Begin Again

A new school year has begun. I like the cyclical nature of it-- the ceremony, the similar faces that grew defined during the summer months. Braces came off. Baby fat was lost. Some of them I have had as students before and still their new stature can be intimidating.

My goals for this year are a bit different than for summer school:

I will strive to make my thinking more transparent to my students. (i.e. verbalize it)
I hope to create assignments that allow students to surprise me.
I hope to utilize class time in such a way that students feel busy and directed most of the time.
I want students to talk more.

The Ultimate Tool to Better Thinking

There is a non-profit called "The Foundation for Critical Thinking" whose purpose is to help people think better. This astounds me. The quantity of interesting and relevant information on this site boggles the mind. It is all free/ very cheap and packed full of examples and activities that allow readers to sharpen their critical thinking skills. The mind is a wily beast and this group believes that with practice and guidance, you can train it to think more rationally, deeply, and critically.

I was a student (like you) for 18 years of my life before I became a teacher and as I read through this site I see flashes of what Dr. Lightfoot and Mr. Dolger were trying to do. Is more extensive than what these teachers were able to do with limited time and therefore completes the task more thoroughly: Digest it in small pieces.

One critical thinking idea from the "How to study and learn" section:

Idea # 12: Seek to find the key concept of the course during the first couple of class meetings. For example, in a Biology course, try explaining what biology is in your own words? Then relate that definition to each segment of what you learn afterward. Fundamental ideas are the basis for all others.

It took me two years of studying the vague major of "Politics" at Whitman College before I discovered what is was exactly we studied. Politics is the study of power: how humans get it, retain it, and wield it over one another. Writing is about the skill of artful and clear communication in written form.

What is English as a subject?

English is about skill and appreciation of beauty of words (reading, writing, listening) which provide a window into human ethics (how we should behave) and psychology (how we think).

Some other subjects summarized by the Critical Thinking folks:

Mathematics as learning to think quantitatively

Economics as the study of “who gets what, when, & how”

Algebra as arithmetic with unknowns

Sociology as the study of human conformity to group norms

Anthropology as the physical and historical study of humans in light of their evolution from non-cultural into cultural animals

Physics as the study of mass and energy and their interaction

Chemistry as the study of elementary substances & the manner in which they react with each other

Philosophy as the study of ultimate questions with a view to living an examined life

Biochemistry as the chemistry of life processes in plants & animals

Science as the attempt to learn through quantifiable observations and controlled experimentation

Theology as the study of theories of spiritual reality

Ethics as the study of principles to be used in contributing to the good of, & avoiding unnecessary harm to, humans and other sentient creatures

Art as the application of skill and judgment to matters of taste and beauty (as in poetry, music, painting, dance, drama, sculpture, or architecture)

Professions as ways of earning a living through the skilled and artful use of knowledge in everyday life

Check out this site! www.criticalthinking.org

Synapses ready? Fire!

I'm reading a book called Teaching with the Brain in Mind by Eric Jensen. Stale as the raisin-bran that struggles to stay fresh in our Hawaiian heat, this book is still worth my time just because it is so applicable to teaching. I'm clearly not lapping it up since the bookmark lies a meager 43 pages in, nor do I grok much of the neurology described (why can't they make a layout and choose images based on the research they have done about how brains digest information? Arg.) However, the book has affected some change in my classroom.

First, I started playing music in the classroom between breaks that sets the desired tone for the lesson. This is really easy using Pandora.com, an online radio-station that plays any genre of music you invent. In the morning when I want them awake and focused, I play an upbeat latin-music station. During the first break before we do a close-reading of a text, a Mozart-centered station pops on. They seem to appreciate the added stimuli--when I forget to hit play they say "why don't we have music today?". In theory, it is priming neural pathways to increase the speed, sequence, and strength of the connections they will make about poetry.

I change what is on the walls about once a week because change is stimuli for the brain.
I am careful to eliminate threat (verbal abuse, mockery etc.) because a scared brain is not absorbing anything.

According to the brain book, enrichment is all about challenge and feedback. Allowing students to choose their own books for class should insure that they read at the level challenging for them. Right now we are in the process of choosing free-choice books that students will read individually and write about on their blogs. This is instead of reading the Odyssey as a class (the debate is still open as to the validity of this, but lets just wait and see). Today we visited a junior-filled composition class to hear about their book recommendations. These students are reading such interesting books! just a few of the suggestions were Faster than the Speed of Light by Joao Magueijo, Eragon by Christopher Paolini and 1984 by George Orwell, This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff, and The Atonement Child by Francine Rivers. Just hearing these students do a Reading-Rainbow-style plug for books raised my confidence in students today.

So in an ideal world, challenge comes via the free-choice book, and feedback comes via blog when they write about what they are reading.

Finally, one last change regarding feedback. In college, I recall slipping away excitedly to read the feedback on my papers (dork!) as soon as I got them. But not everyone does that, and not all comments make sense, even if you do manage to read the teacher's terrible handwriting. Lots of students make similar mistakes, and having them corrected in relation to work they have recently done apparently makes a different. So lately when I return a batch of papers I choose 2 issues that came up for almost everyone. Perhaps it was weak verb usage. Perhaps they mis-punctuated dialogue. I do a mini-lesson the day I return their papers and it seems to sink in.

