Welcome to Positive Thinking Thursday! I'm glad you are here. I hope you will visit Mrs. Laffin's Laughings to see many positive thoughts from the teacher blogosphere! Everyone is welcome here.
As we settle into the school year, we need to be reminded of our passions. It's easy to get into a comfortable routine. My passion in my teaching career is two-fold. I love my students and I love innovation. But how do I combine the two to stay fresh and unique each day? That's the question I attempt to tackle before every class meeting.
During a conversation I had with Noam Chomsky he mentioned that "...you're supposed to challenge. Come up with new ideas. [And] go in new directions" in regard to education. This thought really stuck with me over the years. I challenge both you and me to mesh our passions with creativity and innovation. Stay current in your content area and pedagogy. Try new things. Explore new routes for teaching.
As always, good luck and happy teaching Brownbaggers! I look forward to hearing (or seeing) your innovative ideas!
So you've decided that you want to record your first screencast! That's excellent! Once you get the hang of it, it will become a natural part of your teaching repertoire. I'm here to help make the "getting started process" easier. What do you need to have ready? How do you set it up? How do you post your information? All of that is included down below so let's get started! How do I prepare? 1. You'll need to have someobjectives. Just as you would with a normal class period, you'll need to figure out what your students need to know by the end of the tutorial. What's you end game? It could be as simple as giving them definitions and them being able to identify strategies or terms. Or it could be more complex where you're teaching them writing strategies and want them to be able to identify and apply these strategies. You decide. 2. What do you want the screencast to look like? You can create a PowerPoint and lecture over it. You can pull up student work samples and do "read alouds". You can pull up a blank document and record yourself through your own writing process. The options are endless but they should match up with your objective(s). Once you figure that out, get all of you information prepared.
How do I record? 1. Choose your recording technology.There are quite a few options out there but the easiest by far is Screencast-O-Matic. It's pain free, user friendly, and requires NO installation. 2. Start recording.Once you have your documents pulled up on the screen (or PowerPoint), hit the record button! You'll see a little dot-outlined box pull up. Anything inside of that box will be recorded in the screencast. You can, of course, change the size.
You can also choose whether or not you will have audio. You can have no audio if you would like to just show them how to do something. Or you can turn the audio on and talk them through the process or the lecture <<<< that's the best option! Audio and visual together make for a more successful screencast. Talk through your information and be your normal self. Your students will like that it's your voice and your personality. They will trust the material because it's coming from you so be you!
What if I mess up? 1. Pause, Rewind, Start Over. So you started rambling on and on about last night's episode of The Good Wife. Happens to the best of us. You have a couple of options. If you're not too far into it, just start over! If you're 6 minutes into a 10 minute screencast, don't start over. Rewind the video to the part right before your "mess up" and start recording from there. The technology for Screencast-O-Matic allows you to be flexible with your recordings so don't worry.
Where do I post the screencasts? 1. YouTube or Screencast-O-Matic. There are three options using the Screencast-O-Matic software. The first is to download the screencast you've recorded. I wouldn't suggest that since it will take quite a bit of time and take up a large chunk of memory. Instead, let this bad boy live online. Option two is to leave it on Screencast-O-Matic as a searchable video. This is a good option for those of you who would like it in a somewhat private environment. You can then send the link to your students. Option three is to upload the video to YouTube. This option is only good if you don't mind your screencasts being available for all of the world to see. Remember, you can always take it down in the future. Regardless, do whatever is most comfortable to you.
What sorts of things should I record? 1. Options are Endless! Below is a list of my favorite ideas for screencasts:
Introductions to a Unit
Literary Definitions with Examples
Vocabulary Context Clues in Action
Student Essay Samples
Common Errors from Previous Assignments
PowerPoint Lectures
Questions from the Last Class
Read Alouds with Texts or Student Work
Example of Your Grading Process
How to Use Your Online Grading System
How to Use Your Online Classroom Platform
How to Create an Email to a Teacher
Review of the Prompts
Study Materials
Collection of Sites to Find More Information
How to Search for Scholarly Journals
How to Use the Library Software
How to Set Up Their Blogs
Really, the options are endless. Just be creative! Remember that when you make these, you can use them for years to come! That's the best part :) Happy screencasting y'all!
