The Sadness of Leftover Mac-n-Cheese and Writing

I know that this is a strange post title, but I have found it to be oh so true. I have loved mac-n-cheese since my childhood, but if you don't eat it all on the first go around, then reheating it does not bring back the original goodness.

I bring this up because I was thinking about the writing process. Students think that their papers are like mac-n-cheese. Sit down, make it and then you are done with it. But that is SOOO wrong.

This past year, I implemented a 10 step writing process for all of my students major papers (see below)

This is what I found:
1. Making the reflection piece worth as much as the actual writing piece made a huge difference in quality
2. The biggest impact from the student's perspective was having to read their papers out loud and then listen to it and edit their paper.
3. While this is very technology heavy, it can be done in other ways. This is where the flipped classroom helps me in giving me more time to focus on the best use of class time and homework load.

Let me know what you think about this and if you have a secret for reheating mac-n-cheese let me know!

Standards Based Grading

The number one request I get is about standards based grading. I am in the process of creating videos to explain the concept, but in the mean time, here is what I have to share:

Standards Based Technical Document




Standards Based Grading for Back to School Night

Things that I have learned from 7-11

I know that this is a strange title for a post, but it is true. Even though 7-11 is not an educational institution, I found that I still learned so much from them (No - I do not own stock in 7-11 but I do love their slurpees. I will be a slurpee fan until I die!)

1. Know your audience - they knew that a long name would not work and they needed to let their customers know when they would be open. Keep it short and simple and sweet - how often in education do we NOT do this??

2. Duck rule- I found myself at a local Kum and Go ( I know...horrible name but I did not choose it) and was willing to try their Kooler (aka slurpee). It was not the same!! Just because something looks like a duck and walks like a duck does not mean that it is a duck. In education, we are always looking for the next big thing or the silver bullet that will solve all of our problems. We need to be weary of ducks that come waddling our way and investigate for ourselves.

3. Give them what they need - 7-11 is not a replacement for a supermarket and they know it. They only stock what their customers need. Why don't we do this in the classroom? I know that differentiation has been a buzzword for a while, but is there more that we can be doing to give the kids exactly what they need and nothing more or less?

4. Keep current - 7-11 always is running promotions with the current movies that are out. We as educators need to stay current in our pedagogy and practice as well. Sure they have a whole department that dedicates itself to doing this, but we can make a small effort. Any change is better than no change at all.

Disagreement helps or hinders knowledge

I was watching the video on Ted by my acquaintance Ramsey Musallam. He did an amazing job- check him out here.

One thing that he mentioned in his talk was about flipping the classroom. He spoke about flipping the same old material and then just transferring it to video should not be the focus of our student's experience. I could not agree with him more.

Although he and I might differ in what we call our classrooms and how we manage them, we both want to create more instructional time when we can encourage our students to ask the questions that will inspire them to learn more.

Some may say that our ideas of flipping are too different in ideology and pedagogy. I say the fact that people are even having that discourse is amazing! We should all be reexamining our teaching and assessing of student learning. And the fact that this little disagreement sparks this conversation, I say Huzzah!

This year, one of the TOK prompts that my students wrote on and that I graded for IB spoke about how disagreement helps or hinders knowledge. I say that it can do both, but the dialogue can change someone forever..

Flipped Videos - Alone or Collaborate

Over the past few webinars and Twitter discussions, the idea of collaborating making a better video for students has come up a few times. Although I do see the benefit of collaboration, I will not say that they are better than others. I have been on my own and making videos and content for over four years and I would not say that my videos are any less than people who are collaborating in the video process. In fact, my videos are very specific and tailored for my students. That is not to say that I do not collaborate. In fact, I collaborate more now than I ever have done in the past. I seek the feedback of others in my department and in my school before I record a video or create a meaningful activity.

