Take Notes Now to Become a Better Teacher Later [Video]

Mr. D TV is my weekly video series where I give advice to teachers on just about any topic. If you have a question you'd like me to discuss, email it to teachforever@gmail.com. If you like the video, check out the last week's episode or my YouTube channel for more. See you next week!

Rewind: Mohawk Experiment, Huge Volume-Surface Area Project and More

One year ago on I Want to Teach Forever, I chronicled an experiment where I cut my hair into a mohawk in an attempt to motivate my students (lots of pics)!

Two years ago (as of tomorrow), I shared a big hands-on project on measurement, volume and surface area suitable for middle school and up (plus, here are the awesome results of this project).

Three years ago, I wrote a referral for a disruptive student who "...was throwing pieces of erasers and other small objects all around the room and at other students.  He had already been redirected at the beginning of the period.  He continued and instigated other students to throw these things back at him, interrupting the lesson.  He was asked to leave the room.  The floor of my room is covered with these objects and I would like this student to sweep them up."  The referral also listed all of my previous interventions: team conference with the student, a team/parent conference the week before this incident, another team/parent conference already scheduled for later that week, and three recent referrals.  Not surprisingly, this student didn't pass that grading period (or the next).

I think that's more than enough nostalgia for one day!  If you're interested in my evolution as a teacher, I've been publishing a journal I wrote five years ago, when I was a struggling second year teacher.  It's as life-affirming and heartbreaking as anything I'll ever write here or anywhere, and I hope you have an opportunity to read about it.

Don't Be Boring, Play Video Games Instead of Reading and More [Five for Friday]

1. 8 Signs You Might Be Boring Someone [mental_floss Blog] - Hopefully you can avoid these in your daily interactions!
2. Why playing video games is better than reading books [Digital Play] - This thought-provoking article from one of my favorite blogs is sure to get you fired up one way or another.
3. Harnessing the Power of Cell Phones in Class Lesson Plans [The Innovative Educator] - More smart, practical advice on integrating technology into your curriculum.
4. You, Too, Can Make Amazingly Beautiful Fractals With Apophysis [Wired: GeekDad] - Review of open-source software for creating fractals.
5. A Clean (Smelling) Workplace Increases Fairness and Generosity [Lifehacker] - Could the same concept apply to the classroom?
   

Pentago Board Game Spins Me Round (Like a Record)

Pentago is a deceptively complex game hidden within a simple framework. At first, it looks like it should be called Connect Five, as that is the object of the game. The twist (pun intended), is that you can rotate any one of the four quadrants of the board 90 degrees after placing your marble. This adds a dimension to the game that opens up seemingly infinite possibilities.

As the tagline says, it takes "seconds to learn, years to master," and I felt this way after losing most of the games I played when I first started.  I'm still no expert, but I can say I've beaten my elementary school students at least once or twice.  I wasn't sure if younger kids would like this game when I first saw it, but they've definitely taken to it and many will choose it ahead of Connect Four.

There's a clear educational value in Pentago, as the problem solving skills, logic and thinking ahead required are similar to that of chess but in a context where it's much easier to learn and enjoy.  It's a good way to get children to visualize, an essential spatial reasoning skill that helps prepare them for geometry.  Also, like a well-made chess set, there's variations on Pentago boards (see here and here) that are very artfully constructed and would stand out in your home or classroom. 

I consider this a good entry-level challenge that will pique children's interest in other educational games (chess, sudoku, Tetris, logic puzzles).  As long as the child in question is old enough that they won't put the marbles in their mouth, this is a great game to start them on as young as possible.

The video above is a quick introduction to what game play might look like, but you can also try out this online version.  You can get the lower-priced (but still high quality) travel version of the game, Pentago CE from Amazon.

Cleverly Titled EducationalVideos.com Catalogs Just That

Last Friday, I had a great conversation with Jon Kolker, one of the developers behind Educational Videos, a new site designed to create a community for high-quality video content that lives up to its name. Inspired by well-established video hubs like Howcast, VideoJug and the ubiquitous YouTube, the site has a small but growing directory of handpicked videos on a variety of topics, embedded from external video sites like YouTube.

