I always like to post new things that I find online. Sometimes I get really excited, and then realize that.... It really isn't all that exciting. However, today that changed!
As I'm sure you all know by now I have a delicious.com account. I had one when I was in college, but now that I'm an educator of my own right I have scraped that and started a new one. Madison Simis 65. My students use this so that I know they're staying safe on the web.
Another great resource I found was an online review generator. It makes games that correlate with soccer and basketball and popular game shows. It is completely customizable and even better, it's free! I picked it up through Science Review Games (not good for elementary subjects however) and signed up through
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Oh the way our students learn!
Sometimes I wish I had a million hours to spend on Math. When I was in school I learned one way of doing it, and that was the only way. No other way was available for use. However, in college my brain was torn apart and I learned new ways to do things.
Because of this I'm trying to teach my kids that there is more than one way to solve problems. In multiplication this was successful (though I left some of the more exotic like lattice and square methods out). In division it's been impossible. Until today! I teach repeated subtraction because the traditional algorithm confuses me to no end.
One of my girls showed me she really understood (though she could never explain it) what division is because she came up with her own way to divide! It needs a lot of work still for her to be able to explain it, but the way is monumental for me. I just hope I can help her structure her thinking!
Oh, how I love math now.
Because of this I'm trying to teach my kids that there is more than one way to solve problems. In multiplication this was successful (though I left some of the more exotic like lattice and square methods out). In division it's been impossible. Until today! I teach repeated subtraction because the traditional algorithm confuses me to no end.
One of my girls showed me she really understood (though she could never explain it) what division is because she came up with her own way to divide! It needs a lot of work still for her to be able to explain it, but the way is monumental for me. I just hope I can help her structure her thinking!
Oh, how I love math now.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
A very late night.
Please take a moment to look at the timestamp on this post.
There, you've looked right? No, your eyes are not deceiving you. It is 2 AM here in Arizona.
It has been a long time since my interactions with children have lead to serious nightmares. However, I find that nightmares where my students are involved are usually the most terror filled, though action-wise, they are very tame.
Take the last one I had. It was when I was living with my sister in Telluride. I worked at a summer camp with K-2nd graders. One of the kids (we'll call him T) was the main character in this dream. In Telluride they have gondolas that take us from the town of Telluride up to the town of Mountain Village. Rockies (the center I worked at) would sometimes take the kids on field trips up there. The Gondolas were free, but sometimes we had more kids then we had teachers. Each Gondola held eight people. With 20 kids and 3 teachers, we needed four Gondolas. When this happened we would pick the three most responsible 2nd graders and place them in the third gondola. That way when they reached the top they'd be reunited with the teachers already there.
In this dream however, T managed to get separated from the group and put in the gondola going back down the mountain. That was it. But I lost hours of sleep.
Tonights horror? Lockdown drills. A thousand questions spin in my head. It's scheduled for 3:00. My class is usually moving between class and specials at 3:00. Do I keep them? Do we rush into the classroom of the nearest teacher? Do I stay with them at specials? What do I do? What if this was a real lockdown? What would the procedure be then?
I know it is useless to worry about this at this time of night, but my nightmare played out with each possibility happening and the consequences playing out. None of them were wonderful. Most were psychologically scary.
My place in this Adventure in Learning? Scared, and very, very tired.
There, you've looked right? No, your eyes are not deceiving you. It is 2 AM here in Arizona.
It has been a long time since my interactions with children have lead to serious nightmares. However, I find that nightmares where my students are involved are usually the most terror filled, though action-wise, they are very tame.
Take the last one I had. It was when I was living with my sister in Telluride. I worked at a summer camp with K-2nd graders. One of the kids (we'll call him T) was the main character in this dream. In Telluride they have gondolas that take us from the town of Telluride up to the town of Mountain Village. Rockies (the center I worked at) would sometimes take the kids on field trips up there. The Gondolas were free, but sometimes we had more kids then we had teachers. Each Gondola held eight people. With 20 kids and 3 teachers, we needed four Gondolas. When this happened we would pick the three most responsible 2nd graders and place them in the third gondola. That way when they reached the top they'd be reunited with the teachers already there.
