My Beauty Best Teacher

If you don't already know, I started my own tutoring business this year when I realized I wasn't going to get to teach every day. (Substituting is a wonderful opportunity and allows me to glean so many ideas, but I simply cannot expect to get a sub job every day!) About 80% of my students receive my tutoring services in math.

I saw this phenomenon when I was student teaching in 2nd grade, but it has really stuck out as I have tutored my students in math this year: word problems are a stumbling block for many, many students. There is just something about combining letters with what kids have traditionally known as an "all-number subject" that freaks them out (algebra, anyone?).

I have seen a few school districts use a couple of techniques in particular to help students combat this word-problem fear.

Circle the numbers.
Underline important words.
Box the question.
Eliminate unnecessary information.

Using C.U.B.E. in the classroom helps students focus on the important information and get to the nitty-gritty of what the word problem is actually asking them to do. I have seen several different age groups of elementary students use this method with great success. As students get older, it becomes unnecessary for them to do each of these steps. But if your older students have never been exposed to this method, I would suggest showing it to them, as well! One of my close friends teaches secondary math, and she introduced this concept to her freshmen and sophomores this year! So this isn't something that just works for elementary kids.

Let me give you an example of how this works. Since I don't have the ability to circle things on a Blogger post, I'll bold them. Since I also lack the ability to box things in a Blogger post, I'll italicize them. Here's the sample word problem:

Mr. Johnson's class has 21 students. If the seven of his students are absent due to heavy rainfall on a particular day, how many students does he have in his class on that day?

(I borrowed this practice word problem from Tips 4 TAKS.)  Anyway, this is how it would look if a student applied the C.U.B.E. strategy to this problem:

Mr. Johnson's class has 21 students. If the seven of his students are absent due to heavy rainfall on a particular day, how many students does he have left in his class on that day?

I circled (bolded) the numbers 21 and 7.

I underlined the word "left" because it helps us understand what type of problem we'll be doing. I realize you could classify other words in this word problem as "important," but the students I know only underline the important math words. They might also underline words such as remain, divide, in all, altogether, take away, etc. These are the "telling words" that tell students what kind of action they should perform to those numbers. Lots of teachers post these "key math words" on giant keys (aren't we clever?) on a math bulletin board somewhere in the room.

I boxed (italicized) the question so that we could focus on what answer we're supposed to find.

I crossed out unnecessary information about the teacher's name and why the students were absent so that we could concentrate more easily on important info.

You could do this to any word problem!

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Another, similar strategy is called U.P.S. Check:

Understand the problem.
Plan how to solve the problem.
Solve the problem.
Check your answer.

The most common way I've seen students use this method is to divide their paper into 4 parts. In box #1, students will write "U," in box number #2, students will write "P," and continue until they've labeled all boxes. Then, students go back to each box and perform the task. Let's use the same word problem from above as an example:

Mr. Johnson's class has 21 students. If the seven of his students are absent due to heavy rainfall on a particular day, how many students does he have in his class on that day?

So this is {roughly} what the students' papers should look like if they choose to use the U.P.S. Check method to solve this problem:

The C.U.B.E. method and the U.P.S. Check method are both great strategies for helping students solve word problems! ...And, when I think about it, I think U.P.S. Check could be used with all problem -- not just word problems!

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I decided to create some freebies for you! I created 9 different colored poster sets: blue, green, lime, orange, pink, purple, red, turquoise, and yellow. For each color, I created 3 items: a U.P.S. Check poster, a C.U.B.E. poster, and a page that contains both posters in a smaller size -- suitable for printing one for each student and allowing them to place the page in the front of their binders or math folders. Each document can be printed on an 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper.

Here's a preview:

Please excuse the watermark!

The color name pertains to the color of border each poster has. All borders have polka dots. Click the color name below to be taken to my Teacher's Pay Teachers shop to download the posters for free!

Blue
Green
Lime
Orange
Pink
Purple
Red
Turquoise
Yellow

One of my best teacher-friends is a secondary math teacher (and runs the Numbers Rule My World blog), and she is always looking for ways to incorporate technology into her math lessons. She tipped me off about this site that has virtual manipulatives, and I wanted to share it with you guys!

Although my friend uses this site with her secondary students, the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives has something for students PK-12!  It's so rare to find an educational resource that can cater to all ages...I guess that's part of why I think this website is so nice.

The National Library of Virtual Manipulatives is amazing! I love that it is free and easy to use; you don't even have to register before you start using!

The homepage is relatively simple:

Notice how you can view the site in a variety of languages (at the bottom)!

But looks can be deceiving. :)


As you can see, you can access math manipulatives based on the grade of your student(s) or the target skill. Since I'm a teensy bit obsessed with organizing, I particularly love this feature.

Although the homepage isn't anything particularly mind-blowing, once you start clicking on portions of the index, you'll see that the rest of the site is!

So what kinds of things does it have to offer? Unfortunately, I'm going to have to do more telling, rather than showing, because the manipulatives are used through pop-up screens that then start using Java... I'm not even able to take a screen shot of the manipulatives in action...sorry! I've never had an issue taking a screenshot before, so I can't explain this one! Anyway, I clicked on PK-2, and I was presented with the following list of sub-topics:

• Numbers and Operations
• Algebra
• Geometry
• Measurement
• Data Analysis and Probability

And each of those sub-titles had an average of 13 manipulative options underneath it, but you should be aware that that is an average... the "data analysis and probability" sub-topic only had 3 options. Although the graphics aren't anything particularly flashy or high-tech, I feel that they definitely could be used in the classroom. I saw some time-telling activities, graphing options, pattern blocks, etc. I know that most elementary classrooms don't have a 1:1 ratio of students:computers, but you could ask a few students at a time to practice certain math skills during centers!

