Tips for those of you getting ready to try #homeschooling

While we wait to see what the rest of this school year will look like, I have some ideas and tips for parents home with their kids. As long as schools are closed due to COVID-19, learning will look and feel different for everyone. We don't yet know the full extent of what it will look like but it seems safe to assume you and the kids will be doing some learning from home. Here are some tips from me:

1. Your kids are not your students
If you are a teacher, don't think teaching your kids will be easy. I have a 20 year old and a 17 year old at home and they don't listen to my tutoring, training, educating, ideas, or suggestions even though they KNOW I am a teacher! It is a different dynamic, so recognize that and don't push too hard. I do find incentives work. Also, turning off their wi-fi until they do something they are told (works for chores too fyi!) If you are not a teacher, well, don't think it is because you don't know what is going on that it is hard - it is hard for everyone anyways!

2. Mental Health is more important than academics right now. 
The world is full of uncertainty right now. It is a lot to manage emotionally for adults, I can't imagine how kids are handling it all. So, chunk your learning, be compassionate, understanding, empathetic and prioritize family time and doing things that bring joy. Regular breaks, hugs, and choices will help.

3. Schedules 
If you are working from home keep a schedule and routine for you and the kids. Don't try to multi-task your personal, professional and now "teacher" roles. It will not be beneficial for anyone. Try, for example, an hour of reading for the kids while you are doing work. Break time for everyone, healthy snacks or talk time. Remember you can't do it all and everyone is experiencing big changes so don't be too hard on yourself.

4. Academics: Reading
What matters most? Well I mentioned mental health and I still stand by that, but as far as academics, reading is absolutely the best thing to do every single day. After, kids can write or draw or talk about what is happening. The characters, the plot, the setting, the problem or conflict and how it is resolved. Just the act of reading then being able to share what they read is a great skill to develop at any age. Reading  and retelling along with Writing will help keep their minds fresh. 

5. Academics: Writing
in a journal is a great ideas to keep them writing but also for their mental health to be able to share not just what is happening but how they feel about it. Further, it is something to keep for the future to review. This is an unprecedented time and and their journals will be worth looking back on when this all ends and even sharing with their kids one day.

6. Academics: Math
Okay... besides worksheets, which may or may not go over well with your child, there are so many ways to practice math in real life. Baking, for example, measuring ingredients out is a great idea. What about going through a grocery flyer or website and making a grocery list and costing it out? Add it up. Older kids can include taxes too. Plan a vacation for when this is all over and cost out flights, hotels, activities. Younger kids can draw, cut or chalk shapes. There are tons of ways to practice math without worksheets. And don't even get me started on math GAMES! Dice, cards, so many fun options. Literally, google math games, or math card games and you will be impressed at the options!

7. Work Space
Finally, if they have specific activities or work to do for their teachers, set up a space to do it in that has no distractions and is comfortable and quiet for them to focus. Check in - offer support - don't do it for them - focus on positive praise - have breaks - and keep a schedule. It is different than school. You are not their teacher. Their friends are not there. The space is not their classroom. Be flexible. Communicate with the teacher. 


I will look to post more specific activities and such in upcoming days for those who are interested.

Good Luck!!!

Conquering the Wiggle Fidgets: 7 Inspiring Books for ADHD Kids and Their Parents by Marilyn Wedge, Ph.D.

Original Source
Read More Here  on the summaries of each book as well as some books for parents too!

Conquering the Wiggle Fidgets: 
7 Inspiring Books for ADHD Kids and Their Parents

by Marilyn Wedge, Ph.D.

Mrs. Gorski, I Think I Have the Wiggle Fidgets

by Barbara Esham, illustrated by Mike Gordon and Carl Gordon

This Morning Sam Went to Mars: A Book About Paying Attention

by Nancy Carlson

Last to Finish: A Story About the Smartest Boy in Math Class

by Barbara Esham, illustrated by Mike Gordon and Carol Gordon

Good Morning Yoga: A Pose-by-Pose Wake Up Story and Good Night Yoga: A Pose-by-Pose Bedtime Story

by Mariam Gates, illustrated by Sarah Jane Hinder

Read More Here  on the summaries of each book as well as some books for parents too!

11 Questions that will make your child happier

I love these as a mom and a teacher they are great reminders on how to frame questions and conversations with children. These were taken from this article.

1. What was your favorite part of today?

This is a good question to ask at bedtime, to help your child feel content and happy before sleep. It also instills a habit of focusing on the best thing that happened in any given day rather than the worst. If you make this part of your bedtime routine, it will become second nature.

2. What are you grateful for?

This is a good question for the dinner table. Every family member can take a turn saying what he or she is grateful for that day. There is a strong correlation betweenhappiness and gratitude, so this one is very powerful.