So you had a great class, but in the last 10 minutes there was an influx of questions. Really big questions. Questions like, "but how do I organize my essay?" or "what if I'm having trouble identifying the rhetorical strategies to analyze?" It happens to everyone but what if you don't have time to cover it next class? We're on strict schedules with our curriculum. Even worse, I only see my students 2 times a week. And one of those times is in the computer lab! Frankly, I don't have time to hold the class back one extra day to cover what was confusing.
So what do we do?
Here are three things that you can do to address
those last-minute questions for next time:
1.Email: I have a professor who, after every class, emails us. It usually starts a little something like this: "After class, I began to think about..." It never makes us feel like we're idiots and he has to waste his time to teach us more...via email. Instead, he brings up the issue in a conversational tone and directs us to places (text book pages, website, podcasts, videos, etc.) that will help us address those questions. He helps us take our learning into our own hands. 2. Podcast: If it's not something that you need a visual for, why not just record your voice lecture style. But make it a short lecture. Audio without visual can drag if it's too long. No more than 10-minute sound bytes. Also, make sure you're using verbal cues to help your students stay on track. Say things like "3 things I'd like to discuss" and mention "first, second, and third" when you get there. Using those verbal cues will help them with note-taking. Feel free to visit my podcast to get a feel for how I do things. 3. Screencast-O-Matic: So you like the idea of a podcast but the topic really would benefit from having a visual? Okay, use www.screencast-o-matic.com. This is a free service that allows you to audio and visual record your screen without installing anything to your computer. I use it in one of two ways. Sometimes I will create a PowerPoint and go through that while discussing what I naturally would as if I were in class. And sometimes I pull up sample pieces of writing and do a "read aloud" with my students noticing what strategies the authors are using in their writing. Both are great options. The best thing is that Screencast-O-Matic will set up a video page for you or upload it straight to Youtube. That way you can have it for all the world to see if you'd like! See one of my examples down below or visit my How-To for your first time screencasting!
Whatever you choose to do, make sure that you have a plan before you begin. Just like you would with any class, you need to have an objective. If you have that set from the beginning, you're follow-up will be clear and concise! Good luck!
Apparently there is a new up-and-coming, Chicago-based rapper. Lil' Durk. How do I know this? Well my students were taking a survey for my Peer Advocate (more about this down below) so that he could learn more about them. One of the survey questions: Who is your favorite artist? As I creeped over their shoulders, I learned that many of them really liked Lil' Durk.
Side note. Yes... that's his name. It's really stupid. Let's be real. After I made a joke about how ridiculous of a name that was and how I didn't believe that he was even a real person, it made me start thinking. You see, I have been working on a pilot program in the First-Year Composition Program called the Peer Advocate (PA) Program. Holy program. The goal of the program is to help retention rates, a problem that is plaguing college campuses nationwide. As a cohort leader/trainer of PAs, I always tell my students that the real goal of this is to get them connected to one another. In all honesty, it doesn't matter how cool a college campus is. It doesn't matter if the football team is amazing or if there is great Greek Life. If students don't connect with one another, why would they stay? This program, although it is a pilot, is large scale. It involves 30 students being attached to 30 FYComp classes with 25 students per class. That's a total of 750 incoming Freshman being impacted! While the PAs have successfully completed the FYComp classes themselves, their goal isn't necessarily to help the students in class. Instead, they invite students to events, attend club meetings, and take them out for pizza. Like I said, this is large scale. But what can we, as teachers, do right now? What can we do in our classes without having to ask for approval, form committees, and run pilot programs?
Here's a list of 5 things you can put in place in your classroom today to help start build community with your students this week.
