Welcome to Teachers At Risk
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Apr
26
My Web 2.0 tool kit for struggling or reluctant readers and writers
Filed Under "At-risk" students, Blogging in and out of the Classroom, Computers In The Classroom, Engaging Assignments and Activities for Students, Special Education, Web 2.0 tools and technologies, motivating students, underachieving students | 6 Comments
There are lots of reasons why kids are reluctant to read and write- learning disabilities, competition from other activities, lack of interest, school not valued. Students have told me they don’t read and write outside of school. Of course they do. They just don’t realize it. They really need to make a paradigm shift and realize that when they text message, email, surf the net or are on YouTube they are reading and writing all the time. Students are very comfortable online. Lets use that to our advantage when trying to engage struggling and reluctant students.
Good pedagogy states that we should start where our students are. Where are our students? The BBC reported that today the average kid spends 44.5 hours a week on-line. Imagine. I could hardly believe that, but when I asked my students about it they thought if you included playing games that statistic wouldn’t be out of line. I’m sorry I didn’t think to bookmark the BBC article. At the time, I was so shocked and now I can’t find the original article to share it with you. Even if that stat is a bit high, we know that kids spend hours and hours online. That’s for sure.
I’m always looking for ways to engage my “at-risk” students so when I discovered the power of the Web 2.0 and all the resources out there, I slowly started to use what I found and developed what I call my Web 2.0 tool kit.
The following presentation is one that I did last Saturday at the Reading Connection Conference at OISE. While some of the slides might not make sense since you aren’t hearing the presentation, I’ve included my Web 2.0 tool kit and that should be helpful- at least I hope it’s helpful. I’ve included links to each tool.
View more presentations from Elona Hartjes.Apr
22
Students don’t leave their learning difficulties at school.
Filed Under "At-risk" students, Engaging Assignments and Activities for Students, motivating students | 2 Comments
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ll know that I teach high school students who struggle and need extra support of one sort or another. Of course, I’m aware of the challenges these kids face in school. I see them in class everyday for 75 minutes and thanks to smaller classes of about 10 kids I get to know them quite well. When I first started supporting these kids, I used to think that school was their biggest problem and once they finished school things would be better. But, I soon learned that the problems some kids have because their brains are wired a certain way follow them out of the classroom into the world at large.I’m thinking specifically of two students I have this semester. I’ll call them Anjat and Emily. I’m really worried about them.
We usually start the class by reading the newspaper and then each person will summarize an article and comment about it. Often, a lively discussion ensues.I like this activity for a number of reasons. So do the kids. I like it because my more reluctant or struggling readers will actually read without complaining. They like it becasue they can go to a section they find interesting and choose the shortest article with the largest picture and read it. They don’t mind summarizing the article and commenting on it. I suspect that sometimes they may have even heard the story they”ve chosen on the radio or TV before coming to school. But, to be honest, I don’t really care. They still have to summarize it and a discuss it with the others in the class.
I’ve noticed that Anjat and Emily will often not understand the article they’re. It’s amazing how they misunderstand what’s being said to the point where they get the story completely wrong. These kids are not English Language Learners. They just don’t get it. They also are confused by what they see on TV. They’ll describe a newscast that I’ve just happen to have seen, and as they explain it to me I realize they’ve got it all wrong.
I find this actually quite disturbing because Anjat and Emily are basing their decisions on information as they see it, as they have misinterpreted it. It seems to me that the four years of high school is the least of their problems. I keep thinking what’s going to happen to them in life?
Apr
12
I’m reminded of the need to soften my heart
Filed Under "At-risk" students, Behaviour Management, Dealing With Stress, motivating students, underachieving students | 1 Comment
photo by anyjazz65Someone once told me that when we’re faced with difficult situations, we’re really being given an opportunity to learn something. I got that opportunity last week, and it reminded me of something I all ready knew, but had just forgotten.
Katie, not her real name, stormed into my grade 12 class late, sat down at the computer and pulled out her cell phone and started text messaging. I looked at her quite surprised.”What’s with her?”, I thought. Cell phones aren’t allowed in school and she knows that. I asked her to put the cell phone away, and after she finished her text message she did and then promptly pulled out a chocolate bar and started unwrapping it and eating it. Katie also knows that eating in the classroom is not allowed at our school. I asked her to put it away, and she did -after taking another bite. Then she took a bottle of water out of her bag and began opening it over the key board. I asked her to put that away too. She replied that it’s only water, implying what’s the problem? I have no problem with students drinking water in my classroom, but not at the computers. Water could spill on the keyboard and ruin it. She took another sip of water and then put the bottle back in her bag.
I turned to help another student wondering what was up with Katie today but not taking the time to ask her. The next time I checked to see how she was doing, I noticed she was using her cell phone again. That was the last straw! I mean really- enough is enough. This time I asked her to go to the office and speak to a VP about the cell phone.
Katie flat 0ut refused to go. She told me she wasn’t going to the office because she had a lot of work to do. That was true. She’d fallen behind because she’d skipped 20 or so classes out of 50 so far. As if Katie’s behaviour wasn’t enough, a couple of boys in the class started to encourage me to let her stay in class to do her work. “Come on miss”, they said “Let her stay and do her work. Look she wants to do her work” Great, I thought. Just what I need at this point- a mutiny. Now what?
It was my move. I told her to go to the office, but she refused again. I told her that if she didn’t comply with my request, I’d call the office and have an administrator escort her out. She still refused, so I called the office and explained the situation and an administrator came and that was that.
I just realized as I’m writing this that although I wondered at the time what had got into Katie and why she was so defiant, I hadn’t thought to ask her . Maybe if I had asked her what was going and why was she acting like that, I might have avoided all the drama. But, I didn’t think of it at the time. I was just annoyed by her behaviour.
At lunch that day, I shared my frustration with a friend about what just had happened in class. I told him that I’d had it with Katie. His response was that I should soften my heart. “Soften my heart”, I thought, “What was he talking about!” She had just ruined my class in a big way. I wasn’t open to softening my heart. On the contrary. I was up for hardening up my heart. Thank you very much! I was busy making all these plans about how I would treat her in professional manner when she returned to class, but no more than that. My anger continued to boil while I’m sure my blood pressure was reaching new heights.
Later on that evening while I was continuing to harden my heart , I began to think that maybe my friend was right. Maybe I should soften my heart toward Katie. That might not be such a bad idea after all. My hard, hearted attitude wasn’t really helpful. I was still upset. My hardening heart hadn’t brought me any peace, on the contrary. The more I thought about Katie, the more upset I got. By the time I got to work the next day, I decided that I would soften my heart toward Katie. I decided that Katie must be hurting big time for her to act like that, and that a hard heart wasn’t going to help her or me for that matter.
I’d momentarily forgotten the lesson that I’d learned a long time ago that when kids act out like Katie did, they’re really asking for help. They don’t need more hardened hearts. There are probably enough of those in their lives already. I’m going talk to Katie’s counsellor and see if she can get the support she’s crying out for.
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