Collaboration

Surviving New Curriculum – Misery is Optional

by Kendal Privette on January 8, 2013

I’m teaching new curriculum this year. Actually, it’s a new-to-our-state course: Middle Grades World History.  A course I haven’t had since freshman year in college. 24 years ago.  One of my students figured it out right before Christmas. “Wait,” he said,  ”You’ve never taught this before? Why are you teaching it to us?” (I would never accuse a seventh grader of mincing words.) We’re often called to new curriculum due to changes in grade level, change in location or district/state/national revamps. I’m not a fan of change – too stressful. (I once cried over changing vacuum cleaners.) I have found some essentials to a smooth and effective transition:

  1. Organization - This is the most difficult for me. I’ve learned to keep a copy of the state standards in a three-ring binder along with the unit plans my teammates and I are developing as we swim this broad sea. I take it to all my meetings, and most importantly, I review the standards and our work from time to time or I find myself adrift.
  2. Collaboration – Two other teachers in my grade teach the same course. I trust them and depend on them. Our principal set aside a planning period per week for official unit planning. During that time we have team norms and a note-taker. We leave the meeting with clear expectations for who is doing what until we meet again. But we plan far more than during the official professional learning community. We talk/email/text about learning targets, activities, resources, assessments, what worked and what didn’t work every day. I would drown without them.
  3. Internet Resources – I admit that I find the wealth of information on the web a bit overwhelming, but here are a few of my go-to sites that are applicable to all fields:
    • Teachers Pay Teachers - An open marketplace for educators where teachers buy, sell and share original teaching resources. (Part free, more for a fee)
    • Brain Pop - BrainPOP® creates animated, curricular content that engages students, supports educators, and bolsters achievement. (Part free, more for a fee)
    • Quizlet - You can study anything. Find or create what you need to learn. (Free)
    • PBworks - Online team collaboration to get work done. Capture knowledge, share files, and manage projects within a secure, reliable environment. (Free)

Surviving new curriculum does not have to lead to misery.  I’m remembering why i teach – to discover and facilitate discovery. No, I don’t have to add misery to my plate – just stay organized, collaborate and allow myself time to wade the vast waters of internet resources.

So, how about you? When is the last time you changed curriculum? How do you best manage without misery?

Pin It

{ 1 comment }

Why I’m Participating in the Staff Back-to-School Picnic

by Kendal Privette on July 30, 2012

Table

 

When I read or watch the news these days, I learn about climate change. And how it affects me. And what I can do to affect it. This is a little overwhelming, really to think of just one person having an effect on, oh I don’t know, the entire atmosphere, but it has made me think of climate in terms of my school. What is our climate? Is it changing? If so, is it improving or deteriorating? Does it matter? What role do I play?

Just what is school climate? According to the National School Climate Center, it is the quality and character of school life. School climate is based on  patterns of students’, parents’ and school personnel’s experience of school life and reflects norms, goals, values, interpersonal relationships, teaching and learning practices, and organizational structures. Research shows a correlation between positive school climate and student achievement. Furthermore, just like in our physical environment, people want to stay in a pleasant climate. Teacher turn-over is lower in schools that report a positive climate.

These are high stakes, but what do we do? How much is left up to us, the educators? Isn’t it enough that we plan relevant, rigorous lessons based on national standards? Isn’t it enough that we incorporate Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy into the very fiber of our beings? We have to be relational too?

I want my school to be a favorable place, conducive to accomplished teaching and authentic learning, and that cannot happen in a harsh climate. A first step toward this favorable school environment is building positive collegial relationships. And this is why I will participate in our staff back-to-school picnic. Not just attend. Participate. I’m not talking about getting my teammates off to a table to begin unit planning. No, I will not even take a notebook or pen. I want to welcome and get to know new staff members.  I want to listen to my colleagues. And on Thursday, that means hearing about the new houses, the vacations, the gardens, the aged parents and the new babies’ accomplishments. Later, like Friday, I want to hear, really hear, their ideas about students, discipline, essential questions and assessments, but first, over a hamburger, I want to know them as people. This, I believe is a vital first step in creating a positive school climate.

So, to what have you been invited? Will you participate? What does your staff do to promote collegiality on your campus?

kendal’s personal blog is a spacious place.

