Teaching as a Catalyst for Human Potential

There are students in our rooms that need us and others that will be fine on their own. Those that need us can often be the most challenging to handle in terms of teaching and behavior - but that is why they need us. Somewhere along the line they have fallen victim to unfortunate circumstances. Whether these were experienced in utero or at the hands of a loved one; they have arrived in your class with this truth as baggage. Teachers are the people who can help shape a student's life in a single year. Every year that student is exposed to new routines, new ideas, new expectations and should emerge as a more well-rounded individual.

Unlike parents, students get to 'trade in' teachers annually. Without doubt, there are always teachers that have challenged us in both positive and negative ways. For myself, a brutal first-year university English professor deterred me from staying in the English Department at Queen's. Who knows where I would be or what I would be doing had I been timetabled into some other professor's English class? However, I feel that these glimpses into learning environments that don't work have allowed me to become a more well-rounded teacher myself. It is difficult to identify and truly enjoy the good, unless you have sampled the bad.

Students will always have things to say about their teachers. This incredibly inspirational speech given by Dalton Sherman with over 76, 000 views on YouTube is a testament to how profoundly teachers (and parents) can prepare and educate a child - especially in public speaking. I was first shown this during a Reading course that I was taking last year, and while watching it, I just kept picturing students that I have taught who might have been thinking the things that Dalton is saying.

How many of our students have the potential in them to deliver a speech like Dalton? How many of us teachers have helped to prepare students in our classes with the skills necessary to accomplish tremendous things? Every once in a while, remember Dalton's speech as a way of allowing yourself to take credit for the learning that you have inspired. Maybe one day it will be a former student of yours that is preparing a conference center full of teachers for another academic year.

Classroom Teacher Tips: Math Card Games for Students

Classroom Teacher Tips: Math Card Games for Students

An article outlining the possibilities that card games can have for your math teaching. Links to websites and resources will make implementing these strategies straightforward and immediate.

Using Technology in the Classroom: Bitstrips Website for Teachers

Here is my latest published article on incorporating technology into your classroom practice. I will be posting a series of articles on technology resources that are useful to teachers in the next while. I have also added a new page for these articles found at the top of my main blog page. Let me know what you think of the website or share an idea that you have used with Bitstrips already.

How Blogs Make Kids Better Writers

**Resource Sharing**

How Blogs Make Kids Better Writers

This is a great post on something that we could all be doing in our classrooms (if we are not already). Let the blogging begin...and reap the rewards of engagement! Check out Jacqui's site "Ask a Tech Teacher" - it is filled with amazing resources and ideas.

"Resolving Classroom Conflicts" Article Posted

"Resolving Classroom Conflicts" is an article outlining five steps to implement effective groupings in your classroom that can lead to resolving classroom conflicts independently.

Teach Me (If You Dare)

Last summer during my Reading Specialist course, my instructor (Janet Lee Stinson) shared a story that has stuck with me. She was explaining a difficult class she taught in Washington, D.C. as a beginning teacher. She showed us a picture of one of the students that was in her class. She explained the look on the student's face as one of discontent and challenge. The attitude coming through this student's stare and posture was clear: "Teach Me," it dared.

We face students everyday that do not feel that they belong in our class. Their personal lives inhibit them from investing fully in our activities. Their experiences have aged them from risk-taking in their learning. But, they are the reason that we are in the classroom. Many of our students don't even need us there. They are self-directed and goal-driven. We simply check-in from time-to-time to make sure that they are still on the right track. The ones who need our help - don't usually ask for it.

How can we teach students who approach learning as if it is a battle? How do we convince them that rather than standing on opposite sides of the battlefield; we are actually side-by-side against the world? I think the answer is cautiously, patiently and with growing focus. Start simple and build a rapport before you expect them to become a new person. They need to come to terms with powerful things before they put their trust in a teacher. But if you can get them to that point - they will thank you for it. The two best words in the teacher language are "thank you." When a student says this to you, it reminds you of the strong influence and role that you play in their life.

As an aside, I encourage you to check out Janet Lee's Webpage on "Arnie's Dream" and support her campaign to publish "Feathers of Hope." The story she tells is inspiring and it belongs in hard-cover. The instruction she gave me was part of my path to create this blog and put myself out there. I hope to give back some of the inspiration by passing on her goal and asking you to listen to Arnie's story.

My journey begins

Over the past two weeks I have invested a great deal of time and energy to 'feeling out' the waters of online writing. There is a huge potential to do what I enjoy and share it online in a fairly straightforward manner. Over the past 16 days I have managed to expand this writing venture into several spreading directions. This blog is now connected to blogger.com, blogtopsites.com and blogged.com. In addition, the School Board I work for has posted this blog as a link on their new social networking site (www.scdsbnetworkedlearning.com). I have sent emails to friends to let them know and posted links on my Facebook page to this blog. In short, I have put myself out there and am eager to see where this all could lead...

