Wendy Says

Last month, the emerging roll of a teacherpreneur was introduced in this blog. This growing trend has only been happening over the last few years, but it is already making a huge impact in places where administrators are accepting the reality that students need to be taught how to be innovative thinkers if they are going to be solving problems of things we don’t even know about yet. This is the time for the development of teacher-leaders, design-thinkers, and teacherpreneurs. Ariel Sacks, a member of the TeacherSolutions 2030 Team, has “predicted that the schools of 2030 will need growing numbers of teacherpreneurs, which she described as teacher leaders of proven accomplishment who have a deep knowledge of how to teach, a clear understanding of what strategies must be in play to make schools highly successful, and the skills and commitment to spread their expertise to others—all the while keeping at least one foot firmly in the classroom.” 

Educators love to use big words and lots of abstract concepts in writing, so I’ll simplify what I can. Comprehensive reading and writing skills will always be important, as that is the basis for how we share our ideas. What does change is how these skills are taught, and due to an increasingly electronic/digital environment, the tools are continually evolving. Those of you who are currently entering the educational field come from the first generation that has grown up with computer-based toys since birth, and it is easy for you to relate to a mobile device as an educational tool. You see its possibilities and potential, how it can help a student instantly reach outside the classroom walls.

All of us are familiar with the ubiquitous lesson plans that lay out in detail the curriculum for each school day. While this can be extremely helpful, it can be a ball and chain, or it can be a springboard for creative discussion. We are living in an era in which we don’t know what the questions are going to be in the next ten years, let alone what their solutions are; it’s important that we encourage our students to see possibilities.

The schools that will succeed in preparing future thinkers and innovators will be those that are open to using the talent that already exists on their own campuses—their teachers. Teacher leaders will be an important part of integrating the foundational skills with the need to think beyond what’s in front of them. We understand the need to have solid reading and writing skills, but it’s their future application that is changing. Forward-thinking administrators know that if they are going to keep highly motivated and creative teachers in the classroom, they need to give them a voice.

A lot of publicity has been given to the changing face of how some corporations are being run, particularly think-tanks such as Google, Microsoft, and Apple. The standard cubicle is not going to inspire the ideas for products that don’t yet exist, but will inevitably shape the future; eventually, we will see more of this approach in the classroom. 

This is an exciting time to be in education, and I, for one, look forward to the great things that will be happening. These changes are not about throwing away the past, but rather using the past as part of the future; a strong educational foundation will always be necessary. 

There are many highly innovative and creative after-school programs that are being offered, and the people who are running them are your future teacherpreneurs. Is your school adopting any of these teacher-leader concepts? If yes, be a part of it; if not, make it happen!

Teachers, we are on the verge of a revolution—not the type you hear about on the world news, but in your classroom. Many of the stock items we expect to see in a classroom, such as storybooks, textbooks, and reference books, are gradually becoming a thing of the past. The advent of computers has essentially made reference books obsolete in many schools, for no school budget can compete with a computer when it comes to keeping up to date with research and current events. Hard-bound encyclopedias are gone, but online access to some are currently available through a subscription service sponsored by the school or public library. 

Over the last ten years, electronic versions of textbooks have become increasingly available in colleges due to the reduced cost of purchasing the digital version. Textbook companies make a lot of money by consistently updating books every other year on average, and as a teacher, you want your students to have the most current information possible. Hard copies are very expensive, and when you consider that thousands of textbooks are annually budgeted for each year, there goes a huge portion of the school’s operating costs. The more expensive hard copy textbooks become, the more inviting digital versions are. This is already trickling down into elementary and secondary schools.

Libraries, as we have known them, are changing due to the digital world. Money, that would have previously purchased hard copies of novels and other literature, is now being used to buy access to digital reading programs. Many books are only available for use on a reading device, such as a Kindle or a Nook Book. Libraries will always be the last bastion for hard copy books, but as those books fall apart and have to be discarded, they will most likely not be replaced. 

A growing trend we have seen in the elementary classroom has been the elimination of teaching cursive writing, the reasoning being that people are writing less and using the keyboard more. Children are now being taught keyboarding at younger ages, and many schools feel that the sooner they are taught this basic skill, the better able they will be to meet the technological challenges ahead of them.

The increasing use of technology in the classroom is going to demand a teaching force ready to do this. Cell phones, iPads, and e-readers are going to become the most important school supplies students can have. These devices are already being incorporated into teaching in the elementary levels, but they are only following what the secondary and college levels have done previously. 

