Summer Break is Just Around the Corner!

The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and change.                                                                                    -Carl Rogers 

Depending on where you teach there are between four to seven weeks left in the school year.  You're in the midst of summative assessments,  curricular units and report card preparation.  You may be planning  the awards assembly, spring open house, and/or the class picnic.  In addition to  all of that,  your principal will give you a checklist to complete, too.  Amidst all this extra work, there is some good news, Summer Break is in sight!

This blog post is aimed at giving you pointers to create an orderly end to the school year.   They include items for your personal checklist so you can organize your classroom so you can get off to a good start in the fall.  Here are are a few pointers to get you started.

1.     Organize and Purge Your Classroom: Keep materials you’ll use next year and give away or toss what you won't use.  Don’t pack away piles of old worksheets or copies of student work.

2.    Organize and Purge Your Files, Both Paper and Electronic:  Just as you don’t want to leave piles of unnecessary paper in your classroom, clean out your file cabinets, too.  Clean a file drawer every day or so and the job will be done in no time.  Don't forget computer files!  It’s easy to forget how much data we store on our computers.  Look through your online files and delete items you no longer need.  This is an easy activity to do while watching TV.

3.     Create a Beginning of the Year Box: Label a box “Beginning of the Year”.  Put any items you’ll use the first week of school, including handbooks, name-tags, desk-tag templates, and bulletin board materials.  You can also create an electronic file or use a three-ringed notebook to store all the handouts you’ll use the first week.

4.     Cover Bulletin Boards and Open Shelves:  While custodial staff spend the summer cleaning so the school will sparkle, scrubbing floors and moving furniture kicks-up lots of dust.  Cover bulletin boards, open cabinets, and your classroom library with newspaper to keep them dust free during summer cleaning. By spending time covering items now, you'll save yourself from some dirty work later in the summer.

5.     Pack Away Personal Items:  Box up items that usually are found on your desk, file cabinets, table tops, and window-sills.  Supplies such as staplers, tape dispensers, pencil cans, globes, and teacher manuals may actually disappear if left laying around.   Put these personal items in a box labeled “Open First”.  When you come back to school in August, this will be the first box you’ll open so you'll have these office supplies readily available.

6.     Pack a Take Home Box: In this box include address list of this year's students in case you need to contact families.  Also bring home your new class list so you can send "Welcome To My Class" postcards during the summer.  Bring home web passwords for curriculum resources you may want to leisurely browse through during the summer.

7.    Write a Personal Reflection:  Consider writing a personal reflection about your first year of teaching.  By putting words to paper or computer, you can process successes and challenges and make plans for the next school year.  The copy doesn’t need to be perfect, since you are writing it as a personal reflection.  This is a worthwhile exercise because it allows you time to set goals for the coming year.  Consider these question for your reflection:                             

·      What did you learn about teaching this year?

·      What lessons, units, and themes would you teach again and which would you re-write or not teach at all?

·      How effective is your classroom management system?  What parts of the system will you keep and what will you change?  Does the system have a positive reinforcement component that works?  If not, how will you modify it?

·      Next year, what will you do more of and what will you do less of during the school year?

·      Name several new strategies you’d like to try next year.

8.    Summer Reading List:  Read at least one personal book and one professional book during the summer.  When you ask your students in the fall what they read during the summer, you can share your reading list, too.  Here are some professional reading suggestions from the Washington Post.   For personal reading ideas  browse these lists from the Brooklyn Public Library and the New York Times Best Seller List.  And remember to take time to relax, play, and have fun!

My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors.         -Maya Angelou

Beyond the Classroom: Real and Virtual Field Trips

The bits I most remember about my school days are those that took place outside the classroom, as we were taken on countless theater visits and trips to places of interest.  –Alan Bennett

School field trips are age-old traditions.  We know that children enjoy hands-on learning experiences that field trips provide. A trip can be as simple as an excursion to the neighborhood hardware store with a class of first graders or it might be an all day trip to a downtown museum.   Off campus visits give children an opportunity to connect classroom instruction with real life application.  

For students to get the most out of the experience, it’s important that the focus of the trip be relevant to what the students are studying in school.  Ask yourself, how does this trip relate to and support the curriculum? Does it provide an educational experience or is it just a chance to spend a day away from school?  When you can clearly pinpoint the educational objectives, you're ready to book the trip and start the planning process.  To help in planning, museum websites provide curriculum resources that align with the Common Core Standards.  A wide range of lesson plans are available that you can adapt to meet the needs of your students.  Other resources such as learning guides for use during the trip are also available.  Many art museums have published lesson plans that integrate art with science and math.  Here are links to excellent teacher resources from several U. S. art museums: The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, The Art Institute of Chicago, and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. 

After you've selected the field trip venue, introduce the field trip topic to your class.  Research shows that students learn more from a field trip when given pre-trip instruction.  Sharing photos, video, brochures and art items before the trip rouses their interest.  You can even have students research the field trip site and create their own essential questions.  Prior to the trip, help students refine their observation skills.  Practice looking at ordinary objects such as a paper clip, a paintbrush, a comb, clothespins, etc.  Ask them what they see and what they notice about the object that they never saw before?  These exercises develop new ways of seeing that students can use during the trip.

