JoAnn’s Blog

Since I am a “Big Picture” kind of person, I think in terms of process, product, and content simultaneously.  I have been thinking about your Beach Studies in those terms.  What are you going to do?  How are you going to share what you have done?  What will you uncover? Hopefully, you will find the following tips, helpful:

• You have worked on a testable question.  Remember to document your thinking about why/how you came up with this question.  Record your rationale.
• Document procedures in full detail.
• Record your work with camera, video, audio.
• Think about the format your final presentation will take.  Each group will give a “stand and deliver” report.  Each group will have a table for a poster presentation.  Invitees will include Charlie Knauf.  Charlie will ask some interesting questions and give some critical feedback.  The goal is to be ready for any question he may ask, and to have him say “I never thought of that connection” or “I am glad that you included that.”
• Use the peer review feedback to improve your work.
• Use online resources to your advantage.  (Google maps; satellite photos; Lake Ontario Facts, etc).
• The pier is 1/2 mile long.  The prevailing winds are from the west.  1/5 th of the world’s fresh water supply is held in the Great Lakes.
• Think about, start to strategize about how you will lead the Middle School Campers through their own Beach Study.

As more of these ideas float through my brain, I will add them to the list.  Or if you think of things I have omitted, leave me a comment so we may all benefit from our collective thoughts!

A few years back, I was told that I would be teaching AP Environmental Science.  I was a bit intimidated by the thought and felt I really needed more than a syllabus, some practice exams and a link to the AP web site.  I signed up to take a class at Manhattan College:  Teaching APES.  One of the requirements of the course was to read a minimum of three non-fiction books.  During day one of the class, we would give a book report on our books to our classmates, fellow aspiring APES teachers.

If the thought of teaching an AP course was intimidating, the idea of reading non-fiction was terrifying.  I love to read.  I read several books a week.  Give me a good mystery novel and I am happy.  Make it one of a series of books with the same characters and I am ecstatic.  I read so much, I am on a first name basis with my local librarians.  So I turned to the head librarian, Carol, of our local branch for help.

“Carol, Help!” I said in total panic, “I have to read at least 3 non-fiction works for my summer class.  I have never read non-fiction.  I don’t think I can do this.”  Carol calmly led me to a section of the library I rarely visited.  She said “I think I can find something that you will enjoy”.  And she did!  She picked out 4 books, one on the Shackelton Expedition;  one on a rogue shark responsible for killing a number of folks in 1912; one on the 1914 pandemic; and one on the Lewis and Clark expedition.  I began reading with fear.  But soon my fears abated.  Non-fiction page turners, who knew?  I read and reported on all four.  (As an aside, after finishing Undaunted Courage, I have had a secret desire to walk across the country, following in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark) I have not given up on my mysteries, but I do pick up non-fiction frequently.

Non-fiction can share the literary elements of fiction.  Setting, characters, plot, conflict, climax, resolution.  These are not exclusive to fiction.  Good writing is good writing.  And it is engaging and entertaining.  I just finished E=mc2, a book by David Bodanis, a non-fiction, biography of the world famous equation.  Talk about a page turner, this book had it all.  Interesting characters; a bit “gossipy” as one of our students put it; a race to put the equation to use, once it was understood; and good science.  The entire group gave it a thumbs up.

In our class, we divided into smaller groups.  Each group was given a document to read and instructed to think about the document in terms of literary elements.  Did the writing have any?  If so, which ones? Was it engaging? (they were all non-fiction pieces).  The members of each group had to read their document noting literary elements of the piece.  The group members then discussed their individual ideas and decided which ideas would be shared with the other groups.  The group share included a brief description of the contents of the document and examples of the literary elements that the document used.

If we were to do this again, I would ask the groups to use the RAFT format for analyzing the piece:  Role, Audience, Format, and topic.  Here is a link to a site that describes this technique.

RAFT Strategy

We then looked at a list of statements about the Nature of Science.  As we read through the list, we were asked to check those statements that applied to the reading, E=mc2. It was a “sneaky” way to introduce new material, “read this list, and check those items that apply”.  One side of the page was left blank.  The group had been using Cornell Style Note taking method.  The blank part of the page was for them to add their own notes, comments, additions to the list.  (I forgot to mention this, but am confident that this group is sharp enough to have figured this out!).

