Teacher to Teacher

I’m preparing a job-alike day for PE/Health teachers. During the day, I plan on having them explore a few online resources. Below, I’ve listed the PE websites I have found. I do not necessarily endorse all the information found at these sites.

Nebraska Department of Education Health and Physical Education Page
http://www.nde.state.ne.us/PEHealth/

PE Videos at PE Central
This page has videos for teachers on a variety of physical education and health topics.
http://www.pecentral.org/mediacenter/videos.html

National Association for Sport and Physical Education
This site contains resources for teachers, administrators, parents, and students.
http://www.aahperd.org/naspe/

Physical Education Teacher Evaluation Tool
All teachers benefit from meaningful, ongoing assessment and evaluation. The NASPE-developed Physical Education Teacher Evaluation Tool identifies the knowledge, skills, and behaviors needed to provide sound instruction in the K-12 physical education classroom. Its purpose is to assist principals, school district curriculum specialists, and others who evaluate physical education teachers as well as to guide physical education teachers in reflection and self-assessment, and serve as an instructional tool in college/university physical education teacher education programs.
http://www.aahperd.org/naspe/publications/teachingTools/upload/Physical-Education-Teacher-Evaluation-Tool-2007.pdf

Classroom Energizers
Energizers are classroom based physical activities that integrate physical activity with academic concepts. These are short (about 10 minutes) activities that classroom teachers can use to provide activity to children which corresponds with the request from the North Carolina State Board of Education’s Healthy Active Children Policy for elementary teachers. There are energizers for Kindergarten through middle school.
http://www.ncpe4me.com/energizers.html

Through A Child’s Eyes Brochure
A great learning tool for parents and coaches that provides useful tips and advice for promoting sportsmanship and fun.
http://www.aahperd.org/naspe/publications/teachingTools/upload/TACE_brochure.pdf

The Difference Between Physical Education and Physical Activity
With heightened attention on childhood obesity prevention efforts, there seems to be some confusion between the terms “physical education” and “physical activity.” Often the words are used interchangeably but they differ in important ways. Understanding the difference between the two is critical to understanding why both contribute to the development of healthy, active children.
http://www.aahperd.org/naspe/publications/teachingTools/PAvsPE.cfm

Top Ten Reasons for Quality Physical Education
When they ask “why,” this is what you tell them.
http://www.aahperd.org/naspe/publications/teachingTools/upload/top10reasonsforQualityPE.pdf

Physical Education Update Blog
Monday Morning Musings on the World of Sports, Coaching & Physical Education
http://www.physicaleducationupdate.com/peblog/

More Students Taking Physical Education Online (news article)
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/08/25/online-physical-education/

PE Links4u
Large set of physical education links.
http://www.pelinks4u.org/

MrGym
You will find a wide variety of physical education games; cooperative games and activities, sports games, lead up activities, and much more. Also, ideas on physical education assessment, field day, cheap or free physical education equipment and more.
http://www.mrgym.com/

PE Central
Provides information about developmentally appropriate physical education programs for children. Contains over 1800 published lesson ideas.
http://www.pecentral.org/

These links were provided as examples of K-1 voice thread projects during our K-1 job-alike.

http://kinderkidsdraw.wikispaces.com/

http://lesliedavison.wikispaces.com/Voicethread+Examples

http://voicethread.com/library/40/

I’m preparing a job-alike day for Art and Music teachers. During the day, I plan on having them explore a few online resources. Below, I’ve listed the Art websites I found. I do not necessarily endorse all the information found at these sites.

Managing Arts in the Classroom
http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/content/3336/
This How-To offers guidance for managing arts-related classroom projects.

National Art Education Association
http://www.naea-reston.org/
Sections on lesson planning, some online publications.

Increasing Arts Demand Through Better Arts Learning
http://www.naea-reston.org/research/increasing-arts-demand-better-arts-learning.pdf
A Wallace “Knowledge in Brief” summarizes new research on how some cities are working to reverse a decades-long decline in arts education in ways that could also lift demand for the arts overall.

Education at the Getty—Resources for the Classroom
http://www.getty.edu/education/teachers/classroom_resources/
Lesson plans and lesson guides for K–12 grades and adult ESL learners.

Education at the Getty—Resources for Students
http://www.getty.edu/education/teachers/student_resources/
Online games, videos, and activities for students.

National Gallery of Art—Classroom for Teachers and Students
http://www.nga.gov/education/classroom/
Access lessons and resources by curriculum, topic, or artist.

2-D Design Notes
http://daphne.palomar.edu/design/
This site contains the design notes for Jim Saw’s Art 104: Design and Composition class at Palomar College. The notes contain design theory as well as the assignments for the class.

Art Studio Chalkboard
http://studiochalkboard.evansville.edu/
These pages are a resource for artists and art students that focus on the technical fundamentals of perspective, shading, color and painting.