Edutech conference models toys, not teaching

I left the Kamehameha education-technology conference last week both disheartened and unaffected. There were sessions on all the latest technology toys (twitter, blogs, del.icio.us, skype, etc.) that might have wowed a newbie, but most teachers there had at least tinkered with them. In fact, I think many teachers there could have given the talks they paid to see. The reality is that once you tap into the edutech world, conceptualize student-directed learning, and become fluent in moodle and blog navigation, it takes little upkeep to stay abreast of the multiplying resources. Presenters and conference organizers hear me: we know about the toys.

What we need are models of classroom environments that use technologies to empower students and promote self-directed learning.

On of the presenters showed the image below as an example of slapping technology onto the current model of education. Note how the teacher is at the front of the room, still presumed to have all the control and correct answers stashed away behind her desk. Notice the glazed stares, the distracted looks at the laptop screens, and the fact that the students are seated (dormant) while the teacher stands (active).

This photo summarizes my experience at this conference.

If the conference hoped to promote teacher-collaboration, why didn't we tackle a problem, make a lesson plan, or create a resource with our fellow conference attendees? Instead we sat awkwardly at lunch tables, attempted "what have you learned so far?" conversations.

If web 2.0 technology makes everyone a publisher, presenter, and photographer, why weren't participants asked to document something from their own classrooms and present them to our colleagues?

If these tools' strength is that they empower the learner, why (as a "student" at this conference) wasn't I asked to move around, say something, present, create, draw, list, summarize, record, write, brainstorm, collaborate, or even draw a doodle? Why didn't the presenters model the usage of new technologies in a classroom setting rather than simply click through their del.icio.us folders hunting for eyecatchers?

I'm sorry to play the naysayer on an event that conference organizers would love to declare a success; I'm sure for many the fusillade of tag-able websites was a thrill. Presenter David Warlick blogged that the conference was full of teachers who were "excited, enthused, attentive, and asking a lot of spot-on questions...and I think that the reason why, is that we’re giving them toys. " Well, those that already had the toys wanted more. I would like to experience a classroom setting where these technologies are implemented so I have a model to strive for. (Alan November does some of this beautifully in his talks by the way). No one wants to send the students back to the same old metal desks with new toys to distract them, but that was (sadly) the take-away message of this conference for me.

Great classroom tips

Finishing up my first year of teaching high school felt like a massive train coming to a halt. I start teaching summer school next Tuesday (one week away!) and I didn't feel ready to start the train rolling again…until now.

I just burned through Annette L Breaux's "101 'Answers' for new teachers and their mentors: effective teaching tips for daily classroom use." OMG this book breaks down so many difficult scenarios (student is late, doesn't turn in homework, says sassy things about your carefully crafted lesson plan, mocks other students, crumples your worksheets etc.) and provides realistic solutions. Some of my favorite tips were:

1. Smile (it's contagious)
2. Take pictures of students working and post them on the walls
3. Dignify wrong answers "Thank you so much for making that mistake because we can all learn from it."
4. Say thank you often "thank you for understanding we don't chew gum in class" (to the student who is chewing gum.)
5.Write thank you notes for gives from students
6. Notice new haircuts
7. Relate your lessons to student interests with metaphors (if Jun loves cars, then the verb becomes the "driver" of the sentence.)
8. Time student transitions between activities (they love to race to beat their time)
9. Encourage improvement, not perfection
10. Make a teacher report card when you are writing student report cards: you will get amazing feedback.
11. Give constant positive feedback ("I really appreciate the cooperation I'm observing in this group," "Thanks for raising your hand").
12. Treat you students the way you hope they will behave ("You look like someone I can trust, could you take this note to the principal?).

The list goes on. The tip I plan to implement first is "set teacher goals" for each semester. The idea is that this will help track the sense of development as a teacher rather than always feeling like you couldn't cover everything and moving on. My goals for summer school are:
1. Create a new classroom management plan and implement it consistently.
2. Make every student my favorite student
3. Connect my students with technologies and information that will put them in charge of their own learning.

No Child Left Inside

A fellow teacher at my school sent this short video link to the school list serve.
The basic idea is that teachers should base their lessons around the outdoors because we have so much to learn from the natural world. I usually teach a class with funny items (a wool slipper, an ipod song, a gummy bear) and ask students to practice writing with sensory details. It would be simple enough to take them outside the classroom and duplicate the activity with a flower petal, a lady bug, or a crunching leaf sound. As mentioned in the video, science class steps easily outside, but I worry a little about making the stretch from the English curriculum.

Acting for inspiration

Teaching Shakespeare at the end of the school year is a tough job. Several classes floundered. Some succeeded. In general, the classes that worked well centered around lifting Shakespeare off the page and slipping him into their mouths. Today I watched a group perform act 1.2 of A Midsummer Night's Dream set in a fantastical pub called "the wood." Students brought a cooler as a prop that produced blue soda in glass bottles to serve as a beer substitute. They strolled around the classroom, gesticulating casually with blue bottles, taking sips when appropriate, and reading easily off scripts. I was moved. Their intonation demonstrated an understanding of what they were saying--a striking student accomplishment considering the difficulty of Shakespeare's language
I had dreams last week about letting down students because they won't all close the play knowing how to wax poetic about themes of the moon and eyes. Hopefully positive associations with Shakespeare will linger with them and buoy them next year as they approach Merchant of Venice, another of Shakespeare's plays.