Guest post

The Secret Society of LIst Addicts accepted my guest post contribution. You can read it here. And yes, I admit to some typos. =\ I never was very good at proof-reading.

w00t! Go lists! Teaching and lists go together very well. I've made tons of lists related to teaching in my short career already, and I'll make plenty more.

Blogger of the week

Or should I say chorus of the week? Nay, chorus of the year? Or just plain awesome at any time, any day.

I'm probably the last person on the face of the planet to know about PS 22 Chorus, and that's fine by me. Sure, their story is inspiring, they sing beautifully, and a school chorus is a plain ol' good teaching idea.

But it doesn't stop there, at least for me. I am not a big music listener, and the music that I do listen to are not in English. I don't know, maybe I'm hanging out in the wrong crowds, but there are just not a lot of good - nope, not even decent - music currently. The Jonas Brothers? Barf fest. Hannah Montana? Good lord, Bach must be constantly rolling over and over in his grave for all the horrendous things people have done to something he was so passionate about.

No, I think the greatest thing this chorus has done is to introduce music-starved people like me to music that is music. Eye of the Tiger? Yes please. Landslide? Ok, I knew this one, but only because of the Dixie Chicks. I didn't know that was just a cover too. And there's a whole new dimension to the song when a bunch of fifth graders are singing their hearts out to it.



Pictures of You is probably my favorite. So far that is. I haven't watched all the videos yet. And there are many.

The cup game - ordinal numbers version

The Saxon Math curriculum for first grade has an entire series of lessons devoted to teaching ordinal numbers (i.e. first, second, third, etc), and they are deathly boring. So my CT uses this game instead. It's quite effective, as well as efficient. Most of our first graders got the idea in one sitting.

Materials:

- post-its with the numbers 1-6 written on them, one number each
- 6 small disposable cups, non-transparent and identical
- 1 small object that fits under the cups (we used a linking cube)

How to play:

1. Before class, set up the cups and post-its on a table or counter where all students can see.

2. Direct students attention to the cups. Have a short direct instruction time, telling students that when things are lined up, like the cups on the counter, they each have a special name. The cup at the very front of the line is "first," just like how we call the student at the very front of a line "first." The one after first is "second." And so on. Make sure to check for understanding. I did it by pointing to each cup randomly and having the class call out the ordinal number. I also like to ask students, "Which number is under the ___th/st cup?" and vice versa.

Note: I also call the cup on the most left-hand side first, at least in the beginning. Later, when all students have mastered this skill, I'll mix things up.

3. Tell students we'll now play a game where everyone will take turns guessing where the cube is. I didn't do this because I didn't think of it at the time, but it might be a good idea to coach the students to keep track of which cups have been called. If a student already called the third cup, and the cube isn't under that one, then there is no use calling the third cup again - the cube won't move unless the teacher moves it. Some first graders still do not automatically pick up on this bit of logic.

4. Put the cube under a cup. Shuffle the cups around. It doesn't matter if you hide the shuffling from the students or let them see. Although, if you are like me and do not have smooth cup-shuffling skills, I would hide them.

5. Students take turns calling out the ordinal number. On the first round, I allow students to pass. After that, they have to make a guess. Also, I would tell students to think of the ordinal number of where they believe the cube to be before calling on any names - at least at first. Some students take forever and a day to spit out what they want to say. I also didn't think of this until after I had taught the lesson.

Modifications:

Later, I would add a seventh, eighth, ninth, etc cup. One at a time until they begin to see the pattern. I would spread them out a little more, putting more space between each cup. Maybe putting random objects in between the cups too. This last thing I haven't tried, and might throw off students without some additional direct instruction. Also, I would take away the post-its, also one at a time until none are left.

The Whipping Boy

My local library has cut back on its hours. Boo. Recession, you suck.

Well, it doesn't really mean much except that even if I go super early, the library is still crammed with people. It makes it a little harder to peruse the shelves and to reach for the books that I'm aiming for. Ah well. There's plenty of time to read - the rest of my life, actually. Which is a lesson I try to teach to all my students. That reading isn't just for learning, or for school, but for fun and for a life-time.

I read The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman, winner of Newberry Medal, today. It's a rollicking adventure of two boys and the trouble that seems to drop into their laps without much effort. There is a trained bear, some mild moral lesson on being literate, and some snarkish internal dialogue by the whipping boy, Jemmy, himself. Best of all is the inclusion of the name "Hold-Your-Nose Billy." Kids lit has the best names. It's a fun, easy read. I finished it within an hour.

I hesitate to say that second and third graders would find this an independent read; in the traditional sense it would be. But some fifth graders have a "third grade reading level" so I don't know how to say what level students would read this and not be frustrated at the difficulty. It's also a nice read aloud book in a second grade classroom - or even during the latter half of first grade.

