"While You Were Out" Box

If you can't tell from some of my previous posts, I like to find fun or catchy names for "things" or procedures in my classroom. My GIFT to you is my "While You Were Out" box. You may have one. It's awesome.

Do you waste time explaining what students missed "while they were out" (absent)? Of course you don't. You're an effective, amazing teacher!! ORRRrrr...maybe you just haven't come up with a system you like. Don't waste anymore of your valuable time! Here's my procedure:

Step 1: Check the calendar to see what you missed. A simple lesson title will suffice!

Step 2: Go to the "WHILE YOU WERE OUT" Box. Find the folder with either a date or the name of the title of the lesson that you missed. All the papers and notes that were handed out that day will be in that folder!

Step 3: Now it is the STUDENT's responsibility to find a partner and copy notes from the class they missed. I have typed up notes that coincide with my PowerPoint lectures so it makes it easier to have a complete set of notes and students just need to fill in the blanks. Students should also READ THE DIRECTIONS on any other assignments or activities and ask clarifying questions to another student to get answers. If they can't get answers from their peers, THAT's when they can go to the teacher to ask questions about assignments or other class activities.

Step 4: Sit in BLISS now that you don't have to WASTE valuable teaching time REPEATING yourself over and over again to all your students who were so unfortunate to miss your class!

The WHILE YOU WERE OUT Box: Efficient and effective. What a great GIFT. You're welcome :)

How Are You Feeling?

This summer I took a class where we read a book called "Teaching With the Brain in Mind" by Eric Jensen. I think I could have highlighted the whole book! It brought me so much more insight on SO many aspects of teaching and learning and got me so excited about implementing some of these principles in my classroom.

One of the chapters discusses the effects of emotions on student learning. Jensen quotes several facts: 1) "Emotions drive attention, create meaning, and have their own memory pathways" (LeDoux, 1994); and 2) "[Emotions] regulate behaviors, and they help us organize the world around us" (Demasio, 1194). These two researched-based facts alone should motivate ALL educators to take more interest in the emotional side of teaching and learning!

Jensen also discussed the concept of emotional "states." He claims that "all states are not emotional, but all emotions are states" (2005, p. 70). For example we may experience physical states of fatigue or pain, or feeling states of curiosity, optimism, or love. Emotional states, however, are our experiences of various emotions (like joy, fear, surprise, anger, sadness) that are generated from universal and cross-cultural, even biological pathways that exist for human beings everywhere in the world. Jensen goes on to explain how various emotional states can influence student learning experiences. Jensen states that "because emotions give us a more activated and chemically stimulated brain, they help us recall things better and form more explicit memories" (2005, p. 71). Do I have your attention? When students associate emotions with learning material, THEY WILL RETAIN IT!

This got me thinking. I don't have time to see what states my students are in on a daily basis by asking them one by one! So I have to somehow assess their emotional states by reading their body language and looking for other clues in their behavior and facial expressions, or even their tone of voice. Hopefully all you effective teachers assess this on a daily basis! Are most of your students tired? Excited? Bored? Frightened? Nervous? By looking for clues that show what emotional states your students could be in, you will be better equipped to respond in your teaching methods and style for that day in order to be more effective. We're like mini psychologists in a way. We should be paid more, right?

I put up a poster on one of my walls that asks students how they're feeling. My hope is that they will consider their states on a daily basis when they're in my room and contemplate the effects that their emotional state could have in various aspects of their daily activities and interactions. What has been even more helpful is that I actually DO have a personal flipchart on my desk that I try to update everyday for them to see, which reminds them to do the same for themselves and also gives them an underlying message that I care about their feelings because I want them to know and care about mine! I joke with them that when I have a "FRUSTRATED" face up on my flipchart it is probably not the best day to come talk to me about grades! Maybe I SHOULD have them each create a flipchart where they draw some of their emotions and label them so they can display them in front of their seat at the edge of the table and everyone can KNOW how they're feeling!

This simple chart does a lot more than just let the students know how I'm feeling. Some students will ask me WHY I feel that way. This helps me develop a more personal and caring relationship with my students. One advantage of NOT having the students make and display emotion charts is that it can also help students learn an important communication and relationship skill that I think is slowy diminishing in our world due to the vast use of technology: being able to READ people and their moods! Yes, I'm TELLING them my mood through displaying my own chart, but they can connect that mood or emotional state with other clues and behaviors that help them to be able to start applying those characteristics and behaviors to others as well. I think if everyone learned how to "read people" better we'd all have a lot healthier relationships, regardless of whether or not they're personal or intimate relationships or casual or professional. We'd be a lot more respectful and empathetic, and probably a lot more effective in our communication!

