Feb

7

Helping students schedule their homework into their distracted lives.

Filed Under "At-risk" students, Engaging Assignments and Activities for Students, Goals, Graphic Organizers, motivating students, underachieving students | 4 Comments

There are any number of reasons why students don’t get their homework done. Some students have part time jobs after school or have to take care of siblings. Others play sports, take music lessons, just hang with friends or spend time online doing whatever. There’s lots to distract kids from doing homework, especially some of the more reluctant or struggling students I support who welcome the distractions that take them away from doing homework. I’ve found that telling these students that doing homework should come first before anything else is really counterproductive. So I don’t. I surprise them my telling them I can help them work homework into their schedule so that they can do the other things they want to do as well as homework the need to do to be more successful in school.

I start by giving them a chart that lists the days of the week and the different times of the day and then ask them to record all their activities and the times they would do them. I just have them do it for one week. Then I help them schedule their homework into the open time slots. Amazingly, this works. I help them “see” the available time slots. Sometimes this involves a bit of rearranging of activities on the part of the student, but usually by the time we’re finished the student is satisfied with the homework schedule. They think it reasonable, and that’s half the battle. They don’t feel homework interferes with their life or that life interferes with their homework.

I suggest that the students tell their friends that they’re busy during the time allotted to do homework so they won’t be disturbed at that time. That shouldn’t be a big deal because they already have scheduled time to talk to friends anyway. I also suggest they don’t do any homework after 10 pm.

Some students schedule homework the same day everyday. Others schedule homework a different time every day. I leave it up to them. It has to be their plan for it to work. Of course we revisit the schedule after the first few weeks and rejig it where necessary.

The point I am trying to make here for my students is that homework can be worked into their lives. Homework doesn’t mean they have to give up the things they like or have to do. I talk about doing things in moderation- homework included. I tell them I try to achieve a balance in my life, and I think they should strive to do the same. Being a student is only part of their lives. Being a teacher is only part of mine. I think we understand one another.

Feb

4

Setting SMART goals help students succeed

Filed Under Goals, Graphic Organizers, Special Education, underachieving students | 7 Comments

When I talk to my students about goals,  many of them tell me that they don’t have any goals.  I tell them they actually do,  but they don’t realize  it.  They call their goals  plans.  The  plans that they make for later in the day ,  later in week or later in the year are really goals.   Then we discuss the characteristics of good goals.  I try to lead the discussion so that we conclude that good goals are  SMART goals and  show  the slide show below to illustrate the idea of SMART goals.   If you’d like a copy,  I’d be delighted to send you one.  Just leave a request in the comment box.

Setting Goals The Smart Way

 

View more presentations from Elona Hartjes.

After we watch the slide show,  I have my students set their own short term, medium term and long term goals using the graphic organizer below.

Smart Goal Setting Organizer

Goals

Specific

(What/Why/How)

Measurable

(Time/Amount)

Attainable

(Strengths to use)

Realistic

(Why you can do it)

Timely

(Target date)

Short Term

 

 

 

 

 

Medium Term

 

 

 

 

 

Long Term

 

 

 

 

 

If you’d like this as well,  just ask and I’ll send it to you as an attachment.

I’ve always had good results with this activity.  We will revisit their goals during the semester to see how things are going and to set more goals.

 

 

Aug

18

I’m counting on the interactive math student notebooks to do the trick.

Filed Under "At-risk" students, Engaging Assignments and Activities for Students, Graphic Organizers, motivating students, underachieving students | 2 Comments

notebook2

In September, I’m going to be teaching a grade 9 applied math class, and I’ve been thinking of ways to engage my students.  See the problem is for the last few years I’ve been in a classroom with computers.  I love using computers to teach, and my students love using computers to learn. There are no computers in the  new  classroom where I’ll be teaching this grade nine class so except for the odd time that I’ll be able to book the class into the computer lab, we’re out of luck. That’s why I’m planning to introduce interactive student math notebooks in my math classes.  I’m hoping that the interactive student math notebooks will engage the students like the class blog did and  make them accountable for their own learning. A tall order, I know.

I just discovered interactive student notebooks myself this summer as I was surfing the web some what desperately.These interactive notebooks are regular spiral notebooks, not the fancy digital Smart Boards. I don’t remember how I found Mrs. Gannon’s site explaining all about interactive notebooks,  but I’m sure glad I did. Many of you  are familiar with the concept, but I wasn’t- life long learning in action. Then I found this by Kimberly Riggins about interactive math notebooks, and I was good to go. I’m not going to explain interactive student notebooks here because both Mrs. Gannon and Kimbely Riggins have done an excellent job of that,  much better than I could. I’m just going to comment on why I think they’ll work with my grade nine students.