3. What are you going to do about that?

When a child comes to you with a problem, ask this question in a warm and curious tone. Don't just jump in and solve their problem; how does that help them in the long run? At least give them a chance to work it out on their own, and give them the gift of your confidence in them, which is evident by this question that implies that they can think of solutions to their own issues. If your child says "I don't know," you can say, "I am not sure either, let's try to figure it out together." Happy people are people who think of problems as surmountable, and think of themselves as effective problem solvers.

4. How did that make you feel?

At the risk of sounding shrink-y, an essential part of happiness is being able to notice and express your own emotions. If you can verbalize what you're feeling, you can make sense of it, you can process it, and you can obtain support from others. This is a great question to ask when your child comes to you with something "bad" that happened, instead of either dismissing it ("that wasn't that bad") or fixing it ("let mommy get you some ice!"). It trains your child to be aware of his feelings, and to use that information effectively.

5. What do you think he/she feels?

In any situation, you can cultivate empathy by asking your child to wonder about what someone else feels. Empathy will make your child a happier person; he or she will have stronger interpersonal relationships, feel better about himself for thinking of (and then, often, helping) others, and derive more meaning from life.

6.  How can we look on the bright side?

In any situation, you can teach your child that there are positives. With preteens or teenagers, this question may be way too corny, but little kids will like it. You can also teach them the expression "making lemonade out of a lemon" and ask them how you can make lemonade out of a bad situation, like, "You fell and hurt yourself, so that's a lemon, but you got a Tinkerbell bandaid, and that's lemonade! Now you tell Mommy one."

7. What part of that can we learn more about?

In any TV show, book, trip outside the house, basically any situation at all, there is something to learn more about. And look at you, Super Parent, you already have your smartphone at the ready!  So this time use it for teaching your child that life is full of learning opportunities.  Happy people are people who are curious and always learning.  So when you watch TV and someone says "Bonjour," you can look up pictures of France or a YouTube song sung in French. When your child realizes that this question means that you're going to whip out your phone and show them something new and special, they will ask it to you all the time. And that's how you end up looking at pictures of real estate in Nebraska with your 4-year-old. Don't ask.

8. What do you want to do on the weekend?

Research shows that anticipation of positive experiences brings more happiness than the experiences themselves. Once your child is old enough to realize that tomorrow is not today, start instilling a habit of positive anticipation of small pleasures. A child who is excited all week to get frozen yogurt on the weekend is a happy child, just as an adult who plans a vacation six months in advance is happier during those six months.

9. What can we do to help/to make someone happy?

Bringing your child along to visit a sick relative, or someone recovering from surgery, or to volunteer at a soup kitchen is a wonderful gift that you can give to your child. Your child will feel even more proud of his behavior if he is the one to think up the nice thing that can be done (e.g., baking cookies to deliver, drawing a card). Research shows that giving even releases oxytocin and endorphins, so it's like a high that your child can become addicted to. Also, involve your child in your charitable activities, as giving charity is a form of altruism that is also linked directly to happiness (and just to being a good person, which you also want for your child).

Incorporate a spirit of generosity into your child's daily life. Whenever you're out, buy something little for someone else.  When you color, make a picture for someone else. Giving things to others makes people happier than buying things for themselves, and enriches interpersonal relationships.

10. What do you want to do outside today?

Getting outside and engaging in physical activities alongside your child is a wonderful way to get him or her in the habit of not just sitting around. Exercise releases endorphins and is as effective at treating depression as SSRI's. And the most powerful way that you can teach your child about exercise is to do it yourself. Children whose mothers exercise are more likely to exercise themselves. And sunlight can also help boost mood and regulate circadian rhythms, which means better sleep for your kids, which makes everyone happier.

11. When do you feel happiest?

If you direct your children's attention to the experiences that they most enjoy, they will start to realize that they can choose to proactively increase their time spent in activities that make them feel best about themselves.  According to researcher Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, "flow" is the state where people find an activity so enjoyable and rewarding that they become completely immersed in it, losing all sense of time and feeling completely in the moment. If your child is lucky enough to have found an activity that makes him feel a sense of "flow," it is helpful for you to point this out and allow your child enough time to attain this state. Note: for many kids this is video gaming, which is actually fine, since a great deal of research points to many psychological benefits of gaming (and anecdotally, I know many people who met their spouses while gaming, and gaming actually brings spouses closer if both participate!). The best case scenario is for your child to find a career that puts him into "flow," since then, as the saying goes, he will never "work" a day in his life.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/samantha-rodman-phd/11-questions-that-will-make-your-child-happier_b_6401788.html

Excellent Letter from a 'very very annoyed parent'

From Kristina Barnett Lee

The Honorable Peter Fassbender, Min Ed
The Honorable Christy Clark, Premier
Mr Douglas Horne, MLA Coquitlam-Burke Mountain

