Giving Directions

I subscribe to Coach G's Blog on Teacher Magazine and find his posts to be valuable reminders and to include new ideas for teaching and learning. Here's his latest:

One reason students struggle to get started on assignments is that they don't understand the directions. As a result, when teachers should be addressing content-related questions as they circulate among students, they instead need to address lots of procedural questions -- how to obtain and use materials, where and how to record answers, how much time students have to complete the assignment, whether you'll be collecting the assignment at the end of the period, what students should do if they finish early, and so on. And often it's the same question from one student to the next.

To prevent such confusion and inefficiency, use the same effective instruction and assessment practices when giving directions that you use when delivering academic content. This means giving step-by-step directions, orally and visually (using a projector ideally, but otherwise the board or chart paper) before you pass out an assignment and any related materials.

It also means requiring students to prove they understand what you expect of them rather than simply saying (or nodding) they understand. So stay away from yes-no questions such as "Does everyone understand?" or "Does anyone have any questions?", and instead ask students to restate the directions in their own words. And be sure to do this with enough students until you're sure the class as a whole is ready to get started on the learning task. (For small group work, confirm that at least one member of each group understands the directions before turning students loose.)

In short, just an extra minute or two up front giving directions and making sure students get them will save far more time in the end. And the less time you spend giving directions, the more time you can spend giving them direction.

Is Creativity Educated Out of Us?

Some of you told me you saw me front row in Hall A to see Sir Ken Robinson on Thursday, November 4th at NJEA Convention in Atlantic City. I was already a fan, having seen several of his TED presentations. He not only has "ideas worth spreading," but he has a delivery that's hilarious, again weaving stories into his message. The brain is hard-wired for stories, I'm convinced. Now I will download one of his books The Element into my Nook and start reading what else he has to say about leading students into their element. I'm including his presentation on Creativity, which is worth the 20 minutes. And I'm including a link to his website.Check it out!

Our Classroom Walls

I tried to think of ways we could share our classrooms with one another. In the summer we had talked about seating arrangement and how that affects the work of learning in our classrooms. And we talked about a plan for our walls as well. How do we use every bit of the space and time to take students to the next place in their understanding. So I snapped random glimpses of what some classrooms at Gloucester Township looked like in late September, 2010. I looked for inspiring quotes to go along with the slides but all I could find were these:

"I see if people are around, see what they put up on the walls. I want a little sense of what the feeling is, how lively, how much people personalize things..."

-- Bill Gates

"If these walls could talk... You'd be able to help me keep my fire alight if these walls could talk" --Christelle Duvenage

Rigor and Excellence Classroom Walls

View more presentations from John Zeck.

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Resonate With Students

A literacy newsletter introduced me to the Duarte blog, which is devoted to learning how to make effective class presentations.

One of Nancy Duarte's concepts is to find ways to create a STAR moment in your lesson design -- "Something They'll Always Remember." These moments can come from five possible sources:

• A Memorable Dramatization - might involve a prop or re-enactment to explain your point so the device becomes the defining moment for the learning -- something they'll walk away with.
• A Repeatable Sound Bite - the quick clip or quip that recurs and drives home the message. Recall the slogan "Where's the beef?"
• An Evocative Visual - an image may be the seed for a moment they'll always remember -- a compelling image or photo.
• An Emotive Story - an incredible story that becomes unforgettable because it's linked to a big idea that the learners make meaningful to them.
• A Startling Statistic - this can be elevated to "memorable status" by setting one data bit apart, enlarging it in some way, and giving the class the time to absorb it.
  

In any lesson, it's hard to resist the urge to cover as much ground as possible. There's never enough time to say and make all the points you want to make, yet the most important question probably isn't "Have I covered everything?" if you're trying to create a lesson that moves your class to change. instead, "Have I created a STAR moment here?" pushes you to decide what the defining concept or point is and work to highlight it so your class takes it with them.

Check out this video of Nancy's on the power of storytelling and perhaps you'll add her blog to your Google reader.

The Final Exam

I received this in an e-mail and I thought you might appreciate it....

