What Stuck with you this Week?

I love post-it notes and use them a lot for various lessons, workshops, activities... I love this board... what a great idea!

Defining Ways Educators Can Tug Education Back in the Right Direction

I stumbled across this awesome blog post the other day and really enjoyed reading it. I found myself nodding, reflecting on things I do and don't do, and decided I needed to share it with you.

Take time to listen & learn every week 

Learn from intriguing people. Your energy and excitement is often in direct relation to the ideas you’re bringing into your life. Teachers learn best from other teachers and educators from other educators.

Teachers must be a living model of lifelong learning. To do this, we have to carve out time to learn. Administrators and others should leave behind the misconception that a teacher should always be working. Sometimes they should be learning if they’re going to be a great teacher. The best teachers are great learners.

Share your learning & inspire others

Educators who care, share. Take time to share your favorite books, internet radio, and resources to help inspire those around you.

First, share with your colleagues. Your peers don’t need a consultant — THEY NEED YOU. If you’re excited – you should be sharing.

Make copies of inspirational best practices and put them in the teacher’s lounge boxes.  Share something new you’ve learned every day with someone. Include people who don’t connect via social media. [Love this idea, I have colleagues not on social media and this is a brilliant way to share, sometimes I forget about how it was done pre-internet]

Second and perhaps most importantly, at least once a week share something you’ve learned with students. In my classroom these conversations will start like this:

• “I’ve been reading the book __ on __. I find ___ fascinating.’ or
• “When I learned ___ it blew me away (I’ll show the article on the board if it is online). What do you think?

Then, encourage them to bring things in they’ve learned too. “Show and tell” should become “care enough to share.”

Let’s be the lead learners in a society needing to see living examples of lifelong learning.

When you get the spotlight, grab a mirror

Some love the spotlight. But remember that hundreds of thousands of incredible educators are doing a great job every single day without encouragement or thank you. Most of us would agree that introverted genius teachers are under-recognized.  So, we can spotlight more teachers in two ways: grab a mirror or make more light.

Grab a Mirror

To be inclusive, when you gain a spotlight by winning an award or being given the chance to speak– grab a mirror. Shine some  light on those who inspire and help you. Point out teachers who deserve it. Mention your favorite teacher when you’re receiving recognition. Don’t teachers deserve some credit?

There are more ideas on the list at the original blog. Read the entire post here!

Making Room for Wonder in Children's Lives

Yes, focusing is important, but so is daydreaming, wondering, reflecting. Here's why. http://owl.li/uTMZ1

In her new book Thrive, Arianna Huffington writes of the importance of "making room" for wonder -- a change in how we measure success that would have an especially great impact on the lives of our children.

Right now, parents and teachers expend a lot of energy getting kids to pay attention, concentrate, and focus on the task in front of them. What we adults don't do, according to University of Southern California education professor Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, is teach children the value of the more diffuse mental activity that characterizes our inner lives: wondering, remembering, reflecting.

Yet this kind of introspection is crucial to our mental health, to our relationships, and to our emotional and moral development. And it promotes the skill parents and teachers care so much about: the capacity to focus on the world outside our heads.

...

Ironically, a lack of time to daydream may even hamper kids' capacity to pay attention when they need to. The ability to become absorbed in our own thoughts is linked to our ability to focus intently on the world outside, research indicates. In one recent neuro-imaging study, for example, participants alternated periods of mental rest with periods of looking at images and listening to sounds. The more effectively the neural regions associated with "looking in" were activated during rest and deactivated while attending to the visual and auditory stimuli, the more engaged were the brain's sensory cortices in response to sights and sounds. 

Read the whole article here.

Transformation Aquarium - Math fun

Love this. My daughter is doing this in school right now (though she is in French Immersion so the terms are en francais) so we just did some demonstrations of these different transformations.

TTOC Days: The boy with painted red nails

Today I was a Teacher-Teaching-On-Call [TTOC] in a Grade 2/3 class for the afternoon. Right after lunch we had science and as students wrote their predictions, I noticed a young boy with brightly painted red nails.

I said, "love the nails, did you see mine?" (I have pink flowers painted on mine and showed him) he said, "nice, I had red lipstick to match my nails on the weekend" 

another boy sitting nearby said, "my mom won't let me wear nail polish, or lipstick" I asked, "How come?" he said, "no make up for me or my sisters until high school" 

I smiled, "that seems fair, I have the same rule in my house" ha ha - love it!

Currently...

 

 

Listening:
To my daughter and her friend giggling in the room next to me. It's the last slumber party of the summer.

