Lose the Remote. Actively Engage Your Students.

Confession: I lost the remote. Not the DVD remote – that would be too awful for words. The smartboard projector remote. The one with the magic button that allows me to freeze the screen. How I miss that remote.

On my most productive days, I would freeze the screen when I was projecting instructions for an assignment. Then while my students worked, I could catch up on emails, prep the next part of the lesson or even update grades.

But my remote has disappeared and taken my freedom along with it. (Perhaps, I'm exaggerating slightly here.) As a result, student work time was a new experience for me today.

My frosh were working on an assignment in their interactive student notebooks after we finished our lecture notes for the day. I had an example of the assignment projected on the smartboard. I knew I couldn't remove the example and, since I had no way of freezing the screen, I couldn't work on my laptop while they worked.

So instead, I walked around the room and checked in with my classes while they worked. This is something I do all the time of course, but usually it's just a quick spin around the room to make sure everyone is on task and not Twitter. Today was different for me. Today I took my time and really tried to engage my students instead of just rushing through. I complimented artistic talent. I received invitations to several upcoming sports games. I even traded book recommendations with a couple students. This may sound like we were off-topic but actually the time was quite productive. We only had about 15 minutes to spend on this assignment and at the end of that time, several volunteers shared their complete assignments with the class.

And it turned out I didn't really miss that remote as much as I thought. (I do need to find it though. Where could I have put it?)

When not teaching today, I spent most of my time creating a PowerPoint for my sophomore class. The material in the book is important, but so dry. I've been using really interactive powerpoints to try to add a little something to the material. So far, so good. Believe it or not, the PowerPoint took me about three hours to create, bringing my day's total to 11 hours.

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Pop Fridays – It’s Going to Be Huge!

Just a quick update to say I only worked 8 hours today. My yearbook class is Monday through Thursday, so we had the day off and I only stayed late enough to write out a to do list for this weekend.

I'd also like to offer this for consideration –

How much easier would a teacher's life be if we could randomly assign Fridays the way we assign pop quizzes? Think about it. Students are just going about their day like it's any other day and then at the end of class…bam! “It's a pop Friday! See you in a couple days!” Just imagine the ease it would bring to classroom management. 😉

My previously mentioned to do list for this weekend is quite impressive, so I'm sure I'll be updating more very soon. For now though, happy Friday!

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Five Things Yearbook Taught Me

I had just finished my second year of teaching when I was approached by a school administrator who asked me to take over the yearbook program the following year. I had never served on a yearbook staff myself. I’m not a photographer or designer. (To be honest, I earned a C in Intro to Art.) Writing is a hobby of mine, but I certainly don’t consider myself a pro. I was in no way qualified to take on the task.

What is a “yerd” and is there a vaccine?

Now I’m entering my seventh year as an adviser.  I’m still not a pro at photography, writing or design, but I’ve come a long way.  Today I spent my planning period meeting with my yearbook rep. We reviewed the budget, set our deadlines, discussed a workshop opportunity for my staff and planned my goals for the year. She also brought us a surprise – a shiny new plaque to add to our award wall.  Our 2013 book was accepted to our publishers gallery of excellence – making it the third book I’ve had the pleasure of advising to receive this honor.

So I got to thinking. What skills have I picked up over the years advising? Here are five.

Yearbook has taught me…

1. the rule of thirds. Never will I ever take another photo with the subject smack-dab in the center. I’ve also learned an appreciation for candid shots that fill the frame. And show emotion. And, when possible, interaction. Ok – so let’s just say the basics of photo composition; that’s something yearbook has taught me.
2. that high-end makeup brands must spend an insane amount of money on their product packaging. No, really. Those boxes have a matte lamination finish, silk screening and, often, embossing AND debossing. Isn’t that nuts? Some even have hot foiling. That is some pimped-out packaging. “Who cares,” you ask? A yearbook adviser who tries to guide her staff’s cover ideas while watching the budget – that’s who.
3. there is a right way to create a bulletin board collage. Or hang photos in your home. Or place products on a shelf.  And none of them involved TRAPPED WHITE SPACE. Call it what you will…the magic diamond, the target, the missing brick, whatever.  Yearbook has taught me a new appreciation for visual balance.
4. not all fonts are created equal and there are people in this world (primarily yerds) who will judge you based on your font choice.
5. to love learning.  I am not a photographer, designer or journalist – at least, not by trade. Advising yearbook has pushed me to educate myself in all of these areas and more. I’ve bought text books, taken classes, networked, attended workshops and conventions, and followed pinterest boards from publishing companies and industry professionals.  I have a lot to learn, but I’m not intimidated by it.

