teacher mrw

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Archive for the tag “Teacher”

20 Feb 2012

Having Our Hands on the Right Things

The following is a reply I posted on the now-defunct MFL blog.  Due to a lot of flap, the blog has since been taken down.  Thus, I am glad I preserved my comments.

I don’t think that Mr. Picardo espouses a die-hard tech-only point-of-view.  We tweet from time to time. I am also an occasional reader and poster to his blog. We don’t agree on everything, and nor should we. But, I respect him and his work, and, I think he feels similarly about me.

Additionally, I think your argument does have some merit. Like most things, there are some tech tools which can promote modern foreign language learning, and some that are, in my opinion, pure garbage. I’m also not a project girl, or what a former colleague dubbed, “a showboat teacher.” If that’s one’s inspiration, then live and let live.

Seven years ago, I inherited a group of students from a so-called, “showboat teacher.”  Those students had had a good time, and liked their teacher, but, in my first minutes of teaching the students in question, I observed that  their spoken Spanish was terrible, their vocabulary knowledge, recall and application was poor, and their grammatical base was weak. This, however, happened via paper, pencils and books. So, depending on how one uses the tools available to him or to her, tech or no tech, ineffectual teaching and learning can and do take place.

I think that most teachers strive for mastery of content and proficiency of skills. At least, I do. Students need to be able to demonstrate what they know and what they are able to do. Tech tools, when carefully considered, taught, and implemented with the end-goal in mind, can provide a rewarding learning and teaching experience.  That said, I have met very few students who by the time they’ve graduated from high school can order a meal or ask for directions in a modern foreign language, and I am talking about students who have aspired to Advanced Placement Spanish Language (I reside in the United States; I know not what the equivalent of AP is in the UK, if there is an equivalent).

Moreover, I think the capacity to speak, aurally comprehend, read and write another language is largely dependent on the student’s desire and motivation, not to mention their cognitive capacity. Good teaching, however, does play an important role. But, at the end of the proverbial day, learning disabilities aside, students decide to learn or not to learn.  If there are quality tech tools, however, which can promote and assess mastery and proficiency, then I say that teachers should use them. But, tech should not be a substitute for teaching, no more than the television should be a substitute for parenting. No amount of tech tool usage is going to make a mediocre teacher, or student, for that matter, a better one.

Posted in At the Schoolhouse Door, The Five Cs: Foreign Language Teaching and Learning and tagged , , , , | Leave a Comment
19 Feb 2012

It Depends On How One Views the Situation

Tablas de Lotería (Lotería boards).

Image via Wikipedia

or…a teachable (anti-racist) moment for teachers.

I’ve recently become a fan of a teacher blog, whose target audience is language teachers.  I enjoy most of their posts and ideas.  But, the one promoting a Mexican Lotería app isn’t one of my favorites.  The reason?  Some of the game board images are stereotypical, even downright racist.

My point? Some think along those lines, those like me, and others, well…do not think along those lines.

My second point: If a teacher is going to use the traditional Mexican Lotería game, laden with its stereotypical and even downright racist images, then a teacher should be well-equipped to use it as an opportunity to teach students that stereotypes and racism exist in every culture, even in Mexico.  After all, Mexico produced this as well.

If I were teaching Spanish 4 or 5, I might use the app.  And, I am well-equipped.

Now, before anyone gets all agitated, and accuses me of having called the bloggers of the blog in question racist: STOP.  Given my orientation, such things are more obvious to me.  Perhaps by my having pointed out the issues with said Mexican Lotería game, there will be greater awareness for the bloggers in question.

That is all.  You may proceed.

Posted in Eracism, The Five Cs: Foreign Language Teaching and Learning and tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment
29 Jan 2012

A Cultural Visitor

My school has a cultural exchange with Venezuela.  So, every year in early January, a small group of students and a teacher from our partner school in Caracas visits our school for about a month.  The students are usually in grades six and/or seven, and have been learning English from a very young age. They attend classes from 8am-3pm, and go on cultural excursions on the weekends.

I invited the teacher to visit with my seventh grade Spanish Onesies.  But, instead of the usual, one-way dialogue between presenter and students, or, even the use of the standard, “students create questions in Spanish” and presenter answers them, I made the experience more interactive for both my students and the presenter.

1.  Students spent some time in the Tech Lab conducting research on Venezuela.  Thirteen students were divided into groups of two or three, and assigned a topic.  The topics included: history, currency and economics, government and politics, geography, food, and tourist attractions.  Two additional students devised questions for the presenter.

