Tweet, Tweet.....You're Fired!!!!

We all have to be very careful at what we now post on our social sites. Future employers are now able to view and verify your sites and determine just how viable a candidate you really are. This article from MSNBC tells how an employee weighed his options at working for a company, only to discover that his future employees were very tech savvy and were aware of his decision and even went so forth as to comment on his tweeter about it.

The world is small, and with all the social sites out there it's getting a lot smaller. Take the time to be extra cautious as what, and when you post items out there. You never know who is watching and taking notes on you.

Homework....sometimes less is more

As a former student, I hated homework and everything about it. As a teacher, I know it can be a frustrating for both the parents and the students, so I try to send home a few items as possible. When I was a second grade teacher, the only thing I really had them do was read, and then they would record in their journal the title of the book, the page numbers, and a short reflection. What I really wanted them to learn was not going to happen at home, but rather in the classroom. So I just focused all my teaching efforts to make it as effective and efficient as possible. Unfortunately I do know that from time to time we had to do grade level projects where I can see the parent's influence from all different degrees. From writing, to building, to even creating the idea of it, the parents who I saw, had taken away the child's ownership and made it their own. While they might be trying to be helpful, is actually causing serious problems down the line when the projects become bigger and more important.

The Houston Chronicle, wrote a story discussing this very issue and explained that parents who tip over into doing the majority of the thinking and writing need to stop and back off. Helping them with thinking about how to solve it, is fine. Helping them write it and solve it while they watch is not. It's a hard and sometimes blurry line that parents have to deal with. So the rule of thumb is to try to do as less as you can.

How do you feel about homework? Do you notice that as teachers your parents are having more and more influence on it? As parents, are you finding that you are coming more and more to your child's aid?

Some friendly advice.....

It's spring...and with that brings: flowers, rain, tests and yes interviews. I'm pretty sure I won't be moving schools, but if I were, I would follow the advice that was given on The PrincipalsPage blog. He laid out, exactly what not do and hopefully we'll do our best to not do them.

I did have the fortune of interviewing some teachers to fill an open spot earlier this year, and that was something else. Here's what I learned what not to do from that experience....

1) Show up early - I'm not talking about camping out, like those shoppers do on Black Friday. Instead show up 15 min early, just to show that you care about this interview and that your priorities are set. Waiting for someone to show up after school is hard....especially since we all have other things that we could be doing.

2) Be honest, but not too honest - Time and place, time and place....TIME AND PLACE. There is a time and place to talk about your stance on drug use, politics, and religion. It's a good idea to not bring up this stuff on your next interview.

3) Do your homework - No not that kind of homework (but do that too) I'm talking about actually using the internet to use and start checking out the school's website. Know the names of the principal and the school's demographics and try to come up with how and why you would be an asset to them. More importantly, when it's time for you to ask some questions you actually have something decent to ask other than...."when's lunch?".

If you do this you're chances of landing that teaching job will increase just a bit. Just don't ask about sending in your resume.

Technology.....the time is now!!!!!

Learning from textbooks are now a thing of the past.....welcome to the next stage, WEB2.0!!! Writing in journals and sharing only with classmates and the teacher, are now slowly being replaced by blogs and web journals. The feeling of writing to a bigger audience is more "real" to the students, and they will in turn learn to appreciate and take pride in their work.

This should be more than enough reason why teachers need to learn how to learn and apply these tools into their classrooms. Part of what we do, is make sure that by the time they leave school that they will have the tools necessary to get a job. It's now clear to see that the jobs of tomorrow will require the knowledge of basic internet skills. Skills that we as teachers can easily incorporate into what we do in our everyday teaching.

It's hard to change your way of doing things, but in order to best serve the students, we need to. Take a moment and reflect on the amount of time you allow your students to use the internet, and ask yourself if you're doing all that you can. I always feel like I can do more, and after watching this voicethread by Belinda you'll feel a bit better about the why and the how. Now all you have to do, is ask yourself when?

Parents Vrs. School Districts.....

My heart goes out to parents who have special needs children. It's hard enough having kids, but it takes a little bit more to handle special needs kids. I should know...I work with them every day. So when I heard about this story, I had to take a moment and reflect on it.