Dear Sirs and Madam,

I write today to convey my extreme disgust with the manner in which the education system is being treated by your government. The conduct you have displayed with regards to the future of our children’s education is reprehensible. You claim to put “Families First” and to hold the needs of the children above all else, and yet there are children in our system who have challenges and special needs who are being lost because you won’t fund the help that they so desperately need. Your condescension toward teachers is easily traceable back to 2002 when, as Education Minister, Premier Clark removed the teacher’s right to bargain about learning and working conditions by enacting Bills 27 and 28 - action which has since been deemed by the Supreme Court of BC to have been a violation of Charter rights. Undaunted by the illegality of your position, your government enacted Bill 22, once again removing class composition, amongst other things, as an issue about which teachers have any say. Your government is clearly hoping that we are stupid enough to have forgotten that only 3 months ago Madam Justice Susan Griffin ruled that Bill 22 was also unconstitutional, found you guilty of bargaining in bad faith, and accused you of attempting to provoke a strike for political gain. Clearly the children are merely pawns in your political game of chess, and I am nauseated by the cynicism and Machiavellian ideals permeating your caucus.

When a government requires a School District to submit a balanced budget, but makes no budgetary allowance for increases in fuel costs, electricity costs, or tax increases, that government knows that the only way the District can possibly submit a balanced budget is by making cuts to our children’s education services.
When a government announces new schools, but does not actually provide capital funding or build them, resulting in the school district having to use millions of dollars from their operating budget to purchase, maintain, and service portable classrooms, that government knows that the only way the District can possibly submit a balanced budget is by making cuts to our children’s education services.
When a government knows that enrolment is declining, funds schools on a “per student” basis, and it costs virtually the same amount in fuel, electricity, and staffing to have 480 kids in a school vs 500 kids in a school, that government knows that the only way the District can possibly submit a balanced budget is by making cuts to our children’s education services.
When a government abruptly changes policy for funding of school seismic upgrading and announces that School Districts will have to pay for up to half the costs of putting our children in safe structures, that government knows that the only way the District can possibly submit a balanced budget is by making cuts to our children’s education services.

Your government would have us believe that teachers are demanding too high of a wage increase, and yet in the past dozen years teachers saw a 7.5% increase from their 2002 contract, a 0% increase from their 2005 contract, and a 16% increase from their 2006 contract. In those same dozen years, the benchmark price of real estate has increased 100-200% (depending on the region), BCHydro rates have increased by 40% (from an average of $70/mo to an average of $98/mo, after correction for inflation), gasoline prices have increased by 80-100% (from fluctuating around $0.70-0.80/L to fluctuating around $1.35-1.50/L), and the cost of feeding a family of 4 in BC has gone up 38.7% (from $626 to $868 per month). Clearly the increases in a teacher’s pay are not keeping up with the increases in the cost of living.

The BCPSEA and BCTF have failed to reach an agreement (which is hardly a surprise considering that Carole Taylor’s 2006 deal has been the only freely negotiated contract that the two sides have reached in the 27 years since Mr VanderZalm’s SoCreds gave teachers the right to strike) and so the teachers have escalated their action to a rotating strike. The lockout notice that the government has countered with is shocking and its logical underpinnings are convoluted, to say the least. While maintaining that children should not be put in the middle, the government has done exactly that by ensuring that teachers can not provide before- or after-school preparation or assistance to children. This does nothing BUT penalize the children, and once again lays bare the viciousness of this government’s intention to provoke action by the teachers for it’s own political gain - leaving our children as collateral damage along the way.

Your government claims that LNG industry development will “build a prosperous economic future for British Columbia”. I disagree. What will build a prosperous economic future for British Columbia is adequate funding for the education of our future generation. Provide us with education for all children, instead of having so many kids in a class that the teacher can’t properly assess and supervise everyone. Provide specialist teachers and education assistants for kids with special needs, so that they can learn and progress with their peers, rather than disengaging and becoming lost. Provide School Districts with budget increases to cover utility rate increases, so that our children won’t suffer because the District has to pay BC Hydro and Fortis an extra $625,000. Currently, between not negotiating in good faith, and not providing the School Districts with an adequate annual budget, you are failing us; you are failing our children.

A few weeks ago when the Coquitlam Board of Education was having its last few public meetings before finalizing what cuts to make, my children became aware that their library was in jeopardy. My seven-year-old summed it up with “Mum, you said that you pay taxes so that the government gives us hospitals and schools to help us learn, but how can we learn without books and a LIBRARY? The government doesn’t care about us; the government is an asshole” And while I chastised him for using an inappropriate word, I cannot disagree with his opinion or fail to marvel at how astutely a child can assess a complicated situation and distill it down to its core.

Kristina Lee, Coquitlam
Post Script:
I am not a teacher. I am not married to a teacher. My parents were not teachers. I have no direct financial interest in this dispute other than being a very, very annoyed parent.