My latest venture began yesterday. I started a "Fan Page" for my blog, "Ignite. Incite. Inspire." attached to my Facebook account. I am still in the process of figuring out how to actually suggest this page to my friends so that they can have easier access to what I am writing. I have tried this twice, but no page suggestions seem to be going out to my friends yet. Also, when I signed up for a "blogtopsites.com" account there was an option to connect to my Facebook account (which I took advantage of). What this means is that my blog posts here are automatically sent as a feed and posted on my Facebook Wall. People can now read my posts without having to navigate to another website (if they don't want to). In the process of adding this Facebook stuff I came across an online writing community that allows people to post articles on their site and have advertisement revenue directed back to them as a royalty. My application was approved by an editor and today I sent my first article to the "Education" editor to be posted (hopefully tomorrow sometime). If you want to read what I am writing on this site the address is http://suite101.com. I will post a link on this blog page in the sidebar to easily access these posts too. To me, this website is a more structured and serious writing opportunity to voice my opinions on things teaching and beyond.

Who knows what could happen here? I guess the message is to put everything behind a goal. I have the goal to post to this blog everyday - and so far have been successful. I would like to consider more serious writing opportunities and am thinking about entering a writing contest through "The New Quarterly Online (http://www.tnq.ca). In the end, I would like to believe that I tested the waters and will come out of it with something gained. I love teaching and this would add a love of writing about a topic that I have (and continue to ) experience daily as an educator. This post adheres to advice that a former leader gave me in the fall, "Be transparent. People will respect you for it and always know where you stand." This is all sides of me and writing in a so-far 16-day relationship.

Teaching Teachers

How do you teach someone whose job it is to teach others? How do you instruct the instructor in a way that promotes growth and incites excitement among educators? How do you evoke urgency in professional development?

A colleague of mine had always done an activity in his class called "Teach the Teacher." He would allow each student in his class (junior/intermediate) an opportunity to choose a skill or talent they had and teach it to him. He would try to learn the skill and then demonstrate it in front of the class. The students loved the chance to be the teacher and control the focus of the activity. Plus, he lowered his 'guard' to show a person who is willing to learn and take risks. These are the kinds of things that we need in our classroom practice.

Teachers are inherently critical when being taught (as experts in the field). They are appalled by workshops delivered in a single-sense focus (i.e. auditory => listening to a speaker), since they are constantly be asked to incorporate differentiated techniques with multi-sensory approaches in their daily lessons. I've attended differentiated instruction workshops that were more of a sit and listen - instead of actually using DI to show the potential of a lesson format. To avoid these hypocritical types of situations, it is vital that presenters of workshops are using the latest and most effective techniques themselves to 'hook' teachers - just as we are attempting to hook students.

At the end of the day, teachers are academics who have chosen to teach as a career - and vocation. They are self-directed learners who crave knowledge in many different ways and are willing to invest a great amount of time and energy to hone their repertoire in the classroom. Give them respect in your workshops by providing a forum for their opinions. In my experience, most professional development comes from collegial discussions and experimenting in your practice - not initiatives delivered 'top-down.' We all want to do an effective job and then receive the recognition in some way of our prowess and victory. Whether this credit comes as an administrative 'thank you' card, a kind note from a parent, or a smile from a struggling student - it allows you to keep things in perspective in these times of change.

"History Day"

One of the most challenging aspects of teaching today is covering the curriculum. To do this well requires a great deal of creativity and flexibility as a teacher. The growing trends of differentiated instruction and cross-curricular assignments provide a vehicle to deliver content in a new and efficient manner. Gone are the days when learning is compartmentalized as "Literacy," "Science," "Math," and "The Arts." Now we are becoming increasingly aware of the potential to capitalize on the centrality of literacy in all subjects (math too!). By incorporating literacy expectations into our social studies and other areas of the curriculum, not only are teachers able to cover more of the expectations underpinning their grade assignment; they are also able to assess students more readily in all facets of learning.

Students who were previously thought of as being weak in science or literacy, could have been weak in concentration at the part of the day that these subjects were being taught. Perhaps our 'social' students can benefit more from group work in math depending on the time it is delivered in many cases. Using a cross-curricular approach provides a path to learning that may seem unconventional in nature, but it resonates with many teachers as "learning environments" not unlike the 'common curriculum' days. One of the ways that a teacher can approach these 'environments' is to dedicate a whole school day to a theme that covers multiple curriculum areas. Instead of building formative tasks and assessments over a three-week period; try to build on these things over the course of one day and see what happens.

In my class, I have created a "History Day" before, during which students are given academic tasks for history that also touch on arts, math, literacy, gym and even social studies activities - all of which must be completed during the course of the day. It is incredible to observe how well students who struggle with transitions and separated lessons can excel during a day when you clearly state ALL of the learning expectations first thing in the morning and then give them the WHOLE DAY to complete them. The 'independent work' and 'self-regulation' themes emerge in students when they know the exact moment that work is due, and feel a sense of ownership for the product that is created by a fairness in the time-frame given. The work assigned can be worked on in any order that they prefer and some tasks that involve partners or groups have to be organized with the timeline in mind.

