Working the Gap

How do I find balance between the required scripted curriculum and pacing guides, mandated by school districts, and my own voice as a teacher? 


With all that I am learning in my Teacher-Ed program, as well as in my interactions with students, it is clear that the best learning happens when students are deeply engaged in their learning.  How do I get my students engaged in math when the textbook itself seems so dry and naturally unengaging?  I definitely believe it is my job as a teacher to take the curriculum and mold it in a way that works best for all of my students, not just some.  I also realise that doing this well will take time, perhaps a lot of time.  I don't expect to perfect this in my first year of teaching.  But, it also doesn't mean I am going to wait until my 5th year of teaching to begin trying to use alternate methods of teaching subjects like math.  I am constantly trying to figure out how I can make learning more interesting, exciting, fun and accessible for my students, both now and in the future.  For example, the interactive, hands on, small group ways of teaching math, that I am learning in my Math Methods course, seems like a drastically better way to teach math!  So why am I not seeing this style of teaching math in classrooms? 

Blogging in the Classroom

If you have ever thought about having your elementary school students blog click here!  This is an amazing how to guide, created by Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano (with resources from many others), that explains in detail how teachers can start blogging with their students.  Any questions I previously had about where and how to get started with bringing blogging into the classroom, is laid out clearly and in great in detail in this guide.  There are many resources and detailed lessons on how to teach your students the purpose of blogging academically, how to be safe and protect themselves, the benefits of blogging and so much more.  There are also videos you can show your students about online safety.  There are numerous links to current classroom blogs that teachers and students can look at to get ideas.  As well as, tips on effective commenting and relevant writing.  I feel so lucky to have come across this wonderful resource that I just had to share it.  It is how to blog with elementary students from A to Z.  I already knew that I want to incorporate blogging into my future classrooms but wasn't really sure exactly how or where to start, now I know both and can't wait to give it a go next year.

What to think about Sugata Mitra?

Hmmm... What to think about this video?  I agree whole heartedly with Sugata Mitra when he said, "if children have interest than education happens."  But what exactly are the children in this video learning?  For example, when he quoted a 12 year old girl who recited an impressive line about DNA, what did that show other than the fact that she was able to memorize a sentence from the computer?  Did she have any real knowledge or understanding about what she was saying?  While this was an interesting and enjoyable video to watch, I am not convinced by watching that the children were involved in "deep learning." 

Furthermore, how were the kids being tested? And what were they being tested on?  It does seem that the kids were learning something, but what?  Yes, they seemed to be teaching themselves how to navigate the internet, but to what extent?  What is the value of such learning?  I see the value in having students work together in groups and how much students can learn from their peers, but how does answering a single question, that can be answered solely by looking it up on Google, equal the "deep learning" he claims that it does? 

While this video did both intrigue and puzzle me, it mostly left me with many questions.  What is the value and purpose of his experiment?  This video showed the resilience and curiosity of kids, as well as the power of the internet to connect people from all over the world, but what kind of learning did it show?  Hmmm... Can't say that I am sold.

Food Journal Reflection

             The experience of keeping a food journal taught me a lot about my eating habits.  I have never recorded my food intake and doing so made me more aware of what goes into my body.  As far as the activity portion of my journal I did not learn as much.  Throughout the journal keeping experience I did not do much activity because the second day of keeping track I became sick with strep throat.  Because I was sick my activity was never very much throughout the entire experience.  Overall the keeping of the journal made me realize that I don’t actually need to change my eating habits very much.  I do feel like I will be a healthy role model for my students and would love to incorporate this type of project into my classroom. 

            The goal I made after week one for the food portion of my journal was to eat more fruit.  While I don’t necessarily dislike fruit, I don’t eat very much of it and very rarely ever desire eating it.  I was pretty successful in reaching this goal.  By making the goal and making a conscious effort to eat more of it I was able to incorporate it into my diet on a daily basis.  The goal I made for the activity portion was to get some actual cardio workouts in but I was not able to reach that goal because I was pretty sick throughout the keeping of this journal.  I was able to manage to get some very leisurely hikes in at my parents’ cabin while we were there over the 4^th of July.  When it comes to my students and helping them reach their goals I would suggest to them that they start with a smaller more reachable goal and work their way up throughout the year.  I wouldn’t want my students to get discouraged or stressed out about reaching their goals.  I would advise and teach them to make gradual changes in their diet and activity so they would be more likely to stick with the healthy changes.

            The implications this type of journal has for teaching health in my future classrooms is that it is something that every child would be able to do.  It would teach my students to be conscious of what is going into their bodies and how that affects their health.  The journal itself takes very little time to record which would make it very easy to incorporate into the curriculum.  If you had the students keep track of portion sizes as well as what they eat you could integrate this activity with math because students would be working with fractions and conversions.  You could also integrate it with art by having students create a visual representation of the types of foods they eat most. Overall this project made me think about my own health as well as how I can bring this into my future classrooms.  

Daily Blog July 7

The most important thing I learned today was how cool my brain is.  While of course already new that our brains are amazing and complex, the activities we did in class today showed me specific ways in which we can teach our students about the power of the brain.  All of the brain activities we did were fascinating.  It was also very helpful to see how a teacher can utilize and explore student questions, as we did with the reading the colors activity.  I can see how learning how to balance and judge the amount of time needed to explore such questions needs to be a consideration but not necessarily the deciding factor.  As teachers we need to be able and willing to adapt our lessons to student needs, curiosities and questions. 

Daily Blog July 6

The most important thing I learned today was about teaching sexual health to students and ways that we can be more comfortable articulating and discussing sexual health issues with our students.  The discussion we had in class about how we might possibly answer student questions was helpful.  I really appreciated being introduced to the It's so Amazing resource.  From this resource I learned how to articulate aspects of sexual health in a clear and approachable way.  It would also be extremely helpful if I were able to either watch a video of, or physically be in a classroom, where sexual health is being taught.  Are there any videos available of a teacher discussing and teaching these issues to students?

Daily Blog June 30

The most important thing I learned today was how and when I need to make the call about suspected child abuse of a student. I learned that when in doubt, or even suspect any form of child abuse, make the call and let CPS determine and investigate whether or not any form of abuse is actually taking place.  I learned so much today that I can't even begin to list everything.  While I learned so much about what situations and signs might signal that a child is being abused, I am still left still left with many questions.  Unfortunately most of my questions are not ones that could be answered with a definitive yes, no or clear explanation of what to do.  I will just have to listen to my students, watch for ques, follow my instincts, remember what I learned in class today and rely on fellow teachers and administrators when specific questions arise.