Last weekend I visited my parents and we went to play basketball at the Metro Center (local exercise facility). There were several people there (it was pick-up). We formed teams and it was fun. However, that isn't the point of this post.

There was a couple there, husband and wife. The husband was a great player, he had a mighty serve and could bump, set and spike equally well. The wife was... not nearly as talented as her husband. When she went for the ball, she only made contact about half of the time and often the ball flew in the wrong direction. What caught my attention was not her lack of skill, but the way her husband encouraged her and uplifted her when she did well. While volleyball may not be her specialty, I'm sure she is great at doing many other activities.

This made me think of my students. Some are so easy to praise because schooling and reading comes easy to them. Others struggle to remember what sounds blend together to make which sounds. The ones that struggle are often the ones that need the most encouragement and praise. The wife obviously struggled, but kept at it because she had the support of her husband. Had she not, she might not have played. Struggling students need to know they have the support of their teacher (s). Without that knowledge and encouragement, students might give up and decide learning isn't for them.

Although I make a conscious effort to encourage all of my students equally, this reminded me that some students need it more than others. We are suppose to treat each student equally, yet some students will give up if they don't have the extra encouragement. My personal goal is to let each of my students know that they can learn. They can conquer those blends, learn to count by 10's, read those sentences. They need to know that I believe in them, because who knows what the rest of the world is telling them? As a teacher, one of my many roles is a cheerleader, and I will cheer consistently for those who often send the ball flying in the wrong direction.

Quotable

Upon browsing educational quotes, I came across one that really made me stop and think:

"The individual learning model is a foreign territory for most Net Genres, who have grown up collaborating, sharing, and creating together online." ~Don Tapscott in Growing Up Digital

I have not read his book, but it would appear to be that the Net Genres would be the students of today who have grown up with the genre of internet (net) as a key aspect in their lives. Or perhaps 'genres' is an abbreviation for generation, but either way, it refers to the students we are currently teaching.

Some may question how much our students know about and use technology. Allow me to provide you with a few examples. During the summertime I nanny children of a variety of ages. One household I work with there are two boys, ages 3, and 5. Their television is hooked up to an external hard drive, has wireless access, and is also used with a play station 2, a Wii and a blue ray player. Yes, it took me a few times to master switching between the devices. Could I do it, yes, it just took some time and understanding of what wires went where in order for the device I wanted to use to be turned on and hooked up to the right sources of power. The three year old and the five year old can and do switch between systems at a rate much more effective than I can. Do they use technology? Certainly. Another child I sit for told me that he has a time limit of five hours a day of video game and online computer playing time. Five hours?! He is certainly using technology on a daily basis, much more so than I. One of my students asked to be my facebook friend the other day. While I politely declined her invitation I wonder what reason a 10 year old has to have an account on a social networking site. I suppose it is the same reason I have an account-to keep in contact with other people. Our students are using technology.

Thinking back to the classrooms I grew up in, the teacher was lucky to have a computer in the classroom. Many classrooms now have at least three computers, and this is a good thing. But are they being used? Using computers simply for students to take Accelerated Reader tests is a waste of such a resource. There are wonderful sites online that challenge students to learn by making learning fun, and bringing it back to a format they are familiar with. We no longer have to teach students how to read a website, they grow up learning that. We have to teach them how to read a newspaper and look up a number in the phone book, because those are the things teachers grew up learning, but students today lack understanding in.

Blogs are a wonderful avenue to express thoughts and exclaim in wonder over new-found knowledge. Obviously, I am using it as such, but do I take the time to show my students how to effectively blog? I could have integrated more of that into my student teaching. Had I more time, I could have made our blog into a conversation of literature, rather than a method of reporting. A blog can be used for both, that is part of the beauty of it. I would like to try that with my first class, provided there are resources available to do so.

I would also like to try setting up a classroom wiki with my students. It would be a page where parents could track what is going on in the lives of their children while at school, as well as a safe place for students to discuss educational related material with each other. The students of today need to be able to learn in groups, it is how they grew up learning, and will be a stronger method of learning for the majority of them.

