End of year anxiety

This year I have 7 seniors on my case load, and 6 of the 7 have already been accepted to post-secondary programs or enlisted in the military. I think they are all starting to feel some anxiety though about leaving high school and moving on to the unknown. When they walked in the doors on the 1st day of their 10th grade year, many of them probably weren't thinking about what they really needed to do to walk out of here with as much as they possibly could on that last day of their senior year. We really do have so much to offer them, but for some of them they realize it too late. This is a really good group of kids, sure they had many struggles, but I still don't think they took much time to look at "the big picture" as they went through high school. Did we, when we were their age? I often think about what the kids were like in my high school and what was I like at their age. What was different for me and how can I help these kids reach their full potential and push them to do their best? I am feeling some anxiety for these kids as well. Did I help them build enough of the skills they are going to need to be successful adults in school and in life? I know that the responsibility did not lie solely on me, but I've worked very closely with them for 3 years. Although I am excited for them to move on, I am definitely sad to see them go.

So we have less than 2 weeks of class left and, despite doing weekly grade checks, with all of my students, some of them still seem shocked that they are not passing certain classes. When we do grade checks we talk about the missing assignments and if they have them (for some reason some of my students have this problem where they do their homework but don't turn it in), if they started them, if they need to talk to their teachers about them, and what they need to do to turn future assignments in on time. Missing homework is not the only reason they are failing, though. Some students actually complete their homework, but they do not perform well on tests. We talk about study strategies all year, and despite the fact that their study strategies haven't worked they still refuse to try new suggestions. Or if they did try something that was suggested once and they didn't see dramatic results they aren't willing to try it again. How can I change their thinking? We go over homework, study and test taking strategies every year (several times a year). They reflect on what they did or do not do well and how to change the things they did not do well every semester. However, even though doing my homework and studying for tests is something they always say they are going to improve, most of them still end up with the same results. We've talked about SMART goals, but it's just frustrating when they don't understand when they didn't change anything but expected a different result.

Offering Student Choice

I collaborated with CarolAnn last year in planning some English 10 assignments and learned a lot from CarolAnn. I also now have a few projects for English 10 that I love assigning and students love working on. One of the projects that I enjoy is a differentiated poetry assignment titled “Your Turn!”

During the spring semester of English 10 we have a unit where we read short stories and poems and study poetry devices/figurative language. Students study figurative language terms and practice identifying the terms in poetry. Students then need to analyze the function of figurative language in poetry. For example, a student may identify a simile in a poem, but then he/she needs to analyze the simile’s influence in the poem.

After reading poems by Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, and Carl Sandburg in class students choose from a list of poems a poem that they would like to do the poetry project for. The Your Turn assignment calls for students to complete a number of activities for the poem that they have selected. All students must analyze the theme and the figurative language used in the poem. After those two required assignments, students choose from a list of other activities. Students may write a poem in response to their chosen poem, they may create an artistic representation of their poem, they may recite their poem, and they may also choose an activity of their own to react to the poem. Students do an awesome job with this assignment and I am always impressed with what they come up with. One of my favorite artwork creations was done for the poem “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar. The poem is all about the masks that people wear to hide how they are truly feeling. A student chose this poem and used clay to create four different colored masks.

I like offering students choices with assignments and I have definitely found that students like being able to share what they have learned in their own way.

Procrastination

Last Tuesday my fourth hour was able to go listen to a motivational speaker named Jermaine Davis. Jermaine talked about how procrastination gets in the way of you achieving your goals and dreams. He also talked a lot about how important it is to surround yourself with people who only push you forward and lift you up, and not people who get in the way of your dreams and goals.

I was interested to hear what my class would have to say about the message. They were actually pretty impressed with the speaker. One girl mentioned that it was a good reminder to her to only surround herself with people who are a good influence on her.
I know that high schoolers are learning how to not procrastinate and that this is something that is a real struggle for many of them. For the research paper in English 10, the teachers really try to break up the paper into smaller parts so that the students are able to be successful with the assignment. I assign due dates for the smaller sections of the research paper. I am able to give feedback on the smaller sections of the paper this way. Another goal with these due dates is to encourage students not to procrastinate. Some students, however, still procrastinate and do not turn in anything on the due dates. Sometimes these same students turn something in as a final draft, but they don’t usually get a good grade. It is frustrating that even with our assistance with breaking things down, creating due dates, and providing work time in class, that some students still procrastinate.

Has anyone had success with getting students to not procrastinate with big papers/projects? I will continue to encourage students to break big assignments up into smaller, more manageable chunks, but sometimes I feel like this is one of the most difficult life skills to teach. Any suggestions?