The Final Exam...

At a local University there were four sophomores taking Chemistry and all of them had an "A" so far. These four friends were so confident that the weekend before the finals they decided to visit some friends and have a big party. They had a great time, but after all the hearty partying; they slept all day Sunday and did not make it back to the University until early Monday morning. Rather than taking the final then, they decided that after the final they would explain to their professor why they missed it. They said that they visited friends but on the way back they had a flat tire. As a result, they missed the final.

The professor agreed they could make up the final the next day. The guys were excited and relieved. They studied that night for the exam. The Professor placed them in separate rooms and gave each a test booklet. They quickly answered teh first problem, worth 5 points. Cool, they thought!

Each one in a separate room, thinking this was going to be easy, they turned the page.

On the second page was written....

For 95 points: Which tire? ______________

Questions?: Now We're Cookin'

Neat Post...

Questions?: Now We're Cookin': "We were going over our quizzes yesterday and I had a student make an interesting observation about the rubric we use to determine the overall..."

The power of a Schrutebuck...

I found this to be very insightful.

Merging Career Technical and College Prep

Merging Career Tech and College Prep

From the latest Edutopia Update, you can discover successful schools and strategies from across the country -- and use their best teaching practices, training materials, and rubrics with your students. Merging career and technical education with college prep curricula makes for exciting results. In some parts of the country, they're just finding this out. Check out this link for more.

Teach Tony Danza

For those that might be interested...

Edmodo and the Fairness Issue

I was going to introduce my freshmen students to Edmodo early in the year. Then I took a survey and found that about 25 percent of my students don't have Internet at home. I'm surprised, frankly.

Now I'm not so sure I want to use Edmodo. If I do, a minority of my students will have to go to the library on their lunch break. I would cry foul myself if someone required me to do that.

Anyone have any opinions on this? Is anyone using Edmodo with students yet?

Master The Web

Are you already on the Teacher List? Pete McKay has been sharing valuable websites for classroom use for 12 years. That makes for an extensive archive of valuable resources for all (SME's) subject matter experts. The Teacher List is a free subscription that you can have sent to your mailbox everyday. The site's motto is "Mastering The Web One Site At A Time."

Over 2,600 teachers, principals, professors, parents, and support staff from around the world receive one website recommendation for use in classrooms each day. It's a convenient, orderly, and sane way to build your bookmarks no matter where you store your favorites. Besides, if you can't use a particular day's recommendation, you probably know someone who can use that day's resource. So it's a great way to collaborate. Just enter your email address and click "submit."

You can also find The Teacher List on Twitter and Facebook and you can even go to the Teacher List store

Moving to Learn

There's some fascinating research that challenges what we thought we knew about studying and learning. Robert Bjork at UCLA is claiming that the "always study in the same place" rule doesn't work as well as studying in different locations. His findings are complex, but it appears the brain "tags" the learning with the sights, sounds, and stimuli of the location. More locations with different stimuli make it easier for the brain to tag and store new learning. Make sense?

Have you had the experience of solving a really challenging problem when you moved to a different location, thought about it, even subconsciously somewhere else, and then "Aha!" a solution came to mind. Maybe you were on the beach, wheeling a shopping cart, or even driving home...not places you normally associate with doing your best thinking.

Bjork's other finding is that it's better to vary the materials you're teaching with and the concepts or skills you want students to master. Supposedly, far more was learned by research participants when they didn't focus on one subject or subtopic or concept for too long, but instead moved between multiple concepts. This finding not only challenges the wisdom of "skill and drill instruction" but pushes us to vary the kinds of tasks with choice as a crucial part of the mix.

This is really daunting for young teachers early in the year to put management systems in place, to be consistent and clear, yet still allow for the movement and flexibility students need to maximize their learning? How do you provide for choice and flexibility throughout the day, yet still remain focused on specific goals?

Click on the link and read the two page NY Times article for yourself. What do you think?

This post is adapted from a coaching newsletter I subscribe to and authored by Brenda Power.

A video...