In this dream however, T managed to get separated from the group and put in the gondola going back down the mountain. That was it. But I lost hours of sleep.
Tonights horror? Lockdown drills. A thousand questions spin in my head. It's scheduled for 3:00. My class is usually moving between class and specials at 3:00. Do I keep them? Do we rush into the classroom of the nearest teacher? Do I stay with them at specials? What do I do? What if this was a real lockdown? What would the procedure be then?
I know it is useless to worry about this at this time of night, but my nightmare played out with each possibility happening and the consequences playing out. None of them were wonderful. Most were psychologically scary.
My place in this Adventure in Learning? Scared, and very, very tired.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Games We Can Play
A great mentor of mine gave me an idea for motivating students to finish transitions faster. It's called Preferred Activity Time. I'm not sure I'm completely implementing it correctly, but in general- I give the students a certain amount of time to do things (like, put away a notebook.) Any time they save I add to their "30 minutes of allowance". Any time they waste gets taken away. At the end of the week we play games. I explained to them that we have to play 'school' games because I didn't want our principal to think we didn't do any learning! These are a few of the games we've played. They've all had varying degrees of success and failure.
Games we can play:
1. Multiple Bingo- Students color in a 100’s chart to get a bingo.
2. Count around the room- Students count up by multiples and try to beat their best time. Can also be done backwards and see who can guess where the count will end.
3. Around the World (Vocabulary, Human Bones, Factors, Arizona Regions)
4. Count Backwards (See count around the room)
5. Jeopardy! (http://jeopardylabs.com/2993) (I paid $1.00 for this cool tool to make an easy online Jeopardy game.)
6. Trashketball (Students are in teams. The first team where everyone can answer the question is given a chance to answer, if they cannot it moves onto another teach. If they get it right they get a chance to throw a piece of trash into the can for extra points.)
7. Charades (Students act out vocabulary words without speaking.)
8. Pass the Monkey! (Students start passing the monkey. When I say ‘freeze’ the monkey stops. I ask a question and the person with the monkey has to answer it before Eleven makes it back to them. If they do answer it, the person who has the money is the next person in the hot seat!)
9. Landscaper (Like around the word, but competitive 2 ways. Students start at each end of the classroom and work towards each other by defeating their classmates in a ‘question’ contest. If a student wins they move on, if they don’t they stop.)
Games we can play:
1. Multiple Bingo- Students color in a 100’s chart to get a bingo.
2. Count around the room- Students count up by multiples and try to beat their best time. Can also be done backwards and see who can guess where the count will end.
3. Around the World (Vocabulary, Human Bones, Factors, Arizona Regions)
4. Count Backwards (See count around the room)
5. Jeopardy! (http://jeopardylabs.com/2993) (I paid $1.00 for this cool tool to make an easy online Jeopardy game.)
6. Trashketball (Students are in teams. The first team where everyone can answer the question is given a chance to answer, if they cannot it moves onto another teach. If they get it right they get a chance to throw a piece of trash into the can for extra points.)
7. Charades (Students act out vocabulary words without speaking.)
8. Pass the Monkey! (Students start passing the monkey. When I say ‘freeze’ the monkey stops. I ask a question and the person with the monkey has to answer it before Eleven makes it back to them. If they do answer it, the person who has the money is the next person in the hot seat!)
9. Landscaper (Like around the word, but competitive 2 ways. Students start at each end of the classroom and work towards each other by defeating their classmates in a ‘question’ contest. If a student wins they move on, if they don’t they stop.)
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Friday, September 10, 2010
A change, and a good lesson plan format.
It is hard to think that a few days have gone by since Wednesday. I was in absolute tears then, and more than completly under control now.
I spent a majority of this week at a dead run. I've been cleaning, organizing and other such activities as much as possible. I've had parents in and students working hard.
So far I've fixed the following problems:
Since I feel like I ought to do more than ramble:
A teaching suggestion.
This is a format that my district (Madison Elementary School District #38) has set up for their lesson plans.
Subject:
Standards:
Lesson Objective: What are the students to be able to do by the end of the lesson?
