I'm Impressed

I just watched a short film clip called "Caine's Arcade". This is a testimony to the creativity of our children when they are left to their own devices. I'm going to direct you to "Caine's Arcade" through one of my favorite blogs, CareerTech Testing Center. CareerTech is worth your time to explore but do that after you've spent 11 minutes of your life marveling at Caine's many skills.

http://careertechtesting.blogspot.com/

Caine has the "something" that we try to instill in our students; common sense which leads to productive problem solving.

"Smackdown"

I just watched a session on EduVision of the 2012 Iowa One-to-One Institute (i11i) called Web 2.0 Smackdown with Dr. Scott McLeod. In this session, participants from the audience had two minutes to share a website that they use either with their students or to make their teaching lives easier. It was so much fun to see all the really great sites, ones that I have never heard of and ones I use, being demonstrated. One demonstrated by Dr. McLeod holds great promise for teachers of ESL students:

www.dotsub.com

This site provides translation of videos with the use of subtitles. You can also add your own videos and translations. This will be great for the ELs who can read in their L1.

If you are not familiar with Eduvision it is worth your time to take a look. It's a fantastic way to share knowledge, opening so many avenues for communication to the masses. Online professional development can be accessed whenever the need arises. Wonderful way to make sure statewide trainings are given with reliability and consistency or to open up conferences for those of us who can only attend an hour here, an hour there. Not to mention, you can session hop without interruption, not that I would ever do such a thing.
 
educateiowa-EduVision

https://educateiowa.eduvision.tv

Flapjacks? Flip me a few!

My husband of 37, almost 38, years made me pancakes the other night for supper. They were delicious, blueberry, hot and buttery. Yummy! What possessed him I'll never know, it was truly an unexpected treat.  Maybe he finally got tired of my cooking.

Hey teachers, isn't it time we got tired of the same old thing we've been cooking up year after year? Stand and deliver, sage on the stage? Homework assigned and excuses made for not having it done?  Enough is enough, don't you think? How about cooking up an unexpected treat for our students?

Flipped classroom is a term that refers to a philosophy on delivery of instruction. When we think of assignments to be done at home the term "homework" comes to mind. Let's take the word "work" out of learning accomplished at home, or at least away from school. Try thinking of activities completed or engaged in at home as initial learning, the instruction. Before the students enter the classroom they have already engaged in the learning needed to participate in the day's activities. The classroom becomes a place for discussion, invention, interaction, and innovation. It becomes a place where students work together towards the goal of using what they have learned.

I like this idea, I think it is the next step in taking education beyond the four walls of the school. It opens up the opportunity to take knowledge into practice, it creates the need to learn with a reason or goal in mind. But how do our second language learners fit into this philosophy? I have been rolling this around in my mind all day. The need to build background and develop vocabulary before approaching a lesson is essential for ELs to understand and learn, but how do we do that if the first encounter with a  topic is at home away from teacher support? How do we create the level of language needed to comprehend the lesson?

I don't think it is impossible, and not terribly difficult. However, it will require planning and creativity. Teachers are good at that. As teachers prepare their students to participate in the new learning of an at-home activity they must remember to incorporate background knowledge and vocabulary development into the process.  Choosing home activities must engage as well as educate.

My next concern is the availability of the devices to access content at home. Will our EL families have the internet connection, the space for viewing the evening lessons, the knowledge to operate and maintain a computer or iPad?

Using this approach to classroom organization isn't something you can decided to do overnight. Research and logistics must be explored. Every detail must be taken care of.

And where do these online lessons come from? Does the teacher have to create everything on their own? Some of it yes, but one great resource that has great possibilities of providing what you'll need is the Kahn Academy. Take time to explore

 http://www.khanacademy.org/

Another site, one that is brand new and evolving, is TED-ED

http://education.ted.com/

Is a flipped classroom something that will work for you and your students? I think it has great possibilities but I know I need more research. I'm keeping my mind open to it's possibilities.

Sticks and stones may hurt my bones, but words and hitting hurt too!

 When I was a young child I remember riding the school bus and being terribly afraid of the high school kids that sat in the back. One time an older boy was hit and teased all the way to the front of the bus. I remember seeing blood, not sure where but it was there just the same. This is my first memory of someone being hurt by others. I don't remember why he was being hurt, and I don't remember him ever riding the bus again. I just remember being afraid of something like that happening to me.

I wonder what happened on that bus that made me comfortable as a passenger after that. Did we get rid of the bullies, did we get a stricter bus driver, did the absence of that one particular boy make the others calm down and act like decent kids? I don't remember. All I know is I can see that boy as clearly today as I did all those years ago. Bullying does touch everyone, not just the child being bullied.

I read an interesting blog today on ELLs and Bullying and it made me think back to my teaching days. Did I ever allow this bad behavior to exist in my classroom? Did I ever make sure that my ELLs were free of bullying at recess or on the way to and from school? Or was I just clueless, thinking that nothing terrible like this ever happens in my school.

