It takes a village to raise a child. We’ve probably all heard that said many times before. I feel that educating a child also takes the village. Teachers in their classrooms can’t do it alone. There’s just not enough time to give all students the one- on -one attention they deserve. Teachers need help from the community, from the village, and thankfully many people do volunteer their time and talents to help kids learn in and out of school. For that teachers and kids are grateful because we really do need the help.

I’d like to share a video with you that @wfryer via Twitter brought to my attention about what some communities are doing to educate their children. “Dave Eggers: 2008 TED Prize wish: Once Upon a School”.

You’ll be blown away by what you’ll see and hear- talk about thinking outside the box about ways to engage kids to learn. It’s absolutely amazing. I encourage you to go to Once Upon a School after you have viewed the video to take up the challenge with the practical ideas that people have shared.

Let me just tell you a bit about Dave Eggers

Dave Eggers’ first book, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Since then he’s written two more novels and launched an independent publishing house, which publishes books, a quarterly literary journal (McSweeney’s), a DVD-based review of short films (Wholpin), a monthly magazine (The Believer) and the Voice of Witness project.

Meanwhile, Eggers has established himself as a philanthropist and teacher-at-large. In 1998 he launched 826 Valencia, a San Francisco-based writing and tutoring lab for young people, which has since opened six more chapters across the United States. He has extended his advocacy of students by supporting their educators, instituting a monthly grant for exceptional Bay Area teachers. His TED Prize wish is for more people to follow him into getting involved in your local school — and talk about it — through the website

This is a post from Elona Hartjes Teachers At Risk

I like the premise behind The Girl Effect. It’s not a new premise. Most of you have probably heard that expression that goes something like

“Give someone fish and feed them for a day; teach them how to fish and feed them for life”

I’m very much into teaching people how to fish. I try to do that in my classroom to help my students help themselves. I want to empower people, so The Girl Effect message appeals to me very much. But, and a very big but. I’m worried that the money I donate will benefit the charity more than the girls I want to empower.

Now, in all fairness to Global Giving , they have posted the audit of their financial records on their website, but I can’t make sense of it. It seems to me that more than 50% of the money they get goes for admin, but I’m not sure.

Could someone who knows how to read the audit interpret it for me so that I can make an informed decision. I would really appreciate it.

Below is the Girl Effect Video and here’s the link to Global Giving . There’s a link to their financial audits in the column on the right hand side of the page.

Thanks.

This is a post from Elona Hartjes Teachers At Risk

I like reading the thoughts of other Day-in-a-Sentencers because they remind me how similar we are even though we live in different countries and continents. The more things change, the more they seem the same.

From time to time, Kevin invites others to host the DIAS. This week Bonnie is our host. When I went to Bonnie’s site to post my sentence, I was delighted to learn that she is also the host of Photo Fridays. I really like the idea of Photo Fridays. While DIAS gets me to think in words, Photo Fridays gets me to think in pictures. What could be better than words and pictures!

Although Photo Friday is just a few weeks old, it already has 27 members. Imagine! I love the photos. They’re sweet, they’re awesome; they’re inspiring. The photo that you see at the top of the page is my contribution this week. It’s one of my favourite photos of Katie and me. Katie is my darling three year old grandaughter.

(http://www.flickr.com/groups/photofridays/)

I invite you to join us at Bonnie’s this week for Day in a Sentence and Photo Fridays. See you there.

This is a post from Elona Hartjes Teachers At Risk

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I’d like to thank Karen Brooks for creating this Slideshare with all these wonderful resources. I know that I will be using some of them come next September with my grade nine class and I’ll be sharing this treasure with my colleagues.

This is a post from Elona Hartjes Teachers At Risk

I’ve been blogging for almost two years now (August 2006) and podcasting for over a year (March 2007) and am one of blogging’s biggest boosters. In fact, I’ve become a blogging evangelist trying to bring the word about the joys of blogging to anyone who will listen. I’ve persuaded some colleagues at work to start a blog and helped them through the first confusing steps.

I totally identify with Mathew when he says “I’ve built some blogging friendships that have both contributed to my teaching practice and been personally rewarding.” I’ve met some wonderful people on line that I count among my friends even though we’ve never sat face to face.

I was thinking about Mathew’s comment and sort of feeling that glow I get when I’m thinking about writing a blog, reading other people’s blogs or leaving a comment about what I’ve read. This of course takes lots of time and that’s what made me realize that blogging can be a petty selfish and alienating activity. All that time I’m spending researching for my blog, writing my blog, reading other people’s blogs, talking about blogging and learning about the more technical aspects of blogging takes lots and lots of time, lots of time away from other things like family and friends.

