Blog 8-Who is doing homework?

Homework, it is something we have all experienced and as educators it is a part of our profession. I teach first grade and even them at a young age have homework almost nightly. That is a whole other conversation but I ask myself, am I giving my students homework or their parents. I read an article from The Wall Street Journal about parents helping their child too much with their homework. I think this is starting to happen more and more and with a variety of age levels. It is causing students to become helpless and too dependent on adults.
Schools are urging parents to take part in their child’s education and that includes homework. Families are living very busy lives and often times have events and activities on school nights. This adds pressure to complete homework after a long day before bedtime. Parents provide extra help which usually includes giving more answers than assistance because they feel they have to make sure their child is keeping up with the competitiveness of the current education system. A great example of this happened in my classroom today. A little guy was having trouble with a math problem and as soon as others started to finish he came up to me and said, “I’m just going to take this home so my mommy can help me.” I was shocked that he wouldn’t just ask me (the teacher) for help. When I said he needed to finish it at school he started crying. I’m sure we have also seen the big projects that come with mom’s and dad’s touches to them. They look perfect and when you ask the student how they completed it or why they did it that way they don’t have anything to say. I have seen this every year, one project specifically. Every Thanksgiving we send home a turkey that the students are supposed to disguise and many return very cute but very much done by a parent. When I say done by a parent I don’t mean they did it when their child was in bed, I mean the parents put more work or influence on the project than the child does. In my opinion this is destroying our children. Students compare their work to work that was mainly done by an adult and they get frustrated when they don’t see the same results.
I found one article that gives a suggestion to set ups a homework area in the home. Another article gives suggestions to use at home to make homework go smoothly and less stressful. The most important points are to have a certain time and place that homework occurs so it is consistent and turn the TV off!!! I really liked this site because it offers tips and answer the common questions on how to guide your child through their homework not do it for them. I think this is a great article to share with parents at a conference or in a newsletter.
Are you noticing anything like this in your classrooms? Do you have suggestions for teacher or parents in this situation?

Blog 7-To bounce or to not bounce...

Can you imagine how much you would accomplish everyday if you students just sat down! I teach first grade and my students are consonantly standing up or moving around but I have a feeling this isn’t just a first grade problem. I have had student’s sit on seat cushions from our OT specialist and that has worked for some. I recently heard of the idea of using yoga balls, also called stability balls or fitness balls instead of chairs. They come in a variety of sizes and prices. After a few days of wiggly students I would love to try this so I decided to research it tonight and use the information for my blog this week.
I found a few articles from this past summer discussing the use of fitness balls in the classroom. One article is about a fourth grade teacher in Panama City, FL who used them in her classroom last year. Samantha Rogers student taught in a Missouri classroom that also used them in the classroom and learned about it in a workshop that discussed different learning styles. Rogers saw great results. The students paid more attention and she found it successful to promote good behavior. Mayo Researchers also promote that the use of fitness balls increases blood flow, increases oxygen intake, and improves posture. All of those reasons help the brain work so it sounds like a great idea, right? I think it would really help students concentrate longer. Students may sway or lightly bounce and I think that would be ok. I do have a few reservations about the use of these bouncy chairs. I would hope that after a few uses of the ball they would not be viewed as a toy by students and won’t be a distraction but that can’t be known for sure and this is an expensive “experiment.” The balls are also very expensive and I do not think I could ask parents to pay for something so costly and I’m not confident that my school would purchase them either. Parents out there, would you buy a $25 ball for your students to use in class or would you find this a ridiculous request? There obviously is some concern about the safety of sitting on fitness balls but Rogers says she has not had any accidents where students were injured. I find this a small concern because students fall of their chairs all the time (I told you they like to wiggle). On paper it seems like it would really increase student learning.
The school in FL where Rogers teaches uses the balls as a reward for honor roll students and I strongly disagree with this. I think it’s great to recognize high achievers but I don’t think this is the right way. In my opinion, the students who would gain most from this are the students who may struggle with their work because of the short attention spans.
I found a fitness article that suggests tips to incorporate the new sitting tool in your classroom (or office). They stress that you should introduce them into your classroom with ease. Don’t make them mandatory and have students use them in short time frames until students get used to them.
Well ladies and gentleman, any advice or stories for me on this issue? Should I try it? I was thinking I could bring in a few to try out this year. I would appreciate any comments.