As for the secondary side of it, I clicked on 9-12, and I was presented with the exact same sub-topic categories as the PK-2 side, but of course, the options underneath each category were drastically different. The sub-topics in 9-12 had an average of about 18 manipulative options underneath it. I saw some great ones in this category, as well. In particular, if I were teaching secondary math (big hypothetical here, folks), I could see myself using the rational numbers triangles, the Venn diagrams, and the geoboards.

If you're a math teacher, give the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives a chance in your class and let me know how it goes!

As a conservative teacher, I plead guilty to the worst sort of offense for a public school teacher- thoughtcrimes. I am guilty of thoughtcrimes- I am a conservative teacher even though I do not push or encourage my conservative views and values in my classroom, even though I make conscious efforts to articulate all sides of every debate and situation, even though I play devil's advocate and am critical of all politicians and views at one time or another, and even though I seek primarily to inspire critical thinking.

You see, it is not my actions which threaten liberals and leftists and Democrats- it is my very existence and the fact that I do not quietly acquiescence to their thuggish attempts to convince me to think differently.

In his novel 1984, George Orwell described a thoughtcrime as an illegal type of thought. Liberals and leftists hate and fear me, because while in the classroom I may be a model teacher and may be inspiring and motivating students, in private I am the author of this blog where I state my thoughts and opinions on a range of subjects in a conservative manner, and for that they feel I must be silenced, fired, and perhaps worse.

Increasingly as our nation descends into a totalitarian fascist state, people like me are a threat to the government. Some people might be conservatives or libertarians or Republicans, but they're usually not teachers, and if they are they have been successfully revealed as thus and thus marginalized and silenced already. What really bothers the government and the fascist thugs who run it is that I'm still hidden in the system, unexposed, unsilenced and unmarginalized, and still teaching. I'm still teaching young children the skills of how to think critically. I'm still exposing students to tough questions and hard facts, and them giving them the skills to grapple with them- without telling them what to think about those facts or without answering the questions for them as a liberal leftist teacher would do. I'm still employed, even though I am a conservative and a teacher.

Some teachers inspire a few students to be conservative by accident or just absently are a conservative and a teacher- but I've thought about this beforehand and put forethought into it, showing that I have a plan to teach students how to think and to give them a wealth of information to think on, and I have done all of this knowingly and purposefully- and that's a crime worse than actually pushing my views or indoctrinating students. I'm not just a conservative and a teacher- I am A Conservative Teacher, and that's a threat to liberals and leftists and makes me guilty of thought crimes of the worst sort.

In many ways, thought crime is an even more serious offense than committing an actual crime, and that is why I have inspired such hate and attacks from my comments and blog posts, more so than others who simply are conservatives. Our outward actions and character stem from our inner world, and my inner world is conservative, and thus it does not matter to liberals and leftists what my outer world of teaching is like and how professional I am in that environment- they know and I know they know that I am a conservative teacher.

Many out there, including President Obama and the modern day Democratic Party that has been infiltrated and taken over by liberal fascists, believe that you can practice one thing all you want, but you must think and believe only what the fascist government tells you to believe. And I don't, and that is why I am a threat that they need to silence, intimidate, and threaten.

The good news is that I have for years been lying about who I am- using friends for radio interviews, having family members post my comments and blog posts from their locations, and even mixing up personal details. Since I started this blog in 2008, I've moved three times and worked in two school districts on either edge of town, gotten married, had a dozen kids, and even taken up urban farming! Because I am still unknown, I remain a threat. I'm nearing retirement age though and just need to hold on for a couple more years. And you wolves, although you may circle me, I am a friend of liberty and a patriot, and you will not terrorize me into thinking differently. Two plus two does equal four.

In the dictionary, a "brain break" is defined as "a short mental break, taken at regular intervals during instruction, and used to achieve optimal learning."

OK, I made that up, but that's the definition I have in mind when I use brain breaks in the classroom. :)

Why Use Brain Breaks?

As a teacher, you don't have a lot of control over your students' schedule. I mean, you can usually decide when to do math, when to do reading, etc., but you don't get to decide when you leave the classroom for library, specials/encore/activity, lunch, or recess. Sometimes, there is an usually long block of uninterrupted instructional time. For instance, during my student teaching, I taught a kindergarten class who had our specials (P.E., art, etc.) first thing in the morning, and then lunch and recess from 10:45 - 11:45. That meant we had from 11:45 until 2:45 that afternoon before we needed to start getting ready for the dismissal. When you're surrounded by 22 five-year-olds, that three hour block of time can be a lot to handle. (Not to say I didn't l-o-v-e my kinders with all my heart -- I did. But they definitely kept me on my toes, especially since that my first "real" experience teaching!)

While a long block of instructional time is a blessing in some ways (think about how much you can get accomplished!), it can also be a bit of a burden. Kids -- especially the little ones -- have short attention spans and crave variation and movement. Teaching kinders for an entire, uninterrupted three hour block of time was sometimes stressful. And, of course, to them, three hours is FOREVER.

I started breaking up the instructional time with "brain breaks." If I had a lesson that was supposed to last 30 minutes, I would insert a short brain break about halfway through so that the students got to have a little mental release from learning for just a minute before going back to work. 

I do this with my tutoring students (2-4 brain breaks per hour of tutoring unless the student has ADD/ADHD, and then we break more often) and the classes in which I sub. I even did it sometimes with my freshman English students last year. At first, they thought I was a little crazy for asking them to do the Macarena, but they eventually got used to it! :)

I always find that the minutes right after a brain break are incredibly valuable, as the students are the most engaged that they've been...well, since the last time we took a break! The activity gets their blood flowing, the break gives them time to clear their head, and when it's over, their concentration is fantastic.

When Should I Use Brain Breaks?