Sub-Objective: What steps are you as a teacher going to take so that they meet that objective?
Aligned Activity: What are the kids going to do after you've taught them something to meet that objective?
(more as needed)
Assessment: How are you going to know if they learned it?
Differentiation: What special quirks do you need to make so that your students will be successful?
More than any other template this really makes me think about how I am going to teach my students the lesson. I love it. It takes some time, but I use it all the time now.
I spent a majority of this week at a dead run. I've been cleaning, organizing and other such activities as much as possible. I've had parents in and students working hard.
So far I've fixed the following problems:
- Students being able to see. (I went and retrieved an old transparency projector from the library)
- Having something to project onto. I put up news print on the wall. Not as good as white paper, but better than absolutly nothing at all.
- The above fixes a lot of my complaints about the white boards - though sadly, it means that my lights are off quite a bit.
- Girls Bathroom - seems like if you scare enough of them, you get quieter bathrooms. Interesting.
- Coming Home Too Late- Yesterday, I just left. Just said, "Tomorrow is planned, I'm done."
- Meetings Before and After School- Being 100% ready for a meeting helps it go smoothly and quickly. Very nice actually.
Since I feel like I ought to do more than ramble:
A teaching suggestion.
This is a format that my district (Madison Elementary School District #38) has set up for their lesson plans.
Subject:
Standards:
Lesson Objective: What are the students to be able to do by the end of the lesson?
Sub-Objective: What steps are you as a teacher going to take so that they meet that objective?
Aligned Activity: What are the kids going to do after you've taught them something to meet that objective?
(more as needed)
Assessment: How are you going to know if they learned it?
Differentiation: What special quirks do you need to make so that your students will be successful?
More than any other template this really makes me think about how I am going to teach my students the lesson. I love it. It takes some time, but I use it all the time now.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Details, Details, Details....
When I was completing my Teacher Work Sample I asked my husband to review it. After he did he said, "I'm glad I'm not a teacher - too many details!" At the time I laughed and said, "It's nothing," because to me and my instruction it wasn't too bad.
Now that I'm teaching the complications are building up. It's things like... How do I put my desks so all students can see? Where can I put /my/ desk? What do I do with extra furniture (chairs, shelving, etc)? What is the best use of my space? How many surge protectors do I need? How do I extend the cord from my phone to the wall hook?
All the details (outside of instruction)
Whiteboard Placement
Lack of Image Projectors
Dirty Floors
Ants
An inoperative PW on the printer/copier
An inoperative printer
Too small of room
Girls Bathroom leading into my room (NOISE!)
Boxes of reference/textbook material to catalogue and organize.
Organizing wall space
Meetings before and after school
coming home too late to unwind...
Leaving school at the door
New teachers - beware of the small details. College will have prepared you to teach and instruct, but all of these other things are important also. You'll have to do what I'm doing right now. Stepping back, letting some things slide while making everything else take precedence. What always comes first? a) Student instruction. That's the most important. If the details are taking precedence over that - there is a problem.
To round out this very exhaustive post I want to post a tip I received from a mentor when having a rough time.
It's called a "Finger Friend." Sometimes it's nice to see a smiling face. A finger friend looks like this:
It's literally a small smiley face you draw on your index finger. No one but you knows it's there. And you'll be richer for it - especially on a really terrible day.
Now that I'm teaching the complications are building up. It's things like... How do I put my desks so all students can see? Where can I put /my/ desk? What do I do with extra furniture (chairs, shelving, etc)? What is the best use of my space? How many surge protectors do I need? How do I extend the cord from my phone to the wall hook?
All the details (outside of instruction)
Whiteboard Placement
Lack of Image Projectors
Dirty Floors
Ants
An inoperative PW on the printer/copier
An inoperative printer
Too small of room
Girls Bathroom leading into my room (NOISE!)
Boxes of reference/textbook material to catalogue and organize.
Organizing wall space
Meetings before and after school
coming home too late to unwind...
Leaving school at the door
New teachers - beware of the small details. College will have prepared you to teach and instruct, but all of these other things are important also. You'll have to do what I'm doing right now. Stepping back, letting some things slide while making everything else take precedence. What always comes first? a) Student instruction. That's the most important. If the details are taking precedence over that - there is a problem.
