SITE: Share My Lesson

From the site: Share My Lesson is a place where educators can come together to create and share their very best teaching resources. Developed by teachers for teachers, this free platform gives access to high-quality teaching resources and provides an online community where teachers can collaborate with, encourage and inspire each other. Share My Lesson has a significant resource bank for Common Core State Standards, covering all aspects of the standards, from advice and guides to help with dedicated resources that support the standards. Share My Lesson was developed by the American Federation of Teachers and TES Connect, the largest network of teachers in the world.

Write it on your communicator: Share My Lesson.

NEWSPAPER: Pay Raise

School trustees signal support for staff pay raise

Arlington Citizen-Journal

Shirley Jinkins

June 13, 2012

"Trustees' budget discussions during two board meetings last week indicate a strong probability that teachers and staff will see an across-the-board 2 percent pay raise. Last year, there were no staff raises."

Now, in light of last year, this is good news, so I'm not going to offer a sarcastic remark. If we can get insurance under control, I'd let out a cheer or dance a jig.

While others raise the price of a jar of peanut butter, a gallon of gas, or a premium, teachers and many other professions cannot raise their rates. We don't make money for shareholders and we don't offer a valued service, so we can only hope to keep our jobs and pray for raises.

MATH PROBLEM: If the Edumicator makes $4,292.27 before taxes, insurance, and other crap are sucked from the paycheck, how much is a 2% pay raise?

ANSWER: A 2% pay raise equals $85 before taxes, insurance, and other crap are sucked from the paycheck.

VIDEO: Gradual Release Model

Improving Practice with Sarah Brown Wessling

LINK: Teaching Channel

I really liked the small sheets of paper for group ideas and stickies for individual ideas.

SITE: Math Snacks

A bunch of well-done math mini-games and animations. I played Monster School Bus for a minute or two--kids would definitely go for it.

Write it on your communicator: Math Snacks.

VIDEO: Shift Learning to the Student

Engaging School Leaders in a Culture of Learning

LINK: Teaching Channel

ARTICLE: Showing Work

To Show Or Not To Show (Work) 

LINK: Byrdseed

For many years, I've insisted to see math problems solved with work shown. Because of the complexity of math in the future, it's important that students take time to organize and detail their work. That's not something that fifth graders can possibly understand--there's no sense of future in their minds. So...

"Rather than wrestling with students to 'prove' solutions with 'work,' simply increase the complexity of the problem so they must do the work out to get it right."

In Texas, we spend a great deal of time leaving no child behind, but that really means that we spend a disproportionate amount of time with the low-ability students. In itself, that's not a bad thing--if a student can learn but takes five-times as long to do it, we remain patient and do our job. Did we sign up to teach kids or to teach bright kids? Unfortunately, in spending that time and effort, we tend to neglect other types of students. So, like me, you vow to give as much time and effort to the high-end students. Therefore, for every lesson, we must be prepared to push those students, having problems or challenges ready to go. Heck, we're smart enough to anticipate the ease with which some students learn the material, so we owe it to them to have something ready.

SITE: Free Rice

A vocabulary quiz. This one's a bit different, though.

From the site: Click on the right answer in the middle of this page. If you get it right, you get a harder question. If you get it wrong, you get an easier question. For each answer you get right, we donate 10 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program. 

After finding the link, I wanted to pop back over to the blog and write a post. But I couldn't. I just had to stay and earn some rice. I hope you will, too.

Write it on your communicator: Free Rice.

SITE: National Geographic Education

Hey, Science teachers, check it out. The site from National Geographic includes Resources, References, Mapping, Media, and more. I've not delved too deeply, but it's worth checking out.

Write it on your communicator: National Geographic Education.

SITE: APPitic

With the popularity of iPads, this directory is a fantastic resource. 

From the site: APPitic is a directory of apps for education by Apple Distinguished Educators (ADEs) to help you transform teaching and learning. These apps have been tested in a variety of different grade levels, instructional strategies and classroom settings.

Write it on your communicator: APPitic.

