Simply Teaching

What makes an excellent teacher?

2011-12-30T10:40:00.000-05:00

In an article in The Guardian Teacher Network called What makes a brilliant teacher, British teacher Adam Lopez gives his take on what makes a teacher excellent by first asking what is a true teacher:

Do we, as an educational community actually realize what makes a true teacher? Is it purely down to perfect pedagogy, rigorous planning and assessing, diligent resource making and clever behavior management; or is there something more?

He says there is something different to add to the mix which he calls the T Factor.

In my experience, teachers with the T Factor, run a happy, high achieving environment in which the pupils feel content, valued and achieve high respective standards academically and behaviorally. These teachers create a sense of awe and wonder to develop inquiring minds with an insatiable thirst for learning that endures.

The T Factor has to do with building a rapport with students.

Emotional intelligence and empathy are two huge features of a T factor teacher's practice. Knowing how, when, and what to say in order to bring about conditions in which educational attachment flourishes, is an incredibly subtle yet powerful tool.

and

The T Factor approach to education via empathetic and emotionally intelligent interactions helps us recognize and appeal to the humanity in people; educating them from the inside out, and not the outside in.

Here are the author's tips for building the T Factor into your teaching.

Simply stated: build rapport, be empathetic, be positive, watch your body language, have a sense of humor, never be mean, chill out, and be reflective.

One comment in the notes sums up a similar attitude towards effective teaching:

I want children that I've taught to feel positive, to go home and tell their parents what they've done that day - not feel down, grumble. I want them to look forward to tomorrow.

It all sound highly effective to me and certainly sounds like the teachers that I admire. I hope and aspire to be such a teacher. Adam's tips are a good resource that might be worth printing out and posting near your desk where you can see it throughout the day.

Helping our kids thrive

2011-10-10T20:33:00.000-04:00

This is a great TED talk by Peter Benson that will capture your attention from the first sentence. It is about a one question that the says we rarely talk about, "What is our vision for America's kids?"

Peter L. Benson, president and CEO of Minneapolis-based Search Institute, is one of the world's leading authorities on positive human development. Dr. Benson is the author or editor of more than a dozen books on child and adolescent development and social change, including, most recently, Sparks: How Parents Can Help Ignite the Hidden Strengths of Teenagers Dr. Benson's international reputation in human development emerged in the 1990s through his innovative, research-based framework of Developmental Assets, the most widely recognized approach to positive youth development in the United States and, increasingly, around the world. Before joining Search Institute in 1978, Dr. Benson was chair of the psychology department and chair of the program in human development and social relations at Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana.

Here is Jon Foreman of Switchfoot singing "Thrive" a song on their new album "Vice Verses" and fits perfectly with this talk.

"I want to thrive, not just survive."

I saw this cartoon posted today and it is also appropriate.

Teaching in Kenya

2011-07-21T07:22:00.000-04:00

I spent the first two weeks of July in Kenya. The major part of my trip was to work in the Mathare Valley Slum in Nairobi with schools and teachers. It was an amazing and wonderful experience, where I probably learned more than I actually helped. I have started writing about the trip in a more detailed fashion on my Kenya in 2011 blog. There are lots of memories, photos, and videos that I am still updating.

Playing in the dirt

2011-05-24T17:32:00.002-04:00

At the end of school today, I took my fifth graders out to the playground for a few minutes of play. When done, we lined up to go inside as parents were congregating near the playground to pick up their children. A group of parents were hovering nearby and I looked down to see a preschool aged boy squatting down with both hands digging into a muddy puddle. He kept pulling out his hands to inspect the attatched mud before diving in for more. My fifth graders were trying to get him to high-five them, but he was too engrossed in his play. What I thought was cool was that the mom was not bothererd by his playing in the mud. It is good for a little kid to get his hands dirty and not be scolded to keep his hands clean.

How often in school do you get to play in the dirt? Here is an article about a fourth grade class that sifted through a box of dirt and found an eight inch long 11,500 year old piece of hair from a Mastadon. What a memorable experience for the children in that class. They were participating in something called The Mastadon Matrix Project. It costs only $10 to get involved and get your own box of dirt. I think I will apply and have my class do this next year. As Ms. Frizzle of the Magic School Bus always says, "Take chances! Make Mistakes! Get Messy!"

Reading books helps you get a better job in later life

2011-05-16T07:29:00.000-04:00

Reading books is the only out-of-school activity for 16-year-olds that is linked to getting a managerial or professional job in later life, says an Oxford study.

Researcher Mark Taylor, from the Department of Sociology, analysed 17,200 questionnaire responses from people born in 1970, which gave details of extra-curricular activities at the age of 16 and their careers at the age of 33. The findings, presented at the British Sociological Association on May 4, show that girls who had read books at 16 had a 39 per cent probability of a professional or managerial post at 33, but only a 25 per cent chance if they had not. For boys who read regularly, the figure went up from 48 per cent to 58 per cent.

None of the other activities, such as taking part in sports or activities, socialising, going to museums or galleries or to the cinema or concerts, or practical activities like cooking or sewing, were found to have a significant effect on their careers. Mr Taylor also found that playing computer games frequently did not make it less likely that 16-year-olds would be in a professional or managerial career at 33, but this was linked to a lower chance of going to university.

So get your kids reading!

The World Peace Game

2011-04-28T11:40:00.000-04:00

Here is an inspiring Ted Talk by John Hunter on the World Peace Game. It all came about because his first superintendent asked him upon handing him his first job, "What do you want to do?"

John Hunter puts all the problems of the world on a 4'x5' plywood board -- and lets his 4th-graders solve them. At TED2011, he explains how his World Peace Game engages schoolkids, and why the complex lessons it teaches -- spontaneous, and always surprising -- go further than classroom lectures can.

The Hunger Games

2011-02-02T16:50:00.003-05:00

I really enjoyed the Hunger Games Trilogy of books. Thank goodness for recent snow days as I was able to read the entire edge-of-your-seat series in about a weeks time. Author Suzanne Collins takes her readers through a thrill-ride adventure full of twists, emotions, and thought-provoking themes: war, politics, reality television, fashion, celebrity-ism, family, sacrifice, love, violence, and survival. Although, it is a dystopian story that takes place in the future, after the United States had destroyed itself, it is also a story that continues the ideas of the Fall and the broken world in which we live as well as the control of a corrupt government and a complacent citizenry. The country that replaces the United States in this series is called Panem, referring to "Panem et Circenes" which translates into "bread and water"...

...the writer was saying that in return for full bellies and entertainment, his people have given up their political responsibilities, and therefore their power." from Mockingjay

The author plays around with the notion of what it takes to survive in such a place that is both distant and futuristic, as well as familiar and historical, think of ancient Rome and the United States. It is a trilogy to make you think and reflect as well as book that keeps you turning the pages (or clicking the Kindle buttons like I did) in anticipation of what happens next.

The first book The Hunger Games introduces the chief protagonist Katniss Everdeen who volunteers to replace her younger sister Prim in the Hunger Games of the title. The Hunger Games are an annual televised "Survivor" type game run by the government where 24 children are selected through a lottery to fight to the death. There can only be one winner. We also meet two boys who become romantically linked throughout the series to Katniss: Gale, Katniss's best friend and hunting companion, and kind Peeta, who is also "chosen" to compete in the hunger games. An unusual ending concludes the book.

The second book Catching Fire returns Katniss to the Hunger Games (but a special anniversary games-where former game champions must meet and kill each other). Again it is a fight to the death with another unusual ending (no secrets given out here).

The third book, Mockingjay places the characters in a new type of "game" this time against the government. The violence is upped and beloved characters are lost (due to death or other circumstances). In the end, it is hard to imagine if Katniss will actually achieve her wish: to kill the governmental leader, President Snow. Again, the ending is a surprise and we also find out with whom a "damaged" Katniss falls in love.

As a fifth grade teacher, I wouldn't really recommend the story to my students. There may be a few fifth graders up to the challenging ideas presented in the trilogy of books, but I do think these are books that they should definitely choose to read as the get older and are able to handle and understand the themes and challenges presented with more clarity. I would recommend the books to any adult who loves to read a good story. At no time did I think the story was silly, juvenile, or contrived, but instead they thoroughly captured my imagination. Due to the severe conditions placed on children throughout the books, there is little "hope" offered to readers beyond the "kill or be killed" nature of the series. However, the books are a reminder to not damage our children with our "Panem et Circenes" world of entertainment and governmental policies. There is a epilogue at the end of the book and all that I will say is that the author makes it clear that "children" are our hope. And I can't wait for the movie!

Simply Experts

2011-01-23T08:50:00.002-05:00

A Canadian professor Kieran Egan has a new book coming out called Learning in Depth: A Simple Innovation That Can Transform Schooling. According to a Washington Post article Want smarter kids? Make them study something - one thing - for a long time written by Kate Julian, we should help students become experts on a simple subject: dust, beetles, apples. Egan believes that students should be assigned a topic in elementary school and study it through high school. He believes that by the end of high school students they will not only be world class experts on a subject, but that they will also be better citizens and more moral people (since they are engaged with something outside themselves). How might this look?

Egan, wisely, doesn't start with dust. He begins with apples. He imagines a young student first drawing apples, then cataloging apple varieties, and later collecting stories about apples (from the Garden of Eden and Johnny Appleseed to William Tell and Isaac Newton) and figuring out why apples float.

Dust, meanwhile, could take a student from house dust to the Dust Bowl, from the origins of the color khaki ("khaki" is Urdu for "dust"; how it came to refer to a color is a long story involving British camouflage uniforms and Afghanistan) to the origins of the planet.

This quote is from the new book:

People who know nothing in depth commonly assume that their opinions are the same kind of thing as knowledge.

It all reminds me of a story I heard many times in college about Agassiz and the fish.

It was more than fifteen years ago that I entered the laboratory of Professor Agassiz, and told him I had enrolled my name in the scientific school as a student of natural history. He asked me a few questions about my object in coming, my antecedents generally, the mode in which I afterwards proposed to use the knowledge I might acquire, and finally, whether I wished to study any special branch. To the latter I replied that while I wished to be well grounded in all departments of zoology, I purposed to devote myself specially to insects.

"When do you wish to begin?" he asked.

"Now," I replied.

This seemed to please him, and with an energetic "Very well," he reached from a shelf a huge jar of specimens in yellow alcohol.

"Take this fish," he said, "and look at it; we call it a Haemulon; by and by I will ask what you have seen."

With that he left me, but in a moment returned with explicit instructions as to the care of the object entrusted to me.

"No man is fit to be a naturalist," said he, "who does not know how to take care of specimens."

I was to keep the fish before me in a tin tray, and occasionally moisten the surface with alcohol from the jar, always taking care to replace the stopper tightly. Those were not the days of ground glass stoppers, and elegantly shaped exhibition jars; all the old students will recall the huge, neckless glass bottles with their leaky, wax-besmeared corks, half-eaten by insects and begrimed with cellar dust. Entomology was a cleaner science than ichthyology, but the example of the professor who had unhesitatingly plunged to the bottom of the jar to produce the fish was infectious; and though this alcohol had "a very ancient and fish-like smell," I really dared not show any aversion within these sacred precincts, and treated the alcohol as though it were pure water. Still I was conscious of a passing feeling of disappointment, for gazing at a fish did not commend itself to an ardent entomologist. My friends at home, too, were annoyed, when they discovered that no amount of eau de cologne would drown the perfume which haunted me like a shadow.

In ten minutes I had seen all that could be seen in that fish, and started in search of the professor, who had, however, left the museum; and when I returned, after lingering over some of the odd animals stored in the upper apartment, my specimen was dry all over. I dashed the fluid over the fish as if to resuscitate it from a fainting-fit, and looked with anxiety for a return of a normal, sloppy appearance. This little excitement over, nothing was to be done but return to a steadfast gaze at my mute companion. Half an hour passed, an hour, another hour; the fish began to look loathsome. I turned it over and around; looked it in the face -- ghastly; from behind, beneath, above, sideways, at a three-quarters view -- just as ghastly. I was in despair; at an early hour, I concluded that lunch was necessary; so with infinite relief, the fish was carefully replaced in the jar, and for an hour I was free.

On my return, I learned that Professor Agassiz had been at the museum, but had gone and would not return for several hours. My fellow students were too busy to be disturbed by continued conversation. Slowly I drew forth that hideous fish, and with a feeling of desperation again looked at it. I might not use a magnifying glass; instruments of all kinds were interdicted. My two hands, my two eyes, and the fish; it seemed a most limited field. I pushed my fingers down its throat to see how sharp its teeth were. I began to count the scales in the different rows until I was convinced that that was nonsense. At last a happy thought struck me -- I would draw the fish; and now with surprise I began to discover new features in the creature. Just then the professor returned.

"That is right," said he, "a pencil is one of the best eyes. I am glad to notice, too, that you keep your specimen wet and your bottle corked."

With these encouraging words he added --

"Well, what is it like?"

He listened attentively to my brief rehearsal of the structure of parts whose names were still unknown to me; the fringed gill-arches and movable operculum; the pores of the head, fleshly lips, and lidless eyes; the lateral line, the spinous fin, and forked tail; the compressed and arched body. When I had finished, he waited as if expecting more, and then, with an air of disappointment:

"You have not looked very carefully; why," he continued, more earnestly, "you haven't seen one of the most conspicuous features of the animal, which is as plainly before your eyes as the fish itself. Look again; look again!" And he left me to my misery.

I was piqued; I was mortified. Still more of that wretched fish? But now I set myself to the task with a will, and discovered one new thing after another, until I saw how just the professor's criticism had been. The afternoon passed quickly, and when, towards its close, the professor inquired,

"Do you see it yet?"

"No," I replied. "I am certain I do not, but I see how little I saw before."

"That is next best," said he earnestly, "but I won't hear you now; put away your fish and go home; perhaps you will be ready with a better answer in the morning. I will examine you before you look at the fish."

This was disconcerting; not only must I think of my fish all night, studying, without the object before me, what this unknown but most visible feature might be, but also, without reviewing my new discoveries, I must give an exact account of them the next day. I had a bad memory; so I walked home by Charles River in a distracted state, with my two perplexities.

The cordial greeting from the professor the next morning was reassuring; here was a man who seemed to be quite as anxious as I that I should see for myself what he saw.

"Do you perhaps mean," I asked, "that the fish has symmetrical sides with paired organs?"

His thoroughly pleased, "Of course, of course!" repaid the wakeful hours of the previous night. After he had discoursed most happily and enthusiastically -- as he always did -- upon the importance of this point, I ventured to ask what I should do next.

"Oh, look at your fish!" he said, and left me again to my own devices. In a little more than an hour he returned and heard my new catalogue.

"That is good, that is good!" he repeated, "but that is not all; go on." And so for three long days, he placed that fish before my eyes, forbidding me to look at anything else, or to use any artificial aid. "Look, look, look," was his repeated injunction.

This was the best entomological lesson I ever had -- a lesson whose influence was extended to the details of every subsequent study; a legacy the professor has left to me, as he left it to many others, of inestimable value, which we could not buy, with which we cannot part.

A year afterwards, some of us were amusing ourselves with chalking outlandish beasts upon the blackboard. We drew prancing star-fishes; frogs in mortal combat; hydro-headed worms; stately craw-fishes, standing on their tails, bearing aloft umbrellas; and grotesque fishes, with gaping mouths and staring eyes. The professor came in shortly after, and was as much amused as any at our experiments. He looked at the fishes.

"Haemulons, every one of them," he said; "Mr. ____________ drew them."

True; and to this day, if I attempt a fish, I can draw nothing but Haemulons.

The fourth day a second fish of the same group was placed beside the first, and I was bidden to point out the resemblances and differences between the two; another and another followed, until the entire family lay before me, and a whole legion of jars covered the table and surrounding shelves; the odor had become a pleasant perfume; and even now, the sight of an old six-inch worm-eaten cork brings fragrant memories!

The whole group of Haemulons was thus brought into review; and whether engaged upon the dissection of the internal organs, preparation and examination of the bony framework, or the description of the various parts, Agassiz's training in the method of observing facts in their orderly arrangement, was ever accompanied by the urgent exhortation not to be content with them.

"Facts are stupid things," he would say, "until brought into connection with some general law."

At the end of eight months, it was almost with reluctance that I left these friends and turned to insects; but what I gained by this outside experience has been of greater value than years of later investigation in my favorite groups.

-- from American Poems (3rd ed.; Boston: Houghton, Osgood & Co., 1879): pp. 450-54.

Simply Puzzling

2010-12-30T14:01:00.000-05:00

National Geographics has an Altas Puzzle page. There are 23 Atlas puzzles of various maps showing countries and continents. The pieces snap into place when you find a match and you don't have to rotate pieces to make them fit. I did the North America puzzle and it took 6 minutes and 52 seconds. Can you beat that? The neat part is that you don't have to worry about missing pieces. If you want to make your own puzzles, you can upload a picture to jigsaw planet. Here is one I made of my daughter and me at Plymouth this summer.

How to put Quinhagak, Alaska on the map

2010-12-22T19:40:00.000-05:00

As I fifth grade teacher, I wish I had thought up something as wonderful as this. I think people around the world are going to be asking, "Where is Quinhagak, Alaska?" All that was needed was a creative teacher, some enthusiastic students, a willing village, the Hallelujah Chorus, and the spirit of Bob Dylan. Enjoy the video and Merry Christmas.

Sir Ken Robinson: Changing education paradigms

2010-12-21T17:14:00.002-05:00

This animated video talk was adapted from a talk given by Sir Ken Robinson, world-renowned education and creativity expert and recipient of the RSA's Benjamin Franklin award. There is a lot to think about here. You can listen and watch the creative drawings to further engage your mind. Sir Ken Robinson lays out the link between 3 troubling trends: rising drop-out rates, schools' dwindling stake in the arts, and ADHD. Schools should not be "putting kids to sleep, instead we should be waking them up."