You could use brain breaks in the middle of lessons or in-between them. You could take a brain break right before you go into the hallway (let them get their wiggles out before trying to get them to walk quietly down the hallway) or to let out some energy after a particularly quiet activity. The beauty of brain breaks is that they are so quick and easy that you can do them at pretty much any time. I've even used some of them for "filler" activities when we have just 1-2 minutes to kill and can't even start an educational game.

What Brain Breaks Can I Incorporate?

1. One-minute dance party (could do a random song or a choreographed song...my 2nd graders loved doing the Cupid Shuffle!)
2. Do 25 jumping jacks
3. Play one game of Simon Says
4. "Minute-to-Win-it" games (some ideas from Buzzle.com)
5. Jog in place for 60 seconds
6. Jump a pretend rope for 60 seconds
7. Seasonal movement -- "fly like a witch on your broomstick for 1 minute" around Halloween. "Gallop like a reindeer for 1 minute" in December. 
8. "Order" -- quickly order themselves in a line, according to the specification. For instance, maybe you call "Order -- first names, ABC order!" and the students scramble to order themselves. You could do height, last names in ABC order, color-coding, birthdays, etc. You could make it even harder on things like height by asking that they don't speak during the ordering! 
9. Hop on your right foot 25 times, hop on your left foot 25 times, then hop on both feet 25 times
10. Play catch with stress balls or beach balls for 1 minute
11. Play telephone
12. Any number of Dr. Jean, Greg & Steve, or Jack Hartmann fun activity songs
13. "Go Bananas" song (if you have no idea what I'm talking about, please scroll down to the end of this post for two video examples!)
14. Do 1 minute of wall jumps
15. Play Sparkle with a spelling word or word wall word (or just try saying "Word Wall Word" 5 times fast! Phew.)
16. Play a memory game, such as "I went on a trip and I packed ____," and each student around the room has to say everything else that has been packed, plus add a new item to the list. Or a variation: "I went to the zoo and saw a ____," and each student around the room has to add an animal to the list. 
17. Play the alliteration game (start with a random word and every student must say another word that begins with the same sound)
18. Variation of the alliteration game: play the rhyme game!
19. Teach a few words of sign language
20. Lightning round of trivia questions (I use Brain Quest packs: Brain Quest trivia packs )
21. Play a couple rounds of Pictionary or Charades
22. Stretch
23. Do "the wave" a few times
24. "Sentence-by-sentence story:" go around the room and allow each student to add 1 sentence at a time to create a story. (You can play until each student has said one sentence or you can play until the story is finished.)
25. Yoga poses (try Yoga Pretzels , which is a deck of cards with easy yoga poses for kids on them)

...You get the idea.

In case you've never heard of the "Go Bananas" song/dance routine, here it is on YouTube:



Here's another version of it that I just found and really like, too:



If you have other brain break ideas, I'd love to know about them! Please leave a comment with your ideas and I'll gladly add them to my list. :)

What do you think about brain breaks? Do you use them in the classroom? If so, when and how often do you use them?
 





P.S. I just found this great blog dedicated entirely to Brain Breaks! It's called Energizing Brain Breaks, and you can read all their ideas by clicking here. Enjoy. :)

This post doesn't offer any resources for you -- it's just an "old-fashioned" blog post that I hope will spark a little bit of discussion.

If you've read my "About" page, then you know that I'm currently a substitute for several local districts in an effort to keep my foot in education and to maybe gain a classroom of my own again next year.

While I would much rather be teaching in my own classroom this year, there are definite perks to substituting. Mainly, I love seeing what goes on in other classrooms. Substituting doesn't allow me to watch other teachers in action, but it does allow me to acquire many ideas on classroom setup, management methods, and lessons. I always leave at the end of the day with my brain buzzing with all the new things I learned. I try to write it all down as soon as I can so that I can apply it to my [future] classroom (when I get one again).

Anyway, I've been subbing a lot this semester, and I've noticed a definite trend in hot classrooms.

Source

I'm sure this probably has something to do with the budget cuts and the fact that schools are trying to save money in whatever ways possible at this point...right?

I'm naturally a pretty hot-natured person, so my body can find a way to sweat in the dead of winter (sorry if that's TMI). But when I encounter other teachers in the hallway whose hair has become stringy and their foreheads are glistening with beads of sweat, I know I'm not the only one who feels like she's in a furnace in some of those classrooms!

I am realizing just how lucky I was in my classroom last year, where I had free reign (to some extent) over the thermostat in my classroom. Teachers at my school last year could change their classroom temperature to anything between 65-80 degrees. The teachers I'm subbing for this year don't seem to be able to control the temperature of their classrooms at all. I even saw one smart-cookie teacher who was dealing with the heat by placing a lamp underneath the thermostat's temperature sensor; as the lamp's heat increased on the temperature on the sensor, the thermostat thought it was too hot in the room and kicked on a little cool air. Brilliant solution!

I was prompted to write this blog post after a subbing experience where the kids kept exclaiming over my red cheeks, and I could feel my glasses sliding down my face from the sweat. I ended up having to open the door to get some air circulating, but the teacher had written for her students to be doing some very social activities that afternoon, and I was afraid that our noise was going to disturb other classes. On the other hand, I knew it was way too hot in there to be able to keep the door closed....

This prompted me, again, to think about last year, when I had control over my thermostat.  Since I am naturally hot and I spent a lot of time moving around in my classroom, I kept the temperature at about 68 degrees. If my students spent a lot of time in their seats during class, I found that the girls would complain about the cold. But if I kept my students up and moving (which I wanted to do, anyway), they thought it was a good temperature, too. Upon entering, other teachers would comment on how "cold" it was, but then again, they weren't moving around and working up a sweat all hour, either...