As teachers, you are going to be required to know how to use mobile devices as educational tools. There will undoubtedly be many workshops held in every school district designed to train you both on the device as well as on the programs you will be using. You are part of the changing face of education, and while a bit scary, it is exciting. You can do this! 

Hello, Teachers! Can you believe that it’s already well into May, and the academic year is already over for some of you and almost over for the rest of you! Now is the time to think about what tools worked well for you and which ones should be discarded, particularly with regards to your class website. It doesn’t seem to matter how much tweaking you do, as there is always something that can be improved or replaced for better functionality. Throughout the teaching term, you discover things that you don’t like, but once the semester is up and running, you have to stay with what’s there to avoid unnecessary confusion for your students. 

Ask yourself some questions, such as these:

•  What did like? Why?
•  What didn't I like? Why?
• Was I able to perform the functions that I wanted, such as posting pictures/videos?
• What do I want to do on my website?
• Are there ways to encourage parents/students to look at the website?

In most cases, you already have a mental list of many of these things, so now is the time to write them down. By seeing them on paper, it is much easier to sort them according to the types of solutions that are necessary. 

• Are there technical problems that prevent you from performing tasks?
• Are you suffering from inadequate training on how to use your website?

It doesn’t take long to analyze your website, and it is worth the effort to pinpoint those things that you like or don’t like. By doing this at the end of the semester, you are in a better position to find the solutions you need so that you can be ready for the next semester. 

This is my first academic season writing this blog, and now I am asking you for any suggestions of topics you would like to see me address. My goal is to make this a meaningful place where you can find help and answers to your situations, as well as learn about tools to make your job easier and more efficient. Teaching is a difficult job on its own, and if I can contribute in some way to making things easier, then I have achieved my goal.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Spring is often the time of year when “teacher fatigue” can strike. After struggling through the winter months with obstacles of all sorts, energy levels can run low. The end of the school year is in sight, but that last leg can be rough! Your creative juices have dried up, and you’ve run out of ideas to help teach certain concepts to those students who need more help.

By nature, teachers are a creative bunch, but it has only been recently in which there has been a forum where others could share ideas. In 2006, Paul Edelman, a former NYC public school teacher, decided to create an open online marketplace where teachers could buy, sell, and share original educational materials in downloadable formats. He was the first person to launch this idea, and it has exploded around the world. We know it as Teachers Pay Teachers (TpT) , and if you haven’t heard of this site yet, I will be glad to enlighten you. 

In the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, computer equipment was becoming commonplace in the classroom, but the use of the internet as a teaching resource was still in its early stages for the general populace. Online teaching was rudimentary at best, but once begun, it was like an online conflagration for the next best thing to improve the experience for both the student and the teacher. No longer was an online classroom static, as tools were created to make it possible to simulate an actual interactive classroom. Connecting with the online world has become an integral part of learning and teaching.

Mr. Edelman saw a need for there to be a place where teachers could connect and share ideas, but he took it a step further by making it available for teachers to sell some of their ideas at a nominal cost and earn some extra money in the process. How many times have you worked hard to come up with an idea to help teach a particular concept or idea and created a great teaching method that proved successful? By taking this one step further, you could share this idea on the TpT website and earn something for your effort. 

There is no cost involved in registering to be part of the TpT community, and you are even allowed ten free downloads from an extensive list of products just for signing up. There are many free features to take advantage of, but if you want to become actively involved in the selling aspect, you will need to become a paid member. Everything is explained on how to do this, but you are free to participate however best suits you.  There are 1,600,000 registered members with over 90,000,000 page views made each month! 

The website covers all aspects and levels of teaching, so there is something for everyone, ranging from teaching ideas to making money by selling your ideas through the marketplace. Pinterest has several pages that show you the wide variety of topics that are available. Take the time to browse through some of the offerings, and be sure to check out their blog--you will be amazed!

Happy 2015, teachers! You’ve survived the freneticism of the holiday season, and now, the New Year is officially here! I have always felt that this part of the school year is the most challenging, as there are fewer distractions due to holidays and breaks, and it seems to last much longer than the first part of the school year. This is the perfect time to learn about a tool that many of you already have in your classroom but are only casually acquainted with—the Smart Board.

The Smart Board is the high-tech version of the old-fashioned white board. It looks like a normal white board, but this one is powered by your computer; this is technology at its finest in the classroom. I was using the Smart Board to help teach English grammar and medical transcription more than ten years ago, and even then, I could recognize its incredible capabilities in making learning an interactive and fun process.