So...do YOU read YOUR students on a daily basis to see how their feeling? Do YOU think it could help YOUR relationships and ability to teach if you showed a little more care about how they were FEELING or the emotional state they were in? Wouldn't YOU as the teacher feel more appreciated and happy if your students actually asked and showed some concern about how YOU were feeling? I think the consideration of emotions and feelings could really help to encourage a classroom of unity and of collaboration and cooperation. What do YOU think?

How are YOU feeling today?

**Jim Borgman is the cartoonist who has created the poster and flipchart shown. He's an Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist from CINCINNATI! Home-town pride and a little free word-of-mouth advertising for him. You can get them at Amazon.com for cheap!

No Name Bulletin Board

This picture pretty much says it all! Not only is this gift functional, but it also takes up one of your bulletin boards and can help add a little color to your walls! Unless you have no imagination and always copy your assignments and notes on boring white xerox paper! To each their own, but I'm just sayin', you gotta live a little!

There is nothing more frustrating than grading papers with no names, for you AND for the students who come up complaining about a "zero" or a missing assignment that they SWEAR they turned in and yet did not get credit for. Sure enough, it's usually that they did not put their name on their paper. The teacher I stole this from promised me she would probably have students that would increase their grade by a whole letter if they just claimed their papers. The "No Name Board" is just a good way to bring attention to the amount of assignments that do not have a name and therefore did not receive credit and hopefully encourage the students to come up and check it to see if they may be one of the missing persons.

Simple and functional. The best kinds of GIFTS.

"Get It Digits"

This GIFT is another one from me to you. It came about during an interview I had with one of my administrators last year after a classroom observation that I needed for my Level 2 License renewal. He asked me how I knew EVERY DAY that my students learned the things that I had planned for them to learn that day. I guess the very first task in that question would be to ask myself if they even knew what I expected them to learn that day before I could really analyze whether or not they learned it! In my own mind I know my objectives, but I realized maybe I was not clear with THEM about what I expected them to learn throughout my day-to-day lessons.

This past summer, in an effort to clarify my own lesson objectives and align them with the state health curriculum standards and objectives, I came up with some statements that I refer to as "I Can's" (for example: "I can identify the top three causes of death throughout all ages in the U.S."). This process was also part of my efforts to help advance our school administration's plans to establish a Professional Learning Community (PLC). So all summer I came up with 3-5 "I Can's" for every single lesson I teach. Now, every single day, my students come in and see what they need to be able to DO at the end of the day.

This brings me to my GIFT. Maybe the "I Can" idea is already a GIFT, but you are probably all very "with-it" teachers who post lesson objectives on your board every day just as you been taught in college. Shame on me. Gold star for you!

Anyway, at the end of the lesson, before I set them loose for their independent learning time (remember, layered curriculum???), I check their understanding of the "I Can" statements. I do this through my "Get It Digits." It's kind of a mouthful, which is why I like the name of the method. It's nothing new. It's nothing fancy or extraordinary. But it's a little more specified as feedback than the usual, "Who doesn't get it?" especially since how many teenagers are really going to raise their hand and risk feeling stupid in front of their peers?

SO I designed a poster which hangs on the side wall for everyone to see. A "high five," FULL hand of fingers up when ask "Show me your 'get it digits'" means 'I could be the teacher.' Four fingers means, 'I get it, but maybe need a little more practice.' Three fingers means, 'I think I get it.' Two fingers means, 'I need some help still.' One finger means, 'WHAT????'

It's fun to come up with phrases like that to bring a little humor into the method, and I think it also helps students really relate to their own assessment process of whether or not they really understand the concepts I've tried to teach in class. It's a really quick way to scan the class, look at hands, and even assess your own teaching effectiveness! Maybe you can quickly re-teach something if you see a majority of index fingers pointing up at you!

Anyway, fun little GIFT. I like it. It works for me. Try it. And make your own fun phrases!

The G.I.F.T. of TIME!

So, I'm not a huge advocate of having students grade their peers' tests. I'm pretty sure it could be some sort of violation of FERPA, which I would just rather NOT deal with.