Diana Laufenberg: How to learn? From mistakes

2010-12-18T17:00:00.001-05:00

From Ted Talks: Diana Laufenberg: How to learn? From mistakes

"....learning has to include an amount of failure, because failure is instructional in the process."

What makes a good teacher?

2010-12-13T18:23:00.001-05:00

It took $45 million dollars from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to figure out what makes a successful teacher, according to last week's New York Times article What Works in the Classroom? Ask the Students by Sam Dillon. What did they do? They took the innovative approach of asking students.

What did this boatload of money find out about good teachers?

Teachers whose students described them as skillful at maintaining classroom order, at focusing their instruction and at helping their charges learn from their mistakes are often the same teachers whose students learn the most in the course of a year, as measured by gains on standardized test scores, according to a progress report on the research.

What did they find out about poor teachers?

One notable early finding, Ms. Phillips said, is that teachers who incessantly drill their students to prepare for standardized tests tend to have lower value-added learning gains than those who simply work their way methodically through the key concepts of literacy and mathematics.

I am amazed at the amount of money and effort that has been spent trying to get teachers to drill their students in order to increase test scores and pass state tests. Now they are spending more money and finding out this isn't such a great policy after all. Maybe one day they will even pay a bunch more millions for another study and decide to ask teachers about good teaching! I am sure teachers would tell you for free what works and what doesn't work.

We Used to Wait: The Lost Art of Writing and Letters

2010-10-30T10:18:00.003-04:00

On The Arcade Fire's wonderful recent release "The Suburbs" there is a poignant song called "We Used to Wait" that starts with these words, "I used to write, I used to write letters I used to sign my name" and then remembers a time when people used to write letters and then wait for responses. In a world where "our lives are changing fast" when is the last time you wrote or received a real handwritten letter? There are many lost "arts" that the children of today have no clue about. Penmanship seems to be one of those lost arts or disciplines.

Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal published an article called "How Handwriting Trains the Brain" that implies that writing is indeed a key to learning, memory, and ideas. Using MRIs reasearchers have shown that:

...writing by hand is more than just a way to communicate. The practice helps with learning letters and shapes, can improve idea composition and expression, and may aid fine motor-skill development.

Here is a recap of this and other similar articles from "The Week" magazine: How Writing by Hand Makes Kids Smarter. In a world of computers, keyboards, and texting, it seems that there are many good reasons to keep up the practice of writing by hand as well as writing with good penmanship. It can get ideas out faster, increase neural activity, and make you seem smarter. It seems like it might be wise to keep a pencil as a good friend.

And just when is the last time you wrote or received a letter? Last month I found an unexpected letter in my mailbox and I realized it has been a long time since I last communicated by letter with anyone. The letter was a surprise from the daughter of my high school running coach (an inspiring coach, teacher, and mentor). Although, I don't recall ever meeting her, she had read some comments I had made in my running blog online about her father and wrote a nice handwritten letter in reply (something her dad used to do also as you can see in the post) and included some old pictures: a letter from the past.

Strangely enough, the first time I listened to "The Suburbs" was when I visited my parents and hometown on Cape Cod this summer. I went for a long 15 mile run from my parents house and ran along the beaches and running routes of my younger years. I also ran by the house I grew up in, which was very interesting as I listened on my iPod to this music that so often references growing up, hometowns, and the lost life of our past. I also ran by an address, that I recognize now as the place where my coaches daughter now lives. This is unusual because I went to high school on Long Island in New York. Maybe I will have a chance to visit and meet with her someday as she lives only a couple of miles from my parents. I got this all from a letter!

For an unusual personalized video of "We Used to Wait" go to "The Wilderness Downtown" on a powerful computer, hopefully one with the Chrome browser. You input the address of the home where you grew up and it creates an interactive film using google images (including a postcard to your past) that you can view. I like the running theme to the video, too! Unfortunately, Google street view doesn't have enough images of the home I grew up in, so it can't recreate a run similar to the one I had this summer.

What Albert Einstein Said...

2010-10-17T23:20:00.000-04:00

"Creativity is intelligence having fun."

"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."

"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."

"I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe."

"If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut"

"It is not that I'm so smart. But I stay with the questions much longer."

"Albert Einstein's Rules of Work:

1) Out of clutter, find simplicity.

2) From discord, find harmony.

3) In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity."

"Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions."

"If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales."

"The difference between genius and stupidity is; genius has its limits."

"Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere."

"If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself."

"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."

"Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving."

"I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of the university."

"Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school."

"I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious."

"Nothing happens until something moves."

"Any fool can know. The point is to understand. "

"It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge."

"The only sure way to avoid making mistakes is to have no new ideas."

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is to not stop questioning."

"Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value."

"In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity"

"You never fail until you stop trying."

"If a cluttered desk is that of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk?"

"What is right is not always popular and what is popular is not always right."

"Immagination is the highest form of research."

"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. So is a lot."

"Information is not knowledge."

"Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful."

"I do not teach anyone I only provide the environment in which they can learn"

"At least once a day, allow yourself the freedom to think and dream for yourself."

"Joy in looking and comprehending is nature's most beautiful gift."

"You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother."

"Play is the highest form of research."

"The only thing that you absolutely have to know, is the location of the library."

Exercising Makes Kids Smarter!

2010-09-15T18:01:00.003-04:00

According to an article in today's New York Times, Phys Ed: Can Exercise Make Kids Smarter? two new studies have shown that exercising aerobically can make kids smarter and help them perform better on tests. It can even enlarge important portions of the brain (9 and 10 year old children were tested and imaged).

Previous studies found that fitter kids generally scored better on such tests. And in this case, too, those children performed better on the tests. But the M.R.I.’s provided a clearer picture of how it might work. They showed that fit children had significantly larger basal ganglia, a key part of the brain that aids in maintaining attention and “executive control,” or the ability to coordinate actions and thoughts crisply.

Meanwhile, in a separate, newly completed study by many of the same researchers at the University of Illinois, a second group of 9- and 10-year-old children were also categorized by fitness levels and had their brains scanned, but they completed different tests, this time focusing on complex memory. Such thinking is associated with activity in the hippocampus, a structure in the brain’s medial temporal lobes. Sure enough, the M.R.I. scans revealed that the fittest children had heftier hippocampi.

When looking at the result of these two studies researchers noted:

The two studies did not directly overlap, but the researchers, in their separate reports, noted that the hippocampus and basal ganglia regions interact in the human brain, structurally and functionally. Together they allow some of the most intricate thinking. If exercise is responsible for increasing the size of these regions and strengthening the connection between them, being fit may “enhance neurocognition” in young people, the authors concluded.

So kids need to get moving so they can develop a larger basal ganglia and a larger hippocampus. I am thrilled to see that running is incoperated into the PE program at New Searles this year for all children. Many students in the upper grades are also participating in the cross-country program. Exercise is just plain fun, too!

Another note in the article mentions the benefit of a walk before taking a test.

At the same time, evidence accumulates about the positive impact of even small amounts of aerobic activity. Past studies from the University of Illinois found that “just 20 minutes of walking” before a test raised children’s scores, even if the children were otherwise unfit or overweight, says Charles Hillman, a professor of kinesiology at the university and the senior author of many of the recent studies.

And if you think just playing around on the Wi is adequate exercise, a final note states:

So get kids moving, he added, and preferably away from their Wiis. A still-unpublished study from his lab compared the cognitive impact in young people of 20 minutes of running on a treadmill with 20 minutes of playing sports-style video games at a similar intensity. Running improved test scores immediately afterward. Playing video games did not.

A simply wonderful book about the value of exercise in the life of students is Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain by John Ratey. After reading just the first chapters of the book last spring, I wanted to buy copies for the entire Nashua Board of Education, but then I remembered that they don't pay me enough to be so generous, so I went out for long run instead.

A fresh look at study habits

2010-09-06T18:52:00.000-04:00

"Forget What You Know About Good Study Habits" is an article in the New York Times written by Benedict Carey. At the beginning of this new school year, it is interesting to note that current research shows that what is often assumed to be good study habits, "Clear a quiet work space. Stick to a homework schedule. Set goals. Set boundaries. Do not bribe (except in emergencies) may not really be the best way to study after all. The article states that "cognitive scientists have shown that a few simple techniques can reliably improve what matters most: how much a student learns from studying." Research shows that, "instead of sticking to one study location, simply alternating the room where a person studies improves retention. So does studying distinct but related skills or concepts in one sitting, rather than focusing intensely on a single thing." The article goes on to describe why this may matter in our minds. It is an interesting article definitely worth studying.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

2010-07-01T18:02:00.001-04:00

I have read my first book of this summer vacation and it wasn't one of the books I had stacked up on a shelf waiting to be read, instead it was The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. I had not heard of this book before but my daughter had borrowed it from the library because it was listed on her school's summer reading list. She is going to be a fifth grader next year. Hannah started reading the book, but said it was too scary and she did not want to read it at all anyore. So I grabbed it to see what the fuss was about.

The book starts out with a hand in the darkness carrying a knife.

"If it sliced you, you might not even know you had been cut, not immediately."

The knife we learn is wet with blood.

"The hunt was almost over. He had left the woman in her bed, the man on the bedroom floor, the other child in her brightly colored bedroom...That only left the little one, a baby barely a toddler to take care of. One more and the task would be done."

By the second page of the book we have the murder of a family, including a child, and the attempted murder of a baby. I agree with my daughter that this is a scary and shocking start to book and something that many kids will not want to read. The book is recommended for 5-8 graders.

I kept reading. The boy escapes to a graveyard where he is brought up by its inhabitants: ghosts, witches, werewolves, the undead (a vampire maybe?), and other sorts that train and teach him in the ways of the living and the dead. The boy is named "Nobody", Bod for short, and is kept safe and sound from the scary world of the living in the confines of the graveyard. We eventually learn that the murderer of his family is still looking for him in order to complete the task and Bod must use the resources around him to stand up to and destroy the evil man. There is an underground hidden chamber with a giant snake-like creature and enough characters and plot twists to make you think of another boy who faced similar difficulties with the help of some other similar and unusual characters named Harry Potter.

In the end it is an enjoyable read. When Bod talks to his guardian about his "dead" friends he is told,

"They are. They are for the most part done with the world. You are not. You're alive, Bod. That means that you have infinite potential. You can do anything, make anything, dream anything. If you change the world, the world will change. Potential."

The books ends on a much happier note than how it begins, with Bod entering the land of the living rather than how it began with his entering into the land of the dead. If you enjoy well written books, then this might be a book worth reading, however it is not for everyone and my daughter will be just content to just leave The Graveyard Book alone. I enjoyed the book and I think plenty of my students would too, but it is not a book I would use as a read-aloud in the classroom.

NEIL GAIMAN talks about The Graveyard Book

You can find videos of Neil Gaiman reading the entire book as well as answering questions about the book at his website.

Winner of the 2009 Newbery Medal and Hugo Award
At each stop of his 9-city national tour in 2008, master storyteller Neil Gaiman read one chapter from The Graveyard Book and answered audience questions. Watch his tour readings at his website and hear the captivating book in its entirety. Then, watch exclusive tour A videos each week throughout the month of September leading up to the anniversary of The Graveyard Book.

The Goal of Education

2010-06-23T13:57:00.000-04:00

"The goal of education is not to produce higher scores, but to educate children to become responsible people with well developed minds and good character."

Quote from Dianne Ravitch article entitled “In Need of a Renaissance: Real Reform Will Renew, Not Abandon, Our Neighborhood Schools” in the American Educator, Summer 2010 issue which is excerpted from the book The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education
.

"Hate That Cat" Poetry

2010-05-20T23:07:00.000-04:00

This wasn't that simple, but I wanted to give the presentation software Prezi a second try (first try is here). I like the panning effects that Prezi offers, but I still find the interface clunky and figuring out the how to use the "zebra" tool to be very time-consuming. I did eventually complete my second Prezi. After reading Sharon Creech's excellent book "Love that Dog" to my class earlier in the year and "Hate that Cat" more recently I wanted my students to write poems about pets, real or imagined, based on the wonderful poetry examples used in "Hate that Cat". I decided to write some poetry myself in the style of Jack from the book. Here is my Prezi presentation on my childhood dog. It somewhat tells the story of my much beloved family dog and how she won the title of "Best of Show" in a kid's dog show back when I was in fourth grade. I also won the prize of picking out any bike in a local department store. As you can see, I chose a most excellent banana seat Sting-ray bicycle.

Prezi: A Creative Presentation Tool

2010-03-13T21:20:00.001-05:00

I have bookmarked a link to the Prezi website for awhile now, but I have never tried to use the site as I had no presentation system in my classroom. This week with the installation of an Eno board and a ceiling mounted projector a whole new world of creativity and teaching has opened up for me. While I wait for the install of the lesson making software, I decided to give Prezi a try. Teachers can sign up for a free Prezi account here.

According to the Prezi website, Prezi is a living presentation tool.

Prezi is zooming sketches on a digital napkin.

It's visualization and storytelling without slides. Your ideas live on stage and on the web. Have you ever wondered about presenting your thoughts as free as they come? Ever got tired of creating a slideshow?

It's been said, that the best innovations come from people who are unhappy with the tools they use. We realized that our ideas won't fit into slides anymore. Putting together creative thinking and technology expertise, we have created Prezi, a living presentation tool.

I decided to try my hand at Prezi and in about an hour, I came up with this presentation. It is far from perfect and needs a lot fo cleaning up, but it shows the capabilities of the program and I am already thinking of new ways that I can use this in my classroom.

I look forward to seeing how this looks and works on my Eno board when I return to school. Here is an embedded version of my lesson. It is based on a mini writing lesson from Grammar Lessons and Strategies That Strengthen Students¹ Writing.

Using Appositives: Mini-Lesson 8 on Prezi

The Best math Lesson EVer?

2010-03-09T20:20:00.000-05:00

Sometimes mutliplication and division can seem a bit confusing. Can you figure out what these old-timers are doing wrong when solving the problem 25/5? Does it equal 5 or 14?

Can you think of other ways to do something similar?

Beautiful Minds: The Amazing Power of the Brain

2010-03-07T12:21:00.001-05:00

Here is a fascintating video of an autistic man named Steven Wiltshire. In this video Steven takes a 45 minute helicopter trip over Rome, Italy and then spends three days drawing a precise and near perfect aerial view of the city.

Stephen Wiltshire from London is a star among savants. Stephen is autistic. He did not speak his first words "pencil" and "paper" until he was 5. Yet, when he was 11 he drew a perfect aerial view of London after only one helicopter ride. For this film we're testing the "Living camera" in Rome.

A savant is someone who is exceptionally gifted in a specialized field. An autistic savant is a person, like Steven, can be gifted in music, art, or math. Some savants suffer from a brain injury and then their brain shows remarkable talents like Alonzo Clemons. He can create perfect 3D representations of any animal (except humans) even if only shown a photograph.

The mind is very powerful and has incredible capabilities.

Simply Dressing Up for School

2009-12-23T00:07:00.000-05:00

I don't do it often, but today I got dressed up for school (much to the amusement of many people). So I have to put up a picture.

Here is an animoto video of our class dress up Holiday luncheon.

While we were dressed up we also presented our Maya projects.

Do Ants Count? A Fascinating Scientific Study

2009-12-01T13:43:00.001-05:00

NPR recently had a story called "Ants That Count!"

"Can ants count? Not out loud they can't. Not the way you and I count. But an ingenious experiment conducted in the Sahara suggests maybe ants do count."

Ants use a variety of ways to travel home after their journeys. In the forest, they leave a scent trail. Celestial clues are also used by some ants to help them travel home. One commentor on the article says that desert ants use a polarized light map to help them with their directions. This study looked at desert ants whose scent trail might be lost in the desert. The experiment was simple and is wonderfully explained in this video (if you are squeamish about the little ants realize that in the experiment little ant legs were cut off some ants- although the video is a cartoon-you may not appreciate that fact). Anyhow, interesting things happened when ants were put on little ant stilts or had their legs cut off at the knee. They seemed to count their steps as if they had normal ant legs and never made it home. On stilts they travel too far and with cut off legs, they didn't travel far enough.

The experiment concludes that,

"Ants don't have maps in their heads and don't recognize markers along the route. This experiment strongly suggests that ants do have internal pedometers that allow them to "count" their way home."

I think the video would be interesting for a class to view as the scientific process and thinking is explained in an easy to understand way.

Listen to the story here.

This story reminds me of the Proverb, "Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!"

Well. I guess ants are pretty smart about things, but they still can't compare with a talking horse!

Class Inca Projects

2009-11-25T20:09:00.004-05:00

My fifth grade class finished up their Inca projects. You can see the wonderful results in this Animoto video.

For inspiration we used this book, The Inca: Activities and Crafts from a Mysterious Land (Secrets of Ancient Cultures) by Arlette N. Braman. The projects were a lot of fun and captured my student's interest and enthusiasm. The book was a perfect resource full of interesting projects and background information. I wanted to try other theme related projects like the ones my fourth grade class created last year based on Benjamin Franklin. We had a rewarding experiece making those projects that was even further enhanced when the author of the Benjamin Frankin book we used, Carmella Van Vleet, found our video and blog online and sent the class a wonderful email about how she enjoyed seeing their final projects. When I read the class the email, they were so excited that they all stood up and gave themselves a standing ovation. I think it was the recognition that their work went beyond just something for the teacher, parents, and school. The fact that the actual author of the book would write to them thrilled them to no end.