The Incredible Art Department
http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/
The name of the site says it all.

Arts Edge
http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/teach/
the National Arts and Education Network — supports the placement of the arts at the center of the curriculum and advocates creative use of technology to enhance the K-12 educational experience. ARTSEDGE empowers educators to teach in, through, and about the arts by providing the tools to develop interdisciplinary curricula that fully integrate the arts with other academic subjects. ARTSEDGE offers free, standards-based teaching materials for use in and out of the classroom, as well as professional development resources, student materials, and guidelines for arts-based instruction and assessment.

Ursus Wehrli tidies up art
http://www.ted.com/talks/ursus_wehrli_tidies_up_art.html
In this comic video from TED, Ursus Wehrli shares his vision for a cleaner, more organized, tidier form of art — by deconstructing the paintings of modern masters into their component pieces, sorted by color and size.

Education Blogs by Discipline
http://movingforward.wikispaces.com/Education+Blogs+by+Discipline
This is a place to list subject-specific P-12-oriented blogs.

Americans for the Arts Public Awareness Campaign
http://www.artsusa.org/public_awareness/default.asp
In partnership with the Ad Council and local and state arts agencies around the country, Americans for the Arts have created promotional ads to encourage parents to ask for more. This site we gives them the tools to do so.

Protocols for Learning from Work, Text, Dilemmas, and Classroom Visits
http://www.nsrfharmony.org/protocol/protocols.html
A collection of protocols to help groups examine texts and work. Some of these can be adapted for use with students.

I’m preparing a job-alike day for Art and Music teachers. During the day, I plan on having them explore a few online resources. Below, I’ve listed the Music websites I found. I do not necessarily endorse all the information found at these sites.

Chorus Teacher Resources
http://www.fva.net/ctr/
Contains information on music advocacy, informational articles, classroom aids, classroom management, clinic/workshop handouts, concert program templates, curriculum, field trip permission slips, sample chorus handbooks, lesson plan templates, and much more.

Owning the Stage
http://www.owningthestage.com/
In this comprehensive blogsite, barbershop quartet champion Tom Metzger explores performance from many different angles.

Foundations of Effective Practicing
http://www.jtimothycaldwell.net/blogs/?page_id=25
Tips from J. Timothy Caldwell, author of Expressive Singing: Dalcroze Eurhythmics for Voice. Explore the links on the right side of the webpage for other information.

The Director’s Face
http://www.choralcoaching.com/wst_page7.html
A short article on facial expressions of directors as they direct. Explore the links on the left side of the webpage for other information.

Music Classroom Management
http://www.mtmusiced.org/MgtExtended.pdf
Contains an pros and cons of various classroom management philosophies, the top 10 classroom management sins, recipes for successful choir and instrumental rehearsals, choir and instrumental rehearsals evaluation tools, music student self-evaluation form, rehearsal “tricks,” etc.

The Twin Foundations of “Pindrop Quiet” Band and Orchestra Rehearsals
http://www.midwestclinic.org/clinicianmaterials/2004/david_newell.pdf
David Newell’s plan for managing band and orchestra rehearsals.

The Happy Classroom
http://www.keynotesmagazine.com/article/?uid=169
Suggestions to help encourage students to stay in music programs year after year.

Arts Edge
http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/teach/
the National Arts and Education Network — supports the placement of the arts at the center of the curriculum and advocates creative use of technology to enhance the K-12 educational experience. ARTSEDGE empowers educators to teach in, through, and about the arts by providing the tools to develop interdisciplinary curricula that fully integrate the arts with other academic subjects. ARTSEDGE offers free, standards-based teaching materials for use in and out of the classroom, as well as professional development resources, student materials, and guidelines for arts-based instruction and assessment.

MENC—Band Archive
http://www.menc.org/a/band/
Articles related to working with school bands.

MENC—Chorus Archive
http://www.menc.org/a/chorus/
Articles related to working with school choirs.

Lead Like the Great Conductors
http://www.ted.com/talks/itay_talgam_lead_like_the_great_conductors.html
An orchestra conductor faces the ultimate leadership challenge: creating perfect harmony without saying a word. In this charming talk, Itay Talgam demonstrates the unique styles of six great 20th-century conductors, illustrating crucial lessons for all leaders.

Education Blogs by Discipline
http://movingforward.wikispaces.com/Education+Blogs+by+Discipline
This is a place to list subject-specific P-12-oriented blogs.

Americans for the Arts Public Awareness Campaign
http://www.artsusa.org/public_awareness/default.asp
In partnership with the Ad Council and local and state arts agencies around the country, Americans for the Arts have created promotional ads to encourage parents to ask for more. This site we gives them the tools to do so.

