Useful Information In and Out of the Classroom 1/29/10

Here are some interesting sites that I’ve found this week, thanks to my Personal Learning Network (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!

Tobacco Control – “virtual classroom on tobacco control”

MathMovesU.com - MathMovesU.com will supplement your classroom curriculum. It's designed to help middle school math students practice and improve their math skills. MMU combines stuff kids are into like music, sports & fashion with algebra, geometry, decimals, fractions & word problems.

CarrotSticks – “CarrotSticks is an online multiplayer game that improves math skills for 1st - 5th graders as they practice and compete with peers around the world!”

Stykz – “Stykz is the first multi-platform stick figure animation program in the world (as far as we know!), and it is COMPLETELY FREE!”

International Special Educator Burnout Research Study - Here is a site for special educators to signup to participate in the study.  Please share this link with others!

Posted on the Successful Teaching Blog by loonyhiker (successfulteaching at gmail dot com).

Five Great Books for Kindergarten Readiness

This guest post was written by Wendy Graham, a stay at home mother and freelancer who often writes about education for Online College Guru, a directory of online colleges.

Parents and children often look forward to the first day of school with a mixture of anticipation and worry. It can be especially stressful for parents who are uncertain if their children are ready for kindergarten. Ensuring that children have the skills necessary to succeed in those first crucial years of school can be difficult; fortunately, there are a number of outstanding children’s books that can help parents teach their children the basics needed for early educational success. Here are five of the best books to prepare your child for kindergarten.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

This delightful rhyming book teaches children the alphabet with humor and rhythm. By turning each letter into a character, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom allows them to interact and quarrel with each other as they compete to see who will be first to the top of the coconut tree. Available in a simplified board book version for the youngest readers, the longer hardcover version offers pre-kindergarteners a bright and colorful way to make learning the alphabet fun.

The Complete Adventures of Curious George

Generations of children have cherished the antics of George and the Man in the Yellow Hat. Today, his adventures still teach valuable lessons about choices and consequences. George gets into all sorts of trouble, but in the end is forgiven and repairs the damage done. This message is especially important for children preparing to enter kindergarten; the idea that mistakes and accidents happen from time to time can help children cope with the anxiety of a new environment, while the fact that George works to fix his mistakes can serve as a valuable guideline for even the youngest children.

Where the Wild Things Are

One of the most beloved children’s books of all time, pre-kindergarteners will thrill to the adventures of Max in the land of the Wild Things. The book helps children understand their own emotions and the emotions of others while spurring imagination and creativity. Winner of the Caldecott Medal for 1964, Where the Wild Things Are teaches essential lessons about family and the adventurous spirit.

Horton Hears a Who!

For small children, the assertion that a person’s a person, no matter how small, can help build self confidence and bolster self esteem. Horton’s sympathetic personality offers a chance for parents to discuss abstract ideas like friendship, consideration, kindness, and caring for others. Presented in Dr. Seuss’s unique rhyming style, the book is a warm and witty lesson in standing up for one’s friends and oneself.

The Doorbell Rang

A first lesson in math, this is the clever story of one dozen cookies and the guests who show up to share them. Pre-kindergarten children will learn fractional concepts, division, and counting while trying to determine exactly how many cookies each of the guests will receive. The artwork contains many colorful details for children to discover and enjoy while absorbing basic mathematical concepts.

Posted on the Successful Teaching Blog by loonyhiker (successfulteaching at gmail dot com).

Original image: 'New picture books, late October 2007'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13609823@N00/1759076007 by: paula

Office Politics

In Ellen: Overwhelmed from CEC Blog, the author states,

“I’m drained by the politics. Not petty lunchroom stuff, but top-down stuff. I’m frustrated by what I perceive to be a lack of accountability for teachers who aren’t making things work and a lack of support for teachers who are. It’s difficult for me to be an advocate for my students when I feel that my school’s practices are sometimes not in their best interests.”

I hear this so often from many young teachers and it makes me sad. I think this feeling of helplessness causes many new teachers to pack it in too early. This feeling of office politics can be overwhelming and cause new teachers to feel powerless.