Retain 10% of knowledge

I just read an article for my Grad school class regarding how much students actually retain in a class period. Remarkably it is only 10%. I find this kind of shocking. But I do kind of see it as well. Students these days have roughly 7 classes, work, sports, and of course TV and cell phones. Some are just not that interested in school. And especially with only 3 weeks left, it is getting hard to motivate them.

I have been trying to do more Inquiry learning in the classroom. This is a tool that will hopefully help students remember more than just 10% of what went on in class. Getting students to generalize a problem, figure out a solution and analyze the data at hand will hopefully get them to remember what occurred in class. Students get sick of taking notes and looking at power points all day. If they are out of their seats and moving around the room trying to figure out a solution to a question that they have to discover is a wonderful solution to a typical class period.

During these last couple of weeks we really need to motivate students to want to come to class, get ready for finals, and pay attention during the school day. I have multiple labs left to cover during my final unit of Chemistry class. Which gets them out of their seats, and gets them using lab materials and testing on lab equipment. How are other classes keeping students motivated these last couple of weeks of the school year?

I found this website with some helpful hints. It is nice that as a school we are doing most of them. Or at least in my department we are.
1. Start Class with a Mind Warm-Up
2. Use Movement to Get Kids Focused
3. Teach Students How to Collaborate Before Expecting Success
4. Use Quickwrites When You Want Quiet Time and Student Reflection
5. Run a Tight Ship When Giving Instructions
6. Use a Fairness Cup to Keep Students Thinking
7. Use Signaling to Allow Everyone to Answer Your Question
8. Use Minimal-Supervision Tasks to Squeeze Dead Time out of Regular Routines
9. Mix up Your Teaching Styles
10. Create Teamwork Tactics That Emphasize Accountability

http://www.edutopia.org/classroom-student-participation-tips

KEEP YOUR STUDENTS MOTIVATED :-)

Bullying

In the January/February issue of Nea Today, there was an article on bullying. As a parent and a special education teacher, this is a very important issue for me. My son, who will be 8 on Wednesday, is sweet, smart and sensitive. He has many friends and a great sense of humor, but he has already been bullied. Last year a student repeatedly told him, "I'm going to kill you if you don't give me your toe tokens" (little plastic feet that he earned for running laps around the track at school). I can't remember how I found out about this, but when I talked to him and told him we needed to tell his YMCA teacher, he did not want us to. We had previously talked to him about bullying-why it's not nice to bully others, how it makes people feel, and what to do if you are being bullied, but he didn't want us to intervene and didn't really want to share it with us in the first place. We of course met with his teacher and she made him feel good about sharing the situation with her and she explained why it was important for him to tell an adult. There had been other instances of this student bullying other kids and this started in Kindergarten-YIKES. the Nea article stated that bullying usually starts just as kids are learning about and trying to form relationships so that's when we need to start the dialogue with students-in preschool. It makes sense to me, and I think students definitely need to be educated about bullying during school. I'm not sure all parents would feel comfortable explaining all the different aspects of bullying and how to prevent it or what to do if you are bullied. Parents definitely have an important role, but we need to get a consistent message out to kids at an early age and work toward a bully-free culture. It's not just a part of growing up, and it won't make you stronger. Bullying can have lasting affects on its victims and because of today's technology it's much easier for people to gang up on the bullied. It's very sad that so many young people are commiting suicide because of the torment they've gone through. I hope I can keep communication open between my children and my students about bullying, how to stand up for people who are being bullied, and what to do if you are being bullied. I also hope that as teachers we will not look the other way when we see bullying or pass it off as "normal".

(September) Beadwork

Whew. This class, while incredibly entertaining, was a learning experience! I felt as though I was less than a half step ahead of the students and I tend to like to be 100 yards in front of them.

It was my first time teaching a course like this so I wanted to be sure I did good job and kept my head above water. I worked really hard to revamp all the course materials and find newer, more helpful directions for projects. If I couldn't understand the instructions, how could I expect students to understand them? Also, I wanted to update the rubrics to more accurately capture what the project expectations were. Overall, I was happy with the rubrics and will make more changes next year, incorporating standards.

One of the first projects we tried were making beads out of paper. A simple and easy way to introduce students to bead making. We then moved to more difficult projects and I figured out really quick that students worked WAY better when they had a larger practice simulation. Meaning, instead of practicing with little beads we practiced with huge pony beads, straws and yarn. It helped students master the techniques before moving to the more tedious smaller beads. The practice time was essential to having them produce a high quality product with less frustration.

When reviewing our content, I noticed there was overlap between the practical arts class and the beadwork class. I sat down with Rachel and talked about her curriculum and compared it to FACS. What I determined was that beadwork needed to reflect our national standards and should not overlap with another department's curriculum. And thus......

I proposed the course be changed to Textile Arts next fall. Using beadwork projects as a base, integrate more projects with more textiles.



