What do you do in your classroom?

With so many standards we have to implement in our curriculum, I feel like sometimes we can fall into the trap of just teaching. We can forget to make our lessons exciting and hands on. I felt like I started to fall into that trap a little bit and I wanted to really take some time and re-vamp the lessons that I had and make them more intesting to my students.

As a Reading teacher we always talk to the kids about how authors use exciting and bold beginnings to get the readers excited and make them want to keep reading. So I asked myself...what can I do in my classes ( my mini-lessons) to get my kids excited and engaged so that they want to keep going with the lesson?

I have had some exciting lessons that get the kids excited and I wanted to know.....What have you done in your class that you are proud of? What got your kids excited and "pulled" into the lesson??

People Who Made a Difference in Your Community

I co-teach with 7th grade Language Arts. We are doing a research paper on someone who has made a difference and has also overcome obstacles. As I start to brainstorm a list of people who have made a difference in the world and in recent and past history, I start to wonder about the people who have made a difference in one's own community. I am wondering if people have done projects to involve local people--student who have interviewed people in their family or their community who they respect and admire, and have shown how those local people have made a difference.
A friend of mine who teaches in Robbinsdale district does a project every year and they bring people in from the community to be honored. I am curious about any school projects people have done (on any grade level) to honor local heroes and sheroes. World War II vets? Vietnam or any more recent war vets? People who have helped any poor or underpriveleged people? I would love to know!

Connections between Subject Areas

I love when I am able to address other subject areas when I am teaching. Not only does comparing and contrasting material from different subjects enhance student understanding, but I feel that it also pulls kids who don't normally connect to English into the subject. Today in class we were watching a movie on Cesar Chavez. In the movie it talks about non-violent protestors like Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr. As they will be talking about Nelson Mandela and aparteid in social studies, we also addressed that topic during the movie. Now I have helped build background for that subject area, which makes me very excited.

In Honors English we are reading a novel on Japanese Internment during WWII, which fits perfectly with Social Studies as they just read a book about concentration camps. Students use their knowledge of WWII to make deeper connections to the novel, which is obviously what I want.

Social Studies feels like it naturally connects to English, but I am surprised as to how often I am able to connect Science as well. We study morphemes, which always lends itself to science terms, as many Science terms can be broken down into morphemes. For example, biology (bio-life; ology - study of). As we read biographies about adventurers and expeditions, I find it easy to relate concepts addressed in science in English.

The reason I write all this is that our focus this year at the middle school is incorporating Math into our curriculum. This is more challenging for me as a teacher. I am so used to incorporating Social Studies because it fits well and Science because it is a passion of mine outside of class. When I incorporate math into English it feels very forced right now. But I am hopeful that this feeling will subside as I try to incorporate math or math concepts more directly in my lessons.

What types of activities do you do that crosses subject areas? Do you like incorporating other subjects or does it feel overwhelming with all of the standards you have to accomplish for your own subject area? How is incorporating math going for you?

Rewrites and Revision

In 7th grade English we always allow students to rewrite their essays for full credit. I like this philosophy because it emphasizes the need to revise and redraft your work. In English it always seems like we are squeezing revision and editing into very few days because units typically take longer than they are planned to take. This requires that we be very purposeful about teaching kids to review their work before they turn it in. I know that this is important in other subjects than English. Science teachers want lab reports to make sense, Social Studies teachers want posters to be clear and neat, and in math students always seem to score better when they put the number back in the equation and check their work. But how do you encourage your students to do this? We use a SCOPE protocol and allow rewrites. What works in your subject to encourage your students to be thoughtful and do their best work?

Favorite Websites

Hi,

I use the Internet often when planning for speech language sessions with my students. I guess you could call me a Google fanatic. I can't imagine not having all this information at our fingertips as was the case for educators not long ago. When working with students on language targets such as idioms, cause and effect, verbs, etc. or when working with students on articulation, I have found I can usually search Quia and find online educational games/activities. I do not have a Smart board in my room, but I think some of the Quia activities would be great with a Smart board. Have you found a website that you are glad you stumbled upon and use it frequently in your teaching?

Making Development Day Count

Hi,

I was thinking about the development day coming up on Monday. So often I feel that we see this day as a time when we could be doing one hundred other things, but instead we have to sit through meetings and training. As a part of the VT for the 6-12 English, I am excited that it seems we will be doing activities that directly relate to what is happening in our PLC. Yet I still fear that people will come in with a "this will be a waste of time" attitude. I was wondering what you do to make development day a positive, learning experience for you. Do you think there is more that our leaders of meetings could do to make the experience more helpful?

The wonders of coaching sessions

Hi,

I finally have started my coaching sessions that are required as a phase two teacher, and I must say I am quite pleased. I met to discuss two things: my work as a leader of our PLC and classroom management in one of my hours. It was wonderful to be able to talk through how I could be a stronger leader with someone who had no opinions about the PLC itself. I was looking for a way to achieve more cohesion in the PLC, and I ended up coming up with ideas myself. I think that was the best part of the coaching. She just repeated back what I had said to her, encouraged me, or asked questions. This made the thinking easier and clearer because it was really like having a conversation with myself.

As far as the classroom management, it was nice to hear that my plans were not off track. It was nice to hear that I should be doing what I had planned on initiating in the classroom.

Needless to say , I am looking forward to my next coaching session. It is a level of support that was helpful and decreased my stress. I'd love to hear how other people's coaching sessions have gone. Have they been helpful?

5 things you are thankful for

Thanks so much for the comments about taking care of ourselves! I thought I would leave a post about something I heard about on a TV show. If you write down 5 things you are thankful for every morning, it can start to change the chemistry of your brain! I heard this on a public television show about brain information! He said that it is the one thing that seemed to be effective for everybody. Some of his depressed patients actually got over this depression by doing this exercise. I think it just keeps reality in check! And doing things for others can be a good way of feeling good about yourself!

After Break: Staying happy and healthy

I've been trying to focus on staying relaxed and taking things in stride today--the first day back after break. In fact, I made sure NOT to schedule big home projects to do over break, so that I had a chance to relax. I am wondering how people take care of themselves? I was taking yoga classes and going to the gym over break. I also made a point to connect with friends that I hadn't seen for a while. I can feel that the healing/resting time over break did me wonders. I feel that today I am much more patient, more joking, more "loose" with the students than I was before break. Why not post some things we do to keep happy and healthy? What are our new year's resolutions for ourselves--not focusing on our classrooms, but on ourselves? It was really hitting me over break that if we focus on our own health, the rest will follow.
What do you think??