I know this is no excuse but over the past thirty years, I have had many different jobs and you will face these office politics, no matter what job you have. It doesn’t matter if you are a salesclerk, or an entertainer, or a construction worker. If you thought teaching was any different, you were wrong. Maybe Surviving Office Politics is a course that we need to teach in Teacher Prep courses because it would be of practical use.

I had one new teacher ask me about how I survived office politics and it made me think of the things I did. Maybe if I share it with you, you will find something you need in order to cope with what is going on around you.

1. Remember not to take the politics personally. I have felt that I was moved to different schools unfairly for different reasons and felt a lot of bitterness and resentment. I had to learn that these changes were not usually against me personally. Later, I learned that the change actually turned out to benefit me and without the change, my growth as a teacher would not have happened.

2. Be willing to stand up for what is right. I needed to think about how my actions would affect me in the long run; the big picture. Was I willing to sacrifice what I’ve accomplished to stand up for my beliefs?

3. Remember that I do not have the big picture. Many times the administration has to make decisions that benefit the school as a whole even though it might not be to my advantage. Sometimes decisions have to be made that affect the most people and not just the ones that I teach.

4. Open the lines of communication with my administration. If I feel that the school practices are not in the best interest of my students, I need to let my administration know how negatively this can affect the school in the future. I need to be loyal to my employer and I can do this by showing how acting in the best interest of my students is in fact what is in the best interest of the school.

5. I need to stop dwelling on the negative politics and letting it become the central focus of my thoughts. As long as I am doing this, there will not be any room for positive thinking which will enable me to cope with the way things are.

6. I need to be able to accept that what I believe in may not be the only way to solve a problem. I need to be open to other suggestions and show a willingness to try other options.

7. If I’m not happy with the way things are, I need to think about ways to change it. Then I need to be willing to approach those in power with my suggestions. If I’m not willing to be part of the solution, I need to stop whining about the way things are.

8. I cannot expect the school to develop a support system for me. I need to do it on my own. I need to make time to do this. I can find colleagues who I work with, either in my own school, or my own district. Or I can find people online for support. I need to actively do this for myself.

9. Remember the ultimate reason I became a teacher – to make a difference in a child’s life. When all else fails, I need to ask myself if I am achieving my goal. If I am, then I know that I’m doing the best I can and that I shouldn’t beat myself over the way things are.

How do you deal with the politics where you are? Do you have any other suggestions with coping with these? Do you disagree with any that I have given? If so, please explain why.

Posted on the Successful Teaching Blog by loonyhiker (successfulteaching at gmail dot com).

Original image: 'That went down well......'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/15868489@N00/828559971 by: Karen Brazier

Craving a Class Pet

After reading Paws Of Fury from It's Not All Flowers and Sausages by Mimi, it brought back memories of my memorable class pet that I just had to share with you.

Keep in mind that I am highly allergic to animals. I cannot be around most animals that have some kind of hair or dander because I turn in to a sniveling, miserable, ugly creature. If rabbits are near me, my eyes swell totally shut and I cannot breathe.

This means that I have to get some kind of class pet that I am not allergic to and doesn’t turn me into the Creature from the Black Lagoon. I have tried a fish tank with fresh water fish and a salt water tank too. The salt water tank cost too much money and the fresh water tank was pretty boring. After that I got a small turtle that I got at the flea market. My students enjoyed that but no one wanted to take care of him during holidays so he was finally given to a friend who had an outside pond.

Finally I decided that I wanted an iguana. They didn’t shed and they looked like they would be a fun pet for the class. I even see comic strip characters with iguanas! After I decided this, I started to make a list of all the items we would need for this class pet. My husband was worried and kept begging me to do more research before I bought anything like this and I promised him that I would.

When I discussed it with my class, one of my students had an iguana that he was willing to give as a class pet during the school year and take home for the summer and holidays. What a perfect arrangement! What more could I ask for?

The day I decide to sit down and do some in depth research, my student, T. decides to bring in his pet for a trial day. I thought it wouldn’t be a problem because I would keep it in my portable for the day and he would pick it up at the end of the day. T. took out the iguana for me to hold and pet and it seemed friendly enough. So, after T. goes to another class, I take out the iguana to hold but it turns out a lot differently. This iguana doesn’t want to be held by me and takes off out of the cage away from me. I prayed that no one would walk into my portable so that he could escape into the wild. Just imagine me chasing it around the room, needing to grab it but afraid of it at the same time. What if it bit me? About 30 minutes later, right before I hyperventilate, I finally get him back in his cage.