BOOK: Almost Unbelievable

The End of Molasses Classes: Getting Our Kids Unstuck

Ron Clark

After reading only a few pages, I knew it would make a difference. The book is broken into sections: Ron Clark Academy's Core Principles and Values, the Role of the Parent, Creating the Right Climate and Culture, and Reaching Out Beyond the Classroom. 

If he made suggestions without experience, we'd think he was insane--his school does amazing, meaningful things, and the students learn. I'm almost halfway through and I'm already contemplating the potential changes in my own class.

I don't want to spoil anything--read it yourself, but I want to tell you one thing.

From the Introduction, Mr. Clark makes a point of clarification. His school is a mix of students. Yeah, it's private, but "...about 85 percent would qualify for free or reduced lunch in the public school system" (xxii). Plus, "a third of our students have never had success academically, a third are performing at average levels, and a third are already doing quite well in school" (xxii). Instead of taking an easy road, Mr. Clark and the faculty of RCA want to show the world that his methods work--with any group of students.

ARTICLE: Class Size, Again

Class Size Increases Should Focus On Higher Grades, 

Smaller Classes Critical In Early Years: Study

LINK: The Huffington Post

I know I just added an article about this topic, but this one speaks to a bit of research.

"'Research shows that students perform better in small classrooms, especially in kindergarten through third grade' according to the news release."

Uh... no doy.

"While figures pulled from the U.S. Department of Education show that teacher-student ratio declined from 22.3 in 1970 to 15.3 in 2008, nationwide reports have indicated a surge in class size in the last couple years, since the onset of the recession. A Texas teacher reported a high school class with 50 students last year. A Las Vegas elementary school kindergarten class had 41 students."

In education, there's a push for authentic learning with teachers acting as facilitators. Students are expected to interact with one another, discussing their learning. Before the lesson, the teacher must consider learning styles, group arrangements, IEPs, behaviors, activities, etc. A halfway intelligent person can agree that all of this is considerably easier when the class size is manageable.

A comment from failureofreality: If teachers really cared about the students, they would accept pay cuts to allow for smaller class sizes. Class sizes are rising for budget reasons. This problem could be easily resolved if teachers would put the interests of students ahead of their own interests. Also, retired teachers could accept lower pensions payments to allow more money to go to teachers who actually teach. 

Yep, education isn't the responsibility of our society--it rises and falls with teachers only. Unlike other professions, there is an expectation that teachers should give up their own money, or just zip it! So, starting in August, I'm giving up my entire paycheck to help the students!

Nevermind, that's just a stupid idea. My kids need to eat and they're constantly growing out of their shoes. Can I borrow some cash, failureofreality?

BOOK: The Differentiated Classroom

The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners

Carol Ann Tomlinson

I've had this book for eight or nine years, I bet. This summer, I made a point to review it.

"[Teachers] accept and build upon the premise that learners differ in important ways. Thus, they also accept and act on the premise that teachers must be ready to engage students in instruction through different learning modalities, by appealing to differing interests, and by using varied rates of instruction along with varied degrees of complexity. In differentiated classrooms, teachers ensure that a student competes against himself as he grows and develops more than he competes against other students" (2).

"Healthy classrooms are characterized by thought, wondering, and discovery. Says elementary teacher Bob Strachota (1996): 'Unless we go through the complexities of struggle and invention, our knowledge is empty. If this is true, I cannot transfer my knowledge and experience to children whom I teach. Instead I have to find ways to help children take responsibility for inventing their own understanding of the world and how to live in it. To do this, I have to struggle against both my training and my instincts which strongly urge me to be directive: to tell children what I know, to tell them what to do...'" (33).

Sixteen years ago. He said that sixteen years ago. And I missed it. Or ignored it. It's easier to just tell them how to do things or tell them what things are. Plus, if you tell them everything, you can blame them for not getting it. Blame it on missing homework, or excess talking, or wasting time. When you lead them to learning, it's a little scary, takes time, and leads to complaining and uncomfortable conversations with parents. Ah, but it's fun.

ARTICLE: Class Size

Teachers Respond to Mitt Romney on Class Size

LINK: Yahoo! News

"In late May, Mitt Romney said fewer students aren't really the key, citing research that indicated some smaller classrooms performed worse."

The following are bits of the teachers' responses.

