Puttering around the Classroom

I was talking with my neighbor about putting in a garden. He has a large farm behind my house and gives me a lot of tips on what and when to grow vegetables. He has a garden that is twice the size of my house and yet he gives away most of his harvest because his children are all gone. As we discussed this fact, he told me that he gardens because it gives him time to relax and putter around in the yard. I wonder if the kids today have something to putter around with when they need to relax? Do video games have the same puttering ability as a garden? Do we as teachers need to provide an opportunity for students to putter around in the classroom? How would we teach them to find their putter activity?

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Waiting for Scripting?

My students use the iPads throughout the day and I get questions about what apps I use. But the question I get the most is how to use the iPad in the classroom. I see a few teachers that want the technology but are unsure how to use it. Then I see teachers that want the technology and are not willing to learn to use it. We complain about having a scripted language or math program to teach, but are we waiting for a scripted iPad program to come along so we can teach our class or subject?

Time to Forgive and Move On

At school on Friday I got the message that one of my good friends passed away. We had known each other for about 10 years and even though he was double my age he was a great friend that taught me many things. He will be missed by many, but especially by me.
As I thought about some of the things he and I talked about over the years, the one thing that I think about is a problem he caused with some of his family. He made some poor choices in his life that really affected his children. He was an angry young man and made some choices that drove some of his children to never speak to him again. When I met him he was in the process of trying to meet with all of his children one at a time to apologize and try to make things right with them. We talked for hours about his travels to their homes and how some of them would talk with him and others wouldn't even open their doors to let him talk. He sent letters, he made phone calls, he tried every thing he could think of to apologize.
This brings me to the students in my class. I have to think about how I react and work the students in my class when they make poor choices. Do I make them relive that moment over and over or am I able to move on from that situation and give them an opportunity to grow? Do I talk about how I cannot wait for this year to be over so I can get rid of this student, or do I tell them if they need a little help in school, or just to talk, come visit me? I guess what I am saying is that we all need a break. We all need a second, or third, chance in life. We need someone to say that we made a mistake, learn from it and move on. And then both of us move on. Students are still learning these lessons. I like to teach students about not burning bridges with their friends or with people in general. Sometimes I want to burn a bridge at the end of the year with a student that has been a challenge. But that wouldn't help them or me. Everyone needs guidance. If I forgave more students and let them move on, that might make situations better my class. As I remember the mission statements all teachers write in their first years in college, all students can learn. All students need the chance to learn. All students need opportunities. I, as a teacher, need to make that happen. This is the least I can do for my friend.
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Making Math Better

I found this draft on my iPad as I started writing a few thoughts. this should have gone out a month ago.

Ijust finished reading an article on "Think/Pair/Square/Share" and I need to incorporate that into my math time. I wrote about scheduling my math time so I can work with students more in small groups and one-on-one. At the beginning of my class I will have a single problem for students to work on that the homework video talked about, or a concept that we went over the previous day. Within that problem I will decide who needs the small group interventions and practice with me or the resource teacher and which will work as partners to practice the concept.

As I read the article above, I have decided to use the Think/Pair/Square/Share"information to identify students that me help. As they think on their own and do their work on their whiteboard, I will monitor those that need help and what they need help with on that problem. Then as they pair with their partner, I can hear what how they explain how they did the problem on their own and what they might have missed. This will help me know if they understand the piece they are missing as it is explained by their partner. The next piece is when they share with the square, or team, to see how they each did the problem. They will be able to learn from each other and listen to someone else explain the problem and how to do it. The final step will be the share with the class as I go over the problem with students from the group sharing each thing they did with the class.

I feel this will be a big benefit for me when identifying who needs the help. I was using the Pair/Share method, but adding the Think and Square will make the lesson even better.

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Making More Resolutions

It is that time again. Time to make a few resolutions and see what we can do to right the path we are on in the new year. I have a few resolutions for myself that I have made. Lose a few pounds by eating less chips and other treats. Change my snacks to fruits and vegetables... well... more fruits. Walk and bike a little more when I can. Being a little nicer to those around me. I do not think I am a mean person, but I think I can do better. A little more patience with my own children. I can give a more breaks to my students at school. I can always have more fun. Now I have not yet decided if I want to cut Coke out of my diet yet. It is my wooby, I guess. Maybe next year.

These are not monster goals like losing 20 lbs. or exercising daily, these are little goals that will get me to the bigger goal of feeling better and being a little more healthy. I hope that I can feel a little better and live a little longer. Whether these little things will do that, I hope so, but at least I am doing a little more. I also want to take more time each day to work in my yard and play with the kids. I do have a few bigger goals. I want to take more time to work on my lessons at school and rewrite the curriculum to add more time for my students at school to have more fun each day. I am also setting a goal to visit as many historical sites in New England during my family reunion in June. I will also ride my bike to school at least 2/5 of the school year. I figure that is a good goal.

I have read a few articles about writing resolutions and if they work or how long we can go before they fall by the wayside. Personally I do not think it is about whether we keep the resolutions, it is the insight we find when we look back on the previous year. What things do we need to change? What can we do a little better in our lives that will make ourselves a little better? What can we do so people will want to be our friend? Shouldn’t we be looking at what we can do to make ourselves a little kinder and gentler? A little more healthy? More helpful to those around us? Making our lives less about us and more about those we see each morning and work with each day? Will we ever become this person we hope to be? I am not sure, but the journey is the reward. I have a small poster in my classroom that we use to tell students that if they fail, it is the First Attempt In Learning. I stole that from someone (I need to work on that also, but I am a teacher) and I think it applies here with resolutions. So a resolution falls by the wayside. Try it again. One day, it will stick if it is that important.

