Sep

1

School starts next week so it’s time to dust off my Web 2.0 tool kit.

Filed Under "At-risk" students, Behaviour Management, Blogging in and out of the Classroom, Computers In The Classroom, Engaging Assignments and Activities for Students, Learning Strategies, Reading, Special Education, Web 2.0 tools and technologies, motivating students, underachieving students | 1 Comment

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School starts next week, and it’s time to dust off my tool kit I use to engage my reluctant and struggling readers and writers. I need to remind myself that there are lots of reasons why my students are reluctant to read and write- learning disabilities, competition from other activities, lack of interest, school not valued. Some of my students have told me they don’t read and write outside of school. Of course they do. They just don’t realize it. I have to make them aware that they read and write outside of school everyday. I need to help my students make a paradigm shift and so they can realize when they text message, email, surf the net or are on YouTube they are reading and writing all the time. My students are very comfortable online. they spend hours and hours on line. I try to use that to my advantage when trying to engage my more struggling and reluctant students.

Good pedagogy states that I should start where our students are. Where are my students? The BBC reported recently that today the average kid spends 44.5 hours a week on-line. Imagine. I can hardly believe that, but when I asked my students whether they thought the statistic was accurate they seemed to think it was pretty accurate.
given that my students practically live online, I decided to build a Web 2.0 tool kit to use in class.

I’m going to share with you a slide show I used at a presentation last year to introduce the Web 2.0 tools I use and why I use them. I also give an example of how I used them. Hope you find the slide show useful.

View more presentations from Elona Hartjes.

Aug

8

Most popular blog about common teacher misunderstandings.

Filed Under SOS for Teachers, Special Education, Teacher Support, The way I see it, positive climate, underachieving students | 1 Comment

There are misunderstandings about what teachers are supposed to do. In this blog post I explore these misunderstandings about what teachers need to teach.

I don’t know about you, but in the last few years I’ve been to so many educational conferences, lunch and learn workshops and professional development sessions during and after school I’ve lost count. I’m not complaining. Far from it. I’m absolutely delighted that my Board is making it possible for me to meet people who have made the commitment to be life long learners and share strategies and insights that they value. When I leave these sessions , I feel energized by what I’ve learned and by the people I’ve met. I usually come away with an insight or strategy that I can use in the classroom for the benefit of my students. I love the internet for that reason, too. I can just google any topic and find the latest developments. When I find something really cool, I take it back to school with me and share it with my colleagues. It gives us something positive to talk about. The internet really makes every day a professional development day.

Oh yes, getting back to all the exciting ideas that have come away during all the PD sessions I’ve attended.. It seems to me that at the end of every PD session, as I walk out the door I hear some teachers saying that they don’t have time to do whatever it was that we’ve just been introduced to because they have so much content to cover the content in their course. They hardly have enough time now to do what they have to.They could never take the time to do x, y or z because they would never get through the textbook. When I hear this argument, with all due respect to all those teachers who tell me this because I do respect them, I think that can’t be the case. But, I’m told time and time again that teachers have to finish teaching all the content which is usually the entire text book so their students will be prepared for the next grade and the next textbook- I presume.

Why does it have to be that way? Do students really have to learn all those facts? Who made that decision anyway? I keep asking that question every time I hear the ” I have to cover the content and textbook” argument. So, when I came across Chapter 5 of Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe’s book Schooling by Design: Mission, Action, and Achievement I was intrigued. I’ll admit I was a little brain dead when I started to skim through chapter 5. It had been one of those more interesting days in the classroom.You know the one that sucks all the energy out of you and leaves you feeling like a zombie.

When I got to the section titled Teacher Misunderstandings and read ” Misunderstanding 1: “My Job Is to Cover the Content”, my brain came to life. What was that? The system was overloaded with content because when content standards committees at the different levels met to decide what was essential, they came up with an overly ambitious list. I can see that happening. When you really love a subject area, it’s hard to draw the line between what’s really necessary to know and what would be nice for students to know. One summer not too long ago, I was on a curriculum writing team for the school district I work in, and we had a really difficult time cutting things out. We sat around the table for a long time debating what to leave in and what to take out. Everyone had their pet area that they wanted included- me too.
Wiggins and McTighe explain that the ‘my job is to cover the content” misunderstanding stems from the best of intentions. The various standards committees are including more content than is absolutely necessary and the text books publishers are trying to include all of the content in their textbooks so that the textbook adoption committees will choose their textbooks over their competitors. Then there is the tendency for some teachers to think that they should only use the textbook to teach the content of the course.