Sources
Vancouver Sun
The Province
www.dieticians.ca
vreaa.wordpress.com
newsroomgov.bc.ca
business.financialpost.com
www.rbc.com
British Columbia’s Liquified Natural Gas Strategy One year update , gov.ca.ca
cbc.ca
sd43.bc.ca/budget

7 tips for struggling readers

3 kinds of readers:

• Those who are good at reading and love to read.
• Those who are good at reading, but yet “don’t like” to read.
• Those who struggle with reading and do not like to read.

1)  Those who love to read.

Your biggest problem is going to be staying current with the newest books.  These kids know what’s new and they want to be reading it. 

2) Those who are good at reading but “don’t like” it. 

This is the type of student that will read if they have the right material.  Pay attention to what they read and what books/magazine that they talk about.  Non-fiction: informational books, biographies, how-to books or stories that are short. Also, Magazines, Comics, high interest reading appeals to these types of readers.

3) Those who struggle with reading and  do not like to read… mainly because it’s hard for them. 
Most of us don’t enjoy doing something that is hard for us.

You know reading is important, but this child just doesn't want to read! Here are 7 tips to help...

7 Tips to help your struggling reader

1)  Set aside time to read at least 4-5 times a week.  Yes…this will be a struggle since they’re going to buck you. Be consistent… this should be a non-negotiable.  These are the types of kids to set page goals with, not minutes.  They will know every trick in the book to waste time.  By setting a page goal of say… 5-10 pages per day, this gives them some power.  When the pages are read, they are done for the day.

2)  Use incentives such as…

• Trade time for something they love to do… certain number of pages read translate into minutes to spend watching TV or playing video games.

• Or so many books read= a trip to the swimming pool or a park.

• Or just down and out bribe them…(yes I went there…) Try a buck a book (with guidelines).  Some times, desperate times call for desperate measures.

3) Read WITH your child…they read a page, you read a page.  

4) Have “reading parties” where every one brings a book and snuggles in a spot to read their book.  Sometimes just snuggling in next to mom or dad is enough motivation to read for a while.

5) If your struggling reader has a younger brother or sister, you have just scored big time! Get them to read to their younger sibling(s).

Have them read a picture book.  This means the stories are usually shorter (and less intimidating) and probably at a lower reading level (which will make them feel successful when they read it).  They get practice reading and the younger sibling gets the benefit of being read to… also very important!

6) Make sure your struggling reader is reading books that are interesting to them.  Kids will read “above their reading level” if they find the book interesting.  But also keep in mind not all of their choices will be high quality literature. At this point, the goal is to get them reading… and the best way to do that is make sure they are interested in what they read.

7) If the book your kid is reading (and enjoying) is part of a series, try sticking to the series.  A series gives your reader the same format, the same characters, and often the same setting for several books.  These familiar things will help them understand the story more quickly.

Read more at source

Mom's letter regarding Math Test

Check out what this mom wrote on her kid's math test! 
Source: http://owl.li/uQYh0

CBC News: Teacher Stress is Killing my Profession

Enjoyed this article about teacher stress and the changing world of teaching. It was posted in 2009 but just came up on my facebook feed recently. While I agree with some of the statements, I wonder about the long term impact of this systemic change to our profession.

he reality of every teacher trying to make even a modest go at this profession is a life of almost constant stress, overwork and, at times, emotional exhaustion.

Anyone who enters the teaching profession thinking otherwise is in for a rude awakening. 

So why am I griping? I chose this profession and I enjoy what I do. 

Well, it is because a storm of new and increasingly unrealistic demands, coupled with a noticeable decline in support from many principals and parents, is contributing to a growing incidence of illness among teachers, including mental illness due to work-related stress. 

I should note that teaching has not broken me. But it has broken the sanity and soul of some very motivated teachers I know. 

Burn-out profession? A Saskatchewan study says almost 60 per cent of teachers face job stress. (Associated Press file photo)

"I think that the whole idea of teaching has changed in the last 15 to 20 years," says Emily Noble, past-president of the Canadian Teachers' Federation. 

"People are dealing with more high-need students, with more multicultural issues and with no-fail policies.

"Teachers want to make a difference, but the supports are just not there."

The best are falling

Add to this the largely undocumented group of what I call the walking wounded, those teachers whose energy levels have been sapped so much by all the new administrative demands that they have little left over to give directly to their students.

I have occasionally heard it said that these increasing demands and stresses are a positive development because they will weed out those whose commitment to the profession may be problematic.

But in my experience, it has been the most highly motivated and committed teachers who undergo the most stress and who break down simply because they truly care for their students and, against the odds, try to deliver.

Mediocre teachers, it seems, have less of a problem in detaching their personal well-being from that of their students. And that is not just my view.

"Burnout is more common in the young, highly motivated, energetic, hard-working teacher," says Prof. Martin. "The people who burn out are the people who pour everything into it without balance." 