Blog 6- Extending School Days & School Year

President Obama has stated that US students are not in school long enough. Currently students are in school for about 6 hours a day and have a 3 month summer break. Obama says this is not enough to keep up with schools in other countries. He would like to extend the school day and shorten the summer break. One article I read said the extended school time would have to have a purpose to make it successful for students. They suggested doing enrichment projects with students during the extended time. They would hope this would help raise test scores.
The tradition schedule we use was based on the fact that students were helping in the family fields during the summer and that usually is no longer the case. Therefore, Obama feels we should be in school more to be more competitive with students from other countries. My personal opinion on the competitiveness of other countries is the comparison is unfair. Countries like China have very high standards for education and many students who do not succeed in school begin their trade earlier in life. The US has become a cultural melting pot in the past decade and that has changed our education system greatly so I don’t think we can make an even comparison with other education systems.
I found another article from Fox News that discusses other negative effects of extending the school year. By shortening the summer it could affect the traveling and summer camp business. The current economy has already hurt the travel and summer camp industry and extending the school year could really damage those industries. Here is something to think about though; should we be worrying about the travel industry and summer camps more than our child’s education?
The same article also discusses the extra expense that would be required from a school district to have longer school days/school year. It would require more bus transportation, more school lunches, higher utility bills, possibly increased teacher pay and air conditioning for certain regions. Can school districts handle this? Are tax payers ready to pay more to accommodate this plan?
To finish I will state my personal thoughts and questions. I understand where Obama is coming from and I often feel like I run out of time with my students and so many students need more instruction but can students handle more? I already feel like my students are exhausted by 2:30pm. We have also all seen how students are when it hits May. Once the nice weather hits they are ready for a break (and so are the teachers). If we had a shortened summer break and added weeks onto the school year would this change our curriculums that we currently use or would we just supplement our own curriculum for the extra time? What would this do to extra-curriculars? I think extra-curriculars are very important for student’s success. A school district in Florida (Miami-Dade) tired something like this and abandoned the extended schedule because they did not see much progress so what does this plan include that will make it more successful than what Miami-Dade tried.
I agree that we need to get our students prepared for their future but is this the right answer?

Blog 5-Mapping Our Instruction

I went to a Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) Matters in-service today and it sparked my interest and excitement for this assessment. I think the MAP test offers a variety of positives for our students and our instruction. MAP is an assessment that is done on the computer and can be done with students as early as kindergarten. The test is not created for grade levels, it is created to test individual abilities. All students can take the test and will be assessed on what they currently know, not what they should know for their grade level. Students are tested three times a year and that allows us as teachers to see growth throughout the year and implement differentiated instruction when necessary. A great part of MAP testing is the instant results. Teachers are able to view reports of the whole class the following day. I think this is so important so teachers can actually use the information throughout the year to improve student learning. This is quite different from state assessments where teachers wait a long time for their student’s results. Student’s RIT scores can be used to compare students to each other and to other students in the nation. By looking at the reports a teacher can also see what standards the class or individual students are struggling wiyj. This not only allows a teacher to help students who struggle but they are able to see what students are above average and can provide specific instruction for those students as well. I think it’s great that there is also a MAP assessment for primary grades (K-2). The MAP Primary provides a warm up test for students to use to learn how the test works. Students on the MAP Primary can also take a skills checklist test as often as the teacher would like. This allows a teacher to keep very close tabs on skills that the teacher chooses to test. There is so much more to MAP testing so if you would like to know more about the MAP test you can visit the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA)website or Teacher Web for additional information.
I read an article from an Ohio newspaper that discusses how the MAP test works and how it has been beneficial in their schools. The article shared that some schools are grouping their classes into three learning levels according to MAP scores. In the example given the class that had the low readers were able to be taught at their level and made positive gains on their next test. Do you think this is something that would work in your schools? I see both sides of that, I think it would be great for students to be taught at their ability but what would parents say about this and are their disadvantages of not having a variety of achievement levels in the classroom? The article also states that MAP scores provide schools with a early look at how their students may perform on the State Assessment. I have not used MAP testing yet but I would be interested in hearing if this has proved to be right. During my in-service today a speaker also mentioned that some states (Idaho and Utah) are combining the MAP test and state assessment by using a test created special by NWEA. Do you think this would be a good idea so we could eliminate testing but still receive the results we want? I would love to hear anyone’s input (positive or negative) on MAP testing. Do you think this is as great as it was presented to me in my in-service?

Blog 4-The winner is....

Students usually don’t walk out of our class saying, “Great lesson, I really learned a lot today” and it is often that a teacher may go days without being told they are doing a good job. We tend to just keep working hard. The Department of Education is trying to recognize the schools for doing a job well done. The Blue Ribbon Award is a part of the No Child Left Behind and many schools are rewarded each year. I first heard about the Blue Ribbon Award when an elementary school in Harwood, ND received the award. I then came across an article from The Washington Post that revealed the schools that are receiving the 2009 Blue Ribbon Award and that made me research this award a little more.
The state nominates public schools and each state receives a certain number of nominations depending on the number of students per state. Schools can be nominated if they make significant gains on their state assessments and have a large population of disadvantaged students. Private schools can also be nominated by the Council for American Private Education. Schools who win the award receive a plaque and are recognized in Washington D.C.
At first I assumed the schools that were receiving the Blue Ribbon Award were schools with low numbers of special needs, schools with bigger budgets and high numbers of parent involvement but I was completely wrong. The Department of Education website shows that in order for school to be eligible for the award they must have 40% of their student population come from a disadvantaged background. After finding out this information and reading the article I have so much respect for the schools that have received this award. Many of the schools that are receiving the award were struggling and through positive administration or changes in parent involvement they were able to make changes. One of the examples credits their success to their principal for making changes in the school. Another example states that the support teachers received from parents helped raise their state assessment scores. I learned from the website that there were two more ND schools that received this honorable reward in 2008 and that has inspired me to think any school can reach this goal. I wonder if many educators know about this award and if it is something a teacher would find beneficial to strive for? I think it would be exciting to win a national award. What do you think your school needs to become a school to be nominated for this award? Do you need a stronger administration, more funds for curriculum or more input and support from home?
For more information on this award or to see the archives of past recipients check out the Department of Education website. I found it very interesting. The website also has documents you can read from the past winners about becoming a better school or the ideas they used. I found many of those very interesting. I thought the Charter Oak Primary School was a really good in-depth report. I would love to hear your comments on this award, do you think this will help school improve?

