5 Lesson Planning Tips on How to Use Technology Successfully in Your Classroom
March 24, 2009 by admin
Filed under Teaching Tips, Teaching and Learning Styles
The signs of technological revolution are everywhere – kids with their cells and ipods; teachers with their laptops, digital presentations, and parents and teachers and kids with their blackberries. The possibilities of course, are endless…..
Since we are teachers working in a digital age, we also need to think a bit more digitally in both the user and learner sense of the word. This can be challenging especially if you are used to working (and thinking) in a certain way.
I love watching this video which was created to inspire teachers to use technology in engaging ways and also inspired me to write this article!
In an ideal media based lesson, we use technology to cater to motivation and (media) literacy. And like a regular pen and paper lesson, we still need to think how to engage students while we also monitor their behavior on-task as well as measure their progress and achievement.
While it’s impossible to always keep up with all the new technological classroom trends, there are certain lesson planning basics teachers need even before they know what they are going to teach. Here are five suggestions for planning a successful media-based lesson.
Tip 1. Start small. While there are endless possibilities on how to engage students, we also need to feel comfortable with whatever digital technological media we are using.
Stick to the technological type that best suits you and your personality and your students’ learning needs. However, If you are obligated by your school to use a Smartboard, accept your destiny peacefully for the time being and learn from the experiences.
Tip 2. Here’s an important but tricky tip… LEARN the new technology as often as possible. As you do, get into the heads of your students by critically evaluate the products. Anticipate any problems your students and yourself might encounter and quickly write them down. Ask other teachers how they cope. There’s nothing better than making an informed decision.
Tip 3. Plan Your Lesson.
Here are just a few suggestions to help you plan a digitally mediated lesson.
What might be hard for them to understand/cope with/manage? Easy?
How can you pace the material using differentiated instruction techniques?
When might a student go off task?
How do you mediate the technology before, during and after students have worked?
How will they get instructions?
What do you expect students to learn by the end of the lesson(s)?
How will you assess their work?
How many lessons will you use this product?
How much practice time will students have?
Will students work separately, in pairs or in groups? If necessary, use a seating chart to help you neutralize group dynamics.
Tip 4. Get Help and Support. If you plan to start using the new technological product or resource soon, have a mentor or techie expert or coach walk you through. Learn bit by bits (either on your own or with a partner) to avoid stress and being overwhelmed.
Tip 5. Think organized. Every well-planned digital lesson has its flop. No internet connection, slow computers, not enough computers, no tech support. Hot classrooms .. any issue can be a potential problem. Try to minimize the number of these annoying issues, by making sure your lesson is running as smoothly as possible.
1.Reserve the computer room in advance (if needed)
2.Make sure the equipment is in running order.
3.Make sure you have enough computers. Use a seating chart to configure seating arrangements.
4. Make sure you have Plan B and even Plan C. This might be using worksheets, or working strictly from WORD. Have also a support plan for difficult and challenging students and situations.
Don’t assume that because kids think digitally, your lesson will be smooth. Kids need to be instructed thoughtfully on exactly what you expect them to know and do. Keep learning the new technologies and plan successfully, and your students will be more engaged.
7 Tips for Keeping a Reflective Teaching Journal
March 22, 2009 by admin
Filed under Teaching Tips
As a teacher trainer, I want to encourage new teachers to develop critical thinking as a way to understand that what they have done successfully is not just one good activity, but a rule or a principle which can ALWAYS work for them.
With that said, the connection between writing in teaching journals and teaching is a discovery process where teachers are also involved in the learning process.
Use these 7 tips to help you use the teaching journal as a way to learn from good and not so pleasant teaching experiences. These suggestions are intended to make writing in your journal a pleasant and easy experience. Try to set up the conditions for writing so that journal keeping does not require a great deal of effort. The actual process of writing should be (or should become) almost effortless.
1. Set aside time each day to write in your journal.
2. Write your entries in a place you like (your favorite desk, outside with a pleasant view, in a sunny kitchen) where you won't be disturbed. If you are using a computer, save your file often and try not to let people interrupt you while you are writing.
3. The time devoted to writing about your teaching experiences should be enough for you to write down your thoughts and experiences without pressure. You won't be able to write down everything that happens in class, so you may want to focus your journal writing on some particular aspect of your experience that interests you. Here are a few guided writing categories to help get you started:
-React to class demonstrations, observations, teaching/tutoring experiences
-Argue for or against a technique or procedure
-Describe some new knowledge you have obtained
4. Keep your journal in a safe, secure place. The idea is for you to be able to write anything you want without feeling uneasy about other people reading and reacting to your ideas.