To round out this very exhaustive post I want to post a tip I received from a mentor when having a rough time.
It's called a "Finger Friend." Sometimes it's nice to see a smiling face. A finger friend looks like this:
It's literally a small smiley face you draw on your index finger. No one but you knows it's there. And you'll be richer for it - especially on a really terrible day.
Monday, September 6, 2010
A Start
It's been a long time since I last posted, but a whole lot has happened. In that time I achieved employment at Madison Simis Elementary School here in Phoenix Arizona. I had a grand total of 4 hours of preparation in the classroom to begin the year. In that amount of time I was able to a)get the desks sorted, b)hang some butcher paper on the wall and c) make a huge mess of all the random materials I was given.
It is week four now... and I'm struggling. My class is the nicest set of children that a teacher could ask for. They're sweet and innocent - but learning is just not happening. Part of this problem is the talking. Now that nervousness has worn off the kids chatter and are out of their seat constantly. CONSTANTLY. I am at my wits end, so I went to go talk to Judy Webb, our 'mentor' person. She gave me some suggestions and even came to sit into my classroom to help me determine where the talking was originating.
She also gave me a book which I have now flipped through. What I took from is not a whole lot a hints to help me along, but one big discouraging message- my classroom problems really /are/ all my fault. I guess I allowed people to convince me that I'm good at classroom management, when really I'm no better than anyone else who ever stepped foot into a classroom.
My career has gone from something I love to do... to something I dread waking up for every morning. I come home exhausted every night. I can barely make myself do the bare minimum. If this is me after just four weeks of school how am I ever going to make it to the rest of the school year.
Everyone has such high expectations of me and I feel like I'm letting everyone down.
Right now? The adventure in learning is a complete nightmare.
It is week four now... and I'm struggling. My class is the nicest set of children that a teacher could ask for. They're sweet and innocent - but learning is just not happening. Part of this problem is the talking. Now that nervousness has worn off the kids chatter and are out of their seat constantly. CONSTANTLY. I am at my wits end, so I went to go talk to Judy Webb, our 'mentor' person. She gave me some suggestions and even came to sit into my classroom to help me determine where the talking was originating.
She also gave me a book which I have now flipped through. What I took from is not a whole lot a hints to help me along, but one big discouraging message- my classroom problems really /are/ all my fault. I guess I allowed people to convince me that I'm good at classroom management, when really I'm no better than anyone else who ever stepped foot into a classroom.
My career has gone from something I love to do... to something I dread waking up for every morning. I come home exhausted every night. I can barely make myself do the bare minimum. If this is me after just four weeks of school how am I ever going to make it to the rest of the school year.
Everyone has such high expectations of me and I feel like I'm letting everyone down.
Right now? The adventure in learning is a complete nightmare.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Some Good Books for Parents and Educators
It has been a bit of a bummer, but I have been unable to find a teaching position for this next year. At this point in time, I'm willing to just let it slide. I've started putting applications out in different places, and I even heard back from one!
It's called Tutor Time and it is a preschool. It is part of the Learning Care Centers group which has a whole arary of educational preschool situations. They run baby-preschool all-day programs, as well as before and after school care and summer camps for school-aged children. They called me back and I'm going in on Monday for an observation time from 9-12. I hope I do well, recently I have gotten married and my husband and I have moved to Arizona. The recessions down here is pretty brutal on every profession.
Anyway- in preparation for this I visited the Phoenix City Library to see if I couldn't pick up some literature on Toddlers. My expertise is in Elementary aged children, and I'm a little wary of the really younger kids. I want to make sure that I don't mess up this observation as me getting a job is pretty vital to my husband and I being able to stay here. I have been fairly reassured about it. It seems like a majority of my training in school aged children will transfer, I will just have to be more simple and repetitive in my words and actions.
I have found a couple books that I want to share however.
