Little Miss Smiley

I have recently subscribed to the Scholastic website on Google Reader.  I always love to see what people are doing in their actual classrooms.  Today, a project immediate caught my eye because of memories from when I was a youngster.  I remember reading many of the Mr. Men Little Miss books as a child.  I love seeing that they are coming back in popularity with children. 

One teacher, Allie Magnuson, posted about using these books as a character exploration in her classroom.  She said, "This is a good introductory activity to get kids thinking about who they are and who they would like to be. It is not meant to be a serious discussion on character development, but instead a light-hearted activity that makes kids feel good about themselves, no matter what...Everybody has weaknesses as well as strengths, and tries the best they can. Let students pick any one of their many qualities, even a not-so-good one. Explain that since the quality they pick is just one of many, and can even be changed if they want, it does not define them or limit them. It's just part of what makes them special."

I feel like focusing on the good and not-so-good qualities of your personality is a good reflection for children of all ages.  Ms. Magnuson even shows pictures of her students as they show their self-portraits which reflect the concepts of these Mr. Men Little Miss books.  Follow this link to get some ideas of your own!

http://blogs.scholastic.com/classroom_solutions/2010/10/mr-character-and-little-miss-personality-a-celebration.html

Teacher Preparation

As I now enter my 5th year of teaching, I'm wishing I had received many more preparatory classes in my schooling.  I, of course, learned the basics of teaching curriculum and managing discipline and making things interesting for the students, but I never learned much about the varying degree of needs in a classroom and how to meet them or how to deal with some of the struggles of parental confrontations/conferences.  I guess I would have been in school forever if I would have been able to take all of these classes.  As it was, I was in school for 5 years to earn my teaching degree. 

Now that I prepare for another year of teaching, in a new grade, I wonder what might help me to make this year the best one yet.  I have perfected what I know, but what else is out there.  While working in my Masters in Educational Technology, I have learned that there are a number of new resources at my disposal.  I was reading an article on Edutopia about the Power of Preparation for teachers.  The Curry School at the University of Virginia is doing their part to fully prepare teachers-to-be for everything they may encounter in the education field. I was please to see that "Curry also has been a leader in making the most of what technology has to offer. Curry students use the Web as a source for research, learn how to make their own Web pages, and master the use of such devices as inexpensive microscopes that link to computers for enhancing science instruction...Curry students...develop their own Web-based portfolios."

I was also pleased to see that other universities are working on adding "Professional Development Schools" to their academic program for teachers.  These programs are taught by educators who are currently in the teaching field and can share personal experiences from the classroom that are current in today's world.  "A number of higher education institutions...created professional development schools, where fifth-year students, including individuals starting a second career, combine teaching responsibilities with participation in education seminars overseen by both university faculty and school-based teachers."  I think these types of programs are very important for all teachers-to-be to experience and would even be very helpful for current teachers, like myself, who are still fairy new to the industry.

Individualized Instruction

Today I found myself reflecting upon the differences between differentiated instruction and individualized instruction.  I was speaking with a former colleague of mine on the phone.  She recently moved out to San Francisco and we were just "catching up" yesterday.  We both were talking about our recent professional development days and how they both revolved around differentiated instruction.

She went on to talk about how she has a diverse group of learners in downtown San Jose and how some of her fifth grade students merely cannot write an entire paragraph in English because it is not their native language.  She talked about how some students must work hard to write one paragraph, while for others she is able to raise her expectations to a common "5-paragraph essay."  She was concerned about how this would be perceived by her other students. 

I told her I was under the impression that differentiated instruction did not merely talk about length requirements, but focused more on the different learning styles: visual, auditory, and tactile.  I started to wonder about everyone's different perspectives on this most talked-about topic.  Mary Blow talks about it in her blog about "Individualizing Writing Assignments."  She says, "First, let me begin by clarifying that there is a difference between differentiating instruction and individualizing instruction. According to Patti Drapeau, 'Differentiated instruction does not mean you must provide a different lesson or allow for different products for every single student . . . The teacher does not meet with each student individually unless there is only one student working on a particular skill' (Differentiated Instruction: Making It Work, 2004)." 

I think that this quote is exactly what my friend and I were trying to talk about without having the proper terminology.  Either way we are talking about how we meet the needs of all of our students whether they have different academic levels or different learning styles, but we are looking at two truly different instructional decisions.  So, what do we do next?  How do we decide to make modifications to our lesson plans?

Grow Your Own Greens

According to a blog posted on Change.org, there are a group of students in Iowa who are actually choosing healthy foods over junk food.  "How do you get a kid to choose fresh veggies over a bag of grease-soaked French fries? Some might say a lobotomy, but in Iowa, there's a better answer. Iowa schools are taking the lead in the local-food movement, steering students into fields, greenhouses and even onto the farm. And guess what? In many of these programs, kids are eating what they grow." 

What a great experiment for science or a project to promote further learning!  The children are making healthy choices merely because they are vested in the growth of these crops.  I am currently teaching a lesson on the food pyramid and healthy eating.  The children are keeping track of what they eat and reporting back to the class a couple times this week.  After the first report, we realized that the children were doing well in most categories, except for their vegetables.  What a great way to get them more interested in what they are eating...have them grow their own!  If there is space at your school, I think this would be something really exciting for the kids!

Connecting the Body and Mind

I continued reading about a variety of instructional methods that could be used in the classroom.  I was interested in a story written about Joel Kirsch, a former sports psychologist, who is travelling across the country to promote his beliefs about high levels of physical activity leading to better academic performance.  On this blog at Edutopia, many teachers and friends have commented on Kirsch's travels in full support of his beliefs.  One teacher even wrote, "Physical activity is very important to me and my life. I believe that everyone should be physically active. Not only does it keep you fit, but it makes you feel better. You are not as tired, you are focused, you are happier, you sleep better."  She talks about her obese students and their lack of focus.  It is something that I have never thought about before.  If there is a way to get our children moving then quite possibly we could have our children meet their full academic performance. 

This leads me to thinking more about differentiated instruction and how we can get our students moving.  Do you have any ideas?

Differentiated Instruction

On October 21, 2010, our school had an In-Service in which we discussed the many uses of differentiated instruction.  We looked at a variety of ways to include kinesthic learning into our classrooms.  We worked on writing "our spelling words" in sugar, solving mathematical problems in pudding, sorting things in plastic Easter eggs, and using clothespins for matching.  All of the activities were very enlightening and inexpensive.  There are a lot of fun things we can do if we merely use our own imagination. 

I have been more and more interested in this idea of differentiated instruction ever since my days in college.  I always wanted to know how to make every lesson differentiated for all students.  There is just so much to do in so little time and it always seemed more overwhelming.  I started to read some feeds on the Scholastic website about differentiated instruction and came across one encouraging post by Mary Blow.  She made the comment that "teachers begin differentiating instruction gradually. There is so much to consider."  I totally agree with her!  There is so much to think about and so many exciting things we can implement into our classrooms!

Hopefully I will find a lot of resources to share and post on this blog as the class goes on!