If my college classrooms' temperatures weren't "just right," I considered them to be on the cool side. I have rarely ever been in a classroom that is too hot...until this year. It seems to be a common theme that most teachers agree that a chilly classroom is better than a warmer classroom. My college professors reasoned that a chilly classroom will keep students awake better than a warmer classroom will (although, if your lessons are really innovative and intriguing, the majority of students won't have a hard time staying awake, anyway!). I've also heard that a chilly classroom is healthier than a warmer classroom, since germs crave moisture and warmth. I don't want to freeze my students, but I do want everyone to be comfortable enough so that they can function with ease, myself included.

I find it very difficult to function in a hot environment because my mind can't seem to get over the fact that I'm sweating buckets (sorry again if that's TMI. I'm normally not this gross, I promise. :) ).

So I have a few questions for my bloggy friends:

1. Do you have the ability to control the thermostat in your classroom?
2. What temperature is your classroom normally?
3. What do you think is the best temperature for optimal learning? Why?

I'm anxious to know what you think!

I know it seems like I've been gearing up for Valentine's Day in the classroom for awhile now, but since today is "the big day," I couldn't resist one last post.

Today's post will feature products that my bloggy friends in Teaching Blog Traffic School and colleagues at Teachers Pay Teachers have made and posted.

Here we go (in no particular order)....

• Valentine's Day Worksheets. FREE. By Minds in Bloom (Rachel Lynette).  

• February Facts and Fun Cards. FREE. By Sunny Days in Second Grade. 

• I Have, Who Has Valentines. FREE. By Cooperative Learning 365. 

• Valentine Math. FREE. By Classroom Magic. 

•  Valentine's Day Acrostic Poem. FREE. By Buzzing with Ms. B.

• Valentine's Day Writing Prompt + Subway Art Idea. FREE. By Addie Williams.

• HOO Loves Ya ABC Order. FREE. By Lesson Plan Diva. 

•  Love, Love, Love Valentine's Unit. FREE. By Taming My Flock of Firsties.

Happy Valentine's Day, Loves! Hope your V-Day is filled with joy and laughter!

Source

Elementary Students Forced to Write Advocacy Letters to Governor Criticizing Education Cuts, via Michigan Capitol Confidential:

Third through fifth graders at an elementary school in the Walled Lake Consolidated School District were assigned by at least one teacher this week to write letters to Gov. Rick Snyder saying how unhappy they were with his budget cuts, the school district confirmed Thursday.

The students were told the best letters would be forwarded to the governor. One parent said the teachers prepped the students with what the budget cuts entailed because some weren’t aware. Students also were asked to speak in front of their classmates about why they didn’t like the budget cuts.

Walled Lake parent Ernie Hughes said he didn’t think the assignment was appropriate. “Don’t bring politics into the school and use the kids as pawns,” Hughes said.

District Spokesman Judy Evola said in an e-mail it wasn’t appropriate for the elementary age students to write the letters. “The District neither supports this writing assignment or believes it was age appropriate for elementary students," she said.

This news does not shock or surprise me. In my post Liberal Teachers I wrote:

Whole generations of students are being brainwashed by this liberal thinking. And I do mean they are being brain-washed. Teachers are systematically trying to force the students in their classes to think in a certain way. They are forced to only hear one viewpoint on issues, they are forced to only provide answers that the teacher considers right, and they are forced on penalty of shame to admit to and agree to the liberal agenda. True, many students rebel against this system, usually be shutting down mentally or saying they hate school, but most students are worn down bit by bit, and eventually agree that 2+2 does equal 5, and the liberal agenda in this nation is advanced that much further.

There is considerable evidence to me that this is so- textbooks, state curriculum, lesson plans, standardized tests, student comments, and my own observations. On big issues and little issues, the liberal agenda is pushed down students minds, and the cumulative effect of decades of this is beginning to show in our current political environment.

Although Walled Lake district spokesman Judy Evola admitted that the students should not have written the letters and does not support this effort, there were no reports of any disciplinary actions taken and no reports of reviews of the teacher's past activities and projects. Although it is possible that this was the first and only time that this teacher let their liberal views show through in the class and forced innocent children to be pawns in their political games, it is more likely this teacher has systematically attempted to slant her teaching towards liberal values and beliefs and every day to make her students into progressive activists of change along the lines of Saul Alinsky (whom the NEA suggests all teachers read). She probably is like another teacher who I had the chance to substitute teach for once and used her classroom as a forum to spread her liberal values and views (see my post I Knew I Was Different From Liberal Teachers When...).

One can only hope that the district has taken the appropriate steps with this teacher and that in the future this teacher will only lean liberal and will make conscious attempts to be more moderate and will not ever use students to promote their agenda ever again. I do not expect teachers to always be 100% perfect or always be nonpartisan or apolitical- that would make education dry and dull- but there needs to be balance and students never must be made pawns of a teachers views. I'm a conservative teacher and of course my conservative beliefs show (especially after having students for a whole year)- but I play devil's advocate from both sides, come down hard on Republicans and conservatives at times, occasionally parrot out the Democrat and liberal talking points, never force my students to be part of any sort of conservative agenda, and always try my hardest to teacher critical thinking skills and have the students make their own educated and ration decisions about issues and concepts. That's all we should ask of any teacher- and we should be asking it of all the teachers in Walled Lake Consolidated School District.

Written by Candi Peterson

Join Empower DC's Exposing DC's Equation for Displacement: Info on DCPS closings & plan of action Saturday,  Feb. 4 @ 11 am -1:30pm @  1419 V St NW

The headlines from today's top education stories reads: "Many public schools in D.C.’s poorest area should be transformed or shut, study says; more charters recommended" written by Bill Turque, Washington Post writer while Mike Debonis' blog: DeMorning Links reads: "School Closings Contemplated" and Channel Fox Five TV news reported the DC School System study recommends making major improvements or close three dozen under performing public schools or expand high performing charter schools.