I was at a series of workshops last summer and met someone who was going to teach at a brand new school and the department she was in was not going to use textbooks. They were going to use teacher created materials. I don’t know how that worked out. I do know that I haven’t been totally happy with any textbooks I’ve seen, and if I was forced to use just a textbook, I would hate it. I like having the textbook as a resource, but I also like developing my own resources to meet the needs of my students. Fortunately, my Board offers lots of opportunities for professional development. so that I can do this. It’s actually very exciting.

Why do some teachers think they have to cover what’s in the textbook ? According to Wiggins and McTighe, some teachers think that’s what their supervisors want , but they found no evidence to support this. Nor have they seen a teacher’s contract that has stated that a teacher’s job is to cover the textbook. Clearly, it’s a misunderstanding to believe that the textbook has to be covered. The textbook should only be a resource, not the syllabus.

What is a teachers job then if it’s not to cover all the content in a course and not to cover the text book? Wiggins and McTighe argue it is

to cause understanding, as reflected in worthy accomplishments…. facilitating the learners’ insights and coaching them to transfer their knowledge and skill, as reflected in significant performances involving such transfer.

You know, just reading that quotation is inspiring. Yes, that’s what I want in my classroom. I want all of that. I want understanding reflected into worthy accomplishments. I want skills and knowledge to be reflected and transfered into significant performances. I want all that, but I’m not always getting it. What I got this week was three of my almost- eighteen year old male students throwing Lego pieces at one another behind my back. Don’t ask! I think they’re bored with the topic at hand. To be honest, so am I. It’s time for some thing new. The flying Lego made that clear.

OK, let me move on to the second teacher misunderstanding. While some teachers mistakenly believe that the textbook is the syllabus, and they must teach all the content in the text book, other teachers feel that they shouldn’t use the text book at all and prefer to develop their own interesting resources to engage students. Wiggins and McTighe argue that this is all well and good, but sometimes teachers “get lost in the activities and lose sight of purpose as well as results… activities must be seen as a means to important learning ends and not ends in themselves. They go on to suggest that teachers need to ask questions like the following ones about the activities they plan for their students to ensure that the activity is the means and not the end in its self.

  • Are the learning outcomes clearly identified and embodied in the work?
  • Do they reflect important enduring outcomes( big ideas in the discipline) or simply “nice to now”?
  • Do students know the intended learning outcomes and spend time processing the activities in terms of those goals and the purpose behind various activities?
  • Can students explain the purpose behind various activities.
  • Do we have appropriate evidence of learning important ideas and in meaningful ways?
  • Were the time and energy devoted to the activities commensurate with the resultant learning and a wise use of time given all other obligations?

You know, these questions are very useful ones to ask, especially for me. I like activity based lessons and asking these questions would help me stay on track. I certainly don’t want the intended learning outcomes to get lost in the activities I have my students do. Quite the contrary. I want the activities in my classroom to be engaging and effective. That’s one of the challenges of teaching that I relish.

The final misunderstanding Wiggins and McTighe talk about is the one where some teachers think a teacher’s job is to teach to the test. Let me just say something here. I’m on the Literacy Committee at our school and the pressure is really on. Since the government has decided that all students must pass the provincial grade ten literacy test in order to get a high school diploma, there have been meetings ad nauseum on how best to prepare students for the test. Students need to get a grade of 75% on the literacy test in order to pass it. There’s something I don’t get about the provincial standards though. 75% is the provincial standard for passing the literacy test , yet students only need to get a grade of 50% to pass their other courses. I’m sure someone has an answer. If you happen to, please tell me .

Some teachers argue that we should teach to the test so the students will be as prepared as possible for the Literacy Test. What happens then, as far as I’m concerned, is that the test hijacks the regular curriculum, and class time is spent practicing test questions like the ones on the literacy test. It becomes a “drop everything else and teach to the test endeavour”. At my school, we did a blitz where every subject teacher spent one class teaching to the test in some way. Let me tell you the teachers who said they had too much content to cover before we had to teach to the literacy test were outraged. They argued that they don’t have enough time now to cover everything so why was valuable time taken from their class to prepare kids for the literacy test. They’re not English teachers they said, and teaching literacy is the job of English teachers. I guess they don’t really get it. Do they? Every teacher in every subject is a literacy teacher.

