The Bow Tie Teacher

Not going to play the 10th anniversary edition of Halo all Thanksgiving break, but...

Going to be quiet for the next couple of days. I'm working on being Teacher of the Week. Since Teacher of the Year is to lofty of a goal for me right now. I'll just take baby steps.

I wasn't properly warned

I'd redo this list for my school for sure. But anyway it's pretty funny. 

10 things they don't teach you about school in college

I'm putting you on notice, 4th grade

I got up early this morning to spend some time in a quiet house. I started digging through teacher blogs. All I can say is that my class is being put on notice; "you're gonnna learn something" next week and you're going to like it! 

I found exactly what I was looking for to help with the concept of gallon conversion and a neat way to get my kids to journal everyday. My prayer is that I'll be able to get the information into these little tikes heads before they realize they're learning. Add some fun to learning, Mr. Whitaker and we'll learn more. Pictures will follow for sure. I'm sure I'll be posting the wonderful notes my kids write telling me how much the <3 me. I'm sure. 

 

Planning, planning and more

I've known it, but acting upon said knowledge is always tricky. What am I talking about? Planning. This new school year is forcing me to be better, more thorough and more intentional about planning and having a back up plan for my back-up.

Today I'm in a planning session. The goal is to have all my lesson plans for the rest of the year done by the end of the day. Pretty aggressive goal, but if I do I can spend my time each week getting my back up plans and gather all the items I need to make each lesson exciting and useful to the kiddos.
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Umm...that didn't work right

I've been posting my student's homework online. Each Monday they'll get their assignment. They'' have all week to complete 3 or 4 projects. I tested the site on a group yesterday. I was shocked at how long it took them to get the URL correct. It was as disaster. 

I contacted the website admin to get some advice. He made a great suggestion that just made to much sense. I make some changes to the URL. It went from 19 characters to 10. The kids have a much better success rate of getting to the site on the first attempt. The point is I have to be willing to accept that I made a mistake in my delivery not in the process. Even if NO kids have net access at home, I'll make time for them to do 1 project a week because they must learn how to use the web. (By the way my kids have a library in the community, a huge computer lab at school and multiple times to use the computer as a part of the school day.)

A God fit

You know how I feel about meetings. Today is a professional development day and I'm in a faculty meeting. I MUST be in the right field cause I've written a note pad worth of notes and can't wait to get to my classroom and get ready for the next lesson. God fit can't be denied.
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I'm pushing the envelope

My school isn't the most affluent. My kids don't come to class with the latest and greatest gadgets, cell phones and wads of disposable income. So why did I just roll out on-line homework that can only be done from the class website? Because I don't embrace excuses, only solutions.

Each kid has to go to a particular website and complete 3 10 question math assignments by Friday. All assignments are within the kids abilities and just reinforce what they've learned last week. 

I did a non-scientific survey of the class and about 40% of my students have readied access to the internet. The others did the deer in the headlights when I told them "so what are you going to do, because your homework all needs to be turned in Friday." In all fairness I did give them the option of doing their homework in class or in the computer lab during the week. I have set up time for all kids to go to the media center to complete it during class time and on Wednesday during after school tutorial. I'm certainly interested in how many will go to the library, which is 2 blocks from our school and get it done. And even though I want to not have paper to grade, I made a few copies of the assignments to pass out on Thursday if I see that some kids aren't making the effort. Each week I hope to get fewer and fewer excuses and more solutions. I'm also interested in seeing how many parents call, write or visit me about my new project. Pretty sure they're going to find this a hoot. 

I have some "Go Getters" in class and I know they'll find a way and not come to be with reasons why they can't. I want those kids to rub off on those who are already thinking of reasons why they can't get the work done. I'm going to keep highlighting the solution finders rather than invest time in the excuses. 

The grade level is doing a two week project as well. Each kid is going to have to spend $1,000,000 in their community helping others and making their area better. The assignment ties in Social Studies, Math and it has to be written/typed out. We're giving them 2 weeks to complete, but the students have benchmarks everyday/week. This project doesn't get class time, but when we go to the library I'll certainly encourage them to use their time checking on various parts of their project. 

Asking better questions in class

It's so easy to blame everything under the sun for why kids don't learn. I caught myself the other day in faculty meeting realizing that I was blaming the kids for their not getting a concept. But truly the power is mine. I have the power to not blame, but to take responsibility for the kids learning or not. So rather than asking "Why won't these kids get this?" I started asking "What can I do to help these children learn this concept?" The first question made me a victim while the second question put all the strength in my hands to deal with the issue. 

When I swapped from finger pointing to looking for solutions I gave myself permission to find an answer not wait for someone to fix the problem for me. Now in all honestly, I'm still trying to find how to reach each of the 64 kids I have to work with. Some are ready to learn and are rocking and rolling. The others...not so much. But I take responsibility for that and I also know that I can find a solution.  I know that I can find the way to teach each of them and that I will. It's just a matter of time. 

Let's see how the kiddos respond. 

Troubling the waters of learning

I've now seen it all. Some kids have a legit fear. They fear that if they learn, if they get the education their brains will grow and expand until it starts to ooze out of their ears. I have the task of helping them understand that it won't happen and I'm a testament. Not sure if I'm the best example. LoL.

The week is a wrap. I did get my lesson plans done. The kids learned. I made it through and we'll get back at it next week. Next week is going to be short, but I'm ready for an adventure.

An area for improvement has to be to increase contact with the positive parents. I call those that need improvement, but my well mannered ones need a call, too. Got to let them know their kids are on their game. A lot of kids come to class daily ready to work. I can see it in their eyes. I also see the hurt when the day/class/lesson gets derailed by kids without the same drive.

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