After meeting with my rep today, it was a yearbook afternoon for me.  I prepped some lessons and wrote out an agenda for a staff meeting.  I also stopped by a local camera store and picked up some new equipment. That’s one thing about the job on which I didn’t need a tutorial. When it comes to shopping, I’m a natural. 😉

11 hours for today.

 

Half the Classes, Double the Fun: A Modified Block Schedule

Last year my school implemented a new schedule. We went from a six period per day, eight periods per term rotation schedule (don't ask) to a seven period per term modified block schedule. Basically what this comes out to on a normal week is three days with all seven classes (45 minutes per class) and two days of block classes (80 minutes per class). The block days meet with four classes one day and three the next.

There was a lot of fear and anxiety that came with the new schedule and it does have its downfalls, but overall, I've gotta say, I'm digging it. It suits subjects that benefit from every day meetings (every class meets four times per week), as well as class that require longer class periods (i.e. science labs). It's kind of like having the best of both worlds. Now that we're in year two of the modified block schedule, I've begun to look forward to the block classes.

Today was our first block day of the year. The pace of the block days is so much more relaxed than the seven period days. It was nice to follow the madness of the first day of classes with a more leisurely schedule.

I tend to treat the block days in much the same way as I treat non-blocks in theology. I rarely spend an entire class lecturing, so I don't have to worry about overloading the kids with info on the block days. I think more in terms of variety. A typical block session in one of my courses may include: a longer prayer (often an inspirational song or video), an individual work assignment (maybe 20 minutes), a full class follow up discussion (25 minutes), and then some kind of creative assignment that allows them to move around and talk to others. Add in a minute here or there for transitioning from working on their laptops to another medium and an 80 minute class truly seems to fly by.

I had all of my preps today (because life couldn't possibly take it easy on me and balance out my schedule between the block days). The nice thing about that is that I have no planning to do for tomorrow since I'll only have one class (besides yearbook) and they will be doing the same assignments I already prepared for the other section for today.

Since I had no prep work for tomorrow, I was actually able to leave at semi-decent time. 9.5 hours today.

Oh yeah. Today I used the icebreaker I told you about in this post. I had only planned to use it with the sophomores, but they had so much fun with it, I ended up using it for the seniors and frosh as well. I highly recommend this one. It was almost as fun as the silent interviews from yesterday.

 

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Holding Students Accountable with a Participation Grade

Tomorrow is a big day – the first day of classes! I’m so excited/nervous/stressed/happy/exhausted/you-get-the-picture. I’m going to fly through this post so I can get a good night’s sleep.  I apologize in advance if it doesn’t make much sense.

Today was our community day: the first day when we gather as an entire school community.  We began the morning with class meetings.  I’m the freshman class moderator, so I was busy leading the meeting this morning.  Those fresh-faced frosh are filled with questions, let me tell you.

After class meetings, we came together as an entire school community for liturgy.  The students were spirited and well-behaved (for the most part); and although I think the homily went right over some of their heads (The topic was learning to not make things all about you. I’m looking at you, seniors), we always just hope we’ve planted the seeds for the future.

After liturgy was the annual volleyball tournament.  Seniors vs. juniors, sophomores vs. freshmen, and then winners battle it out.  The frosh won this year, but the seniors were still the ones to play the coworkers for the final game.  It was noisy and chaotic – a total representation of my state of mind during the first week of school.

The students were dismissed after the coworkers’ victory (aw yeah!), but of course, I hung around my classroom to go through final preps for tomorrow.  My main objective for my worktime in the room today was to print/copy for the week. This meant making final revisions to the yearbook staff manual, freshmen and sophomore seating charts and participation logs for all five of my theology classes.  I had prepped the frosh logs already, but there had been changes in my class list since then so I needed to update.

