Susan Fitzell’s Educational Blog

I’m a huge advocate for using individual white boards for participation. I just worked with a teacher who added one more option to this strategy: Sheet protectors. 

Cover the whiteboard with a sheet protector with two sides cut so it easily slips over the board. Then students can work out math problems on the ’sheet protected white board”. When called up to the overhead projector to show how they worked out the problem, they simply take the sheet protector off the white board and lay it on the overhead. Voila! they have a visual to explain their process to the class! Encourage students to speak slowly and clearly when explaining their process for solving the problem.

 Here’s the original instructions for using white boards to encourage class participation. It has been excerpted from my book, “Special Needs in the General Classroom: Strategies that Make it Work!” p. 110. http://www.aimhieducational.com/Books/CogentCatalystPublications.html

Use marker boards to encourage participation:

Every student has a

• Whiteboard
• Dry-erase marker or wipe off crayon
• Little kid sock (for wiping and storing marker or crayon)

1.      Teacher asks a question.

2.      Students write answers on white boards.

3.      After fair amount of time, teacher asks students to hold up boards.

• The teacher can see how ALL students are doing in one look across the room.
• It stops blurters.
• Allows those that need processing time to finally get it!

I’m always recommending that teachers use storytelling as much as possible to convey important lessons. Instruction is more memorable when presented in a ’story’. Stories connect with previous learning, with emotions, and patterns in long term memory. They are an excellent way to teach. Many of us, however, don’t feel confident in our storytelling skills. Here’s a wonderful workshop presented by a colleague of mine that remedies that lack of confidence!

Telling Stories to Children
4 Day Course with with nationally revered storyteller and educator Judith Black in the seaport town of Marblehead, MA 01945  June 23, 24, 25, 26,  2008.

Storytelling speaks simultaneously to the heart, imagination, and intellect of the listener.  There is no better teaching tool for bringing literature and curriculum alive. Come and learn how to shape your curriculum material into stories that will resonate for your students.  Explore your own power and possibilities as a teller, and expand your techniques for teaching  science.  Massachusetts PDP’s offered.

Fee: ($375) For more information contact
Judith Black E-mail : jb@storiesalive.com  phone: 781-631-4417
www.tellingstoriestochildren.com

I was doing some research for a teacher that I’m coaching in differentiating instruction and decided to share the results of the search with my blog readers. She teaches language arts.

 If your students or children (I realize they are often both the same) could use some extra practice with grammar, dictionary skills, parts of speech, etc. Check out these resources!

 Dictionary skills (and more)

5th Grade Skill Builders- Interactive Sites — http://www.internet4classrooms.com/skills_5th_original.htm Scroll down for Language Arts

Parts of speech

Wacky Tales — click on one of the topics… note the help boxes at the bottom of the page. http://www.eduplace.com/tales/

Grammar Gorilla– This one is very cute: http://www.funbrain.com/grammar/

Word Games seemed like fluff to me on first sight, however, I tried the “picture word” and the very first word was a word that I did not know! I was quite surprised. http://www.theproblemsite.com/word_games.asp

This one makes you resister. I’m not sure how realistic this will be for a school setting: http://www.iknowthat.com/com/L3?Area=WackAWord

Generic On line Language Arts Games: http://www.teachervision.fen.com/reading-and-language-arts/games/5831.html

Grammar: Parts of speech on line resources: http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001579.shtml

Must register for this one. It’s an excellent resource over all: Brain Pop — http://www.brainpop.com/english/grammar/partsofspeech/preview.weml

The Teacher’s Café Grammar Page: http://www.theteacherscafe.com/Grammar/Grammar_Games.php

The Grammar Page: http://classroom.jc-schools.net/basic/la-grammar.html

Enjoy!

A colleague of mine asked me for some activities that I once used in my presentations to help participants understand about learning disabilities. Her request caused me to dig into materials that I had used long ago and had set aside. Consequently, I realized that as we evolve in our ‘instruction’ we sometimes cast aside some good material.

 I’m including a couple activities that address how it ‘feels’ to have a learning disability here with this post. I did not create these activities so I will not take credit for them. I also found a link to a website that that provides analogies to help address this issue.

The Numbers Game Activity Instruction

The Numbers Game Handout

A Handout Developed by a Person with Dyslexia

 This website page has several analogies to help people understand what it’s like to be dyslexic: http://www.understandingdyslexia.co.uk/guide.asp.

Enjoy!