Personally, I don't find anything wrong with reading books that are above your "level" and vice versa. The New York Times is written at a 7th grade level, and it still is one of the most respected newspapers around. But I don't like to recommend books that are too hard for any student. It just gets them annoyed at reading, which totally not the point.

Coincidentally, this is an interesting memory of reading.

Speaking of gardens

One of my tennis partners gave me these. She grew them in her garden, and they are simply divine. Seriously the best tomatoes I have ever had. Supermarkets are totally gypping consumers. It's an education in itself to taste these things and ponder the complexities of the American food industry.

In one of the very first EDTE classes I took, we had to do a final project on community resources. My group went to Southside Park. Another group went to the local WIC store, where families can buy supplies using food stamps or that WIC cash - which may or may not be the same thing, I still don't quite understand that system very well. Better study up on it.

In any case, the WIC store stocked milk, baby formula, and other essentials of that like. It also stocked cereal, boxed and packaged products, and frozen foods. Not a single piece of fresh produce in sight. For the families of my students who rely solely on food stamps to feed themselves, they may rarely, if ever, get anything like the just-off-the-vine tomatoes.

And thus, here we have another mobius strip of questionable morals. Poor families may not receive optimum nutrition, which means their children go to school - perhaps not exactly hungry, but still slightly deficient in terms of nutrition. Which doesn't make much difference in the short term, but over years and years there's bound to be some health implications. Which means these children grow to be students who may not perform as well as they would at school, certainly not as a direct result of under-nourishment, but it is a factor. Which then provides them with limited opportunities in life after school. Which leaves them in the dust when it comes to earning a decent living. Which after some time creates other poor families. And thus, the cycle of poverty continues.

Note: sure, this is a very simplistic view. And there are many other things involved too. Nevertheless, one can't say it DOESN'T happen, so I stand by what I mean.

And yet there are students who work extra hard and are able to take their circumstances as an advantage rather than an unfortunate statistic. Just as there are wealthy students take their privilege for granted and blow it off on a meaningless life of selfish pursuits. People are unpredictable like that.

Media Mondays: child hunger, child poverty

This breaks my heart, but it's been "normal" news for a while now and will be for another while. Any while is too long.

One of my pet projects floating around in my head and yet to become reality, is to create a school garden. Or at least a classroom garden, if I can't get the school to get on board. Tomatoes and cucumbers are relatively easy to grow from seeds. It would be fun to throw in some sort of berry bush too. My friends J&S are having lots of luck with green onions and bok choy, so that's an idea too. The plants need to be easy to grow, doesn't take too much space, and have some sort of near-for-sure yield. Like the White House vegetable garden, on a (much) smaller scale.

Whatever the garden comes up with, we'll have a little taste test in class. There are so many lessons I can integrate with that: plant biology, environmental science, math and economics, social studies and how food affects culture. A crazy wealth of things to learn. I do have to be careful not to make the lessons middle-class-white-washed. Which I tend to do, unconsciously. But if I stick to the facts and vary the points of view, it might work.

Besides physical and mental development, the stresses of hunger affect people in sometimes unpredictable ways. They can be stoic, or angry, or depressed, or it can light a fire and push them to do more, both negative and positive actions. And neutral ones too.

I know school lunches are not always the most nutritionally effective, but at least it's something.

And I know a class garden doesn't really relieve student's poverty or hunger. Hm, maybe this idea in itself is pretty white-washed.

Standards Sundays: Grade 5 math

Since I'll be back in fifth grade classroom in the fall, I might as well start with the fifth grade content standards. And since I like math, not to mention it'll probably be one of the first subjects I'll pick up to teach, I'll start with, well, math. CTs, professors, and supervisors alike typically tell student teachers to start with math because it's "easier." I disagree with the "easy" part. Teaching and learning math is just as complicated as the other subjects. It only seems easier because most of the time, the curriculum/textbooks used are straightforward intro-lecture-practice types with some manipulatives thrown in every so often. And even then, manipulatives are still optional.

Note: manipulatives are things like counting blocks, tangrams, rulers, protractors, realia (items used in real life, like measuring cups), etc. Even a shoelace can be called a "manipulative" when used for teaching. Also, it should be noted that there is a clear distinction between curricula and standards. Standards are WHAT the government things students need to learn. These are mandated by law as part of public education and enforced by school officials. Curricula is the program of units and lessons used to teach content. The curricula and books a district chooses to use for its schools may or may not follow the standards. Curricula also includes things the teach invents him/herself. That's why you often see a lot of teachers making the leap from classroom to publishing - it's monetarily worth it, there are big bucks to be made in curricula development.

The full math standards for K-12 can be found here in pdf format. It's a pain in the butt to scroll through; probably because it's meant to be printed out as a whole document. Apparently, no one at the department of ed has figured out how to make it more online viewer-friendly.