I’m thinking now as I write this that maybe it’s been too much time away from family and friends. I’ve been saying things to my friends like “Gee, we should get together more. I haven’t seen you in ages. I’ve been so busy.” What I don’t tell them is that I’ve been so busy amusing myself in the blogosphere. Almost everyday, I’ve been telling my husband, Kurt, that I”ll just go upstairs to the office for a minute to check my email and then before I know it, hours have passed and Kurt is sitting downstairs by himself. When I mention ever so casually that I might like to start to video blog, despite the fact that Kurt’s one of my biggest supporters, he suggests rather strongly that I don’t take on too much. What he’s not saying is that he thinks it’s already too much.

I’m spending too much time in the blogosphere and that is selfish and alienating, and that’s not what I want to be or to do. So, I’m going to spend less time in the blogosphere and more time with family and friends. And, that’s a good thing.

This is a post from Elona Hartjes Teachers At Risk

Bob Compton executive producer of the video 2 000 000 minutes and Molly Brand President of the American Counsel of Education offer some explanations. Bob Compton, notes that in China and India students focus on academics and set very high goals and then strive to achieve these goals while in America students divide their focus on sports, academics, extra curricular activity and jobs. In America, the goal for students is to be well rounded. In China and India high academic achievement is valued and rewarded- different cultures, different values, different outcomes.

Students in China and India take four years of chemistry, four years of physics, four years of biology and four years of math while in American students take one year of chemistry, one year of physics, and one year of biology. Almost all Chinese students take calculus yet only 13% of American students take it. Clearly, American students aren’t well prepared for the high wage , high technology, high growth industries for the 21st century.

Molly Brand argues that the education system in particular is failing kids when it comes to math education. Forty percent of high school seniors can’t understand grade 8 math. Brand says that if she could change one thing it would be for teachers at the middle school level to be qualified, certified math teachers to give students a better grounding in math. Not having a good grounding in math has huge repercussions

Students know that they need to be able to do algebra in order to graduate. Since many students can’t do algebra, they drop out in grade 10. Surprisingly, at least to me, students who graduate from high school earn the same money as kids who drop out in grade 10. It takes post secondary education to earn big money. Yet, half of highschool students don’t graduate.

Brand ends on an optimistic note by saying that American graduates are more competitive, more creative and more entrepreneurial than their counterparts in Indian and China. That’s the advantage American’s have over Indian and Chinese graduates, and that ’s what American schools need to nurture because that is their strength.

Now, I have a couple of questions? First, if it is the case that we can only compete in the more creative and entrepreneurial areas , what are school doing to nurture students’ right brains. Schools seem to value the creative arts less and less. Programs in the arts are getting cut all the time in favour of “the basics”.The art program at our school will take a hit nextyear and classes were canceled. Second, why do we have to specialize in either left brain activities or right brain activities. Why can’t we be excellent at both?

This is a post from Elona Hartjes Teachers At Risk

Here we are again almost at semester’s end and some students haven’t submitted all the requisite assignments. What else is new!

Getting those assignments in drives me crazy! It’s not that students haven’t started them. I know they’ve started them. I’ve seen the kids working on them. They just haven’t completed them so they don’t hand them in.

I always encourage students to hand in whatever they’ve done so they can get some marks. I tell them some marks are better than no marks. Usually when a student hands something in not completed, I tell them they’ve made a good start, and if they just spent a bit more time right now in class they could complete more of the assignment and get a better mark. I also tell them I’m always looking for ways to give them more marks, but they have to help me out by handing something in for me to mark.

I find that approach usually very successful. Most kids want good marks even if they don’t dare to say it. But, there are always some kids who don’t care about high marks. They just want to pass. They tell me they’ve “aced’ a course if they get 50%. I respect that and tell those kids what they need to do to just to get 60%. I tell them they need a cushion of 10%, just in case. You never know. They understand that.

This was all on my mind when Kevin’s invitation to “My Day in a Comic” arrived in my in box. I’ve been taking part for a while now in Kevin’s invitation to sum up my week in a sentence, in six words, in a poem (a special favourite of mine) in Voice Thread to mention a few formats.

When I saw this weeks invitation, I thought “My Day in a Comic! I can do that. A teacher’s life has many moments in it that could be material for a comic. I created the comic you see above and used it in my class blog as a gentle reminder to kids to hand in their work. Then, I had them create their own comics. They enjoyed doing that- lots of enthusiasm and excitement .

