Jul

30

Free digital tool for teaching science

Filed Under Engaging Assignments and Activities for Students | Leave a Comment

As a special education teacher giving support to struggling learners, I’m always on the look out for yet another way to teach concepts to my students. I figure if they didn’t get it the first time they were taught it in the classroom, it’s time to try another way so I’m always looking for other ways and thanks to @KarenJan on Twitter, I found another way- Molecular Work Bench .

Molecular Workbench is free, open source software which is absolutely great because the budget is always limited. I’ve had a quick look at it, and it looks promising. Have a look for yourself and keep it in mind for when you need an other way to teach a concept.

Let me just say here that I’ve found Twitter a wonderful tool because it lets me see what other people are doing and sharing. I’ve gotten lots of valuable information from the folks on twitter.
At first it was hard to know who to follow, so I started following people whose blogs I read and then started to follow some of the people they were following. Each person has a short biography so you can get some idea what they are about. I just choose people I think are interesting. It’s actually straight forward. Check out the people I’m following, maybe you’l find them interesting too.

Jul

28

Maintaining a safe, positive classroom climate through differentiated instruction

Filed Under Behaviour Management, Computers In The Classroom, Graphic Organizers, The way I see it, maintaining a safe, positive climate | Leave a Comment

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Teachers can help maintain a positive classroom climate through differentiated instruction. When I asked little Lauryn who is starting grade four in September, what is the most important thing a good teacher can do, her answer was : “Don’t have all the students do the same thing. It’s too boring.” Gee, I guess we all know what happens in the classroom when students get bored.

That  old adage “Different strokes for different folks”  comes to mind.   There’s no doubt that that applies in the classroom too.  Except we don’t call it different stokes, we call it differentiated instruction.

When teachers differentiate instruction  for their students, they’re actually helping to maintain a positive learning environment, and that’s definitely a good thing. We want kids who are engaged in learning, not in creating mischief.

It’s easy to determine what an individual students strengths are. Think here in terms of multiple intelligences and learning styles. There are all kinds of quick multiple intelligence and learning style inventories on line that you can have your students do to determine their strengths. Some students may even know them from having done the inventories in other classes.

Once a teacher knows what her  students strengths and needs are, she can tailor the instructional strategies to suit  them.   When she  presents the differentiated  strategies to her students, she  can negotiate the finer details to achieve mutual satisfaction.

The following video very nicely illustrates how a teacher  differentiates instructional strategies for her students depending on the students’ strengths and needs

Update- sorry had problems with this video.

These are the strategies.

1. Peer Teaching
2. Independent Study
3. Anchor activity
4. Interest survey

 

Jul

20

I’ve learned it’s OK for teachers and students to learn to use the new digital technology together

Filed Under Blogging in and out of the Classroom, Dealing With Stress, The Way I See It | 3 Comments

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I’ve learned it’s OK for students and teachers to learn to use the new digital technology  together in the classroom.   This past semester, I learned  from my students, and my student learned  from me.    I got  all kinds of positive feedback from students and parents for what  were doing in the classroom. It was amazing.

I started to think again  about my experience using technology in the classroom this past semester after reading  Chris Wood’s comment in response to David Adams post on teachers and the new technology. Chris wrote

Many teachers hailing from the traditional school of thought may be more reluctant than their more contemporary counterparts to introduce and use technological tools for education purposes in their classrooms. This can cause a problem when a mandate is passed down through a school district, requiring the incorporation of a technological tool (i.e. Smartboard). In a perfect world, the technology would be introduced only after the teacher has had sufficient training in not only the use of the technology, but also the upkeep and troubleshooting of the technology. The problem that I see developing is a reluctance on the part of these more traditional teachers to learn the new technology, making its use in the classroom a futile attempt at education.

As educators, it is our obligation to ensure that we stay informed on the different kinds of technology available to us and our students, as well as, when implemented, are fully cognizant of the tools functions and workings. When time is wasted on the upkeep of technology, time is wasted, and in our current classroom situations, we cannot afford any wasted time.

