Right Now

Right now, it's your tomorrow.
Right now, c'mon, it's everything.
Right now, catch a magic moment, do it right here and now.
It means everything
-Sammy Hagar

School is starting again. New students. New ideas. Blank slate. When do we implement all these new ideas? Do we wait until the students are ready? Do we wait until everyone is on board with the plan? There is not better time to get going on new ideas than at the present moment. Do we want these students to miss anything new that will help them learn and progress? When we find something that might be revolutionary and will help students, we need to get going on it as soon as we can. Get your head around the concept and dig in.

Have students help put together. Use them as the learners they are and find out what they think. Will it help them learn better? Are they willing to try it out? I have found that one reason we don't try it out is because we, the teacher, are unsure how it will work out.

As we learn new ideas from out Personal Learning Network on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, at school, or wherever you hear and see new ideas, get your head around it and get it going.

I remember the first year I used flipped learning. I had been toying with the idea for about a year trying to figure out how I would put it into practice. It took me a year to get it into place and then it was magnificent. Students loved it. I wasted 2 years putting it together and 3 years of students that could have used this idea to learn. The reason was that I wasn't ready. It wasn't the students. We don't give students enough credit when it comes to new activities and procedures. If it is he middle of the year, we start over and teach the new procedures as we did at the beginning of the year.

There are so many activities and lessons and strategies that we can use. Don't wait. Do it right now.

What Did You Learn Today?

My son and I were having a great time watching OK GO videos on YouTube. They are amazing. As we were talking about the different ways they use their videos, he made a comment that struck me funny. He said he has had manny of his teacher show the video "The Writing's on the Wall" in class. I totally agree that it has some great lessons in that video. So I asked him what he learned from the video or what the teachers taught him as they showed it? He said, nothing. He learned nothing. It was a great video. I asked what he was learning at the time and he said he did not remember.

I don't think the teachers did not teach him anything when showing him that video. We just need to make sure the students are engaged enough in out lessons to know why we are doing what we are doing. There are many times when I have sent students home and they have said they have learned nothing. So what do we do?

We have students tell us what they learned. Taking a little time at the end of each lesson and having a couple students tell us what they learned will give them time to think about what they did and what they learned. It will also remind those around them of the lesson. Sometimes our lessons are so packed in that we are finishing the lesson as they rush out the door, but we cannot do that. Teachers need to take the time to ask one simple question at the end of the lesson and at the end of the day, "What did you learn today?"

Starting Out With An LMS

It has been a great year using Schoology in my classroom. When I first started using Schoology it was a place for students to do worksheets or a laundry list of assignments to complete. I have come to the conclusion that there will be lists. There will be procedure I need the students to do. There will be specific activities and assessments I need them to do within the curriculum. I will be given district assigned activities and assessments I will need them to complete. Within that framework I can work on differentiating assignments. I can also provide them opportunities to complete the assignments as they need to and not on a specific day or at a specific time. This is what I am excited about.

I started with Spelling. I differentiated the lists for students. As I grade tests I set up individual sets of words for each student. The first set of lists I set up I have 18 different lists for 26 students. management was fun the first few times, but as students found their spelling videos, they watched and completed the assignments. Each student had their individual set of word patterns to learn. It is fantastic.

I have moved to building choices into units for students to complete on their own. The first unit was in science. I created 5 activities that would each student would complete at different times. My class still talks about it. We are starting our next big activity doing something similar to the last one. There will be activities for students to complete, but they will complete them at different times depending on where they are on a map. I love simulations. As I move through the year I see more and more opportunity for students to learn using the LMS.

Student Behavior

It's time to change my mindset, again. This time it has changed because Angie (co-teacher) and I decided at the beginning of the year to not have a discipline plan. We had just started putting our classroom together and started discussing procedures. We talked about different plans for discipline; colored cards, discipline slips, Class Dojo, rewards, parties, and other ideas. We decided to not have anything. We just decided to talk with students and share with them our expectations and explain the reasoning behind the rules and procedures.

It has turned out to be quite a year for us. We have not needed to send anyone to the office for any problems. We do have talking and students not wanting to complete assignments. We just don't discipline the students by pulling cards. What I have found is that with or without the reward, students will do what is asked of them because they want to. So I do what I can to give them motivation to complete their work. Not all students buy in in the beginning, but building a relationship with each student helps them see that what we are doing is helping them succeed. Most of the time it works.