I really look forward to accepting the invitation to reflect each week. It encourages me to stop and think about my week and what went on and then to sum it up in a very creative way. I also really look forward to reading what other people have to say about their lives and circumstances. It’s amazing how similar our lives are even though we may live in different countries or even different continents.

I encourage you to accept next week’s invitation. Nancy is hosting it so go to Nancy’s blog and read all about. I hope to see you there.

This is a post from Elona Hartjes Teachers At Risk

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?

This is a post from Elona Hartjes Teachers At Risk

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.

This is a post from Elona Hartjes Teachers At Risk

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.

This is a post from Elona Hartjes Teachers At Risk

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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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.

This is a post from Elona Hartjes Teachers At Risk

The thing that really struck me after watching the video is that I need to remember to think outside the box so that I can change liabilities into assets. I’m not going into more detail here because I don’t want to spoil the video for you. You’ll know what I mean, after you’ve watched it. Enjoy.

I’m going to show the video to my students and have that discussion about turning negatives into positives. I wonder what their reaction to the video will be?

This is a post from Elona Hartjes Teachers At Risk

I wish I had a transcript of “Learning to change-changing to learn” so I could share the contents of the video with my colleagues and my students. I did hear a a rumour that some kids know how to unblock YouTube and watch it. Of course I wouldn’t do that. That would be totally subversive.

If anyone has come across the transcript of the video, I’d appreciate the link to it.

UPDATE*****

Richard has transcribed it here
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dcpk7vtb_326crc88dhh

This is a post from Elona Hartjes Teachers At Risk

I’ve been wanting to create a multi media presentation for my Learning Strategies Class that would review all the different types of graphic organizers that I encourage the students to use to help them organize their thoughts when doing various assignments.

Surprisingly, sometimes when I talk about graphic organizers my students’ eyes glaze over. I wanted to catch their attention, and given that my Power Point presentations don’t really fare well when compared to the Much Music videos the kids love to watch, I was delighted to find Animoto, a Web 2.0 application. Animoto lets me create a a multi media presentation on any topic that has “the visual energy of a music video and the emotional impact of a movie trailer”.

What do my students think about Animoto? They think it’s really cool and were excited about it when I showed it to them the other day. They’re having lots of fun creating their own Animoto videos because they know the final product will look great.

Check out what I’ve done. I’m still exploring Animoto’s potential , but I already love it. It’s as easy as 1,2,3 to use. I’m sure you’ll find lots of ways to use it in and out of the classroom.

This Monday I’m giving a workshop at school to show my colleagues how easy it is to use. When I featured Animoto as “The Website of the Week”, it created quite a buzz. There’s lots of interest about it.

Oh, by the way the graphic organizers featured in my video can be found by clicking this link A list of Graphic Organizers I’ve found useful

This is a post from Elona Hartjes Teachers At Risk

Twenty percent of kids sitting in classrooms today are mentally ill. That’s shocking. What’s even more shocking is that only 1/5 of that twenty percent are getting treatment.

I could hardly believe my ears tonight when I heard that statistic on TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin. Next week, May 3 - May 10, 2008 , is Children’s Mental Health Week and I suppose that’s why the program, “Kids aren’t right” aired tonight.

Steve Paikin discussed mental health issues with a panel consisting of

Leena Augimeri is the director of Program Development and Centre for Children Committing Offenses at the Child Development Institute, and adjunct assistant professor and sessional lecturer at the University of Toronto.

Carol Ann Curnock is a Special Education teacher for the Toronto District School Board. She teaches a self-contained class for learning disabled students in grades 6, 7, and 8. Dr. Curnock has degrees in Education and Counseling Psychology and a diverse background in both education and mental health.

Cathy Dandy is trustee for Ward 15 with the Toronto District School Board.

Susan Hess is president of Parents for Children’s Mental Health and the mother of a daughter with serious mental health problems. Susan was the driving force behind the creation of a Quilt of Honour, designed to be a visible testament to all children who struggle with mental illness.

Richard Meen is associate professor in the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Medicine. He is clinical director and psychiatric consultant with Kinark Child and Family Services.

Steven Singerman is a school social worker with the Toronto District School Board. Steven is also director of Clinical Development Resources & Concerned Parents’ Seminars and has a private practice in counseling and psychotherapy.

a distinguished panel to say the least.

At first I was totally shocked by the number of kids who are suffering from mental health issues. Twenty percent of kids in classrooms are suffering from mental health issues - that’s an average of 5 kids in a class of 25 students. Wow. Many classes are larger than 25 students. No wonder sometimes classes are so chaotic despite the teacher’s best efforts.

