Education Short List

It’s so great when you’re in school and you not only understand what’s going on, but you’re learing the lessons and have no trouble getting the work done. It’s even more amazing when that feeling of comprehension lasts the entire time you’re in school – from first grade until the end of your Master’s Degree.

Realistically that isn’t not it goes for most people. Increasingly I’ve noticed how ‘Hitting the educational wall’ is becoming a more prominent problem. I have actually had a spike in the number of tutoring calls that I’ve received pertaining to this educational dilemma.

First let me explain the concept. ‘Hitting the Educational Wall’ refers to when a student isn’t having any difficulty learning. And is able to do the majority, if not all, of the work without having to take notes, show the steps, or spend more than 15 minutes prepping; and that they do not need additional support in any capacity. But then, either with a certain subject or a grade level, that isn’t the case any longer. Math homework takes longer, scienece doesn’t make sense anymore, or seventh grade everything is difficult. Thus ‘hitting the educational wall.’

Now all learning becomes difficult, and, depending on the age of the student – an interest in school declines significantly. This is why, during my tutoring consultations, I always ask a student when they first started noticing that school got harder. By being able to pinpoint the exact grade and subject where a learner stops learning, the teacher/tutor/family member can start to rebuild.

If you are noticing that, in a student in your home, talk to them and see when they feel they first started having problems. Once that can be determined, it becomes easier to understand what happened and why. Also, it’s important to understand that not all of school or learning is the problem, it’s that certain point when the student ‘Hit the educational wall’ that the learning stopped.

Everyone does better in their learning when they have an example to follow. And, like so many other parts of life these days, that example comes from the classroom. As a big advocate of saving the environment (really who shouldn’t be?) I have the top 6 ways to help make that example of change start in your classroom.

1. Brown Bag Lunch

a. This concept has a wide reaching impact. Not only are you saving gas by bringing your lunch and not going out for it, but you are more likely to put better, healthier food into your body. By making your students aware of your homemade meals – you are inadvertently teaching them about food, farming, health, local, and pollution.
b. What if once a month you had a group of students bring their lunch and eat with you? Do you think that could provoke change? I do. I did this very thing. My students didn’t always bring a lunch and we didn’t always talk about the environment. Yet, they were always curious about the food I brought from home, which allowed me to express my views on caring for the planet to them.

2. Turn off the lights

a. I haven’t met a person yet who enjoys the harsh white lights that can be found in each classroom. So, I can’t imagine someone would feel denied an hour or two of having them turned off. By doing silent reading, or individual work time, with the lights off – a classroom is changed. People are quieter, a bit more mellow, and you are saving electricity to boot.
b. Turn off the A/C or heat for that matter. The same energy conservation applies to this. Obviously no one wants to be too cold or too warm. But, open up the windows and door for a breeze. Bring a sweater to wear on chiller days, drink water to quench your thirst.

3. Reuse Paper

a. You know what is so cool about white copier paper? The blank backside. Yup, just switch that paper over and you have a whole new side to print things on. In my classroom, our students take reading tests every day. Once that test was logged into the computer, there was a perfectly good piece of paper thrown away. We decided to print the reading reports on the other side. Viola.
b. That paper can also be used to sketch out problems for math, doodle on, write lists or notes. Several uses can be implemented. Don’t throw out a piece of a paper just because one side is used.

4. Classroom/School Garden

a. Go one step further and create a community garden with unused lawn space. There are schools around the country who are giving up unused lawn space to the community at large, so people without a yard can still have a garden. Not only is this a huge way to improve the environment, but it creates a community feeling of kinship with the school and neighbors and it teaches intrinsic values to students.
b. Butterfly and chick project – don’t want to grow vegetables? Alrighty, what about getting caterpillars that grow into butterflies and talk about that life cycle? Or eggs that grow into baby chicks and chickens?
c. Grow seeds of plants, vegetables, or fruit, in your room. This is appropriate for elementary to high school. High school students can study soil, erosion, various soil/planting materials. You can study geology, darwinism, etc.

5. Use reusable containers

a. Lunch bags/boxes, water bottles, and coffee mugs, etc. All of these containers are ones we, as adults, use each day. Why not show our students that we are taking the first step to protect the planet for them, and use these handy dandy containers?

6. Create an in-class recycling project

a. My master teacher loves Coke, drinks a coke every day. And each day she would save her coke can on the back counter, not throwing it in the trash – but leaving it out. I asked her why she did it. She wanted to use it as a conversation starter about recycling. Students were constantly asking her about it, which got them all talking about it, and got the kids interested in it to.
b. No matter what you have in the room, or the age of your students, you can do something just like my master teacher did.