Write a few resolutions. Make some that are really out there that are going to be hard to reach. Make sure you write a few that you know you can reach and do your best to make them part of your daily life. Make a few goals for your family, your work, and for you personally. Change is good. Change is needed. When writing resolutions I always think of the ABBA song, “The Day Before You Came” and I hope that by the end of the year I will be looking back saying those very words. I used to be this way, but now things are different and hopefully I feel better and people around me are better because of what I have changed.

All Means All

It has been an terrible couple weeks. Not because of school, but because I have been sick and I just cannot get over it. I am uncomfortable, a bit ornery, an really tired. My class has not suffered because of a wonderful program called student teaching. My student teacher took over about three weeks ago and has done a wonderful job adjusting to our flipped model.
I bring this up because I have been doing everything I can to get over this sickness. I took a day off and slept the whole day, I have been pounding the Vitamin C like there is no tomorrow. I have taken different forms of medicine to try them all out. The one thing I have not done is slow down much. I have college classes I am taking, an endorsement class, a student teacher (I still need to do the planning and lesson building with him), and I still have this habit of learning more about what to do in class. So I guess I have not been doing everything. I need to take some time off and relax. That just might help me get over this sickness.
Which brings me to my main point. If we look at learning as being healthy and not learning as a sickness, why are we not always trying to do everything possible to get our students to learn? I was reading the book "Simplifying Response to Intervention" and there was a part that said, "All students can learn, except the ones we decide cannot." It goes on to say that we say that all students can learn ann yet we pick out a couple in our classes that we feel will never learn. They are the ones that tend to cause all the problems. They are the ones that we tired off telling the same thing to over and over. The authors go on to say that, "all students mean all students that will someday be financially responsible adults.“ So if they are not learning, we need to treat that situation as a sickness and try everything possible to get that student to learn. Programs, interventions, differentiation, before school programs, after school programs, and even those things that are out of the ordinary.
There is a sickness in some our classrooms that needs to be taken care of. It makes us uncomfortable and the first solution we think of is to not worry about it. That does not take care of the problem, it only keeps it hanging on and transfers it to another teacher. Don't give up or forget any student in the class, or any class. I think of the show Phineas and Ferb. Dr. Doofenschirtz is a problem, and yet all the stories he eludes to when talking about why he is doing something evil tell about something bad that happened to him when he was young. He is looking for love and acceptance.
So what do we do? Keep working and finding solutions. If there is a kid that is making us uncomfortable because of the problems they are causing, find a solution. Do not put those kids off and let them by without finding a solution that works for them. All students can learn, means ALL students can learn. They deserve it.
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Completing the Math Flip

The next piece of our Flipped Classroom has started. We set up the homework for students to complete each night. Most of the students are seeing the need for the homework. We have a couple students that are not completing the work, but they get to complete it at school. That is where the next piece is coming in.

In Math class I have previously been doing the normal schedule where I have students practice their times tables as they come in to help with that skill. After a few minutes I get the students started on the notes for the math topic we are learning that day. After taking a few notes we work on a few problem and practice as a whole group and then do a few practice problems as I roam the room helping students that need a little help. Before I send them to their Language class, we review some concepts from previous lessons and then they head out.

That has all changed. It has taken me a few weeks to set up the way I wanted to work the class. The homework is Sal Khan teaching about the concept and the student taking notes and looking for specific vocabulary. We only have video homework 2-3 times a week. The rest of the time, we expect students to practice skills they need help with (times tables, subtraction, Carrying, borrowing). They can also work on the IXL math site for practice of specific skills we are working on that week. If they do not understand what is happening in the video or a specific piece, they write down a question on the bottom of the page that we can answer or go over the following day.

The next day I start with a question that goes with the homework so I can see what parts the students understand and what they need help on. I let the students work as partners and then explain what they did and how they ended up with their answer. I like to use whiteboards for this part of class. I walk around watching, listening, finding those that need a little help. After about 10 minutes I have them show me their work by holding up their boards (I hope to use the Educreations App soon  so I can play back what students did). I look to see their explanations and decide on four that need a little extra help and four that need basic skills help. This is also where I pull back students that did not complete their homework so they can show that they understand the concept. If they do not, they will watch the homework video so they will understand what we did.

After the question we work on the skills students showed from their practice and review steps to help us in finding the answers as a whole group. We practice a few problems going over the steps and answering questions about the topic. We have a discussion about missteps that might have happened and what to look for when we come upon a problem

We split the group into a couple small groups and a large group. Our resource teacher take the students that need basic skills and she works with them on the one concept I need them to learn that day while working on basic skills. I take the other small group and go step by step the help them understand what piece they are missing so they get the concept and can do a few problems on their own. The large group works on a math page to reinforce the lesson as partners, helping each other using a Tip, TIp, Tell format. If a student is unsure how to do a problem, the partner gives them a  tip to get them started. If they get stuck, the partner gives them a different tip. Finally, if they do not know what to do, the partner helps them through the process of getting the answer by telling them each step and letting the student figure out the problem. If they get finished with the practice page (not drill and kill, busy work) they are able to work on IXL to go into harder problems or review problems they need help on.

The last 10 minutes is spent as a large group reviewing past skills as partners using Kagan Strategies of pairing students. We use the Tip, Tip, Tell strategy as the students use one book, one pencil, one dry erase marker. They complete one problem and pass it to the partner to complete. The student with the book has to explain to their partner what they are doing and thinking as they work on the problem. The partner listens and tips them, if needed. The final minutes are spent as a class having students show how they arrived at their answers and the class cheering their successes.

This is what I imagine a flipped class being. 10 minutes of lecturing, 65 minutes of partnerships working together, small group work, differentiating and discussing skills and strategies. So much better than the 45 minutes of lecturing and 30 minutes of drill and kill. At least the students think so.