5. When you record your entries, don't worry about style, grammar and organization. The idea is to get complete and accurate data at a time when the information is still fresh in your mind. Thus the original diary entries sometimes read like stream of consciousness.
6. Each time you write something ask yourself: What did you learn from the experience and how did it influence your teaching in general? And what is it about that specific activity/technique that makes it good for your classes? Try to support your insights with examples from your lessons.
7. At the end of each entry, jot down ideas or questions that have occurred to you to consider later. This is one way to narrow your focus somewhat during the journal writing process. It's also a great source of new teaching ideas.
From Aviva Shapiro's Creative Classroom Management Booklet
Happy Writing!
What the Heck is Adapting Instruction and Why Should You Care – New Teacher Tips
March 19, 2009 by admin
Filed under Teaching Tips
Teachers, especially newer ones, are told they need to adapt their instruction. But many aren't sure how to go about doing it.
So what do you really need to know about adapting instruction?
Adapting instruction, is basically a differentiation strategy you use to effectively engage your students. Sometimes the way we planned a particular activity or task is not always successful because it does not always allow ALL students to access or demonstrate their learning. When this happens, we need to ask ourselves WHY this happened (i.e. the task was too challenging, students did not have the background vocabulary, they were too tired) and WHAT you can already change in tomorrow's lesson plan.
This is where accommodations can help you become a better teacher by getting into the habit of making changes in terms of HOW a student accesses or demonstrates learning. This does not mean substantially changing your instructional level, content or performance level.
What this does mean is doing small and important things in your lessons like increasing the number of questions. Other times, you may have to rethink the content of what you are teaching. All it takes is a little bit more restructuring and rethinking so you have a higher change of engaging your students. So here are 10 types of accommodations that you can start to use in your lessons right away:
1. Size - Adapt the number of items the learner is expected to learn or complete. Adapt the size of information by increasing the number.
2. Input - Adapt the way we deliver instruction to the learner.
3. Participation - Adapt the extent to which a learner is actively involved in the task.
4. Time - Adapt the time allotted for learning, task completion or testing.
5. Level of support - increase the amount of assistance for a specific learner.
6. Difficulty - Adapt the skill level, problem type, or the rules on how the learner may approach the work.
7. Output - Adapt how the learner can respond to instruction.
8. Participation - Adapt the extent to which a learner is actively involved in the task.
9. Alternate Goals - Adapt the goals or outcome expectations while using the same basic materials.
10. Don't forget the learning styles!
Adapted from the Center for School and Community Integration for the Study of Developmental Disabilities, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.
So after reading this, what are you going to do differently for tomorrow's lesson? What other ideas do you have to add to the list? Leave a comment. I'll respond to it.
Happy Spring!
Applying For Teaching Jobs
March 17, 2009 by admin
Filed under Teaching Tips
If want to apply for teaching jobs, many times you’ll need a professional teaching portfolio. But it shouldn’t be difficult to create your portfolio if you've been keeping track of your successful lesson plans and projects. During the teacher interview, you should be prepared to share your insights on what makes a lesson successful, your approach to handling discipline problems and your methods for engaging the class.
If you're a new or beginning teacher, make sure you also ask about mentoring and/or support systems for new teachers. If the principal doesn't have an answer, that should be a red flag. All new teachers MUST have some kind of support during their first years. This is not merely a request, this is a necessity.
The principal does not care so much as to why seating chart "A" is better than seating chart "B" - but is interested in knowing your method for preventing discipline problems - monitoring students' progress and your systems of effective classroom management.
Your professional teaching portfolio only needs to include information in the following categories:
Lesson Plans including different levels. You can also include pictures of students at different lessons/activities/trip.
Projects or performance tasks
Your teacher resume and recommendations
Awards (for your teaching, if any)
Professional Organizations (teaching related ones you currently belong to)
Special Note: You can view a sample teaching resume in the FREE teaching resources of this blogsite.
Good Luck and have a great teaching week!
A New Teacher’s Checklist of Important Rights and Responsibilities
March 13, 2009 by admin
Filed under Classroom Management and Organization
Wow - It's been a crazy week trying to keep up with my teaching and writing duties but so many wonderful possibilities have been opening up for me. I’d like to take the opportunity to answer a question on teacher's rights and responsibilities.
Here’s the question (it was submitted by Sene):
What are the most important rights and responsibilities of a teacher and why?