The Washington Teacher blog first reported on October 31, 2011 about future plans to close additional DC public schools. An excerpt from the 21st Century School Fund September - October newsletter stated: "The Deputy Mayor for Education, with a 100,000 dollar grant from the Walton Family Foundation, engaged IFF (Illinois Facility Fund) to study the capacity and performance of DCPS and public charter schools. IFF has authored reports in Denver, Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Louis, using a defined method to determine what they term "performing" or "non- performing" seats.  This analysis is being done with an eye to "right sizing" district schools which beyond consolidation could include reconstitution and replacement with school management organizations."

Not unlike other major cities including NY, Chicago, Ohio- DC has been at the forefront of shutting down traditional public schools. In 2008, twenty-three public schools were closed under former DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee and then mayor Adrian Fenty which led to a community outcry to save our public schools. Local education stakeholders voices weren't heeded by Rhee or Fenty and only one neighborhood elementary school- John Burroughs was saved from the chopping block.

Natalie Hopkinson who authored the article - "Why School Choice Fails"which appeared in the December 4, 2011 N.Y. Times discussed how this country’s reform policies in Washington, DC- put in place by a Republican led congress in 1995 led to the birth of many of our charter schools. Hopkinson wrote:" if a school was deemed failing, students could transfer schools, opt to attend a charter school or receive a voucher to attend a private school. The idea was to introduce competition; good schools would survive; bad ones would disappear. It effectively created a second education system, which now enrolls nearly half the city’s public school students. The charters consistently perform worse than the traditional schools, yet they are rarely closed."

The results of IFF's study recommend that DC make major improvements or close thirty six under performing schools in some of the city's poorest neighborhoods or expand high performing charter schools. It’s a finding that heralds the continued growth of the charter schools sector at the expense of the D.C. Public Schools, if not its outright domination. While some people are questioning the motives of the Illinois Facilities Fund, the study is “likely to rekindle impassioned debate about possible school closures and the future of public education in the District,” Bill  Turque notes. Officials tell Turque, education writer for the Post that any decisions about a “major restructuring” are at least a year and many community meetings away.

What comes as no surprise to anyone is that schools in ward 8 were identified as having the greatest need, according to the IFF study. The study recommended turning around or closing the following public schools: Simon, Patterson, Terrell-McGogney and Ferebee-Hope and closing two bottom-rung charter schools, Center City Congress Heights (pre-K to 8) and Imagine Southeast (pre-K to 5). H.D. Woodson Senior High School which is located in Ward 7  was also recommended for turn around or closure, a school which recently has undergone capital investment which cost millions of dollars in investment. 

One of the things that I find disturbing about IFF's report is the recommendation for DC to consider expanding charter schools in the 10 targeted neighborhood clusters and call for the DC Public Charter School Board to authorize about 6,500 new charter seats (current enrollment is about 32,000) while utilizing former public school buildings as incentives to get the public charter board to actively recruit the highest performing charter school operators to replicate their school models. 


The writing should be on the wall for all of us to see. If it's not, I don't know what to tell you. From where I sit, this situation looks bleak for working, middle class families and many of our teachers in some of our poorest communities. The loss of our public schools is a disinvestment in our school communities and may lead to higher classrooms sizes, further declining enrollment in DC public schools and extinction of traditional public schools and fewer teaching jobs. Now is not the time for parents, students, teachers, school staff and community members to sit back. We have to ask the hard questions, organize and demand to have a voice as education stakeholders or we may likely have a re-run of the 2008 school closures.

On November 8, 2011 - I issued a call to action to DC teachers and school personnel: "In the midst of upcoming contract negotiations, there are big plans ahead to close our traditional public schools. Never in our history has been there been a greater need for teachers and school personnel to have an effective organizing union. Our very future as educators and the future of our students will be determined by how vigorously we, alongside parents and community members are willing to fight to save our public schools." Won't you heed the call to get involved before your local school is reconstituted and turned over to a charter school, your job is lost and your community no longer includes you?

I've been on a kick about QR codes lately, for whatever reason. (You may want to read QR Codes [And How To Get Your Own] and Using QR Codes in the Classroom first.)

I've already compiled a fairly lengthy list of ways to use QR codes in education, but one thing was always troubling me: what about kids who don't have smartphones? I mean, smartphones are pretty popular, but not everyone has the money or even the desire to purchase one. And I don't have a class set of iPod Touches (yet).

So how could I utilize this tech tool without leaving out everyone who doesn't own a smartphone or iPod Touch?

Enter: Snap My Info.


I read about this on a teaching blog a couple weeks ago, and unfortunately only wrote down the name of the Snap My Info website, or else I would link up to the original poster! (Sorry, OP! If you're reading this, comment below and I'll link back to you!)

Anyway, Snap My Info is a service that allows non-smartphone holders to still use QR codes. By using Snap My Info, a person only has to have the capability to send picture messages and retrieve e-mails on his/her cell phone. That opens QR codes to a much larger audience in my classroom; almost everyone I know has the capability to send pic messages and retrieve e-mails on their mobile device!

You do have to register with Snap My Info (bummer) for their code-deciphering service to work, but their explanation page gives more details.

Now if I could just ensure that students could have service in my classroom to send codes and receive the follow-up messages, I think I'd be ready to take off on the QR code train! :)

If you'd like to try Snap My Info, you could take a picture of the code below and e-mail the picture to x@snpmy.com. According to their website, you should receive an e-mail back with Snap My Info's contact information.

Try it and let me know what you think!

Although I had heard of Teacher's Notebook before, I had only visited it once or twice, and I certainly did not think of listing my products there.