Does this mean that individualized learning has no place in the classroom and should be entirely thrown out? Certainly not! Students also need to learn to work on their own, as life will require that of them at times as well (it certainly does in higher education). I value the individual learning model, so long as it is used in conjunction with the cooperartive learning that is likely to become the norm for students. Education needs a healthy balance of both to be effective. Who am I to teach solely one way when my students learn in so many different ways? It would be selfish for me to do so.

8 Months in and Still Learning

The name of my blog adequately describes my experience as a teacher. I am forever learning. I do not think the learning process will ever still. Not that I want it to-learning is half of the fun!

Yesterday I continued to grow in understanding a particular student who has a tendency to get angry and explode when he does not understand what is being taught in the classroom. We had just begun long division, a topic that is difficult for students to grasp, as it is not easily taught in a concrete manner. Many students were struggling and while I was helping them, I mentally was trying to think of different ways to reteach the concept. I noticed the above student was frustrated. When I approached him he looked up and me and said, "I don't get it" in an already defeated tone of voice. When I inquired further to what parts he was confused on his face became red (a sign of him starting to become angry) and he said, "all of it". I remained calm, while completely in tune to his body language and other mannerisms that I know from experience happen before blow up.

Then I did something so simple (something I do with all of my students) that I was surprised by the reaction. I asked him what I could do to help him learn, to which I received a shrug of the shoulders. Then I encouraged him and worked through the problem with him (fully expecting the white board and marker to be thrown across the room when he reached his boiling point).

His face returned to its normal shade and he looked up at me. He said, "oh, I can do that" and went about finishing the problem. I looked up at my mentor and she smiled. In my head the "hallelujah" chorus was playing. I am still not sure if it was the encouragement, calm tone, or if a light bulb lit up in his brain, but I am thankful for the avoidance of an explosion. I firmly believe if I had seen him three minutes later it would have been a much different outcome.

Wordle

I learned about Wordle while I was browsing a new blog. Currently I am brainstorming ways to use it in my classroom. The "sticky notes" on the site (thanks to fellow diigo users-a universal bookmarking site that also has many other features) helped me to understand it. However, before I use it in the classroom, I need to make sure it is used in a meaningful way that is more than just fun. What did I create my first wordle on? This site! Click here to see everything that is this site and the neat way wordle puts it together.

Wong Wonderings

I was assigned to read a section of Harry Wong's How to be an Effective Teacher: The First Days of School prior to school starting. The section we were to read was on how to set up a classroom, which makes sense, since we (as student teachers) will take part in this activity.

But if you know me, I tend to get a little excited when it comes to books and teaching (and especially books on teaching!), so I read the whole book. An interesting idea was brought up in the section about effective testing. Harry Wong states that the steps to writing a test are as follows (paraphrased):
Look at the concept (key idea of the information being covered), double check your objectives (what did you want the students to learn, what objectives did you set for them? Testing should ultimately be in line with your objectives), questions (should directly reflect the objectives), and remediation (test as a corrective tool-I will further explain this in the next paragraph).

The first few steps are common sense, but I had never experienced in my time as a student a test as a corrective tool-or remediation. Wong goes on to explain that as part of the test, you should indicate where the information can be found (a textbook chapter and section, if you are testing on textbook material) in parenthesis near the question. This way, when the students get their tests back, they can look up the correct answer and correct their tests. This increases learning, because the students go back and look over the parts they did not get correct on the test. While this idea is a good one and seems to go beyond the "testing because we have to" method, I wonder how practical it is in the classroom.

I would love to hear feedback from teachers (or parents who have children in school) to whether or not you employ this method (or have seen this method in action). I guess my questioning lies mostly in the time constrictions placed on teachers: you only have so much time in a day to get everything done. Is this method a practical one, or is it ideal only in theory? Any opinions and experiences are welcome!