I like interactive notebooks because they  encourage students to get involved in their own learning.  I find that my students  will let the lessons I teach just wash over them and not put too much effort into learning  if I don’t get them involved in some way.  Just sitting and listening to me lecture just doesn’t work.  My students are engaged by graphic organizers and I use  them a lot.  I also use group activities a lot.  I got the activities and graphic organizers  from  a series of  Barry Bennett workshops that I attended a few years back.   His  book Beyond Monet that he co-wrote with Carol Rolheiser is a great resource.  I use  it all the time.  If you ever get a chance to attend his workshops, go.  You won’t regret it.

Many of my students are visual learners and so really like graphic organizers and using colour to highlight certain things. Other students enjoy writing math journals and poems.  Still others like to draw.  All of these activities are part of interactive notebooks.  So I’m thinking that this strategy will work.  I’m going to have the kids use spiral notebooks so there’ll be no loose pages or fewer loose pages on the floor under their seats as they rush to the door when the bell rings.  What do you think?  Any suggestions. I need all the help I can get.  Thanks.

Carol Rolheiser

Jun

15

The comic book assignment was a hit!

Filed Under Computers In The Classroom, Engaging Assignments and Activities for Students, Graphic Organizers, Web 2.0 tools and technologies, motivating students | 3 Comments

The comic book assignment was a hit!  I’m relieved.  I think this is the most popular final evaluation assignment I’ve ever given. Thank you Toondoo.

My students, all but one,  loved the idea of creating a comic book to demonstrate their knowledge and skills. Some of them, however,  weren’t too thrilled about having to create a storyboard to help organize their thinking.  It was definitely a good idea though.  I was able to tell right away if someone needed a bit of redirection.

As I said, not all of  my students liked having to do a storyboard first- surprise, surprise.  They kept asking if they could create the comics as they created the storyboard.  I didn’t want to dampen  their enthusiasm.  Some of them are pretty reluctant students, so I was  delighted that they were so engaged.   I thought having them create the entire  storyboard first  would help them do a better job on the assignment.  Of course,  I’m always open to negotiation if I think it will help  keep my students engaged , so I agreed to let them create part of the storyboard and part of the comic book simultaneously.  Bad move!!!  Some of the students never did finish  creating the storyboard. They  just kept on creating comics planning them on the fly.

Some  students  didn’t care that the rubric for the assignment included a storyboard that reflected the comic book and was created before the comics were created.  High marks aren’t everything for many of my students, especially at the end of the semester.  (I’ve had students tell me they aced a course when their final mark in the course was   53%. Go figure.)  They just want it all over with.  Too bad we couldn’t have a final evaluation at the beginning of the semester when they are keener.

When I think about it, I really don’t know if  not creating a storyboard made much of a difference to the quality of these kids’ work.  They just kept editing and re-editing their work as they went along. Enjoying the entire process.  Just ask them to edit an essay and see what happens.   Perhaps someone who has had more experience using storyboards in their classes can let me know if it really does make a huge difference. I encourage students to use graphic organizers to help organize thinking, but  maybe just because I find them useful doesn’t mean my students do. Maybe some students just need to get in there and muck about.

I think next time I’ll give my students a full two weeks to complete the assignment. Originally, I thought that seven classes, one for each habit, would be enough,  but it turned out that  some  students needed more time- mostly because of poor time management. What else is new!  Since  many of my students have IEPs that state they are to have extra time if they need it,  we  negotiated a new deadline  a couple of days hence. No problem.  Part of me thinks that no matter how much time I  give my students  to complete  assignments some students will  still need a couple of more days.  I guess I’ll just have to wait and see next time.

Some students didn’t have computer access or rather internet access at home  so I told them they could come in during exams and finish the project.  It must be embarrassing for these kids not to have internet access when most of their classmates do. I’ll have to remember to check  about internet access with students who seem to be slow at getting Web 2.0  assignments done.

I really liked the positive energy that this assignment created in the classroom.  Some students told me they went home and created their own comics to share with family and friends. A positive note is a  great way to end the semester.

I just want to point out that my class was a grade 11/12 class of pretty street smart kids  so I wasn’t too worried if something on the Toondoo site wasn’t totally school appropriate.  Personally,   I didn’t come across anything inappropriate, and my students didn’t  draw anything to my attention either.  But, you never know,  so for younger students I might choose another cartoon generating program.  Maybe some day Toondoo will have an educational part to it  like other useful Web 2.0 sites so teachers can control what kids see while at the same time letting kids publish and read each other’s  work.

If you have any insights to share about anything I’ve said here or have any questions, I’d appreciate hearing them.

Oh yes, remember the one student who hated the idea of creating a comic book I mentioned at the beginning of this post.  His  final evaluation will be an oral one as per his IEP.

Update: Amber Johnson sent me this link

Comics in the Classroom: 100 Tips, Tools, and Resources for Teachers

Thanks, Amber

Next Page →

  • apple144

  • Dislcaimer

    These are my personal views and not those of my employer.
  • Creative Commons License
    This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

  • Archives

 Subscribe in a reader

Improve the web with Nofollow Reciprocity.