Hunger

In church this week, my pastor talked about being hungry and I started thinking about being hungry for learning. She talked about being hungry at times because she didn’t eat what was there or she didn’t like her choices.

I remember being a young child and loving the idea of school. I remember playing school with my stuffed animals, my cousins, my friends, and anyone else I could talk into playing school with me. I think at one time our German shepherd was even one of my students. I loved to read and learn anything and everything. Luckily my parents encouraged me to learn and most of my teachers did too.

Then I look at the students I teach. This past summer I held a summer program for children age 6-13 who have had learning problems in school this year. Of course the little ones were excited every day to be there. But the 9-13 year olds just didn’t seem to be happy. They already knew that learning was a struggle for them. It was really sad to look into these faces and see that many of them have lost this hunger for learning.

I wonder what we do as educators that turn this hunger for learning away. Many times out students choose not to take what is being offered because they don’t like their choices. Many times they have learned that learning causes emotional pain. I remember my parents having me try to eat new foods just to see if I liked it. How do I get my students to try new things? How do I get them past the fear of learning new things? At what point have we caused this fear?

At the end of the 4 week program I was told by many parents that we have helped give their child confidence. One student has returned 4 years in a row and his mother tells me that he will be back next year. Another parent told me that she was shocked at what a difference we made in her child in just a short time. I explain that we have worked on a few skills but I don’t think we made as big a difference in the skill level as much as we have in the self confidence level. Some of these children have gotten just a little hungry for learning again. I think that if we have been able to stir up that hunger again for some of them, then it has been a worthwhile program.

How do you make your students hungry for learning? Please share!

Image: 'Hungry Baby Birds'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28879181@N06/2753769324

My Photo Journey

In What Are You Doing With All Your Photos? from Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech, Dean Shareski asks,

“What are you doing with your photos?”

I take a photo a day 3 of the past 4 years (I took last year off and I really missed it!) and upload them to flickr to share.

I take photos to keep the memories alive. When we travel and go back to the same places, we like to look back at the pictures so we can plan what we want to see and do again.

I like to take photos that I might be able to use on my blog. Sometimes I can’t find a photo that would fit the topic of my blog and then I realize I have it in my own files.

I like to take photos when I am with a group so that I can share our adventures and good times we had. I upload the pictures to Flickr so that I don’t fill everyone’s email with tons of pictures (that are huge files) and they can pick and choose which ones they want to keep.

I take photos to remind myself of things. I take a photo of the parking space (section, number etc.) of where we park if the car is going to be left there for a week. When we return I just look at the photo to get to our car.

I take photos of things in the store I want to buy in order to compare prices. I used to write all this down on a piece of paper but it is so much easier and faster to take a photo of the price tag with sku# to compare. I might also take a photo of the details (size, weight, etc.) if I need them.

I take a lot of photos so that when my husband and I can’t travel anymore, we will be able to sit at home and look back at these photos. We can remember the good times and share the memories.

A local school allows me to use the facilities to run our summer program (a one month practicum for teachers getting their master’s degree in special education). I took photos of the classrooms we were using before we moved in so that we could put the classrooms back the way they were when we were done.

When our tenants move into a house, we take photos of the house inside and out so we can compare it to when they move out. This helps document the condition of the premises so we can determine if they get their deposit back when they move

When we rent a car, I take photos of the car and all the dings and dents so that we can’t be charged for them when we return it.

When we had storm damage on and around our house, I took photos to document the damage in case we filed an insurance claim.

I take a lot of photos of improvements we have done on our house so that my parents who live far away and unable to travel can see what we are doing.

As you can tell, I love taking photos! So now I ask you, what are you doing with your photos? Please share.

Original Photo by Pat Hensley

Useful Information In and Out of the Classroom 8/3/12

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

Audioviator - free audio tours (L: G; SA: A )

ScreenLeap - share your screen instantly to any device with a browser (L: M, H ; SA: A)

Listen and Read - Community Clubhouse; “reading activities for early learners.” (L:E ; SA: LA )

American Revolution - interactive timeline (L:M, H ; SA: SS )

Sound Gecko - make any online article into a mp3 and listen to it on any device. (L:G ; SA: A )

Original Image: Tools by Pat Hensley

Summer Learning Place 2012 Reflections

Our Summer Learning Place 2012 is in its last week. I have really enjoyed this year’s teachers and students. For some reason, everyone seemed to mesh really well. All of the teachers seemed to be on the same wavelength and constantly shared ideas and strategies. There were no major ego problems and all of the teachers really collaborated on their own rather than needing me to initiate any of this. I was truly impressed that all of them were usually there 30 minutes before they were required to be there and all usually stayed even after I had left. These teachers showed true commitment and responsibility throughout the program. I enjoyed seeing how different they all were compared to the first week. Unsure and anxious about what to expect (the unknown is always scary), they rolled up their sleeves and jumped right in to get to work. It was fun for me to watch them try different strategies looking for the right one that would work. By expanding their comfort zones, I think they will be better teachers in the future whether it is in a new classroom or returning to the ones they already have.

