I  have finally moved my blog to it’s own server. This is the last post on edublogs.org. Please follow my blog at http://www.hightestscores.org/

See you there!

Susan

Teachers and Students Connect Online

An easy way for teachers, students, and parents to stay connected is through the teacher’s website. Teachers can post classroom information, homework assignments, school news; whatever the teacher wants parents and students to know. If a student is absent, that student can Read the rest of this entry »

On This Thanksgiving Day, while the rest of the family is watching football (I’m not a football watcher) I thought it might be a good time to reflect on some of the things that I’m thankful for.

I’m thankful for my family. They are not only all that a mom and wife could hope for, they all get along well. I am so incredibly grateful for that. Mike, Shivahn, and Ian, you are my lifeblood, lifeline and my ever so patient cheering squad and support.

I’m grateful for the relationship Read the rest of this entry »

I talk a lot about the value of music as a teaching strategy and, in most of my sessions, I discuss the effectiveness of music as a way to calm and focus students. A couple of teachers in my fall seminars offered the ideas outlined below for using music for classroom management. I would love to give credit to these teachers for their ideas, but they didn’t give their names with these great ideas.

One teacher explained that she taught her students the song, “What a Wonderful World,” by Louis Armstrong. One day, when everybody was wound up and excited, she started singing the song. The students stopped what they were doing and everyone joined in the singing. They loved the song, knew it well, and they were calmed.

An elementary aide taught her class “The Chicken Dance” during inside recess days. On a day when no one seemed to be listening during clean up time, she turned on “The Chicken Dance” and told the class they had until the end of the song to finish putting everything away. It worked so well that the dance became the song they played every time they had to clean up.

While the first idea supports my comments about the calming and focusing effects of appropriate music, the second strategy also illustrates the value of movement in the classroom. While the example comes from an elementary setting, giving students these little opportunities to move is essential to maintaining good order and discipline in the classroom.

One of the best ways to engage and motivate students is to apply learning to real-world situations or to associate the learning with something that students can identify with. The examples that follow have been used successfully in classrooms around the country and can be adapted for your subject and situation.

1. In social studies, history, or Government, hold a Party Convention to teach the principles of the democratic process. One teacher in Nebraska organizes a party convention with affiliation to any major party, and then breaks his class up into as many two or three student state delegations as possible. After appointing one student as “the candidate,” students research their state and attend the convention as delegates of their state.

1. Another social studies or history example is to reenact major events, such as the Battle of Bunker Hill, or the Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. As the teacher, you might dress up and set the stage before acting such things out yourself, or you might engage the class more deeply by including them in the process.

1. Math and science concepts lend themselves well to music. Put your students into groups and have them create a song or rap to help remember the concept being discussed. I’ve talked repeatedly about the value of music in remembering information and this strategy bears inclusion again here. Bringing students into the process and allowing them to use music they love motivates them to participate and remember. There are a variety of resources available on my website, but a new resource I discovered recently is http://mrduey.com. Another teacher tuning their love of music to the subjects they teach.

1. Teachers have been using animals like fish, reptiles, and amphibians in the classroom for years to teach students about life-cycle, habitat, and responsibility. The problem with this idea is that, over time, the process becomes more chore than treat for students. Another approach, and something that many communities offer, might be to have service animals brought in during specific days or times. These animals are specially trained for a variety of tasks and service organizations are always on the lookout for ways to help train these animals by offering them opportunities to interact with others. This is an especially good activity for involving students with special needs and can be adapted to a variety of subject areas.

1. Having a cook-off or using food examples is an excellent way for students to apply concepts like fractions, U.S to metric conversions, geometry. Teach fractions using a pizza or cake. Show how a sandwich is a square until you cut it in half and it becomes two triangles.

1. One life skills activity that reaches students can be applied to a variety of teaching moments. Give students an ‘entertainment budget’ and have them use their ‘money’ to purchase a new gaming system with games and extras. Make the budget small enough to be challenging. Many students have no concept of the skills involved in managing money, but they will apply critical thinking to the mathematics with this sort of challenge activity.

1. Hold a mock trial with lawyers, a judge, etc. to examine the judicial process, act out current or historical events, or to deter students from making poor life decision. Many high school criminal justice courses use this activity, sometimes including field trips to actual courtrooms, but the idea can be applied to a number of other courses and ideas as well.

Co-teaching Seminars This Week

Here in St. Louis (Clayton, actually). Checked in, shuttle driver took me to Whole foods – did groceries, going to polish my co-teaching presentation before bed. Tomorrow St. Louis, Tuesday: Springfield, MO, Wed: Kansas City, MO, Thurs: Minneapolis, MN, and Friday, FARGO!!!

Co-teaching Coaching Last Week

Last week I was working with Permian High School and Odessa High School in Odessa, TX. I love being in the classroom. Both high schools are making great gains in their co-teaching efforts. Not only did I get to work with some awesome teachers and administrators in Odessa, Texas, I attended a Permian High School Football ’send-off to the state championships’ bon-fire. I also attended an Odessa High Pep rally. They both made it to this past weekend championships in El Paso and they both won! Experiencing West Texas Football and West Texas friendly hospitality is truly delightful. The week flew by.

Linda Lamirande of ESC 16 in Amarillo, Texas told us about the Disabled and Captioned Media Program, or DCMP. The program calls itself “a unique educational accessible media resource serving the United States and its territories.”

They provide a collection of free-loan accessible media, guidelines for educational description and captioning, and a variety of other services designed to support and improve the academic achievement of students who are blind, visually impaired, deaf, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind.

Best of all, its FREE!

In the current economic environment, dropout rates tend to rise and we, as teachers, struggle to find ways help our students succeed. The issue of students dropping out of school continues to be a problem for schools, society, and our students.

A practice guide is available from the Institute for Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, titled “Dropout Prevention (September 2008).” The intention of the publication is to help educators develop effective dropout prevention strategies.

This publication is a useful addition to the growing research on the dropout issue and how school systems and education advocates can prevent students from dropping out.

Children and Personal Safety: My Passion

I have been teaching martial arts to children for years. At one time, I felt compelled to write an article titled, “Girls do Ballet and Boys do Karate” because of my frustration with the stereotype pervading children’s activities. Both girls and boys need self-defense skills. The reality is, however, that martial arts and self-defense are still not given enough credence by the general population. Martial arts schools continually lose students to other sports (or video games).

Then there are those that believe you can take a one night workshop and learn to defend yourself. All those quickie courses do is give people a false sense of security. It takes practice and repetition to learn self-defense well enough to use it in an attack.

Both my children took martial arts from Kindergarten through High School. They weren’t given another option. I realize that they could still get attacked, but I know that as their mother, I did the best that I could to make sure they had self-defense skills, understood what message body language sends to others and know all that you say in the video above. I pray they never need to use those skills, but I know they have them just in case.

A colleague of mine, Robert Siciliano, speaks with passion about a
topic I, also, am passionate about.

In my seminars, I often talk about the special difficulties faced by middle school students and the issues that middle school teachers must be aware of and deal with. As an advocate of positive discipline, I appreciated Shaun Martin’s thoughts on offering specific praise to our middle school students.

Martin, a history teacher in Baltimore Maryland, explains that general praise like, “Good job!” has very little meaning for students of middle school age. Instead, teachers should offer praise that is meaningful to students. Specific praise such as, “You showed your work on number three perfectly!” and “Awesome work! You punctuated every sentence correctly.” offer students precise information and give value to the praise.

To read Shaun’s complete article, visit http://classroom-management-tips.suite101.com/article.cfm/how_to_praise_students_in_middle_school#ixzz0Ejt9hoNr&A .