From Laura Sauer: (1) Smaller class size means more personalized instruction. (2) Smaller class size means faster, more detailed feedback. (3) Smaller class size means better teacher-parent communication.

From Jennifer Wolfe: In a typical 52-minute period, I take the first three and the last three minutes for business. That leaves 46 minutes. With 10 minutes of direct instruction, that leaves less than one minute per child to check for understanding, make connections, and assess their learning.

From Brad Boeker: I am not terribly interested in what the "research" says, simply because I have done my own research over 21 years of teaching. 

From Calvin Wolf: When you get more than 30 teens, it's considerably harder to teach and monitor the social scene at the same time. Each student is faced with more distractions, knows the teacher is also more distracted and busy, and therefore feels a greater urge to stop paying attention to the subject material and start paying attention to gossip and horseplay.

Listen, I wouldn't think twice about disputing these teachers. Their experiences are real. However, I would argue that we're not dealing with common sense--I believe it's a cultural issue. The classes in Japan and Korea, for instance, have larger classes and great success. We can speculate all day long about the reasons, but we don't know why. 

There's something about American kids, though, isn't there? Without a cultural revolution or a drastic increase in teacher prestige, we have to fight for small classes. Fight on!

ARTICLE: Seniority vs. Performance

Sacramento ‘Teacher of the Year’ laid off

LINK: Yahoo! News

Yeah, that makes sense.

"The Sacramento City Unified School District has suffered approximately $143 million in budget cuts in recent years. School spokesperson Gabe Ross told News 10 that who gets laid off is mandated by state law and is based on seniority, not performance."

First, I agree that the government overspends and needs to balance the budget. However, it seems to me that we need to cut everything possible before flicking off the teachers. Second, I do not agree with seniority over performance. When the TOTY of an entire school district loses her job because of seniority, how can we not stop to think? 

Taken together, these prove to me that the system is not working on behalf of the students.

I want to address my second point. If this is a profession, we need challenge. From the system, from each other, and from ourselves. We need to improve and seek knowledge about our craft. We need to experience evaluation after evaluation. We need to work together, share, and observe each other. We need to know that, like other professions, we have to work for our spot.

I know that we'll have to debate about performance. How do we decide who deserves the job? Who is best for that classroom? But that's just something that we have to settle. Taken alone, time on the job means absolutely nothing. Seniority is just the easy choice. Unfortunately, it can cause complacency, laziness, and indifference. 

Performance is about teaching. It's about the kids.

Ms. Apperson was let go because seniority is lazy and decision-makers don't care about educating children--heck, larger classes save money anyway.

SITE: Psykopaint

You gotta love the name... Upload a photo or use one of theirs, and then paint it in a variety of styles, using a variety of tools. Check out the gallery for ideas--there are some talented folks out there.

Write it on your communicator: Psykopaint.

SITE: Avatar Generators

"Here are 16 websites that you can use to create fun avatars. Some allow you to save the finished creation as a jpg for free. If not, then use the print screen button to copy the screen, paste into a paint program, crop and save as a jpg. You could also use the Smart or Promethean camera tools to capture these images to your IWB files."

Write it on your communicator: 16 Avatar Generators.

SITE: Keemix

From the site: Keemix allows you to gather loved content from the web, mix it into your own custom designed pages, and share it to inspire your friends and colleagues. Keemix makes curation fun and accessible to everybody.

Doesn't that sound cool! The uses in the classroom seem endless. Kids would love to create their own magazine about their favorite topics. Regardless of the content area, we can use this site to generate excitement and pride.

From the site: Become an editor-in-chief ! For each of your passions, create a dedicated page, design it as you want and showcase your favorite topics with editorialized content.

It requires the download of a bookmarklet, and, for now, you must receive an invitation. I've applied but I'm still waiting, so I can't tell you the wait time.

Write it on your communicator: Keemix.com.

SITE: Nathan Hall's List

Mr. Hall has listed a kajillion sites that kids can use without needing to register. That's crazy convenient.

Write it on your communicator: Nathan Hall's List.