2.  On Presentation Day, the students delivered their findings, to the delight of the visiting teacher.  She then spoke with the students, in Spanish, using lots of comprehensible input.  She gave them something of a history lesson about Venezuela.  Several of my students translated nearly every word, with their confidence increasing with the confirmation of every correct response.

3.  The questioners used Google Translator to translate their questions from English to Spanish, which was fun for them and for me.  But, mind you: It did not occur to me to instruct them to use Google Translator.  Actually, one of the students assigned to ask questions took the initiative to do so.  It was great to see the students to see not only such active engagement, but also the direct use of technology – on their own initiative.

Why the above lesson worked:

1.  As I mentioned from the outset, the lesson did not constitute the traditional one-way dynamic.

2.  High level of engagement

3.  Us of technology in a meaningful way, i.e. to facilitate communication in the target language.

A great way to end a unit. :)

Posted in The Five Cs: Foreign Language Teaching and Learning and tagged , , , , , , | Leave a Comment
21 Jan 2012
2 Comments

I’m Done

Are you able to recall an incident which greatly disappointed you, but, logically, it really should not have greatly disappointed you?

My eighth grade Onesies greatly disappointed me recently, and, the situation is one that I really should not have taken so personally.

The Situation:  Approximately 50% of the class (there are 13 enrolled in said class) did not fully complete the assignment due, or completed none of it at all. The culprits: Two major assignments for two other courses due on the same day.  But, the larger issue, at least to me, is ineffectual time management, organization, planning, initiative and follow-through.  This particular group of students as a collective seems to be weak all of the aforementioned areas.

The Problem, #1:  I allowed The Situation to impact me to such an extent, I took it personally.  I really should not have, because, at the end of the proverbial day, it its the academic progress and results of the students in question that is going to suffer.  Until they get tired of low scores, perhaps at that time they’ll raise an eyebrow and make the necessary changes.

The Problem, #2: Where are parents in all of this? Learning support specialists cannot do it all, no more than the subject area teachers can.  Mel Levine once said, and I paraphrase here, getting the schoolwork completed is the job of the parent, and not the job of the teacher.  Naturally, I am in whole-hearted agreement with this statement, but frankly, too many parents are not doing their jobs.

I discussed the situation with my Dear Brother, who said that the reason I took the situation so personally is because I care.  But, at the same time, he agreed that the students in question need to get their ish together.

Anyway, short of after-school homework detention club (which doesn’t currently exist at my place of employ, but ought to), and communicating with parents when the work is completed (I send so many homework-related emails that it isn’t funny), the situation is really beyond my control.

So, short of what is within my power to control. I AM DONE. And, it is only January.  ::SIGH::

Posted in At the Schoolhouse Door and tagged , , , , , , ,
10 Dec 2011

Get ‘Er Done

As part of my campaign to raise the level of expectation in my seventh graders – both academically and behaviorally, I’ve instituted the following. Strategies are courtesy of Teach Like A Champion.

1.  Procedures for Entering the Classroom*

a.  Go directly to seats.

b.  Set everything out that is needed for class.

c.  Place homework on the teacher’s desk.  Name, date and assignment must be on the paper, with pages stapled together, if necessary.

d.  Sharpen pencils or **take a sharpened pencil from the teacher’s desk.

e.  Use the bathroom and/or water fountain during the first 10-15 minutes of the block, or the last 10-15 minutes of the block.

*There was too much trickery and foolery taking place at the beginning of class.  The new procedures seem to be working well.

**I’ve given up on the pencil hunt.  If a student needs a pencil, he/she takes a pencil.  If he/she needs it for the next class, then he/she keeps it.

2. Procedures While Teaching and Learning

a.  I no longer ask for the students’ “permission” to teach, e.g.  “We’re waiting for So-and-So.”  When students are taking too much time to get themselves together, I simply let them know that class time is valuable, and that they are either contributing or detracting from that time.

b.  With respect to students talking when I or other students are talking, I simply say, “What I have to say is valuable, and I expect to be heard”, or, “What So-and-So has to say is valuable, and she/he expects to be heard.” That puts the onus on the student causing the problem, and eliminates the rest of us for having to ask “permission” of the student causing the problem.