Music Education Madness Site
http://www.musiceducationmadness.com/downloads.shtml
Check out this section for some great free downloads, including teaching aids and musical gizmos!

Music Tech Teacher
http://musictechteacher.com/
Student work, pictures and music compositions are on this site. The site is also used to provide music technology links, quizzes, resources and information to all music teachers interested in using technology to enhance music instruction.

Ricci Adams’ Musictheory.net
http://www.musictheory.net/
Collection of lessons, trainers and utilities.

Protocols for Learning from Work, Text, Dilemmas, and Classroom Visits
http://www.nsrfharmony.org/protocol/protocols.html
A collection of protocols to help groups examine texts and work. Some of these can be adapted for use with students.

The ubiquitous cell phone has become the bane of many teachers and administrators.  You know the scenario– students with their hands hidden in their laps or pockets, staring straight ahead, while still managing to send and receive text messages from friends in the classroom, or a classroom down the hall, or even beyond the confines of the building.  In some districts, this usually leads to seizure of the offending phones or at least a few admonitions.

Maybe it’s time for teachers to look for ways to embrace the cell phone and turn it from a distraction into a tool to enhance instruction. A simple way to start exploring this possibility might be to use those cell phones as a type of classroom response system. A classroom response system allows students to respond to a teacher’s question by electronic means such as a “clicker“.

Poll Everywhere is a website that helps you accomplish the same task, but with student cell phones instead of clickers. Polleverywhere allows you to create a multiple choice poll question along with the possible choices. Students then select one of the choices and text that choice with their phones.

A good way to see the possibilities of using this would be to watch the video of a 9th grade history teacher (Greg Kulowiec) using Polleverywhere with his class. Notice how the graph changes as students text in their votes. The video is found on the blog Teaching With Classroom Response Systems. Also read the pedagogical observations found below the video.

You can set up a free PollEverywhere account for an audience of 30 students. This means that up to 30 people could respond to the poll at a time. For $15 a month, you can set up an account for an audience of 50.

For additional information, refer to the PollEverywhere FAQ at http://www.polleverywhere.com/faq

The following links are placed here for a workshop on differentiation I’m doing this week. I’m not necessarily endorsing the information on any of these sites. I’m merely providing them for teachers in the workshop to explore and then report out on.

• Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST)–Differentiated Instruction
• Differentiating for Advanced Learners Personalized Learning
• 11 Practical Ways to Guide Teachers Toward Differentiation
• Instructional Strategies–Differentiated Learning
• Gifted and Talented
• Differentiated Instruction and Anchor Activities
• Anchor Activities
• Partners in Learning–Differentiated Instruction
• Cubing and Think Dots
• RAFT Writing
• Best Practices–Learning Contracts
• How to Create and Use a Learning Contract
• Tiered Instruction
• More Differentiated Instruction Links

I came across a video of a teacher using a handshake strategy at Edutopia.  I used to do a similar Question and Answer Handshake with my students as they left the classroom at the end of the day.  The strategy provides another way to informally assess students, reinforce learnings, and nurture student/teacher relationships.

I tried embedding the video into this post, but didn’t have any luck.  You can find the video at http://www.edutopia.org/teacher-tips-classroom-management-handshake-video

I had the good fortune of hearing Dr. Lee Jenkins speak in McCook on March 16th.  Dr. Jenkins is the developer of the L to J process.  I first heard Dr. Jenkins in 2004.  He had a major impact on my teaching.  I used the L to J strategy in my fourth grade math class with great success.

In McCook, Dr. Jenkins brought up homework by asking the question, “Is homework a subject or a strategy?”   He contends that it is a strategy that we use to help students practice and master the skills and concepts we would like them to master.  If the purpose of homework is to practice, then mistakes on the homework should be viewed as temporary rather than permanent.  Students should have the opportunity to learn from the mistakes and correct them.

Dr. Jenkins uses a “referee/coach” metaphor to help teachers think about their dual roles in the classroom.  Most of the time, teachers should be in the coaching role in order to help their students to higher levels of success.  “During coaching time, [teachers] sample items for informational learning and sample students for performance learning” (Jenkins, 2004, p. 107).  Homework and classroom work would be a couple of ways teachers could sample student learning and then coach them as needed.  Every once in awhile the teacher must take on the role of the referee.  In this role, the teacher will more formally assess the student’s mastery of the standard and assign a grade.

So if homework is practice and the teacher is the coach, why do we assign grades to homework?  The referee of a game doesn’t usually show up for the practices.  Therefore, shouldn’t grading take place once students have had ample opportunity to practice alongside a good coach?

Many teachers may think students won’t do the homework if there is not a grade associated with it.  Other teachers might be required by their districts’ grading policies to have weekly or daily grades.  These are legitimate concerns.  Dr. Jenkins offered one strategy shared with him by a high school teacher.  I see some merit in this.  Maybe it will work for some of you.