7. Get out of the classroom

a. Alright, I know, it says ‘Top 6’ and this is 7 – but I’m much too much of an environmental nut to stop at 6. Realistically I could go to 12 or 18. But, this one – getting out of the classroom was too important to pass up.
b. Take your students out of the classroom for a lesson. Even if you teach math class, why not teach it outside one day? By getting more (literally) involved with nature, you are allowing your students to see and appreciate it more. Yes, there’s an obvious bonus if you teacher science and life science – but I had college professors who were teaching us about the Holocaust, and we did it outside.

As with all of these ideas, teachers should talk to their students about what they are doing and why it is important to make these changes. A teacher can go further and make their students part of the discussion and figure out how they want to make a change to protect the planet. These learning lessons are all around us. With a touch of time and planning, a teacher can bring the ‘real world’ with all its glories and disasters into the reality of their students. I believe that children and teenagers are just short adults. With that understanding, I believe that my students can examine any real world issue; and that they have a voice with an opinion on each subject.

Taking care of the planet is one of those subjects that educations can bring into focus in their classrooms. From little steps to big projects, to daily tasks and once a semester units – this topic, like a vast many others, has unlimited potential. Just like your students.

http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2010/01/with_help_from_portland_eco-sc.html

The educational author, Jonathan Kozol writes how there is value in having a classroom filled with work from all students [look at me, using the word ‘work’ Alfie Kohn would be so upset]. I completely agree. But for me, knowing how to fill my classroom is an internal struggle.

I always wanted each child to see how important they were to me; that I valued each for a particular reason. On top of that, I wanted them to see that all of their work, no matter the grade, had value. Now for the students who were always achieving good grades, this wasn’t a problem; but for those who weren’t it could be. Which is where my struggle started. Did I want to crush the self-confidence of a child who didn’t get good grades? Did I want to show my class that I only promoted the students who were academically achieving more (because this is what the school wanted – more academic achievement)? Can having a poor grade posted be a tool for self-improvement? Did I want to stifle my more successful students from doing more? Could I show that learning, and thereby making mistakes, are all just part of the learning process?

These questions – plus about a dozen more – were all going through my head before I set up my first classroom. I really wanted to be the type of educator that put he focus back on learning and equality, and tolerance. BUT I had to balance that with wanting to keep my job; a job that I liked at a school that I wanted to keep working at. And although I was always inspired by the writings of educational gurus, I found myself struggling with how to make those two paradigms flow together (this is actually another part of another internal struggle I had as an educator).

What I finally ended up doing was to have several different types of student work displayed around the room. I had a writing wall that was up all year long, and it had all of the students’ writings up from the beginning of the year to the end. This was to show students their progress in becoming stronger writers. There was a sticker chart that kept the tally of students who received 100%s on math tests. Also, I had a monthly panel where I picked various papers from five different students each month. This was to show a variety of work done in all subject matters. And then I had a monthly display that showed a piece of creative writing, that wasn’t graded. Lastly I had an art shelf that showed the artistic talents of students; the materials there rotated as well.

I don’t know if it was ‘right’ or if I stunted the learning growth of a student; and it was seriously something that I constantly worried about. But, I suppose it shows the very real reality in education, and how there is always room for improvement.

Bullying has been in the news more than usual these past few weeks; and for good reason. An Irish immigrant was bullied to death, so much that the girl who was being terrorized by her peers committed suicide because she just couldn’t take it anymore. Another girl, who was not allowed to attend her own prom, was set up to go to a fake one – all organized by her peers. She received, and still does, threats and slurs on a daily basis.

