My first year of teaching was a whirlwind with late nights and a pile of paper that never seemed to get any shorter. I felt like I spent every other day battling my classroom management plan as students continued to act in ways that I never thought possible. I went into survival mode, using lessons that had been used by other teachers for years without being revised. Or I was creating assignments where students had to stay in their seats the entire class to avoid any misbehavior. By the end of the year I was excited to be through that first year of teaching, but by the time the new school year rolled around I found myself bored with my lessons. Then I was thinking, “If I’m bored with teaching these lessons then there is no way that my students are enjoying this.” To be honest, this has me completely freaked out. I want my students to enjoy history and to enjoy learning. I am fortunate that World History is not a course that has been forced into standardized testing. I do not have to worry about my students mastering a specific skill set in order to show that our school is being successful. I have always wanted my class to be a space where students can create and explore history. There are so many fabulous times in World History to learn about, that they should have endless potential for exploration. Only after one year of teaching I felt like I had gotten away from what I believe is important in a classroom. That first year of teaching is difficult and the lessons I had created were good, but they could be better. Looking back at that first year I realize that now is the time to get back to what my vision is for my classroom. This is not going to happen over night, and it may even take months. But this is going to be my chance to really create something that is going to be engaging for my students. I want my students to be able to problem solve and think critically so they will be know how history is impacting their daily lives. They need to build skills that they are going to use once they leave PHS and are thrown out into the real work. The stack of endless papers needs to dwindle as the years go on. Moving towards a paperless classroom (or close to paperless) is going to be key to a successful redesign. Utilizing Canvas is going to help get rid of the stack of papers while students are able to build the desired technology skills. But, it is more than not having worksheets that are online, it is about creating collaborative activities that allow students to explore and analyze major themes in history. Today's thoughts come to us from Ms. Ali Ranallo. Ali is in her second year teaching at Pike High School. She graduated from Butler University in 2016 and started working at Pike the following school year. She teaches in the social studies department and has both U.S. History and World History classes.
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This school year has been full of new beginnings for me as I’ve experienced the high school setting for the first time as a librarian and settled into my new position at my new school. One area that I was nervous about with the transition to high school was teaching research skills. I came from an elementary school setting with very little time (due to scheduling) to do work on inquiry based research projects to the high school that values research, co-teaching, and has fantastic database offerings for student use. The library already had a great program in place, so that has been extremely helpful. It has taken me quite some time just to figure out what resources are available and to familiarize myself with them. The high school is much larger so just learning the building, the routines, and building relationships with staff and students has been my first priorities. Currently, I’ve been working on a course in Canvas that will provide all high school students the resources they need for library and technology information. Another goal of mine is to create a library website (I have started on this using wixsite) so that I can keep students, staff, and families up to date with information, share new technologies, and of course brag on students. I am hoping this will also force me to blog and reflect more often in written format. Being at the high school and part of the DLC has allowed me to attend professional development meetings that have been highly valuable. It’s great to make connections through PLNs but having the chance to learn and discuss with others has been phenomenal. We are moving forward as a district with motivated and dedicated educators and that inspires me too. This move has been incredibly rewarding and continues to push me to better myself as an educator and librarian Today’s thoughts come from Shelly Smith. Shelly is the Pike High School librarian. Most recently she was the librarian at Guion Creek Elementary in MSD Pike Township. Shelly has been an educator for more than 15 years. She taught at the primary level before receiving her MLS and moving into a school library position. Shelly lives in Plainfield and enjoys spending time with her family, fur babies, and traveling to the beach. When you teach at a large school, one should never have problems getting their steps in, right, wrong, so I thought. I am participating in the school’s step challenge and comparing last week steps to this week, what happened? Oh! My Goodness! Well, my right knee hurts and so my steps went down, and I really wasn’t focused. (Is this an excuse?) I want to challenge myself to do one thing different to get back on the right track again. Are you all up for the challenge to do one thing different to increase your step production. Yes! Here is mine. I am going to walk continuously for 10 minutes during my plan period or at lunchtime each day for a week to see if my steps increase. Another challenge is to play my favorite song. Bust a move and dance around, and see how many steps I can add. Today's thoughts come to us from Ms. Felicia Gooden.
