The Lizard Project: why scientists and teachers should work together for science outreach.
My high school students recently did something that rarely happens in a science classroom they did science.
Student Salvador Jahen gets to know a new hatchling.
Although, inquiry based instruction has long been a science education buzz phrase, all too often when kids engage in developing experiments, the answers are in fact already known to science and could be discovered through a quick Google search on the topic. This is not exactly real science. The very nature of science is to ask questions with unknown answers and produce high quality evidence to help us better understand our world. My students took a very specific question with an unknown answer and made a small, but real contribution to what is known about life on our planet.
The results of our work, Maternally chosen nest sites positively affect multiple components of offspring fitness in a lizard appeared in the journal Behavioral Ecology yesterday. This type of science rarely happens at the high school level. It certainly isn t expected to happen in an urban high school like Thomas Kelly High School on Chicago s southwest side, where more than 90% of the students are designated as low income and gang violence is a harsh reality in the surrounding neighborhoods.
Male brown anole in the wild
Although it is extremely rare, it is possible for young students to be a part of real research. Two years ago Blackawton Bees was published in Biology Letters. That paper, which examined how bees use spatial relationships with color to find food, listed 25 elementary school students as coauthors along with neuroscientist Beau Lotto, head teacher David Strudwick and classroom teacher Tina Rodwellyn. This highly publicized work involved a rural British elementary school class in an authentic research process. Students developed the experimental question, carried out the experiment and then students analyzed the results and wrote the discussion in their own words.
That work, published as our experiment was ongoing, helped to give me confidence that what I was trying to do with my students was indeed possible. Like the Blackawton Bees experiment, our research can change perceptions of what is possible in a science classroom and produced results that I feel are relevant to the way that researchers approach outreach and the way that we think about science education in general.
Our experiment, quickly dubbed The Lizard Project by my students, asked the question, How does the choice of an egg laying female s nest site affect the survival of her offspring? This question is the same type of question that is frequently asked by professional researchers like my collaborator Dr. Dan Warner, but it is not the type of question that is typically asked by high school science students. To ask this question we moved 80 lizards into our classroom and started doing science.
Attempting to do a large scale experiment required a shift in the way we did biology class.
High school students were involved in all aspects of the experiment
There would be no scripted set of procedures from the text book. Our question would not be answered neatly inside of two or three 45 minute class periods before we moved on to the next topic. My students and I were forced to improvise. Students got to take part in the process of figuring out the best way to answer our question. Rather than collecting data for a prescribed number of class periods, we collected data until we could reasonably answer our question with the level of confidence required of professional researcher. Although we didn t completely abandon the other topics in biology, we committed to seeing the project through and it took us more than four months to do that.
I made the decision that my students would have the chance to be inspired to learn by diving deep into the process of actually doing science. In practice this meant that strictly teaching to the test would be impossible, but I don t for one minute worry that my students suffered from doing science rather than learning about science. The look of wonder on a student s face was unmistakable when they proudly held a tiny lizard egg in a dirt covered hand after diligently sifting through the potting soil in hundreds of our nesting boxes.
That very same sense of wonder is what drove many of us to be scientists and science educators. Even though the personal love of science that I watched grow in so many of my students throughout the project would be justification enough for learning by doing, I was satisfied to see that despite straying from the prescribed curriculum, my biology students have been shown to score at or above the level of their peers in other classrooms at our school.
Although it is far from guaranteed when engaging in authentic research, my students did find an answer to our research question. The data my students collected showed that female brown anoles are highly sensitive to moisture when choosing a nest site and that this choice of nest can have serious survival consequences for her hatchlings through the first 12 weeks of life. We found that a good choice of nest can lead to as much as a 22% increase in offspring size, when compared to a poor choice.
The results of our NSF supported. classroom research were significant. However, more important is the way I think our project has the potential to change perceptions about the high school science classroom and what is possible for collaborations between researchers and teachers. Our experiment was considerably outside the bounds of typical high school curriculum and the logistics of converting my classroom to a functioning live animal lab was no small hurdle. My students managed more than 100 lizards in 30 controlled enclosures for more than 4 months.
Doing this type of science may be outside the realm of possibility for most teachers working i ndependently. In this case, our experiment was only possible because of a long-term collaboration with Dr. Fred Janzen s evolutionary ecology lab at Iowa State and particularly with Dan Warner (now an assistant professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham). This relationship has proven tremendously beneficial to me, my students and Dr. Warner as we all contribute to, and learn from, real science. Completing this project leads me to believe that our work can be a new model for both researchers and classroom teachers. Here are five reasons why I think it is in everyone s best interest when scientists and science teachers work together.
1) Science outreach works best when it is ongoing.
Far too often the model for outreach is a classroom guest lecture from a visiting scientist. The ongoing collaboration, developed over three years, with Dr. Warner and the Fred Janzen Lab at Iowa State allowed for me and my class to tackle a much deeper exploration of the scientific process than ever before.
2) Teachers are experts in communicating science to kids in a way that researchers are not.
Although many researchers are great science communicators, they do not typically have education training that matches that of a typical teacher. Teachers also have existing relationships with students that are vital to motivating student learning. Students benefit when the collaboration leverages the relative strengths of both teacher and researcher.
3) Researchers are in a great position to work with teachers to foster intellectual growth and develop original experiments.
Our entire system of producing PhD scientists is already based on researchers working with motivated college graduates to encourage scholarly growth through independent research. Because of this system, it is very easy for researchers to work in this type of relationship with an interested and motivated science teacher to the benefit of both.
4) The best science learning experiences in schools are big enough to be shared.
Large scale projects offer enough hands on experience to draw students in before they have the opportunity to sink their intellectual teeth into real data analysis. This project was large scale by high school standards. To start with we had 80 lizards in 20 enclosures. By the end we had a total of 30 enclosures and lizards hatching out of the incubator almost daily. Typical public high school teachers have 100 to 150 students at any given moment. All my students got to be thoroughly involved with the experiment precisely because there was so much animal care, data collection, and analysis to be done. A smaller scale project would not have provided as many opportunities for the direct hands-on work of so many students.
5) Outreach doesn t have to take away time from research.
When researchers and teachers take the time to establish true professional collaboration, the lines between outreach and research are blurred. Dr. Warner committed to working with our class in a truly collaborative role. Through his commitment we were able to produce data that advanced his research while having a broader impact of the type that funding agencies like to see. When scientists and science teachers truly collaborate, science happens, everyone benefits and kids everywhere are capable of doing real science.
Read more at http://news.yahoo.com/lizard-project-why-scientists-teachers-together-science-outreach-142800120.html?_esi=1
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Showing posts with label Classroom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Classroom. Show all posts
Friday, September 7, 2012
Friday, August 17, 2012
Humour in Teaching
Humour in Teaching.
If by any chance you are reading this outside the UK: "humour" has a "u" in it, in proper English!
Humour is an important spice to use in teaching—but like any spice, you don't want too much of it. Many teachers, like myself, will have found their jokes being solemnly repeated back to them in assignments and particularly in exams. There is something about the culture of dependence characteristic of the classroom group which diminishes the ability to discriminate between the serious and the humorous.
Nevertheless, gentle humour—never at the expense of anybody, except perhaps yourself (and then only occasionally and in an atmosphere of trust)—leavens the session wonderfully, and can rouse students from mid-lecture torpor. If it fails to do so, they are too far gone to be learning anything, either, so you might as well give up on that session.
Rules of Thumb
* The best kind of humour is not the discrete joke, but humour integrated into the main substance of the material, so that it is not merely a contribution to the maintenance needs of the group, but aids memory and understanding.
* Even when it is integrated, humour is an optional extra, and so there is no excuse for any kind of humour which is potentially offensive to anyone, whether represented within the group or not. See the pages on equal opportunities.
* If your jokes always fall flat in ordinary social conversation, they probably will in class. You may for some bizarre reason wish to acquire a reputation as a groan-monger rather than laughter-monger, but otherwise leave it to others.
* If you can't remember whether you have told this joke to this class before—don't tell it. If you have told it before, it also sends the message to the class that they are not that memorable to you, and therefore diminishes their importance, which is likely to inhibit that fragile frame of mind in which they can really learn.
A colleague of mind in my first job used to tick off the jokes he had used on his scheme of work.
Keep humorous interludes short, but identifiable. Classes are not places for one-liners: comedy requires a particular frame of mind, which is different from that for learning. Students need to be able to frame an utterance as a joke—or else they'll take it down in their notes (and possibly resent the wasted effort when the punch-line arrives).
* The exception is the humorous anecdote which nevertheless makes a teaching point.
Natural banter between the students and yourself is the best kind of humour in the classroom:
* It signals an appropriate, comfortable relationship—as long as you are comfortable with it, and you don't feel that they are “taking the mickey”.
* Take your cue from the students: banter which you initiate can be experienced as a put-down and an abuse of your power.
Beware of inter-student joking behaviour which is at the expense of a member of the group. It may be wise to be careful about sanctioning against it too heavily (unless it is clearly abusive), because there may also be an agenda about "winding you up", but make your disapproval clear, and do not collude with it, however seductive it may be. Ask yourself why they need to do this in this class—it could tell you something about the group.
Read more at http://www.learningandteaching.info/teaching/humour.htm
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
If by any chance you are reading this outside the UK: "humour" has a "u" in it, in proper English!
Humour is an important spice to use in teaching—but like any spice, you don't want too much of it. Many teachers, like myself, will have found their jokes being solemnly repeated back to them in assignments and particularly in exams. There is something about the culture of dependence characteristic of the classroom group which diminishes the ability to discriminate between the serious and the humorous.
Nevertheless, gentle humour—never at the expense of anybody, except perhaps yourself (and then only occasionally and in an atmosphere of trust)—leavens the session wonderfully, and can rouse students from mid-lecture torpor. If it fails to do so, they are too far gone to be learning anything, either, so you might as well give up on that session.
Rules of Thumb
* The best kind of humour is not the discrete joke, but humour integrated into the main substance of the material, so that it is not merely a contribution to the maintenance needs of the group, but aids memory and understanding.
* Even when it is integrated, humour is an optional extra, and so there is no excuse for any kind of humour which is potentially offensive to anyone, whether represented within the group or not. See the pages on equal opportunities.
* If your jokes always fall flat in ordinary social conversation, they probably will in class. You may for some bizarre reason wish to acquire a reputation as a groan-monger rather than laughter-monger, but otherwise leave it to others.
* If you can't remember whether you have told this joke to this class before—don't tell it. If you have told it before, it also sends the message to the class that they are not that memorable to you, and therefore diminishes their importance, which is likely to inhibit that fragile frame of mind in which they can really learn.
A colleague of mind in my first job used to tick off the jokes he had used on his scheme of work.
Keep humorous interludes short, but identifiable. Classes are not places for one-liners: comedy requires a particular frame of mind, which is different from that for learning. Students need to be able to frame an utterance as a joke—or else they'll take it down in their notes (and possibly resent the wasted effort when the punch-line arrives).
* The exception is the humorous anecdote which nevertheless makes a teaching point.
Natural banter between the students and yourself is the best kind of humour in the classroom:
* It signals an appropriate, comfortable relationship—as long as you are comfortable with it, and you don't feel that they are “taking the mickey”.
* Take your cue from the students: banter which you initiate can be experienced as a put-down and an abuse of your power.
Beware of inter-student joking behaviour which is at the expense of a member of the group. It may be wise to be careful about sanctioning against it too heavily (unless it is clearly abusive), because there may also be an agenda about "winding you up", but make your disapproval clear, and do not collude with it, however seductive it may be. Ask yourself why they need to do this in this class—it could tell you something about the group.
Read more at http://www.learningandteaching.info/teaching/humour.htm
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Thursday, August 16, 2012
The Largest Source of Teacher Stress?
The Largest Source of Teacher Stress? Students.
Although things like paperwork, homework grading and the rapidly changing academic landscape combine to make teaching one of the most stressful jobs, some teachers are saying that their main source of stress are the students themselves. Debbie Fite, a sixth-grade teacher at Three Oaks Middle School in San Carlos Park, who has been standing in front of classrooms for more than 17 years, says that when she goes home at night she worries less about what kind of an impact the latest education reform proposal will have on her job and more about problems facing this or that student in her class.
Fite says that she particularly worries about the student performance on standardized exams, which now has a significant bearing on her own career.
“I feel it’s a reflection on me,” said Fite. “I can only do so much in the time I see them and I can’t control what goes on outside my door. I can’t control if their parents encourage them or value them. I can’t control if there is fighting in the home. Or if their parents don’t care what time they go to bed. But when I have them for 83 minutes, that’s my only time and I can’t get everything done in the classroom.”
Some teachers in Fite’s district blame their increasing levels of stress on the new evaluation system currently being developed jointly by the Lee County School District and the teachers union that will count standardized test results and other objective student performance metrics for 50% of the overall teacher rating. Julie Smith, who teaches mathematics to 5th-graders in Pinewoods Elementary School, says that she is worried that once the new assessment system is deployed, her evaluation scores will be even further out of her control. Teacher quality is only a part of what determines if a student will be successful or not, she explains, so her pay — and her career — could depend on factors outside of her sphere of responsibility.
“One thing that is stressful is dealing with the kids themselves,” said Mike Nowlin, a former high school math teacher. “As far as them not having a good work ethic, lack of personal responsibility and being able to take care of simple things on their own.”
Before teachers can get to helping students understand the material with a textbook, they have to convince the student to bring the book to class, said Nowlin, who returned to teaching in 2010 for a year and a half at South Fort Myers High before leaving last school year over Christmas break for a new job.
Nowlin added that no amount of instructional skill can improve outcomes for students who aren’t willing to do their part. Even a top-notch teacher in front of the classroom will not make a difference to kids who refuse to do homework, don’t pay attention, and treat lessons as an opportunity to socialize with their peers.
Read more at http://www.educationnews.org/k-12-schools/the-largest-source-of-teacher-stress-students/
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Although things like paperwork, homework grading and the rapidly changing academic landscape combine to make teaching one of the most stressful jobs, some teachers are saying that their main source of stress are the students themselves. Debbie Fite, a sixth-grade teacher at Three Oaks Middle School in San Carlos Park, who has been standing in front of classrooms for more than 17 years, says that when she goes home at night she worries less about what kind of an impact the latest education reform proposal will have on her job and more about problems facing this or that student in her class.