I am of the opinion that you don't have to make videos with other people in order to make them more meaningful. The purpose of flipping my class is to make learning more meaningful for my students,  to make learning supportive and and relevant to them. If other teachers want to collaborate and make joint videos, then I think that is a great idea. But I think that you have to go back to your reason why you are flipping the class and the answer to the big question - what is the best use of your class time?

I am selfish in my motivation - to help my students. If that is a bad thing then so be it....I am ok with it as long as my students are succeeding.

Teacher without a voice

I have been dealing with laryngitis for over a week now and sounding like a 1-900 number operator for weeks prior. This has made me really step back and see what I am doing as a teacher. I cannot lecture (or should not be lecturing) so what can I be doing in the classroom? So much! My kids have been watching their videos that I have previously recorded (thank goodness) and have been actually reading and leading their own discussions in class without me. People love to sub for me. They leave notes like "the kids are so well trained and know what they need to do.." Well, they aren't trained, but they do know what they need to do. They need to take responsibility for their own learning and they do. It is funny what happens when we step out of the way and let them lead.

I know that many teachers do not feel comfortable giving up the power that comes from knowing all the answers. And it may be uncomfortable to say "I don't know" to students, but that is exactly the modeling that we need to be doing for them. We need them to see us not know an answer and then model for them how to find it. Those critical thinking skills are so key and so very lacking in our schools. So if you want to help your students this week, take a moment and come up with a problem that you don't know the solution to and then find it with your students. The experience will be very rewarding for you and the students as well.

CCIRA and a peek inside my class

I was so fortunate to be able to speak at CCIRA (Colorado Council International Reading Association) yesterday to a crowd of about 40 educators. It is amazing to see the epiphany light bulbs going off in a classroom when people start to ask the right questions about their classrooms and stop focusing on what their limitations are!!

I totally understand about focusing on limitations. I work in a state where I have not gotten an anual pay raise for four years, and the governor keeps cutting the education budget, and in this economy no tax payer is going to approve a tax hike. On top of that, as mentioned in previous posts, I don't have a job title that evokes respect (high school teacher). But when you can get them to focus on the students and the simple things that they can do, you can actually see the passion for teaching coming back into their eyes.

I am the first to admit that flipping a class is difficult. It is not give the kids a book at home and have them teach themselves and then do homework in class while the teacher reads email. Neither is it having kids watch videos at home and then doing homework in class while the teacher reads email. It is a tiring and mind bending undertaking and it does make you more tired. But the benefits so outweigh the negatives.

Someone asked me yesterday what my class looked like. No two flipped classrooms are the same mind you - so you can see what a day in one of my classes (British Literature) looks like:

1. Kids come in and journal for 15 minutes - the topic is related to the information that we have covered and either tying it into a concept that we will be discussing on that day or to a relevant topic in their lives or the world around us.

2. Quick 5 min share out of ideas from journal

3. Students come up and get books and green sheets (a study guide that I developed that they fill out while we are reading in class).  We then read in class (either popcorn, readers theatre, me reading, or listening to the piece on CD). I am constantly walking around the class and stopping them to ask them questions that will aid in comprehension. This usually is about 30 minutes.

4. Then they have 5 minutes to complete the green sheet and return the books to the cart and turn in the sheet to the turn in box.

5. After this, they turn to the writing section in their spiral notebooks and we do an intensive workshop on a writing or grammar concept. This usually takes 20  or so minutes. I have them look back at their journal prompts and we work with that as the text for our writing or grammar focus. After I give them some instruction, I am walking around asking questions and helping students individually.

6. To wrap up the class, I have someone (or sometimes more) share with me what was one thing that they learned in class today. I then remind them to go to Moodle and do the assigned homework. I give them time at the end to ask me any questions one on one while the rest of the kids pack up and straighten up chairs and pick up trash.

7. Class ends and off they go....

8. Sometime later - I post to Moodle what we did in class as a reminder and for those who were absent  and use Cel.ly to remind them of their homework.

I hope that this helps you get some type of visual....remember though, no two classes look the same - even for me.