I enjoyed this book so much and found it useful for my class that I also ordered the companion book The Maya: Activities and Crafts from a Mysterious Land (Secrets of Ancient Cultures) from Amazon.com. When ordering I noticed that for $1.29 more you can upgrade the book to "online access." According to Amazon this means you can:

Start reading the book online while you wait for your physical copy to arrive
Add highlights, bookmarks, notes, or tags to any page or section of text
Print pages, and even copy and paste text from the book
Read your book from any Internet-connected computer, meaning your book is always with you

I did this with the Mayan book and I was instantly able to read it while I wait for my order to arrive. I think this feature is pretty neat, especially for teachers. I did note that you can't copy and paste pictures, but if you need a copy of a page you can print it right out rather than hunt down a photocopier. I also liked the projects in the Mayan book as well as the similar presentation to the Inca book. My class will be working on Mayan projects and I will use both this book and Amazing Maya Inventions You Can Build Yourself (Build It Yourself series) which I bought last month. This book does not have the online access feature.

Body Movements Can Help Influence Problem Solving

2009-11-18T20:31:00.002-05:00

I enjoy moving around and learning about how the body moves. If I was going back to college, I would be interested in the field of Kinesiology and I probably would not be interested in the field of education (one lifetime spent teaching is enough!). I like to run and exercise and find the times I am running or working out are the times when I do my best thinking. Sitting still is not something I enjoy doing at all. However, I am a teacher and sometimes I feel that my job is finding ways to get my students to sit still. After all, they are "supposed" to be thinking and working and when do we ever equate movement with either of those in the classroom?

Now comes a study out of the University of Illinois that shows for the first time that how a person solves a problem can be "influenced" by how that person moves. Psychology professor Alejandro Lleras, who conducted the study with Vanderbilt University postdoctoral researcher Laura Thomas, observed that participants who swung their arms were more able to solve a problem whose solution involved swinging strings. This demonstrates that the brain can use bodily cues to help understand and solve complex problems. This experiment shows a link between the body and the mind, something called "embodied cognition." Lleras said:

“People tend to think that their mind lives in their brain, dealing in conceptual abstractions, very much disconnected from the body. This emerging research is fascinating because it is demonstrating how your body is a part of your mind in a powerful way. The way you think is affected by your body and, in fact, we can use our bodies to help us think.”

The experiment was fascinating as described here.

The researchers asked study subjects to tie the ends of two strings together. The strings dangled from ceiling rafters and were so far apart that a person grasping one could not reach the other. A few tools were also available: a paperback book, a wrench, two small dumbbells, and a plate. Subjects were given eight, two-minute sessions to solve the problem, with 100 seconds devoted to finding a solution, interrupted by 20 seconds of exercise.

Some subjects were told to swing their arms forward and backward during the exercise sessions, while others were directed to alternately stretch one arm, and then the other, to the side. To prevent them from consciously connecting these activities to the problem of the strings, the researchers had them count backwards by threes while exercising.

You can see short videos of the subjects here:

Participant during a swinging exercise break
Participant during a stretching exercise break
Swing group participant attempting to solve the problem
Stretch group participant attempting to solve the problem

The subjects in the arm-swinging group were more likely than those in the stretch group to solve the problem, which required attaching an object to one of the strings and swinging it so that it could be grasped while also holding the other string. By the end of the 16-minute deadline, participants in the arm-swinging group were 40 percent more likely than those in the stretch group to solve the problem.

"By making you swing your arms in a particular way, we're activating a part of your brain that deals with swinging motions," Lleras said. "That sort of activity in your brain then unconsciously leads you to think about that type of motion when you're trying to solve the problem."

Now I am not sure how this all applies directly to the classroom. As you may have noticed, it was not just any movement that helped the subjects solve the problem. It was a more directed movement that "played into" the solution. The study is fascinating and I was also intrigued by the hint of a previous study by Lleras and his colleagues that has shown that directing a person’s eye movements or attention in specific patterns can also aid in solving complex problems.
However you take the study Lleraa offers some practical thoughts:

“We view this as a really important new window into understanding the complexity of human thought,” he said. “I guess another take-home message is this: If you are stuck trying to solve a problem, take a break. Go do something else. This will ensure that the next time you think about that problem you will literally approach it with a different mind. And that may help!”

Read about the study here.
One of the practices I have been applying to my own athletic endeavors is called Z-Health. Z-Health is a joint mobility program that strives to re-educate the nervous system to improve poor movement patterns. I think that this study parallels some of the concepts of Z-Health through its use of precise movement patterns to rewire the nervous system for better performance. I should also note that some Z-Health drills also target eye-movements.

A Simple Way to Make 3-D Graphic Presentations

2009-11-11T15:50:00.000-05:00

I am always looking for new ways to add a spark to my teaching and I found a really great resource to enable student creativity and excitement. Scholastic has published a wonderful and extremely useful book called 3-D Graphic Organizers: 20 Innovative, Easy-to-Make Learning Tools That Reinforce Key Concepts and Motivate All Students! by Daniel Barnekow. The book is filled with 20 organizers and many ideas for using each one. The organizers come with printable templates and directions. The templates are cut and folded into all sorts of interesting graphic displays. There are many ways to use each template and the uses are open-ended as it is easy to think of different ways to use them. I have used templates with math, social studies, and science lessons. The templates certainly capture my student's imaginations and they show more enthusiasm for learning as they get to create something along with learning information. There is a simple rubric for grading the student's creations and there is also an included cd which has pdf files of all of the templates. This is really handy if someone needs a new printout. I don't have to wait to go to the copy room to pring a copy. I can print it out on the computer. Some of the templates on the cd allow you to type in information. This can be helpful for some students or for the teacher who would like to modify the templates. So far we have made a slide chart of math terms related to angles and triangles, a flip table of astronomy terms, and a tri-fold table related to the sun. It is a great way to get students to learn and study facts and to present information that they have learned in a very visual way. I can't wait to try such projects as the twist-tubes, pop-up books, and the spinning wheel. I love to give work that goes beyond basic worksheets and this book is just a great resource for teachers to make lessons creative and fun.

You can view sample pages here.

A Video Game Player's Guide to Success in School

2009-10-22T23:03:00.002-04:00

If your student is a video game addict, then I believe they already have developed the skills they need to be successful in school. They just have to apply what they do to be successful video game players in the same way to what they do in school. These are a couple of posters I made a few years ago. They are always worth a good conversation.

Nashua PAL Elementary School Cross-Country Championships

2009-10-18T00:13:00.002-04:00

Here is an Animoto video of the Nashua PAL Elementary School Cross-Country Championships held on October 17. There are runners from Main Dunstable School (my daughter's school), Mount Pleasant School(former students), and New Searles School. All runners did a great job running on a crisp Fall morning. (Results: boys 3k, girls 3k, boys 3k team, and girls 3k team. There is no finer sport than cross-country running and it was great to see over 700 Nashua Elementary students participating!

The Secret to Success: Don't Eat the Marshmallow, Yet!

2009-10-07T19:08:00.002-04:00

"Don't eat the Marshmallow, Yet!" is not alluding to how to be successful on "The Biggest Loser,” but rather instead to the secret to success in life. It seems that the ability to delay gratification, even at a young age, sets one up for more success in life. Check out what happened with these kids when they were told that if they did not eat a marshmallow, they would receive an additional marshmallow. The squirming they do to NOT eat the marshmallow is hilarious and also a sign that they know how to delay gratification for greater rewards later.

It seems like this entertaining video is based on a similar test that followed young marshmallow eaters or avoiders into their adulthood. Those that were able to delay eating the marshmallow enjoyed greater success in their life, as marked by SAT scores, college attendance, and even debt avoidance. Those are some measures of what makes a successful life and were the measures looked at in the studies. There are other measures of what being a successful person truly means, but I think that it is true that the ability to delay gratification is a skill that is admirable and needed in our "instant" and "self-centered" society.

You can see another video that explains this test more. It is another TedTalks video: this time of motivational speaker, Joachim de Posada,sho is also the author of the book Don't Eat The Marshmallow Yet!: The Secret to Sweet Success in Work and Life.
It is again filled with video of children trying their hardest not to eat the marshmallow. He explains some of the lessons we can learn about the benefits of delaying gratification. He even goes so far as to infer that our country has a problem with, "Eating more marshmallows then it produces."

A Simple Playful Classroom

2009-10-02T22:19:00.001-04:00

As a long time and "aging" athlete, I have been interested in the concept of "play" as part of sports. It started when I was involved in a discussion on a national running message board about "aging and feeling good while running". A bunch of competitive runners were offering up ideas on maintaining fitness and health as well as enjoying our sport to the levels we had when we were younger and doing so without injury or loss of interest. One thing that kept popping up was keeping running "playful.” The idea is that we should continue to act like the kids we were; running, jumping, climbing, crawling, and just doing things in the outdoors rather than running a set distance or time and returning home. In fact, the discussions are what first led me to create a running blog and later this blog.

I have not had enough time to study "play" as much as I would like, but I see the need for playfulness not only in our adult lives but in the lives of our children. I predict that in a few years fitness activities will move away from gyms and machines and we will see more activities being performed in the natural outdoor arena as adults learn to play as they used to when they were children. Some websites already promote this type of natural play and fitness, such as Erwin Le Corr's Movnat (Move Naturally) and Frank Forencich's The Exuberant Animal.

"All the science that we've come up with backs up what we used to do as kids."

As an athlete, I have been challenged to undo the effects of too much running and biking and having to spend years trying to unravel the damage it has done to my body. I am learning that it is not strength training or stretches that is going to rebuild the balance in my body, rather it is a retraining of the brain. I am doing this through Z-Health joint -mobility exercises that target the nervous system in order to produce movement that is more efficient and through Feldenkrais exercises that retrain neuromuscular patterns so that I can move more correctly and naturally. Interestingly enough both movement therapies deal with how the brain relates and controls movements. I am coming to understand how the brain, thinking, and movement are wonderfully connected.

And then we have school!

Students become mini-adults and sit in uncomfortable chairs and work on paper and pencil assignments, many times quietly and by themselves without any movement or fun. Teachers often appreciate the “quieter” and "still" students over those with energy to spare. Then we notice the tendencies of children to act up or lose concentration in many ways as they become bored and restless. I have been challenging myself to find ways to bring play into the classroom as well as movement, without losing the goal of giving my students a superior education. Responsive Classroom activities, greetings, and games bring in some element of play, but it certainly is not enough. The question then is how do we allow and advocate for movement without losing control of a class, particularly when we know that it allows for thinking that is more creative and invigorated minds.

I am still looking. Brain Gym is a program I have heard about that integrates play, movement exercises, and learning. I have not taken the Brain Gym courses, but the movements remind me somewhat of some Z-Health exercises. These movements are supposed to stimulate learning through movement. There are many Brain Gym books such as Hands on: How to Use Brain Gym in the Classroom that I would like to order some day to explore the concept more closely.

I was investigating another Scholastic book earlier this week called Brain Breaks for the Classroom: Quick and Easy Breathing and Movement Activities That Help Students Reenergize, Refocus, and Boost Brain Power-Anytime of the Day! and I may order this one some day, as it seems to be a possible take-off of Brain Gym, but I am not sure. It looks like it may have some good ideas on helping children concentrate and learn better through play and short activity breaks. While I was looking at this book, I noticed another book that I did order and I received it yesterday.

The book, Silly Sports and Goofy Games, contains many games and activities that look like fun and would be useful mainly outdoors. We did play one game as a greeting this morning as we tossed imaginary objects like an egg, a very hot "hot" potato, a slimy snake, and even a Volkswagens at each other. However today was an end of month Fun Friday for the fifth grade at New Searles School so we went outside to a playing field and a group of students hung around with me and played many versions of tag that I found in the book as well as some balance games. My favorite of the balance games we played looks just like one of the games in the Exuberant Animal video above. It was a lot of fun trying out games and there was a lot of laughter and cooperation. I look forward to trying more ideas from this book and finding away to integrate play into the daily work of my 27 fifth graders.

Finally, here is a wonderful and thought provoking TedTalks video presented by a pioneer in research on play, Stuart Brown, called "Why Play is Vital, No Matter your Age." Have fun watching this and then get outside and play!

Wallwisher.com: A Useful Tool for Creating Online Sticky-note Bulletin Boards

2009-09-17T20:06:00.001-04:00

I was looking for a good way to communicate with parents in my classroom and came across a website called Wallwisher.com. It allows me to set up an online bulletin board with Sticky "Post-it" style notes. The page of notes can also be embedded on a blog. I am trying it out on my classroom blog. I find it useful to write quick notes about homework or other classroom activities this way as I can do it anytime and don't have to use up paper. I believe I have set the options so that I am the only one that can leave a note (I have seen what fifth graders can do with sticky notes and don't need my computer decorated that way!). I can edit the notes (not easy) and delete them, as well as arrange them on the desktop if I want to waste some time. You can include links with pictures, audio, or video. I hope that my parents find this tool useful. I have put up notes with additional help and hints for completing some extra credit assignments that make the work easier and more understandable for my students. I can also write silly notes to hopefully generate some fun and interest. If a student forgets to write the homework down or if parents want to check homework assignments then they can look for a homework note each day. A link to my classroom's full screen version is here. What I like is that I could embed my wall in my classroom blog and that way parents don't have to navigate to different pages. I can thinks of many additional uses for this website tool. The website is free to use and teachers and parents may want to try it out for their own purposes.

Saying Hello to New Searles Elementary School

2009-09-07T19:43:00.009-04:00

I am teaching at a new school in Nashua this year. After 21 years of teaching at Mount Pleasant Elementary School, I have moved across town to teach at New Searles Elementary School. It is exciting learning the culture of a different school, meeting new teachers, and starting all over again in a different setting ( I was in the same classroom for all 21 years at Mount Pleasant). I like what I see at New Searles and I know I will enjoy teaching here. I also get to learn a new curriculum as I have moved up to a fifth grade position. To top it all off, I have gone from a class of 17 students last year to a room with 27 students, fortunately they all seem nice enough so it is going to be a great year full of adventure, learning, and fun!

Not being one to procrastinate when it comes to teaching, I got the class off to their first project on the first day of school. Fortunately we have been having gorgeous weather in Nashua and that of course meant we had to go outside and study some of the trees in front of the school. Before we did that however we had a lesson that focused in on words and how they can be used (and how to play around with them). I prepared a similar lesson at Mount Pleasant School last year and wrote about it here. Briefly I gave each students all of the words from William Carlos Williams poem, "The Locust Tree in Flower":

The Locust Tree in Flower

Among
of
green

stiff
old
bright

broken
branch
come

white
sweet
May

again

The words were not in order. I asked them to make sense out of these words. They could add words if they wanted and could write in phrases, sentences, a paragraph, or even poetry form. When I showed the class the poem they were a little confused as it didn't make sense. I told them my best interpretation of the poem is that William Carlos Williams put the words in a random type of order with some omissions of important words. Upon reading the poem a few times the class matched up some words together and started making some sense of the poem.

I took the class outside and divided them into four groups to study four different trees in front of New Searles School. I told them to write down words or phrases that described the tree and its surroundings. Later upon entering the school, we used the words to create our own poems like "The Locust Tree in Flower". I told them poets are rule breakers and get to write their own rules. The rules I wanted them to follow was to have a title, and a thirteen word poem (one word per line), and to arrange it like Williams' poem 3 words, space, 3 words, space, 3 words, space, 1 word. For homework I had them tear out the paper and colorize each word on each piece of paper. The next day we went outside and arranged the papers on the grass. Fortunately it was another nice day and the papers did not blow away. I took 27 times 15-20 photos for each poem in under 45 minutes and filled up my memory card on the last photo! I did see some students took the "poets can make up their own rules" in their own way and misspelled some words or put more than one word on a line.

The photos will be used to make animoto videos (Digital Poetry) of each student's work. I made a couple of sample videos here. I have a ways to go since the school computers cannot handle this task. However, I think some students may wish to try this at home so for those who choose to do that I will send them the photos.

Animoto is a fun little program. Teachers can sign up for a free account here. It makes professional looking videos that are matched up with music. Each video is unique and can be shared. A free account will let you make videos at home, but they are limited to 30 seconds each. Animoto just announced that you can insert video clips into the videos now, so I went back to the school on Sunday and took a few brief videos of each tree (well one tree was the wrong tree!) and included a video clip in both of the sample videos that I made. The first is Darcy's poem and the second is the poem that James wrote.

Saying Farewell to Mount Pleasant School

2009-06-22T20:24:00.009-04:00

This week ended my run of teaching at Mount Pleasant Elementary School. I have been in the same classroom for 21 years and it was time to get rid a huge accumulation of teaching materials and memories and move on to a new chapter in my teaching career. I first arrived at Mount Pleasant School in 1988 after teaching seventh grade for six years at the Brockton Christian Elementary School.

I had just got married to Sarah and we moved to Nashua where I promptly crashed my bike, broke my collarbone (ending a five year string of competing in Ironman distance triathlons-1983 version here-at 30 seconds in, I am the very skinny guy standing next to race promoter Dave McGillivray-17 years later I would run the Boston Marathon with him) and forced me to start my public school teaching career with an arm that I could barely lift to write on the lowest part of the chalkboard (note how I hold my arm awkwardly in the picture above). On my first day of school I was greeted by a tough little girl looking up at me and saying, "You can't be a good teacher, because my mom said that men are not good teachers." On that note I started a 21 year run of trying to prove that little girl and her mother wrong.