Another comic

I just have to post these...

Teacher Zone - Math Teachers

This post is really an advertisement for a learning resource called Teacher Zone. Do you already know about this site? I had been reading the "Latest Activity" on the Classroom 2.0 Blog, where one teacher posted a call for assistance. "Help, I need online math resources!" and another teacher responded with, "I would try Teacher Zone for math video lessons - free. They have loads of math video lessons - 3 to 5 minutes long for grades 3 to 10."

So I visited the site, became a member by giving them my name, school, and email address. They sent me a password so I could log in. While I waited for the password to arrive in my mailbox, I watched several preview videos they make available. I recall one was a video that modeled how to solve for Area and Perimeter of a composite figure. I didn't even know what a composite figure was.

I thought the narrator spoke pretty quickly (especially when carrying out basic operations) and assumed I already knew some terms. But to the narrator's credit, he did explain what's meant by a composite figure.

So how might I use a video like this in the classroom? I'm certainly open to your comments. You are the SME's (Subject Matter Experts) but I might select 3 or 4 students who will not think the narrator is going too fast. I would have them watch the video as they record the narrator's steps in bullet form (on a proof card). I'd have them check one another's cards to be sure they all got all the steps. I'd be checking here.

Then I would have them teach (create the same performance as the narrator) 1 to 3 other students. The new small learning group would try to capture the steps (on an index card). The new group would be able to ask questions, talk about the steps they heard, and check their cards with one another. The teacher here is moving from small group to small group, making sure the procedures for small group talk are occurring, making sure misconceptions are surfaced and clarified, deciding whether the whole class needs the clarification or just an individual or small group. The teacher is deciding how much power and authority to grant the student-teachers in the small groups.

Then, I would have them practice, practice, practice: give them all another identical problem with different units to work on together, talk out their steps. For closure I might ask them to think of a case where being able to figure out the "area and perimeter" of such a problem is necessary. I'd have them create that word problem perhaps with the help of their group.

No matter how you design the learning, the important fact is, showing a video, even a short clip, is NOT teaching and is not a substitute for teaching. Learning or evidence of learning must be your goal. I would tell them in advance what I expect to see and hear. So in the design summary I suggested, where might a teacher get to see evidence of learning? Would love to hear from you! I hope you'll add Teacher Zone to your Math Resources.

Student Organization

We have spent a lot of time this summer getting our stuff organized... but students are gonna be students! So let's help them get organized too!!! This is a repost from the blog I follow (Free Technology for Teachers). Its really a great source of information to have linked right in your reader. The posts are short and really really really useful. So here it is............
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/08/7-organization-tools-for-students.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+FreeTechnologyForTeachers+%28Free+Technology+for+Teachers%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

The beginning of the school year is when many students (and some teachers) make the resolution to improve their organization skills. The web is full for tools that can help people organize and keep track of the important things that they need to get done. Here are seven tools that might help your students in their quests to keep track of the things they need to get done this year. The first two services in the list have mobile apps that students can use too.

Soshiku is a free personal planner designed for high school and college students. Soshiku lets students organize their assignments by course, add assignments, and receive text message and or email reminders before each assignment is due. Students can add assignments to their calendars directly on the Soshiku website or via text message. Registering and getting started with Soshiku is quick and the user interface is very intuitive and easy to learn.

Remember the Milk is a free personal organization tool that works online and with mobile phones. Many high school students are carrying cell phones with them so capitalize on that and talk to parents and students about using a cell phone to get organized. Remember the Milk allows students to add assignment due dates to their to-do lists via text, email, or directly on their account homepage. A word of caution, while this services is free, students could incur a lot of charges from text and data communication on their mobile phones so be sure to discuss these options with parents before having students use the text/ data tools.

Track Class offers all of the features that we have come to expect in online student organizers. Through Track Class students can keep a schedule of courses, track assignment dates, write and save notes, and maintain a calendar of events. Inside Track Class students can also save files such as essays they've written and slideshow presentations they've created.