Fite says that she particularly worries about the student performance on standardized exams, which now has a significant bearing on her own career.
“I feel it’s a reflection on me,” said Fite. “I can only do so much in the time I see them and I can’t control what goes on outside my door. I can’t control if their parents encourage them or value them. I can’t control if there is fighting in the home. Or if their parents don’t care what time they go to bed. But when I have them for 83 minutes, that’s my only time and I can’t get everything done in the classroom.”
Some teachers in Fite’s district blame their increasing levels of stress on the new evaluation system currently being developed jointly by the Lee County School District and the teachers union that will count standardized test results and other objective student performance metrics for 50% of the overall teacher rating. Julie Smith, who teaches mathematics to 5th-graders in Pinewoods Elementary School, says that she is worried that once the new assessment system is deployed, her evaluation scores will be even further out of her control. Teacher quality is only a part of what determines if a student will be successful or not, she explains, so her pay — and her career — could depend on factors outside of her sphere of responsibility.
“One thing that is stressful is dealing with the kids themselves,” said Mike Nowlin, a former high school math teacher. “As far as them not having a good work ethic, lack of personal responsibility and being able to take care of simple things on their own.”
Before teachers can get to helping students understand the material with a textbook, they have to convince the student to bring the book to class, said Nowlin, who returned to teaching in 2010 for a year and a half at South Fort Myers High before leaving last school year over Christmas break for a new job.
Nowlin added that no amount of instructional skill can improve outcomes for students who aren’t willing to do their part. Even a top-notch teacher in front of the classroom will not make a difference to kids who refuse to do homework, don’t pay attention, and treat lessons as an opportunity to socialize with their peers.
Read more at http://www.educationnews.org/k-12-schools/the-largest-source-of-teacher-stress-students/
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Lessons from the Global Classroom: Supporting Girls Through School Can Transform Communities
Lessons from the global classroom: Supporting girls through school can transform communities.
As a poor girl in rural Zimbabwe, Bridget Moyo padded barefoot behind her friends to the school gate "just to see what it was like". Then a charity stepped in to pay her school fees. She worked hard, went on to study business at university, and when she graduated last year, so many people in her home district gathered to cheer her success "that I could not believe that they were all there for me".
Now she's setting up a business selling airbeds, while devoting her free time to working as a mentor and community volunteer, encouraging other girls to aim high. And the Cambridge-based organisation that picked up the tab for her seven years ago is fast moving on to the global stage as the go-to agency for governments and funders in search of educational development that really works.
This year it out-bid UN agencies and major international charities to win £12m of new British aid money to extend its work in Zimbabwe and, with funding from the MasterCard Foundation and Google, is setting up a training programme in Ghana that will benefit a million people. It is consolidating a new schools programme in Malawi and fielding a growing number of requests from African governments to work in their countries.
It has caught the attention of world leaders like Bill Clinton, gained the backing of Hollywood superstars such as Morgan Freeman, won awards for social entrepreneurship and reeled in top bankers and lawyers as supporters. Yet the unsexily titled Camfed (the Campaign for Female Education) International does nothing unusual. It pays for girls in poor rural areas in Africa to go to secondary school and gives them training to set up small businesses afterwards, aiming to give girls the same chances as boys, and to foster the multiplier "girl effect" (girls who finish secondary school earn more, delay childbirth, avoid Aids and have fewer children and keep them healthier and send them to school, thereby creating a better future for everyone).
It is how it does it that makes the difference – and after 20 years working in rural Africa it can show that its unique model prompts transformational changes even in the most disadvantaged areas on earth.
The organisation has few UK staff and runs through national offices in the countries in which it works: Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ghana, Tanzania and Malawi. These set up committees of local leaders to decide which students most need bursaries, often orphans living in dire poverty. "It's easy to work with children who have potential," Angeline Murimirwa, executive director of Camfed Zimbabwe, says. "But we take on the downtrodden, disliked and disowned."
Groups of community volunteers support these girls through secondary school, after which the girls join an alumnae network – Cama – which offers training, support and friendship. As a result, 90,000 teachers, parents, students and local officials are actively working together to help vulnerable local children. Camfed doesn't work with the community. It is the community itself. Then ripples spread. Cama women set up small businesses, farm their fields better, volunteer in their communities and club together to support more poor students in school.
"I buy and sell clothes and have many plans," says Tambudzai Kashoti, who lives a two-hours drive east of Zimbabwe's capital, Harare. "People now see what I am doing and come to me for ideas, and I also help pay my husband's fees while he is training as a teacher."
Older mothers and grandmothers, spurred on by their example, set up their own support groups. "In my district they work in the fields all day, come home and clean themselves, and then go to school to clean the boarding house and the toilets," Rosemary Mukwenya, a mothers' leader from northern Zimbabwe, says. "They also pay for soap, sanitary towels and footwear for students."
This prompts the men to make classroom furniture, dig latrines and build school dormitories. "We were challenged by what the mothers were doing," admits Lovemore Chiriga, from a fathers' group in eastern Zimbabwe. "What I learned from Camfed is that you can help children who are not your own."
Attitudes change, skills develop, solidarity grows and even in the face of great difficulty these changes hold. In the darkest days of Zimbabwean political upheaval and hyperinflation, villages with Camfed programmes kept their schools open by banding together to pay and feed the teachers who worked in them.
"We are funding girls' education in a way that builds a community's power and social capital," says Ann Cotton, an executive director and a former teacher who founded Camfed after working in Zimbabwe as an educational researcher. "When people get involved like this they learn about their rights and responsibilities, and realise what they can do."
But even this does not fully explain Camfed's impact – other organisations have copied its model without success. "It's because everything we do is based on personal relationships and respectful partnerships," Lucy Lake, CEO of Camfed International, says.
"Camfed treats us as partners, not as problems to be fixed or crooks to be avoided," says Lawford Palani, a district commissioner in Malawi, where the programme is being nurtured by Camfed activists from Zimbabwe. "We are not micro-managed. We are supported and challenged to do more and better all the time. Camfed really consults us and listens to us."
"And in Camfed we value a child as a child," Faith Nkala, deputy executive director of Camfed Zimbabwe, says. "We deal with every child, not with all children." Bursary recipients are individually tracked and are given clothes, toiletries, books and stationery while in school. They are checked on regularly, coaxed back if they drop out, and allocated a teacher mentor to protect them from bullying and sexual abuse.
As a result, young lives are transformed. "Cama is full of amazing women," Melody Jori, who has launched a business magazine in Harare, says. "We respect ourselves, our families and our communities. We give strength to each other, defy the odds and break through barriers, because where people think something is not possible, we believe it is and we do something to make it happen."
But involvement with Camfed appears to prompt personal journeys for everyone. "In our culture we used to pay for things with girls," Chief Hata, a traditional tribal leader from eastern Zimbabwe, says. "I myself would settle cases by awarding someone a girl. But through Camfed I saw that girls are human beings, too. We were doing the wrong thing, and must support them. Now many fewer girls drop out from school because of pregnancy. And I too am supporting a child through school."
The organisation has helped 1.5 million girls and vulnerable boys in school, put 60,000 girls through secondary school and trained 5,000 teacher mentors; 1,000 girls have been helped through college – including women who are now doctors, lawyers and community leaders – and 7,700 businesses have been helped; 17,500 young women belong to Cama and last year they helped support 96,000 students through school with their own money.
And research shows Camfed's work has a wider general influence on civic standards, lowering school drop-out rates and encouraging local philanthropy. The organisation is now looking to help raise school standards and foster job opportunities, knowing that fledgling ambitions must not be thwarted. "We have to keep moving forward," Cotton says, "always bearing in mind what is best for the child."
Read more at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/schools/lessons-from-the-global-classroom-supporting-girls-through-school-can-transform-communities-7936300.html
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
As a poor girl in rural Zimbabwe, Bridget Moyo padded barefoot behind her friends to the school gate "just to see what it was like". Then a charity stepped in to pay her school fees. She worked hard, went on to study business at university, and when she graduated last year, so many people in her home district gathered to cheer her success "that I could not believe that they were all there for me".
Now she's setting up a business selling airbeds, while devoting her free time to working as a mentor and community volunteer, encouraging other girls to aim high. And the Cambridge-based organisation that picked up the tab for her seven years ago is fast moving on to the global stage as the go-to agency for governments and funders in search of educational development that really works.
This year it out-bid UN agencies and major international charities to win £12m of new British aid money to extend its work in Zimbabwe and, with funding from the MasterCard Foundation and Google, is setting up a training programme in Ghana that will benefit a million people. It is consolidating a new schools programme in Malawi and fielding a growing number of requests from African governments to work in their countries.
It has caught the attention of world leaders like Bill Clinton, gained the backing of Hollywood superstars such as Morgan Freeman, won awards for social entrepreneurship and reeled in top bankers and lawyers as supporters. Yet the unsexily titled Camfed (the Campaign for Female Education) International does nothing unusual. It pays for girls in poor rural areas in Africa to go to secondary school and gives them training to set up small businesses afterwards, aiming to give girls the same chances as boys, and to foster the multiplier "girl effect" (girls who finish secondary school earn more, delay childbirth, avoid Aids and have fewer children and keep them healthier and send them to school, thereby creating a better future for everyone).
It is how it does it that makes the difference – and after 20 years working in rural Africa it can show that its unique model prompts transformational changes even in the most disadvantaged areas on earth.
The organisation has few UK staff and runs through national offices in the countries in which it works: Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ghana, Tanzania and Malawi. These set up committees of local leaders to decide which students most need bursaries, often orphans living in dire poverty. "It's easy to work with children who have potential," Angeline Murimirwa, executive director of Camfed Zimbabwe, says. "But we take on the downtrodden, disliked and disowned."
Groups of community volunteers support these girls through secondary school, after which the girls join an alumnae network – Cama – which offers training, support and friendship. As a result, 90,000 teachers, parents, students and local officials are actively working together to help vulnerable local children. Camfed doesn't work with the community. It is the community itself. Then ripples spread. Cama women set up small businesses, farm their fields better, volunteer in their communities and club together to support more poor students in school.
"I buy and sell clothes and have many plans," says Tambudzai Kashoti, who lives a two-hours drive east of Zimbabwe's capital, Harare. "People now see what I am doing and come to me for ideas, and I also help pay my husband's fees while he is training as a teacher."
Older mothers and grandmothers, spurred on by their example, set up their own support groups. "In my district they work in the fields all day, come home and clean themselves, and then go to school to clean the boarding house and the toilets," Rosemary Mukwenya, a mothers' leader from northern Zimbabwe, says. "They also pay for soap, sanitary towels and footwear for students."
This prompts the men to make classroom furniture, dig latrines and build school dormitories. "We were challenged by what the mothers were doing," admits Lovemore Chiriga, from a fathers' group in eastern Zimbabwe. "What I learned from Camfed is that you can help children who are not your own."
Attitudes change, skills develop, solidarity grows and even in the face of great difficulty these changes hold. In the darkest days of Zimbabwean political upheaval and hyperinflation, villages with Camfed programmes kept their schools open by banding together to pay and feed the teachers who worked in them.
"We are funding girls' education in a way that builds a community's power and social capital," says Ann Cotton, an executive director and a former teacher who founded Camfed after working in Zimbabwe as an educational researcher. "When people get involved like this they learn about their rights and responsibilities, and realise what they can do."
But even this does not fully explain Camfed's impact – other organisations have copied its model without success. "It's because everything we do is based on personal relationships and respectful partnerships," Lucy Lake, CEO of Camfed International, says.
"Camfed treats us as partners, not as problems to be fixed or crooks to be avoided," says Lawford Palani, a district commissioner in Malawi, where the programme is being nurtured by Camfed activists from Zimbabwe. "We are not micro-managed. We are supported and challenged to do more and better all the time. Camfed really consults us and listens to us."
"And in Camfed we value a child as a child," Faith Nkala, deputy executive director of Camfed Zimbabwe, says. "We deal with every child, not with all children." Bursary recipients are individually tracked and are given clothes, toiletries, books and stationery while in school. They are checked on regularly, coaxed back if they drop out, and allocated a teacher mentor to protect them from bullying and sexual abuse.
As a result, young lives are transformed. "Cama is full of amazing women," Melody Jori, who has launched a business magazine in Harare, says. "We respect ourselves, our families and our communities. We give strength to each other, defy the odds and break through barriers, because where people think something is not possible, we believe it is and we do something to make it happen."
But involvement with Camfed appears to prompt personal journeys for everyone. "In our culture we used to pay for things with girls," Chief Hata, a traditional tribal leader from eastern Zimbabwe, says. "I myself would settle cases by awarding someone a girl. But through Camfed I saw that girls are human beings, too. We were doing the wrong thing, and must support them. Now many fewer girls drop out from school because of pregnancy. And I too am supporting a child through school."
The organisation has helped 1.5 million girls and vulnerable boys in school, put 60,000 girls through secondary school and trained 5,000 teacher mentors; 1,000 girls have been helped through college – including women who are now doctors, lawyers and community leaders – and 7,700 businesses have been helped; 17,500 young women belong to Cama and last year they helped support 96,000 students through school with their own money.
And research shows Camfed's work has a wider general influence on civic standards, lowering school drop-out rates and encouraging local philanthropy. The organisation is now looking to help raise school standards and foster job opportunities, knowing that fledgling ambitions must not be thwarted. "We have to keep moving forward," Cotton says, "always bearing in mind what is best for the child."
Read more at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/schools/lessons-from-the-global-classroom-supporting-girls-through-school-can-transform-communities-7936300.html
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Monday, July 23, 2012
On Campus Education and Online Education
Difference Between On-Campus Education and Online Education.
On-campus education vs. online education! Is one better than the other? Can one completely replace the other? Indeed it seems that online education is the way of the future. Educational institutions, corporations and government organizations alike already offer various forms of electronic teaching. However, can a computer truly replace a teacher and a blackboard?
How people learn
Each individual has a form of learning that suits them best. Some individuals achieve fantastic results in courses taught online, however most people drop out of 100% computer-led courses. Educational institutions, as well as companies in carrying out staff training, must recognize that there is no ideal way to carry out the teaching of a large group of individuals, and so must design programs that best suits the needs of the group as a whole.
