Teaching vocabulary

What are some techniques that you use to teach vocabulary to your students?

Edutopia article on Vocab Instruction

Psychologists are we

Do you think it is beneficial to have an understanding of the developmental psychology of the American human adolescent?
I believe that by having a basic understanding of the dynamics of the human mind we as educators will be better able to meet their academic, social and emotional professional needs.

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/plast.html

Inapproporiate behavior on school grounds before and after school

You know what inappropriate behavior looks like - what are some examples from your experiences?
Here's is the solution to the situation:
1) Have rules posted throughout the school
2) If at all possible separate the student from peers during school
3) Make sure that the student does not have any down time while on school - encourage participation in school activities to decrease the likely hook of free time - which usually equals trouble causing.
4) Give the student a responsibility in the building
5) Teach the kid to "think" before acting.

Going the extra mile

Hey all – sorry it’s been 2 weeks since my last post – spring break then a week of getting back into the grove

So, our jobs are crazy! We as educators do not have a “normal” gig. In reality we have about 1 – 2 hours in our days to complete work that other professions take 5-6 hours to complete. Teachers are amazing professionals – we work all day long as mentors, lawyers, leaders, managers, writers, reflectors, philosophers, communicators, economists, psychologists…name it we do it! (except for maybe surgeons...) Where do we then find avenues and time to go beyond our contracted obligations – truly teachers are without a doubt within the top 3 of the greatest time managers in the professional world.

What are some things that you do around your school to go beyond your role as teacher?

The student who does not follow school rules

When I was in high school if you were late to class you had points taken away from your grade...When I was in high school homework could also affect my grade...Now, it appears that our schools are in the middle of a transition where student grades may only be generated through the effective use of summative assessments. Which is great, and my teaching style matches this mandate - however I have noticed that many of the students now know that they do not "need" to be in class on time (or at all), and that their homework does not count (so why do it?). This has resulted in a serious issue - students are not following the rules of the school because there are little or no repercussions.
People are people - and will revert to self governing principles unless there is enforcement of rules within a system.

My suggestions for resolving this:
1) Be a consistent authority figure in your building
2) Make sure that you and your coworkers and enforcing the rules of the building
3) Remind the students of school rules
4) Provide reinforcement when rules are followed - especially by repeat rule breakers
5) Post school rules throughout your building

The student who does not follow school rules

When I was in high school if you were late to class you had points taken away from your grade...When I was in high school homework could also affect my grade...Now, it appears that our schools are in the middle of a transition where student grades may only be generated through the efective use of summative assessments. Which is great, and my teaching style matches this mandate - however I have noticed that many of the students now know that they do not "need" to be in class ontime (or at all), and that their homework does not count (so why do it?). This has resulted in a serious issue - students are not following the rules of the school because there are no reprocussions to their decisions.
People are people - and will revert to self governing proinciples unless there is enforcement of rules within a syetem.

My suggestions for resolving this:
1) Be a consistent authority figure in your building
2) Make sure that you and your coworkers and enforcing the rules of the building
3) Remind the students of school rules
4) Provide reinforcement when rules are followed - especially by repeat rule breakers
5) Post school rules throughout your building

Students who don't participate in classroom activities

Encouraging students to work on a subject that have little interest in is difficult. However, perhaps it is not a lack of interest that the student really is experiencing - I believe all of us can be interested in any form of knowledge, we simply need to be in the right frame of mind -- but instead of a lack of interest the study may be focused on experiences in their life outside of your classroom. The student may also have told by other teachers, or their parents that their efforts are hopeless because its "too late for them to pass".

Something I would like to mention quickly - a lot of the things I am writing about are not necessarily things that I experience in my own classroom - they sometimes are, or they are things I've observed in other classrooms, things i've experienced in my past, information gathered through discussions, or other observations throughout my daily experience.