John McDonald’s Homework Policy

1. I give homework.
2. I don’t collect it or grade it.
3. Every time I give an assignment, the following day the students get a two question quiz on the homework.  I don’t use the same two questions for other sessions of the same course.

The policy isn’t perfect, especially if the students have been practicing mistakes on their homework.  Therefore it is important that students have had an opportunity to identify and correct mistakes before they are sent home with the assignment.  Feel free to share your thoughts on the controversial subject of homework and grades.

Reference

Jenkins, L. (2004).  Permission to forget and nine other root causes of America’s frustration with education. ASQ Quality Press:  Milwaukee

We all know the importance of being intentional in addressing vocabulary in our classrooms.  Part of this intentional process is selecting the appropriate words to specifically teach.  Some words are more important to learn than others.  But how do we decide?

Fortunately, there is some guidance for us as we make these decisions.  Archer (2003) suggests we select words that:

1. Are unknown to students,
2. Are important to understanding the text, and
3. Are likely to be encountered in the future

Beck, McKeown, & Kucan (2002) have created a three tier model to help us think about which words to teach.  These three tiers do not coincide with the RTI three tier model that we’ve been discussing with our teachers, so don’t confuse the two.

Tier One words are basic words that are frequently encountered in life (i.e. clock, bed, radio, come, see).  Most students have the concept of these words and don’t need any specific instruction.  If a student is unfamiliar with a word in this tier, it is usually sufficient to just provide the definition or an example rather than explicitly teaching the word.  Not much time is spent in teaching Tier One words.

Tier Two words are also known as the “mortar words.”  These are the words that are high frequency academic words found across a variety of content areas and knowledge domains (i.e. fortunate, absurd, facilitate).  Tier Two words should receive instructional emphasis.  Language Arts teachers should include many Tier Two academic words in their instruction.  Language Arts teachers should not necessarily rely on the words chosen by the reading textbook publisher as the words with the most utility for students.  Many of the vocabulary words suggested in a reading textbook are rare words that can be expected to occur once or fewer times in a million words of school texts (Hiebert as cited in Lehr, Osborn, & Hiebert, 2004).

Tier Three words are low frequency words that are usually specific to a particular content area or knowledge domain (i.e. tundra, isotope, lathe, lava).  These words don’t generalize well to other content areas.  These are the “bricks” held together with “mortar” of the Tier Two, or academic, words.  Although content area teachers will spend more of their time teaching Tier Three words, they should also include some Tier Two words that generalize across subject areas.

Tier Three words are often easier to identify than Tier Two words.  Textbook publishers identify many of the content specific vocabulary (Tier Three) necessary for students to successfully comprehend the material.  Selecting Tier Two words is not as clear cut.  The suggested vocabulary in most reading textbooks is not always the best resource.  A better resource for finding high frequency academic words is Coxhead’s Academic Word List.  It consists of 570 word families which occur frequently over a wide range of academic texts.  Teachers  should use Coxhead’s list to begin dividing the instruction of these academic words across subject areas and grade levels.

Don’t leave vocabulary learning only to chance.  Teach the important words that matter today AND tomorrow.  Teach the words that drive comprehension of the key big ideas and provide an academic toolkit for long term academic proficiency (Feldman, 2009).

References

Archer, A. (2003).  Dr. Anita Archer: Vocabulary development.  Retrieved March 19, 2009 from http://www.fcoe.net/ela/pdf/Vocabulary/Anita%20Archer031.pdf

Feldman, K. (2009).  “Response to intervention and older struggling readers:  Special education reform as part of meaningful school improvement.” Educational Service Units Professional Development Organization.  Kearney, NE. 18 Feb. 2009.

Lehr, F., Osborn, J. and Hiebert, E. (2004).  Research-based practices in early reading series:  A focus on vocabulary.  Retrieved March 19, 2009 from http://www.prel.org/products/re_/ES0419bw.pdf

I am gathering some resources for an upcoming presentation and came across these videos from YouTube in which a teacher uses a technique very similar to the one I described in yesterday’s post about scaffolding academic discourse.  However, in this video she is using the technique to teach a vocabulary word to her middle school students.  One problem I have with this particular example is the teacher’s model sentence, which sends the students down the path of practicing non-examples of the target word rather than examples (“not productive” for the target word “productive”).  If your school has blocked YouTube, you will not be able to view the videos.  The video is divided into two parts.

Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA44RP-70YE

Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPwv-mjB6pg

To see Dr. Anita Archer using a similar technique with Kindergarten and Second Grade students, visit Dr. Archer’s Video Series.

Here are the pdf files that accompany Dr. Archer’s two  vocabulary videos:

• Kindergarten Vocabulary Lesson
• Second Grade Vocabulary Lesson