Taking Notes is Boooor-ing

I've always planned on note-taking as part of my classroom, and my new school follows the AVID ideas and that's a big part so I thought cool, they will all know how to take notes! Then I did a notebook check. Oy vey. Let's just say that if my first paycheck (still to come) was based on the quality of these notebooks, I'd have to eat them for every meal for the next month. How do blank pages taste with ketchup? Which wine goes with scribbling and doodles?

What to do instead of listening and taking notes: Draw a Stickman!

I encourage drawings, arrows, the liberal use of color and highlighters, but with most of my students there is nothing on the page to draw an arrow to or highlight over.  The teacher's Math notes before me looked copied straight out of the book, a habit I wasn't going to continue, but if I don't write it they don't write it?  How do I get them to process the info into own words, own connections? I do need to remember they need TIME for notes, time to process the info and make some sense of it. I'm going to make a sign for myself: Time to Think, Time to Write. brb

(Four hours later...)*

How about this:
 ...um... well, nevermind, couldn't get the image here. It's a giant hourglass with the words
"Time to Think, Time to Write" big and bold so I don't forget to let them contemplate, ponder, put thoughts to paper...

I also heard mention at the AVID class something called foldables -- no, not a fruit snack or pre-packaged lunch treat, but things you do with paper so kids will get creative with their notes and reports. Here are a few sites with examples:

http://foldables.wikispaces.com/    and   http://getinthefold.blogspot.com/   and





*no, it didn't take me 4 hours to make that. There were the inevitable distractions, i.e. my children, facebook, the Chris Van Ellsberg websites, and a huge carne asada burrito.

Vegetable Music: "In the Key of Carrot" *

Our music teacher, the oboe player, showed this video which led me to watch all the other videos -- rubber glove, potato, etc...

You are amazing Linsey Pollack, and I hope I can get the big video board working Monday to show 'em your stuff!

Which in turn led to other people playing vegetables as musical instruments. And why was I surprised there is a Vegetable Orchestra?

I'm thinking this would be cool for studying sound waves, when we'd also make those cool popsicle stick & rubber band harmonicas.

*not my line. sounds like something Bugs would say...

Reporting From the Front Line...

Shhhh... I'm surrounded. My first post from the classroom, live as learning occurs at this very moment ! At least, I hope so.

Actually, they're taking a test. I finally got the printer hooked up to this beat up old Mac I liberated from my former school (since I'm not in the system as a real official teacher yet I can't use class laptop or Promethean Board. ug. grrrr.) and I'm looking up material for topic sentences, research papers, etc.


This has been a useful site for essay stuff. So has this one.
And this one has samples for letter writing.  Purdue U's OWL never disappoints; I know it's college level and slightly over the head of 5th graders, but I don't want to shy away from higher level material. They've probably had similarly simple/corny letters for several years now. Or am risking losing them?

Uh-oh, gotta go. The natives are restless...

Should I Unpack?

I do feel like a temporary lodger -- don't bother filling up the dresser drawers, just live out of the suitcase.  I, and everyone else, know I am low, low, loooooow man on The List and will be the first casualty come staff reductions. Pink slips are a way of life here in California Education and I will actually consider it a promotion when I get one; last year I had to tell every concerned parent that "No, I did not get a pink slip, I'm just a lowly sub working a full teacher's position for sub pay and no benefits."  Well, that's what I would have said if they stayed around to listen, but the sympathy dried up instantly after "did not get--" and the concerned parents quickly moved to on to the Real Teachers who were suffering greatly in their martyrdom. 

Anyway, the teacher that vacated this classroom left a bunch of stuff, most of it covered in thick layers of dust.  I was hesitant to touch anything, or move the furniture around, especially after the Principal popped in and mentioned he hadn't moved any of his predecessor's stuff for a year... But then I figured a few things:

1. I'm going to be here until July, so I might as well look at my own kids, books, and pencil holders...
2. I can't find a darn thing I'm looking for anyway, so might as well shove it all in the closets...
3. It's all about the students, not about worrying about stepping on other teachers' toes...
4. Whadda they gonna do, fire me?!?*

So yeah, I'm moving the desks and shelves and changing the wall stuff and marking my territory. Not literally, of course.