So back to student participation, I did a little thinking and research and have found a couple practices we can do to increase participation in classwork.
1) Encouragement and rewarding participation from other students.
2) Call on the student when you are sure they will be able to answer correctly.
3) Demonstrate respect for the student's opinions
4) Structure the environment so that the student has multiple opportunities to positively interact with peers in classroom activities.
5) Make sure the student is clear on expectations and has all of the necessary materials.

What are some things that you do?

The kid that doesn't study

As I continue down my professional path I am noticing more and more that a majority of our students do not study.
Why is this?
What are the underlining reasons for this behavior?
What do you think?
(There are so many reasons why -- I would like to hear from some of you about what you think)

Now, I have possible solutions - but to generate these without a clear understanding of the reasons behind the student behavior is something I do not like to do...
1) Assess the level of difficulty - remind yourself if your kid has any documented learning specifications
2) Be sure the student knows what you are asking for - make sure they know what studying looks like
3) Make sure the student understands the natural consequences of failing
4) Maintain consistency of expectations
5) Communicate with home

The Technology Addiction

Due to the nature of nature our evolutionary characteristic to sit and conserve energy has lead to a serious dependency on the quick and easy. What we experience in our everyday lives is not at all anywhere close to what our original ancestors had to work with. Think about this - if you were to travel back in time 50,000 years and grab an ancient Egyptian or an Australian Aborigine and bring them back to our time they would be able to drive, use an ipad, text and eventually communicate just like us. The reality is that we used to have to work our ass off to get the necessary materials for our survival - and taking a break was rarely an option -- so when it was available we took advantage of it. In fact we are adapted to love chillin! it means we can save energy in case a tiger or hippo tries to eat us. If its fast, easy and smooth we as humans likey likey.
Now if we look at the concept of instant gratification in relation to the presence of communicative technology in our students lives a question arises: how can we adapt our policies and pedagogy to co-evolve with this transition of communication practices and experiences?
Its a losing battle - we can't fight the presence of cell phone use in our schools. The main issue is that students use these tools for negative purposes --to cheat, talk, bully, distract...
How does a school community compete with this reality?

How to deal with an apathetic student

A student is failing your class and you have a talk with them - the student then reacts in one of 2 ways:
1) With contention - "Why are you doing this to me?"
2) With apathy - "Whatever..."
One of the hardest things for teachers to deal with is an apathetic student - and as we ALL know students are apathetic for a number a reasons.
1) They may be having difficulties at home.
2) Their self-esteem may be low.
3) They could suffer from a learning "disability"
4) They could feel a lot of guilt and shame for their poor performance
Most likely the student has been experiencing this academic reality for a number of years - most often beginning between 4th and 6th grade - and what we high school teachers end up with is a student with a complex - they think of themselves as incapable of doing it because its too "hard" for them to make the change.
Here is what I suggest:
1) Build relationships- as close to the beginning of the year as possible
2) Ask them when they started experiencing these academic realities - ask them "were you like this last year?....How about the year before that? What about 8th grade?...7th grade?" (They can remember)
3) Help them understand that it is through failure that we succeed - and that hard work and practice is what helps with learning new skills.
4) Be available for them - to the best that your time will allow

Thoughts?

Students who are easily distracted

http://www.corbisimages.com/images/

Distractability - the root of this issue is vast and difficult to define. Needless to say it is a frustrating reality that teachers cope with daily.
There is little we can do if the student is distracted by something that may have happened outside of school - what we can control is our classroom environment and how we manipulate it to ensure that a student remains engaged.
Here are a few things that can be done to help distracted students within your class:
1) Reduce stimuli
2) Change the student's seat so that he/she experiences the least amount of stimuli

What are some other things that can be done to reduce student distractability?

Classroom Rules

The psychology of the rule is amazingly interesting. Humans, as independent thinking minds, appear to require a governing system to manage behaviors and help determine choices. I believe that anthropology will show us that all successful societies through the chain of human history had some form of rule based structure to assist the people in living harmoniously with each other.
A classroom is no different - having and posting classroom rules lays the foundation for your classroom environment. Rules help our students - - by having rules developed and visible students feel less stressed and more comfortable in your classroom (because expectations and always visible).