Too often, millennials and the next generation are described as apathetic. One only needs to look at the large social movements of today to realize that this is not the case. From #blacklivesmatter to #metoo our students are involved. What better way to empower our students than to encourage them to write about topics that matter to them, and to allow them to make meaningful connections to movements of social change? Under the old paradigm, students were given the tools to research an issue. They played the role of disconnected observer of their topic. Now students have the opportunity and agency to to be part of the change. Resource Review: www.tolerance.org Tolerance.org is a great resource from the Southern Poverty Law Center. It connects teachers with resources to engage students on topics such as race, gender/sexuality bias, immigration, and religion discrimination. This site is a one stop shop with excellent teaching materials such as Write to the Source. Write to the Source provides texts and prompts for students to make connections on bias-based issues and these writings could easily transform into meaningful social media postings. Today's thoughts are from Mr. Chad Heck. Chad is the school librarian at Pike High School’s freshman campus. His professional interests include inquiry, digital citizenship, and civil rights. Follow him on Twitter @4theloveofheck Paper has been a hot topic in my school lately. There is much talk of rationing and finger pointing as to who is responsible for overuse and waste, but perhaps this is just the call to change we need? I often tell my history students that America has a long track record of both innovation and laziness. We make awesome things that change the world but usually only after we have traveled down all paths of least resistance and blown through what we assumed to be inexhaustible natural resources along the way. Many educators are resistant to change and we hold on to the status quo until the bitter end because the tried and true will always be with us and who has time to learn new ways of doing things anyway? What does any of this have to do with paper? Maybe a short-term inconvenience can be just that push you need to evaluate your practices, take assignments online and stop running reams of paper through those oh so dependable copy machines. Think about the last 500 copies you made. What were they for? What did that assignment accomplish? How many ended up on your floor or are still haunting the wire baskets underneath your desks? How many are you still hounding your kids to turn in? I have to admit, I fail this litmus test. I have a lot assignments on paper that don’t need to be. I still struggle against the worksheet demon on a regular basis. I tell myself that these are useful tools that will get the students to read and understand the content, that the important part is the process of completing the assignment not the finished document. Try though I might, all my kids care about is turning it in and will use all savage means at their disposal to get it done and off their radars. More often that not, both sides see these assignments as proof of work, not proof of learning. In the end, I end up speed grading a stack of kindling. Even if the kids are honestly working their way through the questions, are those questions you really wanted to ask or just the ones that were already available? How can we change this? If your school is like mine they have invested heavily in a Learning Management System (LMS), or online learning environment, and are begging and pleading with you to use it. This does not have to be done overnight. I am in the process of dropping those tried and true worksheets and creating assignments in Canvas (my school’s LMS) for my students. One of my recent favorites is dropping various media into a quiz for my students. I can upload a video clip I would have otherwise shown on the big screen and have kids type in their responses to a writing prompt even give them a quick battery of multiple choice or matching questions. Now I am asking my questions and pushing their understanding while no longer carrying around three inches of notebook paper. All the quick formative assessments I didn’t give before because I didn’t want to waste an entire sheet of paper on or sort through are now easily accessible and I can type back a quick comment or response. I can set up assignments so that they are only accessible during class time or can be finished from home. Yes, there has been a learning curve and yes, it has taken a fair amount of time to set up my new assignments but once upon a time it took me a while to create all those paper assignments too. I will never be able to break up with the copy machine altogether, but the more I work to reduce my paper consumption I also find myself rethinking and improving my lessons and assignments and am finally starting to meet my students in the digital world in which they live. Today's thoughts are brought to us by Mr. Andy Lawrence. Andy is in his 4th year teaching US History and Sociology at Pike High School following a nine year stint in middle school. He also coaches baseball, has an encyclopedic knowledge of princess movies and Kidz Bop music thanks to his daughters, and believes that the completion of all household chores becomes bearable with the addition of an audiobook If you take a look at headlines today, you may very well come across something like this, Student Athlete Loses Scholarship Over Social Media Posts, or They Loved Your GPA Then They Saw Your Tweets. Lost scholarships aren’t the only consequence of a moment of bad judgement on social media. People can lose their jobs over what they share. Posting on social media has become second nature for many students across the world, and as adolescents often engage in risky behavior, they don’t often think about how what they post can affect their future prospects. This past Monday I attended an event called Connecting Careers and Classrooms: Focus on Public Service held