So for the past two days I split time between CK and the state charter school conference. The conference afforded me a lot of time for reflection and also some time to get some new ideas for things to do with children in the classroom and in communication with their parents.
My favorite was one about planning. It centered around creating a plan for the upcoming school year that revolves around, parental involvement, community involvement and higher education involvement. It was an awesome thing and I can't wait to get started on one for our school for the upcoming school year. I think it will make a tremendous difference for not just me but my students and fellow teachers. I think it's going to become a big part of our summer time before each school year.
Also since Administration was at the conference as well, I got to spend some time dealing with any discipline problems and making sure everything was running well. It was to be honest. I had the opportunity to talk with kids one on one and help some of them work through some issues that they were going through and It also felt good to be able to assist my fellow teachers whenever a disturbance arose. I was able to remove a student that was being disruptive and talk with them and try to help them. I also handed down discipline according our rule book and try to maintain order. The best part was being able to help students who were having difficulties or needed someone to listen to them.
To be honest I can't imagine doing anything but helping children. I want to become a better teacher so that I can do a better job of helping children reach their full potential. I want to focus on them and their needs.
more to come........
Friday, May 7, 2010
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Standard Deviation or Standard Division?!?!?
So we've been working in class on surveys and action research and we've started working on the data analysis today. The kids have already done mean, median and mode but I wanted to push them so I wanted them to actually find the standard deviation.
Just a quick definition standard deviation is the variance from the mean of the data. So I broke it down to six steps and for most of my classes these six steps weren't too hard, but were time consuming. However as I was going over the information one student looked up and said does that say standard division?
I was kind of taken aback, I double checked my powerpoint and no it said standard deviation, but the learner was convinced at first that it was standard division. I tried not to but I found this funny. I'm not sure if this was just the right time for it or what but it struck me at the time as funny. I played it off in class and we carried on. I enjoyed today, but my last class of the day struggled some. It's my lowest level of learners, but even in their struggles a few of my students in that class caught on and worked really hard and did very well. I had them use calculators and that extra help seemed to empower them to do their best.
more to come
Just a quick definition standard deviation is the variance from the mean of the data. So I broke it down to six steps and for most of my classes these six steps weren't too hard, but were time consuming. However as I was going over the information one student looked up and said does that say standard division?
I was kind of taken aback, I double checked my powerpoint and no it said standard deviation, but the learner was convinced at first that it was standard division. I tried not to but I found this funny. I'm not sure if this was just the right time for it or what but it struck me at the time as funny. I played it off in class and we carried on. I enjoyed today, but my last class of the day struggled some. It's my lowest level of learners, but even in their struggles a few of my students in that class caught on and worked really hard and did very well. I had them use calculators and that extra help seemed to empower them to do their best.
more to come
Monday, May 3, 2010
Travs game/field trips
Well today was a pretty awesome day! We got to take the students to Dickey-Stephens Ballpark today. It was neat to be able to take the students to something that they may or may not have access to on a regular basis. It was also awesome to be able to be in a position in which I was responsible for a limited number of kids. I have been on field trips before where I was responsible for a lot of children with a little bit of help but we were in a pretty good position today. I don't believe anybody was responsible for more than 15 kids by themselves and I don't even think anybody had that many by themselves. We were able to take 102 students and between our 12 teachers and 4 aids and support staff we didn't have that many that we were directly supervising. It made the day more fun. I called mine the Nesler Nine and then when we got back to the school I called us the Great 8 because one of my nine got checked out. Another check out before we left and so I said we were the Super Seven! However I was quickly informed by one of my students that we were still the Great 8 because I was with them and I made No. 8! Man kids can really touch your heart sometimes!
More to come .......
More to come .......
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Lesson Planning
Finished up lesson plans for next week and I've been thinking about planning and how you know its effective. There's no reason not to plan. There's no reason not to put a lot of effort in planning. In my estimation it is one of the most important parts of the job.
I mean as you plan you can begin to work through materials and see if the activities and events you are planning will help or hinder student learning. However one of the wild things about planning is no matter how much you do it, there are still times when lessons fall flat.
Yet, that's a part of planning too. When a lesson plan falls flat it's our job to go back and see why that was and what can be done to do better the next time. The UCA reflection form has a part that talks about if you were going to teach this same lesson to the same students what would you do differently?
I think that's something that needs to be done each day. I have some lessons that are upcoming and I was trying to find interesting ways to assess their learning. I knew I didn't want to do a traditional assessment that day because I wouldn't have the time. What I was thinking was to have students trade notes that they took during class and look over them in pairs comparing notes to see what they had missed or what could be added. Not sure how it'll go over but I thought at the end they could fill out a rubric concerning how each other did. Not sure just a thought.
More to come......
I mean as you plan you can begin to work through materials and see if the activities and events you are planning will help or hinder student learning. However one of the wild things about planning is no matter how much you do it, there are still times when lessons fall flat.
Yet, that's a part of planning too. When a lesson plan falls flat it's our job to go back and see why that was and what can be done to do better the next time. The UCA reflection form has a part that talks about if you were going to teach this same lesson to the same students what would you do differently?