There are many things that 'learning environments' can offer you in meeting the demands of the curriculum - it is only a matter of plotting out your course and trying it. Only with new eyes can we recognize new solutions to old problems.

Create the "Cool"

Last week something happened to me at home that reinforced things that teachers need to do. It all started when my son (who wasn't feeling well) wanted to wear his "NASCAR pyjamas." Great idea - but they have short sleeves in a sometimes drafty house. "You could wear your housecoat," Mom said. "No. I don't want to wear it," he protested. After some time sulking on the floor and finishing his fit, I got involved. Remembering that I have a housecoat (which I never wear), I put it on and starting 'selling' it. "Wow. This is SO warm and comfy! We're so lucky to get to wear housecoats at night-time. Hey, we both can wear housecoats and watch a show together before bed. That would be so cool!" I hope you sense the three-year-old tone in these comments. Being a parent causes you to build up a vast wealth of comments and tactics that work in times of crisis. After my sales pitch finished, he put on the housecoat and we went downstairs together. Fit forgotten, on with the show. It reminded me of that scene from "Billy Madison" when Sandler wets himself to protect the kid who had done it and then sells it to all the other kids as the thing they should do to be 'cool.' Luckily, I did not have to wet myself. But I did solve the problem and used a new method to do it.

We create the cool in our classrooms. Even intermediates want to fit in and belong when they sit in your chairs and rest on your desktops. If they can't be reached with your lesson - their friends maybe can. Use them as the social hook that will allow them to engage just long enough to see that they enjoy what you're doing. We can redefine 'the cool' in any situation if there is enough confidence and flare behind it. It is a sales pitch and they have all become accustomed to the techniques of advertising through countless media vehicles. They will recognize what you are attempting to do and either buy in or dismiss it. Just be prepared to move on with or without the disgruntled and wait to see if they tag along for the ride (even if solely to socialize with their friends).

Video Games and Learning

As humans, we fear the unfamiliar. As teachers, we fear what is unfamiliar to us and knowledgeable to the students. Video games fall into that category for many teachers. Students today are playing more video games than ever before. They are spending hours each day in on-line gaming communities and fantastical environments and peaking in personal interest and motivation - with no classroom in sight. First-person shooter ("war-type") games are highly successful in their marketing and excitement to many kids - but flawed in their moral message and 'harm' when de-sensitizing us to violence. If school could become an online format of social networking sites and high-interest video games - students would never leave. The reality is that many video games can be a positive experience for a child as a reward, motivator, social experience or simply as fun. If we can tap into their love and dedication to these game series as teaching tools, it can lead to amazing results.

When assigning your next project, try a webpage creation assignment - let the focus be that favourite video game. Even if "Halo" or World of Warcraft" is not your comfort zone - it is the student's world. Not only will they be motivated and successful in delivering the content - they will appreciate your attempt to be a part of their own personal environment. Sure there are inappropriate websites and plot lines and character photos that could emerge, but as teachers we are no longer responsible for keeping the knowledge under lock-and-key for students to have peeks at the next great nugget of knowledge when they time is right. They will access these sites on their own time anyway. In fact, they will find ways to do it at school through proxy sites and internet back doors as a challenge, if they sense that it will cause an uproar. We need to relinquish our perceived control.

Our historical role in the classroom today has been replaced by "Wikipedia." They can search faster online for an answer to any question they have and have instant gratification. We are now responsible for building digital citizenship and critical thinking skills about: WHAT they research? WHO is providing their search results? HOW reputable is the source? We need to take a step back and let their technological world run our classroom instruction. Each day should present a "teachable" moment when you observe what your students do out of habit and comfort. These are the opportunities to learn from them and provide the guidance and support needed to further their own sense of accomplishment and drive for knowledge. The problem is that our sense of order and control is cultivated by this illusion that rules and careful curriculum planning do keep the peace for us. So we find ourselves waiting to enter into their world. The deep, dark abyss that is the student mind - unfamiliar, and therefore, scary.

Learning Communities

This journey that is education needs pit stops and rest areas. Those opportunities can come in the form of learning communities when the conditions are right. These groups and meetings are a chance for celebration and sharing. All teachers have something unique to them that they bring to the classroom. The key is to tap into all of those idiosyncrasies and allow them to drive team building and the focus of learning communities. The data will always be there; as will the approaches towards interacting with it and moulding it to suit your school's focus and interests. But let the people in the room inspire the route that the learning path will take. We, as professionals in the classroom, have the finger on the pulse (so to speak) of learning in our room. We see how the activities go on a daily basis and should be able to provide meaningful feedback about where the next step should be in our classroom practice.

Teams of learners make up every staff. Most days we are thinking about our next move as we perform our present one. We want to push things forward, but need the time and support to do so in an efficient and hopeful manner. That’s the way we run our classrooms, and it’s the way we are most comfortable operating. With so many different things to implement and strive for as a teacher; it only makes sense to put your time and effort in the ones that inspire you. Pick it wisely – it may define your course more than you anticipate. Learn from each other and together gains are made.