Read the entire article here 

5 Apps for connecting with Parents

I previously shared '5 apps that really engage parents' but with school underway, I wanted to re-share these ideas for teacher's in classrooms that have to start thinking about Meet the Teacher night and parent teacher interviews also.

1. Skype: Skype for computer, smart phones and tablets lets parents join in classroom events like story time and special presentations without having to be physically present. Even military parents overseas and grandparents who live far away are taking advantage of the Skype platform to read to students and participate in celebrations. Creative teachers ask students to find the parent’s/grandparent’s location on a map and ask a few questions to learn about the local geography, landmarks and culture. Skype can also be helpful as a way for working parents to attend parent-teacher conferences.
2. Twitter: Whether it is class homework updates, project deadlines, school news or dinnertime conversation starters, teachers are taking advantage of Twitter’s free tool and keeping parents up to date and involved in classroom happenings. In a day-in-age where most parents have cell phones, Fast Follow by Twitter becomes a simple and reliable alert system. To use it, all you need to do is setup a Twitter account and ask parents (and older students) to text Twitter’s shortcode of 40404 with the message “follow [your Twitter username].” From there, parents will start receiving all of your updates via text message in real-time.
3. VolunteerSpot: Get more parents involved in the classroom by streamlining how you ask for help and making it easier for parents to sign up to help. VolunteerSpot replaces paper signup sheets, reply-all email chains and backpack Pony Express. Simple online signups from smartphones, tablets or computers make it easy for class parents to choose a spot that fits their schedule or to send food or supplies for special events; auto reminders and calendar syncing help parents keep their commitments. Quickly organize parents to read to the class, help in the lunchroom or at recess, attend parent-teacher conferences, and help with class parties, field trips and performances.
4. Pinterest: A virtual vision board for classroom inspiration, Pinterest offers a great way for teachers and parents to build community and share ideas. Invite class parents to create and share pinboards with links to age-appropriate themes and ideas including educational boards like fun math apps, favorite books, vocabulary games, and science fair ideas – student-centric boards like recess games, scholarships and prom fashions – and boards geared towards parents such as healthy snack and lunch ideas, afterschool sports resources, and class party ideas.
5. Edublogs: A free, safe blogging platform for teachers, students and school communities, Edublogs lets you easily create and manage student and classroom blogs that keep parents up-to-date on class happenings and give students a safe portfolio for sharing their work with parents and extended family (via password-protected blogs). Post a few times a week adding videos, photos, links to volunteer signup sheets and educational resources – parents will enjoy your current content and feel more informed and connected to the classroom.

Source: http://www.weareteachers.com/community/blogs/weareteachersblog/blog-wat/2013/05/30/5-apps-that-engage-parents-in-the-classroom

Tech Tuesday: Remind 101

I have blogged about Remind 101 before as a great took to stay n touch with parents and student regarding everything from homework to fieldtrips.


What I like about this post from http://www.twoguysandsomeipads.com is the screen shots and descriptions from the program....

 

Remind 101 is an tool that allows you to text your students or stay in touch with parents in a secure and safe way. Teachers never see student or parent phone numbers, and they will never see the teacher's phone number. Educators can send messages using the mobile app on Android and iOS devices, as well as www.remind101.com.


This tool is great for friendly reminders about field trips, homework, plays, events, or a kind motivational message. Remind 101 has recently redesigned their iOS app with great new features and a teacher resource page to help with any questions.

These pictures are of the newly redesigned Remind 101 iOS app.

Download Remind 101:
iOS
Android 

This is def. something I want to try using.....

Tech Tuesday: Three Ring

I had never heard about three ring until I stumbled upon http://www.twoguysandsomeipads.com via #cdnedchat on twitter. I love the way it sounds and look forward to giving it a try.... has anyone used it? Let me know your thoughts in the comments section.

 

Here is what they posted:

 

 

Three Ring is an app that completely changed the way I create student portfolios and communicate with parents. Three Ring allows you to capture and share each learning moment in a photo, video, audio recording, or written note in a secure fashion. Each parent can only view the material of their child in the blog style format. It gives the parents a feeling of being in the classroom without actually being there or "feel like a fly on the wall in my child's classroom."

Check out their review on Teachers with Apps here and blog post.
Download Three Ring
Set up an account on their site here




See more at Source: http://www.twoguysandsomeipads.com/2013/08/5-free-tech-tools-for-this-school-year.html#sthash.4q1sPOqW.dpuf

Make Ahead Lunches.... Great Time Saver

I love this idea. As a mom and as an on-call teacher who sometimes (ok often!) gets a last minute call to go to this school or that, it is nice to have some ready-to-go lunch snacks.