Well, I’ve been in Texas for the past eight days and picked up some great tips from teachers in my audience. I’d like to share…

Today, I was in Dallas and had a delightful audience of motivating teachers. One participant, Grace Beckham, gave me a song that she uses to teach her students the 7 continents:

 To learn the 7 continents:

Think of the letter A

And when you’re down to only one

Then E will save the day!

There’s Africa, Antarctica, Australia, Asia, too.

The oceans run between them with

Their waters deep and blue

There’s Also 2 Americans

North and South you see

And now we’re coming to the end

And Europe starts with E!

Thanks Grace from Dallas ISD!

Another teacher told me about “The Writing Academy” @ www.TWA.net. It’s a system for writing that uses color and all the wonderful brain research. She raved about how well it worked with her students.

 Jay Yost told me that he cuts his individual white boards in the shape of a paddle. He says the kids like them and find them easier to hold when they raise them up! What a great idea!

http://www.hahntech.com/ has a great PowerPoint Timer (Big Time) that you can download for free. For other options, go to my website at www.aimhieducational.com/inclusion.aspx and click on Presentation Resources and Timers for two other freebie timers. Why use timers? Because using VISUAL timers in the classroom:

1. Helps kids to learn to manage their time by “seeing” time.

2. Gets kids used to being timed so they don’t tense and freeze on a “timed” test.

3. Can be used as a motivator. Give students 1-3 minutes to accomplish a task and have them beat the clock.

4. Helps the teacher manage time. So often we give the class X minutes to do something and the next thing we know it, X++ time has gone by. Assign a student to watch the time and tell you if you miss seeing it when the time is up. This way you’ll stay on track and the student will feel good about having such an important job!

Dinah Joest and Geri Stopper have a unique way of alleviating test anxiety: To make content mastery more welcoming and ease anxiety on Fridays (test day) they sing to the students (Old songs, pop songs, silly songs) The 9th graders enjoy their “letting their hair down” and often ask their teachers to sing on other days. They are American Idol Bound!

Well, I’m off to work with a school district in North Carolina. I’ve been working with the district for well over a year and it’s exciting to see how they are making inclusion work!

I was doing some research today on ‘online resources” for ready-made mnemonic devices for my March newsletter. I found more than 12 and my artcles tend to be “Twelve ways to…” articles. So, I’m going to post the ‘extra’ links here in hopes that you will find them useful. Enjoy!

http://studynow.com/mnemonics/

http://itc.gsu.edu/academymodules/a304/support/xpages/a304b0_20600.html

http://www.k8accesscenter.org/training_resources/Mnemonics.asp

http://www.learningassistance.com/2006/january/mnemonics.html

http://www.fun-with-words.com/mnem_example.html

http://www.audiblox2000.com/learning_disabilities/arconyms.htm

http://www.audiblox2000.com/learning_disabilities/arcostics.htm

http://www.audiblox2000.com/learning_disabilities/spelling-mnemonics.htm

http://ahsmail.uwaterloo.ca/kin356/mnemonic/Examples%20of%20Mnemonic%20Devices.htm

http://712educators.about.com/od/creativethinking/tp/mnemonics.htm

http://www.mnemonic-device.eu/mnemonics/

http://www.mindtools.com/memory.html

I was working with an elementary school in New Hampshire today and walked into a classroom with an incredibly calming environment. I immediately noticed that the teacher had turned off the florescent lights. Instead, she had four floor lamps and a table lamp strategically placed around the room. There were no cords visible. She had the cords tucked away so that students would not trip on them. She, also, had calming classical music playing in the background. The difference between that classroom and the hall was striking. Students were on task and happily going about their work. 

It’s wonderful to see strategies that I advocate for in practice. One of the first dimensions of learning is “Attitude and Perception”. The classroom environment plays a key role in promoting positive attitudes and perceptions for learning.

I acknowledge that there have been controversial results from studies done on the benefits of Full-spectrum lighting vs. incandescent or other non-florescent lighting. There is no argument that, although economical, florescent lighting can have detrimental effects. The debate between full-spectrum vs. other non-florescent light sources may come down to personal preference or psychological benefits. See the following links for more information.

 http://www.apollolight.com/full-spectrum_controversy.html a single article commenting on the research.

http://www.fullspectrumsolutions.com/cmenuitem_12.htm a source for several articles on lighting.

Studies that conclude that natural lighting improves learning:

http://www.h-m-g.com/Projects/daylighting/publicity%20daylighting.htm

http://www.oregon.gov/ENERGY/CONS/school/docs/ashcreek.PDF

http://www.pprc.org/pubs/schools/design.cfm

And here’s a source for research based music for the classroom environment

http://www.edfacilities.org/pubs/outcomes.pdf