It's the week before Christmas and all through the school the stress of the teachers is quite palpable. The kids are not nestled snug in their desks - instead they are busily creating and decorating for the visitor to come. No - not Santa, but the grandparents on Grandparent's day. Our last day before Christmas break.
Yes we still have Christmas break - not winter holiday. And we sing Christmas carols and you will see Christmas decorations right beside menorahs in many classrooms.
I will have more than 40 grandparents visiting Thursday morning. We play multiplication BINGO - grandparents helping out their 4th graders. Some students will not have a grandparent coming - so they partner with other students. Grandparents stop in and then leave to be with another grandchild. There is much coming and going - so BINGO works very well. There are even some grandparents that will choose to play BINGO. Most just shake their heads because their grandchild doesn't know the facts as well as they did when they were 10. I keep hoping that feeling will make it's way home and parents will heed the notes encouraging them to practice with their children. Who knows!! Maybe grandparents will take up that task.
I love this day - we sing carols, mingle with the older generation, and party for a while in the afternoon. All these seem to bring the spirit of Christmas closer. It's a great way to usher in our break!!
So to all you you out there - Merry Christmas!!
Wiki wonderings
I spent a bunch of time on the internet tonight learning more about podcasts. It's one of those things that the more you learn the more you realize you need to learn.
I started by listening to a podcast called Seedlings. It was about several conferences out and about. One that especially intrigued me was the K-12 Online Conference.
So, after I was finished with my walk and had heard the whole podcast I decided to check out the conference.
It is so cool! The moderators all have wiki's set up with notes from the confernce.
As I started listening to Bob Sprangle's presentation it connected me to podcast sites that connected me to something else and something else. And the next thing you know I've set up a wiki to try to get the Swantz's together to make a Christmas list. If this family of low tech usage can make sense of the wiki directions - I feel pretty pleased.
That's how the web works for me. I sat down here 2 hours ago and the time just flies. One of the people on the Seedlings podcast was talking about differing reactions to tech conferences. One listener walks away feeling drained and depressed because of all they don't know and the next walks away invigorated and excited because of all they don't know.
That's exactly how I feel. Each time I dip my toes into Web 2.0 I get chills as I imagine how this could transform education.
My personal problem is moving beyond the imagining and into the practical. I'm great at planning and dreaming - it's the nitty gritty that I struggle with.
So - that's my next step.
If my family can use a wiki - I think maybe my 4th graders can as well.
Now to find a blog site that doesn't contain the next blog button! :) I think that will be important for my 4th graders. I've discovered some places that I don't think they need to discover yet! :)
I started by listening to a podcast called Seedlings. It was about several conferences out and about. One that especially intrigued me was the K-12 Online Conference.
So, after I was finished with my walk and had heard the whole podcast I decided to check out the conference.
It is so cool! The moderators all have wiki's set up with notes from the confernce.
As I started listening to Bob Sprangle's presentation it connected me to podcast sites that connected me to something else and something else. And the next thing you know I've set up a wiki to try to get the Swantz's together to make a Christmas list. If this family of low tech usage can make sense of the wiki directions - I feel pretty pleased.
That's how the web works for me. I sat down here 2 hours ago and the time just flies. One of the people on the Seedlings podcast was talking about differing reactions to tech conferences. One listener walks away feeling drained and depressed because of all they don't know and the next walks away invigorated and excited because of all they don't know.
That's exactly how I feel. Each time I dip my toes into Web 2.0 I get chills as I imagine how this could transform education.
My personal problem is moving beyond the imagining and into the practical. I'm great at planning and dreaming - it's the nitty gritty that I struggle with.
So - that's my next step.
If my family can use a wiki - I think maybe my 4th graders can as well.
Now to find a blog site that doesn't contain the next blog button! :) I think that will be important for my 4th graders. I've discovered some places that I don't think they need to discover yet! :)
Standards, curriculum and Lounge talk
We had an interesting conversation in the lounge today about benchmarks, ITBS and reality.
Our school district doesn't have a curriculum director. Instead each teacher serves on a curriulum committee. Each committee is advised by one of the administrators. Each committee is responsible for choosing new curriclum, writing standards, benchmarks and educating the rest of the district on the ins and outs of using the curriculum. There is a 7 year cycle that each curricular area moves through. I am currently on 2 committees - Social Studies and Technology (not really a committee)
It is a demanding and frustrating job when your committee is choosing new curriculum. Last year it was reading. Our district was divided down elementary building lines between two curriculums. There were strong feelings against the curriculm we chose and those who supported it. Now, as we implement this curriculum we understand the strengths and the shortcomings even more.
Each curriculum group has also worked to create the standards and benchmarks for their area. These are in various stages of completion. We have had numerous meetings and opportunities to work on these - but there are so many different opinions and ways to address the benchmarks that concensus is very difficult.
Now - back to our conversation. As we hashed over the newest discrepencies between the realities of our classroom curriculum and ITBS someone made an interesting statement. The majority of the people making the rules about education seem to be men while the majority of the teachers in elementary buildings are women. I know that is a generalization - but I think it's a pretty accurate one.
As a woman I think my time is better spent trying to figure out how to make the rules that i have work rather than spending the energy to change those rules. I think that is one of the reasons we are in this situation. Our district is a great example...we have 5 administrators and all but 1 are men. Our 3 elementaries have 1 male teacher and 2 male principals. Our principals do a great job - i don't mean to say they don't. But, I know that men and women attack problems differently.