This past weekend, however, I was looking through the posts in the Secret Facebook Training Room for Teaching Blog Traffic School members, and I saw a post from our fearless leader, Charity Preston, who mentioned a giveaway that the owners of Teacher's Notebook (Steve and Debbie) were running in the newest issue of the TN newsletter. The giveaway was for 25 free Teacher's Notebook shops (they are normally a one-time set-up fee of $20, I think) and would go to the first 25 teachers who e-mailed Teacher's Notebook to request one.

I saw this post almost a day after it had been written, so I thought there was no way Steve and Debbie hadn't already found their 25 winners, but I decided to give it a try.

Incredibly, I received an e-mail about 10 minutes after I'd sent it, telling me I'd won one of the 25 free shops! YIPPEE for me! (I never win anything, so I was unusually excited about this, I admit.)

It took me awhile to set up my shop (and I still have quite a ways to go because I'm a perfectionist and I have a lot of products to post), but it was so very easy! A great perk to Teacher's Notebook is that it is the only online venue I know of that allows teachers to keep 100% of their profits! I think that is super-cool and generous of Steve and Debbie, and I know I will be jumping over the moon when I finally make my first sale there.

If you'd like to check out my store, click on the picture below:



If you explore Teacher's Notebook and like what you see, please consider joining! I know that we teachers don't create original products in order to make money; we create original products in order to give our students the best learning experience in our classroom that we possibly can. Teachers around the world are scrambling to make their own products, too. I see posting your materials as a win-win situation: other teachers can use your hard work to help them NOT have to re-invent the wheel in their own classroom, and you can make an extra buck (or not, if you decide to post only free products). If I'm going to pay for educational materials, I personally prefer to purchase them from a fellow teacher. I like the confidence that comes from purchasing a product that I know another teacher has used successfully in his/her classroom. I also like contributing to other educator's wallets when I can. I know none of us went into the profession because of the money, but it is nice to be recognized and compensated for your hard work!

If you decide to join Teacher's Notebook as a seller, please consider using my referral link. I get reward points (toward gift cards that I can use to purchase classroom materials!) for every person who uses my referral link and posts at least 5 products. :) Click the picture below to join via my referral link:



I'm going to use some of my own fancy technology to ask a couple questions at the end of this post (QuizSnack!), but I'd love to know your thoughts on Teacher's Notebook (or similar teacher-resource websites) and/or the link to your store!

Dear Washington Teacher blog readers:

I want to thank many of my loyal readers who continue to check out The Washington Teacher blog regularly. As you may have noticed, I have taken a short-term break from blogging. After writing this blog for three years, while maintaining my full-time job at DCPS- I felt the need for a little R & R (rest and relaxation.) It is my intention to return to blogging again by February 2012. Please stay tuned. Many interesting topics and stories have come across my desk which I look forward to sharing with you.


As you may recall in 2008 - I started The Washington Teacher blog. Initially, I began writing about Washington Teachers' Union (WTU) controversial Red and Green Tier Tentative Agreement which was proposed by then WTU President George Parker and former DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee. It was my goal to shed light on the pitfalls that this contract proposal would impose and discourage DC teachers and school staff from voting in favor of this agreement. At that time,  I believed that  it would likely lead to union members' massive terminations.  


Over the past three years, The Washington Teacher blog became a labor of love for me. During the Rhee/Fenty years, I wrote extensively about former DC Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee and was frequently characterized as one of Rhee's most strident critics. With help from DC Public Schools insiders and outsiders, I was able to tell the other side of the public education reform story that the mainstream media refused to report.


An article I wrote in 2010 titled "Rhee's Firing Squad Terminates Sizable Number Of DC Teachers" recently earned The Washington Teacher blog a nomination for a Fascination Award: 2011's Most Fascinating Teaching blog by Online PhD Degree. The Fascination Awards are an annual collection of the web’s most inspirational and thought-provoking blogs and are nominated by an editorial team and voted on by blog readers.
http://www.online-phd-degree.net/2011s-most-fascinating-teaching-blog-the-fascination-awards/


Sincerely,
Candi Peterson
AKA The Washington Teacher blogger

I've been doing a lot of reflection over my teaching career lately -- what with me job hunting, I feel it's extra-important for me to evaluate how I feel about teaching and each grade level so that I make sure I apply for jobs that would benefit everyone, should I get a new position.

As much as I loved teaching English last year, I found myself missing the elementary kiddos. That age group was originally my target when I was taking undergraduate courses for early childhood education, and I really miss those little guys!

I've decided to look for only elementary jobs. If it happens to be an elementary English teaching position, great! If not, I love teaching any subject to the little ones.

With that decision made, I've gotten to work creating a template of an elementary website for my {hopefully} future-classroom. I've been hard at work, trying to explain my methodology and management techniques to parents on our website so that everyone knows what's happening. I have been in love with Rick Morris's clip chart system for a few years now. I just think it makes so much sense, and I particularly love how there's an emphasis on positive behavior. I feel like traditional "pull a card" or "stamp your card" systems are rather negative, and I could easily forget to recognize and encourage all the great behavior in my class! I want to make sure I don't dwell on the negative behavior, so a clip chart system seems best to me.

Rick Morris's FREE Clip Chart eBook

While Rick Morris's free eBook (found on his website! Go look, people!) offers an order form for a heavy-duty, vinyl version of his chart for $20, I decided to make my own. I wanted to change the wording slightly, I wanted to incorporate some cutesy fonts, and...well, let me be honest: I'm a teensy bit obsessed with the Chevron print these days! I thought it would be a unique take on things if my clip chart featured a Chevron print in the background, so...I made my own.

I'm still learning the ins and outs of this digital design stuff, so please don't laugh at my chart! :) I haven't printed it out yet (that will be one of the first million things I do when I finally get a teaching job here!), but it looks good on the screen so far!

I posted it on my Teachers Pay Teachers store for free, but I realize that not all of my blog followers are TpT members, so I thought I'd make it accessable from this post, as well.