Just like when I left my first teaching position, the hardest part of moving on is leaving a group of teachers and staff behind. I started at Mount Pleasant teamed up with a little dynamo of a lady named Ceal Roy. I worked with her for many years and she taught me that first of all you have to enjoy your students and have fun in the classroom. We added a new member to our team in the middle of the year seventeen years ago. Nancy Bozek has the best laugh at Mount Pleasant, which she will take to her new school next year. I know she will get more than a chuckle out of this video then I ever will.

Through the years, I have had many other great teammates at Mount Pleasant, including Tim Caster and Caitlin Maynard who joined the staff this year. We have had a lot of fun together and I wish I could continue working with them some more. While they may have been rookie teachers at Mount Pleasant, I learned an awful lot from them. Tim continually makes his students his primary commitment and Caitlin in her first year of teaching not only taught like a veteran and kept the "boys" organized, but she also knows how to have fun with teaching and her students.

When I first started teaching at Mount Pleasant it was overwhelming. I was quiet and reserved hoping that no one would notice that I wasn't sure about what I was doing half the time. One Spring I got a phone call from Sue Porter wanting to know if I would like to teach the ESL summer school with her. I thought it was pretty funny that I would be asked to do this since I couldn't speak another language. She was convinced I would be good for the job and that I didn't need to know another language, so I decided to try it out since she had a bit of faith in me. That started many summers of some of the best teaching moments. We worked hard at creating experiences for the ESL students that were creative, hands-on, and fun. Each week we went on a field trip, cooked or made food, read books, created posters, videos, and computer presentations. Everything we did was tied together in themes and many current Mount Pleasant staff joined us on our many adventures (and misadventures) as fellow teachers or paras during many of those summers. It was hard work, great teaching, and loads of fun. Through those experiences I really became a "member" of the Mount Pleasant family.

The Mount Pleasant staff are really a family. While we often called our school "The Best School in Nashua", I think I can say quite plainly that it is the best group of teachers and staff in Nashua and they have proved that again and again through the years. They have proved that many times for me. When I chose to pursue an opportunity to teach at another school next year, they were very supportive, but also they were the reason I hesitated about leaving. This is the staff that helped make the 2000 Boston Marathon such a wonderful success. When the school district would not allow me to take a personal day to run the race. I decided to run it after my day of teaching. Two carloads of teachers drove me down to the start as soon as school ended and I ran the race with the race director Dave McGillivray (starting 4 hours after the official start of the race). When we finished, there were the Mount Pleasant teachers at the finish line cheering me on. We even made the news that night on the Boston television stations.

On the last day of school that first year at Mount Pleasant, flowers were sent to me by my wife. Sarah was pregnant. The next year, I had to go through a Mount Pleasant baby shower and then my son Andrew was born. Many teachers have watched Andy grow up. On Sunday he graduated from Nashua South and he will be off this Fall to Gordon College. Mount Pleasant played even a bigger part in Andy's life. Andrew attended Mount Pleasant School for his fourth through sixth grades and the staff of Mount Pleasant were beyond supportive when Andy attended here.

I have made many life-long friends at Mount Pleasant and wish to tell the staff how much I enjoyed working with them. When reading a story about Lou Gehrig, I sometimes had my students deliver farewell speeches like Lou Gehrig's speech. Maybe, I should try something like that, but I'm not dying, I am just moving down the road to New Searles Elementary School and I am so excited to get started there and being a rookie at the grade 5 level.

But I would like to thank, all of the teachers and staff at Mount Pleasant. You are the best and filled many days with laughter and friendship. You are great teachers. Earlier this year, I received an award from the Boys and Girls Club of Nashua for Excellence in teaching. I believe that any teacher at the school could have or should have received the same honor. Every teacher has their own style, interests, and strengths as a teacher. However, every teacher puts the students of Mount Pleasant first. While we all teach in different ways, somehow our individual styles meet the needs of the students and make Mount Pleasant such a unique and caring place.

I have always enjoyed my teammates through the years and up on the third floor, where my classroom was located, I always noted the stellar teaching and dedicated staff in the upper grades. I am simply amazed at what goes on in the lower grades. Those people need to be paid more! Teaching children not only how to read, but how to behave and get along with others, so that they be successful in life is such a daunting task. The teachers at Mount Pleasant do it with so much enthusiasm and dedication. No matter what the difficulties, they never seem to give up, but look for new ways to teach.

I am not sure if the students at Mount Pleasant realize how good they have it! The support staff at the school are simply amazing. What goes on in the Title One rooms, the ESL classes, and during reading intervention times is so helpful to building successful students, but it also adds an extra personal layer of support to students that very much need it. Sometimes I would go back at night to work at the school and I would see Special Ed teachers Donna Kenney and Mary O'Doherty still working away to provide the best services to their students. I swear some teachers live at the school. I am always dumbfounded when I bump into them at grocery stores or the mall. I always thought they eat and sleep at the school!

I am always amazed at the quality that the specialists bring to their teaching at Mount Pleasant. I always appreciate the extra support of the wonderful paras that we have at Mount Pleasant. I need to mention the paras that have spent a whole year full time in my classroom through the years. They see exactly how you teach and interact with students day in and day out. I have enjoyed working with Darlene Ledoux, Karen Frasca, and Dee Krammes when they were assigned to my class and I always enjoyed those years when I had such quality help and a good friend in the class.

Everyone at the school it top notch. Why do all the students like to visit Ann Vose? Because she is such a great nurse and a person the kids like to see (some times daily and some times hourly!). The secretaries, Joanne Ritchie and Terry Scarpati, may take time out of their lunches to meet with children. Paula Daneau provides great guidance to those who need it. Linda Morehouse was always showing me new ways to teach reading strategies to my class, that always seemed to reinvigorate my teaching, The entire staff is friendly. Bruce Geer was my principal for most of my years at Mount Pleasant. He was always fair, honest, and encouraging. Plus he was always good for a laugh or a "pat on the back". What more could you want from a principal?

Thanks to all these people for making my years at Mount Pleasant so rewarding. I will miss the staff. I will miss the students. Mount Pleasant has a unique mix of children. Each new year was always different than the preceding year. I will miss seeing children returning (well actually many of them are now adults and parents themselves). Many have gone on to very successful careers. It is always nice, staying in a school and seeing kids return to update you on their lives.

I extend my best wishes to Mount Peasant School, but I do look forward see what else is out there. New Searles Elementary School and the staff there look like a great opportunity for me to expand my boundaries and continue to enjoy my profession of simply teaching!

Here is a animoto video of Mount Pleasant School, that I made last fall.

National Symbols Posters and Word Clouds

2009-06-14T22:23:00.006-04:00

Here is an animoto video of some of our National symbols, monuments, and landmarks. Take a look at the wonderful lettering on the posters. We tried something new called "word clouds". Maybe you have seen them before on web pages. Students learned how you can make a word cloud on wordle.net and then chose important words from their project to put in their own "word cloud".

Using the "create" screen at wordle.net, you can type in words to make a word cloud, or paste in test or a report. You can also put in the URL of a website. Here are some wordle word clouds based on our blog post on our Benjamin Franklin Museum. They were simply created by pasting the text from the blog page onto the wordle "Create" page. If you don't like the design of your word cloud you can hit the randomize button to create a different version. Here are three different versions from the same words.

I can see many applications for wordle in the classroom. It seems to be an interesting way to introduce important words from or about a story.

New Hampshire State House Visit

2009-05-31T22:38:00.004-04:00

Last week the the fourth grade classes at Mount Pleasant School took a field trip to the New Hampshire Historical Museum and the New Hampshire State House in Concord. It was an enjoyable trip filled with learning. We even got to meet Governor John Lynch, who came out of a meeting just to meet the students and talk with them a bit! This is an Animoto video of our visit to the State House.

Here is an Animoto video of our visit to the New Hampshire State Historical Society. We were investigating everyday things that people used in the past.

Our Benjamin Franklin Museum

2009-05-31T13:45:00.004-04:00

Here is an Animoto video of some of the Benjamin Franklin projects my class made for a Benjamin Franklin Museum. We read about Benjamin Franklin in the Scott Foresman story "Out of the Blue" based on the Jean Fritz book, "What's the Big Idea, Ben Franklin?" Earlier in the year I had bought a copy of the book, "Amazing Ben Franklin Inventions" by Carmella Van Vleet and decided to use many of the creative ideas in it with my class. Every student chose a project that was in some way related to Benjamin Franklin. The projects were not difficult and they were fun for the students to make. We displayed our projects and posters as well as presented our projects to the other fourth grade classes. This is the book that is full of ideas, clever projects, and interesting activities. I would like to do this activity again with another class. We were able to learn about all the different activities, ideas, and inventions that Benjamin Franklin was involved with.

I found this book on Amazon and have ordered it. It looks like a perfect companion book for the projects.

One note about this Animoto video. I found a button to slow down the pictures as I did not have that many. It now spends more time on the picture. I like how every Animoto has different transitions and how they always seem so perfect for the pictures.

Are We Human...or Are We Dancers?

2009-05-28T21:29:00.005-04:00

"Are we human...or our we dancer?" That is a line from "The Killers" song "Human". I understand that the song was a reaction to a remark once made by the late Hunter S. Thompson, an acerbic journalist famed for “telling it like it is”, often in offensive terms. He had commented that America is nowadays raising a “generation of dancers”. I don't think he meant that in a positive light!Thompson committed suicide in 2005. This song seems to be about people losing their humanity and all being trained to be the same. When it comes to being different or pursuing an "open door" the lyrics go:

I did my best to notice
when the call came down the line
up to the platform of surrender
I was brought but I was kind
and sometimes I get nervous
when I see an open door

close your eyes, clear your heart

cut the cord
are we human or are we dancer
my sign is vital, my hands are cold
and I'm on my knees looking for the answer
are we human or are we dancer

After listening to this speech, I think of "Are we dancers" in a different light. Are we allowing our children to dance to the beat of their own creativity? Our we allowing that particular door to be opened? Or our we and our educational system closing that door to our children in the pursuit of other lofty goals? You will get it when you hear the story about the dancer at the end.

Sir Ken Robinson gave this speech in June 2006 for the TED conference. Here is the introduction from the TED blog.

"Why you should listen to him: Why don't we get the best out of people? Sir Ken Robinson argues that it's because we've been educated to become good workers, rather than creative thinkers. Students with restless minds and bodies -- far from being cultivated for their energy and curiosity -- are ignored or even stigmatized, with terrible consequences. "We are educating people out of their creativity," Robinson says. It's a message with deep resonance. Robinson's TEDTalk has been distributed widely around the Web since its release in June 2006. The most popular words framing blog posts on his talk? "Everyone should watch this." "

This is an entertaining speech that will make you think. Here are some "killer" lines from the speech. There are more, give it a listen.

"And my contention is, all kids have tremendous talents and we squander them, pretty ruthlessly.

So I want to talk about education and I want to talk about creativity. My contention is that creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status"

I want to hang that one on my classroom wall, or at least write it out and leave it on my teacher's desk to remind me not to "lose" the teaching of creativity.

"I heard a great story recently, I love telling it, of a little girl who was in a drawing lesson, she was 6 and she was at the back, drawing, and the teacher said this little girl hardly paid attention, and in this drawing lesson she did. The teacher was fascinated and she went over to her and she said, "What are you drawing?" and the girl said, "I'm drawing a picture of God." And the teacher said, "But nobody knows what God looks like." And the girl said, "They will in a minute."

I wonder how many kids like this, we miss in our classes as we don't allow them to pursue something passionately.

"You'll never come up with anything original, if you're not prepared to be wrong. And by the time they get to be adults, most kids have lost that capacity. They have become frightened of being wrong.

And we run our companies like this, by the way, we stigmatize mistakes. And we're now running national education systems where mistakes are the worst thing you can make.

And the result is, we are educating people out of their creative capacities."

I actually have had a quote similar to this on a poster I created, up on my classroom wall. "You can't make anything, if you are afraid to make mistakes."

"Picasso once said this, he said that all children are born artists. The problem is to remain an artist as we grow up. I believe this passionately, that we don't grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or rather we get educated out of it. So why is this?"

I always tell my class, something similar about science. They were all great scientists once before they got to school. They threw their food off the high chair while they ate, to see how gravity worked. It kept working until someone gave them a helium filled balloon! And the questions that little kids ask, "Why? How come? and so forth. Where did they go? Recall how easily a 3-year old studies ants on the ground. I asked my class a week ago, when was the last time they observed ants. It had been a few years! Where did their enthusiasm for science go?

"But something strikes you when you move to America and when you travel around the world: every education system on earth has the same hierarchy of subjects. Every one, doesn't matter where you go, you'd think it would be otherwise but it isn't. At the top are mathematics and languages, then the humanities, and the bottom are the arts. Everywhere on earth.

And in pretty much every system too, there's a hierarchy within the arts. Art and music are normally given a higher status in schools than drama and dance. There isn't an education system on the planet that teaches dance every day to children the way we teach them mathematics. Why? Why not? I think this is rather important. I think maths is very important but so is dance. Children dance all the time if they're allowed to, we all do. We all have bodies, don't we? Did I miss a meeting?

Truthfully what happens is, as children grow up we start to educate them progressively from the waist up. And then we focus on their heads. And slightly to one side."

There are plenty of other great quotes in this video. Wait until you hear about the "dancing" girl. Everyone should watch this.

By the way, I can't dance. Not one step! I have to be the world's worst dancer!

Here is a more recent post by Sir Ken Robinson about not just reforming education, but transforming it.

Trip to The Little Red Schoolhouse

2009-05-21T23:59:00.009-04:00

Our class had a fantastic trip to The Little Red Schoolhouse. Our time was shorter than normal due to bus difficulties, but we still had a wonderful time learning what school was like in 1842. Here is a Voice Thread of our trip.

Here is an Animoto video of our field trip.

Simple Fun at Brain Bashers

2009-05-10T12:15:00.003-04:00

Brain Bashers is a collection of brain teasers, puzzles, riddles, games and optical illusions. With thousands of brain teasers and puzzles, over one hundred awards, BrainBashers is updated with optical illusions and games regularly and has 5 new puzzles added every other week. It looks like a fun site to go to when you have a few minutes and want something fun or challenging for your class (or a students to do).

Simply Everything You Need to Know About Numbers

2009-04-20T22:43:00.004-04:00

What's Special About This Number? is an interesting webpage that starts with the number 1 and counts up to the number 10,000 highlighting something mathematically special about many of the numbers along the way. You can learn all sorts of strange and advanced things about numbers. When a definition is given, you can click on the link to learn more about that subject. For example: I learned that "70 is the smallest weird number". When you click on "weird number" you are taken to a page that gives an explanation. The explanation start with, "A "weird number" is a number that is abundant without being pseudoperfect. " Fortunatley there are new links and examples to explain those terms. The website is like a "math dictionary" of numbers and facts for the mathematically curious. It sort of makes my head spin, but if you memorize all of this information, I am sure you will be a hit at any social function you attend!

VoiceThread: an Audio Visual Show and Tell

2009-04-11T21:03:00.004-04:00

My class has been playing around with making VoiceThreads. We publish pictures and then record comments to tell about the pictures. It is a very useful software although it has a bit of a learning curve. Fortunately my students are getting adept at troubleshooting when the microphone doesn't work or the program gets a glitch. Here is a VoiceThread we made after having a visitor explain the Industrial Revolution in mill cities like Lowell, Ma. and Nashua, NH. We learned how people made everything by hand on a farm until the factories came and things could be made by machine.
I have started putting some of my class projects on a different blog: Simple Show and Tell.

Things I Can Fix/ Things I Can't Fix

2009-04-04T18:37:00.007-04:00

I was inpired by Jim McGuire on his The Reading Workshop blog post entitled What Can Be Fixed. A good blog post like this gets you thinking before you even finish reading the whole post. He recalls someone saying, "If it can't be fixed in five minutes, with what's on hand, then don't mention it." Then he challenges us to think about what we can control about our jobs, selves, and students and what we can't.

Here is a five minute song to help you think about things you can fix in a short period of time.

Here is my quick list:

Things I Can Fix in 5 Minutes

1)my messy desk
2)putting a smile on my face
3)I can say encouraging words to someone who needs them
4)mistakes in my writing by reading it outloud as I edit
5)the grand "rush" through the curriculum by slowing things down so students have time to think and process what is being taught
6)allowing more time for students to share
7)cutting down on things that clutter
9)greeting each student every morning
10)taking time to go over a problem when a student doesn't get it

Things I Can't Fix

1)a student's home situation
2)the economy
3)getting older
4)my bad jokes
5)traffic on the way to school
6)the amount of television watched, video games played, or types of movies that parents allow
7)the language a family uses or allows at home
8)the current emphasis on testing in the schools
9)lack of modern and up to date technology in my classroom
10)teacher pay

I have to think more about this. It could be used as an interesting lesson in my class.

UPDATE: Here are some of the ideas generated by my students. Some were serious. Some were humorous.

A Nice Evening at the Boys and Girls Club of Nashua

2009-04-04T18:09:00.004-04:00

Last week I attended a function honoring local teachers at the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Nashua. One of my current students had nominated me for an award which I was honored to accept. I had a nice dinner with this student and his mom and older brother and sister. We watched staff members from the Club (including a former student of mine) dance with high school club members in a sort of "Dancing with the Stars" performance of dances they had been practicing. Then teachers were honored with their awards. It was a very nice evening. I even saw a student from my class last year recieve an award for excellence. It was gratifying to see him continue to do the right things to better himself. Unfortunately he left before I could congratulate him and since he is at a different school this year I would have very much liked to talk with him. I very much enjoyed this event put on by the Boys and Girls Club.