How did I cope with learning to use new digital technology in the classroom?  Actually it wasn’t that hard .  I just asked my students to help me.  I’d been blogging and podcasting for about a year and a half so I felt confidant about introducing the new class blog,  but I knew  there’d be lots of new stuff coming on line all the time that of course I wouldn’t be familiar with.  I knew I wouldn’t have time to  learn to be an expert in using all of it, so I decided to take a deep breath and take the plunge.

I told my students at the beginning of the semester that there was some new cool technology that we’d be using in class and that  since it was so new , I was just learning how to use it and sometimes I might need their help. They were OK with that. I was OK with that. I told them that teachers are life long learners and just because I’d  been teaching for more than 20 years didn’t mean I know it all. I’m always learning.

My students were very accepting of the fact that I didn’t have the technology down pat , and  because I was upfront and honest about what I was trying to do, I didn’t lose their respect.  On the contrary, as time went on   they respected me more and more for what I was trying to do and told  me they wished more teachers would teach using the new digital technology.  No one complained  that I didn’t know what I was doing.  They just helped when I asked for help and even sometimes when I didn’t ask for help. They’d just jump in whenever.

My grade 11/12 classes absolutely loved using the class blog because they were comfortable working on the computer and trying new things. If we ran into problems during class time, and we did,  I simply asked the students to complete the  work at home. It wasn’t a problem.

I never felt I was wasting time.  It’s all about quality not quantity.  It’s all about collaborative learning. It’s all about working together and problem solving- important skills in the real world, and  it’s all about showing students that  I’m a life long learner and probably they probably will be too. I’m looking forward to next semester to see what we can learn together.

 

Jul

13

Just thinking about teaching the first day of the new school year can be very stressful

Filed Under Dealing With Stress, The way I see it | 3 Comments

There are lots of things about teaching that are stressful. Even thinking about teaching can be very stressful- especially thinking about  teaching that first day of school in September.   It’s the not knowing that used to get  me.  Fortunately, I’ve learned how to deal with that stress so that I don’t ruin my summer worrying about what’s going to happen when school starts again.

One of the things that I used to find very stressful was not knowing what the kids were going to be like  and expecting the worst.  I worried about having kids in my class that would amuse themselves at my expense and  that  every class this year was going to be the class from hell.

Now,  I remind myself that  students  are probably just as worried as I am about the first day of school. They’re  probably wondering if they’re going to get the teacher from hell.   The beginning of school is a very stressful time for everyone.

The other thing I remind myself is that I can establish a positive class environment where I can feel safe and where my students can  feel safe.  So, I don’t need to worry.  One of the first things I do is have the class come up with rules for behaviour, except I don’t call them rules.  I call them agreements.

I don’t use the word rules for a couple of reasons.  First some kids hate rules.  The very word “rules” acts like a red flag and challenges some kids  to see which rules they can break  and how often.  I’ve found the word “agreement” doesn’t elicit the same response.  I know it may seem like it’s just semantics but you know,  the choice of words does make a difference.  A rule is kind of top down while an agreement is more grassroots, if you will.  It’s not me foisting something on them,  but us coming up with something together.

We only have four basic agreements. I believe in the KISS principle. These four agreements  pretty well cover  everything when you think about it.  They are mutual respect/no put downs, appreciation, attentive listening, and the right not to participate on occasion. I’ve discussed the process of how we  develop our agreements  here before so I won’t go into it again. If you click on the link and go to my earlier post in section B , you’ll see that I have laid it out so that you can do the same thing if you wish.  I even made up a short slide presentation illustrating our class agreements that  your welcome to use.

Just thinking that the classroom agreements will be established reduces my stress.  A classroom where mutual respect/no put downs, attentive listening, appreciation and the right not to participate on occasion is the kind of classsroom where I want to be and the students want to be.  There is no hell in a classroom like that.

 

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