my version of transparent, collaborative leadership...with a Teamann twist

Those people…

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The field of education can be a trying one. The news attacks us, the students don’t seem to listen, we don’t get paid enough. yada yada. Not that we’re those people. (Remember that. I’ll come back to it in a minute, so put it in your pocket and save it for later.) Many times “jobs’ can be just that, a job. The daily grind. The do I have to get out of bed in the rain grind. The how come he can’t listen grind. The if only these parents cared grind. Each day there is a version that can be added to that “grind” list.
One of the things I love most about my LL’s is the absolute commitment to our profession that we share. The innovation, the passion, and the energy that permeates these halls, is different than other campuses. (trust me.) The smiles, the late nights, the dancing through hoops to get a test finished is different than other campuses. (trust me.) The I can’t sleep b/c I don’t know what is happening to one of my kiddos is different. It makes me proud to be here. It makes me proud of what I choose to do each day, and allows, for me, to be the reason that I don’t think of this a daily grind, but as what I GET to do. You make my day. See above paragraph where the LL’s aren’t those negative people. Pull it out. Have a treat.
Want an example? I happen to have one. Ms. Griffin was bitten by the grant writing bug. She wrote MULTIPLE donor’s choose grants and went way above and beyond to get them funded. She involved us, her friends, her class’s family, etc. She got them funded, doubling her class library and introducing a tag reader system for her students. Was that enough for her? Nope. Mrs. Ryenolds, another rockstar, got ahold of some Leapfrog program that sent her FREE books, so of course, Samanth needed hers too!

Fabulousness personified. That’s what my LL’s are to me!

Since you’d read this far, you get a treat! A heads up on your teacher appreciation gift for next week. We racked our brains trying to think of something themed, something cutesy, something that wouldn’t elicit eye rolls. For your BIG gift, on next Tuesday or Wednesday, we’re going to have….drum roll please….your car detailed! Washed, vacuumed, sparklefied. Whatcha think about that? 🙂
Luna Lion LuvR ,
Amber

Speedgeeking SD

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Tomorrow will be the first speedgeeking event here at Luna. The concept, similar to “speed dating” is going to introduce you to five different technology integration pieces. This is meant to give you a lil’taste of FIVE different easy and fun ways that you can add these tools into your lesson plans. We will be asking to see ONE of these used by your class for the final grading period. I repeat, one of these tools will need to be seen in your lesson plans this final grading period.
Technology presented this late in the year can be confusing. It’s past TAKS when I’ve seen teachers feel as if they have time to add in a technology piece. Anything that you see tomorrow will actually have a HUGE impact on your students, even before TAKS. We talk so much about student engagement and keeping students on task and motivated. Guys, these kinda activities are PERFECT for that. You have an extra computer in your room now!! There is NO reason why one of your kids couldn’t complete all of these activities during the course of a lesson. We know you have students who are busting out 100’s on your daily class assignments. Do they really need to do the multiple practices and same activities that your lowest students are struggling with? Me thinks not. I’ve offered before, and this time I mean it, I can have a 5th grader who is FABULOUS come into your room and teach one of your students what to do…
Watch it spread like wildfire.
Trust me. I know this will work. Go into this training with an open ALL YEAR MIND, not just an after TAKS mindset. Pleaseandthankyou.
supportingly,
Amber

Being Social

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If you haven’t noticed, twitter and other social networking sites (BeBo, Plurk, FB, etc) are making their presence known in ALL ages and walks of life. Take advantage of the opportunity to A: discuss the appropriate and inappropriate cyber behaviors and B: turn a boring review assignment into something they will be more engaged in while still accomplishing a complex TEK!
**Example: Let two students pick a mathematician, an artist, a scientist, a woman (hello march & womans history month), or a character in a story, and have a conversation about what all the different facets of the page mean. Have them fill it out “in character”.
3.8 Students understand, make inferences and draw conclusions about the structure and elements of fiction and provide evidence from text to support their understanding. Students are expected to:
(B) describe the interaction of characters including their relationships and the changes they undergo; and
(C) identify whether the narrator or speaker of a story is first or third person.
4.6 Students understand, make inferences and draw conclusions about the structure and elements of fiction and provide evidence from text to support their understanding. Students are expected to:
(A) sequence and summarize the plot’s main events and explain their influence on future events;
(B) describe the interaction of characters including their relationships and the changes they undergo; and
(C) identify whether the narrator or speaker of a story is first or third person.
TAKS Objective 2: The student will apply knowledge of literary elements to understand culturally diverse written texts)
Create a space for them to hang it up and encourage students who get finished top create their own when you/they have time.
I’ve attached a facebook template and here is a twitter template site, 🙂
socially,
Amber

Math Musts!

