Teaching is about engaging students in meaningful activities so they can learn something relevant and important. It’s not about preaching from the pulpit like it might have been in earlier eras, where children were meant to sit quietly and absorb wisdom. Though John Dewey taught us that we learn by doing (Experience and Education, 1938), we may still cling to an older paradigm (teacher centered) because that’s what we can control. But teaching is not about control. This article helps teachers engage students in ways that keep their interest:
Out with textbooks, in with Shmoop
January 26th, 2010 · School Notes, Technology in Education
In the past week, I was asked to take a look at and promote two educational websites. Getting the word out about their wares may be best achieved through word of blog. I am happy to give them some press because they are great sites and because the day of the textbook may actually be over.
For a long, long time I’ve realized that I can create vivid, engaging units with resources on the web. When you teach a CyberEnglish class you kind of think digital first, paper second. It’s been a long time since I’ve advocated for the purchase of a new textbook. The ones we use in our department are in embarassing shape, but for the little we use them, they suffice. Instead, we use paperback novels, digital copies of poems, stories, and articles, or we print what we need from Web resources. This means we can create fully customized unit plans that meet our students’ needs.
Sites like Shmoop and Thinkfinity, and Read, Write, Think are a huge help to teachers who want to think outside the book.
Take a Tour of Shmoop:
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A new look for an old site
January 13th, 2010 · Notes
New site design & function!
I have been wanting a format that is easier to edit, interactive, and fresher. I tried various CMS, but didn’t really need all that they offered. Plus, to tell the truth, they were hard to manage. I have been a fan of WordPress for quite awhile, and thought maybe this would work. I hope so. I like the change and hope it will function well for me for a long time.
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Student Success Lies Within
December 10th, 2008 · Learning Basics
December 2008—Who knows what the future will bring, but right now, jobs students used to count on might be outsourced. What then, must students do to help them be successful in the future?
Students should do their absolute best in high school in order to have the best chance for success in college and beyond. Good habits formed now will pay off in the future.
Some school beyond high school is absolutely necessary. To ensure you get accepted to the college of your choice, you need good grades, a good record (attendance etc.), and you need a variety of experiences (academic and extra curricular). High school is the time for students to start finding out what they’re made of.
The best present you can give yourself for your future is a commitment to success.
Each day you should look to do the following:
Improve your academics and high school success:
- Have a postive attitude; believe in yourself!
- Focus on each task, giving it your best effort. Cut out distractions.
- Stop PROCRASTINATING! Sure, you’d rather do a lot of things than homework, but do your work first and play second.
- Don’t think the world ends if you get one bad grade. Learn from it and resolve to improve. We can learn from our failures.
- Get involved in some extra curricular activity. Teens who are in clubs, sports, music, art, etc. will be more engaged in school in general and have a better feeling about themselves as students.
Improve your health and well being:
- Eat right. Good nutrition is good for your body and your brain. If you don’t know what good nutrition is, educate yourself.
- Get enough sleep (about eight hours EACH night). Sleep deficits cause stress, weight gain, and memory loss.
- Get active. Exercise vigorously at least four times a week. If you spend too much time at that computer, your body will show the results.
Improve your attitude and emotional well being:
- Seek help when stress overwhelms you. Talk to a teacher, your counselor, or your parents.
- Surround yourself with positive, upbeat friends who like you for who you are and believe in you. A person who wants you to be something you’re not is not a friend. Neither is a person who wants you to do something you know is wrong.
- Smile, even if you don’t feel like it. Dwelling on the negative is counter productive. Positive thinking breeds positive thinking.
Be well and do well! And pass the message on. Support each other. Never harrass someone for being smart. Learn their secrets.
School Starts September 2
August 23rd, 2008 · School Notes
First Day: Connections. We welcome our new 9th graders to SFHS. The best thing about the new school year for everyone, not just for students, is that we all have an opportunity to begin anew, to reinvent ourselves.
Here are some suggested ways to start fresh and have a great year:
* have a more postive attitude
* be kind to others, always, in thoughts, words, and actions
* keep the school clean (pick up after yourself)
* study hard; actually use your brain * eat right; get enough sleep (like eight hours EACH night)
Teachers: Start Blogging
July 1st, 2008 · Technology in Education
It seems these days a lot of teachers are interested in bringing blogs into the classroom. I say, start today, but start by creating your own blog to fully understand what a blog can do.
I am a huge fan of blogging. Blogs are very easy for people to have a web presence (no need to know html), and are especially fabulous for teachers and students. Blogs can be free, too. Edublogs provides free blog space for teachers and gives great support in the classroom. Blogger has free blogs, too.
In my experience, when students publish their writing online, they take extra care in getting it right (revising, editing, even composing). They may even write more. More and more teens are writing in their own web spaces outside of school too. And, what’s more, they share what they write with their peers (peer review). They instinctively use the Web to create their own communities (social networking).
The best thing about blogging is the fact that it can bring people together. Reading and commenting (the key part) on others’ blogs creates shared experiences and understanding.
A Wiki class: Using Blogs and Wikis in the classroom.
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April is Poetry Month
March 30th, 2008 · School Notes
Poetry is one of my joys and it seems that I don’t enjoy it as much as I wish I could. I listen to Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac on my iPod, but inconsistently. I wish I could find a way to integrate poetry into my every day life. I am glad for National Poetry Month as it gives me an excuse to celebrate poetry.
Please visit the page I made for the occasion.
Also, please do put a Poem in Your Pocket on April 17 and share it with your friends and family.
Nings: social networking tools for true learning communities
January 3rd, 2008 · Technology in Education
When I first began hosting AP English, an open community for AP English teachers, I was excited about the possibilities. And while I wish the group were as vibrant as others, such as Jim Burke’s English Companion, our membership is growing and the conversations have been excellent.
Nings are fantastic tools for groups of like-minded professionals from all over the globe to convene and discuss.
A basic ning offers its members the ability to
- discuss topics in a threaded forum
- post to a blog
- upload videos and pictures
- comment on videos and pictures
- upload files
- create a personal page
- post pictures and files
- post links
- add applications
- see recent activities
- add friends
- and more; ning features are updated all the time
See a more complete list of nings in the nings link box.
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“Adapted From”
August 1st, 2007 · Notes
Is it vanity or curiosity that leads me to Google myself? Either way, the experience is revealing, and what I find is not always what I expect. Lately, I’ve been bothered by the use of the words “adapted from” when I find my lessons republished elsewhere.
I have never been stingy with my lessons, but I do say to link to my site. I wish more people simply made links. Adapting does not mean taking something word for word and republishing it as your own. I would expect adaptations to look similar but to be different–noticeably different. I have even seen my own work under someone else’s copyright. Sharing is fine–stealing is not, and adapting seems to be an ambiguous concept.