3.  Homework Rubric

I collect every assignment at the beginning of the class, and correct it according to a homework rubric I created.  I borrowed from various homework rubrics available on the Web to create one that accomplishes what I need for such a rubric to accomplish, which are: Presentation, e.g. name, date, assignment, condition of the paper, and quality and quantity of the work completed.  The Homework Rubric is not only holding me more accountable for what the students know and are able to do, because I am assessing each assignment, but, it also presents students with a standard by which their assignments are being assessed.  So, it’s 360 degree accountability – for teacher and for students.  During the last 20 minutes or so of the class, we discuss the assignment from the previous class, and I make note of common errors and common successes.

4.  Do Now

The “Do Now” has been the single most effective change to the classroom routine.  Why is the “Do Now” effective? For several reasons:

a. It requires students to put pencil to paper, which raises the level of expectation and accountability for the work.

b.  It is brief: Five minutes.

c.  It relies completely on the student’s capacity and initiative, thus promoting independent learning.  The student needs neither me nor a classmate to complete the task.

d.  It encourages the student to review previously-taught material, thus encouraging accountability for content and lesson concepts, and promoting skill-building and practice.

e.  It gets the students into the proper mindset for the learning that will take place.

f.  It allows me to take attendance.

I  will be rolling out more strategies in the coming weeks.  One of the strategies I am road-testing is “Exit Slips”, or, the activity that the students perform before or as they leave the classroom.  Additionally, my efforts to raise the level of expectation with my seventh graders has had positive residual effects with my Twosies and eighth grade Onesies.  While I have not rolled out the program to full-effect with the two latter groups, I am using the Homework Rubric, collecting every assignment at the beginning of class, and starting each class with a “Do Now” exercise.

Posted in At the Schoolhouse Door, The Five Cs: Foreign Language Teaching and Learning and tagged , , , , , , | Leave a Comment
23 Nov 2011

The Bane of My Existence

Fair & Balanced graphic used in 2005

Image via Wikipedia

As a teacher, two things I detest the most are marking student work, and, computing end-of-trimester grades.  Along with lost keys and mislaid eyeglasses, they are the bane of my existence.

As much as I strive to be fair and balanced in my approach to assessment and evaluation, I feel that I always somehow fall short.  I tried Proficiency-Based Grading for a time, but, it hasn’t proven to be a successful approach for me.  While I embrace its philosophy, I haven’ been able to come up with the requisite number of assessments for the various skill and content areas.  BTW: Scott Benedict, is a sweetie, and has provided me with ideas and support with respect to grading and alternative assessment. I then happened upon this website, and this document guidelines_instructors(2), which offers another approach to assessment and evaluation.  Again, the philosophy supporting it intrigues, but, I would perhaps need a summer’s worth of time to plan the appropriate assessments.

The evaluation dilemma always seems most prominent when it is time to compute end-of-trimester grades.  Perhaps I stress too much about such things. But, a conversation about the same with my Dear Mom prompted me to reflect, investigate and then reflect again. My goal is to move away from the traditional grading categories, e.g. tests, quizzes, homework, etc. and move towards performance-based grading categories.  Additionally, I want to integrate greater use of authentic assessment.  Both of these shifts would enable me to assess more accurately what students know and are able to do.

My dilemma, and the musings that it prompted, led me to re-visit Ken O’Connor’s writings on the subject of grading.  I say, re-visit, because I purchased one of his books several summers ago. So, I did have good intentions and great expectations.  Having done this re-visitation has allowed me to begin to devise a system of assessment and evaluation that I can live with, and that will be of greater benefit to my students.

Although I have a long proverbial row to hoe, I’ve at least begun to dig.  I think so many of us in the teaching profession aren’t really taught how to grade, how to assess, and therefore, how to devise systems that promote effective teaching and learning.  Moreover, those of us who were taught were indoctrinated into traditional approaches.  Neither of the aforementioned, by the way, work very well.

It seems that with every dilemma, there comes with it more thinking, and, subsequently, more work.  That’s the way life is. That’s the way teaching is.  I am hoping that my current dilemma with assessment and evaluation will eventually become more gratifying, and less the bane of my existence.