People learn using multiple senses. This involves learning through both theoretical components of a course, as well as social interaction with both instructors and other students. Students learn from each other's mistakes and successes, not just from what they are told by instructors.
Each individual student has an ideal learning pace. Instructors are therefore faced with the challenge of designing courses that move forward such that those students with a slower learning pace do not get left behind, while not moving so slowly that students with faster learning paces get bored.
Online education
In the age of high-speed information transfer, online education is becoming a popular and cheap means for delivering teaching to individuals outside the classroom, and in some cases all over the world. Teaching can be via CD, websites, or through real-time online facilities such as webcasts, webinars and virtual classrooms. However, different methods of online education each have their own advantages and disadvantages.
Online education is still a relatively new concept, and in many respects still in the teething stages. As such, various problems arrive across different online education environments. For example:
1. Lack of immediate feedback in asynchronous learning environments: While some online education environments such as webcasts, webinars and virtual classrooms operate live with the addition of an instructor, most do not. Teaching that is delivered through a CD or website, although having the advantage of being self-paced, provides no immediate feedback from a live instructor.
2. More preparation required on the part of the instructor: In an online education environment, an instructor can not simply stand in front of a whiteboard and deliver a class. Lessons in online education environments must be prepared ahead of time, along with any notes and instructions that may accompany the teaching.
In many cases it would also be necessary that the instructor not only understands the concepts being taught, but the technology used to deliver that teaching. This therefore increases the skill-levels needed of online education instructors, placing greater demand on educational institutions.
Staffing levels may also be higher for courses run in an online education environment, requiring for example:
The Instructor - able to teach both course content and be skilled in the use of technologies involved
The Facilitator - to assist the instructor in delivering content, but may do so remotely
Help Desk - to offer assistance to instructors, facilitators and students in the use of both software and hardware used to deliver the course.
3. Not all people are comfortable with online education: Education is no longer only sought by the world's youth. With an increased trend towards adult and continuing education, there is a need to design courses suitable for students over a larger age-range, as well as students from different and varied backgrounds. It is difficult, however, to design online education environments suitable for everyone.
4. Increased potential for frustration, anxiety and confusion: In an online education environment, there are a greater number of parts making up the system that can fail. Server failures may prevent online courses from operating. Software based teaching applications may require other specific components to operate. Computer viruses may infect software necessary to run online education environments. If these systems are complex, students may choose the ease of On-campus education rather than taking the additional time and effort necessary to master the use of online education systems.
5. The Digital Divide: Many people who live in remote areas and developing countries do not have access to computers, making any form of online education virtually impossible. For this reason, online education is only able to be targeted at the people lucky enough to be able to take advantage of the technology involved. Similarly, offering live teaching across the world means that different time zones and nationalities increase the demand for multi-skilled instructors.
In addition to these, there are also several legal issues associated with maintaining an online education environment. For example, intellectual property laws, particularly those relating to copyright, may or may not fully cover electronically created intellectual property. For example, information on a website is not necessarily considered to be public domain, despite being available to everyone. However, the Australian Copyright Act was amended in 2001 to ensure that copyright owners of electronic materials, including online education environments, could continue to provide their works commercially.
On-Campus Education
Still the most common form of instruction is traditional classroom-style learning. These instructor-led environments are more personal than online education environments, and also have the advantage of allowing for immediate feedback both to and from student and teachers alike. However, the classroom allows for less flexibility than courses run in online education environments.
Instructors in modern classroom environments are still able to take advantage of several forms of electronic teaching tools while still maintaining the atmosphere associated with the traditional classroom environment. For example, PowerPoint slides can be utilized instead of a whiteboard or blackboard. Handouts can be distributed via course websites prior to the event. However, on the day, students are still able to actively participate in the lesson.
Like online education environments, On-campus education comes with certain drawbacks, the most common of which is the classroom itself. This requires a group of people which, in a university for example, could reach a few hundred people in size, to gather in the same place at the same time. This requires enormous time and financial commitment on behalf of both the students and the educational institution.
However, it is this sort of environment that is most familiar to students across the world. People of all ages can access a classroom environment feeling comfortable with the way that a classroom-run course is carried out. Older students who may not be comfortable with the use of information technology are not required to navigate their way through possibly complex online education environments, making On-campus education the most accessible form of teaching.
On-campus education has one advantage that 100% electronically delivered courses can not offer - social interaction. Learning comes from observing, not only what is written on a page or presented in a slideshow, but what is observed in others. Most students are naturally curious, and so will want to ask questions of their instructors. The classroom environment allows students to clarify what is being taught not only with their instructors, but with other students.
So, Which is Better?
There is no style of instruction that will best suit every student. Studies have shown (Can online education replace On-campus education) that courses where online education is used to complement On-campus education have proved more effective than courses delivered entirely using only one method. These courses take advantage of both online education materials and a live instructor, and have produced results higher than those of students in either 100% online education or classroom environment courses. Students have the advantage of the immediate feedback and social interaction that comes with the classroom environment, as well as the convenience of self-paced online education modules that can be undertaken when it best suits the student.
It would seem that online education environments will never completely replace On-campus education. There is no "one size fits all" method of teaching. Teaching styles will continue to adapt to find the method that best fits the learning group. Using a mix of online education environments and classroom sessions, educational institutions, corporations and government organizations can ensure that training is delivered that is convenient and effective for both instructors and students alike.
Read more at http://ezinearticles.com/?Difference-Between-On-Campus-Education-and-Online-Education&id=981014
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
On-campus education vs. online education! Is one better than the other? Can one completely replace the other? Indeed it seems that online education is the way of the future. Educational institutions, corporations and government organizations alike already offer various forms of electronic teaching. However, can a computer truly replace a teacher and a blackboard?
How people learn
Each individual has a form of learning that suits them best. Some individuals achieve fantastic results in courses taught online, however most people drop out of 100% computer-led courses. Educational institutions, as well as companies in carrying out staff training, must recognize that there is no ideal way to carry out the teaching of a large group of individuals, and so must design programs that best suits the needs of the group as a whole.
People learn using multiple senses. This involves learning through both theoretical components of a course, as well as social interaction with both instructors and other students. Students learn from each other's mistakes and successes, not just from what they are told by instructors.
Each individual student has an ideal learning pace. Instructors are therefore faced with the challenge of designing courses that move forward such that those students with a slower learning pace do not get left behind, while not moving so slowly that students with faster learning paces get bored.
Online education
In the age of high-speed information transfer, online education is becoming a popular and cheap means for delivering teaching to individuals outside the classroom, and in some cases all over the world. Teaching can be via CD, websites, or through real-time online facilities such as webcasts, webinars and virtual classrooms. However, different methods of online education each have their own advantages and disadvantages.
Online education is still a relatively new concept, and in many respects still in the teething stages. As such, various problems arrive across different online education environments. For example:
1. Lack of immediate feedback in asynchronous learning environments: While some online education environments such as webcasts, webinars and virtual classrooms operate live with the addition of an instructor, most do not. Teaching that is delivered through a CD or website, although having the advantage of being self-paced, provides no immediate feedback from a live instructor.
2. More preparation required on the part of the instructor: In an online education environment, an instructor can not simply stand in front of a whiteboard and deliver a class. Lessons in online education environments must be prepared ahead of time, along with any notes and instructions that may accompany the teaching.
In many cases it would also be necessary that the instructor not only understands the concepts being taught, but the technology used to deliver that teaching. This therefore increases the skill-levels needed of online education instructors, placing greater demand on educational institutions.
Staffing levels may also be higher for courses run in an online education environment, requiring for example:
The Instructor - able to teach both course content and be skilled in the use of technologies involved
The Facilitator - to assist the instructor in delivering content, but may do so remotely
Help Desk - to offer assistance to instructors, facilitators and students in the use of both software and hardware used to deliver the course.
3. Not all people are comfortable with online education: Education is no longer only sought by the world's youth. With an increased trend towards adult and continuing education, there is a need to design courses suitable for students over a larger age-range, as well as students from different and varied backgrounds. It is difficult, however, to design online education environments suitable for everyone.
4. Increased potential for frustration, anxiety and confusion: In an online education environment, there are a greater number of parts making up the system that can fail. Server failures may prevent online courses from operating. Software based teaching applications may require other specific components to operate. Computer viruses may infect software necessary to run online education environments. If these systems are complex, students may choose the ease of On-campus education rather than taking the additional time and effort necessary to master the use of online education systems.
5. The Digital Divide: Many people who live in remote areas and developing countries do not have access to computers, making any form of online education virtually impossible. For this reason, online education is only able to be targeted at the people lucky enough to be able to take advantage of the technology involved. Similarly, offering live teaching across the world means that different time zones and nationalities increase the demand for multi-skilled instructors.
In addition to these, there are also several legal issues associated with maintaining an online education environment. For example, intellectual property laws, particularly those relating to copyright, may or may not fully cover electronically created intellectual property. For example, information on a website is not necessarily considered to be public domain, despite being available to everyone. However, the Australian Copyright Act was amended in 2001 to ensure that copyright owners of electronic materials, including online education environments, could continue to provide their works commercially.
On-Campus Education
Still the most common form of instruction is traditional classroom-style learning. These instructor-led environments are more personal than online education environments, and also have the advantage of allowing for immediate feedback both to and from student and teachers alike. However, the classroom allows for less flexibility than courses run in online education environments.
Instructors in modern classroom environments are still able to take advantage of several forms of electronic teaching tools while still maintaining the atmosphere associated with the traditional classroom environment. For example, PowerPoint slides can be utilized instead of a whiteboard or blackboard. Handouts can be distributed via course websites prior to the event. However, on the day, students are still able to actively participate in the lesson.
Like online education environments, On-campus education comes with certain drawbacks, the most common of which is the classroom itself. This requires a group of people which, in a university for example, could reach a few hundred people in size, to gather in the same place at the same time. This requires enormous time and financial commitment on behalf of both the students and the educational institution.
However, it is this sort of environment that is most familiar to students across the world. People of all ages can access a classroom environment feeling comfortable with the way that a classroom-run course is carried out. Older students who may not be comfortable with the use of information technology are not required to navigate their way through possibly complex online education environments, making On-campus education the most accessible form of teaching.
On-campus education has one advantage that 100% electronically delivered courses can not offer - social interaction. Learning comes from observing, not only what is written on a page or presented in a slideshow, but what is observed in others. Most students are naturally curious, and so will want to ask questions of their instructors. The classroom environment allows students to clarify what is being taught not only with their instructors, but with other students.
So, Which is Better?
There is no style of instruction that will best suit every student. Studies have shown (Can online education replace On-campus education) that courses where online education is used to complement On-campus education have proved more effective than courses delivered entirely using only one method. These courses take advantage of both online education materials and a live instructor, and have produced results higher than those of students in either 100% online education or classroom environment courses. Students have the advantage of the immediate feedback and social interaction that comes with the classroom environment, as well as the convenience of self-paced online education modules that can be undertaken when it best suits the student.
It would seem that online education environments will never completely replace On-campus education. There is no "one size fits all" method of teaching. Teaching styles will continue to adapt to find the method that best fits the learning group. Using a mix of online education environments and classroom sessions, educational institutions, corporations and government organizations can ensure that training is delivered that is convenient and effective for both instructors and students alike.
Read more at http://ezinearticles.com/?Difference-Between-On-Campus-Education-and-Online-Education&id=981014
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Monday, July 16, 2012
Whole Class Management Ideas
Whole Class Management Ideas.
Before you can involve your students in cooperative learning activities or other active engagement lessons, you'll need to establish clear procedures for classroom management. Feel free to tweak the strategies below to make them work for you!
Establish Procedures - Good classroom management is essential to effective cooperative learning. You'll need to have a clearly defined set of procedures so that the kids know your expectations. Don't even try to implement the "fun" teambuilders and classbuilders described in the next section unless you have a good grasp of classroom management. Think through every aspect of the day, to include use of restrooms, lining up for lunch, morning routines, dismissal procedures, etc. Ask a veteran teacher for ideas on managing these day-to-day routines effectively.
Create Classroom Rules - Involve your class in discussing the importance of rules and creating a set of class rules. Refer to the PDF file entitled Creating Classroom Rules for some ideas about how to do this in a cooperative classroom.
Use the Stoplight Management System or another effective whole-class management strategy - If you teach elementary school, you might want to look at the Stoplight Management System description on my website. I have used this management system with great success for about 10 years.
Implement a Quiet Signal - You'll need to have a fool-proof Quiet Signal. You can have a hand signal, a bell, a clicker, or even a rainstick! You need something that can get the students' attention in 3 to 5 seconds.
Work Zone Strategy - This simple technique gives students a visual to show your noise level expectations for specific activities. Use a large sheet of red, yellow, and green construction paper to simulate each color of a stop light. Write the words on each color as shown in the illustration. (Red - No Talking, Yellow - Whisper Voices, Green - Inside Voices). Introduce the Work Zone posters and discuss your expectations for different types of activities. Brainstorm situations that might be appropriate for each color. When you post one of the signs, say something like, "Our Work Zone color right now is yellow. You may use whisper voices to discuss how we use math in every day life." If students don't respect the Work Zone limits, have them pull a tag on your Stoplight board or use your existing management system. The colors just provide a visual reminder of your expectations. Assign a student to change it when you verbally signal a chance in acceptable noise levels.
Erase-a-Letter Strategy - If you feel your class is too noisy during cooperative learning activities, there are ways to teach them to control their noise level. Just use the Erase-a-Letter technique. Before you start a CL activity, write the word STOP on the board. Teach them how to whisper and how whispering sounds different from regular voices. After that, erase a letter from the word STOP on the board every time you hear anything above a whisper. When they lose all their letters, put an end to the CL activity and immediately move into individual seatwork. Let them know that if they want to do the CL activities they will have to work more quietly. About an hour later (or the next day if you don't have the kids all day), try another CL activity. If you reinforce this consistently, you'll find you can really manage the noise level.