Explore the museum’s website as a class to identify the kinds of exhibits on display.  Introduce materials they'll use at the museum along with trip specific vocabulary.  To see some examples of outstanding materials, look at these field trip guides available from Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo.  These are valuable resources not only for a zoo field trip, but also for a general study guide of animal behavior. 

Just as pre-planning provides a richer field trip experience,  follow-up activities reinforce learning.  These activities allow another opportunity to process  and reinforce concepts.  Discuss  student's  general impressions of the trip and review assignments related to the event.  Create a bulletin board showing materials created and collected as part of the field trip.  Write and send thank you notes to chaperones and other people who supported the trip.  And consider creating a slide show to play at a  school event.

While a trip to a museum is ideal, sometimes funding or geographic distance are an issue.  Then a virtual field trip is the next best thing.  There are an amazing number of such trips available on the internet.  Introduce virtual trips in the same manner as you would a trip to a local venue.    By doing both real and virtual trips, students will benefit from a wide variety of experiences. 

The peak season for field trips are May and June.  In the future, consider taking trips earlier in the year when museums are less crowded and students can have a more leisurely visit.  Trips taken at the start of the year help students develop teamwork skills that can be used during the entire school year.

Create a garden; bring children to farms for field trips. I think it's important that parents and teachers get together to do one or two things they can accomplish well - a teaching garden, connecting with farms nearby, weave food into the curriculum.       -Alice Waters

How Do We Get Students Excited about Learning?

The dream begins with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called 'truth'.  -Dan Rather

This blog post has been challenging to write.   I’ve had a daunting time determining the article’s actual topic.  I intended to write an article on respectful teacher/student relationships; however, the more information I read, the more confused I became.  I questioned if I was writing an article about the importance of teachers building respectful relationships with students or was I writing an article about motivating students? Articles on relationship building yielded information on student motivation.  Articles on student motivation yielded information on the power of respectful relationships.  After mulling the topics over for a few days, I can confidently say that respectful teacher-student relationships generate academic motivation, one is critical to the other and neither exists in isolation!

Since observing in classrooms has been my professional focus for a number of year, I'm interested in the many aspects of effective classroom surroundings.  When I visit any classroom the one question that’s always in the back of my mind is how does it feel emotionally to be a member of the classroom community? Needless to say, students are more productive when they live and work in an environment where they feel they are important, valued, and genuinely cared-for.  Does a particular classroom offer an environment where supportive feedback is provided on an ongoing basis, where the teacher has high expectations for herself and her students, and the students are able to grow as whole persons-physically, emotionally, socially, and cognitively? In a relationship-rich classrooms, the teacher finds creative and enjoyable ways to keep students engaged, and she never gives up on any student.

Here are some fascinating video examples of primary, middle school, and high school teachers who model relationship-rich classroom settings.  These highlighted teachers provide warm, caring climates that foster the best in social and academic learning. Sit back and enjoy the videos.

Melissa Porferio, 1^st Grade Teacher

In Melissa Porferio's first grade classroom,  she concentrates on building empathetic relationships and developing the whole child.

Dorina Sackman, Middle School Teacher

Dorina Sackman has high expectations of her ESL middle school students.  By giving constructive feedback on an ongoing basis, she helps her student build their skills incrementally.

Sean McComb, High School Teacher

High school teacher Sean McComb encourages students to do their best and celebrates their hard work and effort.  By knowing his student's stories he is able to help them become confident  in their own emerging skills.

In the video Are We Failing Our Students? Dr. Pedro Noguera, professor of education at NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Development asks, “ Why is it that educating children in America has become so hard?”  He believes the educational community has been asking the wrong questions.  Rather than looking at raising achievement, he thinks we should be looking at relationship issues.  He suggests that a better question might be, “How do we get kids excited about learning?"  When we ask different questions, we get different answers! When we get different answers, we might be moving in a more productive direction.  How will you build respectful relationships in your classroom?


None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We got here because somebody - a parent, a teacher, an Ivy League crony or a few nuns - bent down and helped us pick up our boots. -Thurgood Marshall

                                                      

Using Checklists Improves Outcomes

Before starting any project, I take a sheet of paper and create a checklist of things I need to do to complete the project.  List can go from the very simple to the complex, such as writing an unassuming grocery list to a checklist for a grandiose home improvement project.  Creating a written list helps me focus on what I want to accomplish, to gather needed resources, and  motivation to get the project started!  Plus, I derive tremendous satisfaction as I check off each completed item!

