Useful Information In and Out of the Classroom 7/31/15

Here are some interesting sites that I’ve found this week, thanks to my PLN. As a teacher, I feel we have to keep up to date concerning research in our field and current issues in the education system. I hope some of these inspire you, inform you, and even have you asking questions. Thank you for coming by and visiting!

Note: Each resource is labeled with a level and subject area to make it easier to use.

Levels:  E: Elementary; M: Middle; H: High; G: General, all levels; SN: Special Needs; T: Teachers

Subject Areas: LA: Language Arts, English, Reading, Writing; M: Math; S: Science; Health; SS: Social Studies, Current Events; FA: Fine Arts; Music, Art, Drama; FL: Foreign Language; PE: Physical Ed; C: Career; A: All

Trending Words – “Trending Words revolutionizes vocabulary instruction, allowing you to easily create vocabulary for your students from your most trusted source for curriculum--other teachers!
 

Koma Koma – free Ipad app; a simple & easy stop motion animation app for iPad. (L:G; SA:A)

Road to Grammar – quizzes, games, and lessons on grammar (L:E; SA:LA)

NBC Learn – “For more than 80 years, NBC News has been documenting the people, places, and events that shape our world. NBC Learn, the educational arm of NBC News, is dedicated to making these historic stories, images and primary source documents available on-demand to teachers, students, and parents.” (L:G; SA:T)

LeafSnap – free iPad app; “Leafsnap is the first in a series of electronic field guides being developed by researchers from Columbia University, the University of Maryland, and the Smithsonian Institution. This free mobile app uses visual recognition software to help identify tree species from photographs of their leaves.”  (L:M, H; SA:S)

Original photo by Pat Hensley

Summer Teaching

In A Dollop of Bitter and Lots of Sweet from Sioux's Page, Sioux talks about the summer graduate class she teaches. She asks,

“How about you? What bittersweet moment can you recall?”

I also teach a summer graduate class and this is the 8^th year I have done this. My class is for certified teachers who are getting their master’s degree in special education.

We only meet 4 weeks for 4 days a week. We have a summer program for students ages 6 -14 where we teaching them reading, math, and writing skills. The students only attend for 15 days over the 4 weeks. When they first meet with me, the teachers all have this incredulous look on their face because they can’t imagine making any kind of difference with students in that short of time. Yet, because of course requirements, they submit lesson plans and teach these skills every day to a class of 8 students.

By the second week, we are getting remarks from parents that they can already see a difference with their child. The children are coming home eager to read or show what they learned that day. Some are learning skills that they struggled with during the school year. The 3^rd week came with even more positive comments about the differences that the teachers have made with the students. Now, the teachers are proud but amazed at how they could actually make the difference in such a short time. I’m proud of my teachers and the program because I believe it is a great opportunity for the students who struggle with learning.

The bittersweet thing that stands out for me is the uncertainty that I gave enough to my own students (the teachers).

I have lots of questions that I’m not sure I have answers to yet but will be thinking about it for next year.

Did I teach the teachers enough to help them in their own classrooms?

I’m not sure the content area teachers have really bought into the idea of special education and will vary the activities and assessment enough for students with special needs. How can I get this message across better?

Teachers expressed a concern with having to individualize for students and meet the required standards. For me, it seems pretty easy which may come from experience. I need to remember that it didn’t happen overnight for me but developed  over the years. How can I convey this better for the teachers?

Did I give the struggling teacher enough confidence to continue her growth in her career?

Did I give enough support and encouragement when they needed it?

What could I do differently next year to make this course even better?

I hope I did a good job but I always have these thoughts that I could have done better. I felt this way every year that I taught in public school so I shouldn’t be surprised that I still feel this way. Will I ever feel I did a great job and leave it at that? I don’t think so.

What are your bittersweet moments? Please share.

Special Education Legal Troubles

In Weekly Question! From Special Education Law Blog, Jim Gerl asks,

“As we run our: an Introduction To Special Education Law, what do you think are the easiest ways for a school district or its staff to get into special ed legal trouble?”

Over the years, the biggest reason I think parents want to take schools to court is because no one returns their phone calls. When a teacher or administrator doesn’t return a phone call or respond to a parent, they are sending the message that the parent is not important. Nothing seems to infuriate a parent more than this and I don’t blame them.

I believe that 80% of special education legal troubles could be avoided if we open the lines of communications with the parents/caregivers.

When parents feel that schools are transparent and really want to help their child succeed, most conflicts can be handled locally between the school and the parent. Many times a parent wants to be heard and wants to know that the school is understanding about the problems being faced. The parent doesn’t want excuses but wants some kind of action being taken. Sometimes this action may just be listening to the parent. But most of all, no parent wants to be or should be ignored at any time.

I have found through experience that having a good relationship with the parents really helps avoid any conflicts. This means being in constant communication with them (weekly or biweekly if needed). The parents can contact me and be assured that I will respond. When we work as a team rather than adversaries, the child is more likely to succeed. When changes need to be made, I work with the parent on what needs to happen and the timeframe needed for this. If the parent has reservations about the changes, I listen and sometimes the parent’s input can change how I feel and sometimes I can change how they feel. But most important, they feel a part of the team and their input counts.

How would you answer this question? Please share.

Remembering Bullying

In 3 Ways I’ve Seen Bullying Stopped from Cool Cat Teacher Blog, Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher, talks about bullying. She shares,

“Four and a half years I lived bullying. I cried every day after school when I made it to the respite of my room at home. I often ask myself what I would have done if my bedroom weren’t my solitude? What if I couldn’t get away? Even if bullying “goes away” the scars don’t.”