By doing a simple Google search, I found some websites that help illustrate the Smart Board’s potential in the classroom.

•    Using Smart Boards in the Classroom--This site provides a good overview of the capabilities and possibilities of using a Smart Board in the classroom. It also allows you to subscribe to their newsletter to get free updates on tools and ideas for the teacher.
 
•    Smart Boards for Dummies--It seems that the older we become, the more hesitant we are about learning new technology. Thankfully, the people who have put together the “Dummies” series on practically everything you want to know, have done one for the Smart Board, part of which is posted online and takes you through step by step 

•    Smart Board Training--This site emphasizes how training is absolutely essential in learning to make the most of your Smart Board.

•    If you want visual training, go to YouTube and input “Smart Boards” into the search bar. You will find numerous useful topics that will help you to become more proficient in using this tool. 

Make this one of your New Year’s resolutions, to learn some new tricks on using the Smart Board. Don’t be timid--find out how it can make learning fun and interactive in your classroom. You can “read” a book together, perform fun language or math exercises, and play other interactive games on it. You can even save some of these in video format which allows you to post the link on your classroom website for your students to access from home.

Our young students are often more savvy than we are when it comes to technology, so let’s step up and show them how fun learning can be by using techniques they can relate to. 

Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, would have been 110 years old this month and to this day he is remembered as one of the most well-known authors of children’s literature. His fun, whimsical books were some of the first that many of us read. And in our March celebrations of Dr. Seuss’s life and legacy, we often look for ways to bring that fun back into reading for our students.

Nothing excites my students more than free reading time. It’s like a sigh of relief in the classroom—they can read what they want and not have to prep for standardized post-reading questions. They know I’m not going to sit them down with paper and pencil and make them summarize what they read. But as a teacher, I also know that I must hold my students accountable for the time they spend reading, and in doing so I try to make it fun. Here are some fun reading-response activities to try in your classroom.

• Have students tweet about their books. Social media is everywhere and no matter what grade you teach, it’s likely your students are at least aware of Twitter. Rather than have students summarize what they’re reading, have them tweet it to a bulletin board. Provide sentence strips or small cuts of colorful paper where students write a 40-character (or other designated length) tweet about what they read. Even better, show them how to use hashtags to highlight the book’s theme or title.
• If you’re trying to encourage students to branch out to different genres, have them play 20 questions with another student once a week. Two students pair up and one students asks the other up to 20 questions about the book they are reading. Strict “yes” and “no” answers are optional; you might want to give them the opportunity to give short answers. Not only will students have to reflect on and remember what they’re reading, but you are also requiring them to practice language skills while they find out more about another book. If your students have a difficult time forming quality questions, start by providing some for them to use. But encourage creativity to avoid the feel of traditional reading response questions. You’ll be surprised at the conversations that ensue!
• Kids love to be silly and move around. Give them time to act out a short scene from their book—either in a small group setting or for the whole class. Use this as a reward for a struggling reader or as motivation for your class to work on a specific task. If you’re one of the lucky teachers who gets to do recess duty, you can have students perform for you during recess too so you can avoid using class time!

It can be a challenge to get students reading, especially with the ever-stressful reading response questions to prepare them for standardized tests. I don’t know anyone who likes to be quizzed about what they read, and when you’re reading for pleasure—as we should be encouraging our students to do—answering questions takes all the enjoyment out of it. But to hold students accountable to some degree, make it fun and keep the writing and questioning to a minimum.

What are some ways you encourage students to read? Do you have any fun tips to share?

It’s about that time of the year, when elementary students begin asking about Valentine’s Day parties and older students start whispering about their latest Valentine loves. Have you heard it yet? Sure, exchanging cards and small gifts (and of course candy) is fun, but this year why not opt for a less tangible and more meaningful show of love in your classroom?

Who needs calorie-laden chocolate or sticky candy when you can show students how much you care—and how to show it themselves—in quality learning activities. And really, they may not even know they’re learning! Here are some ideas for you to get started:

Educational Game Day
What kid doesn’t love to play games? Take a break from the monotony of teaching and host an educational game day. Students can choose from a variety of math or reading games that you already have in your classroom, or bring their own. Some excellent—and even unexpected—educational choices include Monopoly, Life, Jenga, Sequence, Scrabble, Blokus, Battleship, and so many more!