As it stands, I must stress that this is a very, very new directory with relatively few videos compared to similar resources.  The developers hope to grow their directory to about 10,000 embedded videos before allowing users to select and submit their videos. At that point, they envision a full slate of social networking features, such as user-created lists, bookmarking, recommendations, and so on. They're already working on two exciting projects: quizzes on the content of videos, and producing a video series in the vein of Bill Nye the Science Guy (an idea I hope takes off).

My first impression of the site was admittedly skeptical: it seemed that there was a focus on non-academic how to videos on topics like make-up application and playing Texas Hold 'Em. Kolker assured me that their goal is to have a more academic focus as their directory grows, along with the projects mentioned above.

As I told him, any site providing more resources for teachers and parents is worth checking out. Here's two interesting videos I found on Educational Videos:

• A Vision of Students Today
• The Photosynthesis Song! Learn How Plants Make Their Food

The Evolution of Mr. D: "It would be easy to write these kids off"

This is part of a year-long series looking back at the journal I wrote when I was just starting out my teaching career (at that point, I taught middle school social studies). Read more about his project here. Next installment: February 13th.

Wednesday, February 02, 2005

Tomorrow my friend Jon from home is coming to visit for the weekend. I saw him over winter break but that was one of only a handful of times we've been able to hang out all of last year. Jon made the original drive to Texas with me; our first encounter with the Valley (McAllen) left us underwhelmed. We actually stayed overnight in Reynosa just for the sake of spending a night in Mexico. I've now learned that may not have been the safest thing to do, but we didn't know any better then and thus had fun.

It will be nice to finally introduce my friends from home to the friends I've made here. I think they'll get along famously.

School has been fine this week; I've had a lot of different types of activities going on each day to keep them interested and on their toes. We've done some reading out loud as a class, some independent work, a couple of skits and some open-ended activities as well. It went pretty smoothly and I think they are well prepared for Friday's test. Tomorrow we'll play BINGO to review for the test. I found this great spreadsheet that actually generates 25 bingo cards from your list of terms and definitions and gives you a call sheet. It is fantastic and saved me literally hours of work.

On the down side, last week I had two students sent to the alternative center and one is in juvenile (I didn't have anything to do with the latter). The two girls were just completely insubordinate--ignoring me completely, disrupting class endlessly, doing no work and causing even more of a problem when I tried to deal with them in class. They're in my homeroom, which is already a tough group, and it was really to the point where every second they remained in class was eroding my ability to discipline that class. I've given both of these girls every chance to turn things around... I've gone out of my way to help them when they've had problems outside my classroom, I've called home and met with their parents at least 3 times each, I've had the counselors, my cluster and the VP talk to them more than once just to scratch the surface of what I've tried to do.

After all of this and more, their behavior hadn't changed one bit. And then last week it came to a head, and with three strikes against them in the same class, I kicked them out and sent the referrals to the office once again. This time, since they had both had more than their fair share of ISS, OSS and having to pay tickets, the VP finally sent both of them to the alternative center. I hate having to do it, I really do. I actually like both of these girls, I think they're both really intelligent and capable if only they cared enough to apply themselves. I'll let them stew for a couple of weeks over there before I make yet another attempt to bring them around.

My attempts at reaching out to my students sent over there haven't been completely successful thus far--the first student ended up leaving our cluster after coming back with the same attitude he left with (after telling me he was willing to change). The second has done slightly better in my class, and is more willing to do things for me than she was before, but she also didn't seem to heed my much-needed advice about staying out of trouble. The other cluster teachers say she was under the influence of something--"roach pills" seem to be the drug of choice. I really thought she was going to turn it around. I'm still holding out hope.

Ironically this is what the student who went to juvenile apparently tested positive for or was caught with (I don't know the whole story yet). He's another bright but troubled kid, a constant discipline problem who was repeating the 8th grade this year. I think the rest of the cluster might actually join me to visit him and make a similar appeal to the others. I've butted heads with him so many times that I think it would do wonders for me to go and see him at this point, even this late in the year.