Raffle Ticket Reward System - Sometimes students get into bad habits like blurting out comments or getting out of their seats without permission. They need something tangible to remind them to follow the classroom procedures. I have found that using raffle tickets helps tremendously. I give students 2 raffle tickets to start the day. They can't write their names on their tickets until the end of the day. If they break a classroom rule, I take a ticket. If they lose both tickets, the next time they disrupt the class, they have to pull a tag on the Stoplight board (described above). Students can also earn tickets for staying on task or doing excellent work. At the end of the day, I collect all tickets and do a drawing for a small prize, class money, or a treat. Friday is popcorn day - I pop a bag of microwave popcorn and draw out tickets to see who will share the popcorn. I keep the tickets all week and get rid of them Friday afternoon. You might not want to use this all year, but it does help students become aware of the frequency of their disruptive behaviors.
Behavior Reflections Form - This graphic organizer can help students determine the causes and effects of their disruptive behavior. Behavior Reflections Form - This graphic organizer can help students determine the causes and effects of their disruptive behavior.
Read more at http://www.lauracandler.com/strategies/classmanage.php
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Before you can involve your students in cooperative learning activities or other active engagement lessons, you'll need to establish clear procedures for classroom management. Feel free to tweak the strategies below to make them work for you!
Establish Procedures - Good classroom management is essential to effective cooperative learning. You'll need to have a clearly defined set of procedures so that the kids know your expectations. Don't even try to implement the "fun" teambuilders and classbuilders described in the next section unless you have a good grasp of classroom management. Think through every aspect of the day, to include use of restrooms, lining up for lunch, morning routines, dismissal procedures, etc. Ask a veteran teacher for ideas on managing these day-to-day routines effectively.
Create Classroom Rules - Involve your class in discussing the importance of rules and creating a set of class rules. Refer to the PDF file entitled Creating Classroom Rules for some ideas about how to do this in a cooperative classroom.
Use the Stoplight Management System or another effective whole-class management strategy - If you teach elementary school, you might want to look at the Stoplight Management System description on my website. I have used this management system with great success for about 10 years.
Implement a Quiet Signal - You'll need to have a fool-proof Quiet Signal. You can have a hand signal, a bell, a clicker, or even a rainstick! You need something that can get the students' attention in 3 to 5 seconds.
Work Zone Strategy - This simple technique gives students a visual to show your noise level expectations for specific activities. Use a large sheet of red, yellow, and green construction paper to simulate each color of a stop light. Write the words on each color as shown in the illustration. (Red - No Talking, Yellow - Whisper Voices, Green - Inside Voices). Introduce the Work Zone posters and discuss your expectations for different types of activities. Brainstorm situations that might be appropriate for each color. When you post one of the signs, say something like, "Our Work Zone color right now is yellow. You may use whisper voices to discuss how we use math in every day life." If students don't respect the Work Zone limits, have them pull a tag on your Stoplight board or use your existing management system. The colors just provide a visual reminder of your expectations. Assign a student to change it when you verbally signal a chance in acceptable noise levels.
Erase-a-Letter Strategy - If you feel your class is too noisy during cooperative learning activities, there are ways to teach them to control their noise level. Just use the Erase-a-Letter technique. Before you start a CL activity, write the word STOP on the board. Teach them how to whisper and how whispering sounds different from regular voices. After that, erase a letter from the word STOP on the board every time you hear anything above a whisper. When they lose all their letters, put an end to the CL activity and immediately move into individual seatwork. Let them know that if they want to do the CL activities they will have to work more quietly. About an hour later (or the next day if you don't have the kids all day), try another CL activity. If you reinforce this consistently, you'll find you can really manage the noise level.
Raffle Ticket Reward System - Sometimes students get into bad habits like blurting out comments or getting out of their seats without permission. They need something tangible to remind them to follow the classroom procedures. I have found that using raffle tickets helps tremendously. I give students 2 raffle tickets to start the day. They can't write their names on their tickets until the end of the day. If they break a classroom rule, I take a ticket. If they lose both tickets, the next time they disrupt the class, they have to pull a tag on the Stoplight board (described above). Students can also earn tickets for staying on task or doing excellent work. At the end of the day, I collect all tickets and do a drawing for a small prize, class money, or a treat. Friday is popcorn day - I pop a bag of microwave popcorn and draw out tickets to see who will share the popcorn. I keep the tickets all week and get rid of them Friday afternoon. You might not want to use this all year, but it does help students become aware of the frequency of their disruptive behaviors.
Behavior Reflections Form - This graphic organizer can help students determine the causes and effects of their disruptive behavior. Behavior Reflections Form - This graphic organizer can help students determine the causes and effects of their disruptive behavior.
Read more at http://www.lauracandler.com/strategies/classmanage.php
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Two Children in Every Classroom Go Hungry
Two Children in Every Classroom Go Hungry as Neglect Takes its Toll.
Two children in every school class are going hungry because their parents fail to provide proper meals, according to new research.
An estimated one million children in the UK now live in homes without enough to eat, according to the study by the parenting website Netmums and the child welfare charity Kids Company.
The charity has reported a rise of 233 per cent in the last 12 months in children using its services for their only meal of the day. Those children have an average age of just 10.
Camila Batmanghelidjh, the founder of Kids Company, said: "We are seeing a lot more children struggling to get hold of food. We have kids who were so starving they stole frozen meat from a flat they visited and they ate it raw. We're seeing effectively responsible parents who are just not managing to have food in the house.
"Children don't have a public voice so they can't tell us. We have a collective responsibility to make sure every child has enough to eat.
This is something as a society we can solve if we want to and change children's future for the better."
Almost a quarter of parents (24 per cent) reported knowing of children in their local area who do not have enough to eat. Just under a third (29 per cent) said they had seen an increase in children going hungry over the last two years.
The problem is most severe in inner cities but children all around the UK are struggling to get enough to eat because of chaotic parenting and chronic neglect. Three in five (62 per cent) parents know local families where children are going hungry because their parents cannot afford to buy all the food they need, while more than half (56 per cent) are aware of parents whose abuse of drugs or alcohol means they are not feeding their children.
In some areas 88 per cent of head teachers surveyed said poor nutrition was having a damaging impact in their school. One in four inner city schools said three-quarters of all pupils were affected by lack of food.
The study also found that children from homes that were short of food were now missing almost half their weekly meals.
On average, children from such homes eat just 10 meals a week – rather than the 21 meals a week that they need to stay healthy.
The Netmums survey questioned 1,116 people between June 18 and 22.
Read more at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/two-children-in-every-classroom-go-hungry-as-neglect-takes-its-toll-7912679.html
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Two children in every school class are going hungry because their parents fail to provide proper meals, according to new research.
An estimated one million children in the UK now live in homes without enough to eat, according to the study by the parenting website Netmums and the child welfare charity Kids Company.
The charity has reported a rise of 233 per cent in the last 12 months in children using its services for their only meal of the day. Those children have an average age of just 10.
Camila Batmanghelidjh, the founder of Kids Company, said: "We are seeing a lot more children struggling to get hold of food. We have kids who were so starving they stole frozen meat from a flat they visited and they ate it raw. We're seeing effectively responsible parents who are just not managing to have food in the house.
"Children don't have a public voice so they can't tell us. We have a collective responsibility to make sure every child has enough to eat.
This is something as a society we can solve if we want to and change children's future for the better."
Almost a quarter of parents (24 per cent) reported knowing of children in their local area who do not have enough to eat. Just under a third (29 per cent) said they had seen an increase in children going hungry over the last two years.
The problem is most severe in inner cities but children all around the UK are struggling to get enough to eat because of chaotic parenting and chronic neglect. Three in five (62 per cent) parents know local families where children are going hungry because their parents cannot afford to buy all the food they need, while more than half (56 per cent) are aware of parents whose abuse of drugs or alcohol means they are not feeding their children.
In some areas 88 per cent of head teachers surveyed said poor nutrition was having a damaging impact in their school. One in four inner city schools said three-quarters of all pupils were affected by lack of food.
The study also found that children from homes that were short of food were now missing almost half their weekly meals.
On average, children from such homes eat just 10 meals a week – rather than the 21 meals a week that they need to stay healthy.
The Netmums survey questioned 1,116 people between June 18 and 22.
Read more at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/two-children-in-every-classroom-go-hungry-as-neglect-takes-its-toll-7912679.html
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Saturday, July 14, 2012
The Power of Routine PART 2- Classroom Management Tricks that Work with Young Learners
The Power of Routine Part 2: Classroom Management Tricks that Work with Young Learners.
Quiet, please
Reprimanding the students who misbehave is essential but it isn’t motivational. You may say one name a hundred times during the lesson and nothing happens. You do it automatically, the child may not even notice, there is no improvement and there are no consequences.
* I-know-when-to-be-quiet kite works on the basis of the rule Catch Them Being Good. Prepare with your students a colourful kite and write there “I know when to be quiet”. Make a long tail of that kite and decorate it with paper bows, each with a student’s name. During the lesson look for students whose behaviour is exceptional. Instead of just saying “well done” appreciate them by decorating their bow with a sticker or a marker stamp. Make sure students know the moment when they are rewarded. Such a kite helps you to monitor the overall class behaviour, it is also a visual sign for parents how their child behaves during English lessons.
* Wooden clothes pegs might help you to manage your class noise level. Prepare a large circle divided into three parts: green – “I am quiet”, yellow – “Please, be quiet”, red – “You are too loud” and hang it in a visible place in the classroom. Take a black marker and write students’ names on the clothes peg. Start by placing all the pegs on the green area and then during the lesson reprimand the noisy students and place their pegs first on yellow and then, if there is no improvement, on red parts of the circle. Write down all the names of the students whose pegs remain on the red area when the lesson finishes. Think of appropriate consequences if the situation repeats, for example a note to parents or a minus at the end of the notebook.
* Defeat the creature is a technique to make everyone quiet without saying “be quiet” all the time. On the board draw a monster or a strange creature resembling a caterpillar with a head and five body parts. Explain the rules: if the class work quietly, you will secretly erase one body part but if they are rowdy you will add a body part. If all the body parts are erased and only the body is left then the class can choose an activity they would like to do at the beginning of the next lesson.
Choosing students
I teach over 60 students aged 6 to 10. It’s a lot but I know there are teachers who teach many more. All these children want special treatment and appreciation for their efforts and my memory isn’t good enough for all that. Sometimes I need one student to help me distribute a copy of an exercise and they all look at me imploringly. I choose one person and half of them are always disappointed and ask “Can it be me next time?” and I just say “Yes”, and during the next lesson I am not able to remember who it should be. And nothing is worse than broken promises.
These are a few hints that may help you deal with that problem:
* Use counting rhymes such as
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe,
Catch a tiger by the toe.
If he hollers let him go,
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe
Bubblegum, bubblegum,
In a dish,
How many pieces,
Do you wish?
Mickey mouse built a house.
How many bricks did he use?
The child who you point when saying “use” or “wish” in the two last rhymes says a number. Then count in any direction or count every second person. This eliminates a situation when students try to calculate to be chosen.
* Prepare one set of popsicle sticks or wooden spatulas (used by doctors to examine the throat) for every class you teach. Write students’ names on them and place them in a plastic cup or a jar. Whenever you need one person just take a popsicle stick out of the cup. To make it fair set apart the popsicle sticks of children who have already been chosen. It gives everyone a chance to be picked by the teacher.
* Who will clean the board? Who will distribute photocopied exercises? Who will sit next to the teacher in the circle? Picking one student means hurting five others. Class jobs chart eliminates such dilemmas. Think of all the jobs that are important for you during the lesson such as:
- Circle Buddy (two students who sit next to the teacher in the circle)
- Team Leader (two or three students who will be the leaders of the teams in a game)
- Paper Passer (distributes the photocopies)
- Board Eraser (cleans the board)
- Assistant (does the job of someone who is absent)
- On Holiday (has no job)
It’s best to have as many jobs as there are students in the class. One job such as a Circle Buddy should be always done by two students. Prepare a big poster with little paper pockets for each job. Then cut out the outlines of people (you can find them on the Internet) and on each one write a student’s name. Place student’s templates in the job chart’s pockets and rotate them every week.
* Picking somebody from the reward board works both as a motivator for better behaviour and as a help in choosing students. Prepare a big sign “Reward board” and hang it always in the same part of the board. When you notice a student working well write their name there. You might add the same student’s name a few times during one lesson. Later when you need a student for a special task just pick one name from that list.
Homework checking
Checking homework is time consuming no matter if you read at home 25 essays or just have a quick look at students’ workbooks during the lesson. Nevertheless, I believe in assigning homework and even more in checking it.
* If I give homework it must be done. If they forget to do it they should show it to me during the next lesson. Simple? But not in practice. How to remember who hasn’t done it previously? Write notes and then lose them? To avoid problems with homework checking try this: Each student has their own name written on the popsicle stick (a different set than for choosing students, can be marked with a different colour) and there are three plastic cups labelled: Homework, I’ve done homework and I haven’t done homework. At the beginning all the names are in the “homework” cup, then students at the beginning of the lesson place their popsicle stick in the proper cup depending whether or not they have done their homework. Those who are absent are left in the “homework” cup. Start the next lesson with the outstanding homework and then proceed with the new homework checking. If someone hasn’t done the same homework twice write a short note for parents or information in their notebooks “Please do your homework!”.
* Squeezing between the desks to have a look at the workbooks is complicated and you lose eye contact with the whole class. Sit at the teacher’s desk and ask students to come to you, stand in a line and wait with their notebooks or workbooks. Call them row by row as it eliminates long queues. Plan what the rest should do at that time. They might open the book and read or look at a picture story, they might revise words in pairs by naming pictures which hang on the board, they might listen to a story or a song from the previous lesson.
Secret worker, secret walker, secret singer
To make sure everyone cares and does their best I choose a secret worker – one person for a week. I never tell my class who it is. I only say I will observe this student all the time and if s/he works well s/he will get a ‘certificate of secret worker’ at the end of the week. You can find great ready-made certificates such as award ribbons at http://www.123certificates.com/ or www.senteacher.org/wk/certificates.php.
I also use other secret helpers such as ‘secret singer’ – when we sing a song I pick one person and observe him/ her singing. I am also responsible for taking my students downstairs after the end of lessons. It’s extremely hard for me to manage them walking in pairs, quietly without jumping or pushing. So every time I do that I say that I choose a secret walker and will watch that person going downstairs. They never know who it is so they all try to walk slowly and quietly. At the end I reveal the secret walker who scores a plus for his/her team if s/he walked calmly.