The children were a joy to see every morning. I loved the smiles on their faces as the looked forward to another day with us. Even getting compliments from the parents made my day. One parent even strongly requested that he be put on the mailing list so he could be notified when we would begin this again next year (we have this every summer). The students seemed to really flourish under the individual attention from the teachers (ratio of 1 teacher for 4 students) and even though we only met for 4 weeks, I can see a lot of academic growth that occurred. Parents have even commented on seeing their child progress positively which is what our goal.

The only sad thing that happened was that I had to remove a 7 year old from the program. He was uncontrollable and tried to run away several times. This prevented the teachers and myself from meeting the needs of the other students. The parents were frustrated too and I understand that but there was nothing I could do. I wish the parents had warned us about this behavior on the first day and we weren’t surprised when he tried to run away immediately. I spent the whole day restraining him from running away and was exhausted when his parents finally picked him up. His mother was under the impression that we dealt with behavior problems (he has had this all year and was being retained in 1st grade because of this behavior) and that we could “fix” him. I informed her that we couldn’t even work with him if we couldn’t get him in the classroom. After the 2nd day of this behavior, I had to send him home and inform the parents that this was not the right program for him. I know they were disappointed and I was too. I wish I didn’t have to do that but my hands were tied.

Overall though I believe this program was a success for the teachers and the children. Every year I send home a program survey to the parents so I can get feedback about this year’s program. Everyone came away with things they had learned. Thanks to the suggestions from parents and the teachers, I will be making a few changes for next year that will hopefully make the program even better.

Original Pictures by Pat Hensley

Signs of Weakness or Wisdom?

In ABC--Arachnids' Brazen Counterattacks
from Sioux's Page, Sioux asks,

“And what would happen if we were all like that spider? What would happen if when we were attacked, we immediately armed ourselves for our own self-defense?”


This reminded me so many times of my student’s behavior. Somewhere along the line, students have learned not to show when they are scared or frustrated. They have been told they are lazy or don’t try hard enough or don’t study enough. Many times that may be the case but many times it may not be the case. For some reason they may not know what to study or how to study or maybe they don’t even understand the entire concept to begin with.

Any time we perceive that we are being attacked, our body naturally goes into a fight or flight mode (remember those development classes we had to take?).
When students perceive they are being attacked, many start acting aggressively. When this happens, many teachers react to this behavior. It is only natural that when the students act aggressive, the teacher tends to “push” back.

I have found the best way to handle situations like this is to take a step back instead of a step forward. First of all, the student doesn’t expect this. Teachers are afraid that this is a sign of weakness but I see it as a sign of wisdom. I might even tell the student that I am feeling (disappointed, angry, frustrated) with the student’s behavior and I will need some time to think about how I want to handle this. Many times my behavior can either escalate the situation or defuse the situation and if at all possible I like to defuse situations as often as I can.

I might have to remind myself that the student’s behavior may be a defense mechanism. I need to look objectively at the whole situation and see if there was something that triggered the student’s behavior. If I find the cause, I won’t excuse the behavior but I will understand it better. This will help me have a productive conversation with the student who may not even realize why he acted this way until it is pointed out to him. Helping him understand how he is reacting to certain situations and helping him find other appropriate ways to handle them will help the student be more successful in the future.

Sharing this information with parents will also help everyone involved. I like to imagine that the student, the parents and I are all on the same time so we all need to know what is going on. This helps the parent see that I also care about the student and that I’m trying to find ways for him to be more successful. By getting this information, the parents can all help to reinforce the new behaviors that the student is learning to replace the inappropriate behavior.

All of this takes time and energy so the changes won’t happen overnight. I just need to remember that signs of weakness may actually be signs of wisdom.

Image: 'Gummi-Spidey'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/48915783@N00/244224273