March 7, 2007

Below is our newsletter for the week. Remember, we are not the end-all, be-all! We are just teachers sharing our thoughts and ideas with you. Feel free to modify strategies you receive from us to fit you and your classroom.

If you tried to visit our website since last Wednesday and found that you were unable to access it most of the time, we apologize! Our host servers changed some vital information without telling us and it messed up our entire site. We've been working hard since then and have finally gotten everything corrected. Thank you so much for your patience!

I've started an Inspiring Teachers Group on Facebook.com and encourage you to join! Having recently been introduced to the idea behind social groups like Facebook, I thought it would be a great idea to create a group for those of us who are, or at least continue to aspire to be, inspiring teachers! I hope you'll search for it on Facebook and join. If you don't have a Facebook page, it is very easy to create one and search for specific groups to join. I'd love to hear from all of you who are active on Facebook to share your thoughts, concerns, and ideas.

Click Here to go to Facebook.com

Weekly Tip: Random Energy or Purposeful Energy?

Spring is in the air and if your students weren't already energetic, get ready for the burst that is about to come your way! When the temperature outside warms up and the sky is beautiful, getting students to sit still and listen becomes a monumental task. What can you do for students who can't seem to sit still? How can you turn that random energy into purposeful energy? Get everyone moving! Look over your lesson plans and ask yourself, how can I get my students moving during this lesson?

Ideas:

Have a relay race between teams to spell words, solve math problems, answer trivia/quiz questions. Have students run to the board and solve a problem or write the answer to a question. You can also go outside and have students run from their team’s orange cone to you. You give a word or a question. Once the student has spelled the word or answer the question correctly, they run back and tag the next person in line.

Basketball or toss the ball games are fun for students. When students get an answer correct, they get to toss the ball in a trash can. If you can go outside to do this activity, let them try to make a basket on the basketball court. Another option would be to kick the soccer ball into the goal. If the ball goes in, their team scores a point. The team with the most points leaves class first or gets a homework pass.

Use centers with short activities to keep students moving. Even upper level classes can use this idea with their students. Make “mini-centers” using a manila folder. Write the directions on the outside of the folder and laminate it. Place the activity or materials needed for the activity inside the folder. Group four or more desks together to make “table” areas and place one mini-center at each area. Students rotate to each area either as needed or using a timer. Give everyone a checklist to make sure they are completing all of the activities.

Use large sentence strips to let students create a gigantic timeline or T-chart on the floor or on the board. Students must place their information (on the sentence strip) in the correct place within the chart, etc. You can use these to create gigantic Venn Diagrams, lists of events, Pros and Cons, and for younger students to create sentences or even words using sets of letter combinations.

Utilize drawing and coloring for illustrations of information/ skills learned. Have students create “postcards” from ________ (whatever is being studied). On the front students draw a picture of the item or event and on the back write three facts they’ve learned about it. Post these around the classroom and let students “tour” the knowledge. Use large pieces of butcher paper and have students draw & illustrate a timeline or facts learned from the lesson/unit. This is a great group activity. You could even have them make a banner as a class with a “slogan” to represent what they’ve learned. Have the students decorate it with facts and pictures, then hang it in the hallway. Even our middle and high school students love to draw!

Act out scenes from the history or science textbook. Student groups can create a skit or play showing their knowledge of the information and present it to the class. Break each group into sections and assign each one a part of the textbook reading. Students create a script from the text and turn it into a skit or play. Have each group present in order of the textbook reading so that it flows from one idea to the next.

Do exercises in between each lesson or activity. This can be as simple as: reach high into the sky, show me your spirit fingers, touch the floor, march in place like soldiers, etc.

As you read the textbook, have students get up and move to the seat behind them after each paragraph or end of subsection.  Any kind of rotation where students read, speak, write, and move will keep them on their toes. Round Robin writing is a fun activity for students and can be quite an eye-opener as well. Give each group a topic or starting sentence from a random topic or the topic being studied. Each student starts their own “story.” Have students rotate their papers to the right every two-three minutes until each person finally ends up with their own story. They then write an ending. You might also want to give some time for sharing these out loud. They are usually quite funny and a neat way to see how everyone thinks differently.

Do your lesson with students standing in a large circle. Fire questions at them randomly (are you in my line of fire?).

Allow extremely active boys (and girls) the flexibility of standing and "wiggling" at their desk while they work. Shaking a leg, tapping a foot, or bouncing up & down can help dispel the "wiggles" and keep a student focused on their work. You may want these students to stay near the back of the room where they will not distract others.

Another option is to give active students a small soft ball they can squeeze in their hand while working. This often cuts down on the annoying pencil tapping noises.

Have students participate in a scavenger hunt looking for items that relate to the lesson/unit being taught. Students can look for items and strips of information you’ve stashed around the classroom or school. You can make it vague by saying, “Find five things that relate to our topic,” or more specific with the actual items listed.

Newly updated, Survival Kit for New Secondary Teachers contains advice and tips from veteran teachers geared specifically for middle and high school teachers. This handy resource helps teachers organize ideas, maintain a positive classroom environment, motivate students, communicate with parents, and manage their classroom and students. New updates include information on learner differentiation and understanding/implementing Bloom's Taxonomy along with other tips and ideas for the classroom. Also includes a chapter with advice for obtaining a classroom teaching job. Click HERE to learn more about this book! Also Available as an eBook!