On top of all this, another one of my students, not surprisingly from that same rowdy homeroom, was also caught in school under the influence. Apparently he was having problems at home that he couldn't handle and so decided to take some kind of drug later in the day about 2 days ago. There was a big scene in the hallway with him going crazy, security restraining him, his mother being there and fainting because of the whole situation, and similar insanity. I'm surprised he wasn't expelled to be honest, but he'll be in alternative as well, which makes 3 at the moment and my 5th for the year. Like the others, when he actually puts his mind to things he is pretty intelligent. I will make another pilgrimage for him as well.

I guess it would be easy to write these kids off, to make some sweeping statement about them, this town, this culture, their parents or something like that. I just can't do it. I don't want to give up on any of them. I have a hard time believing any of them is a lost cause. And if I can break through maybe to just one of the four I've mentioned in this entry, I think it's all worth it. If I don't, at least I can have pride in the fact that I tried. They at least deserve that much.

Developing the You That's Not a Teacher [Video]

Mr. D TV is my weekly video series where I give advice to teachers on just about any topic. If you have a question you'd like me to discuss, email it to teachforever@gmail.com. If you like the video, check out the last week's episode or my YouTube channel for more. See you next week!

'Ten Cheap Lessons' Celebrates Cotton Anniversary, Excited About New Socks

Today is the second anniversary of the publication of Ten Cheap Lessons: Easy, Engaging Ideas for Every Secondary Classroom, my teacher resource book. I've been so humbled by what readers have had to say about it over that time:

"I have used several activities in your book, and since I am the Algebra I lead teacher that means all Algebra I classes used the activities.  We especially liked the Independent vs. Dependent Variable posters.  It really help the students, and as they personalized their poster, it allowed us to know more about each student... Thanks for a great resource."  - Katie Owen, Corpus Christi, TX

"First, let me say, 'AWESOME book!'  I love doing meaningful activities to reinforce learning in the classroom, especially for math.  I purchased your book a couple of months ago during my student teaching.  What a great resource!"  - Laurie Line, NV
"Easy to use and adapt. Check it out." - Eric DeSobe, via TFANet.org

"I love this resource! It gives a lot of great, easily adaptable and continuous ways to structure formative assessment in your classroom!" - Kate Barbato, via TFANet.org

"Hi. I've downloaded your book and had a read. It's great. Thanks very much!" robertd1981, via Twitter

"great resource. Already have some ideas to implement in my classroom from your book." SErwin, via Twitter

"Thanks very much. Lesson one will be use the first day back from break. Perfect!" Schadenfreude, comment on teachforever.com

Last year, I released an updated Second Edition, with additional lessons and a spiral binding for easy copying (as a teacher, I know we need to copy a lot).  The download version of the Second Edition is just $5, which means you save a dollar but get more content!

You can get Ten Cheap Lessons from the teachforever.com Bookstore, or online at Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

If you really want to help get the word out, ask your local bookseller to order a copy for you.  As far as I know, the book isn't available in stores, but if people request it, who knows what might happen!  If you already have the book and are ready to pass it along, there's a few people waiting to trade for it on PaperBackSwap as well.

Thank you to everyone who's purchased a copy or downloaded it for free!  It's important to me that I'm making a difference for teachers (and ultimately students) all over the world.  Happy anniversary!

The Evolution of Mr. D: "Another Saturday night and I ain't got nobody..."

This is part of a year-long series looking back at the journal I wrote when I was just starting out my teaching career (at that point, I taught middle school social studies).  Read more about his project here.  Next installment: February 2nd.

Saturday, January 29, 2005

If memory serves me, this is maybe the second Saturday night I've spent at home since last summer. The only other time I can remember is when I got back here after Thanksgiving break. Almost all other weekends I've been in Weslaco with my friends.

I'm here mainly because I'm sick with a cold, but also because I have been pushing my limits all week. Last weekend I was tired as hell and didn't get enough sleep--I was miserable and moody. I realized then that the last few times I'd been out there when I was tired, I had gotten really moody and swing wildly from happy to completely unapproachable. Normally I am not like that at all. I don't like myself when I'm like that, and neither does anybody else.

I wouldn't have gone out there last night as I usually would anyway because I wanted to get some restful sleep. I wasn't too keen on tonight's plan either (a poker tournament), so I didn't lose out on anything. On top of that, I'm trying to catch up on lesson planning so I'm not scrambling each night of the week until midnight or 1 am to get stuff ready for the next day. I actually did a lot of work just in the last few hours, so I'm feeling better about that.

