Speed Sessions
These were short 15 presentations done at a roundtable. Great way to pick up some new ideas and learn new tricks to add to my toolbox. Here's some new resources I learned about and am excited at finding ways to build these into my lessons.
- Autorap - turns speech into a rap. Could be a lot of fun and help kids work on literacy
- Vocabulary.com - vocabulary and literacy games. Useful for anyone, but really excited to get my ESL students this resource.
- Gameonlearning - More literacy games to help build vocabulary and literacy skills.
- Freerice.com - This is so cool, and apparently legitimate. Vocabulary questions that range from really easy to very difficult; for every question you get right 10 grains of rice will be donated through World Food Programme to help end hunger.
Classroom Management Begins With Teacher Self-Management
Another speed session by David A. Shepard. There was long handout from this session with all kinds of ideas and considerations for classroom management - unfortunately I can't find it on the website now. Here's two key things I took away:
- Rather than negatively stated classroom RULES, there should be positively stated Procedures/ Expectations. His handout had the following checklist in regards to the Procedures:
- There is a clear set of positively stated procedures used in my classroom (5 or less)
- These procedures are prominently posted in my room
- I review the procedures directly or indirectly at least once a week
- There is a known set of consequences (+ and/or -) for the administration of these procedures
- I follow through with these consequences fairly, consistently, and persistently all year
- David had small tickets that could be handed out to students for different reasons. The first was a STOP sign: (I forget exactly what his said, but it was something to the affect of this)
As Dave noted, you can discreetly hand out these tickets when someone is misbehaving, that way you don't have to stop the lesson and always be addressing students with negativity. I do wonder how long this ticket would have any value or affect. I showed my wife, who teaches a grade 4 class with some particularly challenging boys, and she just shrugged and said "my kids wouldn't care, they would just rip it up". I suppose it all comes down to the fair and consistent consequences for misbehaving.
Conversely, You should also have a star ticket for when kids are doing well. I am going to try this with my grade 7's. Not sure how it'll go over, but I'm willing to try new ideas. Integrating NonFiction Language Arts Strategies Cross Curriculum - Tara Breeden, Cassie Farrish
The main idea was about implementing Signposts to help students dissect a piece of writing. Here's a link to the Signpost Annotations for NonFiction. They also suggested going to TeachersPayTeachers.com and searching signposts, as there's some free downloads for your classroom.
One activity they did that I enjoyed and have already implemented into a Science lesson, was Possible Sentences:
- Give students a list of vocabulary from the text and have them write sentences that use the words. It's a good way to get them engaged in the text and then curious to find out if their sentences match at all what the text is actually about. It worked quite well for me - I'll be making this a common practice before my science lectures.
Digital Citizenship in the classroom and Beyond - Lindsay Middleton; Shannon Siegler
Another informative session with some good resources I picked up. The main takeaway: Digital Citizenship should be in everything you do, not just a unit or lesson you teach. Here's some useful resources:
- Digital Boot Camp - lays out skills and goals to implement
- Common sense media - lots of great resources:
- News Literacy Project
Redo and Retakes, Rationale and Myth Busting - Rick Wormeli
It goes without saying that Rick's talk was awesome. Again, it was great to realize that most of what he had to say already aligned with my own beliefs and practices. Here's a few takeaways that'll help shape my practices;
- Kids need multiple tries to get something right. Some many more than others. As Rick noted: A child is attempting to ride a bicycle, and the bike falls over. Another child, learning to walk, loses her balance and lands on her bottom. A baby’s green peas slide off his spoon as he moves it toward his mouth. How do their parents respond? Good parents don’t say, “You fail, you’re not able to meet bicycling standards,” “I’ll develop a rubric for walking without falling,” or, “We need a Common Core curriculum to help you keep your food in your spoon.” ….[They] simply say, “Try again.” - Richard L. Curwin, Education Leadership, ASCD, September 2014, p.38
- Yes, there's an argument that it's important to teach responsibility, why should students get a second chance - life doesn't always work like that. No, it doesn't, but sometimes it does. Plus, we're talking about middle school students. The most important and useful thing we can do is give them the skills they need to succeed. Developing skills requires you to FAIL (First Attempt In Learning)
- Have students submit a short proposal for a Redo on an assignment:
Mr./Mrs./Miss ________________________,
I understand….
I need assistance in….
I suggestion the following four steps for me to take in
order to learn these content and skills:
Sincerely,
_______________________
- Can redo sections or part of a test, part of an essay if they messed up a paragraph. If they messed up the theme they need to redo the whole thing
- Is it chronic or occasional problem with student needing Redo? There's a difference and your response should be different.
That's all for now. There was plenty more going on, but there's only so much I can take in and implement into my class. Thanks for reading, follow me on twitter @GP_Connors
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