Rewards
* Place an empty jar in a visible place in the classroom and have a bag full of glass marbles ready. When you see your students work hard place a marble in the jar. A full jar means a special prize for the whole class. My third graders are collecting marbles and when their jar is full we will make a film or a photo story with Lego bricks. They just can’t wait to do it!
* Instead of marbles you may fill up the jar with sweets. When it’s full you can eat them all together.
* At the beginning of the week write the word SURPRISE on the board if you see kids misbehave during the class, walk to the board and without a word erase the first letter. If their behaviour improves add the letter again. If the class has the whole word at the end of the week they get a surprise at the first lesson in the new week, for example we play a game. Similarly, write the letter B on the board and when they work well or are quiet add letters to make BRAVO. If they get the whole word on one lesson or in one week they can choose a game to play.
* Hang a one-meter long piece of string in the class. On one side of the string attach a picture of a hedgehog with a clothes peg. On the other side attach a blown-up red balloon and a picture of an apple. Inside the balloon place a surprise – a piece of paper with the class favourite activity. Lesson after lesson, if the students behave and work well, the hedgehog moves closer to the apple. When it finally reaches it, pop the balloon to see what prize is waiting for us.
* To appreciate students’ efforts to speak English during the lesson, prepare a picture of an apple tree full of apples. If you notice a student trying to ask you or a friend about something in English write their name on one of the apples. The moment the tree is full of apples with names organise an English party in the class with cake and quizzes. Don’t forget to praise the children whose names appear most often on the tree. You might even send a note to the parents appreciating their child’s efforts.
* If you notice a praiseworthy behaviour, write that student’s name on a small piece of paper and place it a box. At the end of the week pick one slip of paper from that box. The name of the chosen student will hang on the special place of board for the whole week.
Classroom management doesn’t have to be boring, it might be entertaining, motivating and enjoyable. But it requires time so be prepared that you won’t change everything in one lesson. You won’t also be able to improve your students’ behaviour if you fail to be consistent. However, if you devote some of your time, energy and patience to establishing routines miracles will happen!
Read more at http://promo.oupe.es/oxfordprimarymagazine/2012/05/01/the-power-of-routine-part-2-classroom-management-tricks-that-work-with-young-learners/
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Quiet, please
Reprimanding the students who misbehave is essential but it isn’t motivational. You may say one name a hundred times during the lesson and nothing happens. You do it automatically, the child may not even notice, there is no improvement and there are no consequences.
* I-know-when-to-be-quiet kite works on the basis of the rule Catch Them Being Good. Prepare with your students a colourful kite and write there “I know when to be quiet”. Make a long tail of that kite and decorate it with paper bows, each with a student’s name. During the lesson look for students whose behaviour is exceptional. Instead of just saying “well done” appreciate them by decorating their bow with a sticker or a marker stamp. Make sure students know the moment when they are rewarded. Such a kite helps you to monitor the overall class behaviour, it is also a visual sign for parents how their child behaves during English lessons.
* Wooden clothes pegs might help you to manage your class noise level. Prepare a large circle divided into three parts: green – “I am quiet”, yellow – “Please, be quiet”, red – “You are too loud” and hang it in a visible place in the classroom. Take a black marker and write students’ names on the clothes peg. Start by placing all the pegs on the green area and then during the lesson reprimand the noisy students and place their pegs first on yellow and then, if there is no improvement, on red parts of the circle. Write down all the names of the students whose pegs remain on the red area when the lesson finishes. Think of appropriate consequences if the situation repeats, for example a note to parents or a minus at the end of the notebook.
* Defeat the creature is a technique to make everyone quiet without saying “be quiet” all the time. On the board draw a monster or a strange creature resembling a caterpillar with a head and five body parts. Explain the rules: if the class work quietly, you will secretly erase one body part but if they are rowdy you will add a body part. If all the body parts are erased and only the body is left then the class can choose an activity they would like to do at the beginning of the next lesson.
Choosing students
I teach over 60 students aged 6 to 10. It’s a lot but I know there are teachers who teach many more. All these children want special treatment and appreciation for their efforts and my memory isn’t good enough for all that. Sometimes I need one student to help me distribute a copy of an exercise and they all look at me imploringly. I choose one person and half of them are always disappointed and ask “Can it be me next time?” and I just say “Yes”, and during the next lesson I am not able to remember who it should be. And nothing is worse than broken promises.
These are a few hints that may help you deal with that problem:
* Use counting rhymes such as
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe,
Catch a tiger by the toe.
If he hollers let him go,
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe
Bubblegum, bubblegum,
In a dish,
How many pieces,
Do you wish?
Mickey mouse built a house.
How many bricks did he use?
The child who you point when saying “use” or “wish” in the two last rhymes says a number. Then count in any direction or count every second person. This eliminates a situation when students try to calculate to be chosen.
* Prepare one set of popsicle sticks or wooden spatulas (used by doctors to examine the throat) for every class you teach. Write students’ names on them and place them in a plastic cup or a jar. Whenever you need one person just take a popsicle stick out of the cup. To make it fair set apart the popsicle sticks of children who have already been chosen. It gives everyone a chance to be picked by the teacher.
* Who will clean the board? Who will distribute photocopied exercises? Who will sit next to the teacher in the circle? Picking one student means hurting five others. Class jobs chart eliminates such dilemmas. Think of all the jobs that are important for you during the lesson such as:
- Circle Buddy (two students who sit next to the teacher in the circle)
- Team Leader (two or three students who will be the leaders of the teams in a game)
- Paper Passer (distributes the photocopies)
- Board Eraser (cleans the board)
- Assistant (does the job of someone who is absent)
- On Holiday (has no job)
It’s best to have as many jobs as there are students in the class. One job such as a Circle Buddy should be always done by two students. Prepare a big poster with little paper pockets for each job. Then cut out the outlines of people (you can find them on the Internet) and on each one write a student’s name. Place student’s templates in the job chart’s pockets and rotate them every week.
* Picking somebody from the reward board works both as a motivator for better behaviour and as a help in choosing students. Prepare a big sign “Reward board” and hang it always in the same part of the board. When you notice a student working well write their name there. You might add the same student’s name a few times during one lesson. Later when you need a student for a special task just pick one name from that list.
Homework checking
Checking homework is time consuming no matter if you read at home 25 essays or just have a quick look at students’ workbooks during the lesson. Nevertheless, I believe in assigning homework and even more in checking it.
* If I give homework it must be done. If they forget to do it they should show it to me during the next lesson. Simple? But not in practice. How to remember who hasn’t done it previously? Write notes and then lose them? To avoid problems with homework checking try this: Each student has their own name written on the popsicle stick (a different set than for choosing students, can be marked with a different colour) and there are three plastic cups labelled: Homework, I’ve done homework and I haven’t done homework. At the beginning all the names are in the “homework” cup, then students at the beginning of the lesson place their popsicle stick in the proper cup depending whether or not they have done their homework. Those who are absent are left in the “homework” cup. Start the next lesson with the outstanding homework and then proceed with the new homework checking. If someone hasn’t done the same homework twice write a short note for parents or information in their notebooks “Please do your homework!”.
* Squeezing between the desks to have a look at the workbooks is complicated and you lose eye contact with the whole class. Sit at the teacher’s desk and ask students to come to you, stand in a line and wait with their notebooks or workbooks. Call them row by row as it eliminates long queues. Plan what the rest should do at that time. They might open the book and read or look at a picture story, they might revise words in pairs by naming pictures which hang on the board, they might listen to a story or a song from the previous lesson.
Secret worker, secret walker, secret singer
To make sure everyone cares and does their best I choose a secret worker – one person for a week. I never tell my class who it is. I only say I will observe this student all the time and if s/he works well s/he will get a ‘certificate of secret worker’ at the end of the week. You can find great ready-made certificates such as award ribbons at http://www.123certificates.com/ or www.senteacher.org/wk/certificates.php.
I also use other secret helpers such as ‘secret singer’ – when we sing a song I pick one person and observe him/ her singing. I am also responsible for taking my students downstairs after the end of lessons. It’s extremely hard for me to manage them walking in pairs, quietly without jumping or pushing. So every time I do that I say that I choose a secret walker and will watch that person going downstairs. They never know who it is so they all try to walk slowly and quietly. At the end I reveal the secret walker who scores a plus for his/her team if s/he walked calmly.
Rewards
* Place an empty jar in a visible place in the classroom and have a bag full of glass marbles ready. When you see your students work hard place a marble in the jar. A full jar means a special prize for the whole class. My third graders are collecting marbles and when their jar is full we will make a film or a photo story with Lego bricks. They just can’t wait to do it!
* Instead of marbles you may fill up the jar with sweets. When it’s full you can eat them all together.
* At the beginning of the week write the word SURPRISE on the board if you see kids misbehave during the class, walk to the board and without a word erase the first letter. If their behaviour improves add the letter again. If the class has the whole word at the end of the week they get a surprise at the first lesson in the new week, for example we play a game. Similarly, write the letter B on the board and when they work well or are quiet add letters to make BRAVO. If they get the whole word on one lesson or in one week they can choose a game to play.
* Hang a one-meter long piece of string in the class. On one side of the string attach a picture of a hedgehog with a clothes peg. On the other side attach a blown-up red balloon and a picture of an apple. Inside the balloon place a surprise – a piece of paper with the class favourite activity. Lesson after lesson, if the students behave and work well, the hedgehog moves closer to the apple. When it finally reaches it, pop the balloon to see what prize is waiting for us.
* To appreciate students’ efforts to speak English during the lesson, prepare a picture of an apple tree full of apples. If you notice a student trying to ask you or a friend about something in English write their name on one of the apples. The moment the tree is full of apples with names organise an English party in the class with cake and quizzes. Don’t forget to praise the children whose names appear most often on the tree. You might even send a note to the parents appreciating their child’s efforts.
* If you notice a praiseworthy behaviour, write that student’s name on a small piece of paper and place it a box. At the end of the week pick one slip of paper from that box. The name of the chosen student will hang on the special place of board for the whole week.
Classroom management doesn’t have to be boring, it might be entertaining, motivating and enjoyable. But it requires time so be prepared that you won’t change everything in one lesson. You won’t also be able to improve your students’ behaviour if you fail to be consistent. However, if you devote some of your time, energy and patience to establishing routines miracles will happen!
Read more at http://promo.oupe.es/oxfordprimarymagazine/2012/05/01/the-power-of-routine-part-2-classroom-management-tricks-that-work-with-young-learners/
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Friday, July 13, 2012
The Power of Routine PART 1- Classroom Management Tricks that Work with Young Learners
The Power of Routine PART 1: Classroom Management Tricks that Work with Young Learners.
Have you ever thought about an ideal class of young learners? Let’s get carried away and imagine what it could be like…
* Students try to speak English during the lesson
* Their desks are clean and neatly organised
* They never get distracted by the surrounding objects or people: they don’t play with toys or stationeries, they don’t talk to their friends
* They pay attention and listen to instructions
* There are no fights or tears when you choose one person to answer the question
* They work quietly
* They remember to go to the toilet before the lesson starts
* They always do their homework and never forget to bring their books
* They are motivated and willing to participate
Teachers working with kindergarten or primary children often express their feeling of dissatisfaction. Although they are well-prepared and full of ideas their lessons fall into pieces. Why? Maybe because teaching children means facing a reality where they tend to behave just the opposite to the list presented above. Unsurprisingly, successful lessons with young learners require getting them into classroom routines first. Only then can you follow with “Hello, what’s your name?” So spend as much time as you need to drill the behaviour patterns to make the dream of an ideal class come true (or almost true).
The first steps of classroom management
Effective classroom management takes time and requires consistence. It’s a process which needs to be well-planned to bring expected, or nearly expected, results. So before you rush into the classroom with your new vision sit down, have a cup of tea/coffee, analyse, reflect and draw conclusions.
1. Think what bothers you – it might be the noise level, the lack of attention, uncooperative behaviour.
2. Picture in your mind what change in behaviour you expect. Visualise in detail how the class should behave or what your lesson and the classroom should look like.
3. Choose one of the methods and decide how to use it in your classroom. Buy necessary gadgets, prepare posters or pictures. Make it work like a system: think of the consequences for breaking the rules and rewards for following them.
4. Explain the rules in the class: make it clear what you expect, show what it means if you stick to or disregard the new rules. Then drill them, rehearse them, play with them.
5. Apply the new routines daily, with every minute of your lesson. Be prepared to sacrifice a lot of your valuable teaching time at first. Gradually you will notice the benefits they bring and how automatic they have become.
Classroom management with young learner can and even should be creative, colourful and interesting. The best way to motivate children to change their behaviour is to treat the routine as another fun activity. These are a few ideas how to deal with the most common classroom management problems.
Train Carriages Race
The easiest way to start fresh with classroom routines is to introduce a comprehensive system. A system which has clear rules, explains rewards and consequences and leaves no room for exceptions. It will help you to solve or minimalise all the problems at the same time.
Step one: before the lesson
Prepare a list of labelled laminated images representing the key issues in the classroom, for example:
1. quite
2. clean desk
3. listen to teacher
4. work hard
5. change places / tasks quickly
6. homework
7. helpful and friendly
Step two: during the first lesson
Divide the class into three – four teams according to the rows they sit in. Assign a colour for each team and give them a train carriage in their colour. You can use colouring pages from the Internet such as http://www.coloring-pages-book-for-kids-boys.com/train-coloring-sheet.html. Then ask students to cut it out and write their names on the carriage.
Step three: during every lesson
At the beginning of every lesson attach these laminated pictures to the board. Prepare chalk/markers in the colours representing each team. Whenever you see they work nicely put a plus in their colour next to appropriate picture. Make sure you give points for keeping desks clean, sitting on the carpet without elbowing and quarrels who will sit next to the teacher. If, on the other hand, you spot they are rowdy or break the rules don’t say anything, just walk towards the board with the chalk and wait a second or two. If it doesn’t help add minuses.
Step four: at the end of each lesson
Finish the lesson two minutes earlier and spend this time summing up their behaviour. Count up all the pluses and minuses. And then rearrange the train carriages on the classroom display. The team with most pluses is the first followed by carriages with fewer pluses.