***

~~~~I would like to be able to say to you that bullying is something new; but we all know it’s not. I’m also not going to make you spend a lot of time reading a log article about bullying. I do want to take a few minutes to discuss it from an educator’s perspective (something I feel has been lacking from the media lately) and then provide some resources that could be useful to all involved. I’ve been working on this article for a while, so I hope that you find it to be as comprehensive as I wish it to be.~~~~

When someone becomes a teacher, they go through mandatory trainings on how to best help their students in all situations, including bullying. However a training can’t prepare you to deal with every type of circumstance that can present itself to you where bullying is part of that problem. Furthermore, I feel there is a balance between overreacting and reacting too late. All good teachers want to see each of their students to be successful. And yes, no matter how ‘bad’ a child may be – if a teacher doesn’t find a reason to love the bullies too – then they lose out as well. Add to that, that everyone – EVERYONE – gets picked on at some point. No, it’s not fun or fair – but neither is life. I’m not advocating bullying – so hear me out. As a teacher, I want to protect and prepare my students for life. In the ‘real world’ each person is going to meet someone who is not nice to them, who doesn’t see the real value and beauty in them. If I can help a child to understand that, to not let that random person get to them, then I feel I have helped my student out. So, if there is an incident, that I, as a teacher, thinks isn’t a big deal – then I might use that as a lesson to help my student who has been teased. Obviously if it happens again, or repeated by another student – I will approach it differently. Plus, I always take the time to figure out what is motivating the bully to lash out at their classmate. Children can be cruel, so can adults. It’s my job as a teacher to nurture and care for each student. And, I am legally bound to be obligated to protect the rights and privacy of each student.

I just wish that some of the news articles would take these points into consideration before condemning a school or teacher for not doing enough.

Beyond that, it hurts me to see schools that aren’t protecting all of their kids. I wonder what happened to let situations like the ones I’ve read about get so out of hand. I have used all of the resources here to aid either myself or another educator in helping with bully situations. I truly hope it can help others too.

Here are several resources to help students, families, and educators with bullying

1. Loudmouth article, Educational Theatre group from the UK

http://www.loudmouth.co.uk/loudmouth-news.cfm?newsID=23

2. Teaching Tolerance

http://www.tolerance.org/activity/bullying-tips-students
http://www.tolerance.org/resource/bullied-teacher-bullied-student-how-recognize-bullying-cultu
http://www.tolerance.org/activity/bullying-guidelines-teachers

3. Bullying Organization

www.bullying.org

4. Ed.gov Pamphlet on how to deal with bullying in the classroom

http://www.edpubs.gov/Product_Detail.aspx?SearchTerm=ED001366B

5. Strategies For Bullying

http://www.amazon.com/McGraws-Life-Strategies-Dealing-Bullies/dp/1416974733

Here are recent news articles dealing with relevant bullying concerns:

1. Today Show –

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/36191902/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/36120659/ns/health-behavior/

2. Dr. Phil

http://drphil.com/shows/show/115

3. News about Constance McMillen

http://ellen.warnerbros.com/2010/03/ellens_message_to_mississippi_student_constance_mcmillen_0324.php

4. Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michelle-lamar/fake-prom-parents-despica_b_529590.html

5. Oprah Show – Two Kids Who Were Bullied to Death

http://www.oprah.com/showinfo/Bullied-to-Death-Two-Devastated-Moms-Speak-Out_1

6. Portland, Oregon Bullying in Schools

http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=123862305059786800

A few weeks ago I had written about an article from Metro Parent, that discussed the importance of having American students learn about how their country’s government works. I am a huge advocate of getting students involved, and making the learning more real to them and their world. So, you can imagine how excited I was to read about a local high school that was doing just that.

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/03/lincoln_students_take_civics_f.html

Here you can read about a high school’s Constitution Team. Not only is this a group of students that spends extra time learning about the Constitution and democracy — put they are putting that new knowledge into a hands-on practical use. They do this by helping immigrants to gain their citizenship. How cool is that?

Don’t say that students can’t put use to their education, don’t say that they ‘won’t really understand’ – these students get it, they are the leaders and controllers of their destiny, their future, and their education.

I can’t use yellow highlighters. All of the other colors are just line, but it’s the yellow ones that work against me. Please allow me to explain.

Starting in sixth grade I struggled in school; by the time I was in high school I was bottoming out as a C student. So one of my parents had me watch a series of educational videos called, “If There is a Will There is an A.” The only thing I remembered and took away from those videos is about how to properly use a yellow highlighter; to use it as a tool to ‘highlight’ the important parts of my work. By the time I was done with the series, all of my yellow highlighting had worked against me. I couldn’t even look at one. Anytime that I used a yellow highlighter it did the exact opposite of its original intent – I ended up ignoring those parts that were actually meant to be what I focused on.

So, why am I telling you this?