Loving:
The weather we have been having. There was a wicked thunder storm the other night and the rain watered my garden for me. Since then it has been sunny and beautiful.

Thinking:
About back to school.

Wanting:
A job! I am a bit anxious knowing there are no classes available for many teachers, including me. I really hoped I would be able to know before school starts.

[For those new to my blog, our district had a major budget deficit and laid off approx 500 teachers. As of last week 200 were still not placed back in a classroom... there are no jobs... yikes!]

Needing:
To get my house cleaned! And not stress of things I can not control [like when I get my class assignement]
Love Yourself Spot:
1. Drink more water 
2. Learn to say 'no' sometimes
3. Scrapbook more

If you want to participate in 'Currently' check out Farley's blog - Oh Boy 4th Grade I try to participate every month and even use the idea with the mentors group I work with as an opening write sometimes!

Teacher's Hall Pass

Found this cool blog post on some teacher blogs I follow and decided to participate.... HALL PASS for teachers....

Product
I love my SMARTboard in my class. It allows me to experiment with so many interactive lessons.

Area
Right now it is the "nobility table" We are doing "The Feudal Games" and each student has a role in the system. The king and queen have a large table in the corner of class where they can oversee everyone and it is near the teachers desk so it is nice.

Signal
Right now it is just a simple "regardez moi" then "ecoutez" because I teach them FSL (French) I like to use those commands throughout the day.

Sanity
Is it a cop out to say my prep block? Last block of the day is prep and it is often when I eat my lunch (finally) and update our class website with homework and copy tomorrow (or next weeks) handouts and create SMARTboard lessons and get organized. Also, the SEA in my class is amazing and keeps me sane, it is great having another adult in the room some of the day to work with.


VIA http://tunstalltimes.blogspot.ca/2013/02/hall-pass-linky.html

Learning-Focused Teaching

Learning-focused Teaching: A Question-Driven Approach to Planning

I am a mentor for the TTOC mentorship group in our district and a participant in the Middle school group. As part of our training to be facilitators we have taken the mentoring and coaching workshops and seminars with Bruce Wellman.

If you are not familiar with his work, you really need to be! It is very deep, very detailed, but very worth it!

Something I have been thinking about in my own teaching and in co-teaching and observing others teaching is how can I improve my instruction to be more learning-focused and how can I assess that?

I found this awesome question-driven approach to lesson planning and reflection through Bruce Wellman's site and I wanted to share it with you.

In teacher training, I remember being so tired of hearing the word "reflection" however, as time goes on, I am recognizing it's value and appreciating the opportunities to discuss with others and reflect on practices to improve.

Check out this question-based approach:
http://www.miravia.com/documents/LessonPlanBlank.pdf

Value of a Journal

The past week I have really started to journal again. I had forgotten, or perhaps lost appreciation for the art.

As a teen, I used to write and journal daily. It helped me focus, express myself, sort my ideas and thoughts.

This week, I have used it to deal with my feelings around tragedy, my goals both professionally and personally, as a way to brainstorm and sort ideas to share with colleagues, and as a tool with students and my own daughter to express what is on their mind.

Students who use journals are actively engaged in their own learning and have the opportunity to clarify and reflect upon their thinking. When students write in journals, they can record such things as ideas and feelings, special words and expressions they have heard, interesting things that have happened to them or information about interesting people. Journal writing offers students opportunities to write without fear often associated with marking. Every journal entry is individualized.

Check out these strategies for using journals in the classroom

Here is another great resource with things to consider if you want to use journals in the classroom and ways to use them.

As a TTOC, having a writing prompt, journal or discussion point can be a great idea! Allow students to write then share (I always give the option to pass)

We use this strategy in our mentoring program for new teachers and TTOCs, we always start with a 5 minute quiet write and then allow the participants to share out or pass. It helps us as mentors see where the participants are at and guide our meeting, as well as gives everyone a chance to "vent" or let out their feelings.

I am learning to re-appreciate the value of writing and journals as I use it in my classroom, with my colleagues and for my own personal reflection.

Feb 13 - In the classroom

Back in the same classroom for more than one day. It is unfortunate the teacher is still ill, but noce to get to know the students.

I also enjoy being in this class because there is a SMARTboard, which I am becoming more and more comfortable using as a TTOC.

What is nice is that once you learn a few basics you can use it for the shape of the day, what to write in your planners, notes, instructions, anything.

I also love the interactive components - especially the balloon pop. I like to put options or answers behind the balloons and children touch the balloon which pops it and reveals text underneath.