My participation logs for my senior classes are fairly informal – nothing more than a spreadsheet to track participation in discussion and take off points if they’re off task.  My freshmen and sophomore logs have a more rigid purpose.

Sneak peek at the participation log. Names are cropped to protect the innocent. 😉

 

Basically I use the log as a method of classroom management.  The idea was adapted from a classroom management book I lent to a colleague (so I can’t think of the name).  I started it a few years ago when I was having a particularly difficult time with the frosh.  They were coming to class late and forgetting their materials and I was getting so frustrated.  We’d spend the first five minutes of class waiting for people to get back from their lockers to retrieve their textbooks.  I’d get annoyed and lecture the kids who were in the classroom with me waiting (you know, the ones who weren’t at their lockers because they already had their materials and didn’t need the reminder?) and the kids holding us all back got a nice stroll around campus.  The checklist was a huge relief to my nerves and also held the students accountable.  

Each week the students have the opportunity to earn five participation points (one per day).  They earn the points by:

1. Having their materials (M)
2. Being in their seats at the bell (B)
3. Being on task and participating (P)
4. Following our classroom technology rules (T) – cell phones off and away, laptops only when appropriate

Now when a student comes to class without her textbook, I calmly cross off her M for that day.  She loses a quarter of a participation point on her grade and I don’t feel the need to jump on a soapbox and lecture the entire group on personal responsibility. 

It’s not a perfect system, but it suits my needs.  It provides me with concrete evidence to back up a participation grade and it ensures that my students are held accountable for knowing how our classroom is run.  I printed out a quarter’s worth of logs for each of the sections. (Each class has a clipboard where I keep the logs.)

After all my printing and copying, I went home for dinner, but was back at it for another couple hours.  I updated all of my websites’ calendars and planned out another week’s worth of lessons for my senior course.  In total…12 hours of work today.

Now it’s off to bed. School tomorrow!

 

The Backseat-Driver Teacher

I’m a horrible backseat driver.  Or perhaps I’m actually very good at backseat driving which just makes me a horrible nuisance? At any rate, I blame my mother; I definitely inherited the trait from her.  “Are you taking the highway?” “Do you see that pothole?” “When was the last time you changed the oil?” 

Now that you all know that you never want to have to chauffeur me, allow me to explain what this has to do with teaching. 

One of the many roles I’ve had to play as a teacher is that of the backseat driver.  I’ve had the opportunity over the years to lead many service trips.  The first trip was to Mexico.  I, along with four other teachers, took a group of juniors and seniors to build a couple one-bedroom houses in Matamoros.  Four walls, a concrete floor and a roof – that was our mission.  The students were nervous feeling the magnitude of their responsibilities.  They were building a home for a family and they wanted to get it right. Although I am the least handy person ever to live, I had done some volunteer work for Habitat for Humanity and I was eager and ready to lead my students in the charge.

But I didn’t touch a hammer. (Instead I counted them at the end of the workday to make sure that we didn’t leave any behind.)  I didn’t climb a ladder (though I spent a lot of time holding the base of one while spotting a student). And when they brought out the circular saw and asked for a volunteer to run it, I stood to the side and prayed as I handed the student the 2×4.

There are times when the most important thing a teacher can do is to let the students take the wheel and to just be a presence along for the ride. This is what I mean by being a backseat-driver teacher.

Today was that type of day for me.  The freshmen orientation days were wrapped up with a service project.  We walked to a nearby cemetery and spent the morning mulching, raking, mowing and weeding – well, the students did at least.  I spent the morning picking up work gloves that were left behind, finding extra supplies and entertaining the girls while they worked.

It was a great day.  The students accomplished much and the time flew.  

A couple of highlights from my day.

Me: I have that new Taylor Swift song stuck in my head.

Senior: Ugh. Once I had a Taylor Swift song stuck in my head for like, three days.  By the end of it, I just wanted someone to hit me in the face with a shovel.

Freshman who had only heard part of the conversation: I have a shovel!

Me: :-O

And…

Me to a student wearing a shirt from my grade school: Hey! I went to ThatSchool, too!

Student: Really? No way!

Me: Yeah.  Did you have Ms. HappyApple?