Bottom line, read E=mc2!  It is a non-fiction page turner.  Can’t wait to read some of this author’s other books.

I got a chuckle out of this cartoon from yesterday’s local newspaper.  I thought that you should all read it before you begin your Beach Research!

I’m back, and happy to be here!  And I have a lot to say!

The photo was taken of me during our first Nuts and Bolts meeting with the 2010-2011 cohort. This is how I am looking these days.  A bit (actually more than a bit) larger when last seen on this site.  I am blaming that on nearing age 60 (that will happen this November!).

Typical of my classroom style, I was sitting in a student desk, with our new students.  We each had to bring in something that was important or meaningful to us.  Yes, that is a rubber ducky sitting on my desk.  This duck sat on my desk for an entire school year.  This is why:  For one of the opening day’s homework assignments I gave my students a small news article to read.  The article was about a lost shipment of rubber ducks.  The shipment was lost off the coast of Japan.  The interesting thing was, these ducks were now washing up on the East Coast of United States and the West Coast of Great Britain.  I posed the question:  ”how did they get to these places?”  I gave a tip:  Use your Earth Science Reference Tables to find the name of the Ocean Current that could have carried the ducks to these shores. The article also went on to say that if found, return to the company and a modest reward would be given.  The day after I gave that assignment, I was walking home from work, and there on the side walk was the rubber duck shown in this picture. I brought it in, put it on my desk.  It generated student conversation and interest.  It was also a reminder for me to keep finding those unique treasures in the news, on the sidewalks, in life, that got students thinking and talking.

I also brought my MacDonald’s French Fry phone as an indication of the level of technology that I could handle. But that is another story.

Every time I am assigned to present, I do a lesson plan, greet students at the door, have a bell work assignment, post an agenda on the board complete with an essential question and/or a focus question.  Here is the agenda that was given to each student on the way into the room:

Establishing Classroom Culture

Focus Question:  How do you get student “buy in” for the classroom culture you hope to establish?

Bell Work:  On the flip side of this paper, use one of the following prompts to record some thoughts about this session’s focus question.

Choice one:  make a list of the characteristics of your future class room

Choice two:  diagram and describe your future classroom

Choice three:  write action steps (a to do list) for establishing the classroom you desire

Choice four: make a list of characteristics you would find least desirable in a classroom

Group Share: Getting acquainted, part two.  Be ready to share the item you brought and to share it’s importance in “your world”.

Activity: Up and at ‘em time.

Teacher Time: Debrief

Closure: TBA

For closure, I asked the students to give me examples of how I modeled establishing a classroom culture.  Their answers included:  giving student choices on how to respond to the bell work question; valuing their input, noting that I was taking notes on what students were saying; greeting students at the door; having a pile of pens and pencils on the desk and inviting students to help themselves if they needed on; sitting with us; having a plan; having an agenda that could be followed and checked off as things were accomplished.  Excellent responses to the closure question.  Before they left, I asked students to revisit the Essential Question, which had been posted on the board:  What will your future classroom look, sound, feel like?

First impression of the new group…..WOW!  Interesting, intelligent, insightful!  I enjoyed listening to each of their stories.  I liked how they were so willing to do what was asked of them.  And I really, really liked their input in the class discussion.  They are off to a wonderful start!

Check back for more from me at another time.  Can’t wait to tell you about the E=mc2 book review!

I have been thinking about this lately…how do I get started blogging again, when I have remained “bloggless” for weeks?  I guess the answer is to just start.  So here I go.  This is what has been on my mind:

Field Placements:  In about a month, you will be teaching a series of three lessons.  They will be innovative and reflect the teaching theory you have been doing in various forms since you began your work in this program.  So with a month, or less to go, here are some things to think about (not listed in any particular order or importance, just what flows out of my brain at the moment I am typing):