A Simple Plan that Would Never be Allowed

2009-03-31T20:42:00.005-04:00

Imagine, if you will, that you taught in a school that was deemed a "failing school" due to low scores on a state test. Imagine if your school now had to undergo state mandated restructuring in order to make the school a more productive school, you know to "Get those test grades up!" I was thinking about just this sort of question and I came up with a simple change that would make it easier to actually teach students in such a school. This is just my quick outline of ideas. In real life no one has actually asked me what I would do in such a situation, but if they asked this is what I would say. Would it allowed? Probably not, I am sure there are some governmental rules that would disallow these easy changes, but here is my simple plan anyway.

One of the biggest problems getting children from non-English speaking backgrounds or from poverty to achieve success in school is to get them to learn to read. They must learn how to read at grade level too, so a lot of attention in the early years is spent on intervention of all sorts to give these kids a chance at being good readers. Unfortunately to give them the extra support they need, they are often taken out of the regular classroom and they miss many lessons: like math, social studies, and science lessons. As they try to catch up in reading they fall behind in other subjects. What if they were good in math but now miss out on math lessons? What if science is the one subject that would attract their attention, but they always miss the science lessons? Well teachers are supposed to "catch them up" but when?

There are five specialist classes where kids are never allowed to be pulled from: art, music, gym, computers, and library. Now I agree that the arts and gym are important in the education of all children and should never be abandoned from the curriculum. But it is silly to think that we protect these classes and instead have kids pulled from academic classes (where the teachers are held accountable to teaching so that students can pass the state tests) because we do not protect these subjects.

Now let's suppose our imaginary school that needs to be restructured has a wonderful after-school program with sports, music, and art activities that children can choose to participate in daily. Here is what I would do. In the "school in need of improvement" restructuring process, I would simply extend the school day for an hour or more. Any child who is not up to grade level in reading and needs the extra intervention time would not participate in the daily specialist classes. During that specialist time that student would work with the support staff and do all the things that the support staff do so well. The students who need intervention would then not miss the other subjects being taught by the classroom teacher. These students would then get their "specialist time" after school by participating in the after school offerings. In may not seem fair to miss the standard specialist classes but now the students have an incentive to work harder to achieve the scores necessary to rejoin their classes during this time. Students who do not need the intervention can go home at the standard end of school time, but are just as welcome to participate in all the after school activities.

I know the government probably has rules against something like this, but it is the government rules who say these kids are "failing" in the first place. Why not have a simple solution that would be easy to implement in any school. But then again, I am not the boss, I don't make the rules, and I don't get asked for my ideas about how I would create a better school. If I were able to restructure a school, this is where I would start.

Holding On to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones

2009-03-26T20:15:00.006-04:00

I have to give Michael Brindley kudos for reviewing an educational book in The Nashua Telegraph that sounds very intriguing. I will be brave enough, as a Nashua teacher, to say that I will be looking forward to ordering and reading this book. The book is "Holding On to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones: Six Literacy Principles Worth Fighting For" by Thomas Newkirk, who is a professor at UNH.

Michael Brindley writes concerning the theme of the book:

"Education has transformed into a warehouse where students are being pushed through scripted, test-driven schools with no room for creativity or imagination from teachers.

Welcome to the machine."

I was a district curriculum meeting today and after I made a light-hearted comment I was called, also in a light-hearted way, a "troublemaker". At the conclusion of the meeting I stated that I am very curious and like to think about what I teach and what I am being asked to teach. I do enjoy being part of the conversation about education, after all it is a major part of my life. I was told that I had been asked to be on the committee because I am a "dissenter". At which point the silly labels were getting a little strange. I always thought I was a nice enough guy, but now I seem to be some type of "bad boy". If I am to be a part of the educational machine, I certainly want things explained to me and I will ask questions to try to get some meaning out of where the educational world is going. I don't think there is anything bad in that. In fact, the asking of questions and ensuing conversations should be valued and not criticized.

I look forward to reading this book, maybe I will find a kindred "dissenter" and "trouble-maker" in Thomas Newkirk. Most importantly, I hope to also find some some serious wisdom that can add to the ongoing conversations about how to best engage and educate our children.

Another review of the book "Rage against the machine, professor tells teachers" quotes Thomas Newkirk...

"‘Holding On to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones’ is for every teacher whose good, humane, and sensitive ways of teaching literacy are threatened by rigid, mechanical programs. It is for teachers who feel they are losing control of their daily work."

"What I see happening is the mechanization of teaching. Teachers are told to teach to the test and pay more attention to research results than to their classroom experience. Instead of treating teachers like professionals capable of determining what is best for the individual learning styles of their students, we have created a system in which teachers and students are caught in a machine that they can’t control. Ultimately this is counterproductive because teaching to the test is not learning and it puts kids in the humiliating situation of being in a punitive system."

In the book, Thomas Newkirk presents six ideas worth fighting for:

- Increase the instructional emphasis on writing to reflect the reality that producing text is more important than ever.

- Help students access deep knowledge and expand their thinking through time to write freely.

- Build strong connections between school learning and the real world by teaching with popular culture.

- Propel the development of reading skills by helping students discover the pleasure of reading.

- Provide the time and space for meaningful, long-lasting teaching and learning by uncluttering the curriculum.

- Spark professional growth and avoid stagnation by discussing failure and uncertainty with colleagues.

Notice the last one. Discussion is good! I don't always agree with what I hear, if I hear anything at all, about all the new directions that education is taking. I have a desire to discuss and know more. It is not "trouble-making" to ask for honest conversations. The art of good teaching and the joy of learning can easily get lost in the rush to improve test scores. Particularly if we just follow that path blindly. I look forward to reading the book after reading Michael Brindley's reviews and the editorial reviews on Amazon.com.

In checking out the book on Amazon, I noticed another interesting book by Thomas Newkirk. I am ordering this also, so I can get free shipping! It is called "Misreading Masculinity: Boys, Literacy, and Popular Culture". This sounds like an interesting read about an educational subject close to my heart: the way we teach boys in our elementary schools.

The Lack of Male Teachers in the Elementary Schools

2009-03-20T10:20:00.007-04:00

Why is there a lack of male teachers in the elementary school grades? I find it to be a very fulfilling job, so where are all the other guys? In this article, "It's elementary: Male teachers rare-Primary school is still mainly a woman's world" from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer we are introduced to a third grade teacher Andrew Bean. He explains why teaching can be a very rewarding job when he says that teaching "...can be exhausting and very demanding, but I see it as this constant intellectual challenge ... you have to be constantly thinking on your feet. I wish that could be understood and honored and respected." I think this is a key explanation about why some men enjoy the art of teaching (and women too!). Everyday is new and different and you never know what problems you will have to solve or what challenges you may face.

So where are the male teachers? The article claims that nationwide only 17 percent of elementary school teachers are male. I wonder if that includes gym teachers and other non-classroom teachers in the percentages. It seems high to me. In my 21 years at Mount Pleasant School there have never been more that two male classroom teachers at a time in the school and often I have been the only male classroom teacher in the entire school. In fact when teachers have been brought together from different schools for grade level meetings, I have often found myself alone in a room full of 30-50 females or maybe with one or two other guy teachers. Last year I went to a conference for teachers at Reading First schools in New Hampshire to hear Isabel Beck speak. As I looked around at the approximately 200 teachers in the audience, I saw Mr. Geer, the principal of my school, another male administrator, and no other male representatives. I was the only male classroom teacher in attendance.

According to the article there are various reasons why men don't teach in elementary schools: the economics of teaching (the pay is not enough to entice men to the job), the nurturing aspect of teaching (the article claims that this is what draws women to the job- however some of the most nurturing teachers I have met have been men), or the feeling that men who want to work with children are looked at suspiciously. This article gives another interesting, surprising, and historical reason why there are fewer male teachers. Whatever the reasons:

The small number of male teachers, especially at the elementary school level,
"is a problem in the same way we don't have enough minority teachers for kids to
connect with," said Jeanne Harmon, executive director of the non-profit Center
for Strengthening the Teaching Profession.

"It's a big problem when kids
don't see themselves reflected in the teaching staff."

Students could
benefit by seeing more men in the classroom, and for some students, especially
those from single-parent homes, a male teacher at school might be the only
positive male role model in their lives, she said.

I do know that there are a lot of men out there who would like to be teachers. I have been told by many "burned-out at their jobs" male friends that they wished they could get into teaching. Of course my friend's houses and cars are much nicer than mine, but after building a career they admit they wish they could have done something more worthwhile and fulfilling.

Shouldn't it be Against the Law for Men to be Near Children?

An ABC News article "The Mistrusted Male Teacher" talks about the bias many males face as teachers in the elementary schools, particularly the attitude that there is something "wrong" about a male wanting to teach young children. I haven't experienced that attitude in a long time, although some kids are anxious when they first find out their teacher is a man. I recall my first day ever at Mount Pleasant School when a challenging young girl looked up at me and said, "You can't be a good teacher, because my mom said that men aren't real teachers!"

When I was looking for a new teaching job back in 1988 due to getting married, I was called early one morning by a principal in southern New Hampshire to come for an interview. She wanted me there as soon as possible so I went up that day and had a terrific interview. The principal and I hit it off and she all but offered me the job on the spot. I went home with the promise that she would call me in a couple of days with all the details. I never heard back. When I called the administration building for that district, I was told they had never heard of my name and the principal would be unavailable to talk to. I never did hear a thing from that lady.

Nashua treated me right when I applied for a job and I have always been thankful for the class they showed. I was told after my interviews that I would have to wait a few weeks to hear from them. I was getting married and going on a honeymoon during that time and was trying to figure out how to find out if I would be offered the job while I was away (this was a time before the internet and cell phones). I was also wondering if I would have to cut my honeymoon short to do other job interviews. A couple of days before my wedding, I got a call from Nashua. They really wanted me to teach at Mount Pleasant School and were calling me much earlier than expected because they knew I was getting married. I was told, "Have a great honeymoon and enjoy it without worrying about getting a job." I have worked extremely hard for Nashua ever since that day!

Now about that other school and principal? A strange thing happened my first year at Mount Pleasant. My principal put my name on a list of teachers to be part of an evaluation team for other schools in New Hampshire. I was eventually given an assignment to help evaluate a school. My jaw dropped when I saw that the school I was to be evaluating was the same one that had "never heard of me". I could have had great fun with that assignment, but I called the committee and explained why I should not evaluate that school. I was given another school in the same district to evaluate. It was an interesting few days, but the most interesting part was when my evaluation team met with the district's school board. The school board was telling us about their school system and then a few of the members starting talking about males in the elementary schools. We were told they do not like men in their buildings. They did not want male teachers in the elementary grades at all. In fact they only allowed female janitors in the school during the day and men would have to work after the children left the building. I got the picture about why that district "never heard of me" or why the principal was "silenced". I truly believed she was trying to get a male teacher into her school, but was told off. I saw her at an "evaluation" meeting for all the schools during that trip, but I didn't go up and talk to her. I wish I had. It would have been interesting to get the whole story. And it would have been so fun if I had shown up as the evaluator of that school!

So Why do Men Teach in Elementary Schools?

I went to college as an economics major. I thought about teaching, but I thought it would only be an option if I could only find out what subject I enjoyed the most. I only really considered being a high school teacher and coach. I had a change of heart (and courses) my senior year of college. I took a class on the stages of human development and learned about the mind and the stages of learning and growth and it occurred to me that young kids were more than "little beings" but that they had interesting and developing minds. All of a sudden teaching younger kids sounded real interesting. I realized that I could teach all subjects and not have to choose a favorite if I just taught in an elementary school.

There are so many things I can be in my classroom: a comedian, an artist, a reader, a scientist, a mathematician, or an expert on my city and state. I can ask and answer interesting questions throughout the day and help kids with family issues, friendship issues, or just life issues. I can encourage, motivate, and explain the workings of the world. I can read the most interesting books to a captivated audience. I can move around, create, and inspire. I could also continue learning new things all the time. In fact, I could have a lot of fun. The list of things I get to do are unending. It is wondrous fun when you can do such important things to help your students be better people and better learners. Who wouldn't want such and interesting and essential job?

Some guys have figured it out and enjoy the thrill of being an elementary school teacher. In this article "The Few. The Proud. The Male Teachers" about teacher Nick Holtvluwer we see a bit into the life of a male teacher who enjoys the job. Some females have figured it out too and do just the same wonderful job for all the right reasons. A good teacher is a good teacher. My own children have had many great teachers in their elementary years in Nashua (including those here at Mount Pleasant). They have also had some terrible teachers and experiences in this school system. However two of the most nurturing and understanding teachers that any of my children have encountered were the two male teachers that my daughter had in elementary school. Just the same, in the older grades they have encountered some horrible male teachers too! A good teacher is a good teacher! I just find that many of the men who are willing to dedicate themselves to the younger child are in teaching for all the right reasons.

The Care and Feeding of Your Male Teachers

I haven't given this question a lot of thought until recently. In former years when I was the lone male teacher, unlike this year where I have an excellent new teammate in Tim Caster, being an outnumbered minority in a school full of women can make it very hard to fit in. I have always done the best I can, but in reality. I am an outsider in a woman's world (as the token male teacher). I enjoy talking with my friends on the staff and usually get along fine with everyone. Mount Pleasant School has a tremendous staff of dedicated teachers and I believe it is the best group of teachers in the entire district. But I live in a world where cooking and things that interest women are often discussed and while I don't mind eating, I don't cook. I have to navigate a world of baby showers and party decorations, Avon catalogs, and woman talk. There are a lot of things that are discussed or events that happen that just don't interest me and there are so many things that interest me that aren't part of the conversations or interests of a female staff.

My school has had a "teacher's week" for the past few years. Some days we got food, yeah, I am all for that! but other times it was about pampering: getting your nails done, getting samples from some cosmetic company, and other "girly things". I just ignored that stuff. This year our new assistant principal, Scott Jacquith designed a "man's room" for the men in our school on the pampering day. That was cool. There was a recliner set up, sports videos on a television, newspapers to read, some bottles of soda, chips, and other "guy" food. It was neat to know that the men were recognized at our school.

If my elementary school was full of male teachers and there were just one or two female teachers, I am sure the school environment would be a drastically different place (and maybe the teachers room would be a bit cleaner too!). The conversations, activities,and life of the school would drastically change. I would guess that the female teachers would feel very uncomfortable and maybe there would be "laws" and "training" in place so that the men would deal sensitively with the women and not overstep their boundaries. I have never heard of such a thing for the sake of a lone male elementary school teacher. Yet, I feel, we are stepping into a foreign world as we work in female dominated profession. I still don't understand and know how to properly deal with the social "games" that some women can play or understand the "rules" of behavior according to the female code. I don't think I ever will, but when you are the minority and you don't get the "games" and "rules" then you are out of the loop. This can be a great danger for male teachers. It is also one of the great surprises. One of the great things about my school is that I have always got along very well with the staff at my school. They are very accepting of me despite my "quirks" of being a guy and they have been great champions for me when the Boston Marathon issue came up. They turned a horrible district decision into a celebration that made me proud to be a Mount Pleasant teacher. A bunch of guy friends, no matter how great, would never have responded in the same way! Yes, guys do think and act differently!

Sitting through meetings with an abundance of female teachers and often only myself representing the male voice. I have found that I have had to learn to speak up and champion the causes of education from the "male" perspective. Sometimes this is valued, sometimes it is not. If you don't think that there are issues with how boys are taught read "The Trouble With Boys: A Surprising Report Card on Our Sons, Their Problems at School, and What Parents and Educators Must Do" by Peg Tyre (my review here) and if you don't think this impacts the future of girls then read the book again. Sometimes, I know what I say is appreciated and sometimes I get the feeling that I should just "shut up" and sit there dutifully taking notes like a "good girl" would. It is not always "easy" being that voice and maybe sometimes I get it wrong, but the schools do need to listen carefully to all voices. If a school is privileged to have some male teachers then they should do some good listening, because we do offer a completely different and valid perspective. The article "Male Call: Recruiting More Men to Teach Elementary School: Stereotypes and Low Pay Keep Men Away From Teaching. But that Y chromosome can make a huge difference in the classroom." found at Edutopia Magazine addresses some of these differences.

...though males tend to be structured in what they do, they are more willing to use creative means to engage students...

Male teachers tend to use sports analogies, such as "Standardized tests are the Super Bowl of knowledge." They are more tolerant of chitchat and are more likely to integrate active learning methods, including competitions and games, into the curriculum. They also tend to be funnier (from an informal poll)...

"Men tend to give more direction in their approach to sharing knowledge. They want to appear to be the expert." Women, on the other hand, are more likely to collaborate with students and incorporate their ideas "Therefore, men who are teaching mixed classes must incorporate collaborative and direct instruction to meet the needs of all students." Meeting the needs of all students? That sounds like a great educational environment.

In Case You Haven't Noticed: Men and Women are Different!

In a Boston.com editorial "The Value of the Male Schoolteacher" Bryan Nelson, director of MenTeach, says that the problem is not that boys need men for academic achievement - little data supports that. He said the lack of men in the lower grades reinforces an endless cycle of inequality in men's and women's roles. He goes on to say that without male teachers...

"We are missing so much," said Nelson, 50. "For instance, there is a playfulness about men kids desperately need at a time the system is so absent of play.

(By the way I just love that quote as I think that describes the way I teach. I could be wrong, but I think I am a "playful" teacher. I also think that the current educational atmosphere across the country no longer values that part of teaching. It can't be measured on a test score- so why value it?)