ARTICLE: Crappy Teachers

10 Ways to be a Terrible Teacher

LINK: Cool Cat Teacher Blog

"Teaching is a noble calling. That is why when a teacher doesn't behave nobly it breaks trust and we get upset. I have to admit that I've had days as a 'TT' (Terrible Teacher.) If we're honest with ourselves, we all have. It is usually when we're tired, grumpy or were woken up by a parent calling to complain about something we don't really agree with. But there are no excuses..."

A nice checklist. If none of them apply to you, good job. If you came up short, that's okay, too--everything on the list is quite easy to accomplish.

SITE: txt2pic.com

Easy to use--just fill in a few fields. I like to use stations in Math and projects in Social Studies, so I could easily incorporate short, creative technology assignments like this.

Write it on your communicator: txt2pic.com.

ARTICLE: Good!

Standardized Testing Protests... Growing Nationwide

LINK: The Huffington Post

"A backlash against high-stakes standardized testing is sweeping through U.S. school districts as parents, teachers, and administrators protest that the exams are unfair, unreliable and unnecessarily punitive - and even some longtime advocates of testing call for changes."

Thank you, NCLB!

"Pearson's North American Education division, which last year reported sales of 2.6 billion British pounds ($4.03 billion) and operating profit of 493 million pounds, up 5 percent from 2010, designs tests for many U.S. states and scores hundreds of millions of standardized exams each year."

"In Texas, assessment costs will hit $99 million in 2014-15, the state projects."

I know that's not enough to save every budget and every job, but it's irresponsible to continue spending that kind of money year after year.

"Standardized testing used to be about understanding and addressing students' needs, he said. Now it's become a quick way to judge kids, teachers and entire districts, Kuhn said. 'It's no longer really diagnostic. It's punitive,' he said. 'That's all it is.'"

Tests are meant to guide instruction. It's simple. Give a test at the beginning of the year. Give a test at the end of the year. Compare. The first test guides instruction while the second one confirms the growth.

"In Texas, the state plans to gradually raise standards on its new high school exams. For now, though, algebra students need score only 37 percent to pass."

You only have to listen 37% of the time. You only have to complete 37% of your homework. You only have to attend 37% of the year. Ridiculous. If my students did that poorly on an exam, I would start over--I wouldn't congratulate them for passing.

"The Obama Administration is also pushing states to develop standardized assessments for first- and second-graders - and even for 5-year-olds entering kindergarten, to test what they know of the alphabet, colors, shapes and other basics."

They don't trust us. We're children needing constant supervision and rules. Obviously, kindergarten teachers, who are untrained and incompetent, need an exam to test the children over those topics. There is absolutely no way that they could do that informally, observing the children every moment throughout the day. 

VIDEO: Summer Reading Program

Gwinnett County Schools Teachers Work For Free...

LINK: The Huffington Post

Teachers... they're all about the money!

VIDEO: You're not special.

A high school English teacher in Massachusetts gave a commencement speech. 

When he illustrates the meaningless of excessive awards, I can't help but think of my own school. We give out way too many awards. Does Perfect Attendance need to be an award? I can't imagine that sick fifth graders are telling their parents, "But I have to go to school today [cough] [cough] I want the Perfect Attendance award." 

I also hate the Super Citizenship award. One might argue that we quantify it by using marks on the communicator. Yeah, but each teacher is making subjective choices about what to sign, how often to sign, and who needs signing. 

Even honor rolls need an overhaul. Given the choices that teachers make regarding types of assignments and their philosophy of grading (by the way, participation grades should be burned at the stake), A's in one class aren't necessarily the same as A's in another.

Anyway, my ranting is delaying the enjoyment of this video...

ARTICLE: Positive Parent Relationships

Twenty Tips for Developing Positive Relationships with Parents

LINK: edutopia

I'm good at a couple of these and horrible at others. Intellectually, I know this is a great list--full of reasonable and positive suggestions. Deep down, though, I'm angry with having to song-and-dance the parents. And I know why it's important. Trust me, I'm professional and informative. I make a point to communicate. It just seems to me that, in many cases, teachers are expected to take up a great deal of slack in this partnership, catering to demanding parents, calming unreasonable parents, and educating the confused parents. What I wouldn't give for a personal assistant.

VIDEO: Engaging Students

How to Engage Underperforming Students

LINK: edutopia