Becoming a Teacher

Eight years ago, one of the teachers that I respected the most told me that I needed more experience with the demands of classroom teaching. I knew she was right. I earned my teacher's certificate in college, but decided to work in my major, engineering, after graduating.

My first job as a teacher was in an urban middle school six years later. I took over in March for a teacher who left. It was a tough position. I was trying to teach control adolescents that were emboldened by the fact that they had “run off the last teacher.” I survived the few months and had some moments when I felt that I was really reaching the kids.

The next fall teachers shuffled around and the principal decided to put Life Skills (the modern version of Home Ec.) back into the classroom where I had been teaching. I was moved to the Media Center where I became the computer resource teacher. I did teach one elective course each day, but I didn’t have a full teaching load. I loved that position and collaborated with many of the teachers in the school, but I didn’t have to track attendance, turn in grades, attend IEP meetings, hold parent conferences or prepare students for standardized tests. I wasn’t a real teacher.

That brings me to this fall when I got my own classroom again. I was fully four weeks into the school year when I panicked realizing that I had not started recording any grades. Our school district issues report cards every 9 weeks in elementary school. So I was nearly half way through the grading period and didn’t have anything to base grades on. Honestly, I was still struggling to recognize the students since I had only seen each of them four times.

I started making notes on my seating chart for each class about how the students were performing. In the ten minutes between classes I would try to get the lab ready for the next group of students and record my grading notes in a spreadsheet. My third graders wrote acrostic poems. So each night I carried a stack home to grade and record. And I poured through pacing guides and curriculum Web sites planning lessons.

I was starting to feel like I was keeping all the balls in the air in this juggling act, when the testing coordinator for our school came in two weeks ago. “Computer benchmark tests are going to be next week. We need you to help administer them to the fifth grade.” I wanted to scream, “Are you kidding me?! I don’t have time for that. Go talk to someone else.” I didn’t. I just tried to juggle a little faster.

I haven’t been to the K-12 Online conference. I am not presenting at NCETC this year. I have not conducted any workshops for other educators in months. I haven’t been keeping up with my favorite bloggers.

But I am learning what its like to be a teacher.

Technorati Tags: k-12 k12online k12online07 NCETC teacher

Aching Feet

I have 30 computers in my lab. On average there are 24 students in the classes that come for a weekly computer elective. That means that I turn on 30 computers and login about 50 times each day. Last week when I was copying files to the machines I sat down (or leaned and typed on the keyboard from standing)at each one at least 5 times.

Before, in between and after my classes I go to other classrooms (usually munching on part of my lunch as I walk) to work on their computer problems then hurry back to my room make notes about what I did or did not fix and move on to the next item on the agenda.

It is no wonder that I have been going to bed at 9:30 this week!

I am trying to work smarter. On Thursday I found a shared hard drive where I could copy files instead of carrying them from computer to computer. That probably saved me a half mile of walking each day. I also learned about a program called Synchroneyes, that will allow me to control all the computers in the lab from one central location. With an $800 price tag I decided that I need to work on my marketing spiel before I bring it up to the principal.

He does owe me though. After 8 days of teaching AND fighting more technical fires than you can imagine he brought me news that I will also be teaching second grade. That was not part of our original deal and means there is virtually no time to work with other teachers. Bummer!

But WOW do I love being a teacher again!

Technorati Tags: k-12 technology elementary synchroneyes

Local Schools Show Their Stuff

Students and teachers from Durham Public Schools showed off their technology talents on Thursday, May 31st at the First Annual Technology Showcase. There was a lot to brag about too!

Several elementary schools had claymation projects. The quality of these one or two minute animated movies was awesome! According to the teachers at Watts and E.K. Powe, the projects only took a few weeks to complete. Students storyboard their ideas on paper and make their clay characters. Then they act out the story and take hundreds of digital pictures to knit together into a movie. The students even put the pictures together into the movie using the Clay Animation kit.

One kindergarten teacher gave her students a digital camera and challenged them to find shapes around the school. The kids put the pictures and their description of the shape into a PowerPoint slideshow.