When a male teacher is expected to "act" like a woman, have interests like a woman, and teach like a woman then the role of that teacher is forever marginalized because men are different! In no way do I care to be a "woman", but it is often assumed and expected that we should act and teach in a way that mirrors the female "way" of teaching as well as respond in meetings as a "female" would. In much the same way, the boys of today are often expected to behave and learn in schools in a more a "female " mode of learning. It is another topic, but boys are not allowed to be boys and that is a affecting the futures of our students and sons. Boys do learn differently from girls and many schools are refusing to recognize that fact.

When I attend district meetings with more male teachers in attendance, including junior high and high school teachers, there is a different energy and attitude. It is not always good, I recently watched a male teacher "flip off" everyone in the meeting. I thought it was rude and unprofessional but most people chuckled along including the administrators at the meeting. I don't think those antics would sit well at an female dominated meeting. It is not that men can be rude, it is that men joke and talk in a different way and get passionate and openly frustrated when they can't fix a problem right away. I notice that men don't want to discuss things endlessly, we want to get to the point and deal with it. We value the "big picture" and not necessarily the little details that can get in the way.

If you have a good male teacher at your school, do value that voice and listen to it, because it will and should be different than the female points of view in your building. If your child has a male teacher, delight yourself in that fact and realize that if his teaching is good, your child will recall that year fondly throughout his or her life. I know at my school many teachers value my voice, even if they don't agree with me, on the other hand I sometimes get the feeling that I am definitely an outsider and an intruder into a woman's world and can at times feel very unwelcome. I guess that is what happens when you are in the minority. Your voice may not be heard or valued. That may just be enough to keep men away from ever wanting to be an elementary school teacher and that would truly be a shame!

This post has been included on the 214th edition of the Carnvial of Education.
This carnival was hosted by Epic Adventures are Often Uncomfortable. You can find many educational blogging posts at this site.

Tiny Museums

2009-03-13T09:31:00.002-04:00

While waiting to go into the school library with my class, a second grade class was lining up and getting ready to leave. I saw a little boy holding in his arms an interesting book and I asked him about it. He said it was about mummies and he loved mummies. I asked him if he has ever seen a real mummy. He said, "No, because I have never been to a museum." Then he held up his book to me and said, "This is like my tiny museum."

VoiceThread: A Simple Way to Share Information

2009-03-11T14:57:00.001-04:00

I am testing out this project that some of my students are working on.

Alice Ramsey: 100 Years of Driving Later

2009-03-10T18:48:00.009-04:00

My class is currently reading a Scott_Foresman selection about Alice Ramsey, the first woman to drive across America. The selection comes from "Coast to Coast With Alice" by Patricia Rusch Hyatt. Her adventurous trip took 59 days to complete. This June marks the 100th anniversary of Alice's journey. Many things have changed in our world in the past 100 years. The use of automobiles to get around is one of the big changes. Children are transported back to a time when automobiles did not "rule" the road and the roads weren't like the roads we have to day.

On "Alice's Drive" a father and a daughter are restoring a 1909 Maxwell, just like Alice's car, in anticipation of driving it across America in an anniversary challenge and celebration. Here is an interesting video of Alice Ramsey, with many pictures of her trip. It includes plans for the anniversary drive and a film.

For just a bit of frivolity and comparison, here is a time-lapse video of a guy driving across the country. It seems they only had one incident when the car wouldn't start!

Going along with the idea of what life was like 100 years ago, I have been reading to my class a wonderful little book called "Listen My Dears" by Annabelle Haven.

She wrote this book for her grandchildren and others in 1994 as she tells about growing up in Nashua, NH. The kids love her reminisces and how she compares and contrasts life long ago with the modern day world. What makes the book special to my students is that Annabelle grew up right in their neighborhoods. She lived on Summer Street and Berkeley Street. Her father had a dentist office at 2 Abbott Street, just a few houses down from the back entrance to our school. They enjoy looking at the old photographs of their neighborhoods. Annabelle's family had one of the first automobiles in Nashua, back when their were only a handful in the city. My class always want to know if Annabelle is still alive. It appears she died last October. It looks like Amazon has only one copy left, if you want to read this fascinating local history book.

"The Treasure of Health and Happiness" A Great Book to Read to Your Class

2009-03-08T20:37:00.009-04:00

How do you introduce children to the joys of running? How can you get them to understand the benefits of playful activity, personal fitness, and healthy eating? In today's culture this is a serious concern for parents, teachers, and health experts. Children today are bombarded with amusements that lead to a sedentary lifestyle and they have a mutlitude of unhealthy eating choices that can have them packing on pounds that leave them even more unwilling to "go outside and play".

Carol Goodrow is one person who has made it a mission to help kids learn to be healthy and to enjoy exercise. She is an elementary school teacher as well as the creator of the wonderful website Kidsrunning.com, which is a Runnersworld.com website. Kidsrunning is a website full of programs, activities, advice, interviews, news, and all sorts of information geared towards kids, parents, and teachers. Carol Goodrow is also an author and artist (just look at the whimsical pictures gracing her website) and like on her website and with her teaching she is on a mission to help kids enjoy healthier living.

"The Treasure of Health and Happiness" by Carol Goodrow is a book I recently used as a read-aloud with my fourth grade students. I teach a class of typical fourth graders except I have twice as many boys as I do girls in my class and I wasn't sure exactly how my boys would react to a book that has a girl as a main character as well as a book that seems a bit more "gentle" than the books they typically enjoy.

We started reading anyhow. The story is about a girl named Hannah who is not very healthy or athletic. In fact because she is not good at sports and activities she doesn't feel very good about herself. I noticed my class became empathetic to Hannah because of her feelings of inadequecy. I think many of them have had those same feelings as well. When Hannah receives a puppy for her birthday my kids were quite enthralled. When Hannah started placing signs on her bedroom door to deal with the disobedient puppy the kids giggled with delight! I also noticed that whenever I held up one of the pictures from the book that the kids all tried to get as close as they could to get a good look at all the details and the unique artwork.

A large part of the book involves a dream that Hannah has about a treasure map. As she follows the map she learns skills that she accomplishes such as ball-throwing, riding a bicycle, eating healthy foods, and eventually running. Hannah learns what she has to do to take care of herself and to be a healthier and happpier person. The book is not preachy at all as it involves discoveries by Hannah not choices made for Hannah. I feel this was presented in a way that allows children to think of discoveries (or choices)they can make on their own journeys towards becoming healthier people. Hannah begins her own training towards competing in a "Chipmunk Chase" running race, something she was to afraid to enter at the beginning of the story.

My class enjoyed the story. Boys being boys, the "gentlemen" in my class did say they wanted some "monsters" to chase Hannah during the dream sequence. They also wanted to know more about the toad that Toby, Hannah's dog, picked up in his mouth.

I think this book is excellent for teachers to read and discuss with their classes or for parents to read with their children. My guess is that girls would enjoy reading it on their own. Some of the devices used in the book: treasure maps and treasure chests, jewels,and descriptions of things that sparkle and glitter reminded me of the type of make-believe play that my sisters and their friends often engaged in long ago.

I do know that my kids were very much engaged by the story and I believe it left some seeds in their own minds about how they can maintain or seek after a more healthy lifestyle.

Here are a few brief comments that some students in my class wrote about the book.

"I liked the book. I think people will eat better and exercise more if they read "The Treasure of Health and Happiness.""

"I liked the German Shepard. That is my favorite kind of dog. I liked when Toby had a toad in his mouth. It was cool when Hannah made a leash out of a stick and a string. The book inspired me to eat healthy and stay fit."

"I like the book and how she started out as a girl who was unhealthy. Then she got healty and started to run. That got me thinking about doing cross-country."

"I liked the book very much. My favorite part was her dream. I liked the parts where she runs a mile and goes fishing."

You can order the book at Kidsrunning.com as well as download some free printables for the classroom.

You can also find a couple of interviews from a few years back of me on Kidrunning.com.

Imagine Teaching a Full Day of School and THEN Running the Boston Marathon

Teacher Runner Jim Hansen Finishes Boston Marathon last, but he is the winner in his schoolchildren's eyes

A Simple Way to Play with Words

2009-03-07T23:50:00.004-05:00

PicLits.com is a fun and simple website that can be a wonderful resource and tool for teachers to use with their students to enable them to not only play with words but increase their vocabulary. "Inspired Picture Writing" is what it calls its goal. Students can choose from many intriguing and beautiful pictures and then use words to create sentences, poetry, or just descriptive writings. Here is an example of a quick PicLit that I made,

See the full PicLit at PicLits.com

After choosing a picture, students can drag and drop words onto it to create a mini-poster. Words can be chosen from a preselected list of words that are arranged into categories of nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, or universal words. Many of the word choices for each picture are unique to that picture and are wonderful vocabulary words. Students can create their own work through their own choices and they do not have to type the words so their is more time to play and arrange the words in different ways.

There is also a freestyle choice where you can just type and create your own writing. The website also offers mini-lessons. "Write It" gives you tips on basic uses of words, writing simple captions, compound sentences, and writing paragraphs. "Rhyme It" gives some advice on writing raps, writing similes, and poetry writing. "Master It' has more advanced lesson plans.

This is a fun site for all people to try. I see many and various uses for it in a classroom and I think that it will definitely stimulate creativity and expression as well as captivate your student's attention. The pictures can be saved, shared, and e-mailed.

DogoNews: A Website for Inquisitive Minds

2009-02-21T22:52:00.003-05:00

DOGONews is a website for kids with curious minds who are interested in the world around them (shouldn't that be all kids?). "DOGO" is a word that means young or small in Swahili. DOGONews is geared towards elementary school children, aged 5-10.

According to their web site:

"DOGONews (www.dogonews.com) - This section is a fun and educational alternative to sites like Time for Kids, National Geographic and Science Daily. With hundreds of archived articles and new content added daily, the section is chockfull of fun and inspiring news from all around the world.

The content is written in a simple, easy to understand format and kept relatively short, in order to keep young children focused and interested. Videos are added whenever available. There is also an integrated dictionary for challenging words and a map mash-up to provide a geographical context. The main aim of the site is for kids to read and learn about world events in a fun and interactive and safe environment."

There is a search section and News is also linked under various topics such as Latest, General, Science, Entertainment, Sports, International, Amazing, Social Studies, Did You Know, Fun, Green, and Video. The site is visually interesting and easy to follow. The articles are interesting to read and easily capture one's attention.

You will also find two other sections on the website: DOGOSites and DOGOEarth.

DOGOSites (www.dogonews.com/sites) - a directory of fun educational kids sites. A great resource for teachers, kids and parents. Each site is carefully vetted prior to inclusion.

DOGOEarth (www.dogonews.com/earth) - news headlines geo-tagged on a 3D globe to provide younger readers an interactive way to read the headlines.

DOGOEarth shows a large view of planet earth that is darkened or lightened depending on the time of the day. Cities are lit up and articles related to certain places on the earth pop-up as you look over our planet. This is a fun and interesting way to visualize where on our planet these events are happening and it is certainly an eye-catching page.

Simply an Amazing Book: The Invention of Hugo Cabret

2009-01-24T23:41:00.005-05:00

Last week I finished reading a book to my class that very much fascinated my fourth grade students. It was the first time that I have read "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" to a class even though I enjoyed reading it myself over a year ago. The Author, Brian Selznick, is also an illustrator and although this book looks daunting at over 500 pages, it is not a difficult read because the story is often told through the wonderful drawings that can sometimes go on, page after page.

"The Invention of Hugo Cabret" is a magical book that transports the reader to Paris in the early part of the 20th century. We meet a boy named Hugo who lives in the walls of a Paris train station. Hugo has many secrets as he tends to the job of keeping the clocks in the train station accurate. His biggest secret is a mysterious machine (an automaton) that he is trying to fix. He steals toy parts from a toy store to fix his machine and is caught by the cranky owner. He also meets a young girl that he has a hard time trusting. This mysteries in this story that need to be solved and how the characters are connected and blend together in a wonderful way captured my classes attention so much that they did not like it when I paused in my reading each day.

In a world where our children are enamored by technology, they are brought back to a similar time in history, when technology was in the process of producing amazing magic. Without giving away too much of the story it does involve a type of sophisticated machine called an automaton. The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia has one such automaton and you can view it here:

The book also has a "real" historic character in it: Georges Melies, a very early filmmaker. Upon reading the book, children learn a little bit about the history and the magic of filmmaking. Here is a video of Georges Melies "A Trip to the Moon" a movie that plays an important role in the book.

You can find many more of Georges Milies' videos on Youtube.

Here is an entertaining video that explains about Georges Milies and his use of special effects in making his films. It also explains how you can do your own special effects with a video camera. While we are dazzled by today's special effects that can make just about anything possible and real, it is interesting to see how this technology started.

Here author Brian Selznick explains his book:

This is a great book and my students continue to enjoy it as they love toting such a big book around after taking it out of the library. Kids will only do this with books that they really love. Otherwise, they would be carrying dictionaries everywhere!

Some intreresting discussion questions for the book can be found at One-Minute Book Reviews.

Simply a Superb Sequel: "Hate That Cat" by Sharon Creech

2009-01-19T22:48:00.010-05:00

While strolling through Barnes and Noble this weekend, I was thrilled to see that Sharon Creech has written a sequel to my favorite children's book, "Love That Dog".

The new book, "Hate That Cat" is just as wonderful as her first book. I love these simple books as they bring together animals, poetry, teaching, and the struggles of boyhood in a very readable and entertaining way.

In "Hate That Cat" we have the same setup as the first book, we find that Miss Stretchberry moves up a grade so that she is still Jack's teacher. They still communicate through a poetry journal and Miss Stretchberry continues to use great poetry and poets (T. S. Eliot, Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Edgar Allan Poe) to inspire her class.

The class learns about the sounds of poetry in this book through devices like alliteration and onomatopoeia. I was tickled to see that "The Bells" by Edgar Allen Poe was one of the featured poems. I used this poem for many years with my own class as a beginning point for writing "sound" poems and it is always fun to say the word "tintinnabulation". Seeing that it is the 200th anniversary of Edgar Allen Poe's birth this month, I will have to revisit this poem in my class. Another featured poem in this story that I always use in my class is "This is Just to Say" by William Carlos Williams, as well as a return to his other wonderful poem "The Red Wheelbarrow". Although Walter Dean Myers doesn't return to visit the class, he does send letters to Jack and Jack learns that Walter Dean Myers' son, Christopher, is also a notable poet.

It is sounds that permeate this story. Besides the poetry, we are introduced to Jack's mother in this volume, and we learn about her inability to hear sounds and that becomes an important component to the story. That, and cats! The book may be titled "Hate That Cat" but Jack has his reasons. In the end the hated cat plays an important role and of course Jack falls in love with his own little kitten.

"Love That Dog" remains my favorite children's book, but "Love That Cat" will take a place right next to it on my bookshelf. I can't wait to share it with my class, and I know that I will see students rereading the book again and again just like they do after I read them "Love That Dog". I am simply thrilled that Sharon Creech wrote this second book!

Here is a teacher's guide to both books.

Here is just the first verse of:

The Bells
by Edgar Allan Poe

Hear the sledges with the bells,
Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
In the icy air of night!
While the stars that oversprinkle
All the heavens, seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells-
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.

Listen to "The Bells"

	Edgar Allen Poe - The Bells

	Found at bee mp3 search engine

This is a strange and "Poe"ishly nightmarish version of "The Bells"

	Edgar Allen Poe/Symphologic - The bells

	Found at bee mp3 search engine

If you want a great book for children to introduce them to Edgar Allen Poe then get a copy of "Poetry for Young People: Edgar Allen Poe". It has an interesting mini-biography as well as his poems and in his case poetic pieces based on some of his stories. It has short introductions to each poem, pictures, and lots of definitions for the difficult vocabulary words. There are other similar books by the publisher about other poets that I have in my classroom covering poets such as: Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, and William Shakespeare . I still have to purchase the poetry books of William Blake, Carl Sandburg, Lewis Carrol, Walt Whitman, and Langston Hughes. These books are a great resource for both students and teachers.

A Simple and Fun Way to Teach Vocabulary

2009-01-13T23:50:00.005-05:00

I love to teach vocabulary in my classroom. I know my students enjoy learning and using interesting words. I use the Elements of Reading vocabulary program that was developed by Isabel Beck with great success.

Here is another website that has a word story for every day of the year and introduces students to interesting words, usages, and etymology. The Year of Vocabulary-Just for the Kids website is from Susan Ohanian, the author of "The Great Word Catalogue".

The Trouble With Boys by Peg Tyre: A Must Read Book!

2008-12-21T21:00:00.005-05:00

"The Trouble With Boys: A Surprising Report Card on Our Sons, Their Problems at School, and What Parents and Educators Must Do" is a very interesting book that I read when the electricity was out for 5 days. The book was written by former Newsweek reporter Peg Trye after the responses whe received to a Newsweek cover article she wrote in 2006. This book looks at the trend in education that has boys underachieving and struggling in school. As an elementary educator I see part of this problem. I did not realize that it now extends up into colleges where we now are having a "girl" problem. Many girls, after working hard and reaching for their dreams, are finding it harder to get into some colleges as a college may be more willing to take a "weaker" academic boy in trying to maintain a more equal balance of student enrollment.

Upon my first read I found many interesting ideas, but what resonated with me was how she tracked the changes in education through the years. I found many of the trends that she mentioned were changes that were part of my education. From the experimental 60's, when I was part of a school system that liked to try "new" ideas in education, to attending a College Prep boarding school that had just started admitting girls as students. Even in my teaching career when it was drilled into us to teach to the girls the changes continued. Peg Tyre now maintains that we have to do the same for boys!