The Language of Love
What better way to show love than a sonnet or poem? Teach the basics, then have your students write poems to one another. Don’t worry so much about rules and perfection; simply getting their ideas down on paper is enough for a quick writing activity.

History of Love
Yes, love does have a role in history. Research the role of marriage in society, from cultural perspectives to modern rituals and traditions to arranged marriages. How might have history been altered if Marie Antoinette wasn’t forced to marry a man she never met, the future King Louis XVI? Discussions are likely to raise questions and offer more opportunity for research, and give students insights into how times have changed over the years.

How Does the Heart Work?
Forget about love and embark on a discussion about how the heart—literally. How does our circulatory system work? What is the biology behind the body? Use the thematic tie-in but take it in a totally different direction.

Chemistry of Cooking
If you have access to a kitchen in your school, give a lesson on chemistry—the chemistry of cooking. Simple cooking lessons allow you to teach the properties of matter and chemical reactions, and your class will have a nice Valentine’s Day treat when you’re done.

The Cost of Dating
Do you teach older students who are potentially looking to take someone on a date? Do they know the cost of a date? Do some real-life math with functional text such as menus, art center programs, etc. Have students plan their ideal Valentine’s date and calculate the real cost, including tax, tip, and incidentals.

As a teacher, Valentine’s Day always seems like a wasted day. Too much time spent on love notes and silly crafts (not to mention the sugar-laced treats that are sure to fill up the classroom!) can really put a damper on learning opportunities. Show your students some love this Valentine’s Day and find new ways to celebrate the holiday. What are some ways you’ve found to incorporate learning into your holiday?

The links I’ve provided here are just a small sampling of the thousands of learning opportunities found on the Internet. Spend some time exploring ideas, and please share what you find!

Welcome to 2014! One of my favorite things about returning from winter break is that my students always seem ready to buckle down and work. They’re over the holiday excitement and just a little bit wiser and more mature. I like to take the first week back to reevaluate learning goals with them—look at how far they’ve come and discuss where they can (and should) be by the end of the school year. Here, I’ll share with you my strategy to setting, and meeting, year-end learning goals.

How far have you come?

When setting goals, I think it’s important to first take a look at how far students have come since the beginning of the school year. If your district or school is like most, students likely took a beginning of the school year pre-test, plus additional assessments at the end of each quarter. With two quarters under their belts, students have a great picture of how much progress they’ve made. In my classroom, we create bar graphs with these benchmark test scores, to really drive the data home for the kids. It’s a great visual and they love to see the progress they’ve made. And, of course, we share this information with parents as well, either on my website or in a conference with the parents.

Where do you need to go?

Whether your students are ahead of the game or struggling to catch up, setting realistic goals will help them get to where they need to go academically. I like to sit one-on-one with students to develop these goals. We discuss what they’re doing to progress toward year-end success, and what they could do to garner even better results. For example, setting a goal for a student to earn an 80% on a year-end math assessment isn’t necessarily realistic if they scored a 38% on the last one. Take into account the amount of support available at home, the resources available at school, and the child’s motivation to improve. Maybe improving to a 55% is more realistic, making sure that the student and parent understand that the goals have been modified to the ability of the student.

How will you get there?

This is the key to success, and one that requires accountability from student, parent, and teacher. With the child (and parent, if possible), document what is required of each party to ensure the success of the student. What does the parent need to do? What should the child do? What will you do? Success is truly a partnership among all three, and getting buy-in from home often involves documenting your own piece to the puzzle. Be specific about how all the pieces fit together.

Reevaluate

I like to reevaluate strategies and goals on a regular basis, especially when I see that students are struggling or frustrated with their progress. Take the time to meet with students occasionally to discuss their progress and to ensure follow-through at home. It’s okay to change goals when needed, but be sure you’re not doing this because of a lack of support. This would be a time to involve your administration or child study team.

Setting goals is a necessary function in classrooms today. Without them, you’re simply pushing a cart forward with no destination in mind. You would never begin a trip or a race not knowing when or where you will stop. Students must know where their target is so they can celebrate small successes along the way. This will help give them the momentum to continue along the path to success in this school year and beyond. Happy new year!

If you are in the one of the 45 states that has adopted the Common Core State Standards, your teaching practices are likely in the midst of change. While change is difficult, and getting students ready for the new assessments that go along with the new standards is also a challenge, utilizing a similar standards base nationwide will only benefit our children. Especially in the more transient communities, students who move frequently will enjoy expectations that are aligned from district to district and state to state.