So - what does al this mean? I'm not sure. But, I think that we need to encourage more women to move into administrative roles by providing options that are family friendly. I also think that we need to encourage the people making the decisions to actually spend time in the places they are overseeing. I would love to have a legislature share the teaching responsibilities in my 4th grade.
But - the biggest thing is to remember that we are all working to solve the problem in our own ways. We can patiently wait for our students - encouraging them to make choices and nurturing them to the best choices - but we often forget that as soon as we work with adults.
Ok - I'm off my soapbox. Now back to the trenches on a Friday afternoon! :)
Our school district doesn't have a curriculum director. Instead each teacher serves on a curriulum committee. Each committee is advised by one of the administrators. Each committee is responsible for choosing new curriclum, writing standards, benchmarks and educating the rest of the district on the ins and outs of using the curriculum. There is a 7 year cycle that each curricular area moves through. I am currently on 2 committees - Social Studies and Technology (not really a committee)
It is a demanding and frustrating job when your committee is choosing new curriculum. Last year it was reading. Our district was divided down elementary building lines between two curriculums. There were strong feelings against the curriculm we chose and those who supported it. Now, as we implement this curriculum we understand the strengths and the shortcomings even more.
Each curriculum group has also worked to create the standards and benchmarks for their area. These are in various stages of completion. We have had numerous meetings and opportunities to work on these - but there are so many different opinions and ways to address the benchmarks that concensus is very difficult.
Now - back to our conversation. As we hashed over the newest discrepencies between the realities of our classroom curriculum and ITBS someone made an interesting statement. The majority of the people making the rules about education seem to be men while the majority of the teachers in elementary buildings are women. I know that is a generalization - but I think it's a pretty accurate one.
As a woman I think my time is better spent trying to figure out how to make the rules that i have work rather than spending the energy to change those rules. I think that is one of the reasons we are in this situation. Our district is a great example...we have 5 administrators and all but 1 are men. Our 3 elementaries have 1 male teacher and 2 male principals. Our principals do a great job - i don't mean to say they don't. But, I know that men and women attack problems differently.
So - what does al this mean? I'm not sure. But, I think that we need to encourage more women to move into administrative roles by providing options that are family friendly. I also think that we need to encourage the people making the decisions to actually spend time in the places they are overseeing. I would love to have a legislature share the teaching responsibilities in my 4th grade.
But - the biggest thing is to remember that we are all working to solve the problem in our own ways. We can patiently wait for our students - encouraging them to make choices and nurturing them to the best choices - but we often forget that as soon as we work with adults.
Ok - I'm off my soapbox. Now back to the trenches on a Friday afternoon! :)
Substitute Teachers
I truly believe there is a special place in heaven for subs! What a job - you never quite have your own way of things -always picking up where someone else left off. Never seeing the completion of a thing. Yet, we have incredible people subbing in our building.
Today was one of those days when every place you looked there was a sub. One was teaching on the other side of the curtain - the other 4th grade class. She was a retired Jr. High science teacher. Goodness junior high teaching and now this. I'm not sure which would be more impossible.
But, she was so excited. They were studying owl pellets. The nasty, hairy bits that owls regurgitate after eating an animal. These hairballs are filled with skeletons of the little critters they devour. She said in all her years of teaching she had never used owl pellets -and couldn't wait to help the 4th graders with these.
You know sometimes you just have to stand amazed at the way God puts things together. I can think of several subs that wouldn't have had quite the same reaction! :)
Anyway - I'm so thankful for those kind souls who want to step into my room and share my world for a day. I rest much easier knowing that my kids are in capable and encourging hands!
Thank you to all subs out there!!!
Parent-Teacher Conferences
Tomorrow is the first day of parent teacher conferences.
These make me a little crazy - ok a lot crazy. I want to make the right impression with my parents. i want to say the right things and make the right connections. But - do I? That's always the hard part.
Parents want to know what is going on in the classroom - and I want to tell them. We are working together and their children are always better for that. But - sometimes the things they want to know are not the things I know the most about. I spend time answering questions about their friendships or their recess activities. Not their math scores or the best books for them to be reading.
that always make me wonder - yet I'm a parent too...I want to know if my daughters have friends and if they get along with others. But is that the most important part of the teacher and parent contact? A very wise principal once told me that the most important thing a parent wants to know from their child's teacher is if the teacher likes their child.
So, what is my job really?
NCLB has tried very hard to make me believe that my job is to force feed facts and testing techniques down the throats of children. The only way to test the success of this method is to test and then test and then test again. All that does is make me a robot. My job has been transformed into a generic job that absolutely anyone could do. No longer can I create and dream and take my students to unknown places. Instead I must stay within the confines of the textbook.
That makes for cranky teachers and students. Especially when the test scores don't rise to the occasion.
Again, I ask - what really is my job?
I want to share my joy of reading and learning with students in whatever way I can. That is why I use technology in any way I possibly can. It makes me excited to try new and different tech ideas and I get to pass that on. I know the kids catch that excitement!!
And that brings me back to Parent teacher conferences. tomorrow night I make my first official contact. I hope to let these parents know that their children are in good hands - that I do care about them and that I am doing all I can to help them learn. That I can share my excitement with them!!