Lil' Durk Time: Like I mentioned above, my students love Lil' Durk. However, every Monday in my class we discuss deep topics like gender, sexuality, race, and religion. I want to loosen them up and have them connect on a human level before we get into these heated discussions. So, I have them sit in different groups each week and give them one odd ball question to get discussion flowing: This is our "Lil' Durk Time". Questions like: What's the worst song on the radio? or What's the best movie you've seen lately? give them a chance to connect with each other as people. Priming them to build relationships.
Group Projects: Every teacher has group projects. Make it a requirement for them to meet outside of class once. You can have them tell you the time/place or you can have a student leader help coordinate. Forcing them to meet outside of class will give them another opportunity to create friendships with one another.
Email: We all have email lists of our classes but don't delete the classes that you don't have any more! Send out an email blast to your old students. Let them know that you're happy the year has finally gotten under way and remind them that you're still here for them. Tell them when your office hours or free periods are and where at so they know when and where to find you.
Seating Arrangement: Don't be afraid to switch it up. Rows facing forward. Rows facing each other. Groups. Large circle. Semi-circle. Pairs. Putting them in different seats allows them to be next to new people that they might not know.
Pictures: Take a group picture! Most of us have an online classroom environment like Moodle or Blackboard. Use that picture as the online class banner! That way the online space becomes theirs.
Whatever you do, remember that while content is important, the most important thing in life is relationships. We want our students to not feel alone in this cray cray world. They should feel comfortable expressing themselves with one another. As terrible as this sounds, I used to say "The class that parties together, stays together." While I don't endorse the partying part, it is true. Our students are more apt to stay involved with the program or school if they feel like they have built roots there.
I was a little MIA last week as I visited West Palm Beach with my mom as a sort of Last Fling for the summer! It was a wonderful time! Now that I'm back home, though, I'm a little bit sad. I miss being able to scamper around and do what I want when I want. I mean, within a short amount of time being home our car over heated, my dog was sick, and our policeman neighbor told us that someone could have been peeping in our house. Needless to say, reality set in pretty quick. But, if you're headed to WPB anytime soon or just want to live vicariously, check out what we did!
We visited Sloan's Ice Cream parlor located in the City Place of WPB. The ice cream was fabulous - all homemade and unique. My fav's - Chocolate Chip Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough & Sloan's Dark Chocolate. I consider myself an ice cream connoisseur though I didn't try anything fancy like their Coffee Ice Cream with Krispy Kreme's.
The coolest part? Their bathroom! The bathroom has a glass wall. When you lock the door - it freezes out in solid white! How cool is that?
The best part was obviously yelling "YOWWWWW" like I was part of the CSI: Miami theme song...
Lastly, we beached it up. Went to West Palm Beach and South Beach in Miami. I didn't get any pics of the beaches because I didn't want to bring my phone with me but here is a pretty sweet dressed up palm tree.
The best part of the beach trip? Well here's a little story for you.
1. Night before I ask a local what are the "must-do's" in WPB. He says paddle-boarding. I love paddle-boarding in Lake Michigan but am a little weary of shark-infested waters, I tell him. He says I should be as sharks are migrating and there are "thousands of them up and down the coast right now." <- his words, not mine.
2. Swimming in the ocean maybe 20 feet away from shore, the waters start to get dark.
3. Everyone in the ocean starts sprinting out screaming.
4. Everyone on the beach starts sprinting towards the ocean (and us) with cameras pointing.
5. School of manatees swim up and by us MAYBE 5 feet away.
Obviously this was amazing but wayyyy cooler after I realized they were manatees and got over the fear of being attacked by sharks!
This isn't all we did. We did quite a bit of shopping, ate at some amazing restaurants, and went to stand up at the Improv Comedy Club. All of this makes me think, why stop having adventures when the school year starts? Adventure doesn't need to be limited to summer time vacations. We can do it in the classroom and in our spare time. With that being said, I'm going to start creating a adventure list of sorts to accomplish this year with my students. Any suggestions to get me started? I'll be posting about it soon so stay posted!