Step five: benefits
The system will only work well if it is tempting enough. That is why I use an extended version. If a team gets five pluses during one lesson I make a decorative hole (with a special punch) in their train carriage. Even if they later lose their first position the special hole is there forever and anyone visiting the classroom can see how they work during the lessons. When the team has two holes on their carriage I write a short note of praise for parents. Collecting five holes means that the whole team can choose a fun activity for the last 15 minutes of the lesson.
Keeping desks clean
Keeping a clean desk in a primary school is a serious issue as children spend half of their day in the same classroom. So when an English lesson starts at quarter to twelve you can’t believe your eyes: open fold out pencil cases with all the precious things lying around in a nice disarrangement, half eaten sandwiches, bottles of juice, projects, pictures, enormous soft toys, collections of Pet Shop toys or Lego Star Wars bricks, books on all subjects. And English books are still in the school bag! The problem is not so much in having all those things on the desk but in children being constantly engaged in touching, playing with or showing them to friends. Start waging a war against cluttered desks and in a split second you will be pleasantly surprised that a few tricks may work like magic.
* The train system is a constant reminder to keep everything clean and organised. Check the desks a few times during the lesson and give pluses or minuses.
* Start a lesson with a clean-up song. It’s best to have something energetic and catchy. A good choice is Indiana Jones theme or 2010 FIFA World Cup anthem “Wavin flag” by K’naan. Play the song and it will be the signal to get organised, take out their English books, put unnecessary things away, place everything in one corner of the desk and close the pencil cases (in the first or second grade I strongly oppose to keeping pencil cases open because they are the temptation children can’t resist!).
* A clean desk fairy might unexpectedly pay a visit and reward the neatly organised desks with a sweet or her own picture (find suitable stickers or images on the Internet) which children stick at the end of their English notebook.
* Sometimes these are not the desks that are the problem but the general mess: school bags in the middle of the class, pieces of paper or tissues on the floor. Think of a place in the classroom which looks messy or disorganised, for example an apple core lying on the floor by the bin. Play the song and say “There is a “mystery spot” which needs to be clean again”. Children start cleaning and whoever finds the mystery spot gets a plus/point for his/her team.
Attention getters
I used to believe my voice is strong enough to make the whole class quiet. During the first lesson I realised that the more I raised my voice the louder they were. Actually it’s not the power of voice that counts (though it is helpful) but the routines which get their attention and make them concentrate.
Use a variety of objects which instantly make everyone quiet such as whistles, wooden castanets, bells, tambourines, rattles, maracas. Most of these can be bought at school supply stores or music shops and are relatively cheap. They are easily heard and you may create the whole system, for example one bell ring means look at me, listen and don’t move, two bell rings: close your books and organise your desks, three bell rings: sit on the carpet.
You may also use chants which are extremely useful and effective as they keep the kids engaged.
Teacher: Hands on top (children raise their hands and put them on their heads)Students: Everybody stopThis chant works like magic because putting hands up means that you can’t hold crayons, pens, pencils, toys etc at the same time.T: If you’re listening clap your handsSs: (clap their hands)T: If you’re listening touch your nose Ss (touch your nose)It’s not a chant but it works in the same stimulus – response way. You can clearly see when children join in with the actions. You can add more actions or repeat the previous ones until you are absolutely sure you have everyone’s attention. That activity works really well as children feel a natural desire to join in when something is happening.T: One, two, three eyes one meSs: One, two eyes on you
T: One, two
Ss: Eyes on you
T: Three, four
Ss: Talk no more
T: Ready to rock
Ss: Ready to roll
T: Hocus Pocus, everybody
Ss: Focus
T: Macaroni and Cheese, everybody
Ss: Freeze
You might try a technique introduced by Harry K. Wong called “Give me Five” where each finger represents a desired type of behaviour starting with the pinky: eyes on speaker, mouth quiet, body still, hands free, listen. Prepare a poster with a hand and pictures illustrating what type of behaviour each finger represents and hang in the classroom. Students might also trace the shape of their hands and decorate the fingers with pictures symbolising each rule. When you want to get students’ attention say Give me Five and go finger by finger saying One – eyes on speaker and so on. After every finger, make a short pause and check if students actually perform the action. When children are more familiar with the technique it’s enough to say Give me five 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 making sure they behave properly.
Read more at http://promo.oupe.es/oxfordprimarymagazine/2012/03/30/the-power-of-routine-part-1-classroom-management-tricks-that-work-with-young-learners/
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Have you ever thought about an ideal class of young learners? Let’s get carried away and imagine what it could be like…
* Students try to speak English during the lesson
* Their desks are clean and neatly organised
* They never get distracted by the surrounding objects or people: they don’t play with toys or stationeries, they don’t talk to their friends
* They pay attention and listen to instructions
* There are no fights or tears when you choose one person to answer the question
* They work quietly
* They remember to go to the toilet before the lesson starts
* They always do their homework and never forget to bring their books
* They are motivated and willing to participate
Teachers working with kindergarten or primary children often express their feeling of dissatisfaction. Although they are well-prepared and full of ideas their lessons fall into pieces. Why? Maybe because teaching children means facing a reality where they tend to behave just the opposite to the list presented above. Unsurprisingly, successful lessons with young learners require getting them into classroom routines first. Only then can you follow with “Hello, what’s your name?” So spend as much time as you need to drill the behaviour patterns to make the dream of an ideal class come true (or almost true).
The first steps of classroom management
Effective classroom management takes time and requires consistence. It’s a process which needs to be well-planned to bring expected, or nearly expected, results. So before you rush into the classroom with your new vision sit down, have a cup of tea/coffee, analyse, reflect and draw conclusions.
1. Think what bothers you – it might be the noise level, the lack of attention, uncooperative behaviour.
2. Picture in your mind what change in behaviour you expect. Visualise in detail how the class should behave or what your lesson and the classroom should look like.
3. Choose one of the methods and decide how to use it in your classroom. Buy necessary gadgets, prepare posters or pictures. Make it work like a system: think of the consequences for breaking the rules and rewards for following them.
4. Explain the rules in the class: make it clear what you expect, show what it means if you stick to or disregard the new rules. Then drill them, rehearse them, play with them.
5. Apply the new routines daily, with every minute of your lesson. Be prepared to sacrifice a lot of your valuable teaching time at first. Gradually you will notice the benefits they bring and how automatic they have become.
Classroom management with young learner can and even should be creative, colourful and interesting. The best way to motivate children to change their behaviour is to treat the routine as another fun activity. These are a few ideas how to deal with the most common classroom management problems.
Train Carriages Race
The easiest way to start fresh with classroom routines is to introduce a comprehensive system. A system which has clear rules, explains rewards and consequences and leaves no room for exceptions. It will help you to solve or minimalise all the problems at the same time.
Step one: before the lesson
Prepare a list of labelled laminated images representing the key issues in the classroom, for example:
1. quite
2. clean desk
3. listen to teacher
4. work hard
5. change places / tasks quickly
6. homework
7. helpful and friendly
Step two: during the first lesson
Divide the class into three – four teams according to the rows they sit in. Assign a colour for each team and give them a train carriage in their colour. You can use colouring pages from the Internet such as http://www.coloring-pages-book-for-kids-boys.com/train-coloring-sheet.html. Then ask students to cut it out and write their names on the carriage.
Step three: during every lesson
At the beginning of every lesson attach these laminated pictures to the board. Prepare chalk/markers in the colours representing each team. Whenever you see they work nicely put a plus in their colour next to appropriate picture. Make sure you give points for keeping desks clean, sitting on the carpet without elbowing and quarrels who will sit next to the teacher. If, on the other hand, you spot they are rowdy or break the rules don’t say anything, just walk towards the board with the chalk and wait a second or two. If it doesn’t help add minuses.
Step four: at the end of each lesson
Finish the lesson two minutes earlier and spend this time summing up their behaviour. Count up all the pluses and minuses. And then rearrange the train carriages on the classroom display. The team with most pluses is the first followed by carriages with fewer pluses.
Step five: benefits
The system will only work well if it is tempting enough. That is why I use an extended version. If a team gets five pluses during one lesson I make a decorative hole (with a special punch) in their train carriage. Even if they later lose their first position the special hole is there forever and anyone visiting the classroom can see how they work during the lessons. When the team has two holes on their carriage I write a short note of praise for parents. Collecting five holes means that the whole team can choose a fun activity for the last 15 minutes of the lesson.
Keeping desks clean
Keeping a clean desk in a primary school is a serious issue as children spend half of their day in the same classroom. So when an English lesson starts at quarter to twelve you can’t believe your eyes: open fold out pencil cases with all the precious things lying around in a nice disarrangement, half eaten sandwiches, bottles of juice, projects, pictures, enormous soft toys, collections of Pet Shop toys or Lego Star Wars bricks, books on all subjects. And English books are still in the school bag! The problem is not so much in having all those things on the desk but in children being constantly engaged in touching, playing with or showing them to friends. Start waging a war against cluttered desks and in a split second you will be pleasantly surprised that a few tricks may work like magic.
* The train system is a constant reminder to keep everything clean and organised. Check the desks a few times during the lesson and give pluses or minuses.
* Start a lesson with a clean-up song. It’s best to have something energetic and catchy. A good choice is Indiana Jones theme or 2010 FIFA World Cup anthem “Wavin flag” by K’naan. Play the song and it will be the signal to get organised, take out their English books, put unnecessary things away, place everything in one corner of the desk and close the pencil cases (in the first or second grade I strongly oppose to keeping pencil cases open because they are the temptation children can’t resist!).
* A clean desk fairy might unexpectedly pay a visit and reward the neatly organised desks with a sweet or her own picture (find suitable stickers or images on the Internet) which children stick at the end of their English notebook.
* Sometimes these are not the desks that are the problem but the general mess: school bags in the middle of the class, pieces of paper or tissues on the floor. Think of a place in the classroom which looks messy or disorganised, for example an apple core lying on the floor by the bin. Play the song and say “There is a “mystery spot” which needs to be clean again”. Children start cleaning and whoever finds the mystery spot gets a plus/point for his/her team.
Attention getters
I used to believe my voice is strong enough to make the whole class quiet. During the first lesson I realised that the more I raised my voice the louder they were. Actually it’s not the power of voice that counts (though it is helpful) but the routines which get their attention and make them concentrate.
Use a variety of objects which instantly make everyone quiet such as whistles, wooden castanets, bells, tambourines, rattles, maracas. Most of these can be bought at school supply stores or music shops and are relatively cheap. They are easily heard and you may create the whole system, for example one bell ring means look at me, listen and don’t move, two bell rings: close your books and organise your desks, three bell rings: sit on the carpet.
You may also use chants which are extremely useful and effective as they keep the kids engaged.
Teacher: Hands on top (children raise their hands and put them on their heads)Students: Everybody stopThis chant works like magic because putting hands up means that you can’t hold crayons, pens, pencils, toys etc at the same time.T: If you’re listening clap your handsSs: (clap their hands)T: If you’re listening touch your nose Ss (touch your nose)It’s not a chant but it works in the same stimulus – response way. You can clearly see when children join in with the actions. You can add more actions or repeat the previous ones until you are absolutely sure you have everyone’s attention. That activity works really well as children feel a natural desire to join in when something is happening.T: One, two, three eyes one meSs: One, two eyes on you
T: One, two
Ss: Eyes on you
T: Three, four
Ss: Talk no more
T: Ready to rock
Ss: Ready to roll
T: Hocus Pocus, everybody
Ss: Focus
T: Macaroni and Cheese, everybody
Ss: Freeze
You might try a technique introduced by Harry K. Wong called “Give me Five” where each finger represents a desired type of behaviour starting with the pinky: eyes on speaker, mouth quiet, body still, hands free, listen. Prepare a poster with a hand and pictures illustrating what type of behaviour each finger represents and hang in the classroom. Students might also trace the shape of their hands and decorate the fingers with pictures symbolising each rule. When you want to get students’ attention say Give me Five and go finger by finger saying One – eyes on speaker and so on. After every finger, make a short pause and check if students actually perform the action. When children are more familiar with the technique it’s enough to say Give me five 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 making sure they behave properly.
Read more at http://promo.oupe.es/oxfordprimarymagazine/2012/03/30/the-power-of-routine-part-1-classroom-management-tricks-that-work-with-young-learners/
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
A Classroom Management Plan That Works
A Classroom Management Plan That Works.
In his book, Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys To Creativity, Hugh MacLeod points out that Abraham Lincoln penned the Gettysburg Address on borrowed stationary.
Hemingway wrote with a simple fountain pen.
Van Gogh rarely used more than six colors on his palate.
And MacLeod, himself an artist, sketches cartoons on the back of business cards.
His point is that there is zero correlation between creative talent and the materials and equipment used.
The same can be said about an effective classroom management plan.
A simple set of rules and consequences hand-printed on ordinary poster board is all you need.
You see…
There is no magic in the plan itself. It has no power to influence behavior. Only you have the power to influence behavior by creating a classroom your students want to be part of and then strictly—obsessively—holding them accountable.
Therefore your plan doesn’t need to be elaborate, complex, or involved.
It just needs to be followed.
A Classroom Management Plan Is A Contract
A classroom management plan is a contract you make with your students that promises you will protect their right to learn and enjoy school without interference.
And once it’s presented to your class, you’re bound by this contract to follow it every minute of every day and without exception.
Otherwise, if you don’t, you’re breaking your word—and your students’ trust.
A classroom management plan has two, and only two, purposes:
1. To state the rules of the classroom.
2. To state exactly what will happen if those rules are broken.
That’s it.
Some will tell you that you need to include a system of rewards and incentives. But to really change behavior, to create the class you really want, you have to let go of this idea.
The “do this and get that” mentality is a short-term solution that may get you through the day, and thus is a good strategy for substitute teachers, but it won’t actually change behavior.
It won’t transform your students into the class you really want.
A Classroom Management Plan I Recommend
I recommend the following plan because the rules cover every behavior that could potentially interfere with the learning and enjoyment of your students, and the consequences, when carried out correctly, teach valuable life lessons.
It’s proven to work regardless of where you teach or who is in your classroom.
Rules:
1. Listen and follow directions.
2. Raise your hand before speaking or leaving your seat.
3. Keep your hands and feet to yourself.
4. Respect your classmates and your teacher.
Consequences:
1st time a rule is broken: Warning
2nd time a rule is broken: Time-Out
3rd time a rule is broken: Letter Home
Notes:
*For information on warnings and how they can be effective, see the articles Should A Warning Be Your First Consequence and How To Give A Warning That Improves Behavior.