43 Things is an interesting way to track goals and achievements. 43 Things is not a personal organizer, it's a goal tracker. The service is simple, users enter a list of things that they want to accomplish and other users can "cheer" them on until the goal is reached.

Ta-da List is a simple to-do list creation tool built by 37 Signals. Ta-da List allows to you to create a to-do list in 30 seconds. Just sign-up and start building lists. Your lists will be hosted at a unique url assigned just to you. Direct your browser to that url to check-off items on your lists or to create a new list.

Squareleaf is a simple system for creating and managing online sticky notes. To use Squareleaf just register for an account and begin creating notes. Your notes are displayed on an online "whiteboard." On your Squareleaf whiteboard you can arrange your sticky notes in any pattern that you like. The size and color of the sticky notes can also be adjusted.

Create an eboard

I have just created an eboard for my class, using Blogger. I chose Blogger simply because I'm familiar with it.

I would appreciate feedback on whether or not a user of my board can flip back to "Rigor and Excellence." I think the board stands on its own, even though I used my Google account to create it.

For instance, I don't know if any of the rest of you can post to Johnson Board. What I do know is that, in this wide world of technology, it's best to go with the program you have the most experience with, if you want to list classwork/homework assignments online.

The name of the site is Johnson Board. It's URL is http://johnsonboard.blogspot.com/

That should be easy enough for any student to remember!

Why Didn't I Learn This In College?

We discussed several essentials from most of the 10 chapters in the book. Even that may seem overwhelming. It's important to keep this book at hand and commit to skimming through one chapter each week and trying to apply just one good idea. That's the way to ownership of the habits of mind that lead to effective teaching and learning.

Chap 1 - We want our students confident that we want to get to know them
we know our subject matter
we are well prepared p. 1
The focus should be on "leading" students rather than "managing" students p. 1
Begin With The End in Mind p. 5

Chap 2 - Teachers are responsible for the success of others from day 1 by communicating clear expectations
and procedures to create a solid foundation for success
- Try Weekly Reflections - Self assessments p. 19
- Deal with students' "unmet expectations" Do's and Don't's p. 32-34

Chap 3 - Frame the Learning - Students must know the standard, essential question, today's learning goal, how
we're going to get there, and how we'll know/measure progress today
- Framing the Learning also means getting in touch with what they already know so they link the new to
the old (raise to the surface prior learning; recall yesterday's learning) and surfacing misconceptions
and naive understandings

Chap 4 - How To Make Learning Active Pick from the Strategies List on pp. 66 & 67
Think-Pair-Share p. 98
Ticket-to-Leave p. 104

Chap 5 - We're All Reading Teachers Reading to students, pausing to let them connect, picture it,
predict what might come next. Your occasional reading is a model of how to do it. If you pause to "Think
Aloud," they hear how an expert thinks when reading text. You make what's normally "invisible," visible audible. p. 134 Other times have them share the reading load with a partner practice their own 'think alouds' ;
and at other times have them practice by themselves.
Graphic Organizers Work The Frayer Model or a Wordsplash p. 125

Chap 6 - Check 4 Understanding Try Whiteboards or Communicators p. 146
A Good Self-Assess Rubric Check out p. 157
How Is Teacher Doing With Assessments Check Your Own progress on p. 167

Chap 7 - Enduring Understandings Check pp 176 to 180
- Essential Questions Check pp 181 to 183
- Read This As I Plan Lessons Check pp 184-185 & 191-192

Chap 8 - Take The Initiative; This Is Your Job and It's Professional Hard Work p 198
- Dealing With Paper Work / use a System pp 207 to 212
- Students Can Function & Lean If You Plan for the Substitute pp. 217 & 218

Chap 9 - Organize The Learning "Three Before Me" Procedure p. 240
- Color-coded Crates p. 241
- Talking Tokens p. 256 (model this procedure for small group talk)

Chap 10 Working With Parents Make Early Positive Contact
- Focus on the learning with parents
- Encourage & Expect parent Involvement
- Differentiate for parents' styles and abilities
- Be prepared, positive, and professional

Getting Things Done

Here are the links to the items I talked about in class today:

Getting Things Done by David Allen (Audible version)
43 Folders
Evernote

Free Technology for Teachers: A Don't Miss Event for Math Teachers

Free Technology for Teachers: A Don't Miss Event for Math Teachers


I follow this blog (Free Technology for Teachers) with my reader. It has great entries with Web2.0 tools that are content related. This is a re-post of Dan Meyer's 38 weeks of Algebra but also goes into a really great blog on how Math Class needs a make-over. Just wanted to share some great links!