Sped teachers are required to show paperwork of what sort of accomplishments the student has or has not achieved. It's a tough work, and very easy to get swamped in paperwork. However, the Sped teachers are required to follow what has been stated on the ARD paperwork.

I'm not sure why this school district is not providing the documentation that the parents are asking for. If the student can do the tasks then find a way to document it, or find some ways to help the student achieve it. If a parent has concerns about whether or not their child has met a certain criteria, than the teachers and administrators should meet again to readjust his goals.

I hate hearing a story told from only one perspective, and unfortunately that's what we get from our local media. So I'm going to "hope" that the school district had some reason why they choose to act the way they are....but in the end, what I really hope is that the student gets the appropriate care and education that he/she deserves.

Goals and Objectives.....

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Just something to help ease some of the tension that many of us are going through right now. I know that on a Friday I'm usually out the door as soon as possible. So if anyone is feeling stressed or bit uneasy right now, just relax and take a deep breath. We're almost there.....Hang in there.

Skype for students

This post was inspired by wesley fryer, who wrote about how Tammy is utilizing Skype into her classroom to interview other students in national organizations across the United States. Students are actually able to interact and engage in meaningful projects.

I love this idea, and I think the uses of Skype in the classroom are endless. Working in an elementary setting, you'll just need to be a bit creative in how you find meaningful uses. You could do a class interview with a class across the state/country/world. You could do interviews of people who work in different job sectors or simply interview someone who has done something or seen something significant.

I'm looking forward to getting stated with this and hopefully you are too. Let me know how you're adventures with Skype are going.


Find more videos like this on Celebrate Oklahoma Voices!

Apples to the students....

The future of teaching is slowing changing and for this Houston Community College course, it's already here. Lifang Tien, a biology professor, and Roger Boston, who teaches computer science and business technology, received $100,196 from a fund created by HCC Chancellor Mary Spangler to encourage innovation, then used the money to buy phones and pay the monthly bills. The students have to give the phones back by the end of the semester.

I find this to be extremely exciting and I'm very interested to see how it pans out for overall teaching. I always felt that, laptops although as helpful as they are, can be quite a hassle with and a pain to lug around. I love how small and compact the apple iphones are. They have all the features and capabilities of a laptop, without the bulk and hassle. Which just makes one less thing for students to carry around from class to class.

I was just at a conference last weekend, and I became a bit frustrated at how distracting some of the laptops were. Could those distractions be minimized by something smaller? I'm not sure, but I would love to find out. I'm not even going to get into that opening sound that the computer makes when it's turned on for the first time. We all know that sound!!!

Take a moment and just think how you could incorporate the apple iphone into your teaching. Do you think it would be a wise idea to move in this direction for teachers, and for students? I love all versatility of it, and hopefully we'll have more data that will guide us, one way or the other.

Here's the story from the Houston chronicle for more info.

The new style of teaching.....

I'm not sure how I came across the Powerful Learning Practice site but I'm extremely glad that I did. PLP is a professional development model that immerses educators into environments and practices that allow them to learn and own the literacies of 21st Century learning and teaching. Being able to fully understand and utilize this will not only engage and captivate your students but also create a shift in thinking and teaching in you as well.

I can't wait to get cracking on this, and I can already see the benefits from this. How can teachers not get excited about being able to create a format that allows the students to be highly engaged as well as ready for life after school? Being able to not only have our students succeed on assessment but also in their careers, is what we as teachers should all strive for.

In case you are still a little weary of the idea....here's a video of Will Richardson explaining how he has changed his classroom teaching style and how the students and the parents have reacted to it. Very cool stuff.

Please share with me any thoughts or feelings that you have about this post....I love this concept and I hope to find more compelling stuff like this. Enjoy

Is this why teachers make less money????

It's almost that time of year when teachers start to cringe up a little bit more. State testing is never a fun time. Both the students, teachers, administrators and parents all feel the presure. So I thought the best way to help out my fellow teachers would be a good laugh. Granted I don't condone this kind of violence but it is funny nonetheless.

I'll have more posts in the coming days about all the craziness that's going on around here. So in the meantime, enjoy and have a great weekend.