As you likely know, the new CCSS are much more in-depth than many current states’ standards. With full implementation this year, many school districts are struggling to get students up to speed, especially since old state standards are still being tested with school labels depending on these assessments.

With the same end goal in mind, a sharing of resources is essential to student success in our own school districts and beyond. Here we’re sharing a list of resources we’ve found that will help teachers master the CCSS and provide much-needed ideas for teaching to the new standards.

• As an endorsing partner for the common core initiative, ASCD (formerly the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) shares a wide range of resources on its website. From Common Core background to implementation resources to professional development opportunities, ASCD has a comprehensive list of tools for teachers.
• The International Reading Association is dedicated to worldwide literacy. Here you’ll find information about professional development, books and journals for personal exploration, and links to outside sources to ensure your instruction is up-to-snuff on the new English Language Arts standards.
• Wondering what the new assessment instruments will look like? Be sure to visit the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers and Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium websites for sample test questions, implementation information, and more.
• Edutopia offers a guide to numerous resources for both administrators and teachers, including how to plan lessons using CCSS and where to being your implementation of the new standards.
• TeachThought has compiled all the best websites for teachers with their 50 Common Core Resources for Teachers list. While you won’t have time to sift through them all, a quick scan could bring about new ideas and teaching practices.

CCSS is a great step in the right direction for education in the U.S. and with a little cooperation, we can all learn from one another. What are your favorite resources for implementing the new standards?

It’s back to school time again and after all of the first days of school activities have ended it’s time to get into the curriculum for the new school year. Like every other year, you’ll likely start with a review of last year’s material. If you’re tired of the same book work you’ve been using for years, try a hands-on approach to reviewing essential skills before diving into this year’s content. Both you and your students will have more fun, and they are likely to retain the material a whole lot better!

A great resource when looking for review games is the trivia game Eggspert. Simply customize your own questions and create teams of students to play a Jeopardy-type game. No time to create questions for your review? Borrow the year-end review from the grade below you! As the students are answering, you can assess them orally or keep track of answers on a spreadsheet to identify which concepts are strengths or weaknesses for your students.

Another game that is very popular with the older students is called Ask the Expert. This game requires five student experts. These experts go separately to the front of the room to be questioned by the other students. Tell students what topic their questions should be based on and remind them of how to ask higher level questions. Then choose one student at a time to ask one of the experts a question. If the expert answers correctly they get to stay at the front of the room. If he gets it wrong, the person who asked the question gets to take his place. This game is individually competitive but it allows the teacher to see truly what the kids know and where they are weak within the standards because they are working individually.

SmartBoard games are also an easy way to do a quick and easy assessment of students and a free account with Smarttech gives you access to thousands of ready-made lessons and interactive quizzes. If available in your school district, SmartBoard responders can enable the teacher to quickly determine which students still need more practice on last year’s standards after a quick interactive quiz. 

Reviewing last year’s material is an integral, though not always exciting, part of the teaching process. You can use these activities this fall or any time during the school year to ensure student growth and academic success.

Those lazy days of summer are finally here and while spending some extra time with friends and family is a must, this is also an ideal time to gear up for next year. I know we all put in many hours during the school year, but putting in a few summer hours will pay off exponentially in the coming school year.

Organization is a big piece of the equation. Consider putting together your back-to-school packets as early as possible. Include your supply lists, information about your behavior management system, as well as all of your school’s required forms. Have five or six extra packets ready so you don’t have to hunt down forms later. This will save time throughout the school year as new students join your classroom.

Have your class list already? Start setting up your library check-out system, making your students’ name tags, and putting together homework folders now. If new students join your class later, you’ll only have to make a few more of these supplies as you begin the school year.

Professional Learning Communities are vitally important as you plan your instruction to meet Common Core standards. If you don’t already know your grade level teammates, find a time this summer to grab lunch to discuss your goals for the school year, your teaching style, and how you can work together for the benefit of your students.

We know that great teaching ideas pop up throughout the school year when you least expect it. I keep an “ideas” folder handy and add to it throughout the school year. I take a few hours each summer to review the folder and decide which new ideas I will implement in the coming school year. If you have a similar system, review your ideas and research what you need to put the new ideas into your regular teaching repertoire.

Summers are for rejuvenation, and as teachers we definitely need that time to recharge. But with a little extra planning during the summer, you will have a little less to stress about during the nonstop meetings during back-to-school season. What are some things you do to make sure you’re ready for the school year? Please share!