However, the use of checklists has a much wider application than my own personal projects. In a book written by surgeon Atul Gawande titled The Checklist Manifesto, How to Get Things Right (2009 Metropolitan Books), Gawande suggests that even the best-trained professional can skip critical steps in a complex process.  Using a checklist can be beneficial to help practitioners focus on the most critical steps to get the best outcomes.   There are two common types of errors individuals frequently make, those of ignorance and those of ineptitude.  Errors of ignorance are mistakes made  due to lack of knowledge; the individual just doesn’t know enough to perform the task.  Errors of ineptitude are errors made because people don’t apply information already known.  Most mistakes made on a regular basis are errors of ineptitude; people forget to apply what they already know.  Gawande asserts that this is why a checklist can be a reliable reminder for consistent and successful completion of complex tasks.

In fact, many teachers are applying concepts from The Checklist Manifesto to their instructional toolbox .  Middle school teacher Heather Wolpert-Gawron states: “Developing and providing checklists speaks to college and career readiness in the Common Core. After all, organization, preparedness, goal setting and the independent learning that comes from utilizing resources are all folded into the expectations of these new standards.”   She goes on to say: “Because I teach using project-based learning, I find it very important not only to let students in on what our main goal needs to be, but to let them in on the process and steps it will take to meet that goal. My checklists, therefore, become almost a sequential narrative through an academic unit.”

Checklists are not just for middle and high school students.  Pinterest has excellent examples of checklists for younger children.   Recently while  visiting a  1^st grade classroom, I observed children proof-reading  their own written paragraph using a horizontal checklist at the bottom of the paper. The checkboxes were simple and useful. They included: I checked the word wall for correct spelling?; Each sentences starts with a capital?; Each sentence has an end mark?  This checklist  encouraged  1^st graders to independently check their work for conventions and involved them in  metacognitive awareness of their own work. 

In the curricular planning process, once a teacher decides on the lesson's instructional objectives and the performance tasks, she's ready to create the assignment's checklist.  Checklists should be brief and clearly focused on the most critical steps needed to produce desired results.   When the child turns in the assignment the completed checklist is attached.  The teachers can see at a glance that all essential steps have been completed.  Checklists have the power to improve metacognitive skills, differentiate instruction, increase participation, and track progress.  Why not give checklists a try!

A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary. 

                                                                                                              ~Thomas Carruthers

Featuring One of Our Own: A Classroom Tour

Shelbi Wiken is teaching first grade in a private school in Honduras.  She reports that everyone at the school is extremely helpful to new teachers.  Shelbi has 19 students and a wonderful team of four other first grade teachers.  Two of her colleagues are from Honduras and the other two are from Canada.  Enjoy these photographs of Shelbi's classroom!

"Testing Season" Strategy: Curriculum Mapping

The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.

                                                                                          -Albert Einstein

“Testing Season” is what I affectionately call the months of March, April, and May.  As “Testing Season” is officially launched next week, the new PARCC Assessment will be administered for the first time in the State of Illinois.  And with other standardized tests thrown into the mix, many class sessions this spring will exclusively be dedicated to testing.  At this time of year you can’t help but wonder how you'll have time for test prep and administration plus time to cover the operational curriculum.  While the end of the school year is coming into sight, you probably are becoming more and more aware of the fact that there may not be enough time to teach all the topics listed in your curriculum guides.  Decisions have to be made to modify the prescribed content in order to make the most of the precious instructional time still left to the school year. 

Teachers are not powerless in this testing environment.  Instead it’s time to be proactive and dig out the curriculum documents to identify what still needs to be taught and what topics you might drop, combine, or teach as part of another class or discipline.  Curriculum mapping, the procedure for looking at curriculum in reference to the calendar and data results, is best accomplished on an institute day when there is adequate collaboration time.  However, with all the recent snow days, you may not have the luxury of extended time.  As an alternative, a few focused grade level meetings may be the ideal time to work on curriculum alignment. One thing to consider is the fact that some members of your team may be more interested in getting every topic covered superficially while others may choose to teach fewer topics, but teach them in depth. 

After you have completed the curriculum-mapping process, you’ll have a new curriculum guide indicating what still needs to be covered the rest of the year.  There’s always the temptation to pick up the pace and race through new content.  Although it feels anti-intuitive to slow down to make forward progress, it’s been shown that teachers achieve better outcomes by slowing the pace to concentrate on critical content.  When instruction moves too quickly there’s the temptation to do more lecturing and have students do more in class reading.  By using a direct instruction approach students actually remember only 10%-15% of what’s taught.  When students are actively involved in purposeful experiences, learning increases and retention rates are closer to 50%-90%.  Consequently, demonstrations, dramatized experiences, and hands-on learning, while they take more time than lecturing, can generate powerful outcomes.  Consider changing homework assignments from a worksheet completed after instruction to the use of a video or online resource that allows for the generation of background knowledge for future learning.  Since more and more of your students have access to home computers, smart phones, and tablets, this kind of homework is now a realistic option.

In an age of accountability, curriculum-mapping allows for mid-course correction to the curriculum and allows for targeted instruction to meet learning outcomes. Using curriculum mapping coupled with data analysis can transform your classroom into a powerful learning community.  Ultimately, you will be able to provide quality student-focused instruction that provides curriculum coverage and standards-based instruction.

 Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.

                                                                                                 -Socrates