Useful Information In and Out of the Classroom 4/30/10

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!

What2Learn - the award-winning games-based learning website. The fun, FREE and effective way to learn. Play 25,000 learning games, tests and quizzes or make your own

Freeology – free printable forms for teachers

EdCrowd – a network for teachers; “We are a community of teachers passionate about using the power of the crowd to find the best answers to our questions and passing on that wisdom to our students.”

8 Wonders of the Solar System – “What might future explorers of the solar system see? Find out by taking an interactive tour through the eyes of Hugo Award-winning artist Ron Miller”

Map A List - turns Google Spreadsheet information into Google Maps placemarks.

Original image: Tools by Pat Hensley

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

That Kid Could Be The Great Kid

In What About the Great Kid? from PrincipalsPage The Blog by Michael Smith, he states,

“Every teacher has a That Kid.

They also have at least one Great Kid.  Most have more than one Great Kid.”

Over the years, I admit that I have had That Kid many times in my classroom. Yes, I have even had one Great Kid in each class. But sometimes That Kid becomes the Great Kid during the year and sometimes the Great Kid becomes That Kid during the year.

One time I had That Kid who totally drove me crazy. He did everything he could to get attention and was quite happy with getting negative attention. Of course, I fell into the trap and gave him lots of negative attention. In fact, the other students jumped on the bandwagon and supported me by giving him negative attention too. Before a meeting with the parents, I kept a tally sheet of how often he interrupted the class each day for a week. He was disrupting the class 85 -95% of the time. The parents were horrified and I was frustrated. Finally I decided that something had to give. I had to change my own behavior.

I decided to work harder to find out what was the cause of his misbehavior. Once I took the time to really investigate and see this student as a person rather than That Kid, things fell into place. I began to look for ways to make him more successful. I gave him lots of positive attention, sent notes home, called the parents often and slowly his behavior began to change. Within months, the student was only disrupting the class about 10% of the time and by the end of the year, he was so engaged in lessons that he was not disrupting the class at all. By then, he had ceased to be That Kid and became the Great Kid.

On the other hand, I had a Great Kid. This student was well behaved and obviously a teacher pleaser. Whenever I assigned homework, she had it ready to turn in the next day. She never disrupted class and seemed like the perfect child. In fact, I would picture her as the one who would most succeed. Then I began to see that she instigated a lot of problems in class. It was really hard to catch her but she usually stirred up trouble between two other students. Innocently, she would tell one that the other one said something. This caused lots of conflict and drama in my class and no one ever pointed the finger at her. Before long, everyone in the class was mad at each other. This Great Kid was very smart but very sneaky. It took months before we could put two and two together and see who the culprit was. By the end of the year, the Great Kid had become That Kid.

Then Mr. Smith writes,

“As we head towards the end of the school year, as difficult as it is with our patience waning, we should all try to focus on the Great Kids.

Because there are far more Great Kids than there are That Kid.”

I have to disagree with this because I feel that I should focus on all of my kids as if they are all Great Kids. If I only focus on the Great Kids, then I am giving up on That Kid. By doing that, I will feel like I am a failure. It is my job to not give up because I am being a role model for my students. If I give up when times get tough, then what message am I sending to them? Don’t all of my students deserve all that I can give them? Don’t all of them deserve the same focus? I’m not saying that I want to always give all of them the same focus but I should.

What if there are far more That Kids than Great Kids? What if I have a chance to turn more of them around?

Maybe there are more That Kids that become Great Kids because I hung in there with them. I let them know that I could be like others and only focus on the Great Kids but I won’t. I value them as much as anyone. It might take this faith to help turn them around.

What do you think? Do you have this happen in your class? How do you handle it?

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

Original image: 'Cool & The Gang'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/90667736@N00/897888764 by: Michelle Brea

Suits or No Suits

After reading Ellen: Dressing for Success from CEC Blog, where the author asks,

“For how many of you readers is a suit the be-all and end-all of interview attire?”

I couldn’t resist answering the question.

When I went to interview for my first teaching job, I bought a nice skirt suit. It was my very first suit and it made me feel professional and confident. Then next 4 times over my career that I went for an interview, I wore an outfit that made me feel slender, confident, and professional but it wasn’t a suit. After all of my interviews I had been offered the job.

I feel it is important to look neat, comfortable and professional. That is more important than whether it is a suit or not. First impressions can say a lot about a person. Sometimes this is more important than what you say.

I am not impressed if someone doesn’t take the effort to dress with care as if this interview is not important to them. That careless attitude reflects on the type of job they might do. Even if they are a great teacher, if they don’t care enough to dress professionally, then it will be hard for me to focus on what they actually can do.

I have interviewed some teachers that wore a suit and were so uncomfortable in their outfits that it brought attention to it. This distracted me from the interview process and probably hurt their chances because they didn’t act in a confident manner. In fact, it seemed as if they were just pretending by wearing an outfit that they weren’t used to wearing. If they are pretending about their clothes, what else are they pretending to be? I would rather a candidate wear something professional and comfortable than just worrying about whether it is a suit or not.

If you are determined to wear a new suit to an interview, I suggest getting used to it like you would a new pair of shoes. Wear it to a few events where it won’t matter if at first you seem uncomfortable. The more you wear it, the more accustomed you will be in your outfit. When I buy a new pair of hiking boots, I may wear them for a day or two around the house so my feet get comfortable wearing them. The same should apply to a suit. If you are comfortable in your outfit, you can emphasize your strengths without worrying about how you look.

