Positive Thinking Thursday

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!

How-To Record Your First Screencast

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 some objectives.  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!

Leaving Class with Questions

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!

Lil' Durk Time: Building Community within the Classroom

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.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.

#SheSharesTruth: Hosea & My Ebb and Flow Relationship

Hello Brownbaggers!

School is officially back into swing and I'm so grateful to be back!  As you've probably noticed, I haven't posted in a while.  I decided to take a 2-week hiatus while I was getting myself situated.  I have quite a bit on my plate this semester: teaching, taking classes, writing, researching, mentoring, etc.  It took a little bit of time to get adjusted but I think I've got it down.  In the meantime though, I've been reading Hosea along with the #SheReadsTruth community. It gave me some much needed time to reflect on my relationship with God, who I am in Christ, and who I want to be in Christ.

I've come to believe that every person's relationship with God ebbs and flows. This was something that I never knew before. I would go through times of incessant prayer, Bible reading, praise music listening, and joy.  And then I would go through lulls where God wasn't on my mind until my routine nightly prayer. I wondered what was wrong with me. 

Why couldn't I be on fire for Christ 100% of the time, 24/7?

Then I began to realize that this was normal.  Everyone goes through these waves in their relationships with God.  And that's okay.  It's something that we need to plan for though.

Hosea is quite an interesting book. Focusing on adultery and betrayal but also love and grace. Hosea's relationship with Gomer is so interesting to me. God asks Hosea to take a harlot as a wife. Yes, a harlot. Not surprisingly Gomer is not faithful to her husband. She is constantly stepping out on her loving husband; it's in her nature.

As you read the book of Hosea you come to understand that this is both metaphorical for God's relationship with Israel, and more depressingly us.  God is our loving Husband.  He's my loving Husband (which I'll admit sounds weird to me when I type it). He created me and all of my intricacies. He knows me better than I know myself and loves me more than I could possibly fathom. And I repeatedly step out on him.  

Therefore, behold, I will allure her,

Will bring her into the wilderness,

And speak comfort to her.

I will give her her vineyard from there,

And the Valley of Achor

as a door of hope;

She shall sing there,

As in the days of her youth,

As in the day when she came up

from the land of Eygpt.

-Hosea 2:14-15

Even though I have betrayed God countless times, whether it be from my words, actions, or thoughts, God will show me the way back.  Not only will He accept me in the end but He will show me how to get there.  How incredible! Especially if you consider it from the other way around. How many times would you accept and forgive your husband or wife for cheating on you? Betraying you? For myself I would say zero times. But God does this time and time again because He loves us in a true and deep way.

I want to be able to look back and see that through the waves, my relationship with God has grown deeper and stronger. I want to be able to plot events and interactions on a grid and see how my relationship with God is gradually and steadily improving. Yes, I still believe that my relationship with God ebbs and flows. It will probably do that for the rest of my life. I won't let that happen purposefully. I won't set out to get into a lull. But I need to remember to plan for those times of spiritual prosperity and famine. 

I will heal their backsliding,

I will love them freely...

-Hosea 14:4a

To Journal or Not To Journal?

I always had a problem with having to journal when I was a student.  I never knew what to write about.  Worse, I never understood what the point was.

This perception carried over when I started teaching.  I had the impression that having my students journal was simply busy work.  It was something that I could have them do while I was taking attendance, passing out papers, or talking to students individually.

Boy was I wrong.  Journaling can be an excellent tool for your students - 
IF it is set up right!

This summer while I was teaching summer school, I started to implement journals as part of the daily routine.  But my students weren't only writing about what they would do if they had $1 million.  They weren't only writing about which 3 books they would take with them if they were on a deserted island...

Yes this was my elementary understanding of journal prompts.

Instead, they were writing about their past experiences in writing classes. They were journaling about what part of the writing process was the easiest for them.  Which was the toughest for them.  Journaling became a reflective part of the learning process that was essential to their learning.  

Better yet, their final exam turned into a reflection of their overall growth in the semester.  They were able to look back through old journal entries and see where and how they were struggling.  They were able to scan through their challenges and triumphs.  

I compiled a list of 14 Journal Prompts along with the Reflective Collage Essay for you to try out in your classroom.  You can utilize these prompts every day in class for 3 weeks or have them done once a week for an extended-writing project.  Either way, they promote reflection in the writing classroom.  

I don't know about your experiences with journals before.  But I do know that journaling has been a way for my students to truly reflect, both short- and long-term, in ways that I hadn't seen them do before in my classroom.  Try them out and let me hear how it goes!  I look forward to reading your reflections of their reflections!

Reflection in the Classroom

As teachers, we know how important it is to reflect.  We reflect every time a lesson goes good, bad, terrible, or horrendous.  But how often do we have our students reflect?

Typically we set aside time for our students to reflect after they've written an essay, right?  This is usually part of the peer review process where they think about what they did well in their essay and the areas that they struggled in.

But what if I told you that our students should be reflecting all of the time?!

What if I told you that having our students reflect before our units would enable them to succeed?

It's true.  Having students reflect on their past experiences, what they expect out of a situation, or what they hope to get out of a learning experience teaches them to frame the learning process in a different light.  It also allows them to buy into the learning. If they have already invested time and energy into reflecting on the unit before it begins, chances are they will be more engaged throughout the unit.  

I suggest that you start the school year and every major unit off with reflection. Remember, reflection doesn't end when you call time.  It is something that students should be readdressing throughout the learning process. When "problems" come up, have students look back at their expectations.  Have them imagine what they were thinking then and how they would've expected to handle these "problems".  After the unit, have them look back at their reflections to see how accurate they were.  In what ways?  There should be a constant cycle of reflection during the learning process.

To make your life a little bit easier, I created Reflective Window Frames. These window frames are set up to have students reflect on what they want out of their teachers, partners, and group members.  Better yet, they're Copy & Go.  No work required! 

Print 'em off and hand 'em out! 

New (School) Year - New You

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. 

Top 5: July

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 BRIEF is 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.