By the end of grade five, students increase their facility with the four basic
arithmetic operations applied to fractions, decimals, and positive and negative
numbers. They know and use common measuring units to determine length and
area and know and use formulas to determine the volume of simple geometric
figures. Students know the concept of angle measurement and use a protractor
and compass to solve problems. They use grids, tables, graphs, and charts to
record and analyze data.

See the focus on skills? This is a good thing, but it does end up being a little difficult setting up opportunities for students to see connections from one math concept to the other, and to things outside of purely math. Often times, each lesson plan I write touches on multiple standards, sometimes crossing subjects too. This is because of the whole, "making connections" dilemma. Also because there are just so many standards that you have to double up in order to thoroughly teach everything in those 32-odd weeks.

Each subject is divided into subtopics, which is then divided into individual standards, which is again divided into sub-standards. Whoever worked to create this must have had a headache organizing it all.

Catharsis and second chances and perseverance

Looking inward, moving outward.
I met with my phase 2 CT this week for dinner to catch up and hang out. It was fun. I miss our weekly meetings - something I never did with my phase 3 CT because I was at school so much of the time we didn't have to schedule something else.

Of course, through the teacher grapevine, she already know about my phase 3 failure of all failures. Still, it was nice to talk it out with some perspective. I did nearly cry in the middle of my narrative, but managed not to. And I tried to make the story as clear and as complete, without blaming anyone other than myself, as I possibly could. Whatever my personal feelings about how phase 3 went down, I really only have myself to blame for being stupid and slow on the uptake. I've been told multiple times that I've made lemonade out of lemons in this situation, but it's still a failure if the lemonade doesn't sell.

I did really want to quit teaching for a while there - didn't realize how much until after I've gotten over it. All the other hazards of the profession have nothing on this single fact: that sometimes, your life and your entire sense of self is so wrapped up in the job that each success in the classroom seems like heaven. And each failure seems like the lowest pits of hell.

It's nearing four months since that failure. It took two months to get out of the depression I was in. It took another two months - plus two holiday travels - to recover from the mental and physical exhaustion that added up. Four months total (so far) to recover from six weeks of phase 3. I haven't made even an outline of a plan for teaching in the fall. Which might be a good thing. For all my careful planning and the four hours I spent at school each day, in addition to the five hours of actual class time, to prep I still failed. If I fly by the seat of my pants will I make better decisions?

Somehow, I doubt it. I'll still plan, although actually following that plan to the letter is a different story. Still, I'm glad to look forward to teaching again. It would be an even more intense failure to quit now. I genuinely like teaching, boring meetings, unproductive budgets, social unbalance and all.

It's time to let go and carry on. Thanks, KM, for helping me through this step towards that goal.

Field trip Fridays

Sigh. Public transportation would make field trips so much easier.
I loved field trips - still do. In this area, I once again lucked out with teachers that executed fun, off-the-beaten track trips: to the nearby McDonald's, to the library, to city hall. All of which were walking trips. This little detail I've only recently started to appreciated to it's fullest extent, since booking a school bus costs somewhere upwards of $400.

Besides, the walk itself was a feature of the trip. We got exercise, were allowed to hop and skip (but no running, and had to follow the line like those little french girls in the Madeline books), could chat with our friends. We even sang songs as a class. It was awesome. I'm not sure how exciting today's fifth graders would view a walk to the local community center to view a play would be. Even the poorest of my students have cell phones and ipods (ugh, don't even get me started on this part of parenting - they have ipods for crying out loud! and yet they don't even buy their own pencils. what is up with that?), and are jaded and worldly. Although that can all be an act too.

Still, I think field trips are exciting just for the chance to leave the classroom, leave the campus, and go! That's the "wanderlust" in me I suppose. I've been doing a little research into field trips, and since Fridays are the most common days for them, as well as the continuation of alliteration, I'll write about them here on this day of the week.

Blogger of the week

I am a blog addict. I spend a lot of my free time working on blogs, including this one, reading blogs, discovering new blogs to read, reading about working on blogs, admiring photographs and thinking about how to work more photos into my blogs, etc. This is partially why I'm not putting this as a "Media Mondays" entry. It really deserves a stand alone spot on its own. Plus, with all the blogs I read, I might not have enough Mondays to get to other things in education news.

So a few weeks ago, I came across the following blog and it is too good not to share.

What's for School Lunch documents, well, school lunches from various countries. It is immensely interesting, especially to compare how often fresh foods are served in America vs. say, Korea (note: America loses on this account).

I'm fascinated at how to work this idea into my classroom. A class vegetable garden? I definitely want live plants in my classroom, regardless. Nutrition lessons? Where does food come from lessons? Where does food go lessons? I've hit on science, social sciences, math (economics), and visual arts/technology (photography) on this one topic alone. Throw in some authentic documents and essay writing and I've got English language arts as well.

Truly fascinating.