*For information on time-out, see How To Get Students To Stay Seated And Quiet In Time-Out and 10 Ways To Make Time-Out More Effective.
*For information on sending a letter home, see the article Why A Letter Home Is An Effective Consequence.
A Small Role, But A High Priority
A common mistake teachers make is assuming that a classroom management plan is able to do more than its intended—and quite narrow—purpose (see above).
On its own, it provides little motivation for students to behave.
Its usefulness comes from how it’s implemented, enforced, and carried out, from how you communicate with your students, from how much leverage you have with them, and from how much they enjoy being part of your classroom.
Your classroom should be exciting and creative. Your classroom management plan, however, shouldn’t be.
Avoid cutesy and colorful designs. Even kindergarteners need to know that your classroom management plan and the rules by which it governs are sacred, serious.
Let it have a look worthy of its utilitarian purpose.
Two large pieces of poster board or construction paper—rules on one, consequences on the other—will do. Put them up on your wall, prominently, so everyone who enters your classroom will know that behaving in a manner that is most conducive to learning is a priority in your classroom.
Then honor the contract you made with your students by following it exactly as it’s written.
Read more at http://www.smartclassroommanagement.com/2010/06/26/classroom-management-plan/
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
In his book, Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys To Creativity, Hugh MacLeod points out that Abraham Lincoln penned the Gettysburg Address on borrowed stationary.
Hemingway wrote with a simple fountain pen.
Van Gogh rarely used more than six colors on his palate.
And MacLeod, himself an artist, sketches cartoons on the back of business cards.
His point is that there is zero correlation between creative talent and the materials and equipment used.
The same can be said about an effective classroom management plan.
A simple set of rules and consequences hand-printed on ordinary poster board is all you need.
You see…
There is no magic in the plan itself. It has no power to influence behavior. Only you have the power to influence behavior by creating a classroom your students want to be part of and then strictly—obsessively—holding them accountable.
Therefore your plan doesn’t need to be elaborate, complex, or involved.
It just needs to be followed.
A Classroom Management Plan Is A Contract
A classroom management plan is a contract you make with your students that promises you will protect their right to learn and enjoy school without interference.
And once it’s presented to your class, you’re bound by this contract to follow it every minute of every day and without exception.
Otherwise, if you don’t, you’re breaking your word—and your students’ trust.
A classroom management plan has two, and only two, purposes:
1. To state the rules of the classroom.
2. To state exactly what will happen if those rules are broken.
That’s it.
Some will tell you that you need to include a system of rewards and incentives. But to really change behavior, to create the class you really want, you have to let go of this idea.
The “do this and get that” mentality is a short-term solution that may get you through the day, and thus is a good strategy for substitute teachers, but it won’t actually change behavior.
It won’t transform your students into the class you really want.
A Classroom Management Plan I Recommend
I recommend the following plan because the rules cover every behavior that could potentially interfere with the learning and enjoyment of your students, and the consequences, when carried out correctly, teach valuable life lessons.
It’s proven to work regardless of where you teach or who is in your classroom.
Rules:
1. Listen and follow directions.
2. Raise your hand before speaking or leaving your seat.
3. Keep your hands and feet to yourself.
4. Respect your classmates and your teacher.
Consequences:
1st time a rule is broken: Warning
2nd time a rule is broken: Time-Out
3rd time a rule is broken: Letter Home
Notes:
*For information on warnings and how they can be effective, see the articles Should A Warning Be Your First Consequence and How To Give A Warning That Improves Behavior.
*For information on time-out, see How To Get Students To Stay Seated And Quiet In Time-Out and 10 Ways To Make Time-Out More Effective.
*For information on sending a letter home, see the article Why A Letter Home Is An Effective Consequence.
A Small Role, But A High Priority
A common mistake teachers make is assuming that a classroom management plan is able to do more than its intended—and quite narrow—purpose (see above).
On its own, it provides little motivation for students to behave.
Its usefulness comes from how it’s implemented, enforced, and carried out, from how you communicate with your students, from how much leverage you have with them, and from how much they enjoy being part of your classroom.
Your classroom should be exciting and creative. Your classroom management plan, however, shouldn’t be.
Avoid cutesy and colorful designs. Even kindergarteners need to know that your classroom management plan and the rules by which it governs are sacred, serious.
Let it have a look worthy of its utilitarian purpose.
Two large pieces of poster board or construction paper—rules on one, consequences on the other—will do. Put them up on your wall, prominently, so everyone who enters your classroom will know that behaving in a manner that is most conducive to learning is a priority in your classroom.
Then honor the contract you made with your students by following it exactly as it’s written.
Read more at http://www.smartclassroommanagement.com/2010/06/26/classroom-management-plan/
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Global Education-Bringing the World to Your Classroom
Global Education: Bringing the World to Your Classroom.
I love to travel. In my eight years of teaching, I have seized several (free) opportunities to see the world. Travel has enriched my teaching, allowing me to bring international experiences directly back to my students.
This year I participated in the Teachers for Global Classrooms fellowship, a program of the U.S. State Department.
I joined 64 teachers from around the country in completing an online course on best practices in global education. In February, we attended a global education symposium in Washington, D.C., accompanied by administrators from our schools.
And I just returned from an eye-opening trip to Brazil with 10 other TGC teachers. We spent two weeks observing and co-teaching in schools (both public and private). Other teachers in the program traveled to India, Ghana, Indonesia, Morocco, and Ukraine.
One takeaway from my fellowship experience is a clearer understanding of what teaching global competencies might look like in practice. The Asia Society and the Council of Chief State School Officers have produced a series of global competence matrices (PDF). I started using these matrices this year as a way to evaluate my own curriculum. Recently, I've been embedding competencies into my student assessment rubrics.
The four main elements of the global competence matrix are:
• Investigate the world.
• Recognize perspectives.
• Communicate ideas.
• Take action.
We should be teaching our students these skills, and of course, mastering the competencies ourselves. They probably sound familiar: Some call them 21st-century skills, and others refer to them as the new basics. Students need to go beyond their comfort zones and actively learn from (not just about) people who have different worldviews.
This is not a call to throw out the curricula that we are currently using. On the contrary, it's an opportunity to enhance our practice and create a more rigorous and meaningful learning environment for our students.
In teaching U.S. history this past school year, I have worked with colleagues to revise our Progressive Era and Great Depression units, incorporating more opportunities for students to develop global competencies.
Investigate the World and Recognize Perspectives
Progressive Era unit: After a look at Teddy Roosevelt and the creation of the national parks system, students learned about differing views on the management of public lands a hundred years ago (focusing on John Muir, Gifford Pinchot, and Richard Ballinger). Students analyzed and debated the decision to dam the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite. We tried to push students to recognize their own perspectives within the spectrum of preservationist, conservationist, and laissez-faire attitudes.
Great Depression unit: We redesigned our Great Depression unit to follow an arc that led to a study of the Great Recession of 2007-09. We began by looking at the causes of the 1929 stock market crash and the widespread bank failures that followed. Then we moved on to study the "alphabet soup" of New Deal programs and the impact of the depression on people's everyday lives. Next, we compared different economic perspectives on the causes of and responses to the Depression, including a theoretical comparison of capitalism and communism.
Communicate Ideas / Taking Action
Progressive Era unit: We finished the unit by turning to the present. Students studied the current debate over the Keystone Pipeline project. After role-playing a town hall meeting on the pipeline issue, students wrote letters to President Obama that showed an understanding of multiple perspectives and incorporated the history of American conservationism and environmentalism. We hope that the President will be impressed by the level of global competence in the 100 letters, especially the act of sending them.
Great Depression unit: Similarly, we ended the Great Depression unit in the present. We looked at the recent economic recession, focusing on the collapse of the housing bubble, and the growing income inequality gap. Students debated three perspectives on economic policy:
• The call for a "New New Deal" and increased taxation of the wealthiest Americans.
• A focus on deficit reduction and tax cuts.
• A call for a new, more just system altogether.
Background materials included rhetoric from the Obama campaign, the Republican Party's economic platform, and the Occupy Movement. We hope that students take action by personally engaging with these important issues, and that those who are eligible voters will feel informed enough to participate in this November’s presidential election.
But you don't have to be a social studies teacher to incorporate the global competencies—the matrices address numerous content areas.
And you don't have to take students across international borders. You can help your students practice the skills of recognizing different perspectives and communicating ideas effectively in your own classroom, engaging the diverse perspectives found in your own community and school.
There are also easy ways to connect with classrooms around the world. You can start by simple class-to-class communication and then advance to collaborating with classes in other countries on specific projects. (I've listed some of my favorite resources below.)
The time to take global education seriously is now. Whether you believe we need to prepare students to compete economically with students from other nations or that graduates need to have the skills to collaborate with others to solve complex problems, the global competencies are critical.
Read more at http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2012/07/03/tln_zeichner.html?tkn=NXVDqq2alkusePtHLnERebzr7NQfrwDKMPu0&intc=es
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
I love to travel. In my eight years of teaching, I have seized several (free) opportunities to see the world. Travel has enriched my teaching, allowing me to bring international experiences directly back to my students.
This year I participated in the Teachers for Global Classrooms fellowship, a program of the U.S. State Department.
I joined 64 teachers from around the country in completing an online course on best practices in global education. In February, we attended a global education symposium in Washington, D.C., accompanied by administrators from our schools.
And I just returned from an eye-opening trip to Brazil with 10 other TGC teachers. We spent two weeks observing and co-teaching in schools (both public and private). Other teachers in the program traveled to India, Ghana, Indonesia, Morocco, and Ukraine.
One takeaway from my fellowship experience is a clearer understanding of what teaching global competencies might look like in practice. The Asia Society and the Council of Chief State School Officers have produced a series of global competence matrices (PDF). I started using these matrices this year as a way to evaluate my own curriculum. Recently, I've been embedding competencies into my student assessment rubrics.
The four main elements of the global competence matrix are:
• Investigate the world.
• Recognize perspectives.
• Communicate ideas.
• Take action.
We should be teaching our students these skills, and of course, mastering the competencies ourselves. They probably sound familiar: Some call them 21st-century skills, and others refer to them as the new basics. Students need to go beyond their comfort zones and actively learn from (not just about) people who have different worldviews.
This is not a call to throw out the curricula that we are currently using. On the contrary, it's an opportunity to enhance our practice and create a more rigorous and meaningful learning environment for our students.
In teaching U.S. history this past school year, I have worked with colleagues to revise our Progressive Era and Great Depression units, incorporating more opportunities for students to develop global competencies.
Investigate the World and Recognize Perspectives
Progressive Era unit: After a look at Teddy Roosevelt and the creation of the national parks system, students learned about differing views on the management of public lands a hundred years ago (focusing on John Muir, Gifford Pinchot, and Richard Ballinger). Students analyzed and debated the decision to dam the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite. We tried to push students to recognize their own perspectives within the spectrum of preservationist, conservationist, and laissez-faire attitudes.
Great Depression unit: We redesigned our Great Depression unit to follow an arc that led to a study of the Great Recession of 2007-09. We began by looking at the causes of the 1929 stock market crash and the widespread bank failures that followed. Then we moved on to study the "alphabet soup" of New Deal programs and the impact of the depression on people's everyday lives. Next, we compared different economic perspectives on the causes of and responses to the Depression, including a theoretical comparison of capitalism and communism.
Communicate Ideas / Taking Action
Progressive Era unit: We finished the unit by turning to the present. Students studied the current debate over the Keystone Pipeline project. After role-playing a town hall meeting on the pipeline issue, students wrote letters to President Obama that showed an understanding of multiple perspectives and incorporated the history of American conservationism and environmentalism. We hope that the President will be impressed by the level of global competence in the 100 letters, especially the act of sending them.
Great Depression unit: Similarly, we ended the Great Depression unit in the present. We looked at the recent economic recession, focusing on the collapse of the housing bubble, and the growing income inequality gap. Students debated three perspectives on economic policy:
• The call for a "New New Deal" and increased taxation of the wealthiest Americans.
• A focus on deficit reduction and tax cuts.
• A call for a new, more just system altogether.
Background materials included rhetoric from the Obama campaign, the Republican Party's economic platform, and the Occupy Movement. We hope that students take action by personally engaging with these important issues, and that those who are eligible voters will feel informed enough to participate in this November’s presidential election.
But you don't have to be a social studies teacher to incorporate the global competencies—the matrices address numerous content areas.
And you don't have to take students across international borders. You can help your students practice the skills of recognizing different perspectives and communicating ideas effectively in your own classroom, engaging the diverse perspectives found in your own community and school.
There are also easy ways to connect with classrooms around the world. You can start by simple class-to-class communication and then advance to collaborating with classes in other countries on specific projects. (I've listed some of my favorite resources below.)
The time to take global education seriously is now. Whether you believe we need to prepare students to compete economically with students from other nations or that graduates need to have the skills to collaborate with others to solve complex problems, the global competencies are critical.
Read more at http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2012/07/03/tln_zeichner.html?tkn=NXVDqq2alkusePtHLnERebzr7NQfrwDKMPu0&intc=es
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Project Learning Teaching Strategies Can Also Improve Your Everyday Classroom Experience
Project Learning Teaching Strategies Can Also Improve Your Everyday Classroom Experience.
As a teacher, my goal was to go home at the end of each day with more energy than I had at the beginning of the day. Seriously.
Now, as I travel the country coaching teachers on how to successfully use project learning, my goal remains the same. And I try to teach educators the strategies they need to achieve this goal in their own classrooms.
A teacher in one of my workshops said, "When my students and I are in the flow, then I don't feel like I have to work as hard." I heartily agree. When 90 to 100 percent of my students are excitedly engaged in their tasks and asking deep and interesting questions, I experience joy, and joy is a lot less tiring than the frustration that comes with student apathy.
Project-based classrooms with an active-learning environment make such in-the-flow moments more common. Yet these same classrooms require many teacher and student skills to work well. As teachers, we can feel overwhelmed when we try something new and experience chaos instead of flow.
The good news is that the strategies for creating and managing high-quality project-learning environments are productive in any classroom, whether project learning is a central part of the curriculum or not. Here are ten ideas that you can start practicing in your classroom today to help you create more moments of flow.
