Time to change

I will not....
...reprimand students for using cell phones in class for non-educational purposes..  Clearly my lesson was not engaging enough and I need to work harder to help you find meaning in my class.
...keep talking.  Too much of today was me talking.  You need to do as much of the teaching as I do.
...stop you from asking questions that interest you.  If I can find a way to make the material relate to what we are doing, I will do so.  Clearly the topic is important enough for you to ask a question about it so I need to give it some attention.
...write referrals for bad behavior.  Sometimes kids are kids and you can't control your urges. Students who act out do so because they are bored or need some more attention.  I guess we are back to the lack of engagement topic again.
...force you to do it my way.  I am not the expert on you.  Who am I to tell you how you should learn?  If you need the ipod to help with your ADHD, then use it.  If you want to use a 3-ring binder or a notebook or a shoebox to keep your papers organized, then go right ahead.  Now, if it is not working, then listen to my suggestions to help you improve.
...punish you for being late to class.  Things happen that are out of your control that cause you to get delayed. Get here as fast as you can and get right to work.
...allow you to eat in class.  I mean, it is a chemistry lab and there are certain safety rules we need to keep.  However, I know your teenage world revolves around food so I will do my best to incorporate it into as many lessons as I can.

I will...
...ask you to think critically.
...spark that imagination and creativity that sometimes gets shoved to the side in school.
...force you out of your comfort zone.
...ask you to trust me.
...ask you to take risks.
...make the information as meaningful as possible.
...let you use the technology as much as I do.
...find a way to have class outside once in awhile.
...trust you.

These things I owe to you as your teacher.

Is this pushing it?

About a month ago, Brian Bennett (@bennettscience) mentioned that he was going to be using students blogs in his science classroom.  I was a little surprised by this (only a little as Brian is extremely innovative and is flipped classroom trainer) because all of the talk I have seen thus far has been about student blogs in Social Studies or English (or some other humanities-type course).  Little is really being done in math and science from what I have seen.  I had messaged Brian about it because I would like to bring some of this to my chemistry class.  Unfortunately Brian is not doing it in chemistry so I couldn't see any student products.

But it got me thinking:  There is a big push with Common Core Standards to bring a greater amount of literacy into every classroom, couldn't a blog help me reach that goal?  But the problem remained, how do I put all of those fancy symbols, subscripts and ion charges onto the blog without all of the necessary format features?  

Why this idea didn't hit me sooner, I have no idea.  I decided to type a chemical reaction into Word, make the necessary formatting changes and copy/paste it into the blog like this:

CH₄   +   2O₂   à  CO₂   +   2H₂O

And suddenly, I can now have my students create electronic lab notebooks entirely on a blog.  Oh yeah, and it's free.

Now when colleges ask students to demonstrate the lab work they have done in their science class, the students can show them the blog.  Not only will they be reading and writing more, they are not limited to the small space on the back of the lab sheet.  They can write longer entries to better explain their observations and deductions which improves not only their overall literacy, but their science vocabulary as well.  And from a grading standpoint, I would much rather take my laptop home every day than lug huge stacks of papers in my bag.  

It is also has the added benefit of reducing paper as my students won't need to add page after page of conclusions to the lab sheet I gave in class.  I can actually print 1 lab sheet per station for the lab, post the electronic document to my website, and the kids can copy/paste from there to their blog in order to answer the questions.  I might have stumbled upon something here.

I would love to hear thoughts and suggestions on this idea.

I'm the fire starter. I'm the instigator.

I have been fond of using several phrases to describe myself.  When students asked why I am always doing things different than my colleagues and changing what the school does, I would say: "if you aren't making waves, then you aren't kicking hard enough."  Then the superintendent called me a troublemaker in a meeting, and not in a funny, sarcastic way.  That's when a friend said "You're not a troublemaker.  You're a trendsetter."

I am the only one in my school using a Tablet PC to teach and today I finally got my wireless device to work so my teaching was completely mobile.  My kids didn't know what to do.  I put my PC on a kid's desk so she could work the problem out for the class and it was like an alien just beamed in from Mars and landed on her notebook.  She looked at the stylus like she had never picked up a pen in her entire life.  As others realized what I did, there were whispers of disappointment and envy because she got to be the first one to write on it.  Not sure what they are going to do when they have to start using Animoto, Prezis, and the Flipped Classroom.

I'm not a troublemaker.  I get the ideas rolling and the wave of change started.  I light the fire within my students to push themselves to do something they didn't know they could do.  This is going to cause problems for some of my colleagues.  And, well, maybe it should.

I'm the fire starter.