That’s a good question, Sene. And one that many teachers have.
When you ask the teacher's responsibility, the main thing is to look at what does the teacher need to do to manage the class.
My guess is, the teacher should start the year with each class in an organized and controlled manner. And here's where some of the "rights" come in.
1. Ask the students what they expect of you.
2.Ask the students what they expect of themselves.
3. If you feel comfortable, ask the students to set classroom rules with you making sure they understand WHY such a rule is good for them by eliciting ideas from them.
4. Let them know your procedures and consequences.
4. Let them know your goals.
5. Get to know them as soon as possible including their names, learning styles and interests.
6. Be positive and encourage the students to have a voice.
7. Use a bit of humor and open up a bit to them. (share a bit of yourself - it doesn't have to be personal)
8. Let them know YOUR teaching beliefs and what you will stand for and what YOU won't stand for and WHY!
In order to gain their trust and build a positive atmosphere in the classroom, you need to be:
1. Respectful - children learn to be respectful if they get it in return.
2. Friendly (a smile is almost never turned away!) Being friendly doesn't mean being one of the students. Sometimes we can build a good relationship with our students by talking to them OUT of class. This really means a lot to them.
3. Optimistic and Positive - As teachers, we need to work with the positive. If we set rules with them, make them positive. For example: Be on time (NOT - DON'T be late) Give praise for the good things they do even if they are minor. SEE the good in the most challenging students. Catch them when they are GOOD! Recognize effort, not correctness. If a child is giving us his/her best, we should be happy!
4. Knowledgeable and Purposeful. Our students expect us to KNOW our material. So for new teachers, this does mean to overplan to some extent. (Students will know otherwise)
Letting our students know our purpose or reason for teaching some things is important to them. For example, I need to tell them WHY I am teaching reading strategies or past simple, etc.
5. Organized - A way to show students how organized we are (even if we aren't always!) is to write at the beginning of class the lesson's objectives or what we plan to teach. (an agenda). This shows students that we have a plan. This is VERY important and keeps both teacher and students ON TASK. Then at the end of the lesson, together the students and teacher can check together if they covered the plan and if not, then discuss why.
6. Clear - We almost must be clear in terms of what we expect from them. IF we really want to know if they understood us, we need to ask. Getting feedback either by a show of hands or a more formal written page with feedback questions, will help us know if the students are with us or not.
7. Calm and humorous. Sometimes things go wrong and there might be students yelling or some making trouble. This is where we need to keep our cool. Yelling is never a good response. Yelling creates yelling. Stay as calm as possible and try to diffuse the tension even if it means leaving the room for a minute with a student to sort things out OUTSIDE. And don't forget humor. Making a joke or doing something funny is a great way to draw the students' attention and create a nicer classroom atmosphere.
Make up your mind to foster positive classroom behavior.
Once you make that commitment, you’ll be motivated to use your rights and responsibilities to create a classroom culture of success. And you won’t accept that type of negative behavior that doesn't help students do their best. You’ll start “attracting” positive attitudes that you know will help you reach your potential and truly create a positive classroom atmosphere that you deserve.
Happy Teaching!
Creative Classroom Management: 4 Steps to Listening Better
March 12, 2009 by admin
Filed under Classroom Management and Organization
In many conversations, people just don't know how to listen to each other. The first person is usually already responding to what s/he thinks the other person is saying. S/he is planning what to say and not really listening to the person who is speaking to him. By using this method, you can have a more effective dialogue. Try it - it works!
Step 1: ECHO. Listen to the person talking. As soon as s/he finishes, repeat what the student has just said. TRY to use almost the exact same words.
THEN ask: Did I hear you correctly? Do you want to add something?
Step 2: CONFIRMATION. Let the person know that you understand the importance of what s/he just said. Repeat in YOUR own words. Confirm that this is correct.
1. I can see that...
2. I understand that you feel...
3. I realize that...
Step 3: Empathy. Try to see the other person's side. By showing empathy, you let the person know you really hear him or her. Try to see what s/he feels. This part uses feelings the most. Tell him/her how you think s/he feels.
1. I feel that...
2.I understand...
3.I hope...
Step 4: Make a Request. Ask the person what s/he wants from you. Repeat the request to make sure you have understood. Suggest what you feel you can do. Ask him/her if this is ok.
1. Please tell me what you want...
2. Explain how I can be of help...
3. What can I do?
4. What is your request from me?
Good listening skills are all about fostering positive communication.
So spend some time tuning into your students today!