by Congresswoman Susan Brooks. During this event we heard from people in the public service sector working in a variety of fields. The goal of this event was to help educators understand what skills students need in order to be successful attaining a job after high school or college. In addition to sharing specific skills needed for careers in the various professions, at least four of these public service professionals relayed that social media is hindering students’ opportunities. Many said that integrity, courage, and character are a must. According to new data by Kaplan Test Prep, 35% of admissions officers check applicants’ social media posts. Additionally, Russell Schaffer, Kaplan Test Prep's senior communications manager, states: Of the 35% of admissions officers who say they check social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to learn more about applicants, 47% say that what they found has had a positive impact on prospective students—up from 37% last year. On the flip side, 42% say that what they found had a negative impact, up from 37% last year. As much time as students spend engaging in digital content, it is a safe to say that every day they are contributing to their digital footprint. In fact, we all are. Our digital footprints consist of social media posts, photos, videos, comments others post about us, websites visited, search history, TV shows watched, video content we have streamed, and more. All this data is being stored. And these digital footprints don’t go away - at least not completely. Because content that is shared is now in the hands of those you shared it with and because many apps and services are storing information on servers indefinitely, our digital information may never go away. In fact, there is a trend now towards the use of the term “digital tattoo” instead of “digital footprint,” depicting the permanence of the phenomenon. With all this in mind, schools can and should play a role in helping students understand the impact their digital footprints can have on them. Conversations can be had in the proper context. Students can be encouraged to think critically about their digital footprint and how they can improve it. Information on how to control privacy should be shared with students. Students should learn that digital footprints can be cultivated to have a positive impact on students’ future prospects, as noted in the Kaplan study, and can be used to their advantage. As the public service professionals at the Connecting Careers and Classrooms event shared, integrity, courage, and character are key to develop in our students. But now we live in a different age. We are in a new digital era of character education, which means lessons in digital citizenship, whether through direct instruction or informal conversations, cannot go by the wayside. If we truly want to see our students succeed, schools need to infuse these lessons into all areas of the curriculum. Character education and digital citizenship are now more important than ever. Resources: Your Digital Footprint What is a Digital Tattoo The Importance of Digital Citizenship in Schools Tiffany Armstrong has worked in education technology for the last 8 years in varying capacities. After working in the Washington Township, she moved on to be the Technology Integrator for Pike Township’s 9 elementary school. Currently Tiffany is the Youth CareerConnect Technology Integrator at Pike High School.Tiffany balances her work life with being the mother of two teenagers. On the side, Tiffany is also a fitness instructor. She has taught a variety of class formats, but currently teaches Body Pump and a dance-base class called CIZE. Over spring break, I had a lot of things that I read and participated in a lot of twitter conversations. During that time, I wondered how school could be changed for the better for our students. One of those things is to allow student choice. This is where the problem for today comes in. I am in the middle of my BioMed class right now and my students are working on a project where they discuss cholesterol. The assignment lists the following:
The assignment can be done in a variety of formats. Suggestions are brochures, newsletter, PowerPoint, poster, webpage. I even gave an example of my 9-page spread project, movie/video, etc. It amazes me how students want to take the easy way out and do the PowerPoint as their choice. A couple of the students are branching out and doing the 9-page spread. In all, I am disappointed by the inability for students to be creative. I know that I have to teach them to be creative. I asked the students if this was hard for them. A couple of them said no. Others gave no response. I followed up with "Is the project hard or coming up with an idea for presenting it hard?". Many responded that coming up with their way to present it was the hard part. For all of their educational lives, students have been told when they can go to the bathroom, when to get out their workbook, how to do their worksheets, how to write their name at the top of the paper, and the importance of memorizing facts so they can be regurgitated on a standardized test at the end of the school year. There is zero option for students to be creative and do things on their own. Moving forward with educational reforms and incorporating the 4Cs in the classroom is going to be a challenge. I can see how teachers would want to give up and not do project based learning because of the lack of creativity that will take place with students. I also see how this is going to have to be modeled for students in order to be able to take their learning to the next level. I'm sitting here typing this and listening to students talk about SnapChat and other means for communication. I just had an idea of a presentation that could take place using pictures and SnapChat for creating this project. Do I give students that idea for doing this? Or do I let them continue down their path. If I give that idea, it is my idea; not their idea. George Couros (@gcouros) has really great ideas for being innovative. The frustration that I have today from my classroom is a mere blip in the challenges that our students will face if we do not improve the delivery of instruction and allow them to explore their interests. We need to create the interest in the students first and foremost. From there, educators must foster the drive to inspire creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, and communication skills. Without these skills, our students will fall behind their peers in other countries. I am not willing to let another year of students pass through my classroom without learning these important skills. I am thinking already about how I will do this for next year. When we are learning basic classroom procedures, this will be part of the discussion. I know that each semester is going to be a challenge with changing students and not having the same students. Is it worth taking the time? Absolutely!! I may differ from other colleagues when I say this, but, my content is not as important to me or my students as teaching them life skills that they will use for the rest of their lives. Today's reflections come to us from Mr. Kevin Self. Kevin is in his second year as a teacher at Pike High School. Prior to this, he served as a school administrator and teacher in 4 other schools in Indiana. He has taught multiple levels of science during his 20 year career. Technology and creativity are a major part of his classes. ...I’m not good with computers or any tech tools. There’s too much out there that it’s overwhelming. I’m too old to learn all of new age stuff. We’re not 1:1 with devices. I don’t have time. As educators, we are always stretched thin and often don’t feel like we can take on anything new. Technology is ever-changing and this can be both a burden and a blessing at the same time. My time spent with Pike’s DLC has opened my eyes to so much that I can do to make my classroom better. At the end of the day, we want our students to have meaningful learning that will carry them to the next stage in life (whatever that might be). This year and next I am diving in and trying out new tools and experiences for both the students and myself. I’ve already seen many successes and also a few not-so-awesome flops. Many colleagues have shared their excuses for staying within the comfort of their current classroom and teaching styles/methods. I want to encourage these people to focus on three main points that can help integrate technology into your teaching. #1 Twitter Sign up for an account if you don’t have one. I will admit that I have had a Twitter for years and have never used it outside of the required TEACH Butler summer workshops until about four months ago. I thought it was unnecessary because everything I wanted to see was on Facebook. I had no idea that Twitter is an entire professional community! Start by following some influential educators and then get involved in some Twitter Chats. Education community: @INeLearn, @CanvasLMS, @TED_ED. For math, @alicekeeler, @ddmeyer, and @desmos. If you are interested in more, attend the Mini Best Practice Session on Twitter or ask a Pike DLC member for help. #2 Adopt one (or maybe two) new tools/practices at a time. This one is very important. How many times have you been to PD where you were able to learn several new tech tricks, apps, or websites? If you’re like me, I think they all sound cool and write down a few names and URLs. But then I don’t end up doing any of them or even remember what purpose they serve. Until I fully grasp a new concept/tool, I am not going to start another one. I actually have a running list of stuff I want to look at in the future, which brings me to my next point. #3 Wunderlist Store any websites you want to access later in a Wunderlist. This free website can house everything in lists for you. There’s even a Chrome Extension, so all I have to do is click the Wunderlist icon on my browser and quickly add the webpage I am viewing to a list. Whenever I am on Twitter or around colleagues that share an interesting tool, I add it to my Wunderlist to access later. Hopefully those three tips can help make technology integration a little less stressful. Don’t forget to reach out to colleagues - we have a wealth of knowledge right under our own roof. For Pike educators that want to take the next plunge, consider joining the DLC for this fall. Today's tips come to us from Ms. Kaley Trump. Kaley is in her 6th year of teaching at PHS. She received her B.A. in Mathematics and Spanish at DePauw University. She then became a Woodrow Wilson Indiana Teaching Fellow where she completed her M.A.T. at the University of Indianapolis. Kaley loves learning new tech tools and strives to constantly make her classroom better. When she’s not collaborating with colleagues, you’ll find her with her husband and two daughters. Follow her on Twitter: @mrsketrump “Yes! We’re doing a lab today!” - said just about every student ever. As a science teacher I have never struggled with getting kids interested in performing labs. Students are always very eager to get their hands “dirty” and try out the equipment. The difficulties with doing labs comes when students are held accountable to recording in their notebooks, drawing up data tables, collecting and analyzing the data, and then making data based conclusions. Often labs are approached with a recess mentality and any real learning is strongly rejected. It’s a frustrating cycle for a teacher. Due to time constraints during the class period many hours are put in outside of the school day to prepare the labs. When the hard work that was invested in preparation is met with enthusiasm only for doing and ambivalence for accountability it can be discouraging. Over the years a once eager teacher can wane in enthusiasm after reaching the “it’s just not worth it” conclusion. Perhaps the students weren’t wrong to treat the lab like a disconnected part of the curriculum. The way many labs are done in the cookie-cutter style do seem random and irrelevant. One way to assuage this problem is by using inquiry based labs. What inquiry accomplishes with engagement it still often lacks in relevance. An exciting way to add relevance to content is by working citizen science research projects into your curriculum. Citizen science projects are active research projects sponsored by scientific or governmental organization that rely on non-scientists to assist with data collection. The data is then used in research and adds to a growing body of knowledge. Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) has a course that connects you to actual ecological research in Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique. Gorongosa is a national park that was once thriving but was all but destroyed from years of war. A long-term restoration park is currently underway that is working to restore the park’s ecosystem. To quantify the recovery, scientists have set up cameras on trails that take photos when an animal moves in front of them. The cameras have collected more data than the scientists can dig through themselves and so that is where the students help comes into play. By participating with this ongoing research project they will gain a deeper understanding of ecology, the process of science, and with global issues. Another citizen science project out there is the FoldIt project. This project enlists puzzle enthusiasts to help discover the structures of proteins. Scientists have a backlog of genomic data and need manpower to help solve these protein puzzles. Today's thoughts come from Ms. Leslie Sitzman. Leslie has taught at Pike High School for 8 years. She began her teaching career with the transition to teaching program Indianapolis Teaching Fellows and has taught Integrated Chemistry Physics, Pre-Ap Biology (Honors), AP Biology, and IB Biology. In her free time she loves to spend time trail running with her husband and children. Let me start by saying that my struggle is so real that I actually didn't even turn this blog post in on time. I think we all know that at this point in the school year we are all just trying to survive. The weather is turning nicer, standardized tests are around the corner, schedules get weird and wacky, and we all just want to be anywhere other than in our classrooms. When I look back at first semester I realize that I was working so hard at a lot of the wrong things. But now looking at 7 weeks left in the school year, I can say that this second semester has felt like the best and the least stressful that I've ever had. Listed below in no particular order are the things that I did differently to help me find peace; maybe they will help you too. 1. Talk to your students; it makes it easier to be patient with them. I believe the most simple yet effective thing I did this semester was take five to ten minutes out of my class period and just have a normal conversation with my students. It all started when I stopped giving a bell-ringer. Yes for the first 10 minutes of class one day we talked about Teen Titans Go; and that conversation led to other conversations that day about Bad Girls Club and other really really bad reality TV shows. But looking back on that day, that conversation we had was the beginning of one of my most challenging classes actually becoming a class I enjoyed walking into my room. 2. Stop trying so hard, just be you. I don’t mean stop caring about your kids or trying to do your job. I mean stop losing sleep over it (unless it’s on the line or something). Do what comes natural to you. While I realize teaching is about “performing” for your students, it’s also about being real with the kids. I can let my kids know if I’m feeling a little under the weather and apologize if I tanked a lesson so we have to try again. And because I’m being me and honest they cut me some slack. I have found that when my students offer me grace, it is much easier to offer them grace in return. 3. Find teacher friends who are helpful (and smarter than you) who will share with you. This is my 4th year teaching ICP, yet every learning activity I’ve done this semester are brand new to me. I taught an entire unit predominantly through hands-on projects and the kids (most of them) loved it! Because I was willing to reach out to another teacher who is immensely more creative than I am (I’m talking about you Mr. Self), I had no lesson plans to write for 8 weeks and my students and I spent our time laughing and working together. I suggest you do the same, there’s nothing wrong with having a little fun with your classes. *Spoiler: I wasn’t even clever enough to come up with the topic for this blog post, kudos to Mrs. Darnay* 4. Give the kids a chance and ask for their opinions. This is one I still struggle with, not because it’s hard to ask but because the kids are not used to the question so sometimes I hear *crickets.* It all started with a Canvas module re-model. It all made sense to me, but it wasn’t working for them. So I asked them how to make it work, and the kids who wanted to were not shy about sharing their thoughts with me. Now I sometimes don’t even have to ask; those few kids who know I’m listening to them are not afraid to tell me how they’d like to do or see certain things. And I’m better because of it. I can anticipate some of their needs and I feel much more comfortable giving them options about assignments, deadlines, and how we cover our content. Loosen your grip on the reins and give them a little more responsibility. Everyday isn’t perfect, but I can tell you that I’m at a place where even on the bad days I just roll with it and try to do better the next day. To all the teachers in the struggle right now, find your happy place and know that you are not alone. Gabi Ingram (now Bradley) is in her 4th year of teaching, but her first year at Pike High School. She currently teaches ICP and Biology. Outside of the classroom she coaches soccer and enjoys CrossFit. |
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