Journal Sharing
"A student who is made aware of their self-talk and how it impacts their learning will have been given a powerful lifelong learning tool."
--Super Teaching Page 83
Please share one of your Personal Super Teaching Journal entries with us and how this insight has shaped or challenged your thinking as an educator
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8 comments:
Today at school one of my third graders went home at 10:00 because (in her words) her mind was too stressful and she needed to rest. Her dad recently remarried, her dog is very sick and her family can’t take care of it anymore, and her friend told her that her outfit was dumb. Most adults just don’t realize how deeply children can be affected by things that we don’t think of as that big of a deal. It was really sad that an 8 year old girl had to leave school because of all the things she had to deal with. She was unable to focus, and had a terrible headache. It really reminded me that before teachers lose their patience or judge a student, we need to think about what could be going on in the student’s life. It seems that kids have so many negative distractions in their lives now. Hopefully we, as educators, can make school one of the positives in their lives.
Last week was exam week at school. Instead of giving my high schoolers an exam, I had them create presentations for class showing me and the rest if the class what they had learned. The topic was Germans in America and students had to incorporate a few grammatical structures we'd been working on. Students did great work. They learned a lot and it showed. This week when they were journaling their thoughts about exam week, most said the German project was the highlight of the week. I'll definitely be doing a semester project again next time.
The PTO Cultural Arts Committee choose a performance for the K-5 students at my school. The Magic Flute by Mozart was going to be presented by a group called "Opera for the Young." The Opera company invites 16 students to be part of the performance.
Since opera is not always a favorite among the students, I started the preparation by connecting opera to cartoons. Cartoons utilize a lot of classical music.
Students are usually surprised when they realize they have already been exposed to opera music! I can see the "lights go on" when they make this connection. They get excited to have made then connection and become eagar to use a familiar connection in a new way.
I was so pleased that about half of the 4th and 5th Grade students (60-ish of them) choose to give up many days of lunch recess to practice and audition for the 16 spots.
February 2, 2008
Looks like the ground hog did not see his shadow today. I wish that could guarantee a shorter winter. It’s been an interesting winter to say the least. (Throw in a tornado just a couple of miles from here for good measure early in January and you truly have a weird winter season.)
It was a good week. My 6th grade daughter got the lead in the school musical. She is Willie Wonka! She has always loved to sing so we are so pleased for her. Also, my text finally arrived so I have been catching up on that. I like how our text is formatted. It goes along well with how I tend to absorb information- in small defined bits. I also subbed this past Thurs. and Fri. in the Pre-K, 4-year-old class. Williams Bay is fortunate to have small class sizes. The morning class has 18 and the afternoon has 14. Plus there is an assistant. It was fun. You know why? Because at that age there is not the academic pressure that is often seen in the higher grades. The lesson plans were very open ended (which might have freaked some subs out a bit) and the students had plenty of time to explore and discover. I brought my guitar and we sang. I felt invigorated when I came home!
I saved the best news for last. I was asked if I would be interested in a long term substitute job beginning in March for the remainder of the school year. And the frosting on the cake is that it is for one of the full day kindergarten classes. The class has 13 students. (Yes, it IS a public school.) I jumped at the chance. I am truly excited and am looking forward to this opportunity. Plus I will be able to use this upcoming experience in coordination with my “classroom activity integration project”. It will be like going home again!
I have been interacting all year with a student who is a rather unusual student. He is bright but often refuses to understand the limits of personal behavior required for group interaction and doesn't like following directions. Also, his parents have always found a way to blame others for their child's behavior. Over the school year, we have had some difficulties. But something that happened in the computer lab has somehow changed our dynamic. He became unruly and threw a computer keyboard which broke. Our policy required me to lock him out of the computers for a period of time. Since our policies were clear, and he understood the repercussions of his behavior, and we stood firm, he has, I think, learned that consequences of his behavior can be substantial. I'm not quite sure that he totally respects the school environment yet, but it seems that giving clear cut perameters to this student is what words best for him. Within those perameters, he has choices. And when he needs reminding, he responds positively. So things are looking up here.
As most of you are aware, we have had a very long and strenuous winter. Our students are even getting sick of the snow and don't even sled anymore during recess. There is little that can be done about this situation and the only thing that I really dislike is driving in it all the time and the streets are rutty and icy and really in very bad shape. The problem is that we are getting ornery, especially during the long, cold days when kids can't be outside. Now it seems to be the time to try to find the humor in all of this. I do try to find things to laugh at, especially when I am interacting with students. As a library media specialist, I see all the kids in the library every week. I do try to find something funny that I can share with them. Joke of the day, etc. It can work for a little while and I'm just hoping that Jimmy is correct this year.
I came across an article entitled, "Exciting Tcall for Collaboration," in the Feb, 2008 Phi Delta Kappan by Eric Jensen on brain-based research. Jensen basically was recapping responses from three different researches (Robert Sternberg, Dan Willingham, and Judy Willis) on their postions regarding how to use the research in the classroom. The two men have reservations about jumping in head first and using what has been discovered due to what Sternberg calls "unequivocal findings." Jensen is more in tune with Willis' ideas that "as we go about building our bridge between science and the classroom, 'we do need to take some temporary leaps of faith across the parts of the bridge that are not yet sturdy and try interventions before the research is complete.'" So Jensen is encouraging the collaboration of all branches of brain research to discover how to create the goal of developing "for brain-based instruction an interdisciplinary domain, complete with sets of values, evaluative criteria, and peer review." It's clear from the article that Jensen is a firm believer in brain research and its application to education. All really interesting.
I have been a co-advisor to our ski/snowboard club for four years. It is nice seeing the “skateboarders” in a different setting than the hallways. Our school combined with the other junior high in town to go to Granite Peaks in Wausau. I know we are doing a good job, as advisors, when the other junior high advisors comment on how well behaved our kids are on the bus and hill. I believe if you treat the kids with respect and show an interest in them, they will do the same. I always have fun talking about skiing and what runs they like. Most of the kids are snowboarders. I always get a chuckle out of them trying to get me to go on the terrain park with them. And then the surprised look on their faces when I do go there, and take some jumps. They can’t believe Mr. Belk can do that.
One of my favorite moments from my years of advisor is when I tried snowboarding. I was bad and fell a lot. I still can hear the snowboarders laughing and yelling at me as they were going up the chair lift. Then on their way down, they would offer pointers to me.
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