What's the worst that can happen?

picture courtesy of ansam518.wordpress.com

If you tried something new...
some technique...
some activity...
some piece of technology...
some method that you heard about/saw/thought of yourself...
what's the worst that could happen?

Now, really think about it.  What's the absolute worst thing that could happen?

If what you did was in the best interest of kids and improving understanding, and that new idea failed, you have lost nothing.  Your students understand just as well as they did with the old way.

But you are now different.  You are not the same person you were last year at this time.  You have pushed yourself to be better, to fight stagnation.  And that is all the reason you need.

Keep kids busy or they might start thinking

While reading Teacher Man, Frank McCourt makes the comment "Keep kids busy or they might start thinking."  He is talking about how too many teachers are just assigning work, yet they have little meaning for the students and rarely makes them think.

I had a conversation with a former supervisor over mandating summer assignments in all Honors science classes. The reason he gave me was: 1) we need to reduce the number of students who are dropping out of the honors program after school starts; this will hopefully scare a few of them off, 2) we need to provide assignments that keep the kids busy for the summer, and 3) we need to eliminate the summer slide that so many of them experience.  You can imagine my reaction.

Now, I am not opposed to summer assignments, but the kids need to find meaning in them.  Give them articles to read and perform research on or give them experiments to do in their kitchen so they can explain the science behind them (or food is always a great experiment) or let them pick their own book to read to demonstrate their understanding of theme or character development.  Don't give them copies of a textbook (which is what came out of my colleagues) and have them mindlessly complete exercises.  If the teachers don't want to grade it because it is so boring, what makes you think the students will want to do it?

One of my goals this year (a formal list will be coming later this week) is to have the students develop 1 assignment in each unit.  I will give them the requirements and the learning objectives and let them run with it.  If one of my classroom rules is going to be "Think Critically" then I need to give my students the opportunity to do so.

Am I wrong?

Please don't waste my time

Originally, this was going to be a letter to administrators, but, after thinking about it, teachers are just as guilty.  Please....

• don't hold an hour long meeting to explain something that could have been accomplished in an email.  My time is just as valuable as yours.
• don't use up time explaining a new initiative that I am not going to a part of.  If something is only happening in K-3, then pull those teachers aside and talk to them specifically.
• remember that I am an educated individual who does not need to have information from a PowerPoint read to me.  Especially when you handed out copies of the PowerPoint for me to read.
• practice what you preach.  If you want me to use technology and differentiated instruction in the classroom, don't lecture to me about it.  Demonstrate it to me so I know what is expected of me later.
• plan appropriately.  If you make an agenda, try to stick to it.  Otherwise, why did you even bother in the first place?
• protect our planet.  If you are going to hand out 50 copies of a 3 page document, at least double side it. If you didn't put it through the photocopier, that means you printed it from the computer so not only did you kill more trees, but you used more expensive ink.  When budgets are constantly being cut, these little things add up.

Having been on both sides of the educational table (teacher and administrator) I know so many of us are guilty of this with colleagues and, worse, with students.  We need to be mindful that we give the respect as professionals that we expect be given to us.  Walk the Talk.

picture courtesy of successories.com

The right stuff

I don't use my blog to push my personal agenda or try to sway anyone to use a particular product.  However, something happened today that I need to share.

I use a Tablet PC to teach, but my new room does not have a wireless projector.  I was faced with 2 options:  get a really long VGA cable so I can continue to be semi-mobile or find a program that will allow me to link my desktop to my laptop wirelessly.  Neither was a good option.  As I was searching the Internet I came across a device that allows you to link a laptop and VGA port wirelessly made by Warpia.  The reviews were good; the price was higher than I wanted to spend, but I ordered one anyway.

So the device comes last night, I hook it up to my TV and now I am looking at my computer on the TV.  Success!  My computer hibernates and when it comes back on, the device no longer works.  Failure.  I start contacting the company and I have to tell you that their customer service was terrible.  I called several times throughout the day and I received an error message every time.  Their FAQ were not helpful so I sent them an email describing my problems.  I told them that I was a teacher, that I was planning on using the device starting Tuesday and was extremely disappointed that this device failed so quickly.  I received back the following email:

Hi Marc,

We have the greatest respect for teachers and the service you provide.  We will be happy to process your return as an advanced replacement at no charge.  This will ensure you have your replacement device in time to use for your classes and allow us time to work out any other kinks should you need additional support.

Thank you for being a teacher!

While my initial experience with this company's products was very poor, they more than made up for it.  I wholeheartedly endorse Warpia and will be purchasing other items through them in the future.