sure Ralph understands what his actions mean in the eyes of his classmates, but I'm very interested to see what, if any, changes he will make in the classroom. I doubt he will change much, but I think it was important for him to tell Ralph's parents that he understood their concern.

The Value of Authentic Learning Experiences

Over and over again we are reminded of the importance of authentic learning experiences. Unfortunately, students who demonstrate difficulty with reading and writing are often robbed of authentic experiences when they our pulled from the general classroom population to receive remedial instruction. This is something I struggle with as an aspiring educator. Routman calls us to “guard the time [we] have with [our] students”; that we must “do [our] best to ensure that [our] students who most need to hear stories and rich language are not leaving the room when [we] are reading aloud and introducing shared language experiences” (Routman, 2005). However in the classrooms I have worked in with a strong push for multiple literacies and connectedness, I am challenged to identify a time that did not feature rich, or at least relevant, language and shared language experiences. How do we find time for needed interventions?

I do, however, share Routman’s sentiments. There is an autistic student in my main placement who I will call Joey (pseudonym used). Joey attended kindergarten and first grade in general education classrooms, however his performance was quite low. His parents, one of whom is a professional educator, decided to home school Joey for the next two years. Joey’s parents, dissatisfied with the progress made during his home schooled years, have decided to try to reintroduce him to general education. He requires a tremendous amount of support, which sometimes presents a personal challenge for me. However, I often observe the interaction between Joey and other students and am made very much aware of the unscripted ways in which both students like Joey and typically developing students enhance learning experiences for each other.

One day my mentoring teacher decided to do read aloud immediately following recess. Joey, over-stimulated and unable to sit still, jumped to his feet and asked to take a look around. While Joey explored the room, I retrieved a weighted blanket from the resource room and offered it to Joey in hopes of settling him. Following the reading, students were asked to write in their journals about what they had heard. One student, Alexis (pseudonym used), finished fairly quickly and noticed me sitting with Joey in the back of the room while he tried to draw a picture representative of the story. Rather than accepting the option to read quietly while other students worked in there journals, Alexis, aware that Joey had missed much of the story, asked if sharing her journal might help to fill in the parts he’d missed. I sat and watched the two of them in awe. Joey listened intently as Alexis read parts of her story and encouraged Joey in his drawing. Alexis created an opportunity to share and celebrate not only her work, but Joey’s as well. These are the images that come to mind when I read Routman’s words.

Community Building

Hey all,
I know, I know I feel as if this subject has been talked about more times then not but I feel as if we need to address this issue again within our cohort. What can we do to build community instead of tearing each other down? How can we show patience, and care about others when we are all stressed out to the max? How can we relax and just enjoy each others company? I feel as if we all really need to look at ourselves and start there. I know that sometimes I get exasperated with questions and such but most of the time I realize later that whoever asked the question actually clarified the assignment for me. I know that sometimes I need to just relax and let things roll off my back, because I can take criticism to seriously, even if it is helpful, I still have a hard time with it. I think that we all need to remember that EVERYONE has something going on besides school, whether that be family, traveling, illnesses, etc... We need to realize that school is just a part of people's life not all of it. Why can we not just get along and respect each other's differences. We all need to look on the inside and ask us what really is bothering us and try to help other people understand what is going on as well as just taking a deep breath!

On a lighter note here is one of my pictures from Alaska! Lots of rain and clouds, but absolutely worth going up there, just incredible scenery!

Teaching Over Seas

Hello all,
I don't know about you, but one of the reasons why I became a teacher is the ability and the need for teachers no matter where you live. Teaching is so important but I have always had a passion for traveling. I actually first went to school for travel and tourism but then switched to teaching. I have traveled Brazil and Ireland but would like to be able to travel some more after my certification.

So I thought that if I really want to travel why not teach in another country. I was curious to know if anyone else has looked into teaching in another country? Any suggestions for websites to look into these programs? Where would you teach and why? I decided to open this up for a discussion because I wanted to know about other people's opinions. One last question, would you try to go over seas right after the certification or would you stay and teach in the U.S. for a few years first? Why?

All right enough questions just thought it would be interesting to see the different responses!

You CAN find out a lot in a short time

I had to write an emergent literacy profile for a second grader based on 2 short interviews. I managed to eke out six pages (double space) based on the info I thought I had. My instructor insisted that although we only had 2 sessions, we actually accumulated LOTS of information and that the profile should be much longer. I was skeptical but goaded by him, I looked again harder. Sure enough, I did find more information. With deeper thinking, I found details I dismissed were actually relevant and revealing. I had to look hard and think hard.

I had been expecting I would get to know my classroom kids over the course of the school year and they reveal their personality over time. This is still true. But now I realize I can get to know them quite well the first few weeks of school if I put in the effort. A few minutes of interaction can reveal much if I am on the lookout. This is probably not a great revelation, but it is something I definitely want to remember.

Dalton Sherman's Speech

I saw this video sent by a friend and I couldn't believe this 10 year old could be so talented. I am impressed.