Posted in At the Schoolhouse Door, The Five Cs: Foreign Language Teaching and Learning and tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment
13 Nov 2011
1 Comment

The Culture of Expectation

I was talking with a friend recently – my asthetistician, to be exact, but I also consider her a friend – while getting my monthly professional facial treatment.  We talked about the recent days-long power outage, our parents – hers about the same age as mine- and life in general.  We then somehow got on the topic of high school, class reunions, and school life back in the day.  She and I are also about the same age.  I mentioned to her the struggles that I have with providing students with extra help.  There seems to be no culture of extra help at my place of employ.  I am constantly telling my students that there is rarely a time when I am not available to them for extra help.  However, students typically don’t seek me out on their own initiative.  Instead, they come by way of teacher or parent fiat.  Additionally, there isn’t time built into the school day for extra help, or after school for that matter.  Conversely, when my asthetistician and I were in high school, life after school was bustling with clubs, extra help, sports and band practices, and students doing research in the library or hanging out with their favorite teachers.  The “late bus” – the bus that served those who stayed after school – was even a culture all to its own.

Perhaps extra help just doesn’t happen in so-called, self-identified, progressive schools.  My previous place of employ was a progressive school, and there was no culture of extra help, or after-school activities, for that matter, save play rehearsal and sports, the two things which seem to dominate after-school life at my present school.  Mind you, my asthetistician and I attended garden variety, albeit good, public high schools, and extra help was a constant and regular part of the school day – before, during and after.  So, one would think that at an expensive, private, college-preparatory school, the same would be true.

Extra help, given the competing forces, seems to be offered on the proverbial catch-as-catch-can basis.  Do individual teachers offer extra help? Of course they do.  However, when there is no culture of extra help, how does this impact the culture of expectation for students and teachers?

Jaime Escalante, the great Bolivian-American educator who brought AP Calculus to an East Los Angeles high school populated largely with economically-disadvantaged Latino students, reportedly said that students will rise to the level of expectation that teachers set for them.  Mr. Escalante clearly had extremely high expectations for the students, despite the immense barriers the students faced on the basis of their race, ethnicity, linguistic heritage, and socio-economic status.

So…what are the barriers for well-to-do, predominately White, upper-middle class students who attend a very expensive, college-preparatory school? The dominant culture, i.e. White male culture, is a bankrupt culture in many respects.  Despite the immense privilege such a culture offers, it is fraught with a compromised value system, misplaced priorities, and ineffectual parenting which values neither education nor personal responsibility and accountability.  Therefore, extra help isn’t seen as  a way of doing better because it is the right thing, but more as a safety net for when things become so bad that extra help is the eleventh-hour solution.  Schools reflect the culture of the society in which they reside.  Private schools, despite the bubble shield they evoke, are not as immune as we may have been led to believe.  All of society’s ills exist with us as well.

I realize that my school isn’t going to resolve society’s many problems.  However, I would like for my school to find a way to make extra help part of a positive culture of expectation.  I would like to see more personal responsibility and accountability on the part of the students, and, to that end, we may have to teach these things to the students.  Additionally, I would like to see a school day that supports and values extra help so that teachers and students alike feel that it is not only an important part of the school day, but that it is also a necessary component to teaching and learning.

Without a culture of expectation, nothing else truly matters.

Posted in At the Schoolhouse Door, Independent School and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
13 Jun 2011
2 Comments

Exhausted, But Still Thinking

Students learning about vermicomposting

Image via Wikipedia

As I typed my last comment report this morning at approximately 10:22 am, my face crashed down into my laptop keyboard.  I was overcome by mental, emotional, and physical exhaustion.  Although I am relieved to see the year end, I feel good about the things I was able to accomplish with students. I made some significant inroads with tech teaching and project-based learning, and combined them in meaningful ways to help my students demonstrate what they know and are able to do with the grammar structures and vocabulary they had learned. Specifically, with my Spanish 4′s, I orchestrated a project using Voice Thread with the future tense, an idea I adopted from a teacher and colleague on the ‘Net, and a multi-media digital autobiography, also adopted from yet another teacher and colleague on the ‘Net.  It’s great having access to colleagues beyond one’s brick and mortar edifice.

This year, to be certain, has had its peaks and valleys.  On the personal tip, My Dear Dad was diagnosed with a very serious health condition back in January, which, by the way, seems to have stabilized, following an initial round of treatment, which was going well until he had a nasty reaction to one or more of his medications. I am hoping and praying that this will be the trend for a long time to come.  I also encountered formidable challenges with my Spanish 4s. The students represented a very wide range of goals, abilities, learning styles and motivational levels, for which I was neither prepared, nor received much support in remedying.  However, after much reflection about what I wanted the students to accomplish, their learning and my teaching became richer and more meaningful, but not necessarily less complex, and, at times, complicated. In as much as I like alternative assessment and project-based learning, I need to become more skilled at using and developing rubrics.