• You should be working with your CT to target a topic.  This can be more difficult than it sounds.  There are so many things that can happen in the class room, the school, the community that can make predicting an exact topic for a three-day period a month away difficult.  But begin this conversation with your CT, and begin to search out ideas that may fit in with the targeted topic.
• Since you will be teaching for those three days and you will be fully responsible for all of the teaching duties at that time, you should be stepping up your participation in day to day class room work.  Grading papers, grading tests, helping students that have missed class, helping students that need more time on task than afforded during class, taking attendance, co-planning lessons with your CT, teaching parts of lessons, teaching full lessons, building connections with students should be a part of your daily routine by now.
• If your CT is teaching a Regents class, you should be looking at Regents test questions for the subject and becoming familiar with the type of question and the style of question asked for the content that is and will be covered in the class.
• If your CT is teaching a Regents class, you should be reading and trying to make sense of the State Standards for your class.
• If the class room culture does not include inquiry, you should be planning how you will scaffold your activities so that your students will be comfortable doing an inquiry lesson.
• You should be looking at both evaluation forms that will be used by your CT and your US (University Supervisor) at the end of your Field Placement and for your formal observation respectively.  
• You should be thinking about what it will mean to be fully responsible for a 4 week period of time when you begin your first student teaching assignment in December.

If that isn’t enough to be thinking about, I will be back with some more things to ponder.  And of course, if you need to brainstorm how to do any of the above mentioned items, I am, as always, available to brainstorm with you!

Quick Blog entry…Star Log 27/09/09…lead supervisor reporting in…I spent some time yesterday and today catching up on your Blog posts….they are giving me a lot to think about…also, I really like the comments you are all posting on each other’s Blogs…and the conversations that start as a result of the comments.  Keep up the wonderful work!

I have been thinking about field placement work of my “supervisees”. I thought that I should share my thoughts with the whole group, not just with my foursome.

Your challenge thus far has been to observe and to soak up as much as possible about the practice of teaching. You have been: observing your CT; learning about your school; meeting the students you will be working with and making connections with these students.

So next up: start thinking about your transition from observer to practitioner. How will you take on the role of deliverer of content and manager of the multitudes?

Here are some ideas to get you going separated into two categories: managerial and lesson preparation.

Classroom management practice you can begin on include:

• making contact with parent/guardian (your child has done something wonderful today/I’d like to share this really good idea your child shared in class today/your child’s participation in class room activities needs to be commended; what can you tell me about your child that can help me help him/her?)
• making contact with the administrator in charge of discipline (discussing students with the administrator in the same way listed above for your discussion with parent/guardian)
• tracking movement in the classroom (map teacher movement, time in one location, type of contact at that location: instruction, questioning, prompting proper behavior; and/or map student movement in the classroom: who gets equipment and supplies, who gets up for help with work, who gets up to sharpen pencil or go to the waste basket or to socialize with a classmate)
• mark time on task for various students
• track students behavior (working on task, working without independently without prompts, working with few prompts, who/how many complete tasks and length of time taken to do so)

Lesson planning and preparation ideas:

• volunteer to correct an assignment (bell work, hw, class work, lab work, quiz); rotate your way through volunteering to correct each of the different types of assignments given in class.
• volunteer to lead a class discussion or do a demonstration
• plan and prepare an activity
• work with students that have been absent, take them through the lessons they have missed
• wander around the class room helping students as they work on labs, class assignments
• work up to co-teaching with the CT as the lead teacher and you as the support teacher; you will need to negotiate your roles prior to doing this

I am sure I will think of more to add to this, but it is getting late and I am going on a field trip with a group of 8th graders first thing tomorrow morning.  I need to get some sleep.  I will be back with more ideas soon!

Ok, someone has to teach me how to put a You Tube item into my post. The best I can do right now is to just put the URL. I don’t know where you stand politically, but regardless of your ideologies, you have got to respect a leader with a sense of humor! Check out this brief, but good chat, from our fearless leader!

President Obama on Letterman

In seminar tonight, Joe suggested this one: 

“What do you wonder?”  Students write down things they wonder about on slips of paper and put the slips of paper into a container.  When this task is chosen, the teacher randomly picks questions to read and discuss.

Thanks Joe, for contributing to what I hope will be an ever growing list. 