Reading with Babies, Toddlers and Twos by Susan Straub
This is a very interesting book. It talks about how to choose a book for a child who is between ages of unborn and well, two! It gives examples of developmentally appropriate books, such as Oh, Baby, the Places You'll Go! by Tish Rabe for newborns and The Little Engine that Could by Watty Piper for slightly older readers. She talks about what babies do while you read, like fall asleep. As well as what you should take from it and do about it, in this case, nothing- keep reading. It has book lists upon book lists which include many classics like Clifford, the Big Red Dog by Norman Birdwell. It is a delightful guide for parents that want their children reading later in life, but are unsure how to start exposing their children to text when they are walking away from the books! I highly recommend this book to parents and educators of all realms of life.
The Toddler Owner's Manuel by Brett R. Kuhn, and Joe Borgenicht.
For a parent not use to the scholarly jargon of human development parents can get lost in the names of theories and theorists that often show up in parenting manuals. The Toddler Owner's Manuel isn't like that. It is organized like a computer manual (minus the computer legalese!). It outlines what parents can do in different situations, such as potty training, along with ways that it can go wrong (when a parent gives confusing messages) and ways parents can avoid those pitfalls. It also notes that not all children are equal and gives multiple strategies that parents can turn to. It does not read like a fluffy feel-good book, but a no nonsense guide that a busy parent could pick up and ready quickly in a stressful situation.
It's called Tutor Time and it is a preschool. It is part of the Learning Care Centers group which has a whole arary of educational preschool situations. They run baby-preschool all-day programs, as well as before and after school care and summer camps for school-aged children. They called me back and I'm going in on Monday for an observation time from 9-12. I hope I do well, recently I have gotten married and my husband and I have moved to Arizona. The recessions down here is pretty brutal on every profession.
Anyway- in preparation for this I visited the Phoenix City Library to see if I couldn't pick up some literature on Toddlers. My expertise is in Elementary aged children, and I'm a little wary of the really younger kids. I want to make sure that I don't mess up this observation as me getting a job is pretty vital to my husband and I being able to stay here. I have been fairly reassured about it. It seems like a majority of my training in school aged children will transfer, I will just have to be more simple and repetitive in my words and actions.
I have found a couple books that I want to share however.
Reading with Babies, Toddlers and Twos by Susan Straub
This is a very interesting book. It talks about how to choose a book for a child who is between ages of unborn and well, two! It gives examples of developmentally appropriate books, such as Oh, Baby, the Places You'll Go! by Tish Rabe for newborns and The Little Engine that Could by Watty Piper for slightly older readers. She talks about what babies do while you read, like fall asleep. As well as what you should take from it and do about it, in this case, nothing- keep reading. It has book lists upon book lists which include many classics like Clifford, the Big Red Dog by Norman Birdwell. It is a delightful guide for parents that want their children reading later in life, but are unsure how to start exposing their children to text when they are walking away from the books! I highly recommend this book to parents and educators of all realms of life.
The Toddler Owner's Manuel by Brett R. Kuhn, and Joe Borgenicht.
For a parent not use to the scholarly jargon of human development parents can get lost in the names of theories and theorists that often show up in parenting manuals. The Toddler Owner's Manuel isn't like that. It is organized like a computer manual (minus the computer legalese!). It outlines what parents can do in different situations, such as potty training, along with ways that it can go wrong (when a parent gives confusing messages) and ways parents can avoid those pitfalls. It also notes that not all children are equal and gives multiple strategies that parents can turn to. It does not read like a fluffy feel-good book, but a no nonsense guide that a busy parent could pick up and ready quickly in a stressful situation.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Good Books Review
Revealing the Invisible: Confronting Passive Racism in Teacher Education by Sherry MarxMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I loved this book. It really opened my eyes to racism as a serious issue in teacher education. I only hope that I can remember it so that I can keep my own racism from hurting my classroom. This book inspired me to travel to Houston, TX for my student teaching and face racism.As a caveat, I don't believe I am a racist. However, I understand that racism is a rampant part of our society, and no race can completely understand one another. Everyone has different ways to do things, and different groups act differently. I cannot stand here and pretend that isn't true. I'm never going to treat everyone as if they're just like me, that's short sighted and ridiculous. They're not just like me. They are their own person and I need to respect and treat them as such.
View all my reviews >>
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