Warning! Super weird post coming your way. Yesterday I took a fitness pole dancing class with a girlfriend of mine. To be quite honest, I was a little bit nervous coming in. It was something that was completely outside of my comfort zone... not to mention I have zero upper body strength. After paying, my friend and I walked into the fitness room that was scattered with poles. All of the lights were off except for one purple light in the corner of the room. The instructor started by telling us to "Let loose and let our hair down. No one is here to judge anyone else." The class started off a bit awkward for me. I'm not used to sexily prancing around a room and then swinging around a stripper pole. But as time went on (it was a 75-minute class!), I became loose and we all started to forget that the rest of us were there. Yes. This is an education blog. Yes. I'm writing about pole dancing. What's the connection?! I learned quite a few lessons from my pole dancing class that can be applied to my teaching career. I know. It's weird. But here it goes.
Be open to new experiences. It's so easy for us to get wrapped up in doing the same old, same old. We know what works for us and we know what works well. But don't let that stop you from trying something new. Whether it's a new activity to teach, facilitating a discussion in a different way, or entirely flipping your classroom, be open to new experiences. It will teach you a lot about the way your students learn and the way you deal with the unexpected.
Don't be afraid to look like a fool. Like I said, the beginning of the pole dancing class was a little intimidating. 2 of the girls in there had been taking classes for weeks and could do upside-down tricks. But I pushed through anyways. Yes, I totally looked like a fool at first. But that's okay. We have to learn to be comfortable with the uncomfortable because only through these experiences can we grow. If you try something new in your class and it's a total failure, that's okay. What's important is how you handle it at the time and how you reflect on it to improve later.
We are all more capable than we realize, and so are our students. I have no upper body strength. I don't say that sarcastically but seriously. The only exercise I'm doing right now is running to train for a 15K I signed up for. I always thought that if I had to pull myself up from the side of a building I would be able to - after this class, though, I'm not quite sure. But during the class I learned that I was able to do a few tricks that I didn't think I would have the capability to do. We all were! All it took with the right instruction and encouragement. Our instructor was kind and a good listener. When we struggled, she was able to watch our technique, diagnose the problem, and set us on the straight and narrow. We need to remember that for ourselves but also for how we interact with our students when they're struggling.
Yes, I know it's a weird experience to talk about and relate to teaching but it's all very true. I think it's quite possible that I can learn a lot from my pole dancing teacher in regard to how I teach my own students.
I've been thinking a lot lately about life goals. In fact, I think about goals in most of my spare time. The only thing I can do to stop thinking about the future is to hang out with a friend or binge on The Good Wife. But thinking about goals isn't a bad thing. Actually, with back to school quickly approaching, I think it's a good thing! Why wait until New Year's Eve to set goals for ourselves? With a new school year beginning, we have a fresh start. We have an opportunity to start anew and to make progress in so many different areas of our lives. If you're in education, you've probably heard of SMART goals.
SMART Goals are an excellent way for you to reach realistic goals in a certain amount of time. If you are interested in learning more about SMART goals, check out Adam Sicinski's post. He offers a ton of valuable information!
I'm more concerned with us Brownbaggers setting goals for multiple areas of our lives. Clustering our goals. It's so easy for us to be focused on helping our students, growing as teachers, and collaborating with others in our field. This is great! But, teaching should not be our entire lives. Simply said, it's just not healthy.
Instead, we should have lives that are enriched in various areas. Spending a considerable amount of time in these areas will help us to feel more fulfilled and positive.
So I'm going to show you what I am doing in hopes that you might be inspired to do it too! Here are the 6 areas that I plan to set goals in. Before I set my goals, I'm going to ask myself a few questions and reflect on what's going on in my life. After all, reflection is the mark of a true teacher, right? Only after I spend time reflecting will I then set goals.
Goal-Setting Areas & Questions to Reflect On:
Spirituality: How is my spiritual life? How often am I reading my Bible? Attending church? What relationships do I have that are centered around the love for Jesus Christ? In what ways am I volunteering my time?
