I struggle with blogging. I want to. I do. Blogging using the blogger app helps, but doesn't eliminate my one impediment. Time.
I don't have the time I used to. Trying to balance teaching, parenting, and running is a challenge. Three full time jobs really. So some things have been cut out, at least temporarily. Blogging is one of those things.
But I resolve to be consistent. Every Monday - with a promise that if I can do more I will. We just started a wiki project where we are building biographical pages for explorers that came to North America. I love the project based work because it hits a number of items and has built in value- kids want to work through it, and they want to work on the tech stuff. Win win.
I promise to do better. It is good for me to talk it out.
Showing posts with label balance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label balance. Show all posts
Monday, February 4, 2013
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Integrating Content
I'm entering year 4 of teaching. This will be the fourth year that I work on a team of 3 that divides the work in the same vain as a middle school might. I am left with literacy, and social studies. Ultimately it is a significant amount of content as you are working through social studies information and skills while simultaneously working in reading and writing skills.
My subject areas are a natural combination. You can't necessarily access the social studies content if you can't use effective reading skills. You also can't effectively communicate your understanding, particularly the analysis behind events, if you aren't able to write. There is obviously one glaring and gaping hole. Anyone see it?
If you guessed reading and writing outside of the non-fiction/expository genre then you guessed correctly. How do you go about using your daily 60-80 minutes to ensure you go beyond nonfiction and expository writing? That is the same question I have been wrestling with my first three years of teaching, and I still haven't really found a satisfactory response. While a majority of my counterparts struggle with teaching enough nonfiction, I am tilted entirely in the opposite direction.
In curriculum mapping this fall I started with my Social Studies content. I know it relatively well, and can easily generate a list of essential understandings, guiding questions, and standards to match. This also helped me in thinking about it from a problem based perspective where kids are going to need to generate some sort of product where they will evaluate and/or analyze information. I don't necessarily touch the reading standards at that point, largely because I need to better flesh out those units. If I do more comparison work, I will integrate that reading GLE. I might do categorizing, or questioning, or something else (which obviously will change the GLE used).
But where to start with reading? I have the Units of Study and enjoy them, even though I find them slightly cumbersome. Instead of diving through them, I started with articulating what I want for my kids as readers. I also wanted to state why those things are important. For example, stating "I want them to love reading" is great but doesn't tell you why you should love reading. To that same point, I hated reading for the sake of reading as an upper elementary or middle school student. So why do I need to love reading? Having a clear vision that it is important due to all of the reading you do throughout your life just to simply function is important, let alone to actually process information so that you can make rational decisions (or enjoy yourself, have a conversation about a book, function at work, etc etc). From that starting point I started in on what skills I wanted to ensure I cycled through- inference, story elements, etc. While it isn't complete, I'm pleased with the direction it is going. As I consider who I balance out my days (and time blocks) I can see what time I might need to allocate to each, and how that use of time will work.
8 days until I'm officially back, and 17 until kids start.
My subject areas are a natural combination. You can't necessarily access the social studies content if you can't use effective reading skills. You also can't effectively communicate your understanding, particularly the analysis behind events, if you aren't able to write. There is obviously one glaring and gaping hole. Anyone see it?
If you guessed reading and writing outside of the non-fiction/expository genre then you guessed correctly. How do you go about using your daily 60-80 minutes to ensure you go beyond nonfiction and expository writing? That is the same question I have been wrestling with my first three years of teaching, and I still haven't really found a satisfactory response. While a majority of my counterparts struggle with teaching enough nonfiction, I am tilted entirely in the opposite direction.
In curriculum mapping this fall I started with my Social Studies content. I know it relatively well, and can easily generate a list of essential understandings, guiding questions, and standards to match. This also helped me in thinking about it from a problem based perspective where kids are going to need to generate some sort of product where they will evaluate and/or analyze information. I don't necessarily touch the reading standards at that point, largely because I need to better flesh out those units. If I do more comparison work, I will integrate that reading GLE. I might do categorizing, or questioning, or something else (which obviously will change the GLE used).
But where to start with reading? I have the Units of Study and enjoy them, even though I find them slightly cumbersome. Instead of diving through them, I started with articulating what I want for my kids as readers. I also wanted to state why those things are important. For example, stating "I want them to love reading" is great but doesn't tell you why you should love reading. To that same point, I hated reading for the sake of reading as an upper elementary or middle school student. So why do I need to love reading? Having a clear vision that it is important due to all of the reading you do throughout your life just to simply function is important, let alone to actually process information so that you can make rational decisions (or enjoy yourself, have a conversation about a book, function at work, etc etc). From that starting point I started in on what skills I wanted to ensure I cycled through- inference, story elements, etc. While it isn't complete, I'm pleased with the direction it is going. As I consider who I balance out my days (and time blocks) I can see what time I might need to allocate to each, and how that use of time will work.
8 days until I'm officially back, and 17 until kids start.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
What they don't teach you
When you are in your education program there are a myriad of things you are taught. Best practices in literacy. How to construct knowledge in math. Ways to engage students in science so they come to deeper conceptual understanding. All of those are part of the education you get (or should get) prior to getting your teaching certificate.
How about the juggling act after year one? It seems like everything has stacked up in these last few weeks. Field trip #1, field trip #2 (all day), promotion, grades, comments, talent show, end of year party, field day, health curriculum, and a large end of year writing project. How do you balance that out? You've still got to teach, so that isn't an option.
The obvious thing is that some items are taken off. This year I didn't get to government. I just simply ran out of time. The larger projects monopolized time, squeezing out a huge part of what I wanted to do in social studies.. But you also take out things like lunch- talent show tryouts and putting together the performance list.
You learn to deal with it. You do. But it isn't something you learn in your education program, and likely not until you are a year or two in. Next year will be different, or at least I say that now!
How about the juggling act after year one? It seems like everything has stacked up in these last few weeks. Field trip #1, field trip #2 (all day), promotion, grades, comments, talent show, end of year party, field day, health curriculum, and a large end of year writing project. How do you balance that out? You've still got to teach, so that isn't an option.
The obvious thing is that some items are taken off. This year I didn't get to government. I just simply ran out of time. The larger projects monopolized time, squeezing out a huge part of what I wanted to do in social studies.. But you also take out things like lunch- talent show tryouts and putting together the performance list.
You learn to deal with it. You do. But it isn't something you learn in your education program, and likely not until you are a year or two in. Next year will be different, or at least I say that now!
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
How to ask good questions?
I find it understandable that I am not yet adept at asking grade-level appropriate questions. "How did the board balance with the fulcrum off-center?" would fall into the above category. "What did we learn about balance?" would fall into the category of vague and obtuse. I'm not sure I find anything more frustrating than failing to really phrase a question that can be grasped by students at a myriad of levels.The next question is how do I develop a lesson with questions that will hammer away at the essence of what I am teaching? I think I need to be more attentive to the concept, and actually talk through some of the questions in some of these initial lessons. For balance, that might have been asking questions that lead to the big idea of finding a balance point.
- What did you notice about the beam when the fulcrum was in the middle, and the 10 cubes were all at the end? Did it balance?
- Why do you think it didn't balance?
- How did you move the fulcrum to make it balance?
- What do we know about the weights on each side if the beam is level?
I was excited when one of the 1st graders pointed out that the side that was shorter (with all the cubes) was the same weight as the long side (see the image above from my science notebook). I am not so sure I really helped him along to make it happen though. Is 1 of 24 a good percentage? Right. As I said to one of the kids, science is confusing and that is ok. Today was more than enough evidence that I need to improve my questioning, and build that into my planning.
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