Create an Emotionally Safe Classroom
Students who have been shamed or belittled by the teacher or another student will not effectively engage in challenging tasks. Consider having a rule such as "We do not put others downs, tell others to shut up, or laugh at people." Apply it to yourself as well as your students. This is the foundation of a supportive, collaborative learning environment. To learn and grow, one must take risks, but most people will not take risks in an emotionally unsafe environment.
Create an Intellectually Safe Classroom
Begin every activity with a task that 95 percent of the class can do without your help. Get your students used to the fact that when you say, "Please begin," they should pick up a pencil and start working successfully. This gets everyone on the bus. Then make sure your students know that these initial easy tasks will always be followed by increasingly challenging ones. Create rich and complex tasks so that various students have a chance to excel and take on the role of helping others.
Cultivate Your Engagement Meter
Be acutely aware of when your students are paying strong attention or are deeply engaged in their tasks. Master teachers create an active-learning environment in which students are on task in their thinking and speaking or are collaboratively working close to 100 percent of the time. Such teachers notice and measure not only when students are on task but also the quality of their engagement.
Although it may take years to develop the repertoire of skills and lessons that enable you to permanently create this active-learning environment, you can begin by discerning which activities truly engage your students. The more brutally honest you are with yourself, the faster you will get there.
Create Appropriate Intermediate Steps
The first question I ask educators when I coach them on project learning is how many of their students say, "We can't wait to do another project," versus "Oh, no! Not another project." Teachers tend to get the first response when they scaffold challenging tasks so that all students are successful.
For example, take the typical task of interviewing an adult outside the classroom. Some teachers assign the task on Monday and expect it to be done the following Monday, confident that by including the weekend, they are providing sufficient support. Other teachers realize that finding, cold calling, and interviewing an adult are challenging tasks for most young people, so they create intermediate steps -- such as brainstorming, searching online for phone numbers, crafting high-quality interview questions, and role-playing the interview -- that train all students for success.
Practice Journal or Blog Writing to Communicate with Students
Japanese teachers highly value the last five minutes of class as a time for summarizing, sharing, and reflecting. A nice way to change the pace of your class is to have students write regular reflections on the work they have done. Encourage and focus their writing with a prompt, such as "The Muddiest Point and the Clearest Point: What was most confusing about the work you did today, and what new thing was the most clear?" Use this approach to guide future lessons and activities. Consider writing responses to student journal entries in order to carry on a conversation with students about their work.
Create a Culture of Explanation Instead of a Culture of the Right Answer
You know you have created a rich learning event when all students are engaged in arguing about the best approach to the assignment. When you use questions and problems that allow for multiple strategies to reach a successful outcome, you give students the opportunity to make choices and then compare their approaches. This strategy challenges them to operate at a higher level of thinking than when they can share only the "correct" answer. Avidly collect problems and tasks that have multiple paths to a solution. As a math teacher, I create problems that have a lot of numbers instead of the usual two. For example, I can present this problem:
5 + 13 + 24 - 8 + 47 - 12 + 59 - 31 - 5 + 9 - 46 - 23 + 32 - 60
Then I can say, "There are at least three fundamentally different strategies for doing the following problem. Can you find them all?"
Teach Self-Awareness About Knowledge
All subjects build on prior knowledge and increase in complexity at each successive level of mastery. Effective learning requires that certain skills and processes be available for quick recall. Many students let too much of their knowledge float in a sea of confusion and develop a habit of guessing, sometimes without even knowing that they are guessing.
Credit: Courtesy of Tristan de Frondeville
To help students break this habit, paste the graphic at right next to each question on your assessments. After the students answer a question, have them place an X on the line to represent how sure they are that their answer is correct. This approach encourages them to check their answer and reflect on their confidence level. It is informative when they get it wrong but marked "for sure" or when they do the opposite and mark "confused" yet get the answer right.
Use Questioning Strategies That Make All Students Think and Answer
Pay a visit to many classrooms and you'll see a familiar scene: The teacher asks questions and, always, the same reliable hands raise up. This pattern lends itself to student inattention. Every day, include some questions you require every student to answer. Find a question you know everyone can answer simply, and have the class respond all at once.
You can ask students to put a finger up when they're ready to answer, and once they all do, ask them to whisper the answer at the count of three. They can answer yes, no, or maybe with a thumbs-up, thumbs-down, or thumbs-sideways gesture. That also works for "I agree," "I disagree," or "I'm not sure."
Numerical answers under ten are easy to show with fingers, but don't limit yourself to math questions. For instance, if you're teaching time management, have students let you know what their progress is halfway through the class by putting up one or more fingers to show whether they are one-, two-, or three-quarters done with the assignment, or finished. Do these exercises at least two or three times per class.
Practice Using the Design Process to Increase the Quality of Work
Students in school get used to doing work at a consistent level of quality. Unfortunately, low-performing students get used to doing poor-quality work. To help them break the habit, use a draft-and-revision process.
Many professionals use such a design process to increase the quality of their work. Engineers build prototypes, respond to critical feedback, and refine their design before going into production. Artists make sketches of big works and revise their ideas before creating their final piece. Use the design process to drive your students to produce higher-quality work than they are used to doing when they create only a first effort. Include peer evaluation as part of the feedback they receive.
Market Your Projects
When your students ask, "Why do we need to know this?" you must be ready with the best answer possible. Great projects incorporate authentic tasks that will help students in their lives, jobs, or relationships. Engage students by developing an inventory of big ideas to help you make the connections between your assignments and important life skills, expertise, high-quality work, and craftsmanship. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills provides a good starter list.
Also, search out the powerful processes and ideas experts in your own subject use repeatedly. (In math, for instance, my list includes generalizing and parts and wholes.) Keep a journal of the big ideas you've discovered simply by teaching your subject. By continually referring to these big ideas, you will encourage students to think and act like subject-matter experts and develop skills they will use throughout their lives.
Read more at http://www.edutopia.org/project-learning-teaching-strategies
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
As a teacher, my goal was to go home at the end of each day with more energy than I had at the beginning of the day. Seriously.
Now, as I travel the country coaching teachers on how to successfully use project learning, my goal remains the same. And I try to teach educators the strategies they need to achieve this goal in their own classrooms.
A teacher in one of my workshops said, "When my students and I are in the flow, then I don't feel like I have to work as hard." I heartily agree. When 90 to 100 percent of my students are excitedly engaged in their tasks and asking deep and interesting questions, I experience joy, and joy is a lot less tiring than the frustration that comes with student apathy.
Project-based classrooms with an active-learning environment make such in-the-flow moments more common. Yet these same classrooms require many teacher and student skills to work well. As teachers, we can feel overwhelmed when we try something new and experience chaos instead of flow.
The good news is that the strategies for creating and managing high-quality project-learning environments are productive in any classroom, whether project learning is a central part of the curriculum or not. Here are ten ideas that you can start practicing in your classroom today to help you create more moments of flow.
Create an Emotionally Safe Classroom
Students who have been shamed or belittled by the teacher or another student will not effectively engage in challenging tasks. Consider having a rule such as "We do not put others downs, tell others to shut up, or laugh at people." Apply it to yourself as well as your students. This is the foundation of a supportive, collaborative learning environment. To learn and grow, one must take risks, but most people will not take risks in an emotionally unsafe environment.
Create an Intellectually Safe Classroom
Begin every activity with a task that 95 percent of the class can do without your help. Get your students used to the fact that when you say, "Please begin," they should pick up a pencil and start working successfully. This gets everyone on the bus. Then make sure your students know that these initial easy tasks will always be followed by increasingly challenging ones. Create rich and complex tasks so that various students have a chance to excel and take on the role of helping others.
Cultivate Your Engagement Meter
Be acutely aware of when your students are paying strong attention or are deeply engaged in their tasks. Master teachers create an active-learning environment in which students are on task in their thinking and speaking or are collaboratively working close to 100 percent of the time. Such teachers notice and measure not only when students are on task but also the quality of their engagement.
Although it may take years to develop the repertoire of skills and lessons that enable you to permanently create this active-learning environment, you can begin by discerning which activities truly engage your students. The more brutally honest you are with yourself, the faster you will get there.
Create Appropriate Intermediate Steps
The first question I ask educators when I coach them on project learning is how many of their students say, "We can't wait to do another project," versus "Oh, no! Not another project." Teachers tend to get the first response when they scaffold challenging tasks so that all students are successful.
For example, take the typical task of interviewing an adult outside the classroom. Some teachers assign the task on Monday and expect it to be done the following Monday, confident that by including the weekend, they are providing sufficient support. Other teachers realize that finding, cold calling, and interviewing an adult are challenging tasks for most young people, so they create intermediate steps -- such as brainstorming, searching online for phone numbers, crafting high-quality interview questions, and role-playing the interview -- that train all students for success.
Practice Journal or Blog Writing to Communicate with Students
Japanese teachers highly value the last five minutes of class as a time for summarizing, sharing, and reflecting. A nice way to change the pace of your class is to have students write regular reflections on the work they have done. Encourage and focus their writing with a prompt, such as "The Muddiest Point and the Clearest Point: What was most confusing about the work you did today, and what new thing was the most clear?" Use this approach to guide future lessons and activities. Consider writing responses to student journal entries in order to carry on a conversation with students about their work.
Create a Culture of Explanation Instead of a Culture of the Right Answer
You know you have created a rich learning event when all students are engaged in arguing about the best approach to the assignment. When you use questions and problems that allow for multiple strategies to reach a successful outcome, you give students the opportunity to make choices and then compare their approaches. This strategy challenges them to operate at a higher level of thinking than when they can share only the "correct" answer. Avidly collect problems and tasks that have multiple paths to a solution. As a math teacher, I create problems that have a lot of numbers instead of the usual two. For example, I can present this problem:
5 + 13 + 24 - 8 + 47 - 12 + 59 - 31 - 5 + 9 - 46 - 23 + 32 - 60
Then I can say, "There are at least three fundamentally different strategies for doing the following problem. Can you find them all?"
Teach Self-Awareness About Knowledge
All subjects build on prior knowledge and increase in complexity at each successive level of mastery. Effective learning requires that certain skills and processes be available for quick recall. Many students let too much of their knowledge float in a sea of confusion and develop a habit of guessing, sometimes without even knowing that they are guessing.
Credit: Courtesy of Tristan de Frondeville
To help students break this habit, paste the graphic at right next to each question on your assessments. After the students answer a question, have them place an X on the line to represent how sure they are that their answer is correct. This approach encourages them to check their answer and reflect on their confidence level. It is informative when they get it wrong but marked "for sure" or when they do the opposite and mark "confused" yet get the answer right.
Use Questioning Strategies That Make All Students Think and Answer
Pay a visit to many classrooms and you'll see a familiar scene: The teacher asks questions and, always, the same reliable hands raise up. This pattern lends itself to student inattention. Every day, include some questions you require every student to answer. Find a question you know everyone can answer simply, and have the class respond all at once.
You can ask students to put a finger up when they're ready to answer, and once they all do, ask them to whisper the answer at the count of three. They can answer yes, no, or maybe with a thumbs-up, thumbs-down, or thumbs-sideways gesture. That also works for "I agree," "I disagree," or "I'm not sure."
Numerical answers under ten are easy to show with fingers, but don't limit yourself to math questions. For instance, if you're teaching time management, have students let you know what their progress is halfway through the class by putting up one or more fingers to show whether they are one-, two-, or three-quarters done with the assignment, or finished. Do these exercises at least two or three times per class.
Practice Using the Design Process to Increase the Quality of Work
Students in school get used to doing work at a consistent level of quality. Unfortunately, low-performing students get used to doing poor-quality work. To help them break the habit, use a draft-and-revision process.
Many professionals use such a design process to increase the quality of their work. Engineers build prototypes, respond to critical feedback, and refine their design before going into production. Artists make sketches of big works and revise their ideas before creating their final piece. Use the design process to drive your students to produce higher-quality work than they are used to doing when they create only a first effort. Include peer evaluation as part of the feedback they receive.
Market Your Projects
When your students ask, "Why do we need to know this?" you must be ready with the best answer possible. Great projects incorporate authentic tasks that will help students in their lives, jobs, or relationships. Engage students by developing an inventory of big ideas to help you make the connections between your assignments and important life skills, expertise, high-quality work, and craftsmanship. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills provides a good starter list.
Also, search out the powerful processes and ideas experts in your own subject use repeatedly. (In math, for instance, my list includes generalizing and parts and wholes.) Keep a journal of the big ideas you've discovered simply by teaching your subject. By continually referring to these big ideas, you will encourage students to think and act like subject-matter experts and develop skills they will use throughout their lives.
Read more at http://www.edutopia.org/project-learning-teaching-strategies
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Friday, October 21, 2011
Occupy the Classroom
Occupy the Classroom.
OCCUPY Wall Street is shining a useful spotlight on one of America’s central challenges, the inequality that leaves the richest 1 percent of Americans with a greater net worth than the entire bottom 90 percent.
Most of the proposed remedies involve changes in taxes and regulations, and they would help. But the single step that would do the most to reduce inequality has nothing to do with finance at all. It’s an expansion of early childhood education.
Huh? That will seem naïve and bizarre to many who chafe at inequities and who think the first step is to throw a few bankers into prison. But although part of the problem is billionaires being taxed at lower rates than those with more modest incomes, a bigger source of structural inequity is that many young people never get the skills to compete. They’re just left behind....
Read more at http://educationviews.org/2011/10/21/occupy-the-classroom/
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
OCCUPY Wall Street is shining a useful spotlight on one of America’s central challenges, the inequality that leaves the richest 1 percent of Americans with a greater net worth than the entire bottom 90 percent.
Most of the proposed remedies involve changes in taxes and regulations, and they would help. But the single step that would do the most to reduce inequality has nothing to do with finance at all. It’s an expansion of early childhood education.
Huh? That will seem naïve and bizarre to many who chafe at inequities and who think the first step is to throw a few bankers into prison. But although part of the problem is billionaires being taxed at lower rates than those with more modest incomes, a bigger source of structural inequity is that many young people never get the skills to compete. They’re just left behind....
Read more at http://educationviews.org/2011/10/21/occupy-the-classroom/
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
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