I too remember many years of bullying, especially in junior high. Being a minority student made me different. At that age, students like to pick on the one who is different and I was the target. I hated being different and I so wanted to be like everyone else. I just wanted to blend and relax. It seems like every day I arrived at school on “high alert” and didn’t relax until I got home. I couldn’t share the feelings of fear and insecurity at home because my parents were proud of being Chinese and just didn’t understand what I was going through. They both grew up in Chinese communities so they were part of the majority then and didn’t realize how hard it was to grow up as the minority in a school in the 60s.

I remember thinking about how I wish the teachers would intervene. Of course, they couldn’t intervene if I never told anyone that I was being bullied. Then again, I always wondered how the teachers could not see that bullying was going on. I knew if I told, the consequences at the hands of the bullies were far worst then what I was already suffering through. I knew that I hoped someday to be a teacher and help students that would go through the same types of situations that I faced.  Did they turn a blind eye because they thought it would make me a stronger person? Or did they turn away because they didn’t know how to address it?

I know that today we talk about no tolerance for bullying. We try to teach our children how to stand up to bullies and encourage them to stick up for others who are being bullied. Administrators tell school personnel that bullying won’t be tolerated. We watch videos on bullying and how it shouldn’t happen.

Bullies are good at hiding their actions and teachers need to be more vigilant in looking for situations. We need to take away opportunities for bullies to take advantage of their weaker peers. We need to have a way for students to let adults know whey they see bullying going on but feel helpless to act on another person’s behalf. Students know sometimes better than adults when bullying is happening so we need to encourage them to let us know about it. I remember teachers telling students not to be a tattletale so I wonder if that is why no one came forward when they saw bullying happening.

Do we really train our teachers enough on how to deal with bullying in their classrooms? Do we have specific procedures in place for what needs to be done when bullying happens? Or do teachers all deal with this in their own way for their own classrooms? Is their dialogue between teachers at general meetings on how situations should be dealt with? Some teachers may see certain situations as bullying where others don't. What procedures are teachers expected to follow when they feel bullying is happening. 

I try to encourage students to tell me when something is happening that can hurt a student either physically or emotionally. I need to teach them there are appropriate times to tell an adult about certain situations. Sometimes we might get told more than we want but I would rather know more than to miss a chance to stop a situation that involves a bully. As a person who was bullied, I would have loved for a teacher to intervene just once on my behalf.

I know there are policies against bullying but does your school have actual procedures on dealing with bullying? Please share.

Summer Learning Place 2015 Week 3

Week 3 went well at Summer Learning Place. Students were used to our routine and the teachers were getting into their groove. I observed a lot of great lessons also. I really enjoyed the younger students using food as manipulatives (froot loops, cheez it) for math lessons.

The one exciting thing that happened was that a parent didn’t pick up her child on time. In fact, she was about 70 minutes late. I called the number we had on file and realized that she listed the same number for her phone and her emergency number. I was afraid she had been in an wreck or something happened at home. Of course the little 7 year old was pretty worried too. She finally arrived at the time I was dialing the Sheriff’s Office. The next day we made sure that we had emergency number(s) for every student. In the future, I will check the files and have the teachers verify that we have at least 2 working numbers for each student.

I’m really pleased at how well the program is going this year. All of the teachers work very well together. I can’t believe how quickly this month has gone by and that this week is our last week!

Useful Information In and Out of the Classroom 7/24/15

Here are some interesting sites that I’ve found this week, thanks to my PLN. As a teacher, I feel we have to keep up to date concerning research in our field and current issues in the education system. I hope some of these inspire you, inform you, and even have you asking questions. Thank you for coming by and visiting!

Note: Each resource is labeled with a level and subject area to make it easier to use.

Levels:  E: Elementary; M: Middle; H: High; G: General, all levels; SN: Special Needs; T: Teachers

Subject Areas: LA: Language Arts, English, Reading, Writing; M: Math; S: Science; Health; SS: Social Studies, Current Events; FA: Fine Arts; Music, Art, Drama; FL: Foreign Language; PE: Physical Ed; C: Career; A: All

Helicopter 2050 Challenge – “Come up with a sustainable, environmentally friendly helicopter of the future.” The challenge is open to US residents ages 9-16 from June 1 – October 15, 2015. (L:G; SA:S)

NASA Lunar Electric Rover App – iPhone and iPod touch app; “Welcome to the NASA Lunar Electric Rover (LER) Simulator. You don’t need a driver’s license, but you still need to buckle up as the LER Simulator gives you a glimpse of what it might be like to support the activities of a functioning Lunar Outpost. Get busy. You never know if your skills here will become a major part of the NASA Astronaut application process in the future” (L:H; SA:S)

NASA The Space Place – “NASA’s award-winning Space Place website engages upper-elementary-aged children in space and Earth science through interactive games, hands-on activities, fun articles, and short videos. With material in both English and Spanish and numerous resources for parents and teachers, Space Place has something for everyone. Learn about everything from black holes and wild space weather to the reasons for seasons here on Earth. The Space Place has material on space, the Sun, the Solar System, our own planet, and the scientists and technology that make discovery possible.” (L:E; SA:S)

Open Library – “Open Library is an open, editable library catalog, building towards a web page for every book ever published.” Over 1 million books available to borrow and read.  (L:G; SA:T)

The Book Seer – A book recommendation (L:G; SA:T)

Original photo by Pat Hensley