Below, I've used an interactive flip chart (created at FlipSnack) to upload the files to TWO Chevron-printed behavior mangement clip charts. Each set features 7 slides in 7 different colors: Pink (Excellent Choices), Purple (Great Choices), Blue (Good Choices), Green (Ready to Learn), Yellow (Think About It), Orange (Teacher's Choice), and Red (Office Visit). I tried to make the green label a bit bigger than the rest of the labels, since the majority of students' clothespins will probably rest there most of the time.



To use these:

1. Click the "book" you'd like to "read." (The left book is the clip chart with the funky font, and the right right is the clip chart is the kid's handwriting font.) This will take the display to a full-screen version.
2. View the two charts by flipping back and forth with the horizontal, page-turning arrows.
3. Download the chart(s) by clicking the arrow that's pointing downward into a bracket at the very top of the display.
4. Print the chart that appeals most to you.
5. The green "ready to learn" portion should print at almost a full 8x11 landscape paper, while the other labels should print on individual pieces of paper (but not take up the entire page).
6. Cut the labels out and assemble them on a long laminating sheet. Laminate for durability.
7. Buy enough clothespins for each student to have one.
8. Clip and enjoy a year of easy classroom management!

If you have any trouble downloading these charts, you could always just download them from my TpT store:

• Classroom Management Clip Chart: Kid Handwriting
• Classroom Management Clip Chart: Fun and Funky Handwriting

I'd love to know how this turns out! Please consider leaving a comment to let me know, or leave feedback at my TpT store to help me improve. :)

• TESiboard Traditional Tales - Resources - TES

  If you want an interactive storybook to show on your interactive whiteboard, here are some great ones to start with.

  tags: education iwb teaching

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• The Lesson Cloud: FREE LESSONS

  This website has a lot of free lesson plans including some for: language arts, math, science, social studies, foreign language. 

  tags: education teaching lessonplans free

• A Lesson Plan for Chinese New Year w/ Props and Stories | kidworldcitizen

  Global competency is important. Here is a lesson plan used by an elementary teacher for Chinese New Year. I love it because it has simple ingredients. It is coming up in 2 weeks and is probably the most important celebration in China. Students should know what it is.

  tags: education teaching chinesenewyear culture china

• Teaching My Calling: Tech Tuesday-Glogster

  Cara Whitehad shares how she uses Glogster to teach on her "tech Tuesday" lessons. She has them post on their edmodo site. Glogster is a great tool that I've used in my classroom. The students love it.

  tags: education teaching technology

• Spanish video – Free series with lesson plans for elementary school kids » Spanish Playground

  Free spanish videos and lesson plans for elementary aged children. This website discusses ways to teach spanish and may be of interest to you Spanish language teachers.

  tags: education teaching

• Using Graphic Novels and Comics in the Classroom | Edutopia

  Teacher, Andrew Miller, shares how he uses graphic comics and novels to teach in his classroom.

  tags: teaching lessonplans creativity differentiated instruction

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Connecting Classrooms with Skype

  How this teacher uses Skype to connect her classrooms with others. I like the preplanning  - something that needs to be done to be ready for this.

  tags: education globaled flatclass

• Flat Classroom Projects: Applications Open Now

  If you want to look into a Flat Classroom project for your school, applications are open. Our goal is to be the best collaborative learning experience where students co-create and collaborate together. We have projects for all ages and we're totally teacher run (most of us are full time and do this on the side or have classrooms in the project.) Find out more or ask me questions if you need to.

  tags: education flatclass globaled

• Template projects | British Council Schools Online

  The British Council Connecting Classrooms program has free projects for global learning on their website. It also has a way to find links with schools. I like that you can download templates.

  tags: education flatclass globaled

• Projects on Skype in the classroom | Skype Education

  Here are projects from Skype in the classroom. Posted by teachers. A lot of teachers are looking for people to Skype with. There should be a better way, but kudos to Skype for doing this.

  tags: education skype flatclass globaled

• Amy's Travels Project:Connecting Children Through Global Awareness Literature | Skype Education

  Skype in the classroom has lists of projects that you can do with Skype. This is very innovative. Here is one using the Amy's Travel's multicultural children's book.

  tags: education flatclass skype

• Partnership for Global Learning Annual Conference

  This is just after ISTE. I hope that many of the ISTE people will be able to go there and vice versa.
  
  Asia Society's Partnership for Global Learning Annual Conference will take place June 29-30 at the Brooklyn Marriott in New York City.
  The two-day event connects educators, business leaders, policymakers and resource providers to share best practices, build partnerships and advance policies to ensure the next generation is ready to lead in an interconnected world.
  This year's theme is "Pathways to Global Competence" and the four conference strands are:
  Innovations in Teacher Practice
  Exploring the Global Issues of Today
  Going Global Through Technology and Media
  Assessing Global Competence Through Student Work

  tags: flatclass globaled events

• Worldwide list of reading/literacy charities 2012 | Playing by the book

  A list of reading and literacy charities worldwide for 2012. This author has spent a lot of time compiling the list and asks for your feedback. Hope you'll help. We should NEVER throw away books, there are a lot of people who need them. In fact, I tend to not want to throw them away now anyway because I'm not replacing them like I used to. It is a bit scary.

  tags: education flatclass literacy

• Neustar Launches Social Media Digital Citizenship Program for  Kentucky Schools | EON: Enhanced Online News

  A program from Neustar to Kentucky schools about Digital Citizenship. Lots of people are jumping on this "bandwagon." I think my biggest concern is that:
  #1 It needs to be "real" and not based on preachy scare-based tactics
  #2 Students should talk with those who share the program - if it is just videos and worksheets, that doesn't cut it. 
  #3 To talk about and learn social media, you should be doing it. (That is what we do on Digiteen.)
  