Now there is a more compelling argument against teaching to the test than the one I just discussed. Teaching to the test is not best way to go. As Wiggins and McTighe so eloquently noted it, the best way to raise the test scores in the long run is to :

teach key ideas and processes contained in content standards (content that is purportedly tested) in rich and engaging ways; collect evidence of student understanding and transferability of that content via robust local assessments; and, raise standards and quality control for local assignments to gather evidence of all that we value, not just what is easiest to measure.

In closing now, I just want to review the teacher misunderstandings that Wiggins and McTigne discuss. One misunderstanding is that a teacher’s job is to cover content. Another misunderstanding is that a teacher’s job is to engage learners with interesting activities( no flying Lego, please) , and finally a teacher’s job is to teach to the test. If these are the misunderstandings about what a teacher should do, what then is a teacher job?

It’s to cause understanding, as reflected in worthy accomplishments … facilitating the learners’ insights and coaching them to transfer their knowledge and skill, as reflected in significant performances involving such transfer.

 

Let me say that again- a teachers job is to cause understanding, as reflected in worthy accomplishments … facilitating the learners’ insights and coaching them to transfer their knowledge and skill, as reflected in significant performances involving such transfer. I just love the eloquent way Wiggins and McTigne define our job as teachers. They make it sound so noble. I especially like “worthy accomplishments ” and “significant performance”. Of course, Wiggins and McTigne apply these terms to students, but I want them to apply to teachers as well. I want them to apply to me- worthy accomplishments and significant performances. That’s my goal for myself and my students. My worthy accomplishments and significant performances are their worthy accomplishments and significant performances and vice-versa.

Jul

26

It’s time for schools to stop blocking internet applications.

Filed Under Blogging in and out of the Classroom, Computers In The Classroom, Digital toys, Engaging Assignments and Activities for Students, Learning Strategies, Special Education, The way I see it, Web 2.0 tools and technologies, maintaining a safe | 6 Comments

I hope come September the powers that be won’t block access to internet applications like Facebook and YouTube. I think rather than blocking Facebook and other Web 2.0 tools  like YouTube because students might misuse them, we should consider access to these Web 2.0 tools  or internet applications as teachable moments. We could teach our students to use Facebook, YouTube etc. safely and responsibly. Using the internet safely is a life skill after all.

I like using these Web 2.0 tools in my classroom and want my students to be able to use them too, but in order to do so I have to find an administrator and ask him or her if I can have the password. The administrator goes on line and looks it up and tells me. Then, I have to type it in surreptitiously. I love doing that!!! The password changes about once a month without warning and sometimes I’m all set to use Web 2.0s tool in class and it’s blocked. If school boards want us to use the new digital technology and mine says it does then the powers that be need to make access to the new digital  technology more user friendly.

A quick search on line reveals all sorts of sites with useful tips for using new Web 2.0 tools or applications. I found this one for Facebook useful. It gives 50 hints on how to use Facebook safely and responsibly for both teachers and students. Although the hints are for Facebook, they can apply to YouTube as well.

Jul

22

Most popular blog about asking students questions on first day of school to help build relationships

Filed Under Learning Strategies, Special Education, The way I see it, maintaining a safe, motivating students, positive climate | 6 Comments

I have found that developing relationships with students facilitates their learning. I start building relationships with my students on the first day of class.I would like to share with you one of my most popular posts on developing relationships with students.

Nine questions I ask my student on the first day of school.

You’ve probably heard that expression that goes something like “you only get one chance to make a good first impression”. The first impression, that’s what concerns me about the first day of school. I want, no make that I need my students’ first impression of me and my classroom to be a positive one because I know that if for some reason things don’t get off to a good start it’s going to be an uphill battle for a long time.
As a Special Education teacher, I teach students who need extra support in some way or another to help them be as successful as they can be. Some of my students are so disconnected from teachers and school that they are at-risk of failing classes and even dropping out all together. I certainly don’t want that to happen ,so I need to engage these kids right from the first bell.

What do I do to try to make a good impression on the first day? You know part of me thinks it’s amazing that I’m even talking about the teacher making a good first impression. That part of me is thinking isn’t making a good impression something the student needs to be concerned with? The other part of me realizes that of course times have changed since the days back when, and I know from experience that it is important to set the right tone on the first day. I’ve had kids come and tell me they hate their teachers after just one class. There’s that first impression. We all do it. We make our first impression within seconds of meeting someone. Well maybe it’s longer than a few seconds. Don’t quote me on that one. I do remember reading some statistic about the length of time it takes us to make a first impression , but I’ve forgotten exactly how long that was but was an astonishing short amount of time. Maybe someone can remind me.