Lazy Stitch


Lazy Stitch



Wire Crocheted Bracelet

(Oct) Literacy Strategies

Literacy Strategies

Of the many goals I have for myself professionally each year, this year I chose to, focus on literacy strategies. I was familiar with Jigsaw, so I began with that strategy but tried to implement additional reading strategies on a regular basis. I was directed to Kristin Moak's (literacy coach at the MS) website for more information on strategies she had available. (http://www.rschooltoday.com/se3bin/clientgenie.cgi?butName=For%20Teachers&cId=&permission=3&username=) .

According to Kristin’s website there are 7 “big” literacy strategies which are supported by literacy tools (jigsaw, graphic organizers, etc) – which I used to call strategies as well. I think they can still be called strategies but the “big 7” really should be a focus

1. Making Connections – This involves activating prior knowledge of a concept in order to connect new knowledge to old knowledge (schema). Assist students in making connections to previous learning, their daily lives, their community and world issues. For students who have no schema for a concept or have misconceptions, it is important to build background knowledge for them before they begin reading the text.

2. Questioning – Good readers are always asking questions while they read. Some ways readers use questioning are: to clarify meaning in the text, to help understand vocabulary, to find specific information in the text, to connect to an idea, to understand the author’s choices when writing the text, to help understand text features, and to summarize what was read.

3. Inferring - Proficient readers use their prior knowledge about a topic and the information they have gleaned in the text thus far to make predictions or a hypothesis. Teachers model inferring by “thinking aloud” as they read to show how and why inferences are necessary to good thinking while reading.

4. Determining Importance – In the sea of words that is in any text, readers must continually sort through and prioritize information. Teachers assist readers in analyzing everything from text features in nonfiction like bullets and headings, to finding clue words that indicate important ideas. Looking for these clues can help readers sift through the relative value of different bits of information in a text.

5. Visualizing – Visualizing is the process of creating mental images in the mind based on information from a text. Good readers constantly create mind pictures as they read. Visualizing is a way for readers to check their understanding of information and a useful tool to assist the recall of information.

6. Monitoring Comprehension – Proficient readers don’t just plow ahead through text when it doesn’t make sense – they stop and use “fix-up” strategies to restore their understanding. One of the most important “fix-up” tools is rereading, with teachers demonstrating a variety of ways to reread text in order to repair meaning.

7. Synthesizing Information –With this strategy, students move from making meaning of a text, to integrating their new understanding into their lives and world view.

So far, I've tried the "Insert" strategy, backwards book walk, reading guide (pre, self-monitor, and reflection), the TSC reading strategy (triangle, square, circle) and a couple of others. I’ve been much more mindful about helping model reading and cognitive processing during reading. I’ve tried to help students understand how the literacy tools can aid them in their thinking process. Not being a reading specialist or having been trained in this area, I think this is something I would like to continue developing and refining over my teaching career. As new strategies and ideas come to surface, being mindful to incorporate them into each unit I teach will be very important.

(November) Professional Development Cake Decorating

I love my alma mater. However, it did not teach me about how to decorate cakes and that is an essential component of the Foods 2 curriculum map. We have a competition – top chef of cakes – and students compete in kitchens for best in show!

Last year, we had one set of cake decorating tips for a class. It made it extraordinarily difficult to have students practice the techniques with different tips. I tried to teach the basic techniques but didn’t like saying “just do whatever you want” without guidance. I, too, at that time was learning how to use the tips and practiced a lot. However, this year I put in a grant application for cake decorating supplies and I was awarded the full amount! I was able to purchase a complete cake decorating tip set for every student as well as other cake decorating supplies to further develop their skills. With all of these new supplies, I needed to learn myself how to use the techniques to make awesome cakes!

So, to learn how to use all these new tools, I took an 8 hour cake decorating class. We worked with fondant and gum paste. Fondant is used to cover cakes and doesn’t dry as firm as gum paste. Gum paste I used to make those beautiful flowers on cakes and once dried can be painted/dusted with dust to make colorful flowers. I learned how to create mums, roses, daisies and other flowers out of gum paste and use fondant to create other shapes.

Overall, it was a worthwhile experience but I know I have much more to learn about this subject. Now, I have additional ideas to incorporate into class and help students figure out how to make better cakes.

(April) Differentiation: A Learning Choice!

I went to a conference on Differentiation took away some good information. Basically, differentiation is not giving more work to students who “get it” but it’s understanding where each of your students are at and providing them a learning experience to foster growth.

For example, if a student is struggling with basic concepts and you assign them 10 questions and it takes them 1 hour to complete the work, you would then assign the student who is extending his/her learning more challenging questions (maybe just 3) but it should take the same amount of time as the other students – 1 hour. It’s not about dumping more work onto the kids who get it, it’s about getting them to the higher levels of thinking. Does that mean students who are struggling at the basic level shouldn’t get higher level questions? NO WAY – they absolutely need to work on stretching and developing higher order thinking skills.