Even though your outfit should not be the most important aspect, it is the thing that gets your “foot in the door.” Unfortunately if you aren’t dressed appropriately, most interviewers will write you off. Sure, they might let you have your say but during the interview they might not give you the attention you deserve. I’m not saying that is right but it is human nature. So, whether you wear a suit or not, it is how you present yourself that is most important. It is this attitude that will help you be more successful.

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree with this?

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

Original image: 'untitled'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13661433@N00/145402545 by: Faramarz Hashemi

Natural Consequences

In Jennifer: Taking Time to Make Mistakes from CEC Blog, the author writes,

"I am currently taking courses to complete a second credential, and last week one of my classmates shared a story that inadvertently helped me put my whole “rushing” problem into perspective. She told about a time when she and her master teacher watched a little girl drop her cookie in the dirt during lunch. The student came over and asked if she could go wash it off. My classmate almost said “no” and for her to get her back to her seat, but the master teacher stopped her and told the little girl to go ahead.

When the little girl returned to her seat, she didn’t have the cookie with her. When asked what happened, she said that she couldn’t eat the cookie because when she washed it, it broke. The master teacher explained that because the student was given time to learn this lesson on her own, it will mean more to her than if they had just told her what would happen and sent her back to her seat to finish her lunch.”

This was something really hard for me to learn. It was hard for me to let my students do this as well as my own children. Over time I could hear myself nagging at children to do what I wanted them to do. Too many times I would harp on certain behaviors that I would want them to exhibit. Yet, I really didn’t get far with this. As I’ve mentioned before, I could not change their behavior until I had changed my own.

I need to let them face the natural consequences in order for them to internalize the learned behavior. Yet, I don’t want them to face failure or get discouraged so where do I draw the line? Isn’t my job supposed to be to help them be successful? And if I let them face natural consequences, am I falling down on my job?

The more I think about this, the more I see that I need to let them face natural consequences in order to help them be successful. I am not falling down on my job if I step back and see what happens. Of course I don’t mean allowing anything to happen that might be dangerous to them. I’m talking about the natural learning process.

I learned that if you are always bailing them out, they never really learn the lesson that is important for success. The lesson they learn is that you will be there to bail them out. I needed to stop covering for them when they dealt with general education teachers. In fact, this caused lots of resentment from the general education teachers and didn’t help my relationship with them. Instead I needed to see what the problem was and work with the general education teacher to find a way for the student to suffer natural consequences and still not did a hole to deep that there was no way out. Sometimes when teachers work together, it is easier to find a solution for this.

Sometimes a student needs to see that they will really receive a failing grade if they don’t do the work. I can still be there for them and help them see how this is a consequence of their actions. In fact, I can help them see that they can change their behavior in order to avoid this consequence. I can still be there as an encourager without being an enabler.

What are some ways that you let your students suffer natural consequences and still keep them from giving up? Please share with me!

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

Original image: 'Crazy Humans!'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8628862@N05/3000241819 by: John

Answering Someone’s Prayer

I have thought long and hard about telling this story because at first I felt angry and then embarrassed at our carelessness. Yet the more I thought about what happened, the more I think that maybe we were an answer to someone’s prayer and that miracles do happen. Sometimes they happen to me and sometimes I am instrument in someone else’s miracle.

We recently went on a cruise and one of the benefits we have for cruising so much is that they do our laundry for free. I decided to gather our clothes and turn them in to the cabin steward the next day for laundry service. Everything was put in the paper bag including my hubby’s swim trunks. I didn’t know until later that he had left a $100 bill in the zipper pocket. He likes to hide one in his pocket in case of an emergency when we are on the islands. Later he told me that he had left it in the pocket and when we got our clothes back, the money was gone. It could not have fallen out because someone had to unzip the pocket in order to get to it.

At first I was angry. I was angry that someone stole the money. I was angry at my husband for not checking his pockets before giving it to me. I was angry at myself for not checking all of the pockets before putting the clothes in the bag. Then I was embarrassed at our carelessness because it was our own fault and no one else’s fault. No, we didn’t tell anyone because it was useless to accuse anyone and would only create a fuss that couldn’t be resolved.

Then I began to think about the whole situation. What if we were an answer to someone’s prayer? What if someone was desperate for the money and prayed that a miracle would happen? What if that money was their miracle? We don’t have a lot of money but that much would not crimp our vacation. If it happened to some young newlywed couple (I remember those days of having very little money), this loss could be devastating and ruin their honeymoon. Maybe an older couple would have been deeply upset too because they are only living on their social security and they had saved up for this trip for a long time. Maybe in order to answer someone’s prayer and help them during this desperate time, we were meant to leave that money in that pocket. It is highly unusual that my hubby leaves money in his pockets and it is extremely rare that I don’t check all of the pockets. Yet on this particular day both of us did the unexpected. I like to think that maybe someone really needed that more than we did.

It gives me peace to think that maybe it wasn’t a calamity for us and that someone is out there giving thanks for this miracle that happened to them. And if we weren’t an answer to someone’s prayers, that’s okay too because God knows and that is all that counts.

Maybe your actions today may be the answers to someone’s prayers and you may never know about it. Have a great day!

(crossposted on the Life of Loonyhiker)

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

Original image: 'esperança - hope'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/64858114@N00/252434214 by: Alexandre Eggert