Blog 3-Religion in Schools

Every morning I ask myself what should I wear and don’t think too hard if what I choose is against the law or not. This recently has become an issue again in two states. I read an article in last weekend’s Forum that discussed the current law in three states (Oregon, Pennsylvania and Nebraska). A law that was created many years ago has held up in current years when the issue has been challenged. Teachers are not allowed to wear any clothing that relates to religion. The article referred to turbans or headdresses. This summer Oregon had changed the law allowing religious clothing to be worn at the workplace except for teachers. Their reasoning is to make sure religion is staying out of school and teachers are not promoting a certain religion to their students. I understand that separating school and religion has been in the books for awhile and is important but would this law stop me from wearing a cross necklace? Do these schools allow students to wear their religious clothing?
I found this article interesting since we were reading about diversity and ethnic groups in our chapter. I feel it is important to recognize different cultures and accept the way students live in their homes; this may include their religious clothing. I feel their clothing is a way of showing their culture but not necessarily promoting it and teachers should have the right to show their religious freedom as students and other professionals.
After reading this article I researched another news topic that I heard about a couple weeks ago. One article discussed how some schools are starting to provide time and space for Muslim students to pray during school. The prayer is supervised by not led by teachers but some wonder (including myself) is this ok or is this allowing religion to be a part of school. I don’t want anyone to think I’m against a student saying their own prayer in school but I find it interesting that within the US we are allowing some students to prayer while at school but in other parts of the US teachers are not allowed to wear their religious clothing. I think decisions should be made to make things even across the board. I have a good friend who teaches ELL in ND and she has students who ask to be dismissed from the room and they are found in a corner of a hallway praying. Is it ok to allow students to miss class to practice their religious beliefs or is this a way for us to accept their culture?
I found a second article that discussed the schools that are allowing prayer. It has similar information but I thought it was interesting that school like the San Diego school was allowed to do this because of their high population of Muslim students.
I know religion and school is a touchy subject but I found this interesting and makes me really think about what I think should be allowed or not. What are your thoughts?

Blog 2-MotivatingStudents.com

After reading Chaper 1 it made me reflect on my motivation strategies. I am always trying to create extrinsic motivation for my students. I feel I need to stay one step ahead so my students will always be motivated. I use prizes and rewards to motive positive behaviors and work habits but I feel I should be implementing more motivation strategies for my instruction and curriculum. I want my students to enjoy the curriculum and feel responsible for their learning.

I could discuss my current ideas on motivation strategies but I’m going to expand on the technology section that book discussed. I did discuss most of my motivation strategies in the discussion questions if you are interested. I am a strong believer in using technology in my classroom. My past thinking was to use technology to stay current with times and provide my students experience of using technological tools that will be so important later in life. I did not think of it as a strong motivation piece until I read this chapter. I currently use an Active Board in my classroom and on average do 2-3 lessons on it per day. I have always noticed that my students enjoy these lessons and usually listen more attentively. I have also seen that my students respond and perform well on the skills covered on the Active Board. I always just credited these results to the enjoyment of using the board. After reflecting on this I realize the fun my students were having by learning with this tool was really motivation. I would strongly suggest anyone who is looking for a motivation strategy try to incorporate a technology tool into their classroom.

I read an article that related to this topic and offered ideas to incorporate this priceless instrument. Dr. Stephen Jones wrote How to Motivate Students: Strategies That Work. He addressed the concern that children are addicted to technology. He suggests using this addiction in a positive way. There are a number of ways to use technology in your classroom and when Dr. Jones refers to technology he is not just referring to a computer. He mentioned an IPod numerous times and I think an IPod can be a great way for students to listen to a lecture (a teacher could create their lecture in a podcast) or another podcast that relates to a topic. Cell phones were another device mentioned in the article and I think cell phones have to be used carefully. I think it would be fun if a teacher could send out a text message to their students with a question to ponder for the next class discussion. I know this can be a touchy procedure and I’m not saying I would try it tomorrow but it was an idea to maybe think about.

Overall, I think technology is a powerful tool and it is in our best interest to try and use it. It is an automatic motivator for our “techy” learners.