Teachers (or former camp counselors): I’m looking for suggestions for advisory team-building activities to start the day off. We do a lot of journaling and discussions, but that can get old during five-day weeks in December. Ideally, the activities will:
- require few supplies
- be appropriate for 20 or so 8th graders
- can be taught and executed in about 20 minutes
- not involve sharp objects
- not involve human knots or falling off desks into the arms of your classmates
Email me or hit up the comments.
Shared space is a serious issue; unfortunately the image accompanying the article is representative of the debate I often encounter on it.
On a (mostly) unrelated note, congratulations to the Harbor School on their new digs. Very excited for these guys.
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” - Albert Einstein (Attributed)
How many bad presentations have you sat through? How many times have you walked into a meeting, been handed a copy of the PowerPoint, and had it read it to you? I often think about those days when planning a lesson.
A copy of Garr Reynolds’s Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery has been floating around school and making a huge impact on our professional development and classrooms. I’ve been using the book as a guide this year as I put together my lesson plans, materials, and presentations for my class. I highly recommend the book and his blog. His tips and thoughts are universally applicable – I wish someone would give this to the people running meetings at BigLaw.
If you read one post, read this one, “10 tips on how to think like a designer.”
And yes, I am using a book on PowerPoint Presentations to plan an 8th grade history class.
This will be our third week of professional development preparing for the new school year. We spend three weeks revising unit plans, lesson plans, looking at data on our students from last year, tweaking assessments, problem solving on classroom management issues, and just getting the building ready for a great year. Under the new UFT contract, teachers start the same day as the students.
Fascinating (and predictable) debate on the value of education graduate degrees in the Room for Debate blog over at the NYT. I’m going to keep most of my opinions on this to myself. I will point out that I find it hilarious that Margaret S. Croco, a professor at the definitive education school that thrives on these requirements, quotes John Dewey in the second paragraph of her case against Teach for America. As we used to say in my legal practice res ipsa loquitor.
The Unicorns – Tuff Luff. I hadn’t listened to this album in awhile. I forgot how incredible it is. Quick fact – the one time I saw the Unicorns live it was at the now defunct Knitting Factory. Chromeo and the Arcade Fire opened. It was pretty amazing.
Trying to discern where and what to read about education reform online can be a little overwhelming. Can I suggest that everyone start (and possibly end) with the Flypaper blog from the Thomas Fordham Institute? I also highly recommend their weekly podcast, the Education Gadfly – 15 efficient minutes of intelligent, structured, and often hilarious education analysis.
And yes, I’m procrastinating on school work at 5:41 AM.
As part of my first week back, I just came across this post over at Learn Me Good compiling a number of great resources for lesson plans. In a lecture this past weekend, Dave Levin made the argument that a solid LP should take about 3 minutes to write for every 1 minute of class time your first year teaching. Maybe down to 2/2.5 minutes for every one minute of class time your second year, and slowly approaching about a minute or less as you become more experienced. For the teachers out there, any other suggestions of places to look for sample LPs that you adopt/re-write for your class?
I’m not sure I understand the purpose of this article. I can only imagine what her school was like or how burnt out she is, but ultimately maybe she was in teaching for the wrong reasons:
Teaching is a grueling job, and without the kind of social recognition that accompanies professions such as medicine and law, it is even harder for ambitious young people like me to stick with it.
I may write more about this later, but for now I repeat a mantra found throughout the halls where I teach – “No Excuses.” I truly believe these words apply to each teacher, just as they do to each student. You “make the weather” in your classroom every day. If you are waiting around for the administration, politicians, parents, and the streets to make things easier on you, you are going to be terribly disappointed. If you think the “social recognition” you get as a consultant, lawyer, or MBA will make up for sitting in a grey office staring at a computer screen for 100 hours a week, you’ll likely be just as disappointed.
Late update: A response from her principal (I’m sure there was a lot going on between these two, so I’m not opining on the school culture or anything of the sort.)
Modest Mouse – Custom Concern Buy this album too.
This article from the Times caught my eye a few days ago, but I never posted it. I can’t believe my students may someday compete with this for college admissions. I’m pretty convinced I couldn’t get into the schools today I did in the ’90s. Actually, maybe things won’t be that bad:
The free fashion show at a Greenwich, Conn., boutique in June was billed as a crash course in dressing for a college admissions interview.
Yet the proposed “looks” — a young man in seersucker shorts, a young woman in a blue blazer over a low-cut blouse and short madras skirt — appeared better suited for a nearby yacht club. After Jennifer Delahunty, dean of admissions at Kenyon College, was shown photos of those outfits, she rendered her review.
“I burst out laughing,” she said.
Modest Mouse – Bankrupt On Selling (From The Lonesome Crowded West. Buy this album.)
Filed under: Reading, education, history, music | Tags: Non-fiction, Reading, Teaching
Following up on my earlier post about non-fiction, Rosa by Nikki Giovanni is exactly the kind of thing I am looking for. Giovanni is a pretty incredible woman (she was nominated for a Grammy with Tupac!) and this is a great book for readers of all ages – the illustrations are beautiful and Nikki is an exceptional writer.
Anything else like this out there?
(I skipped posting the obvious Outkast song here.)