Oh, and speaking of seminar….why didn’t I think of this sooner?  there were folks that got more than one celebration prize tonight….I should have said “if your name was called more than once, you have the option of taking a second prize or choosing someone who has not gotten a prize, recognizing that person for something I did not know about, and letting that person take a prize.”    My brain was too fuzzy tonight.  I thought of that on the way home.  But wouldn’t that have been cool?  Someone remind me the next time.

I am pretending that I wrote the last Blog yesterday, since it was in fact about events that did occur yesterday.  So this is my today Blog:

Kathryn, Chris and I met for coffee and collaboration.  This week’s general topic centered around “cookie jar activities”.  

Kathryn and Chris (not posing)

Here is the back story.  Chris is in his first year of teaching and has 84 minute periods.  For one reason or another, he was left with about 10 minutes of time at the end of one of his classes the other day.  He wrote:  using up 2 of my 3 “reserve” activities to fill up the class. coming up with alternate plans for 84 minutes is tough! (we did the ES content/skills survey, and an “intro to the ref tables” worksheet that i wasn’t totally crazy about, but was curious to try.  i need to come up with some 5-10 minute fillers for the end of class, though… that’s a weakness for me.)

We talked about writing activities on slips of paper and putting them into a cookie jar.  A student could pick out an activity each day.  Here are some of the ideas for the cookie jar:

word wall (contribute suggestions for the wall, students vote on the ones that really need to go on the wall; or choose one to illustrate then canvas at least 5 other students, if your illustration can be interpreted by your peers, it can go up on the wall by the word; or use the word in a sentence).

Listening with a purpose (before reading aloud, the teacher assigns a listening purpose to each student-listen and record the facts; listen and record something that resonates with you; listen and record things you disagree with/find fault with; listen and record action steps that should be taken as inspired by something in the reading; the members of the same group can get together and share what they have recorded and then be ready for a group share with the rest of the class.  Or, students could write a reflection after listening.  Or students could write a fictional piece based on facts in the listening piece.)

Reference Tables (teacher could have a series of questions ready in a folder if this was picked, or students could write their own questions and try to stump each other or stump the teacher)

Would you rather (teacher reads several would you rather questions for the students to ponder).

Math problems (teacher has a set ready to go on an transparency or students can write their own to challenge their peers)

Free-writes(given a topic, x amount of minutes; or choose your own topic; format can be a story, a poem, a question, an argument, a what’s on your mind?  students can choose format).

Regents Exam questions (prepared in advance by the teacher and ready on demand on a transparency for the overhead).

Silent Sustained Reading (teacher’s choice/student’s choice)

Snowball Activity (students write a question on a slip of paper, then crumple the paper and throw it across the room to another student.  The student catching the snowball has to answer the question.  This is a team activity.  Room is split into two teams.  Teams compete for points-most number of right answers…if the receiving team can not answer the question, the throwing team can answer the question and lose points if they get it wrong).

Zoom (students are given a series of pictures, they have to put the pictures in a sequence that tells a unified story).

Categories (students are given a card with a word or phrase or topic; they must find other members of the class with a similar word or phrase and then find the topic/common characteristic of the group….granite, basalt, rhylolite, igneous rocks, obsidian, pumice).

Two truths and a lie

Have you ever?

What’s on your mind? (topic specific or anything)

Stump the teacher(students ask questions that they think will stump the teacher).

As we were winding down on this session, Kathryn came up with the idea of having 2 cookie jars….one for the tasks, one for the topics.  During the course of the year the topics jar would be added to (as a topic was finished).  Students would pick one task and then one topic to work on for the task!

Chris and I stayed around to talk Earth Science specific talk.  How to tweak a hurricane activity he was designing.  How to add to a latitude and longitude activity by using questions whose answers would be found in the reference tables:

http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/osa/reftable/esrt2010-engw.pdf

We also discussed the teachable moment coming up on Tuesday.  It is the autumnal equinox.  It should be noted and celebrated.  Chris’ students asked if they could bring food to have a party.  I suggested that they should also bring an equinox fact to share.  If they did not bring a fact, they could not share in the food until they canvassed their peers for at least 5 different equinox facts.  Was that harsh?