Blog Post: Choose 1 concept/theory from each chapter that impacted you. Tell why each has significance for you as an educator
Read Chapters 2-3, respond to post, and reply to 1-2 others.
Blog Post: Choose 1 concept/theory from each chapter that impacted you. Tell why each has significance for you as an educator
17 Comments
Jenny
3/5/2015 11:28:19 am
The overarching theme of these two chapters is earning the respect of our students. In chapter 2, respect is earned through building bonds with students by having adventures with them. Adventures in my school are tempered by the reality of a filed trip ban. Sadly we won't be going to the sand dunes or South Africa, or even the nearby Cuyahoga Valley national park. This leaves me and my colleagues trying to create adventures within our campus. It is my goal to come up with some adventures for my students during the last grading period just by doing things differently than we have been.
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Kelly Boggs
3/7/2015 03:58:43 am
In the Adventure chapter, I loved Ron’s words. “We need to challenge ourselves constantly, because when we become complacent or comfortable with our surroundings and situations, we don’t seem to flourish or experience life in the same way.” All his adventures have challenged me to think outside the box and try something in a lesson or create a new opportunity that may have seemed too big to take on before. I agree with Jenny, many times we don’t have the resources to take our kids to all ends of the earth, but let’s bring adventures to the gymnasium, baseball field, or recreate our classroom. I loved his idea of the Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe white witch hunt! How memorable those moments are for students and teachers!
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Holly
3/8/2015 01:28:02 pm
A total ban on field trips? Ugh, that's rough. I wish administrators would see that those off campus trips are sooooo valuable. The kids learn more there than they ever could otherwise. We're still allowed field trips, but they are carefully planned out, so there's no real deviation from the prescripted trips. Something you could do to bring the adventure in is to look for local groups that will come to you. We have a great parks department in our county and they come to do programs in our school. Local nature centers might have similar traveling types of exhibits or presentations that they would bring to your school. At least that would be something different for your kids. Are you allowed to do walking field trips? Is there anything within walking distance that you could do?
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Molly
3/12/2015 03:02:42 pm
I agree with Holly. There are many museums with visiting programs and virtual field trips. I believe the Infohio website has a ton of virtual field trips available. But it totally stinks that you can't leave your campus.
Kelly Boggs
3/7/2015 03:59:21 am
One concept I’m going to use from chapter two is working on building anticipation and frontloading information to better prepare students for a trip. I’m taking about half of our 7th and 8th graders on a Washington DC trip in the spring. Unfortunately all students don’t attend due to monetary reasons, so I want to be careful to include the students who are not going in a delicate way. I brainstorming ways to get them ready for the sites they will see, and important history, people, and places they will learn about when they go. I think this will help their experience stick and make the trip more interesting and memorable when they go.
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Jenny
3/8/2015 01:08:18 pm
Consistency in expectations is absolutely necessary,me specially when a group of teachers sees a vast amount of students. I am part of a group of 13 6th grade teachers, including intervention specialists who see 220 students. Our kids are not scheduled on teams. I feel it is imperative that we all maintain the same expectations, however we vary the rewards and consequences based on teacher personality. In Jack Berckmeyer's session on teaming, he pointed out that the teachers are usually the most inconsistent part of middle school. Students in some schools see up to 6 or more teachers in a day. Wouldn't we be doing them a favor if we all expected similar things in behavior and routines?
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Kristi Weisenstein
3/18/2015 10:43:45 am
I am part of a 5th grade team, we do have the same expectations on simple things: paper headings, paper turn-in, classroom rules, etc. This is something we have worked on over the last 3 years and it does make life easier for the students and honestly for us. We take time the first week of school and introduce everything slowly...step by step. Our principal calls it Our Chair Carrying Plan. Yes, we do cover that too. (our building is 5-8)
Holly
3/8/2015 01:24:08 pm
I wonder if it's more about being consistent with expectations, but more creative in the way you respond to kids and handle them. We have a discipline policy in place for our school that's pretty rigid, but that doesn't mean that I have to turn kids in for every infraction or handle each behavior exactly the same way. However, the kids know exactly what is expected and there's no deviation in that. I think the creativity comes in the teacher's response. Like his description about the trophy thing. It didn't work after a certain about of time, so he had to change it up. That's where I think the creativity has to happen.
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Jenny
3/8/2015 01:39:09 pm
Exactly, Holly.
Molly
3/12/2015 03:00:48 pm
Kelly I think once you have shown the students you genuinely care and are working to help them find their best self the fact they don't want to disappoint you is HUGE. It is the most effective behavior modification I have experienced.
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Holly McElwee
3/8/2015 01:20:38 pm
Chapter 2 -- Adventure
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Jenny
3/8/2015 01:43:15 pm
One idea about vocabulary I heard at the conference is to share your vocabulary with the entire team of teachers. We can use each other's words sprinkled throughout all areas of the curriculum to increase exposure and show that the worlds aren't isolated. I really like this idea. After you've taught more than one content, you really see how this can work. I've gone back and forth between math and science.
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Kelly Biggs
3/8/2015 02:46:13 pm
Jenny, I love the team approach to vocabulary!
Holly
3/11/2015 12:51:51 pm
We also used to do content vocabulary in each academic area, and we approached it as a content level team (all the ELA, all the science, etc.). This was a great approach, too, and it was one that crossed across all grade levels in the building.
Kristi Weisenstein
3/18/2015 10:35:28 am
Jenny,
Molly
3/12/2015 02:55:39 pm
In chapter 2 I connected with the first section right off the bat. "Teachers and Parents should often call upon their youthful sense of adventure." Being willing to put yourself out there does JUST AS MUCH for you as it does your students. It can bring back unexpected moments of joy that are much less present as we age. I want my students to look forward to coming to my class and our lessons. They never know what to expect when they come. When I am willing to try the newest moves at a dance or use a video they came across that works with my lessons they appreciate that I am trying to be in tune to them.
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Kristi Weisenstein
3/18/2015 10:30:03 am
Chapter 2
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