Embracing Algebra

A link to a Diigo Bookmark came across my Google Alert screen. I clicked on it and found this math resource from Dan Meyer. Dan apparently offers several ways to open and view the details of his algebra course. I used his pdf option and started exploring his day-to-day course beginning with the concept that algebra is a language like every other language and we probably know or recognize something about that language already.

As a Language Arts Literacy teacher, I appreciate that approach. I think it begins to demysitify math. And for those who might see algebra as a demon scourge, perhaps it begins to take the fangs out of the beast so students can embrace it.

Algebra teachers might explore this and let me know if you pick up any good ideas. your comments are welcomed.

Dan also has a disclaimer at the bottom of his site explaining his attempts at attribution.

Answering My Own Questions

So, as it turns out, being the mother of a teenager has actually benefited ME in some way.

She is starting high school this year. As we approach the beginning of her school year, I find myself asking more questions about this new experience: "What is the transition process to this new school? What kind of interaction will she have with upperclassmen? How will technology be integrated with her daily routine?" It occurred to me as I began drafting my list of questions for her teachers that now that I am a teacher, I need to be prepared to answer some of these questions for the parents of my students.

As I continue this journey as a parent of a high school freshman, I plan to use this opportunity to inform my own communication with my parents. I read with interest "What to Say on Parent/Teacher Night," which cleared up a few things for me regarding CCTS's 'Open House.' My approach to Open House will likely be a mixture of the recommendations from the article and an attempt to answer some of the questions that I have of my daughter's teachers.

Did anyone else find that article useful?

How teaching has changed

When am I EVER going to use this....

“Beats me,” I usually answer. “You can’t even tell me definitively what you’ll be doing next month; forget about four years from now. How can I definitively say when or whether you’ll use THIS? All I can say is that it is useful in certain situations (the word problems in this section are limited versions of the same problems some people face daily), useful as mathematical development for later work (which may be a prerequisite for the course or job you really wanted) or is mental development to expand your brain beyond the limited understanding and very limited world-view you currently have. I am not being critical here — you really have no experience at life. How could you possibly know the utility of everything you’re learning?”


“You have millions of possibilities ahead of you, thousands of doors along this hallway you call life. Writing ability will unlock many of them, artistic ability others, mathematical ability many more. Some may require that you speak English well — certainly, 95% of the jobs in this country do. Some will require a little of everything. Each of these doors is along a different stretch of hallway, sort of like that fractal tree over to the right. Each educational decision you make takes you down one branch or another, closing off some possibilities and making others available. To switch from one branch of the tree to another may require a little backtracking to pick up things that you could be learning now. I have no idea which doors will interest you so I have to lay a very broad groundwork and push you in directions you may not immediately see any need for. You have to trust that, over the course of many years and many students, I have a good sense of what you might need and of what you may find interesting after we’re done.”


“How do I know this? I talk to my students after they graduate. They tell me what they found useful or pointless. I get all kinds of stories about topics that we covered here that directly applied to something they were working on, stories about being the only one who really understood something the professor was trying to say. There are not many complaints that we spent too much time on a topic they never saw again.


“If there is ever a commonality in the comments of returning graduates, it’s this: ‘I never imagined that THAT would be useful. I was surprised when it showed up. So was the professor — he was grateful SOMEONE knew about it.’”

From the Math Curmudgeon

This is one of the "end of the year" activities that I did with my students.

The direction I gave them was very simple: "In complete silence, I would like you to read it to yourself and come up with real-life examples that help explaining what Bill Gates meant with his quotes." The real-life examples must be something either you or a friend, a relative had experienced.