Simple. Aside from wanting to vent about my dislike for the yellow highlighters in the work, this article is meant to ‘highlight’ if you will how one specific tool or concept isn’t going to work for everyone. And this is valuable information for teachers and learners to understand. For the teacher you need a plethora of tricks and tips to aid your students in learning. For the learner, you need to realize not every concept is going to work for you, that’s okay, Instead, take the time to try different techniques until you find the right fit for what does work.

I don’t like to admit it, but when I was a classroom teacher, I didn’t spend as much time as I wanted on social studies. It wasn’t because I didn’t have available materials; I just didn’t have the time. I knew that I was cheating my students by not teaching them about their American History, and that was very upsetting to me.

Which is what made me interested in reading an article by Metro Parent parenting magazine on this very topic. The article, Civics Education: Lost in America by Teresa Carson put the focus specifically on Civics Education – or understanding the United States government system, the right and responsibilities of what it means to be an American citizen. Yet to me, the bigger picture of the general lack of social studies education in the classroom, especially in the lower grades – is what concerns me the most. “The emphasis on ‘teaching to the test’ might be creating a civics gap…experts agree that students need more day-in, day out, education in civics.”

This was very true for my fellow teachers and me. Even more alarming was that since we were in a Title I school, our daily focus was on reading and math. All subjects after that were secondary. “Lower income and more diverse school historically have not does as well on standardized testing. As a result, educators say, these are often the schools that emphasize reading and math at the expense of non-tested subjects…”. It was frustrating to be part of that then, and now still looking at it from the outside.

The article goes on to talk about local students, groups, and schools that are finding ways to reintegrate Civics education into the classroom curriculum. The one example I especially enjoyed was about a group of 4th graders (which is what I used to teach) who pushed a legislation to have the Dungeness Crab made into Oregon’s official state crustacean. I find these stories to be a point of inspiration for all involved in education. When people take it upon themselves to ignite a fire of change – I love it. It in turns inspires me to challenge myself to find new ways to bring important material to my students. [This is very much the case with a special project I have been working on for nearly two years. But I will have to tell you about it later].

I hope that as time goes on, and we begin to see the impact that the lack of social studies (and art and science and physical education) have, and how it really means that our students to do receive that well-rounded education – then perhaps a greater momentum will ignite a bigger fire for change. “Nobody argues that civics is not a vitally important topic, but finding time and funding…in these economic times is challenging…but we need more…it’s a requirement.” Our students are going to be our future leaders – they need to know what they are leading us into.

Ahh, math word problems – the nemesis of every K-12 student.

The three things I get the most tutoring calls for is handwriting, study skills, and math, specifically math word problems.

I totally get it – word problems are difficult. It’s only been in the past three years that I have felt comfortable with them. Yet there are still times when I get completely stumped.

But, starting out in elementary school it doesn’t need to be so hard. First, teachers should stop telling their students that word problems are really difficult to learn. By doing this repeatedly throughout a child’s education, you are basically setting them up to fail. Instead, just teach word problems like it’s any other lesson. Thereby teaching students that word problems do have their difficulty but can be learned and mastered. I would also suggest using pictures, or even better – math manipulatives – to give a visual representation to the problems that students are doing.

Another strategy is to examine word problems from real life. Any good saleswoman will tell you that if you can make a connection with a prospective buyer, then you have already won. The same concept is very true for math word problems. If you can get your students to make a personal connection to the work, it becomes that much easier for them to understand and comprehend them. I like to use examples about buying games or eating lunch. “If you are given $9.80 from your family on Monday to buy lunch for the whole week; how much do you have to spend each day? Say you want to buy pizza on Monday, and that is $1.75; sandwich and a salad is $3.00 on Tuesday; what is the rest that is left?” Get the students involved, talk about percentages and fractions too. “The game you want is listed as $29.50; but it says that you can take 25% off, what is the new price?” Have students work in pairs or small groups. By bringing their own world to the lessons they are learning, it gives them ownership and makes them feel important; while at the same time allowing them to learn.

As for when it comes to taking a test that is filled with word problems, I have a four step process that gives the test taker a better chance at being successful.
1. remember that word problems are meant to be confusing and contain more information than is needed to complete the actual question
2. Read the actual question FIRST
3. Read the whole problem and the question. Put a box around any information that directly relates to what the question is asking you.
4. Complete the problem.

By breaking down word problems and demystifying why they are so difficult, you allow your students to be more successful and help them to understand and use a concept that will be very helpful later on in life.