Student: Yes! I can’t believe you had her too!  I knew she’d taught there for a long time, but I had no idea it was THAT long!

Me: >:-(

4 hours today.

Reinventing a Tired Lesson

Tried and true is good, but we teachers need to watch that our lessons don’t become tired.

I’ve taught a certain course now for 6 years.  Faith and Media is a senior elective and a popular one at that.  It’s a quarter course so I have taught it 4-6 times each year, depending on the number of girls who sign up for it.  Clearly the girls have heard about my exquisitely prepared lessons and supreme teaching abilities.  Either that, or they just want to take a class that includes a lot of movies in the curriculum.

And there in lies the problem.  After teaching the course multiple times over the span of several years, lessons start to feel old.  They’re new to each class of course; but after 30 viewings of Chocolat, I’ve started to lose some of my enthusiasm for teaching it.

I’ve updated some of the movies over the years.  I have a few with similar themes that I alternate using.  But still…the lessons, the projects, the grading…it can start to feel like a bad case of deja vu.

So I spent the majority of the day, working on my website and lessons for Faith and Media.  The plan is to try a new course format.  In the past, we’ve watched a movie, discussed the movie, then written reflections.  The next week, the students would work in groups on a creative project using some other medium – music, tv, literature, etc.  This year, I’ve tried to create more cohesion between the topics. So I identified a central theme we would focus on for the first unit.  Then I selected a movie that would correspond, found an article from a news source and made a list of appropriate songs.  I haven’t worked out all the details, but I’m in the process of developing some new assignments to fill out the unit.  I’ll share more when I’ve got it hashed out better.

In addition to my course revisions, I also rearranged my new (smaller!) desks. Several classroom layouts later, I settled on the original arrangement.  So in total today, I clocked in 5.5 hours.

Easy, Quick Ice Breaker

Quick post today – on my way to the other job as SuperSalesGal.

After my long day yesterday, I was able to enjoy a leisurely morning.  Took my time getting ready.  It’s a big day after all – meeting my frosh for the first time!

I got to school just in time for our department meeting.  We discussed department goals and a department-wide reflection assignment on the school motto.  We spent some time together in prayer and our department chair updated us on the latest news from academic council.  

After the meeting, I had time to grab a little lunch before heading back to the classroom to meet my freshmen for the the first time.  

At our school, the freshmen have a three day orientation program that acclimates them to the school before classes start.  It’s lead by some of the seniors and involves many different sessions and activities.  One of the activities is a dry run of the schedule.  Each freshman follows her personal schedule; this allows them to get a feel for how they will need to get from one building to another.  It also allows the freshmen a chance to meet their teachers in a relaxed and fun setting.

We had 12 minutes with each of our classes.  As my students entered, I had each of them grab a question from the “Chat Pack”.  The Chat Pack is a set of cards I found that has funny and thought-provoking questions.  Each student took a question and I gave them a minute to think about their answer.  They could trade out for a different card if they wanted to.  Then I called on them one at a time and they shared their answer with the class.  I made jokes with them and praised their answers.  It was the perfect way to fill the 12 minutes and I think they had fun listening to one another’s answers.  

After that, I went on a hunt for new desks.  I have large classes this year and the huge desks I had were taking up way too much space.  Luckily we found some smaller ones in the attic and the maintanence guys have agreed to bring them over tomorrow.  So I spent a little time moving out the old ones with the help of a coworker and several students.  

I added another update to the freshman class website and called it a day.  6 hours for me today.  

I’ll leave you with a pic of the Chat Pack.

Non-teaching Teacher Tasks

Try saying that three times fast.

The title of today’s post was the best way I could think to describe my day.  Today was filled with fairly typical things that a part of a teacher’s job, but don’t involve teaching.

I wrote an article about the student trip I lead this summer to Europe.  My school is always looking to for exciting and new things to feature in our various publications.  The director of the school’s magazine asked if I could send her a description of the trip and some photos to feature in the next issue.  So I wrote my article and searched for the best photos I had.  I photoshopped the pics so they’d be publication-ready.  I also emailed the students who attended the trip and requested that they share some of their own reflections for the magazine as well.