I agree with Peg. I have always been an advocate for finding ways to teach all students and that when we teach boys we need do it in boy-friendly terms. Many boys, and some girls, do not learn best in an classroom environment where they are made to sit still, be quiet, and to complete worksheets, and to keep all their work looking "pretty". As an elementary male teacher, I sometimes find that this is a hard concept to get across to some teachers. One comment that I liked in this book, and that I didn't expect, is that while Peg Tyre agrees that we need more male teachers in the elementary schools, she does say that "good teaching is good teaching" and that female teachers can do all the things necessary to help her male students achieve.

It certainly is a topic that I don't find addressed in the schools as much as I would like to see it being talked about (which should be as often as possible!). I wonder what would happen if on the state testing one of the subgroups that the test looks at would be the boy students.

I will have to reread the book again to collect my thoughts as I read it in the dark under some blankets and with gloves on my cold fingers. I was not interested in taking notes or marking up the book. I certainly feel it is a book that teachers and parents should definitely read.

Here is an excellent "authors/google" lecture given by Peg Tyre about the boy problem and her book. You can get a good feel for the book by listening to her speech.

Here is an appearance by Peg Tyre on the Today show.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Simply Immature

2008-12-16T19:18:00.004-05:00

"The Encyclopedia of Immaturity" by the Editors of Klutz is a book you want to read (many times) if you are an elementary school teacher. I think it particularly suits fourth grade teachers well as this is a book that basically describes what it is like to be inside the mind of a fourth grader. You will laugh and giggle as you read through the book and may even try a few (or many) of these pranks, jokes, and tricks on your students, family, and friends. These are the kinds of things you wish you knew how to do when you were in fourth grade because you would certainly get everyone's attention. I recommend this book to everyone that enjoys a good laugh except the students in my fourth grade class!

My third grade daughter and myself spent many a delightful hour howling with laughter at this book as we waited for our electricity to be restored after the recent ice storm (it took 5 days!). Here is what the ice storm looked like at our house. There was lots and lots of noise all night as branches and trees crashed to the earth. There is now a lot of clean up to be done.

A Simple Way to Project Images and Movies in the Classroom

2008-12-06T18:55:00.006-05:00

I have always enjoyed bringing technology into my classroom. Unfortunately schools find it hard to enable teachers to use the newest and most interesting technology because of the expense. That has left me trying to figure out how I can get a projector into my classroom and I really couldn't find an inexpensive way to do so. This week, I finally did find something extremely cool and useful that I think teachers could put to good use in their class and it does more than just a standard projector.

Th 3M Micro Professional Projector is a wallet sized projector that can be connected to computers, iPods, digital cameras, and other pieces of technology to project images on a wall or screen. It uses LED lights so it doesn't get hot and you can carry it around and project wherever you are because it can be powered by its own battery. It projects an image large and clear enough to fill up the screen in my classroom (although it looks better with the lights out). I took photos and movies on my digital camera and was able to show them immediately to my class. I see it as being very useful to show all the short movie clips I use in my classroom. Of course now I will have to get a video iPod to store all those movies! I think it would be very easy to keep my videos (such as the animoto videos of my student's poetry)on an iPod and project them on a wall or board when I am meeting with a small group or if I am teaching a whole class lesson. I see so many practical uses for the projector that I think it is a great use and addition of technology to my class.

I was worried that it would be hard to focus or the images would not be clear. I was surprised when I tried it that the focus remained true even if I was holding the projector in my hand. The images and movies were clear and focused and certainly grabbed my student's attention.

A Simple Way to see Tiny Things

2008-12-06T17:06:00.005-05:00

My class has been learning about rocks and minerals. I made "mock" rocks so that each student could break a rock down into smaller "minerals". First they broke apart the mock rocks into red gravel, blue gravel, oyster shells, and a powdery "other stuff".

It was easy to see the "minerals" that made up the rock, but they weren't sure what the other stuff was. So we put it in water and overnight some sediment has settled on the bottom.

However the water was cloudy so the water was placed into cups and evaporated. When the water was gone some cystals had grown on the bottom of the cup. We had sheets that showed different types of crystals and the students were able to identify the crystals as salt crystals. We looked at some of the salt crystals under my digital microscope and were able to see them more clearly. Here are a few of the photos we took.

After leaving the crystals out for a bit it seemed we had some "life" starting to grow under the microscope!

The digital microscope I use in my class is called the Intel Play QX3 and it easily hooks up to a computer through the usb port. The software is fun and allows you to see things at 10x, 60x, and 200x the normal size. You can take pictures, movies, or time lapse photography and then for fun play around with the pictures and add things like little salamanders or other creepy things that kids seem to like (see picture above). The class always enjoys seeing close up photos of their eyeballs, skin, or the fabric of their clothes. Anything tiny is fun to look at with this microscope. It is a wonderful and fun tool to have in the classroom. Here is the microscope that I use:

This looks like a lower cost way to do the same thing:

Teachers Raise Achievement with High Expectations

2008-11-19T18:45:00.011-05:00

Faubian Elementary is a school in Portland, Oregon with many minority students from low-income families. However, the teachers at the school have high expectations for their students and because of their hard work the school the school has made dramatic jumps in their statewide assessments. Viewing the video below shows us what a crucial role the teachers play in creating a superior educational environment. The teachers collaborate and work together using a variety a techniques that best suit the individual needs of each student. What I noticed was the flexibility the teachers had to do what they thought was best for the students. The teachers seemed active and willingly engaged in doing the "hard work". I also noticed that a "program" didn't "run" the school. Teachers bought in because they were valued and were considered "the experts". For example, from an article about the school I learned that for 2 hours every other Monday,

"The staff meets to tackle one in a rotating list of topics: math, reading,writing, and life-skills education. They use the time to assess data, develop curriculum, discuss the needs of individual students, and participate in professional-development workshops -- sessions often led by Faubion teachers who have completed outside training on particular skills."

That sounds like a lot of meeting time, but note that it is the teachers who are considered the experts. They don't follow what they are told they must follow, but instead there is a choice involved. When given the choice, the teachers do what needs to be done and they seem to do it willingly, happily, and with great success.

"The key to this training is that teachers choose what they want to learn; each year, they agree on one weak area to give particular emphasis (this year, writing), and it's typically the area where test results show students need the most help. As Harbolt says, "We figure if they're weak on it, we must be weak on it.""

When the teachers are considered the experts, they do the "expert" things. There are a lot of innovative and interesting techniques going on throughout the video.

Lessons learned:

If you want to create a successful school, it takes hard work.

It's not about the "program"! It is about the best experts in the business: the classroom teacher. Treat the teachers like the experts they are. Give them the power and the support they need to do what they know needs to be done. Then, and only then, will wonderful things happen! Bravo! to the Faubian Elementary School!

A Reading Program in Need of Improvement!

2008-11-19T17:55:00.007-05:00

Today's Washington Post reports on a Reading Program in Need of Improvement. The article "Study of Reading Program Finds a Lack of Progress" by Maria Glod takes to task the $6 billion Reading First program after a congressionally mandated study determined that students have made no greater improvements or scored no better than students in similar schools who did not use the Reading First program. Of course Reading First is a program funded by the No Child Left Behind law. Here is a sad comment from the article:

"It is a program that needs to be improved," said Grover J. "Russ" Whitehurst,director of the Institute of Education Sciences, the department's research arm."I don't think anyone should be celebrating that the federal government has spent $6 billion on a reading program that has had no impact on reading comprehension."

Of course the article also mentions that not so new allegations that some of the people who had oversight over the Reading First program also had financial ties to the publishers of Reading First materials. Did I mention that this is a $6 billion program? I think I smell a program in need of some corrective action.

There are some really useful things in the Reading First program and there are some dreadful things. However when will the politicians learn that it is not a program that works with students, it is the teachers. Hire good teachers and support them as much as possible so that they can do their job, but don't expect a $6 billion program to be the answer. It sounds like a lot of wasted money.

A Simple Way to Learn Luxembourgish (or many other languages)

2008-11-18T18:47:00.004-05:00

One Minute Languages is an interesting website where you can learn the basics of another language in ten short 'couple of minutes' lessons. So if you ever wanted to learn Luxembourgish, Norwegian, Russian, Japaneses, or a roster of other languages this is the place to go. Your students might find it fun to learn how to greet someone, to count to ten, or to learn a few useful phrases in different languages. If you are reading a story that takes place in one of these countries, this might be a fun website to share or use with your class.

And if you are not sure why you might want to learn Luxembourgish, just become a fan of the Tour de France. Last year three of the tours top riders where from Luxembourg. Two of them wore the yellow jersey (as tour leader) for six of the stages. What is Luxembourgish for yellow jersey?

A Journey Back in Time

2008-11-15T21:13:00.005-05:00

Things do change! Check out this class photo from Mr. Hansen's fourth grade class, when he was a student at the Mullen-Hall School in Falmouth, Ma. He is sitting right in front of the teacher, Miss Costello. Kids dressed for school differently back then, but Miss Costello looks like she would fit in as a teacher today! Kids also seemed much smaller. I think the front two rows of the class look like today's' second graders.

The Tale of Despereaux

2008-11-05T21:04:00.006-05:00

Today I just finished reading the wonderful book "The Tale of Despereaux" by Kate DiCamillo to my class. Like every class the past few years who have heard me read this book, they absolutely love this story about a brave little mouse. Today I ran across a trailer for an animated version of this story coming out this Christmas.

Oh no! This is not the book! Everything is different: the vocabulary, the scenes, and in particular, this is not how I visualized the book. Hopefully the movie will be great in its own way, but before you go see this movie, read the Newbery Medal winning book.

The Simple Truth Found in a Rubik's Cube

2008-10-16T18:51:00.006-04:00

William Wissemann is an 18 year old college freshman who used a Rubik's Cube to teach himself some valuable life lessons. You can listen to or read his "This I Believe" speech called "Accomplishing Big Things In Small Pieces" here. It originally aired as a NPR segment.

William had to leave his public school after fourth grade because of a language-processing disorder. Solving a Rubik's Cube helped William understand that he had to first break problems down before he could solve them. It mirrored his own progress in breaking down language in order to use it effectively. A simple Rubik's Cube taught William many other important lessons about dealing with frustrations and reaching goals. It is a wonderful essay.

"This I Believe" is an international project engaging people in writing, sharing, and discussing the core values that guide their daily lives. These short statements of belief, written by people from all walks of life, are archived here and featured on public radio in the United States and Canada, as well as in regular broadcasts on NPR. The project is based on the popular 1950s radio series of the same name hosted by Edward R. Murrow.

Here a school administrator starts his own "This I Believe" list. What an interesting way to reflect about what is important to you as an educator or person.

I have never been able to solve the Rubik's Cube on my own, unless you count the time I took the stickers off and just rearranged them by color! After I graduated from College I worked for a summer at a day camp run by The Stony Brook School, the college prep boarding school I had attended for three years. There was one fourth grade boy attending the camp who could consistently solve the Rubik's Cube (it was new then) in a very short amount of time. I even watched him solve it in under a minute a few times.

The Maple Tree: Creating Videos from Student Poetry

2008-10-10T23:03:00.017-04:00

On the first day of school this year I introduced my class to William Carlos Williams' poem "A Locust Tree in Flower". I found the poem a few years ago while using some other of his poems in my class. I found it to be an unusual and simple poem, but there was something about it that begged me to ask, "What is this?"

I decided to use it in my class as a lesson on words and how we use them, as well as a clever introduction to poetry. In subsequent lessons I use "This is Just to Say" by William Carlos Williams to teach poetry form versus paragraph form and "The Red Wheelbarrow" for creating meaning from insignificant details.

This year I handed out a sheet to every student with each word from the poem printed in random order on small squares that they could cut out. I asked them to try to put these words into some kind of written form and make sense out of them. I told them they could even add words if they needed to in order to give the words some meaning. The class played around with the words for a bit and discovered what they could or couldn't do with the words.

Later I showed them the poem, "A Locust Tree in Flower.

The class now saw the words expressed in a poem, but they still had a hard time making sense out of it. I have never studied this poem or read about how William Carlos Williams created it. Maybe there is a story behind it but I just tell the class that this poem reminds me of a puzzle. Each word is like a puzzle piece and some pieces are missing and the pieces may even be out of order, but they are jumbled up together to make this poem. We try imagining which words go together and what words could be missing to help create sensible phrases. By playing around with the words the students start making some meaning as well as have a fun time with words and language.

Then we talk about why I find poetry interesting. They know writing as something that you have to do in school and where the teacher forces them to follow rules. I tell them that poets are "rebels" who like to make up their own rules. That catches a few students off guard a bit (hopefully the boys!) and I hope that they start seeing poetry as more then just writing for "sissies" and something that can be fun, creative, and a bit rebellious as well as an exercise that is more about playing with words then about "making rhymes". Who knows if this is a correct approach to poetry, but at least it makes it interesting and understandable for me.

We talk about how poets can make their own rules and come up with rules for "The Locust Tree in Flower". We decided that William Carlos Williams only put one word on every line. He had four stanzas of three words each and one last word at the end. He gave it a title and placed his words randomly so that they didn't make sense when first reading it, although we can assume that he put great thought into the choice and placement of his words

Then we went outside to observe a Maple Tree on our playground that the kids are all familiar with because it stands right next to the school's playground equipment. We went outside with clipboards and observed the tree and they wrote words and phrases about what they observed

When we came inside we wrote out own "Maple Tree" poems following Williams Carlos Williams rules for writing his poem. A simple poem may take only minutes to write

I took digital pictures while we were outside and when the students later typed the poems into a computer (for their first simple typing exercise in the computer lab) I inserted a picture of the tree on their poem so that they could print it out and show off their first writing assignment of the year

I left the project behind and moved on as the year progressed until a found the Animoto video slideshow program. Within a few minutes of seeing how this program worked I thought to myself that this poem would lend itself wonderfully to being presented with Animoto. After playing with the program a bit and seeing how it worked I tried describing to the class my vision of what we could do with their poems. We didn't have much time so I had them write out the words to their poem on paper and use "tree" colors to color them in. Rather than cut them out I had them rip out the words. Then we went outside with those who completed the task quickly enough and took photos of each word on the wood chips underneath the maple tree. I wish I had more photos of the tree without the students in the photo from the first day, but I didn't know back then that I would be doing this project. I took the photos and uploaded them to the Animoto site and arranged them very quickly into some kind of order, chose a piece of music off the Animoto site, and then let the program perfrom its magic of arranging the poems into a digital-musical slideshow.

I think the results are wonderful and each video has its own flavor and design. At some points in the videos the photos, music, and transitions are just perfect for the poem the student wrote

Take a look at the results. Don't you think these are great.

T.E.

A.N.

A.A

J.B

I.M.

S.V.

C.A.

K.S.

While I was looking up information on the poem online, I found another interesting video presentation of "The Locust Tree in Flower". This is from a museum installation by Jason Freeman of the Georgia Insitute of Technology. At his installation people can read the poem. He writes, "The installation invites a single person at a time to create and perform a musical setting of the poem by simply reading it. A short piece of music is generated in real time by applying digital processing, mixing, and looping to the user's voice.". The results are very unusual! You can view a sample recording here. It is very interesting to see the different ways a simple poem can inspire others.

This blog post has now been included in the Carnival of Education's "The Debate Issue" hosted by Eduwonkette. You can read all sorts of educational blogger's posts that have been formatted by Eduwonkette into an entry that at first looks like the presidential candidates debating policy. What a fun and creative way to present all these diverse blog entries. You can find a reference and link to this post by reading what "Sarah Palin" adds to the debate!

Teacher Language

2008-10-10T21:01:00.004-04:00

I am not sure where I got this from, but I found it in my things recently. It is a handout titled "Teacher Language" and it has some simple starters to sentences that teachers can use when talking to students. It helps to get to the point clearly.

I noticed...

I heard you...

Thank you for...

I see that...

I appreciate...

Show me...

You need to...

How can you...

Tell me what you will need to...

Your choice is to...

How simple is that?

Playing Around with Animoto

2008-10-08T20:38:00.004-04:00

I have been playing around with a nifty little program called Animoto. It is a program that easily makes custom slideshows using your digital pictures and music. Teachers can use this program for free after signing up with Animoto (just be warned if you are a Nashua teacher that the emails from Animoto went into my spam folder- I had to send an email to the company to get it straightened out).

The other day I took my class on a stroll around Mount Pleasant School. I explained the photos I was taking as I walked around the school. I told my class what I wanted to do with the photos. I was suprised when one boy said, "So you are basically making a collage!"

I said, "Yes that is right, but it will be a photo-video collage on the computer." I realised after awhile that I was taking photos of round things, signs, numbers, and different views of the school. Here is one of the videos Animoto put together for me. What do you think?

Hopefully this program will work on the district's computers. I have some ideas for my class that would be very fun to work on together.

Sorry for the music. I have to find some appropriate tunes.

Common Ground: A Simple Look at Changes in our World

2008-10-05T20:04:00.007-04:00

This is a wonderful piece of visual journalism as a 100+ acre cattle farm in Illinois is torn down to make space for a new housing development.

Why might you show this to Elementary school students? I think students can understand the highly visual juxtaposition of images, video clips, and sound bytes to get the "big picture" that is created in this piece. It shows the changing of land use from rural to suburban, it tells about the loss of family farms (with a non judgmental tone), it displays human emotions brought on by change in the world, and it does so with a simple creativity. It also show how many things we hold in common. Check out how the pictures of the farm family and the new residents are compared and contrasted by similarity of images. My favorite is the photo of the cattle with their heads in the feeding pail next to the photo of a girl riding her toy bike on the driveway with a plastic bucket on her head. I think children would thrill to see how a creative person put these together with purpose. Some of the images on the screen are worth stopping this presentation for so as to discuss with a class. I like the quote at the end of the piece, "Farmland changes. You still see the same qualities of life even though it is no longer a farmland."