According to research, students are more engaged in the learning if they have a choice in it as well. Rather than giving them a standard assignment, teachers should consider developing various options for students to meet the learning goal. There are various ways to do this. One, you could base the tiered assignment on Bloom’s Taxonomy and create assignments that fall into each category. Two, you could create assignments based on multiple intelligences. However, whichever category you choose, should require students to stretch outside of their comfort zone and knowledge level. For example, a student shouldn’t just answer knowledge level questions or should work only in the kinesthetic intelligence but be encouraged (creatively required) to expand their knowledge outside of their zone of preferential learning. I’ve done a Tic Tac Toe activity in the past and have been mindful of where I place what activities I place on the chart. It has gone well and I think the students enjoy the variety of options they have, though, they often ask if they can choose any three to which I say “you can select any three squares as long as they make a tic tac toe”.

So, based on what I learned at the conference and the desire to give students more choice in their learning I created a ladder assignment (Annie has done a pyramid assignment before so that got my brain thinking). It is broken up by Bloom’s Taxonomy and assigned a point value based on that question level. Students are asked to select any activities that total up to 12 points. It can be any combination, however, if you’ll notice, there aren’t enough options in each section for a student to work only in that thinking level. A student who wants to take the “easy” way out will still have to step up their level of thinking to complete the assignment.

I haven’t yet tried it with my class but I hope to this spring. At this point, it’s a very general outline that can be tailored to each specific class. Below is the example (to be uploaded during the work week). Feel free to use or modify as you see fit!

Ladder Assignment

Menu Planner

Student Choice Grain Activities

(March) Prezi

I thought I was pretty technologically savvy but when I saw the PGO for Prezi, I thought to myself “well what the heck is that? Surely I must sign up!”. And, I did.

And….

It was awesome! The technology is a much more visually appealing than PowerPoint. In fact, it makes PowerPoint looks like the ditto machine of the 70’s and 80’s, it’s just that cool.

Prezi is a free program to teachers (you need to use your school email address). It is definitely easy to navigate and teach yourself how to put a very cool presentation together.

What I love about it is that Prezi, at its root, functions as a PowerPoint but is way more interactive and engaging for students (and I’m sure, the visual learners!). You begin with a blank template or page. If you aren’t a linear thinker, this tool is for you! You can put all of the information down on the screen in whatever order you think of it or copy it. You can upload pictures and videos. You can even zoom in to parts of the picture or uploaded document to really emphasize an aspect of it. You can make your text huge or teeny, rotate it 38 degrees or even “send it to the back”. You create “paths” that link all of those pieces together!

Prezi makes PowerPoint seem incredibly archaic. I’ve started to convert my PowerPoints to Prezi’s. They are pretty basic at this point but I plan to update the information over the summer to include more links, images and interactive pieces! I think it’s an incredibly exciting technology with total creative or artistic freedom.

https://prezi.com/secure/1ffcd7bdd052caeb64eea309f8d1f419a5f02337/

(May) New Adventures in my Content Area

I recently attended a Fabric Arts workshop thanks for grant money from Perkins. I am ever so thankful that our content area has a grant program like Perkins. This year, we aligned the FACS curriculum in beadwork to the national standards and differentiate between the art curriculum(i.e. modified the course so it better reflects our content area’s focus on textiles). Next year the course will be titled “Textile Arts”. There are many options to engage students in learning about this but limiting the options to something that is feasible to do in a classroom and is cost effective is difficult to understand unless you try it first. So, with the grant money, I attended a two day workshop filled with 10 different techniques. I learned so much within these two days, my head hurt! However, there were definitely techniques I knew I would NOT want to have students do. Some were just too messy and some were very expensive.

Things I learned that I will definitely be applying to textile arts class:

1. How to make silk paper (strong enough to sew into a project)

2. Monoprinting – using cardboard, potato sacks, chicken wire, household goods) to create a printed image onto fabric

3. Dynaflow – watercolor textile paint to create your own fabric

4. Image Transfer – using acrylic gel medium transferring images on transparencies to fabric)

5. Fabric Beads – using WunderUnder on the backside of any fabric (store purchased OR created using dynaflow) and roll into beads to put on projects or make into jewelry!

6. Lutrador (upholstery filler in vehicles) - so thick it is indestructible and can be sewn down the middle and create a children’s book!

7. Discharge/Bleach – Using stencils to change the image of the fabric.

Overall, it was a fantastic two days! I learned a lot of techniques that I can incorporate into my classroom next year that will help students explore textile arts! I can’t wait to go to more classes and further my learning of this topic.