I said at first I was shocked and really didn’t believe was that large, but as I watched and listened to the panel discussion and began to better understand the problem, I realized a lot of inappropriate behaviour that I saw in classrooms could actually be dues mental health issues and not behavioural issues.

Let me just say here, that although I put down my cup of tea, grabbed a piece of paper and took notes furiously, I’m sure I didn’t get everything. Please keep that in mind. I’ve put a link to the web page so that you can watch the video for yourself. I realize my notes reflect who I am - a special education teacher who works with trouble, troubling and troublesome kids all day. I’m going to share what I learned and my thoughts about what I learned.

First, I learned mental health issues can look like behavior issues.

• Falling asleep in class to block out everything, breaking things like pencils, throwing things like chairs or books, shouting and refusing to do what is asked can be a sign of an anxiety disorder.
• Irritability, behaviour problems, explosive behaviour, disruptive behaviour, ADHD type behaviour of not focusing, not be able to concentrate , not being able to sit still can be a sign of depression. Depression is not just quiet behaviour of withdrawn.
• Anger is sometime mislabeled as bad and the assumption is that kids can be disciplined into good behaviour. Sometimes kids who are bullied respond in anger and that behaviour gets misdiagnosed.

I’m not a counselor, a social worker or therapist. I am a special education behaviour specialist. I can suspect mental health issues and then bring my concerns to professionals like social workers , counselors or therapists who are trained to provide treatment.

In fact, even as a special education behaviour specialist , I don’t know that much about mental health issues. My special education training was mostly about identifying behaviours and trying to put strategies in place to change the undesirable behaviour into a desirable behaviour. I’m not a special education specialist in mental health issues. Maybe there needs to be such a thing If 20% of kids are suffering from mental health issues.

Now, if I as a special education specialist has difficulty recognizing and identifying potential mental health issues , how does a regular classroom teacher fare. The panel maintained that the regular classroom teacher doesn’t get enough training to recognize mental health issues when they arise in the classroom. Teacher training is more concerned with curriculum and classroom management. That definitely needs to change. There’s no doubt about that.

Teachers have to have more training in recognizing potential mental health issues so that they can identify kids and bring their concerns to administration so that kids can get the appropriate help. We have meetings every month where we raise concerns about kids, but because our model is mostly behavioural that’s what we see. Our behavioural lenses determines what we see. What we need are bifocal lenses so that we can see the mental health issues as well.

I know that it’s really important for these kids to get help

• These kids are so disruptive in the classroom that they preventing other kids from learning. It takes so much of the teachers time to deal with those disruptive 20% that we have little time for the other 80% of the class.
• All kids have a right to learn and anything that interferes with that learning is not acceptable and needs to be dealt with in an appropriate way. If a student is acting a certain way because of mental health issues lets not punish the student but get treatment for that student so he too can learn and be successful in school.
• These kids need help so when they grow up and become adults they can function optimally to become contributing members of society.
• These kids need help so that the family dynamics and life can improve.
• These kids need to be identified and receive treatment so that they can develop to their full potential and lead satisfying life.

There’s just no excuse.

I’ve also learned that there are seven years of warning about mental health issues. The first warning happens at age 7 when kids get into minor problems at school, then age 9.5 , then age 12 and finally age 14.5 when kids get into very serious problems with the law. When we look back, we can see the signs. Let’s not wait until kids get themselves into trouble and all we can say is “He was trouble in grade two. What do you expect”. I expect better.

Unfortunately, I’ve seen that pattern myself but didn’t recognize it for what it was. I thought it was a behaviour problem, just as I was trained to do and then devised strategies to help turn that behaviour around. Regrettably, sometimes none of the strategies worked and I could only feel badly. What good is feeling badly. I’m getting angry now just thinking about how the system is failing kids. I’ve thought that grade nine is too late to to help some of these kids.They really need help in grade one. I wasn’t wrong.

I’ve learned that in the Toronto Board there is one social worker for every seven schools, and it can take up to seven months for non emergency cases to have a psychological assessment done. I’m not sure what it is in other district but I know that it takes about the same time in my district. Getting a quick psychological assessment seems impossible at this time. That’s got to change if we are serious abbout helping these kids.

I’m still shocked about this whole thing. Twenty percent of kids sitting in classrooms ahve mental health issues and only 1/5 of them get treatment. I’m really glad I decided to sit down and have that cup of tea and watch The Agenda tonight. I have to say that this program tonight has been an eye opener. I have to do something. What I’m not sure yet. The first thing I’ve done is to write this post and share what I’ve learned with you. Beyond that, I don’t know yet. But I cannot, not do anything. My conscience won’t let me.

What will you do?

This is a post from Elona Hartjes Teachers At Risk

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