To Tell or Not to Tell

All right,
I am in middle school right now and with the elections, the children have been very involved. In the social studies class the children are required to watch the debates and continue a running tab on who they would vote for after each debate. Given these activities I have been bombarded with questions, "Who are you going to vote for? I like so and so, I am going to vote for that person, what about you? " I caught myself right off the bat saying you know I don't really know.... But then the child responded "ahh come on you know who you are going to vote for," I responded saying that I was going to watch the debate and then think about it some more, hoping that the child will not ask me tomorrow about who I wanted to vote for. So my dilemma is why is it that it is recommended for teachers not to talk about who they will vote for with the children.

In the Teacher magazine there is an article that discusses about teachers in Colorado that are not allowed to talk about personal voting. Why is this such an issue? I feel as if I would be able to discuss with the children about the reasons why I would vote for this person and help the children understand maybe the procedure about why one person would vote a certain way versus for the other person. I think that it could be really beneficial for the children to understand what is the procedure as well as looking at both sides. I think that it is important, to look at both sides and not just portray one party.

So my question to you is that if you have a classroom, will you share with the students who you will be voting for? Why or why not?

Drawing and Physics Games

During Spring quarter, I was hooked on an online erector-set type game called Armadillo Run. E-dog saw me playing and asked if I had tried Magic Pen. I hadn't, so he showed me the website, and I think Magic Pen does a better job of allowing for creativity. It can also be run from the internet, instead of having to download a file to play.

I think these games would be great for 4th grade and up in terms of building problem solving skills. Armadillo Run adds budgeting to the equation, as you only have a set amount of money to spend on materials each round, and the over-arching goal is to finish each round while saving as much money as possible.

Here are links to the three games I mentioned above. Magic Pen is playable from any web browser, but Line Rider and Armadillo Run require you to download the demo in order to play.

Magic Pen
Line Rider
Armadillo Run

Great Video

Hey all here is a great video I found on youtube. Thought it was great to see children involved in the election.

Noise Level

Hello all,
I made it through my first observation and wow what an eye opener!!! One of the things that stood out to me the most was the fact that I have a higher tolerance of noise than my master teacher. I did not realize this until after the observation that the teacher was saying how loud some of the the students were tapping their pencils(we were drawing) along with the shuffling of pencils. When I was in front of the class I did not even really notice the noise. How do you all deal with the noise and do you need it to be really quiet or are you all right with some noise?I have always been one who likes a bit of noise even when doing homework and tests. But I do know that some need it to be quiet, maybe this is why I am able to tune out the noise.

Along with this issue the other problem was that some of the students could not hear the questions and answers. I did stop and tell the children that I could not hear the child and that worked once. What are some other ideas that I could use to make sure that all of the children can be heard? Some of the suggestions that were made was to repeat what the child said but then I feel as if the child is not really heard it is the teacher if that makes sense! Another suggestion was to ask a child that was at a different table. I thought that was a good suggestion but was just wondering about any others that people had used at all in the classroom or elsewhere.

Tale of two personalities

My son had very different teachers in 3rd and 4th grade. In terms of quality, I feel they are equally good teachers. I am quite torn about how their different personalities affect my child.

One teacher has a very warm personality. She is goofy, funny, and not afraid to admit a mistake or make fun of herself. She cares deeply about her kids and genuinely likes people; her interest shows in her every action. She welcomes her students in her classroom before school, during lunch, and all recesses. Her students love her and strives to please her in every way, including paying attention in class. Her curriculum and instructional planning are haphazard. While she loves to try out new ideas, there seemed little intention behind the planning. If it sounds good and fun, she would check it out. Her nod to standards is following the school mandated curriculum.

The other teacher has a more formal personality. She dresses professionally, presents a friendly demeanor, and is very careful to present a put together image for her students. She is a professional teacher with decades of experience and seemed to keep up with the latest research on instruction. Everything she does is very intentional with learning behind every action, project, and assignment. She is scruplous about using small groups or one on one activities to address different abilities and different activities to address different learning styles. Her students seemed OK with that. She also pays careful attention to standards and made sure her curriculum addresses everything the children need to know.

Although arguably, the second teacher is doing everything best practices research is saying she should do, my son much prefered the first teacher. I begin to wonder how much of a difference personality makes? My son is stressed by the expectations of the second teacher and experiencing some amount of personality shock. He is definitely not as motivated with the more formal teaching style. How much more or less is he learning with different teachers? Will it come out even? Will the intentional instruction overcome the lack of motivation?

C is for Constant Attention

I'll preface this post by saying I am currently in the dyad portion of my student teaching assignment and I am helping teach 6th grade math (not 4th grade, as the blog title suggests).

C is a student in my afternoon class who could be a poster-child for the discrepancy between learning with teacher aid and learning by himself, otherwise known as the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). Whenever I am around, helping him with his work, C does great and enjoys doing the work. The second I leave to help another student, C immediately stops doing his work and starts goofing around with his peers. If he is not already working with me or another teacher, he is goofing off or has his hand raised waiting for another teacher to help. He seems to refuse to do work by himself. His gap in achievement level between working on his own, and working with a teacher, is larger than I thought possible.

From the reading we've done, I think an ideal approach would be to slowly back away from helping C with his work. Eventually C will hit a point where he realizes he can do the work on his own, but the large leap from where we are now to that point seems more like a free-fall! I'll keep the blog updated on my progress with C!