Here are the 11 quotes:

1. Life is not fair-get used to it!
2. The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself.
3. You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
4. If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
5. Flipping burger is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping; they called it opportunity.
6. If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
7. Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parents' generation, try delousing the closet in you own room.
8. Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
9. Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your OWN time.
10. Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
11. Be nice to nerds, chances are you will end up working for one.

Global Writers

I'm here on break at the "Seeing the Thinking behind the Writing" workshop, and I'm encouraged to see a push to add more "eyes" to our students' writing by having them post it to various sites where fellow students can see it, as well as the teacher. My only concern about this enhanced audience is that some students, particularly ones who are struggling with the content area, might be reluctant to share their efforts with their peers. However, the opportunity to take essays to publication on the internet should appeal to many students. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Rewards Plan

I've been thinking about our discipline plans: the rules, the consequences, and the rewards. I'd love to know your thinking and suggestions for videos in your content area that might actually be inspiring treasures that might serve as rewards and motivate students to learn more on their own. The real work in such a reward process is the amassing of the treasures and deciding how best to use them and evaluating their effect on the students. Under helpful links here in our blog you'll find "Teaching with TED." This is where we might start the search for meaningful, standards-aligned and content-topic related videos. These videos can begin a conversation in your classroom and send some of your students off in search of more to learn about the topic. For example, I recently watched "Arthur Benjamin Does Mathemagic" and was motivated to find out more about Vedic math calculations. When the reward is, perhaps, also the seed for learning more or building respect for the learning, then I think students begin to see that learning is its own reward. I hope you'll explore Teaching with TED and share those video clips with us that might be appropriate as a reward or for inspiration within your subject area.

Image from (CBS)

Do Our Children Lack Creativity?

I read a post in Public School Insights, a blog written by Claus Von Zastrow for the Learning First Alliance, where he interviews noted researcher and author Ashley Merryman. She recently co-authored a Newsweek cover story titled "The Creativity Crisis." Merryman argues that there's a science to nurturing a creative mind and we're just not doing that in this country.

She cites the declining scores our children are producing on the TTCT (Torrance Test of Creative Thinking) in the last 20 years. The test measures curiosity, hypothetical thinking, imagination, emotional expressiveness, humor, boundary breaking, and more. She says those scores were on the rise from 1958 to 1990. She blames some of it on television watching and computer usage among our youngsters. "For every hour kids watch television, their participation in creative activity drops 10%" She informs that it's not like you have to have knowledge first and then you are creative in the use. Rather knowledge and creativity are constantly working together in a creative child's mind.

Merryman also says we have no national strategy to address this crisis but holds out hope. We do know how to reverse this trend. "Creativity training actually changes brain function. On the neurological level we can actually change how the brain responds." This combination of encouraging both knowledge acquisition and creativity has implications for every classroom teacher.

What are your thoughts about this "crisis"? We might even ask our students to read the Newsweek article and propose solutions or view the video presentations posted on TED that also address the issue of creativity and our schools. Better yet check out the many outstanding resources available on this topic at Teaching with Ted.

Spoiled Kids?

Recently, I began our work session with this acronym "WIIFM" and asked the group to consider why we're examining effective classroom management practices. Each of us came up with specific benefits for ourselves, for our well being.

Then the other day, I read in a blog I subscribe to about a book titled Motivating the "What's In It For Me" Workforce: Manage Across the Generational Divide and Increase Profits. And last Sunday, Alfie Kohn wrote a column in The Washington Post headlined "Complaining about a generation of spoiled kids -- again." Kohn believes this American pastime that targets one generation with such criticism is, frankly, getting old.

We teachers-- veteran or young-- certainly want to consider what's in it for us, don't we? So are we the "Me Generation"? And if we, too, are guilty of WIIFM thinking and attitudes, what should we do and how should we think about our students? Don't they need us to teach them that their education is its own reward? Don't they need us to teach them by example that life's greatest satisfactions come when we act in ways that consider others before ourselves?