In my house we have a snack bin for dry snacks, granola bars, fruit snacks, yougurt bars, cereal bars, crackers, cookies, etc. I also have one of those bins in my classroom for kids who don't bring lunches or miss breakfast. (Last year I also had a small fridge in my class where I stored yougurt tubes for kids in similar situations)

But I love the idea of having cold snacks and even sandwiches or wraps ready to grab and go at any time.

COLD SNACKS BIN:

String Cheese, Babybel cheese

Yogurt smoothies or other yogurt cups

Carrots ( I found little cups with lids at Cash n Carry that I add ranch dip to them sometimes)

Apples

Sliced Oranges

Mandarin Oranges, whole

Green Peppers, sliced thinly

Celery sticks

Grapes, Cherries, Canteloupe or other seasonal fruit cut up

DRY SNACKS BIN:

Crackers or Pretzels

Homemade Granola

Granola Bars

Beef Jerkey

Trail Mix

Chips

Graham Crackers

Brownies or Homemade Cookies ( I bake up a bunch and individually bag them up)

Special Treats ( usually for a holiday – like a single candy on Halloween…)

Source: http://happymoneysaver.com/cold-lunches-in-a-day/

Sign Up Genius

Learned about this Sunday during #21stedchat

signupgenius.com

A neat way to organize volunteers, schedules, etc. A great way to set up parent teacher interviews, class volunteers and jobs, donations, parties, fundraisers and pretty much anything!

Report Cards and Assessment

This post  goes through some "sticky situations" that seem to focus on the USA system. Still, the question has to be asked, what should you do if you 're asked to change a grade?

This opens up a greater discussion, for me, about the ways we use assessment and if grades are even neccessary as the "most important reporting of assessment"

Having recenly done my year end report cards for my Grade 8s I know how the various assessment methods can be used.

I have a lot of students and sometimes parents, ask me throughout the year about why they got this grade or that. I enjoy those conversations. It shows interest and opens up discussions about overall learning, not just "the grade"

I often use rubrics for projects, clearly laid out clear criteria for my students. They always know exactly what I am looking for when marking and how they will be assessed. This helps minimize "surprises" and opens up conversations about their learning.

I had a student come and ask if they could do "extra projects" to increase their grade (a week before report cards) I had that "difficult conversation" about where they needed to work on improvements and it was not their ability to do extra projects. It was a very honest conversation and the student was thankful for the feedback. Their parent even contacted me to follow up and thank me for the specific feedback to improve.

I think it is important to have those coversations with students so the expectations are clear and they really know where they are at and why.

Of course if we moved away from letter grades, I wonder how that may change the whole process?

I recently read this post:

Letter Grades No Longer Make the Grade

which is something I am very curious to explore further. Last year our district has job action and part of that was no report cards. Assessment still happened, communication with parents seemed to be even more frequent and overall I think the feedback was more productive than a letter on a piece of paper.

One of the parents of a student I taught a few years ago came back to me this year and told me they appreciated two years ago when I taught their son, emphasizing the work habits over the letter grade. They had, like many parents, always believed their son must get straight A's all the time (which he usually did) but what I pointed out, was that although she was getting very high letter grades, his work habits marks were S's and N's and that that was an area he could work on improving.

Report Cards are confusing, as a parent, reading report cards was always confusing. Of course you look right to the letter grade, the snapshot of your childs learning. But, the work habits, the words chosen inthe comments, those are important too! As a parent and as a teacher, I think ongoing assessment and communication with the student and teacher and parent is far more important than a piece of paper.

 

THOUGHTS?

This reminds me of a post last year about giving ZERO on assignments... oh the discussions continue...

 

 

The Moment I Knew... Less Stress, More Living

This is an excellent article from a teacher about stress, her breaking point, how it happened, and how she handled it... very well written and easy to connect to as a teacher.

Worklife balance and stress management are such important parts of being a teacher and I think too often educators do not have the tools, time or ability to "de stress" in healthy ways to maintain that emotional health and balance that is key.

The Moment I knew.... By Heather Hollis

My student's father is listing my faults like he's ticking off a grocery list. 

"He knows you don't like him. You don't call him 'my angel' like his teacher did last year."
 
"You humiliate him in front of the class."
 
"You blame him for everything."
 
No mention is made of the fact that this child has been noted for anger and social issues since he started school.

No mention is made of the fact that if another child looks at him sideways, he hauls off and punches them. And then screams and cries that he has been wrongly accused.
 
No mention is made of the fact that this child has disrupted the entire class over and over again to the detriment of all the other children.
 
I try to explain that I am very concerned about this child's success and happiness but it falls on deaf ears. I'm sweating and my heart is beating a mile a minute. My fight or flight impulse is on full throttle and I start to wonder if I'm having a panic attack.
 
Dad is on a roll and I'm about to be flattened.
 
Finally, he concludes his list of my offenses by saying quite matter-of-factly, "I'm afraid he's going to hurt himself or worse and, I don't like to say it, but I think it would be because of you."
 