  a major new initiative to bring social media digital literacy education to students across the state of Kentucky through a program called “My Digital Life.” Neustar will partner with EverFi, Inc., a leading education technology company, to provide this innovative, online student experience to all Kentucky schools interested in teaching and certifying their students in digital literacy skills and responsibility. Most importantly, Neustar’s partnership is making the cutting-edge program available free of cost to the schools and state.

  tags: flatclass globaled digiteen digital citizenship

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• 1st Annual “Art Ed Blog of the Year” Contest « The Art of Education

  Another "contest" but one for art teacher bloggers. The great thing that happens is that this sort of thing helps subject area teachers find each other. If you're an art teacher, you may want to peruse this blog for links.

  tags: education art teaching lessonplans

• Do You Make These 10 Mistakes When You Blog? | Michael Hyatt

  A great post about the common mistakes of bloggers. I will use these with my students.

  tags: education teaching lessons blogging

• Twenty Dyslexia Friendly Writing Tips - Resources - TES

  20 Dyslexia friendly writing tips. (Yes, I've spent the evening browsing the ideas on the Tes website.)

  tags: education teaching lessonplans engchat

• What Periodic element Are you?

  This Facebook-style quiz gives students an element that is like their personality. Might be fun to finish up class one day in science.

  tags: education teaching lessonplan Facebook

• Explore the Seafloor Physics Teacher's Pack - Resources - TES

  This study pack has videos, handouts, and lesson plans that accompany a lesson about mapping the sea floor.

  tags: education science teaching lessonplans

• Holocaust Resources

  In the UK, Holocaust Memorial Day is the 27th of January. This is something that we should all discuss and cover in an age appropriate way. Actually, I have permission and show Hotel Rwanda to my class. I want the students to understand and know what happens in the world and that all it takes for bad things to happen is for good people to do nothing.

  tags: education holocaust teaching socialstudies history_teacher

• Holocaust worksheets - Resources - TES

  Dyslexic friendly resources for teaching about the Holocaust.Notes and handouts.

  tags: education teaching history history_teacher

• KS3 History - McCarthy Trials - Resources - TES

  Talk about the McCarthy trials using archived film from the 1950's. 

  tags: history teaching history_teacher

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Has the Accountability Movement Run its Course? - Leading From the Classroom - Education Week Teacher

  Here is a broadcast from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute on January fifth about "Has the Accountability Movement Run Its Course" in response to the fact that gains during the accountability movement "have plateaued" and how to raise achievement. Important types such as the harmful effect of focusing on outcomes instead of process (the system), the lack of tools for teachers, and the harmful effect of shifting blame versus finding solutions. Something you'll want to watch.

  tags: edreform research education researcher_thoughtleader learning

• A good teacher’s lessons last a lifetime - NY Daily News

  The measure of a good teacher. This is talking about an increase in test scores or decrease when you arrive or leave. What if you're there for a long time - it is hard to measure the delta then. The findings from the New York Daily News.
  
  "Instead, they discovered that some teachers are demonstrably better than others — and that those teachers have long-lasting effects on their pupils.
  
  The data showed that when an excellent teacher joined a school, scores in that teacher’s grade immediately rose. When such a teacher left, scores plummeted.
  
  The benefit of having such a teacher, as measured on exams, lasted for three to four years in school. Later on, the students
  
  were more likely to attend college, earned more money, lived in better neighborhoods and were less likely to become teenage parents than those with poor instructors.
  
  Chetty, Friedman and Rockoff predicted that children who have just one quality teacher between grades 4 and 8 will see their lifetime earnings increase by $4,600.
  
  The researchers also estimated that replacing a poor instructor with just an average one — not even a good one — means children in that class will collectively earn an additional $267,000 over their lifetimes. Leaving a poor instructor in a school for 10 years, Friedman told The New York Times, means as much as $2.5 million in lost income to students.
  
  “The message is to fire people sooner rather than later,” he said."

  tags: research education edreform researcher_thoughtleader learning

• Escaping the constraints of ‘No Child Left Behind’ - The Washington Post

  Arne Duncan, US secretary of education, says it is time for a new NCLB in his OpEd in the Washington Post on January 6.

  tags: education edreform learning us politics deptofed

• Students of Virtual Schools Are Lagging in Proficiency - NYTimes.com

  Virtual schools are in demand but are they effective? This article in the New York Times.
  
  "The number of students in virtual schools run by educational management organizations rose sharply last year, according to a new report being published Friday, and far fewer of them are proving proficient on standardized tests compared with their peers in other privately managed charter schools and in traditional public schools."

  tags: education edreform learning

• BBC News - Free schools 'will not boost access to good schools'

  The UK controversy over school choice. Somehow these same arguments are raging across the globe.
  
  The government is not sure that "free schools" (charter -type schools) are going to boost access to good schools because they will be too expensive.

  tags: education edreform learning uk

• Preschools flunk the test

  Australia is now in a long line of countries who feel their education system is poor. Here is a "shocking" study in the Sydney paper:
  
  "THE standard of teaching in Australian preschools is ''very poor'', a government-funded national study into the quality of early education has found.
  
  The finding from the E4Kids study suggests children may be attending little more than glorified playgroup, despite research indicating that early learning makes a crucial difference to their long-term development."

  tags: edreform preschool learning australia

• Success of Florida Virtual School is difficult to measure - Tampa Bay Times

  This article in the Tampa Tribute points out just how large and yet, how unknown the Florida Virtual School is. 
  
  "In less than 15 years, Florida Virtual School has become the largest state-funded online K-12 school in the nation, an enterprise with a $166.3 million budget and close to 1,500 employees and 130,000 students. It offers more than 110 courses, from core subjects like algebra to electives such as Chinese and guitar."

  tags: education edreform learning

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.