 Take a few minutes to read this blog and see what memories come back to you. Think about what you see everyday around you. There's 8 really helpful hints that I hope you will take to heart and use.

http://blog.languagelizard.com/2011/09/19/protecting-ells-against-bullying/

I wish I could go back to that school bus and watch that scenario again. Put it into slow motion, rewind to before that boy tried to get off the bus. Rewind it to a point that something could be changed.

"In like a lamb, out like a lion", or "In like a lion, out like a lamb", only the weatherman knows for sure

February 29th, Leap Day. It's funny how a number can make people go a little crazy. I've been listening to radio personalities complain that they are working an extra day, how everyone in the world should have the day off. Celebrations for weddings and birthdays that only happen every four years are all around us. But why and what is the purpose of Leap Year? It surly isn't just for the chance of females asking males to get married. To find out more just Google and you will have more information than you'll ever need.

So what should I write about on this extra day of the year? My mind is racing to all the things I could be doing and not wanting to do any of them. An extra day should give me a chance to finish up all those little projects that just never get done or even a chance to start something new.

But my focus seems to keep coming back to a two day meeting I have with co workers from across the state tomorrow and Friday. We are a mixed bunch of dedicated people with various personalities. We all get along and are of common mind and spirit, most of the time. I really do look forward to meeting with all of them. The problem is we have lost some of our excitement. We have fallen into that depressed state that many of our teachers have found themselves. We are downtrodden, broken almost. Our moral is shot.

And here's me, the person who thinks she has to fix everything. I have been taxing my brain for something fun, exciting to do that would just lift our spirits a bit while we tackle the work at hand. I've thought of lambs, you know, March in like a lamb, out like a lion. White, fluffy, soft lambs. Just don't know where to get 25 of them and I don't think the Marriott would allow them in anyway. So here's my thought, food, there has to be something that we could eat that would take us to a soft, cozy, happy place. And chocolate, has to have some element of chocolate.

The only idea I have so far is to find the cute little lamb I bought after Easter last year. Take Easter grass, put the lamb in the middle and place a bowl of chocolate candies directly behind him. Gross or funny? I don't know. I chuckled. Maybe just a little bit of foolishness is all we need to make the day go smoother.

That takes me to years gone by with my ELLs. When they started to "get the joke" I knew we were on our way to understanding English. Getting the hidden humor in a language takes skill and knowledge.

I guess this extra day has made me extra windy myself. Long blog without much power, unlike the windy day we are experiencing today. Hope your extra day gives you power to get things going. An extra day to enjoy the humor around you.

Happines=Positive Outcomes, Positive Outcomes=Happiness, Chicken or the Egg?

I just finished watching a TED Talk with Shawn Achor, "the happy secret to better work". So entertaining yet so thought provoking. 

Dr Achor gives us 6 things we can do to change our outlook.
 

• Spend two minutes a day to write down three new things you are grateful for - for 21 days in a row.
• Journal about one positive experience you’ve had every 24 hours.
• Exercise.
• Meditate to allow your brain to focus on one thing at a time.
• Perform random acts of kindness.
• Write one positive email to someone you know every time you open up your inbox.

I recommend taking 12:21 mins of your day to listen to this TED Talk,

http://www.ted.com/talks/shawn_achor_the_happy_secret_to_better_work.html

It could change how you approach your students. It could change how they learn.

The Write Topic

A month has past and have I blogged? Yes, but did I post any of them? No. Sometimes I just write to get frustration or crazy thoughts out of my head. I've never been a writer,  never in my wildest dreams have I thought myself a writer. I know that I miss punctuation in vital places and the grammar police should have arrested me years ago. But I plunge on, expressing myself for all or no one else but me to read. Sometimes I re-read my posts and think, ugh, what were you thinking? Or I find tons of mistakes. And I grew up speaking and writing in English!

The act of writing in English for an English  Learner, EL for short, is a daunting task. Not because they have nothing to say, but because putting thoughts into words that feel like gravel in your mouth is hard, very hard. It is important to think of writing as an extension of reading, speaking, listening and comprehending. It isn't a product all by itself, it's a way of reflecting on what is read, what is said, what is heard and what is known and felt and putting it all together in written form. Writing is part of learning content, it should be a daily part of every lesson or activity.

Two books that are helpful when thinking of writing in this way were suggested by one of the many teachers who work so diligently in our state to meet all the needs of our ELs. Thank you, Lindsey.

Check out:
Making Sense, Small-Group comprehension Lessons for English Language Learners, K-8, by Juli Kendall and Outey Khuon, Stenhouse Publishers, Portland, Maine, 2005.


101 Activities for English Language Learning, Content-based Ideas with Easy Internet RE-sources, by Charles F. Hirsch and Deborah Lazarus, Grades 1-4, Rigby, 2002.

So thank you to all of you who struggle through my blogs just to get the resource nugget at the end. Maybe if I keep practicing I'll finally get a post without errors and one that is easy to read.