And that's when it happened.
 
I could feel the proverbial straw breaking the camel's back. Except instead of the camel's back, it was a little something inside my head.
 
I was suddenly cold but calm.
 
I stood up and said, "I have to go now" and walked out of the room.
As I walked away, I started to cry.
 
I cried for 10 hours straight.
 
The next morning I got up and went back to work.

But it was different. I was different.
 
I took the next week off -- stress leave they called it. But it was more than that.
Something inside me died that day.
 
Logically, I knew I wasn't to blame, but emotionally? That was a different story.
My class that year was overloaded with children who had a wide variety of special needs. With resources stretched thin, it was impossible to give each one the attention they needed and deserved.
 
I dealt with unhappy, frustrated parents who (rightly) complained and demanded better services. Worse than that, I had students who often sat idle because they could not do the work without one-on-one support.
 
But it was like getting blood from stone. There was no money in the budget for extra help and the ratio of 29 students to one teacher was a recipe for disaster.
 
This is not to say it was a terrible year; quite the contrary. In fact, I loved my students and they, for the most part, loved me. We laughed and learned and had some wonderful times.
 
But there was a hole in my heart that just kept widening. I darkly joked to my fellow teachers that it didn't matter if anyone got upset with me anymore because I was "dead inside."
 
When I found myself sobbing in the bathtub the night before the last day of school, I realized it was time.
 
I had survived the battle but lost the war. My love for teaching was gone.

I spent the following year on an unpaid leave of absence. Luckily for me, I had a supportive spouse and a healthy line of credit. It was a year well spent regaining my mental and physical health.
 
Sleeping came first. I slept like the dead for months.
 
Then I started exercising -- long walks, yoga and fitness classes, jogging. Meditation and heart-felt chats with good friends and family. I focused on eating healthy. I eased up on the daily wine habit that had become a quick and easy way of blotting out the feelings of anger and frustration.
 
I read voraciously and watched television in the middle of the day.
 
Finally, I started writing again. Honestly and from the heart about issues related to teaching and women and mothering.

It didn't happen all at once but eventually I saw the changes. My heart began to open again and the bitterness started to seep away.

I stopped whispering horrible lies to myself, like, "You were a bad teacher. Those children shouldn't have had to endure a year like you gave them." And I started to listen to my true voice that said, "They knew you loved them. And look at how far they came!  

Insult yourself and you insult them."

I know now that I can't single-handedly change the education system. I can, however, change the way one teacher handles it.

Bring it on. I'm ready.

SOURCE: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/heather-hollis/the-moment-i-knew_27_b_3427778.html

Apps Parents Can Use to Promote 21st Century Literacy

Found this awesome compilation at https://edshelf.com/profile/100fmcx/apps-parents-can-use-to-promote-21st-century-literacy 

5 Apps that engage parents

Technology is opening up new windows for communication and for those who want to embrace it, there are some great ways to communicate with parents. I found this post with a variety of ideas.

One that I didn't know about was 'Fast Follow' on twitter:

Twitter: Whether it is class homework updates, project deadlines, school news or dinnertime conversation starters, teachers are taking advantage of Twitter’s free tool and keeping parents up to date and involved in classroom happenings. In a day-in-age where most parents have cell phones, Fast Follow by Twitter becomes a simple and reliable alert system. To use it, all you need to do is setup a Twitter account and ask parents (and older students) to text Twitter’s shortcode of 40404 with the message “follow [your Twitter username].” From there, parents will start receiving all of your updates via text message in real-time.

Read more here: http://www.weareteachers.com/community/blogs/weareteachersblog/blog-wat/2013/05/30/5-apps-that-engage-parents-in-the-classroom

Pizza Box Folders

Source: shspana.com via Amanda on Pinterest

What Teachers really want to tell parents...

As a parent, I find myself reading this article saying, "Oh no, I do that!"

Funny, since as a teacher, I read this article going, "Man I hate that!"

Two hats I wear, and still I get caught into these norms wearing whichever hat.... Which is why I think this is a must-read article....

What Teachers Really Want to Tell Parents.....

(CNN) -- This summer, I met a principal who was recently named as the administrator of the year in her state. She was loved and adored by all, but she told me she was leaving the profession.

I screamed, "You can't leave us," and she quite bluntly replied, "Look, if I get an offer to lead a school system of orphans, I will be all over it, but I just can't deal with parents anymore; they are killing us."

Unfortunately, this sentiment seems to be becoming more and more prevalent. Today, new teachers remain in our profession an average of just 4.5 years, and many of them list "issues with parents" as one of their reasons for throwing in the towel. Word is spreading, and the more negativity teachers receive from parents, the harder it becomes to recruit the best and the brightest out of colleges.

So, what can we do to stem the tide? What do teachers really need parents to understand?