When I first started working in education, I was a substitute teacher. I worked in several districts and in a variety of classroom settings.

Although I have loads of stories, perhaps the two that get told the most are of when I got a concussion. Yep, and not only once – but twice. That’s right, on two separate occasions in two separate schools I got a concussion.

***

The first happened in a Special Needs classroom that I was very familiar with. At Las Lomas Elementary, there was a teacher who was new and in trainings a lot, so I became her regular substitute teacher. There were three very well-trained aides with me too, they made each day flow seamlessly.

On one particular day, one of the aides – Sally – told me to be aware of D and his new behavior. D is an autistic boy, who was seven at the time; he didn’t have a strong verbal vocabulary, but was very aware of his surroundings. Sally was telling me how D had this new angry maniacal laugh, and right when he stops laughing he goes into a fit.
“Well, what does the laugh sound like? So I know to watch out for it. “
“I’ll let you know it when he does it.”
On cue Daniel starts to laugh his new scary demonic laugh.
Sally says, “That’s it.”
I turn around just as Daniel picks up a wood black and throws it at my face.

Now this little boy may be autistic, but he needs to grow up to be an MLB pitcher. With the most amazing accuracy he picked up and threw this wood block so absolutely perfect at me that it hit the bridge of my nose. Of course my eyes began to water; and luckily since there were three other adults in the room I went to the nurse’s office. There I got an ice pack and some aspirin. I re-entered the room with a big ice pack planted on the middle of my face, and all of the kids began holding their faces like I was. I knew that I wasn’t going t o be able to hold this ice pack to my face all day. So unfortunately that knock from the block ended up swelling so badly that it resulted in me receiving an actual concussion. Luckily the swelling did go down and I was fine. Until the next time.

_____

Some time after the block throwing incident, I was called in to work as a substitute at GGUSD. I had never worked at this particular district before, but I wanted to. I was a larger district and close to my home. Obviously I was glad to get a call from them. However, I am sad to report that it was the last call I received from them as well.

On the day in question, I arrived to a very busy room – full of students, adult volunteers (who also needed direction) and lots of notes. This particular day the class was to do centers. One of the centers included listening to an audio cassette, the cassette player was underneath where the television was hanging. The TV that was perfectly set up at eye level…the TV that I ran smack into….

As the class was settling in, I was trying to multi-task, obviously unsuccessfully. An adult volunteer came into the classroom, just as I was putting the tape into the tape player, and BANG! I hit the TV with such force that my vision became blurry, my nose starting running, and I began to cry from the force of the smack.

Since I was apparently becoming an expert on concussions, I immediately put the volunteers in charge and stumbled my way back to the main office and into the nurse’s office. The nurse became very panicked, she had never seen a teacher who got a concussion. To make it even more entertaining she informed me that I hit the TV so hard that I had the letters from it imprinted on my forehead! It goes without saying that everyone had to come and look at the ‘RCA’ on this new girl’s face.

I did end up having to leave school and have my then boyfriend take me to the E.R. But it’s fine, I just will never be able to play football professionally. Oh, and that school district? Managed to lose my phone number because they never called me again. I can’t imagine why.

Really, what about the Olympics can’t be made into a lesson? There’s history, athletics, mathematics, geography, measurements, distance, arts, public speaking, coloring/drawing, graphs, reports, research, languages, foreign cultures, etc.

For me, as an educator, the biggest frustration I had with graduate school was that my professors wanted me to bring more to my lessons and give my students more; but never gave me the direction on how to do that. By taking this long-term option of integrating the Olympics – a teacher has a great opportunity to do more with the lessons they are already teaching.

For elementary school:
– find a map of the world and locate the countries that are participating in the Olympics on it

- coloring: the flags of the different countries could provide fine motor skills functions lessons for pre-k -3rd grade

- biography reports

- reading stories from other countries or stories about the Olympics

http://www.lessonplanspage.com/MathOlympicsMedalsGraphIdea35.htm

http://www.lessonplanspage.com/PEMDOlympicOpeningCeremoniesAndGameDaysK6.htm

For middle school:
- Book Reports about athletics, athletes, biographies, history of the Olympics, countries, using the country and creating a personal family history timeline

- listen to music and national anthems from various countries

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/17/gk2/olympic.html

For high school:
- Reports about athletics, athletes, biographies, history of the Olympics, countries, using the country and creating a personal family history timeline. The same idea as the middle school lessons, but more indepth and have them include resources

- Pick a country and discover their journey to the Olympics

http://www.vancouver2010.com/

http://eduforum.vancouver2010.com/

These are just a few ideas I can think of off the top of my head. Here are some additional links that should support your work academically. I’d like to know if you have any other ideas or lessons that have worked for you in the past.

And families — don’t be afraid to get in this action yourself!