Middle school students from Chewning were programming Lego robots after school. How's that for motivation! They won third place in a recent robotic competition.

District representatives had information on Internet safety and online access to school catalogs.

Perhaps the best judges of the showcase were my two children. They were entranced by the projects. My eight year old brought a book, Harry Potter, of course. And my six year old brought her Leapster. And they didn't even look at them. They bounced from claymation movies to online subscription services to the robots to a free programming tool.

I talked to Dottie Black, coordinator of the event. This was the first annual and they expect to start planning next year's event in the fall. I will be expecting great things. Way to go DPS, Duke and Pepsico!

Technorati Tags: k-12 technology DPS Duke Pepsico

Harry Potter Magic

According to The Kids and Family Research Report released jointly by Scholastic and Yankelovich, students who read Harry Potter books report improved attitudes about reading.

• 51% did not read books for fun before they started reading Harry Potter, but now they do
• kids who read Harry Potter were more likely to consider reading important than those who haven't

Now a report like this is encouraging, but honestly it came from the publisher of the Harry Potter books and a marketing research company. So I did my own research.

My eight year old is a Harry Potter devotee'. She read her first Harry Potter book in August of this year, at the encouragement of her best friend. I had been bribing her to read chapter books during second grades so I was amazed when she willing picked up a book well over 100 pages. She absolutely devoured all six books! You had to pry her away from them to get her to do anything else. She was reading 60 to 100 pages in one day, while still going to school and doing her required work. She is know breathlessly waiting for the 7th book and rereading books one through six. So as a parent, watching her read the books transformed my view of her from a reluctant reader to a voracious reader, but I wasn't sure what she thought about it.

I asked her to comment on how the books have changed her thoughts about reading. I was amazed by her response.

I like fiction now more than non-fiction. I especially like fantasy. I like trying to figure out the clues to the mysteries. I learned how to figure out words that I don't know from hints. J.K. Rowling is a good author. So I have learned a lot about writing from her. It inspired me to start writing my own Vanessa and Selena stories with my friend.

Not only did Harry Potter solidify her thoughts about herself as a reader and what she likes, but it developed her vocabulary deciphering skills and her inference skills. She now not only thinks of herself as a reader, but a writer too!

This is the kind of enthusiasm that we need to harness to help kids be successful in school. We must find what children are passionate about and use that energy to help them become 21st century learners.

Technorati Tags: k-12 reading HarryPotter

Warm-up Your Brain Cells

Fiona chopped down an old tree and cut the trunk into 24-inch lengths. Because the tree had been dead for so long, there were no branches left. They had all fallen off.
Next, Fiona split each length into 4 pieces so that each piece was thinner and not so heavy, but still 24 inches long.
Now she had 80 logs to burn in her wood stove.
How many feet tall had the trunk of the tree been?I have been working on a math course over the last couple weeks.

Brain Teaser from EduPlace

If you need help with the answer, you can go to the Web site for hints. The answer won't be posted until next week.

Can you tell that I have been working on a math course this week? There are lots of great on-line tools for math. Here are my top 5.

http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivitySearch.aspx

Activities and lessons for teaching any math skill you can dream of from adding to algebra. Maintained by National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

http://www.teacherlink.org/content/math/interactive/flash/kidsandcookies/kidcookie.php

Learn about fractions by sharing virtual cookies. Almost as fun as sharing the real thing!

http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/games.html

A bevy of games that feature everything from estimation to pattern recognition. And the kids won't even realize they are learning!

http://www.shodor.org/curriculum/

These are mostly for the middle school and up crowd. Great tools to demonstrate very abstract math concepts.

http://www.google.com/intl/en/help/features.html#calculator

Google has a built in calculator, currency converter and dictionary. Try it! Just type 3 +4 in the search box. Follow this link to learn how to perform more sophisticated calculations and conversions.

Hope your brain's all warmed up and ready for some math now!

Technorati Tags: math NCTM K-12 Shodor

Flickr image. Woodcut by Clearly Ambiguous.