The biggest lesson I have learned is that students will do what is needed without a discipline plan. These are a few things we have  done to help motivate our class;

• Build a relationship with each student
• Show respect for students ideas, thoughts, and actions
• Teach acceptable behaviors
• Set high expectations and review them often
• Give reasons for assignments and activities
• Explain with real-world examples
• Share all data with students and set goals from that data
• Less lecture, more student engagement
  • student to student
  • teacher to student
  • Use Big-8 strategies

This has been a change in mindset for me. I hope it can be a change for many others.

Thank You PLN

I was perusing my Twitter feed a few days ago and found a great idea to use in my class. It is a writing activity about building a nonfiction book for a younger grade class to read. I emailed the link to myself. Today I pulled it up and started reading it. I am in the midst of a great lesson plan because of a wonderful teacher (@pernilleripp) posted a great idea for me to use. This is all because of a great PLN I have been a part of for quite a few years. Most of the time I sit back and steal discover ideas for my class. I have done more contributing

At this time of year when we are being thankful and giving I wanted to thank all of my Professional Learning Community/Network for all all the lessons and ideas you have given me. My students have benefited from all the great learning I have done over the years from twitter, blogs, and pinterest ideas. I have benefited as a teacher and learner. Thank you. Have a great holiday season.

Learning About Learning Walks

Learning walks are great way for teachers to see what is happening on other classrooms. When I went on learning walks in the past, or had teachers come to my room to observe, I usually felt that an evaluation was happening. I felt I needed to look at what was happening in the film and make a judgement call about what I liked and wanted to use or what was not so good and what I didn't or would never use.
But today I learned something different. I learned that it was not about evaluating at all. It was not even about the teacher. It was about how the students were engaged and what the teacher dos in their classroom to get them engaged. I heard what the teacher said, I saw what the teacher did, and I watched the students. I saw them work. I saw some off task. I saw them think and discuss. I saw what each teacher did to get them involved. I learned some things that will help me be a better teacher. I heard some questions that the teachers would say and thought about how I could use similar questions.
I have also been learning about how to script questions and what teachers and students are saying in the class. Scripting gives the teacher an idea of how their lesson is going as well as how deep the questions are requiring the students to go in the information.
When we met back as a group we used a set of guidelines to guide our discussion. Nothing was to be said about the teacher that was disparaging or bad about what happened. We discussed what went well in the class. We found amazing things our teachers are doing and saw engagement of students through different activities. Many of which I will use in my classroom.
After our discussion I had the opportunity to meet with a couple teachers that were being observed and discuss how they felt about the lesson. It was a learning experience having them give me their insight into their lesson and thoughts while they were teaching. It can be unnerving having 5-6 teachers in your room while teaching a lesson. Hearing them reflect on the lesson and how they could do better and what they needed to work on helped me understand that even the best teachers feel they can improve.
Learning walks have been an interesting parting my teaching, but I am only now seeing how it benefits me as well as the teacher I am watching. Thank you to all those that let me observe and learn.

The Last Days

We have three weeks left. Now is the time for students to start relaxing and getting a little "mouthy" with their comments. A few start talking back and making inappropriate comments at the wrong times. Some students can handle the change that comes with summer break and some cannot. Some students do not know what is on the horizon. No structure, no rules, no opportunities. They need to know the teacher understands and will always like them.
I have a few suggestions to make it through these last few weeks.
• Relax.
• Take a breath.
• Don't take it personally.
• Let the students know they still know what is right and they can hold on to the end. Encourage.
• Don't give up on the rules. Give a few more breaks and reminders, though.
Keep the schedule going. If things change too much and there is too much free time, there will be trouble. We always add in a movie making activity for students to crest movies of what they have learned through the year. Each group, one subject or topic.
• Love the students. Don't let their words and actions during the last couple weeks change how you feel about the child themselves. They are still children, learning as they go, testing their boundaries, trying to make it through life. As we are.
Change is in the air and students feel it. They will be heading home without the same schedule and, sometimes, without friends they are used to being with everyday. The weather is changing and they want to be outside playing in the sun. They need to know they are still loved during these times of change. These might be hard weeks, but we can give students the best send off so they will remember the good times, not he bad couple weeks at the end.