Pin It

{ 1 comment }

Technology Lesson Idea for Students {Make a Movie!}

by Laura Gurley on June 13, 2012

Need an assignment for students that incorporates your educational subject with technology? Consider having students create or help create a movie. Video assignments are fantastic ways to engage students on multiple levels and in varying core standards, while encouraging that “21st Century Learning” in the process.  Another thing I love about making movies in class is that students walk away with a project that probably seems more relevant and is easily shared with others {usually with pride!}.  Video creation makes for good team working opportunities, creative communication skills, and technology skill development, too.

The following are some great examples of ways other teachers have used video production in their classrooms and schools. Watch a few and be inspired to let students create something relevant to their media -saturated worlds. . .

To teach vocabulary words, have students act out short skits demonstrating the definitions:

This elementary filmmaking club wrote and acted a short movie about a character trait– confidence:

In this video, an elementary teacher collected over 10,000 pictures from the entire school year to create this adorable animated cartoon:

In the following music video, a song about Earth Day was written and performed by 4th grade students:

And here is a project for history a student produced about an inspirational boy from India:
Student-Created Video of an Inspirational Indian Boy, found on the ever-popular TeacherTube.

{Subscribers, click through to the site to view the embedded videos.}

**************

Related Posts. Technology Timesavers  | on Service Learning  | 7th Graders Provide Clean Water for Africa  | Teaching Students about Global Poverty

Pin It

{ 0 comments }

Integrated Teaching {Bringing Happiness to Venn Diagrams}

by Laura Gurley on May 5, 2012

Today’s guest post comes from an English teacher in China, Amy Young. Amy shares about how an unlikely pairing of subjects and ideals became a memorable classroom experience. You can read more about Amy’s teaching and life experience living in Beijing at her blog, Messy Middle.  You can, and should!, follow Amy on twitter at: @Amyinbj.  {Interested in guest posting?  See our guidelines here.}

***************

Like the average reader of this blog, I believe in integrated teaching and learning. Can you find biology in an English class? Absolutely you can! Turns out even after all these years of teaching I’m not as integrated in my thinking or lessons as I thought.

A couple of weeks ago I walked into my 3rd period Senior One (10th grade) oral English class in Beijing, China, and was greeted with cries “teach us math!” Not going to happen (even though I’d taught math in the US); but then I had one of those inspiring moments we all long to have, where things just come together. We were working on a unit about money. On a whim I wrote “happiness” and “money” on the board and asked them to make a mathematical equation showing the relationship between them. I made a pathetic sample I’m not going to show you because, well, I look like a simpleton. As I walked around the room there was a buzz in the air. “Miss Amy, can we use functions?” Can you?! I randomly chose four students to write their equations on the board, but others wanted to as well. They blew me away. Here are some the finished products:

I wish I could remember the explanation! Or these two:

Or how about this one:

I love that it culminates in a venn diagram! Even I can grasp that one.

There were graphs, exponents, sets, functions, greater than, less than, infinity, and diagrams as they depicted deep and significant things in relating money and happiness. This is what integrated teaching looks and feels like. In that class, I learned more than they did.. .

1. My definition of “Chinese Creativity” is far too narrow. Over the years I’ve been asking them to be creative in ways I know how to be creative without linking it more often into some of their strengths.

2. I’ve been asking the wrong question. Instead of asking what my students don’t know and filling in gaps, I also need to ask what they already know and incorporate it more.

3. My teaching categories are too rigid. So much for priding myself on being integrated! I would not have put money, math, happiness, and oral English in same lesson because they didn’t seem to go together.

But, apparently, to a classroom full of Chinese students, they most certainly did.

- Amy Young, orignally posted in part at Messy Middle

 Where might your definition of student creativity be too narrow, thus hindering lesson integration? Could you try a similiar activity in one of your classrooms this week?

Pin It

{ 4 comments }

Teaching Tip to Make Cooperative Learning Easier

April 10, 2012

Teaching Tip Tuesday:  Appointment Clock. An Appointment Clock is a classroom management tool that teachers can use when students will be working in pairs. Appointment Clocks save valuable class time, empower kids to make meaningful choices, ensure that students have the opportunity to work with a variety of classmates, and facilitate smooth transitions. Here’s how [...]

1 comment Read the full article →