Please take the time to read the rest of this article here:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/06/living/teachers-want-to-tell-parents


Please also check out this post from a few weeks ago on why teachers leave the profession:
http://alonganderson.blogspot.ca/2013/02/new-teachers-leaving-profession.html

New Teachers Leaving the Profession

I have heard this statistic before... how a high number of new teachers leave the profession in the five years for various reasons. For that reason, I suppose, it is good that I am in my seventh year, albeit still not continuing full-time due to lack of jobs and the structure in which jobs are posted in my district (or not posted in many cases) but that is another rant.

Patricia Melnyk writes in the Montreal Gazette:

As a non-permanent or contract teacher, I have also had my share of positions where working conditions were far from ideal. For example, I have taught classes classified as “regular,” which are supposed to include mainly students whose behaviour falls within the normal range. In fact, sometimes these classes have included not only students who are coded (students with diagnosed conditions such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), autism and academic or behavioural problems), but also a good number of students with undiagnosed disorders. Under these trying conditions, teaching in the normal sense of the word becomes almost impossible, with constant noise, disruption and chaos. Moreover, classes such as these are also relatively large. These vexing conditions can and often do lead to a teacher’s deep sense of frustration, hopelessness and even burnout.

Burnout is something I recently talked about with student teachers I presented to at Vancouver Island University. It is so important to find work-life balance and avoid burnout, but I digress.

I'd be lying if I said I hadn't considered a different profession, I love teaching, it is my passion, which is why I am still doing it... but after the first three years of not obtaining a contract, feeling exhausted and abused at the end of the day as "a sub" I really debated if this was something I could maintain doing.... luckily in year four I had a contract a "class of my own" at least temporarily and started to realize I could never leave... still, I can see why some consider leaving and understand how many make that decision. Teaching is tough!

I read with great interest several articles recently written about the percentage of teachers who leave their profession in the early years.

According to McGill University statistics, nearly 50 per cent of all new teachers in North America leave the profession within their first five years of teaching. As a teacher in my 39th year in a public high school, I understand the many reasons they do so.

The article (which I encourage you to read, it is well written and addresses many things teachers will nod their head in agreement to) focuses on three reasons many teachers leave the profession:

1. False Accusations
2. Parents
3. Special Needs students (which I read as lack of support for special needs)

 “The education field is in crisis,” Jon G. Bradley, associate professor of education at McGill University has stated. It is easy to understand why this is so and why teachers are abandoning the merry-go-round of disgruntled parents, the staggering number of special-needs students and the false accusation syndrome for careers in which impotency, impossible demands and abuse do not thrive.

So what do we do about this problem? Nothing? Seems the problem is only being made worse...

Universities are still pumping out new teachers, with no growth of jobs, there is a surplus of teachers in many areas of Canada and the retention of quality teachers seems to be a non-issue. Many teachers leave the profession, but there are ten more waiting to take their place. The turn-over is like that of some jobs I held in my university days, new cook every other week, customers don't know the different, but guess what? Students do...

Montreal Gazette writes:

“Any other profession that had that kind of turnover would look at working conditions, would look at salaries and other things surrounding the teaching environment,” said Joel Westheimer, university research chair and professor at the University of Ottawa’s faculty of education. “Instead, in education, we bring up talk about testing teachers and linking their pay to the students’ performance. I mean, can you imagine Microsoft suffering a crisis because there were not enough programmers going into the profession and leaving after the first five years? Would (the company’s) response be to increase salaries, recruit better people, change working conditions so that they could work in different places, have free soda and free lunches? Or would it test them?”

Sadly, this isn't just new teachers feeling the pressure. Debra Berry writes:

I’d like to point out that it is not just the new, young teachers who are quitting. I left at 55, with 32 years of teaching high school, the last six with horrific, inhumane workloads. I taught 14 groups of students, 400 teenagers, twice a week, in what felt like a factory assembly line. As a teacher who ran multiple student activities and sports teams over the years, I was exhausted. The success of my students sat squarely on my shoulders with little or no support from a board obsessed with the budget over students’ needs, and an administration with so much paperwork they never came out of their offices.

Many of my colleagues are leaving for the same reasons, most before full pension. I am so glad I got out, but my daughter, after three years of teaching, is exhausted by her workload of four different elementary school levels, many special-needs children not properly supported and hours of unpaid and unrecognized preparation time.

I think education needs to be a priority for provincial governments. There needs to be adequate funding and support in the classrooms to help retain teachers and ensure students are getting the education they deserve.

Other related articles:
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/lesson+fighting+back/7895140/story.html

http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Janet+Bagnall+need+study+many+teachers+leaving+field/7907873/story.html

http://www.montrealgazette.com/opinion/Opinion+Teachers+jobs+becoming+increasingly+stressful/7921769/story.html

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Accusations+impossible+demands+problem+parents+drive+away/7940986/story.html