Teaching is a tiring and often thankless job, but the few thanks make it all worth while. I've already heard students say they never liked history before my class and now they do, I've seen them really shine on various projects that allowed them to be creative. This is an incomplete thought but in short the rewards make it all worthwhile.

This past week went well as we studied the early Industrial Revolution. The only parts of the week that were frustrating was after school with students who didn't want to stay for tutorials and at the very end of the day Friday when we spent over an hour with our homeroom waiting to be called down for the school dance.

I don't know if I've told this story before, but at my school dances are called "sock hops" and are held during school hours. I believe there is a practical reason for this and that is that not all students would be able to attend one at night because they wouldn't have transportation home. That is only my assumption, though; I've never bothered to ask.

In any case, our class schedule changes so that all classes meet before lunch for about 35 minutes. After lunch, the students have their sock hop until our normal ending time. It's hell on my classes and on me, mostly for the babysitting I have to do between the end of lunch and the time the kids are called down for the dance. The kids get restless, angry and start misbehaving almost immediately. Their sense of entitlement to these sorts of special events with no regard for their behavior is one that my school has made a considerable effort to create. By the time they're in 8th grade they know that no matter what they do, they deserve to go to a dance (or a beauty pageant or other such nonsense as I have previously discussed) and will simply not tolerate anything less. Even my good kids started to get rude as the hour wore on.

The situation reminded me exactly why I am leaving at the end of the year despite the students I love and the teachers I love to work with.

I really hope the mouse that just ran by ran straight out of the room. I can't take much more of that either.

Carnival of Educators: Nary a List in Sight Edition

Welcome to the January 26, 2010 edition of the carnival of educators.  Besides the great submissions included below, you'll find several articles without a name attached to them.  Those posts were collected by yours truly.  Here we go!

Education

Dave Saba presents Singapore vs U.S. Math: we lose posted at Edbiz, saying, "For 21st century skills we need to focus on applied mathematics."  Dave also wonders: is the Apple Tablet for Education II "[d]isruptive innovation from Apple?"

Liam Goldrick presents D-Day posted at The Education Optimists.

Sarah Ebner presents Is inclusion good or bad for education? posted at School Gate - Times Online - WBLG, noting "I ran this post, written by a teacher, to ask what can be done about disruptive kids. Are the issues the same the world over?"  Join the conversation!

Marie Snyder presents Department Competition: The Great Green Challenge posted at Project Earth.  "We tried to get all our teachers to become more environmental by pitting them against one another," she writes.

Bellringers (Carol Richtsmeier) presents Pants On The Ground, Boxers & Anthems posted at Bellringers.

How to Waste Money on Technology in Schools ends with a discussion question: "What are the worst technology purchases you’ve seen in schools?"  I'm sure you've got tons of great examples, so head over to Creating Lifelong Learners.

Homeschooling

Pamela Jorrick presents Not Everyone Can Write Right posted at Blah, Blah, Blog.

Free Science Labs thanks to My Homeschool Guide.

Teaching

Rachel Lynette presents I'm Done! What to do with Bright Students posted at Minds in Bloom.

Alisha Harmann presents How To Calculate / Read An ACT Score posted at How To E-D-U.  High school teachers can turn this info into part of a lesson on getting into college.

Victoria Westcott presents Shannon Shares Her FAQS About Teaching & Living in London, England posted at Teach in London, saying "Shannon is a Canadian teacher working in a British secondary school. She shares her FAQs from her family & friends and provides great stories about what it's really like to teach in London as a young Canadian."

Fish! on Look at My Happy Rainbow is a great example of the kinds of adventures this male kindergarten teacher shares on a regular basis.

Speaking of fun adventures with students, check out Week in Review from Pigtailed Teacher, which sounds like a common week in elementary school (or middle or high school for that matter).

Traumatized for life is a not-so-uncommon story of how a successful, bright adult developed a math phobia thanks to her third grade teacher, shared on Learning Strategies.


That concludes this edition.  Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of educators using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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