I think that's something that needs to be done each day. I have some lessons that are upcoming and I was trying to find interesting ways to assess their learning. I knew I didn't want to do a traditional assessment that day because I wouldn't have the time. What I was thinking was to have students trade notes that they took during class and look over them in pairs comparing notes to see what they had missed or what could be added. Not sure how it'll go over but I thought at the end they could fill out a rubric concerning how each other did. Not sure just a thought.
More to come......
Company Man
Well I went to the Department of Education's education career job fair today. It was my opportunity to share the Covenant Keepers vision. As I stood there extolling the virtue of believing all can succeed if they work hard enough and have the right structure under girding them I came to the realization that not everyone is willing to do the work necessary to see the vision accomplished.
Granted I should have know that from experience, but as I was telling these teacher candidates about how we provide structure and discipline for students who lack both of those things, I could see in their eyes that they were not willing to work 7:15 to 5:15 or believe that if they try hard enough students would succeed.
As I told some of them of the joys that I had experienced over the past two years some of them looked at me with wonder as if I was from outer space, some shook their head, but I believe that some of the caught ahold of the vision.
T here was one who looked at me and said, "you're preaching to the choir on that one"
You can call me a company man. You can say I've drunk the Kool aid. But I still believe it. I'm proud to be a part of something that I believe in. I look at my kids and I know with the right support, discipline and structure they can succeed. Others have let them down. Others have given up. Others have let them down, but I don't ever want to be a part of that society.
I'd much prefer to be a part of the class of dreamers who still believe students can succeed if I do my part. If I play my role.
I am a keeper of the covenant. I'll do everything in my power. You do everything in yours.
More to come......
Granted I should have know that from experience, but as I was telling these teacher candidates about how we provide structure and discipline for students who lack both of those things, I could see in their eyes that they were not willing to work 7:15 to 5:15 or believe that if they try hard enough students would succeed.
As I told some of them of the joys that I had experienced over the past two years some of them looked at me with wonder as if I was from outer space, some shook their head, but I believe that some of the caught ahold of the vision.
T here was one who looked at me and said, "you're preaching to the choir on that one"
You can call me a company man. You can say I've drunk the Kool aid. But I still believe it. I'm proud to be a part of something that I believe in. I look at my kids and I know with the right support, discipline and structure they can succeed. Others have let them down. Others have given up. Others have let them down, but I don't ever want to be a part of that society.
I'd much prefer to be a part of the class of dreamers who still believe students can succeed if I do my part. If I play my role.
I am a keeper of the covenant. I'll do everything in my power. You do everything in yours.
More to come......
Friday, April 30, 2010
Hey everybody!
So here's what I'm thinking: I should have a blog where I talk about stuff concerning my students and myself!
To be honest I would like to use this as a reflection tool so that maybe I will become a great teacher some day. I want to be the kind of teacher that reflects on what he does and what his students do. I want this to be a tool in my tool box to not only help students but also help me reach them.
For instance, here lately I have been working with my students about doing action research. Granted I modified this lesson and the idea of action research so that they would have a better chance of understanding it. I mean my students are sixth-eighth grade and I'm talking about a subject matter that I didn't begin doing until I reached graduate school, but I still felt it was a good way to put measures of central tendency in context. Also I thought it would be cool to introduce some statistical ideas to them like z-scores and standard deviation.
It has been kind of a tough sale at some point and for a long time I had trouble with my second period class. They were standoffish and didn't want to do the project and they really didn't want to try.
It was frustrating because my other classes were having fun and enjoying what they were doing, but my second period class was almost being obstinate about it.
So I went from it being a group project to being a solo project and they responded.
I was really surprised because the other classes had really enjoyed working together and getting the work done, but they made progress while working on their own.
One of the things that this has taught me is that I have to constantly monitor and adjust my lessons and lesson plans. I mean what works in one period may not work the next.
I've been really proud of my kids though because they've done really well. I mean they have come up with some research topics or research questions that were excellent, from "what effects do listening to music while studying have on a students performance in a class" to "what effects do fun (and engaging) lesson plans have on student learning?"
more to come.....
To be honest I would like to use this as a reflection tool so that maybe I will become a great teacher some day. I want to be the kind of teacher that reflects on what he does and what his students do. I want this to be a tool in my tool box to not only help students but also help me reach them.
For instance, here lately I have been working with my students about doing action research. Granted I modified this lesson and the idea of action research so that they would have a better chance of understanding it. I mean my students are sixth-eighth grade and I'm talking about a subject matter that I didn't begin doing until I reached graduate school, but I still felt it was a good way to put measures of central tendency in context. Also I thought it would be cool to introduce some statistical ideas to them like z-scores and standard deviation.
It has been kind of a tough sale at some point and for a long time I had trouble with my second period class. They were standoffish and didn't want to do the project and they really didn't want to try.
It was frustrating because my other classes were having fun and enjoying what they were doing, but my second period class was almost being obstinate about it.
So I went from it being a group project to being a solo project and they responded.
I was really surprised because the other classes had really enjoyed working together and getting the work done, but they made progress while working on their own.
One of the things that this has taught me is that I have to constantly monitor and adjust my lessons and lesson plans. I mean what works in one period may not work the next.
I've been really proud of my kids though because they've done really well. I mean they have come up with some research topics or research questions that were excellent, from "what effects do listening to music while studying have on a students performance in a class" to "what effects do fun (and engaging) lesson plans have on student learning?"
more to come.....
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