I can see how a short piece like this could fit in a Social Studies unit on regions of the US or on rural areas becoming suburban areas. It could also fit in a literary unit such as stories on the prairie like my class is reading now. It might also be used after reading a book like "What You Knew First" by Patricia MacClachlan about a family leaving a farm on the prairie behind. It is almost like a modern sequel to the simple children's book.

A Simple Way to Create Dancing Animations

2008-10-05T17:41:00.001-04:00

Here is a simple and fun online program called pictaps. You can design and create a 2D character and then watch Pictaps turn it into a 3D character that will dance with clones of itself. It takes minutes to draw a character and the animations are fun and artistic. Children may have fun designing with this program which delights the imagination. Here is a simple alien that I drew. It is also fun to revisit the drawing process as your character is redrawn in the animation.

Learning from your Mistakes is Not that Simple for Some!

2008-09-29T16:38:00.004-04:00

A new study suggests that children under 12 years of age have a difficult time processing negative feedback and hence the ability to learn from their mistakes. According to an article in Science Daily...

"Eight-year-old children have a radically different learning strategy from twelve-year-olds and adults. Eight-year-olds learn primarily from positive feedback ('Well done!'), whereas negative feedback ('Got it wrong this time') scarcely causes any alarm bells to ring."

This pattern has been seen in behavioral research as well as when scientists look inside the brain.

"In children of eight and nine, these areas of the brain react strongly to positive feedback and scarcely respond at all to negative feedback. But in children of 12 and 13, and also in adults, the opposite is the case. Their control centers' in the brain are more strongly activated by negative feedback and much less by positive feedback."

According to the researchers this may be because...

"From the literature, it appears that young children respond better to reward than to punishment...The information that you have not done something well is more complicated than the information that you have done something well. Learning from mistakes is more complex than carrying on in the same way as before. You have to ask yourself what precisely went wrong and how it was possible."

This is all very interesting and makes me think of many implications within the classroom.

A Simple Way to View Children's Books

2008-09-28T11:52:00.005-04:00

Lookeybook is an interesting and new way to view children's picture books online. You can actually flip through the entire book to get a feel for its contents. The entire book is posted and the site is easy to use. Now you don't have to go to a bookstore or guess what a book is like if you are buying it online. Time Magazine recently rated it one of the 50 best websites for 2008.

To see how it works you can click through this mini book version of "Action Jackson" that was written by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan and illustrated by Robert Andrew Parker. This picture book profiles abstract artist Jackson Pollack, concentrating on the period when he created one of his most famous pieces, "Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist)." You can click on the eyeballs to go to the website and see a larger version of the book.

If you feel extremely creative, you can create your own Jackson Pollack picture below. Just move your mouse over the white space and click the mouse button to change colors. Click "enter" to erase and start again. Have fun!

Jackson Pollock by Miltos Manetasgreat free widgetsWidgetbox

Simple Origami

2008-09-27T15:12:00.009-04:00

At the beginning of the school my class has fun learning the art of origami and making paper cranes. We learn the story of Sadako Sasaki, a Japanese girl who developed leukemia after the atom bomb explosion over Hiroshima. Sadako tried to fold 1000 paper cranes after a friend told her that doing so might make her well again. Sadako never completed her task before dying.

My class learns the story through books and a video. Then we learn how to fold paper cranes through another entertaining companion video. Here are printable directions to fold a paper crane. We talk about the math of paper folding. Our first chapter in "Everyday Math" includes work with geometric shapes. In working out the origami cranes we can find many geometric shapes along the way: squares, triangles, rectangles, kites, parallelograms, and others. There are many other educational benefits to working with origami. Once a child creates their first paper crane there is a huge sense of accomplishment!

This site however is about doing teaching in simple ways, so here is a website that demonstrates how to do simple origami. It is called Instant Origami and you might get a kick out of their instant hands-on lessons in origami. It takes origami in a completely new direction. Look for the "instructions" link as it clearly gives you an understanding of everything you wanted to know.

On the Polar Origami site you will find video tutorials on creating origami creations from the beginner iceberg to the more advanced polar bear.

On the related Origami Now site you will get video instruction for making animals from beginner frogs to advanced butterflies. There is an interesting video of "wet-folding" an origami bat. Using wet paper can make more graceful and rounded folds.

A Simple Way to Practice Spelling

2008-09-27T13:13:00.009-04:00

I am of the opinion that memorizing lists of random spelling words is not the best way to learn how to be a good speller. Will anyone ever learn all the words in the English language this way? Learning spelling patterns and rules and rule breakers seem to be a much better way to learn the intricacies of spelling. However, I think that the most important thing that a person needs to know related to spelling is that they have to be able to look at their own writing, recognize which words may not be spelled or used correctly, and then know what to do to check and correct their work. This is the done in the editing phase of writing. I don't think memorizing spelling lists really helps us become better editors.

Spelling lists are here however and they are a good indicator of who studies, who are the good spellers, and who has a difficult time spelling words. Is there even a carry over to a student's writing after they have memorized a spelling list? Some teachers even think spelling tests are not necessary. Don't even get me going on those teachers my own children sometimes have had who force the class to copy dictionary meanings for all of their spelling or vocabulary lists each week and other such "busy" work that is always a nightly homework assignment in some brain paralyzing and time-consuming form.

If you do have spelling lists and you have a few students that may need or like some practice with the words you may find Spelling City helpful. A teacher, parent, or child can enter a list of words on the site (or choose lists already posted). Students can take practice tests, be taught, or even play a game based on their words. Words and sentences are read out loud to the student. The human voices are real humans, not synthesized speech. It may be a good confidence builder for a student that needs a little practice to master their weekly spelling lists. Students with computers can use it at home or it can be used in school.

I read this blog entry out loud to myself and found two simple spelling mistakes. I ran the spell checker and found three more. I would have got all five words correct on a spelling test. We do need to have strategies to check our own written work! If anyone finds mistakes in my blog let me know. I could use a few good partner editors!

You can click here to get started on Spelling City. It is a free website.

How to Protect Your Lunch

2008-09-21T11:55:00.001-04:00

If your lunch is not safe in the teacher's dining room, here is a little trick you might try to keep it safe.

This is from a site called Fun Forever which looks like an interesting place to go if you have some time to spare or if you need to put some creativity back into your life.

For the Fun of It

2008-09-10T00:01:00.000-04:00

Do you remember the guy Matt who did his silly dance all around the world?

Do you remember when I went to Hawaii and tried to play the Tongan drums?

Well in this video Matt plays the drums and dances with Huli Wigmen in New Guinea. You can see how he films a short segment and the video has its funny moments. It is interesting seeing someone else having a hard time playing the drums and following directions. Whatever you do: teaching or otherwise, keep it fun!

Dancing with the Huli Wigmen from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Recognizing Greatness: Write Their Name in the Teacher's Book or Hand them a Flag

2008-09-08T20:25:00.000-04:00

This week my class is reading about the Orphan Train Children. Our selection in the Scott-Foresman program is called "Train to Somewhere" written by Eve Bunting. In this story children leave an orphanage in New York City and are taken by train to the Midwest where families greet them and choose a child that they may adopt. The girl telling the story is the last child on the train after all the others have been picked. She is waiting with the hope that maybe her mother will be at the next stop and feels that she might never be adopted.

An older couple arrives at the last stop. The man is tall and stooped. The woman is small and round as a dumpling. It seems they wanted a boy and Marianne is all that is left. The woman starts to say, "Is she all..." but then stops herself and looks at Marianne closely. Marianne sees the woman's face change with a softness in it.

Marianne thinks, "Somehow this woman understands about me. How it felt when nobody wanted me even though I was waiting inside myself for my mother to come. Somehow she understands my hurt."

Last year my class read that section and one of my tough boys raised his hand and said, "Mr. Hansen, that is an example of empathy." I wasn't looking for that but he was right. The previous week we had gone over a poster in my room I had made based on a Responsive Classroom workshop I had previously taken. It has an acrostic for "CARES". I teach the class that we want a classroom that "cares". I want students to be caring, to be assertive, to be responsible, to have empathy for others, and to practice self-control. We had gone over all these words to make sure they knew what they meant. You never know if they listen, but this boy surely did and it was great that he pointed out a situation where a character showed empathy.

Whenever students come up with a creative answer, question, or thought I write it down in my teacher's book along with their name and year. Then when I come upon the comment another year I might say the comment and tell about the child who said it. I tell the class I do this and they get real excited if their comment makes my teacher's book. After all their name will go down in history!

To go along with this story I ask my class if children today are taken to new places to settle due to life circumstances. They think not. I tell them about my in-laws who were children in London during the bombings of WW2 and how they were placed on trains and sent to live with strangers out in the country until the war was over. They know this story if they have read or watched "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe". But that was an incident still too far in the past for my students.

So I tell them about the Lost Boys of Sudan who were brought to America a few years ago after fleeing Sudan for Ethiopia and then to Kenya where they lived in a refuge camp for many years. They enjoy my reading of "Brothers in Hope: The Story of the Lost Boys of Sudan."

I tell them and show the front page Boston Globe articles of my sister's family who took in four of the Lost Boys (who have all since moved on to college and beyond).

I tell them of the recent Olympic Games held in Bejing, where a Lost Boy, Lopez Lomong, not only made the USA track team in the 1500 run but was elected by all the athletes on the American team to hold the American flag as the American athletes entered the stadium for the opening ceremonies.

Here is a story on Lopez Lomong and below is a video.

My sister no longer has the four Lost Boys in her home, but last year she took in a high school girl from Burma who was rescued from a life of virtual slavery after fleeing for her safety and life from the Burmese soldiers who took an interest in her. She is now earning high grades in high school in Winchester, MA.

So yes, children today often do leave the places they know and are transported to new places where they might have a chance at a better life. In that new place or country they can find a new life and sometimes even greatness!

What is Men's Work? What is Women's Work?

2008-09-06T19:27:00.000-04:00

This was the question I asked my class to respond to before reading our first reading selection this year. We were reading a story called "A Visit with Grandpa" written by Mildred Pitts Walter. It is excerpted from the book, "Justin and the Best Biscuits in the World". Justin is a boy who doesn't like to do household chores. He thinks they are women's work and he finds them hard to do. His Grandpa takes him to his ranch and shows him that men can do hard work like cooking and cleaning, and also do hard work like "riding fence" on the ranch. Grandpa also teaches Justin about some of the famous black cowboys.

I decided to get my class to respond to the questions, "What is women's work and what is men's work?" before reading the text. I thought their responses were very interesting and I thought I would share them. They wrote these in groups. One group had all boys, one all girls, and the others were mixed. I thought they were going places when I looked to see that a group of girls had listed that women could be "eye doctors" but then then went traditional with "nurses" further on down the list. The lists get very interesting in how the class responded. I am just not sure who they were holding a mirror up to with these repsonses?

I find it funny that I am the one that has to teach these children about gender roles and the fact that women can do whatever the wish to do and that the gig is up for us guys.

Simple Houses

2008-09-06T17:23:00.000-04:00

How simple can you go? What does it really mean to get back to the basics? That are lots of things we can simplify, teaching being one of them, but I was astounded when I saw how simple some people are getting when it comes to housing. There are people and companies like the Tumbleweed Tiny House company that make very tiny houses (some less than 100 square feet) for people to live in. I don't know what this has to do with teaching other than I want to keep these companies away from the classroom. My classroom feels small enough as it is!

This is Jay Shafer's tiny 100 square foot house. He is a the founder of Tumbleweed Houses and has been living in tiny homes for over 10 years. You have to see how he takes a shower in the bathroom and if you stick around until the end, you will have find Jay has a really great "guy" reason for living in a tiny house!

A lady in Washington lives in this 84 square foot house.

Notice Dee enjoys reading Harry Potter, but she has to read it outside the house. I think the book is too big to be read inside her house!

Then there is this old woman...

Do You Believe in Me?

2008-09-05T17:26:00.000-04:00

An eloquent 10 year old boy named Dalton Sherman addresses 20,000 teachers in Dallas, Texas and asks them, "Do you believe in me?" If you are a teacher and you haven't seen Dalton give his speech then take a few minutes and be rewarded by his words.

A Bill of Rights for Students

2008-09-01T21:43:00.000-04:00

Mark Pullen, a third grade teacher in Michigan, has a blog post called The Student's Bill of Rights. He has some good ideas that I wholeheartedly agree with that look at life in the classroom from the student's point of view. After all education is really about the students! To sum up his ideas students have a right to qualified and caring teachers. They have a right to be safe and have their physical needs met throughout the day. They should have at least one unstructured recess period per day and have teachers who do not read from scripts. Students need both challenge and some choice in their studies. They need to be assessed based on their improvements and they need cutting-edge instruction with a focus on current technologies. They also should have an enjoyable life outside the classroom without the burden of too much homework.
He has a thoughtful blog. Check it out!

The First Week of High School and Science at the Olympics: What Do They Teach Us About Creating Success?

2008-09-01T11:39:00.000-04:00

Last week my daughter had her first week of 9th grade at Nashua High School South. She worried and prepared herself for the daunting task of being a freshman at a very large school. You could see her wheels turning in anticipation of how she could ever survive in such a school. Well on the third day of school an administrator took it upon himself to make an example of my very shy and quiet little girl.

It seems he didn't like the fact that she had left her food tray in the cafeteria. She had left it with her friends because they were still eating the french fries on her tray. He sent a girl to chase her down and bring her back. He took her ID card while yelling at her and told her to go to his office. She got lost having no idea where the office was and she was again reprimanded for getting there late. By this time she was in hysterics having no idea what was going on or how to get out of this problem that kept escalating. Then the administrator called my wife on the phone to complain about her behavior. My daughter was in complete meltdown at this point and could barely speak to my wife. The administrator then had the nerve to tell my wife that he expects parents to support the school and make sure that students pick up after themselves. He strongly hinted that we were not making the grade as parents. My wife was now shocked and didn't know what to say. What a complete buffoon that man was. I am sure he felt powerful and in control having picked on the smallest and quietest girl he could find in the school and I guess the students at Nashua South know who the "big man" is in charge of things now!

How easy it would have been for this man to gently say to my daughter's friends, "I know that when you are finished eating the fries that you will put your friend's tray away!" That would have solved the "clean-up" issue and we wouldn't have to do damage control all weekend trying to let her know that high school will be OK! In fact now we have the task of trying to get her back into a positive frame of mind about the next four years at this school.

Teachers and administrators there is a much better way to teach and lead children. If you can only get control by berating and bullying students then get out of the profession as you have no business being an educator!

Which brings me to an article called, "SCIENCE AT THE OLYMPICS:Can Neuroscience Provide a Mental Edge?" Maybe you saw the Olympics and American Jenn Stuczynski get berated by her coach on NBC after winning the silver medal in the pole vault. Is this good coaching? According to the psychologists and neuroscientists doing studies on athletes, a quick positive intervention helps an athlete bounce back after a poor performance. Berating an athlete seems to keep an athlete performing poorly. I don't think this is rocket science. Quality educators have known the same thing for years. Guiding is a much more effective approach than bullying.

Do you let your student's minds wander?

2008-08-31T12:26:00.000-04:00

What do you think of wandering minds in school? Is there a place for letting children get lost in their thoughts and do we let them actually daydream a bit? Do we encourage this as teachers or is it one of the many things we try to drill out of our students with work to keep them busy. What about teachers? Do we allow ourselves to just daydream a bit in our hectic days in the classroom?

According to Jonah Lehrer in the article "Daydream Achiever" in the Boston Globe scientists are telling us that a wandering mind cam do important work and may even be essential.

We read about a choir member's mind wandering during a Sunday sermon and coming up with the idea of Post-It notes to keep his place in the choir book. With that inspiration Arthur Fry invented one of the most successful office supplies today and I bet it made him a very wealthy man!

Even though thinkers like Einstein were notorious daydreamers, Lehrer writes, "In a culture obsessed with efficiency, daydreaming is derided as a lazy habit or a lack of discipline, the kind of thinking we rely on when we don't really want to think. It's a sign of procrastination, not productivity."

A daydreaming mind is an important tool for creativity, making connections, abstract thought, and imagination. It even helps us socially as we imagine "what if?" scenarios to problem solve or to rework social circumstances to explore what we could have or should have done or how things should be in the future.

One researcher, Teresa Belton, wanted to find out why schoolchildren were writing "creative" stories that were vastly uninspired. Lehrer writes, "After monitoring the daily schedule of the children for several months, Belton came to the conclusion that their lack of imagination was, at least in part, caused by the absence of "empty time," or periods without any activity or sensory stimulation. She noticed that as soon as these children got even a little bit bored, they simply turned on the television: the moving images kept their minds occupied. "It was a very automatic reaction," she says. "Television was what they did when they didn't know what else to do."" Television takes away from the practice of daydreaming and daydreaming takes practice.

Lehrer writes that that daydreaming is easy, the hard part is recognizing that when you have a creative insight while daydreaming and then to use that idea!

Other interesting ideas that research is uncovering is that people with autism may daydream less and people with schizophrenia daydream more: "people with autism tend to fixate on things in their environment" and people with schizophrenia may be unable to "differentiate properly between reality and the ideas generated by the imagination."

So if daydreaming is so good why are we so frightened of allowing others to do it? One of my favorite books on teaching is "Time to Teach, Time to Learn" by Chip Wood. In it he writes about some of the busyness in today's school and the need for reflective time throughout the school day.

And I know what I am going to be doing during the next church sermon I am sitting through. I will be daydreaming my way to solving a simple problem with an easy solution.

	William Carlos Williams - The Red Wheelbarrow

	Found at bee mp3 search engine