After the article, I met with my department chair to discuss class sizes.  We’re meeting as a full department tomorrow, so today we mainly just focused on managing techniques for my own classes.  We also debated the pros and cons of moving the yearbook staff to its own room.  I’m not sure what, if anything, will come from that discussion, but we’re brainstorming some options we might have.

I fixed a desk chair (even though I am possibly the least handy person in the entire world).

I wrote another college recommendation letter and uploaded it to the student portfolio website.  

I began planning the agenda for the freshman class meeting next week.  My co-moderator is out on maternity leave which makes me the sole keeper of the dreaded freshman class business binder.  Luckily for me, my co-moderator is extremely organized, so it wasn’t too painful.  Still I’m not really looking forward to moderating the frosh alone for first quarter.

I also designed some labels for each of my class participation clipboards and organized a new filing system for my planning and grading materials.

But by far, the most important task I completed today was reprogramming my Keurig machine. Mmmm…tea. 😉

These are the kind of tasks that I think are often overlooked as part of a teacher’s job.  The students aren’t in classes yet, so today I was able to accomplish these things between 8:30 and 4:30, but that is not the usual.  These are the types of tasks that sneak up on a person and work their way into our planning period and when they do that, we then have to find time for actual planning.

I hope this post doesn’t sound whiny because that is not the intent.  I had a great day.  I love my job and I didn’t mind any of these tasks – they had to be done.  It’s just that I often think it’s assumed in our culture that teachers are only working when they are up in front of a classroom filled with kids.  And I think this is an unfair assumption to make.  

So in total today, I spent 8 hours on my non-teaching teacher tasks.  

Tomorrow is an exciting day.  I meet my frosh for the first time!

Update: I couldn’t bear to watch my Cardinals lose tonight, so I did some additional school work after dinner. I just finished working on my frosh theology class. I’ve now updated the website, revised classroom procedures and planned and prepped the first week of lessons. I’m adding another 3.5 hours of work bringing the total for today to 11.5. And now…I’m going to bed. 🙂

The Challenge of Back to School Meetings

For me, Back to School time is kind of like a race. 

On August 1, my mind grabs a microphone and commands, “Start your engines!”  So I revise my syllabi.  I organize and decorate the classroom.  I distribute the yearbook and begin working with my staff to develop this year’s theme.  New classes are prepared.  Advisement Welcome Back card’s are mailed.  The countdown is on to Back to School week.

And finally, it’s here.  This is the week when I’ll be helping to train the frosh on our technology procedures, meeting my freshmen classes during their orientation and leading them on their first service event.  The campus is brought back to life this week.  Freshmen will be here for orientation and seniors are here to lead it.  The sports teams are hosting tryouts.  You can feel the energy around school and you’re ready to dive right in.  The checkered flag is waved. “Go!”

“Go…to your meetings,” that is.  It’s so anticlimactic.

We are a private school, so no district-wide PD for us.  Instead we meet as an entire coworker group to review, update and remind.  It’s important.  It matters.  It’s worthwhile.  But it’s also tedious.

I don’t know about all you other teachers, but when I’m in “teaching mode,” I have the focus of a Jedi.  I’ve psyched myself up.  I’m excited and rejuvenated.  The last thing I feel like I should be doing is sitting around and talking about teaching. Just let me teach already!

I know the Back to School meetings are important (especially for teachers who are new to the school).  It’s just a challenge to be “back to school,” and yet, not.

Today we had a meeting in the morning, followed by lunch in the cafeteria.  (We were the guinea pigs for the cafe’s new healthy menu.)  After lunch, I worked in the classroom – AGAIN.  Le sigh.  I know I’ve said this before, but I really do feel like I’ll be able to finish up the room tomorrow.  Today, I got all the posters on the walls and worked some more on the bulletin boards.  

Besides working on the classroom, I also met with one of my co-teachers.  The two of us split the freshmen class for theology.  We do things are own ways, but it’s good to share ideas and collaborate.  Last year, I began using interactive student notebooks with my frosh.  I’ve adjusted the way I plan to use them this year, so I gave her a tutorial on the system.

So my total for the first day back is 9 hours.  One more meeting day to go, and then, (finally!) the race will be on!