Posted in History, Philosophy 101, Reflective Teaching, tagged attention span, behavior, discipline, education, journal, mentor, mentor teacher, practicum, reflection, state changes, student teaching, teaching on August 17, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Monday, September 20, 1999
I went to a seminar over the weekend about how to be an Interactive Teacher and Communicating with Clarity. It was really interesting. I learned a lot of stuff.
Really? Because I have no idea what the first one is, and apparently don’t do the second one very effectively considering how many parents [...]
Posted in Family Studies, Philosophy 101, Time Out!, tagged attention span, education, elementary school, following directions, insanity, kids, stupidity, teaching, weird, Weird Things Kids Do on June 25, 2009 | 6 Comments »
I needed photographic evidence to demonstrate the weirdness in this room this year.
It started with kneeling on the chairs. Then kids started squatting on them. I lost track of how many times a day I had to say, “How do you sit on a chair?
This is the new way to use a hanger. And then in [...]
Posted in Philosophy 101, Reflective Teaching, Time Out!, tagged teaching, elementary school, following directions, behavior, education, attention span, curriculum, math, Rafe Esquith, There are No Shortcuts, Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire! on June 4, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I’m taking these last two weeks to review some math concepts so kids can take the retest and earn a better grade on their final report card. I started with decimals. It’s pretty straight-forward; they’ve already shown improvement in place value, standard/word/expanded form, comparing and ordering, so I wasn’t too worried about those. Same for [...]
Posted in Philosophy 101, Test Prep, tagged teaching, following directions, NCLB, No Child Left Behind, kids, education, PSSA, attention span, standardized tests, gum on March 15, 2009 | 8 Comments »
Around this time of year it comes up that chewing gum during tests helps people concentrate. I have never seen the actual research, so I am more than a bit skeptical. I guess it makes sense, but this is my problem with the theory: children (and most people) are very noisy when chewing gum. How [...]
Posted in Philosophy 101, Test Prep, tagged teaching, elementary school, following directions, behavior, NCLB, No Child Left Behind, education, attention span, standardized tests, Recess, nature on March 12, 2009 | 5 Comments »
In our fervor to pass standardized tests, a lot of things have been cut. There is no more extra recess, even for the little kids who don’t take state tests. Thankfully we still have special-area classes like music and art, but core subjects like science and social studies have gone by the wayside. (We have [...]
Posted in Reflective Teaching, tagged attention span, direct instruction, education, teaching, technology on January 16, 2009 | 3 Comments »
How’s this for using technology? Since kids can’t/won’t pay attention unless they’re highly stimulated from a TV show or a video game, let’s teach on the TV! Put the point of direct instruction behind the kids. Then, plug a video camera right into the television (which is at the front of the room) by running [...]
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