May

30

Finding a balance between work and play is crucial.

Filed Under Dealing With Stress, The way I see it | 1 Comment

Finding a balance between work and play is crucial. We all know that a balance between the two is necessary for our mental and physical well being, and yet we often struggle unsuccessfully to achieve it. When I say we, I mean teachers as well as students. How much time is there for play for teachers or students around report card time or during the last month of school?

During the last few weeks of school, our grade eight students do exit interviews. The students show us their portfolios that showcase their work and talk about their experiences during the past year. Yesterday, as part of the exit interview I asked a student

“If you could change one thing about school what would that be?”, I asked Ada (not her real name)

“Homework”, she said. “I wouldn’t let all the teachers give us all that work to do just before report cards. I know that teachers need marks for report cards, but it’s too much when they all give us all that work at the same time. It’s not that I don’t want to do homework, it’s just that it’s too much work at one time. That’s what I’d want to change.”

I hear where she’s coming from. I’m sure you do too. We’ve all felt the same way when the demands of work or school take over our lives. It’s definitely not good when all we’re doing is working. You know what they say about all work and no play.

I love this little video because it makes this point in a humorous way.

Watch more cool animation and creative cartoons at aniBoom

Just taking the time from work to watch this video and having a chuckle about it is a step in the right direction. :)

What do you do to try to achieve and maintain that balance between work and play that is so crucial to our physical and mental well being?

May

29

Keeping things in perspective

Filed Under Graphic Organizers, The Way I See It, The way I see it | Leave a Comment

Next week is the last week of regular classes before exams, and I'm dreading all the paper work that the end of the school year demands. I wouldn't say that I was exactly feeling sorry for myself-well maybe a teensy weensy bit. I know that there are lots of worse jobs than doing the end of school year paper work, but sometime I forget. What can I say. At times, I'm can be just as self centered as the next person. The cartoon provided a nice little reality check. I think I'll print it out and post it on my bulletin board above my desk, just above the piles of paperwork.

May

22

More great graphic organizers for you to use in the classroom

Filed Under Graphic Organizers, The way I see it | 4 Comments

I love using graphic organizers in the classroom to teach and evaluate students understanding of a topic or concept. I’ve written about them here and here before. Even my most reluctant and/or struggling students find graphic organizers engaging. I’ve noticed that my students who display ADHD type symptoms seem to be able to focus better when creating graphic organizers.

A few days ago I came across a site www.classtools.net that has wonderful graphic organizers. The graphic organizers are interactive, a feature I really appreciate. I’ve posted a few examples to give you an idea are engaging they are. I intend to use them with my students.

May

19

Strategies for dealing with kids who get physcially aggressive with teachers- Part 1- Establishing the classroom climate

Filed Under Goals, The way I see it | 46 Comments

[display_podcast]

A. Introduction

It’s important for teachers to know how to protect themselves from those few students who deal with the vicissitudes of life by being physically aggressive. We’ve all heard those stories about teachers who get hit, punched or have something thrown at them. Fortunately, there are strategies that we can use in the classroom that will help reduce the possibility of that.

As some of you might know, I’m a special education behaviour specialist and have taught teenagers in jail, in open custody facilities, in vocational schools as well as in regular high schools. I’ve been teaching troubled, troubling and troublesome kids for over twenty years now and have learned or should I say have had to learn strategies that have kept me safe and happy in the classroom.

What have I learned over all the years? I’ve learned that the most important thing I can do to keep myself safe in the classroom is to prevent problems before they start. How do I do this- by establishing a positive classroom environment.

Ironically enough, I learned this lesson early in my teaching career when I was teaching young offenders in jail. The classroom I was to teach in had been set up by someone else so it didn’t reflect me as a person at all, and a guard was to sit in the classroom to protect me from my students-that was hardly conducive to a positive learning environment. So, I decided some changes had to be made.

You can imagine what happened when I first asked to have the guard removed from the classroom. I just wanted it to be me and the kids. The powers- that -be (I can’t remember exactly who that was) were more than a little reluctant to do that. But, fortunately Stu Auty who was my supervisor supported me in this request and the guard was gone, replaced by a large red emergency button that I could push if there were any problems. The guard now sat in an area down the hall, away from the classroom. That worked well.

Why did I want the guard gone? Of course I knew why the guard was there, I’m not stupid. But I felt that the guard brought the jail and everything it represented into the classroom, and I didn’t want that. As long as jail was in the classroom, the classroom environment wouldn’t be a positive learning environment. I wanted a safe, positive learning environment and that’s what I got. The red emergency button was there for safety, and the classroom environment was positive because the guard was gone.

Although I’m not teaching in jail anymore, I still want a safe, positive learning environment. In someways teaching in a regular high school today is scarier than teaching in jail- there’s no red emergency button and guard down the hall. You’re on your own more.

B. Establishing Classroom Climate

Establishing a positive classroom climate is essential for a safe, positive learning environment, and establishing classroom agreements are one of the ways to do that.

I used to call the classroom agreements rules, but rules seem so top down, and I don’t want that. Some kids see red when they see the word “rule”. I want them to see green instead. I want students to buy into the classroom code of conduct, not rebel against it.

At the beginning of the semester we establish our behaviour agreements. Basically it boils down to attentive listening, appreciation, mutual respect and right to pass. You can view my PowerPoint for elaboration.

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SlideShare | View | Upload your own

I want the classroom agreements to be a result of collaboration so that the students will be more likely to buy into the code of conduct.

This is what I do
1. Tell students that since they are in grade 9, 10 or whatever, I know they’re experts at knowing what makes a classroom work because they’ve been in many so classrooms

2. Set up a placemat group activity that will ellict the students’ expertise

3. Ask students to take a few minutes to think about what makes a classroom work and then jot those things down on their section of the placemat
4 Have students share their thoughts with group members
5. Place four pieces of chart paper on the wall labeled mutual respect, attentive listening, appreciation, and right to pass. It’s amazing , everything seems to fall into these four categories.
6. Have each student choose two or three things that they think are the most important and write each one onto a separate sticky note
7. Ask students to place their sticky notes onto one of the four pieces of chart paper according to where they think it belongs
8. Discuss the results of the activity with the class noteing how everything falls into one of the four categories
9. Add my own stickies if I see that something has been omitted. I’m part of the class too.
10. Thank the students for their expert input and tell them that I think that what we have here will make our classroom work and ask them if they agree. Most will say they agree and that’s what I want.
11. Have students create posters illustrating the classroom agreements.
12. Review the agreements next day using the powerpoint presentation I made. That’s when I make sure everyone understands what kinds of behaviours each agreement includes.
123. Ask students if anyone would like to display their posters. I let them choose where, but ask that they make sure that each wall has some posters on it.

It’s interesting to see and hear what happens. Students will start to remind each other of our classroom agreements by saying things like no put downs, attentive listening , mutual respect and right to pass when someone is behaving inappropriately. It’s much more effective to cite the classroom agreements than to say stop talking while I’m teaching or stop calling him names etc. I even hear my students cite the agreements outside of the classroom when they’re walking in the halls . I love that because I want them to be proactive and advocate for themselves in and out of the classroom.

The classroom agreements we’ve established set the stage for and support a safe, positive learning environment. That’s a good first step. The next thing I do is work at maintaining that positive climate or vibe. I’ll talk about how I do that in my next post. Look for it sometime next week.

 

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