What generation is the “What’s in it for me?” generation? The answer all depends upon where you sit and how old you are. In fact, every generation at one time or another has probably been seen by the preceding generation as the WIIFM generation. Doesn’t society tell every member of every generation from a very young age to look out for number one?

The young grow up being socialized by an older generation that sets the example of “So what? Who cares? What’s in it for me?” Perhaps a reason elders blame things on youth is that there is only one other place to blame our discontent. When we point our one finger out at others, three other fingers are pointing back at us.

The WIIFM attitudes are the signs that we and our students have a ways to go in changing our attitudes, empathy, and habits so that we consider others' perspectives. Our attitude toward our students will show up in our actions and language in the classroom, in our conversations with our colleagues and parents, and in how we speak about our work outside of school.

What's you thinking about teaching students altruism, empathy and perspective?

You Are Part of the Change

There's a quote -- we're all probably familiar with -- from Mahatma Ghandi that goes "Be the change you want to see in the world." And that applies to our schools nationally and our school and each campus specifically. Some of the goals of Rigor and Excellence are embodied in the title. We want the children closest to us to be in a classroom that offers rigorous learning that leads to excellence, to successful lives. And as second year teachers, you must become the change you expect and want for the students on your class roster. We all need to become learners who expect rigor and excellence of ourselves.

In the video trailer of the upcoming documentary "Waiting for Superman," and in the comments section on YouTube, we see two big ideas that are essential for rigor and excellence: caring teachers and engaged students. I don't know what the spin on this movie will be -- another attack on the profession or a call for a campaign we can all support. But I think we should be aware that we must be committed to learning about learning and that our work is a matter of equity.

What's your thinking about these two big ideas? And how can we be supported to become the change our students need to learn and lead successful lives?

Blogs I follow (when I can)

Below is a sampling of the feeds I read related to teaching. Although many are math related, you may find something that you like. Please add your sites to the comments.

Continuous Everywhere but Differentiable Nowhere
I Want to Teach Forever
Pissed Off
f(t)
Mr. L's Math

Fun Stuff
xkcd.com

I'm Not Gonna Try It! You Try It

In the 1980's the Life Cereal ad featured Little Mikey, who "hates everything," digging into a bowl of the product. I'm not pitching cereal in this blog post rather free online opportunities for professional development.

They can be found in many places. One that I've listened to is at Classroom 2.0 and the one I'd like to suggest here is from ASCD (The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development).

I subscribe to their e-newsletter, which announced a webinar titled Ask Dr. Judy - How Can I Motivate My Students? This one will take place on Tuesday, July 20 between 3:00 and 4:00 pm. Usually, the host of the webinar will archive the conversation so that even if you miss it, you can take advantage of the questions and expert advice and opinions at your later convenience.

After listening and perhaps participating, I think it's valuable to then reflect on one's own experiences and jot down the reflection -- perhaps in our blog, inviting comment from others who may not have yet heard the archived session.

You're probably too young to recall the 1970's Alka Seltzer catch phrase "Try it! You'll Like It." But I think you will

Shhhhhhh!

In my Google Reader I subscribe to Larry Ferlazzo's blog titled Websites of the Day. It's quite informative and interesting. Recently, the author writes

"I definitely don't subscribe to the notion that students have to be silent in the classroom most of the time. Part of the reason is because we do lots of partner work. Another reason is because I subscribe to General Douglas MacArthur's perspective about never giving an order that you aren't sure is going to be followed.

There are two times that I am pretty strict about it, though. One is during our "practice reading" time when students are reading books of their choice for the first fifteen/twenty minutes of class time (of course other time is given where they can talk about what they've read). The other is when they are writing -- either an essay or a "quick-write" (though sometimes -- if they whisper -- I'm okay with someone asking another student for help).

It tells students that quiet is important during reading and writing times so our minds can focus and concentrate. Generally, they respect those guidelines.