Thus, one of my goals/tasks for the summer is to create/identify project-based tasks for my 8th grade Spanish Onesies. I read something recently which said that students want to accomplish two essential goals during the school day: 1. Have fun; and 2. Feel a sense of accomplishment.  That statement resonated strongly with me.  While I am a task-master and a disciplinarian for sure, I am not adverse to fun engagement in learning. Moreover, learning is about demonstrating mastery of skills and content, i.e. what one knows and is able to do.  For this reason, project-based learning seems to be a good and effective learning and teaching solution. So, while I am not throwing away my paper and pencil tests and quizzes, I am coming to the realization that this is neither the only way, nor the best way.

Four more days until I am officially off of the school clock.  Until then, I will strive to be collegial, engage productively, and not roll my eyes or make faces.

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Posted in The Five Cs: Foreign Language Teaching and Learning and tagged , , , , , , ,
09 Jun 2011

Decompressing

A teacher colleague re-tweeted this.  Got me thinking about how important it is for teachers to de-compress from the year. In fact, a bit of pre-decompression before the year’s grading, comment writing, and year-end meetings are complete, is perhaps necessary and important as well.

I have 3/4 of my grading completed.  Which means that I will most likely begin to write comments this afternoon.  If I am really moved by the spirit from within and from without, I may be able to clip off about two classes, maybe three. But, not before a tasty lunch, a nap, and reading a bit of another one of my new books.  I find writing comments so very difficult.  Not the actual writing, but, merely getting motivated to write.

Yesterday was the last day of classes, and 8th Grade Promotion.  It felt rather strange. Perhaps it’s a factor of becoming one year older, in teacher years; it’s 17 for me.  But, I felt a combination of ambivalence, sadness, relief, and happiness.  I didn’t hang around to say good-bye, or to sign year books. Good-byes are becoming more difficult for me as I grow older, in chronological years; I am blessed to have turned 46 this past April.  As my maternal grandmother would say as we were departing from her house, having concluded a two-week stay with her, “I won’t say good-bye.  I’ll just say, see you soon.”

I’m looking forward to:

• tending to my flowers

• getting back into a regular exercise routine

• getting a massage

• spending leisurely time with my parents and brother

• going on day trips

• seeing friends

• reading, reading reading

• dating – you know what they say about summer romances…

I’m also contemplating some changes professionally, and, to that end, I need to take active steps to making it all possible.  I’ll have about twelve weeks.

On Friday, June 17, I’ll be able to to take a great, big breath, and say, it’s over for another year.  Until then, I”m going to pre-decompress.

Posted in At the Schoolhouse Door and tagged , , , | Leave a Comment
16 Apr 2011
2 Comments

Voki?

Perhaps I am late to the party, as it were. But, it has taken me some time – perhaps longer than most foreign language teachers – to feel the Voki love, and to jump on its wagon. Just today, I expressed in a tweet to a colleague that beyond creating a wacky avatar, I considered Voki to possess limited teaching and learning value, compared to some other online teaching and learning tools.

Well, I ate a bit of proverbial crow today. I relented, and spent some quality time familiarizing myself with Voki. Moreover, I created an avatar, and, recorded something that my students might do. I admit: Voki is fun, engaging, and promotes speaking, writing, reading and listening skills. However, the platform presents some considerable limitations, which are deal-breakers for me. They are as follows:

1.  The slowness of the website. It takes a long time for avatars and other data to load. In some cases, the site may time out, just as it did on me several times today.

2.  One minute recording time. This might be enough for most students. But, if a student, say, were talking about himself or herself, and a friend, there wouldn’t be enough allotted recording time to accomplish the task.

3.  No ability to type foreign language characters. ‘Nuf said.

4.  No tech support. For me, this means a link which takes me to a group of folks who are able to trouble-shoot and answer tech questions. There is a Teacher Forum set up for this purpose, but, I need more than that when working with online teaching and learning tools.

I realize that the good folks at Voki want to maintain a free site, thus maximizing access for all. I get that. However, if paying even a nominal fee would enhance the speed of the site, allow the use of foreign language characters, increase the recording time to, say, a maximum of five minutes, and, provide bona fide tech support, then, I could give full buy-in. For now, Voki may not be something that I will use in my curriculum.

For some more information about Voki, check this out.

Posted in The Five Cs: Foreign Language Teaching and Learning and tagged , , , , , , , , ,

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