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We know that a district focus and emphasis has been directed towards math, most pointedly in problem solving and measurement. I want to give you several options today that I have once discovered from my PLN on Twitter. (8Amber8).
Not feeling successful with the extra computer in your room? iPlay has a collection of printable math games for all our Luna levels of learners. You can search games by concept, skill and grade. Group your students by ability level and let them, play in groups. You know, grouping students with similar learner needs is HUGELY beneficial. It allows students to practice in a zone where they are aren’t intimidated. Become math maniacs and spend the last 15 minutes of class focusing on isolated skills. The iXl site can also be utilized for some “down time” math playing.
Are you the competitive type? Arcademic Skill builders is a collection of fun arcade-like games that help students practice their math facts. Students can play games for addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fraction, and ratios. The games are research based and standard aligned. Games can be played with partners (think high low grouping) or by themselves. If you have even an extra five minutes, pull this up on your projector and let a student who needs a kick of motivation be the one that gets to play with help from their classmates. Make it even trickier by letting them use their classpads.
Last, a gem of mathtabulous…I think if you’ve read this far down you deserve a treat! 🙂 As a classroom teacher, I loved the Math Playground site. In fact, I use to email regularly with the young lady who developed it, telling her JUST what I thought it needed, or what we needed extra practice on, etc etc etc, I am sure she enjoyed that. (heh.) Well, since leaving the classroom, she has added some math story problem VIDEOS. Each math problem comes with step by step video solution, follow up problems, an online calculator, and a sketch pad. Explore this site, there are so many differentiating ways to make it work in your classroom. From a whole group lesson where your students are calling out answers, to tutorials where you are working in a small group, to individual at home practice….it can ft your needs!

I know that many of are still struggling with the what and how of integrating that extra computer in your classroom. Losing Monday as a staff development days put a kink my grandiose plans of PLN’ing some ideas for integration. I’m thinking a series of blog entries on tips and tricks…stay tuned! 🙂
mathmatically,
Amber

Homework Headaches

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Homework, homework, homework! We all give it, we all grade it, we all have our purposes behind it. As we move into the spring, and the time of many an educator head ache, I want us to REALLY think about what we’re sending home and why. Thanks to my PLN, (8amber8), I came across a great articlethat looked at homework from a parent’s perspective. There were a couple of different sentences that jumped out at me…

So often, what comes home seems either mind-numbingly excessive (25 long division problems, anyone?) or beyond the scope of what is reasonable (three-page book reports, typed please, and make a diorama to go with it). My experience as a mother of four and as a teacher with 18 years’ experience has led me to the realization that practicing something, or being asked to produce something for which one lacks the skill, does not breed perfection, or even learning. It breeds frustration.

I can tell you from experience how homework is done in my world. If MT is at home it is completed, checked, discussed, rechecked, rediscussed and then put away. Nice and neat. If I’m home, I think I usually remember to say “Hey, did you finish your homework?’ She says yes, I say great, and we’re done. Nice and neat. 🙂 And I’m the former teacher, remember!

I want you to think about the homework you’re assigning. Just repeating something does not automatically strengthen learning. If you’re unsure of a skill or concept, actually doing it wrong repetitiously may do more harm than good! There is no research that supports homework as a tool for increasing academic achievement in the primary grades. Are you assigning it because you want them to practice? How many times do they genuinely NEED to do something in order for you to feel better? Do you have a goal? Is there a way to assess what they were “practicing” and see a correlation to what you are doing in class? Because if there isn’t, you’re creating headaches…we discussed at the beginning of the year students sitting out from recess because they ” didn’t do their homework”. We don’t like to see that happen, especially when in some students you’re depending on the self starting initiative of an 8 year old to get it completed.

 

ASCD had a great article in it’s September Educational Leadership magazine (hush, I’m behind in my reading!) that provided an awesome chart that gave some homework alternatives.

 

 

In This Learning Situation. . . Instead of This Try This
You introduced new material in class. Assigning a question set so we will remember the material. Ask us to think up a homework task that follows up on this material and to explain our choices.
You want us to read an article before a class discussion. Making us answer questions that prove we read it. Ask us to write down two or three questionswe have after reading the article.
You want to see whether we understand a key concept (such as literary irony). Making us complete a worksheet. Ask us to demonstrate the concept for the class in small groups, using any medium.
You want us to see how a math procedure applies in various situations. Assigning 10 word problems that involve this procedure. Ask small groups to choose one word problem that applies this procedure in a real-world situation, solve it, and present it to the class.
You want us to memorize facts (such as dates in history). Handing out a list that we will be tested on. Ask each student to share with the class a memorization trick (such as a visual cue) that works with one item on this list.
You want us to remember what you taught last month. Assigning a review sheet. Give frequent short pop quizzes about earlier material. Go over each quiz, but don’t count the grade.

 

 

I would love to see you experiment with some of these options. In the same way that the dynamics of the way we’re teaching has changes, let’s think about homework in a different way as well…

 

Homework HelpN,

Amber