However, an article in this month's Discover magazine titled "What Do Urban Sounds Do to Your Brain?" got me wondering if there were any studies that I could actually share with students to show them that reading and writing in silence really does help learning. That same article has a link to a study -- A Quieter School: An Enriched Environment -- but both primarily talk about the negative effects of environmental noise. The second one does mention another study that found that students who came from quieter homes were more academically successful but I haven't been able to find anything that specifically talks about the effect of quiet on reading and writing.

I haven't gotten around to check my book on brain-based learning yet, but I thought I'd put it out to readers -- Are you aware of any research on this question? When and why do you think it's important to have silence in the classroom (if you think it is at all)?"

You might consider subscribing to Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day blog because he puts out lots of ideas and links you might use. So what do you think about best ways to teach students about your procedures on silent time?

Hi Ann,

In response to your request for things that have worked for me. I've had mixed results with a few different methods, but what seems to work the best is having a file folder with the days of the month in it and a couple extras in the back for logs and tool kit pages. Each day a few extra pages will be placed in the file under the date they were distributed. This way the kids learn that they can pick up their missing assignments when they return to class. The second thing I've done that worked was letting them know that they will get a 50% discount if the assignment is one day late. After that the assignment is no longer given credit.

In anticipation of doing a presentation on procedures for making up missed work, I would appreciate any advice from this group or its viewers. What has worked for you?

Q/A: Procedures

From time to time we can post questions we come up with and think about ways to respond or comment to support one another's practice. We've brought up many interesting questions so far and these two are a synthesis from several:

1. How can students process a lengthy list of procedures like the list we see in Wong's book The First Days of School or the list we brainstormed in class?

2. How much time can I spend teaching and practicing routines as opposed to teaching content?

Dr. Fred Jones says, "Pay me now, or pay me later. Do it right, or do it all year long." Research has repeatedly shown that teachers with the best run classrooms spend most of the first two weeks of the semester teaching their procedures and building them into routines. Teachers who do not make this investment deal with the same behavior problems over and over all semester long. Few teachers actually make the investment, especially at the high school level where the teacher attitude is "You've got to be kidding. They should know how to behave by now. I don't have two weeks for that. I would never make up the time."

"The students do know exactly how to behave in class. They always have. The question is, do they have to? The standards in any classroom, to put it bluntly, are defined by whatever the students can get away with. If teachers do not take the time to carefully teach their rules, routines, standards, and expectations, they will get whatever the students feel like giving them." (Tools for Teaching 147, 148)

I would say a high school teacher with only 40 minute periods needs to spend the first 4 to 6 weeks explaining, rehearsing, and reinforcing procedures for at least part of the period (10 to 15 minutes) every day. The next concept is called "gradual release of responsibility" as more and more students become independent with a particular procedure. Responsibility will gradually shift from my teaching/reinforcing the routine to their acting as "independent doers." Then I will deliberately cut back on the amount of time spent. When I've posted certain procedures and routines, they serve as reminders, which also helps my students manage themselves.

I would decide which procedures to teach at "the point of instruction" when that procedure is most needed and appropriate. They can't process them all at once. The difficulty is also showing students with my movement and voice that I mean business -- that these procedures are not optional, that these are the ways to success in my class. Even after the six week mark, my consistency and reinforcement of the routines is crucial. The language I use to convey my expectations must also be rehearsed so it sounds like I've been expecting this procedure from all my students for years. This is how we do things here.

The axiom "Less is more" never made sense to me until I began to see how much more learning can and will happen in the long run if I don't give in to the temptation to teach more content early on.

Building Capacity, Building Community

Today we began our first work session for Rigor and Excellence. The keynote presentation was a 20 minute look at building capacity in human beings. And that's what all teachers do! We viewed, reflected, and shared our thinking on the Doorpost production titled The Butterfly Circus. A huge element of effective practice is regular reflection. Then we talked about the importance of building community -- a community of fellow teacher-learners as well as a community of student-learners in our classrooms. John modeled how to get a class to do a basic 'silent lineup.' Our outstanding group of eleven was 'in line' in 30 seconds. Not a word was spoken until we shared about one thing we all have in common -- a birthday.