But as I was sitting at my desk grading tests the other day, one of the science teachers walked in to talk to me about one of our clubs and saw that I was grading tests and asked me why I didn't have my students grade the tests. I politely told him about my reluctance to have other students grade tests and deal with students who may be embarrassed since testing is a high-anxiety experience for many students, and then he cut me off and gave me a G.I.F.T.

He said, "No, you just fill out a couple of keys and set them at the front of the room in an open area and have THEM grade THEIR OWN test when they are finished. Then not only is it graded for you, but it also lets them know RIGHT AWAY what they did and did not understand on their assessment, and it can be a more valuable learning tool."

So true. Thank you for helping me see the light Mr. Blake. Not only will my students gain a better understanding of material and receive more instant feedback (which I'm sure they would say is a gift to them), but now I too get a gift for which I ALWAYS give thanks: more TIME!

Layered Curriculum

One of the best GIFTs that was given to me last March was an idea that has dramatically changed how my classroom runs and my own perception of teaching in general. My school district has a wonderful mentor program for the first three years of teaching, which includes something called SPA day (it stands for some sort of professional development day). Yes, we get taken out to lunch. No, we don't get massages or facials. Yes, it is a great day filled with getting out into other classrooms and even other schools to observe the great things other teachers do.

One of the activities that day was a presentation about student motivation: what may enhance student motivation for learning, what could hinder it, and other implications for us as teachers. This is where Layered Curriculum was introduced to me. On the surface, it could seem like a very lazy way to teach; however, on a deeper level, in my opinion, it is how all classrooms should function.

With Layered Curriculum, students are given a choice of learning activities, which inevitably accumulates points as they complete the activities. They choose their grade essentially! How many students would LOVE to be the one who determines their grade? The neat thing about it is that you as the teacher set up the Layered Curriculum to cater to different learning styles and levels of thinking in the following ways:

C-Layer assignments should typically include activities that focus on basic knowledge: memorization, recall, listing, identifying, reading and answering questions, etc. This is a great place to put information that you NEED ALL students in your classroom to understand. If students CHOOSE to earn a C, they must accumulate a minimum of 70 points worth of C-Layer assignments.

B-Layer assignments are more application-based. Students have the opportunity here to participate in activities that allow them to build, apply, analyze, create, plan, reconstruct, tell, re-tell, and all the other ACTION-based words that Mr. Bloom used in his taxonomy. This is a fun layer where learning really starts to become more personalized and means more to the students. They remember what they learn, but it takes more effort and more time, hence a greater reward with a higher grade. To earn a B, students must complete their C-Layer requirements, in addition to at least 15 points of B-Layer assignments.

A-Layer assignments cause students to not only apply concepts they you have taught and that they have discovered themselves through their own learning experiences and activities, but these assignments also cause them to reflect and make their own judgments, interpretations, critiques, and evaluations. Once again, these types of assignments take more time, but the level of learning that occurs if students choose this route can be amazing! Just as with the B-Layer, students must gain all 70 C-Layer points, 15 B-Layer points, and an additional 15 points within the A-Layer of activities.

I spent all summer getting excited about this curriculum! The other health teacher and I got together weekly to organize and brainstorm ideas about this new and improved way of teaching. And then school started. Has it been a bumpy road? Yes. Are the students a little thrown off at first? Yes! It's very different than traditional teaching to only listen to your teacher for 3/4 of the time, and then be given the rest of the time to LEARN ON YOUR OWN!

BUT, it's not sink or swim time. During the individual learning time at the end of class, students and I get to interact! I get the opportunity to GET TO KNOW MY STUDENTS: what are their interests; what tough things are going on in their lives that they want to share with me; what are they learning in my class; what can I help to clarify; how can they apply concepts more consistently into their daily lives; am I making a difference? Everyday, instead of standing in front of the classroom and separating myself from my students with an imaginary barrier, I am able to break that barrier and TEACH my students on a more intimate and personal level as I walk around and help them discover information themselves.

I am STILL adding to my list of assignments for this first unit that I have taught while utilizing this Layered Curriculum style. I have a huge list of reminders written in the front of my classroom on the white board for my students to read on Monday about some of the things that worked, and some that didn't turn out exactly as I had planned that we will try to tweak this next unit so that it goes more smoothly. It's a work in progress. But I love it. I love teaching. I love learning. I love WATCHING my students learn. I love seeing their satisfaction when they discover something on their own, or make a personal connection with something discussed in class. Education--educatING-- is my reward! And a GIFT that I get to give myself daily!