Now my challenge is that the students who come to my math class on the first day are specifically placed in my class because they haven’t enjoyed very much success in math thus far. Most of them come hating math and hating my class because , as so many of them keep telling me , it’s a class for losers. So you can appreciate why I’m a bit concerned about making a positive impression on the first day. If they already hate math, and if if they already hate the idea of coming to my class because they perceive it as a class for losers , if they decide to hate me too how much am I going to be able to teach them? How much are they going to be able to learn?

So, what do I do the first day of class. Well, for one thing I want them to leave that first class respecting me. How do I do that? Demonstrating competence never hurts. So I’ll start by be organized. Me, being organized is so crucial on the first day because the first day of school is so confusing for my students, especially the grade nines who are new to the school. Oh sure, they have been to orientation activities but still their heads will be spinning. Since they probably won’t be organized, I’ll have to be organized for them. I’ll have extra supplies for them to use. I’ll have an outline on the board of what we are going to be doing for that class, and I’ll greet them at the door and welcome them and introduce myself. That sets the stage.

One of things I ‘ll do that first class is get to know my students better by having them answer nine questions about themselves. I tell them that I would really appreciate it if they could answer some questions about themselves because their answers will help me plan the lessons and the activities we’ll do in class. I really do use their answers. The questions are

1. When have you felt particularly successful in school?

2. When have you been the most proud of learning something?

3. What is the easiest part of school?

I ask these questions first because I want the first thing they write for me to be about something positive. I want them to remember that they have been successful at something in the past because I want them to be open to being successful in the future in my class. Remember these kids think of themselves as “losers’. I want them to remember they have been winners.

Then I go on to ask about challenges they have at school because the sooner I know about the challenges, the sooner I can teach kids strategies and give them support so that they can help themselves cope with whatever. So I ask

4. What is the hardest part of school?

Next, I get subject specific. When I teach a math class, I ask about math. When I teach a literacy class, I ask about reading and writing. so because I’m teaching math the questions are

5. What do you like about math?

6. When is math easy or fun for you?

7. When is math difficult for you?

Believe me, the kids like having the opportunity to tell me what they like and don’t like about the subject.

Then, I go on to ask the following questions. I want my students to realize that we are a team. We each have our part to do in the learning that goes on in class. I need to know what I can do to help my students be more successful, and my students need to know what they can do to help themselves be more successful. These questions focus on the team aspect of the student/teacher relationship , and I discuss this with them.

8. What three things can I as the teacher do to help you become more successful as a student in this class?
9. What three things can you do as a student to help yourself be more successful this year?

Usually I get good cooperation. Sometimes, not often, a student will answer all questions in a negative way. That, in itself speaks volumes about that kid, and I respect his answers, and I don’t ask him to change them to positive ones. At the end of the semester, I’lll have the kids answer these questions again, and we’ll discuss the second set of answers vis-a-vis the first set of answers.

After completing this activity, I’ll tell my students that since they are in grade nine, by now, they are experts at knowing what makes a classroom work so that it is respectful and learning can go on. Given this, I want us to come up with some rules for the classroom that are stated in a positive way. For example, “come to class on time” and not “don’t be late for class”. Once we have decided on the rules for the classroom , we’ll create posters and post them around the room to remind us of what we need to do. The posters in the classroom are like the signs along the highway. They tell us what the appropriate thing to do is. In my last post , I talked about my theory about rules for the classroom. I don’t want to repeat myself here.

I just want to say in closing that I hope by the end of the first class the students realize the following:

1. The students and I are a team

2. They have their job to do

3. I have my job to do

4. Certain behaviours are conducive to learning and these are to be encouraged

5. Certain behavior in the classroom are not conducive to learning and these are to be discouraged

6. Their input is valued

At least the way I see it.

At this point I’d like to thank Mathew, Sarah, Tracy, Emily, Peggy, and Ron for their insightful comments about my last post Nine things my students taught me about classroom management and teaching. Please keep those comments coming. It’s important to hear other points of view on a topic, not just mine. I don’t expect everyone to agree with me. I’m not always right. I’m open to other points of view. So please, don’t hesitate to make a comment. Discussion is healthy. I’d also like to thank three feet up and the podsafe music network for my theme music.

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