With 20 minutes left in my planning period, I get on the internet to do my research. Then I find out how big these guys get and how aggressive they can be towards females during certain times of the month! They get huge and you have to keep buy larger and larger tanks/cages for them. Not only do they become humongous but they live a very long time. Oh my gosh! What was I thinking?!

Needless to say, I had to rethink my plan. No, not rethink, it was more like scrub the mission. There would be no iguana for my class. When I broke the news to my class, no one seemed shocked or disappointed other than me. I wonder if my class was a lot smarter than I was?

So I learned a valuable lesson. I need to discuss things with my class and have them help in the decision making. This would have been a great opportunity for them to practice the decision making process as well as showing knowledge that they have. As I constantly remind myself, the students have a great deal of knowledge that they can give me if I would only take advantage of it.

Have you ever had a class pet? Was it a good experience or a terrible one? Please share so others can learn from you.

Posted on the Successful Teaching Blog by loonyhiker (successfulteaching at gmail dot com).

Original image: 'Steampunk Beholder Miniature robot sculpture - Oxford Steampunk Exhibition'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46859071@N00/3524826318 by: Daniel Proulx

What’s In A Name?

In Who’re you gonna call? The “school librarian” from AASL Blog, it is stated that,

“After a discussion that involved all members of the board, AASL has redefined the term that describes the certified person who runs a school library (or library media center — that term wasn’t addressed) as a “school librarian”. Gone is the term “school library media specialist” which has been our official designation going back to the first Information Power…”

This made me think about my own title. I have been called a teacher, an educator, a special education teacher, an exceptional needs specialist, and an adjunct instructor, among many other things that I can not mention out loud. For me, it doesn’t matter what I’m called but I have always considered myself a teacher. I am proud of that title and I remember when my parents first saw me in this role. It was an eye opener for them because I was no longer just their little girl. It was amazing for them to see me in control of a classroom. It was my shining moment to show my parents that I was now a grown up!

Yet as a teacher, I wanted to be even more. I wanted to be the one to make a difference. I wanted to have an impact in lives that even though they might not remember me, they would remember what I had to teach them. I’m not sure there is even a name for this.

I wanted to be a friend to parents of my students. I had seen some teachers in an adversarial position with parents and that is not what I wanted at all. I wanted to be part of a team and work with parents to help their children succeed. By doing this, I felt it was the only way for a student to really achieve success. Just as in a divorce, if both parents are constantly fighting, it is the child who loses. In a school situation, if the school and the parents are constantly at odds, it is the student who comes out the loser. School should not be all about power struggles.

Then as I think about how adults struggle with their own titles, I think about all the titles that my own students have had to face. My students have been labeled too much in their young lives. They have labeled students with disabilities, or handicaps. For federal funding and statistics, the labels get even more detailed. Among their peers, they are labeled losers, retards, dumbo, etc. and my students have heard it all at a very early age. By their parents or guardians, many of my students have been labeled lazy, dumb, or slow.

I realize that it doesn’t matter what I am called or what my students are called. We need to get beyond the labels. I need to find out exactly what their needs are and leave their labels at the door. My students need to realize that we will never be able to get rid of the labels, but we don’t need to let the focus of our lives revolve around these labels. These labels do not define anyone’s life. It is our actions that do that.

Just as in the library, I will go to the person in charge (whatever their title is) and ask for help because I know that they have more knowledge than I do in the library. They may be able to help find the answers I need.

In the classroom, whatever I am called, I will be there for my students. I will help them find the answers to their questions.

No matter what my students are called, I will encourage their quest for knowledge. I think this quest is something we are all born with and it doesn’t matter what our labels are, this can’t be ignored. This thirst for knowledge can be encouraged and nurtured. I need to put aside any label that I may have associated with this student and delve into the real person to find out what must be done to meet this student’s needs.

If I can do this, my job as a teacher will be successful.

What labels do you have? How does it affect your teaching? How do you cope with this?

Posted on the Successful Teaching Blog by loonyhiker (successfulteaching at gmail dot com).

Original image: 'Monster Stickers to color'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/17587393@N03/2490196390