*not as funny as I thought it was going to be ten minutes ago. I don't want to get fired. I don't like pink. I love this school. Maybe I can just hide in there all summer and simply be there in September. Squatter's rights and all...

So Far, So Good?

Well, I haven't made anyone cry yet.  I was always told the "Don't smile until Christmas" axiom but seeing as I started in January I waffled on which was the appropriate Holiday Target -- St. Patrick's? Cinco de Mayo? -- and then inadvertently grinned in front of several students. Caught. Damn.

And I have not been scolded/questioned/brow beaten by any parents yet.  In fact, I have not met a single parent from my class's students.  Maybe they're as shy as their children are, 'cause no one has come up to the door and said hello.  Do they even know what I look like?  Do they even know their kids have a new teacher?  I was so hoping for a welcome basket full of lumpia...

No rebukes either from Administration or Veteran Colleagues, yet.  A lot of the things I thought I was probably not doing right turns out eh, that'll work, that's just fine, keep doing what you think is working and needs to be done.  Which leads me to believe either they have complete confidence in my education, training, and experience, or...

Oh my God I could be painting the children purple in here, people!! No, that would leave visible evidence -- I could be teaching them Communism, Fascism, Environmentalism! Endless debates on the Hall of Fame merits of Fred McGriff! Plagiarized power points on the sexual appetites of polar bears, retired autoworkers, or country music stars! We could be watching "Sanford & Son" in there and no one would ever poke a head in the door to find out!  No wonder our kids are all screwed up, no one cares what or how the teachers teach 'em!!!

Unless of course, they know I'm doing a good job. Because of the hidden cameras...

Just A Teacher

Certainly not "Just A Teacher" -- inspiring things to read.

Day Eight

All I can say is, daaaang I'm tahred.
In fact, I am writing this with drooping eyelids and would usually at this time (8:30 -- my self from 2 weeks ago would scoff derisively at my new self's bedtime) be curling up under the covers to read my nightly 1/2 a sentence of Stephen King's 11/22/63 (and at 849 pages I'll finish it the evening of April 3, 2076. Unless I have papers to grade.) but tonight I am desperately trying to think of my Book Club's 5th out of 4 books -- I can't do a cool bulletin board set up for 4 groups and leave out the 5th, can I?

I need a robot in the classroom with remote control so I can have him/her/it roll around the classroom at night and look at things I forget to shove into the 85 lb backpack I bring home every night.

Not really.  I like doing things at home. Take off the tie, pet the cat, wife brings me dinner, think about lessons and look up stuff and wake up disconcerted hollering "5x! Magna Carta! i before e! Isosceles!" then wipe off the drool on my keyboard...

Man, I love my job.

Day One

My First Day with My First Class of My Own

appropriately, in classroom #1... 28 politely smiling faces, a huge Promethean Board, netbooks for everyone, a working drinking fountain.  Who could ask for anything more?

Now What?!?!?

How quickly things can change -- within 4 hours I went from substitute PE Coach to interviewee to being shown my new classroom! Thursday I'm playing lego flag tag, Friday I'm being hugged goodbye by hundreds of little students, today I'm trying to figure out what's the first thing I say to a room full of 5th graders... any suggestions?

Week One 2011

A strange beginning to the new school year...

No job offers, but encouraging news from a few districts relative to future prospects. Of course, can't write a mortgage check on that.

Back into last year's position, Elem PE Coach, which I do enjoy -- so cool to have all the kids welcome me back and say they can't wait for PE! -- but it's just as a day-to-day sub at sub pay, and it's not in a classroom.  I feel like the adage "Use It or Lose It" applies, the longer I stay out on the fields and courts the longer I go without classroom experience and I forget how to do what I need to know how to do. And others forget that I am a teacher (not that PE Coaches are not teachers, but...).

And to make the 1st week interesting they are tearing up the dirt field to put in turf (couldn't do that over the break?!?!?) so there are fences and tractors all over, a temporary teacher's lounge bungalow on top of the tetherball courts, and the county-wide power outage that closed all the schools Friday.  Oy vey!

We've Got To Be That Light

A little auto-tune Milli Vanilli weirdness, but great message.

Ken Robinson Creativity TED.com

Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity | Video on TED.com

I know this is a few years old, but the ideas couldn't be more timely -- love the phrase "Education takes us into this future which we cannot grasp... children entering school this year will be retiring in 20[75]"