Family: How often do I spend quality time with my family members? In what ways do I communicate with my family (text, email, phone call, in person, etc.)? Am I okay with that?
Friends: How often do I spend quality time with my friends? In what ways do I communicate with my friends (text, email, phone call, in person, etc.)? Am I okay with that? Am I open to new friendships? Do I make an effort?
Hobbies: What is my favorite way to spend my free time? How often do I make time to do that activity? What new hobbies have I always wanted to try but haven't had the courage to do so?
Work: Based on my actions, how do I think my co-workers view me? How can I make myself more valuable at work? What professional development can I do to serve others better?
Fitness: What is my current fitness routine? What challenges can I put on myself?
It's important that when I reflect on these areas of my life, that I am extremely honest with myself. Without honesty, I won't be able to improve myself. From that point, I can move onto setting my goals. While I won't share my reflections with you (for sake of time and it may be a little awkward), I will share my finalized goals.
Goals:
Spirituality: Join a small group. Serve 1x/month in the community outreach starting in August/Sept.
Family: Pick up the phone and call my family members (immediate and extended).
Friends: Let new friendships emerge by getting contact information, making plans, and sticking to them.
Hobbies: Try a Paint Nite class with my friends.
Work: Finish reading Creating Magic. Set and stick to specific times to work on certain projects.
Fitness: Run the Hot Chocolate 15K in November.
Some people might ask, why do you need to write your goals down? It's a valid question. Really, you don't need to write your goals down. But I would argue that taking the time to write them down forces you to think more about what you want out of life. What you expect from yourself, what you want to add to the lives of others, and what you desire from your family and friends. Better yet, publishing them publicly gives you accountability to stick with it. Remember that these aren't set in stone. Reevaluate monthly. Your desires might change and that's okay. It's important to be intentional though. After all, writing without a sharpened pencil is pointless.
So what goals do you have Brownbaggers? Comment below! I'd love to hear what you have going on. Let's keep each other accountable.
So July is coming to an end and it's about time to show you my favorites from the month! This summer, I was exposed to great professional development and implemented several new things into my teaching with my summer school classes. Without further adieu, here's the Top 5 for July!
Coggle:I wrote a post on Coggle before but I want to reiterate how amazing it is. This FREE mind-streaming software really reimagined the way my students planned out their essays. I had intended on using Coggle as a pre-writing device but my students had other plans. Instead, they chose to use it as a way to create an outline that was not limited by the Roman Numeral system. They focused on relationships and level of specificity.
Drive: This summer I transformed my entire writing class into one that is based online. Every essay was written online (yes... I used to be the teacher that made students do hand-written drafts!). Every essay was revised online. Every essay was graded online. The share, chat, and commenting functions of Google Drive allowed me and my students to interact with their writing in a way that time wasn't allowed for in the traditional writing classroom.
Twitter: This has been my favorite professional development! At this moment, I'm loving these Tweet chats: #christianeducations (Christian Educators), #iledchat (Illinois Educators), #ntchat (New Teachers), and #21stedchat (21st Century Education). There are so many others that I love too. Pretty much any state-level tweet chat is fun to me! I enjoy collaborating with teachers across the country. Stay tuned for a post on how to successfully participate in an educational Twitter chat. In the mean time, check out these other Tweet Chats.
BRIEF: Joe McCormack's new book BRIEFis intended for high-level executives in Fortune 500 companies. But that doesn't mean teachers can't learn from it! The premise of the book is that because we are so inundated with information, we must learn the keys to brevity and how they apply to speaking, presenting, and writing - or as he calls it, being a "lean communicator". Isn't that what we do as teachers?
Creating Magic: Lee Cockerell, the man who ran Walt Disney World operations, says "It's not the magic that makes it work; it's the way we work that makes it magic" in his book Creating Magic. In it, he discusses 10 leadership strategies that help you to put people first in any and every market. The book itself is full of insights into people and what makes them tick.