Here are the 5 rules that I have developed over my years of teaching:
1) Be on time
2) Be in your seat when the bell rings
3) Listen, Study and Learn
4) Respect eachother
5) Respect OUR classroom environment

If you are an educator - what are your classroom rules?
If you are a non educator - what are some rules that you have experienced in your past? Or are rules similar to these used in your working situation?

Student not turning in assignments?

So we all have that kid - the one who shows up to class every day, but instead of completing assignments puts their head down and "chills". Now they're not necessarily a behavioral issue, but they clog your focus because all we can see is that head down on the desk during classwork, or labs, or in class assignments or whatever - so how to we get them to GTW (get to work)?

Here is what I suggest:
1) Reinforcement!!! If by some miracle of the Universe they turn something in praise them for being successful.
2) Have a conference with the student and write a contract with them - be sure to have them provide the input for what the classroom expectations should be.
3) Depending on your instructional style - chart the homework turned in

What do YOU think?

Student achievement vs Student learning?

Is there a distinction between the two? Which one do we center our sights on?

Are we focused on standards performance or learning over time?

Serisouly...

How do you inspire?

How can we inspire a student? Well before we can answer that question we have to actually develop a working/direct definition of what we mean when we say inspire.
Personally what I am really asking is this - how can I get students who "don't care" to put in a little bit of energy and effort to better their academic performance?

I believe that there is always underlining reasons behind student behavior - and for the most part we overlook this reality - most of the time labeling students as lazy or troubled.

In reality its probably one of the following that is blocking the student from becoming better capable at school:
1) Issues outside of school - family/economic
2) Low reading abilities
3) Undiagnosed visual issues
4) Avoidance
5) Anger and frustration

So how do we help these students?

Being Prepared

I was just thinking about some things regarding negative teaching experiences -- In other words "bad teaching". Perhaps the only time this can seriously happen is when we are not prepared for our job which in essence is founded in inexperience and inability or unwillingness to self develop.
Through the lessons I've learned I have discovered that there are endless methods of getting a class's attention. The knack that is developed through self reflection and trial is finding something that holds their attention in the very beginning and further developing that practice throughout your year.

The answer to misbehavior?

"...You have to teach the behaviors before you can expect them. This does not mean restating the expectations. This means that you actually teach the specific skills that you want to see in your classroom or group room. This means that you teach each aspect of the target behavior, just as you must teach all elements of spelling or riding a bike, in order to ensure mastery. So, you have to teach all the skills for acting in a respectful manner, talking one at a time, hand raising, focusing, and so on." Ruth Herman Wells

Experiences?

Let’s see what type of responses we can get from this.
Post a comment below of some of your:
- Classroom management horror stories
- Classroom management miracle stories
- Techniques that you use to manage your kiddies

Please Remember - do not post student information on the Internet!!

(DUH PEOPLE!)

Classroom Management

Now...I can say with some solid conviction that I can manage myself a classroom.
But I developed these skills through years of practice, trial and error, and straight up screwing up. I believe that the key to developing your own style of classroom management is rooted in maintaining a strong sense of self reflection and centralized honesty.
It takes us being strong to admit when we are wrong - and sometimes we educators are simply so emotionally and physically exhausted that it may take us a little bit of time to completely delve into our issues - however, once we do and if we subjectively analyze our situations we can develop systems that fit our personalities that will work!

Greetings and Purpose

Greetings folks – well I had an idea for a book about classroom management a couple years ago – but have decided to start a blog about the classroom management.
Here is what I hope you find/do.
1) Look for helpful advice about an in class situation you may be experiencing
2) Post some of your questions
3) Post some of your successful practices
Enjoy and Keep Positive!
-Newbold