Stories of Teachers' Impact

One of my absolute favorite parts of Fridays is listening to StoryCorps--an oral history project--on NPR. This I weekend I learned of a new StoryCorps project called the National Teachers Initiative. This new project includes recording and airing the stories of teachers in an oral history fashion. NPR will be airing these during their Sunday Weekend Edition shows.

The teaching profession and education has been the source of much scrutiny lately, so it's refreshing to me to see a positive portrayal of teachers on a national media outlet. I'm thrilled that StoryCorps is recognizing the good work teachers do and is devoted to telling our stories. The first story has aired on the radio and is posted on NPR's website. Give your busy week a jump start and listen to the first story for a dose of encouragement.

Tween/Teen Tribune

Tween/Teen Tribune is a fantastic news website specifically geared for junior high-high school students that presents high interest news stories arranged into categories so it's easy for students to find a story that interests them. Teachers and students can comment on stories, publish their own stories (and we all know that writing for an audience causes students to invest more!), and take quizzes over the news stories.

How it works: Teachers create classrooms and students add themselves to the classroom. Then when a student adds a comment to a story, the comment is sent to the teacher's approval queue for the teacher to approve or delete. It's a great way to immerse students in non-fiction at an accessible reading level.

I'd like to give a shout out to Pam Abbott from Progress Elementary who sent me an email regarding a sweet feature in Tween/Teen Tribune: parents can be added as readers to teachers' classrooms. They only have to be added once, and then they can read all comments posted by students in the class. What a great way for parents to stay informed and be a part of their child's education!

If you're interested, check out Tween Tribune--specifically, their Top 10 Lesson Plans page.

Thinking Blocks: Model Your Math Problems

Yesterday our building had a staff meeting to discuss our 1:1 laptop program. A few of the math teachers mentioned how difficult it is to find ways to use the laptops in math classes. Later that day while perusing my Google Reader account (by the way, if you don't have a Google Reader account, you should consider signing up for one! I'll put up a blog about this later), I came across Richard Byrne's post on his blog Free Technology for Teachers about a website called Thinking Blocks--a website that helps students model their math word problems.

Because of my extreme disdain for math, I hesitantly checked out the website. After playing around a bit, I can see how this could be useful for students. Byrne recommends that this be used for K-8 math, but I really think this could be used in some of the lower level math courses we offer at the high school. The website allows students to visually map out their process when solving a problem. Students can use shapes, number lines, colors, and text to solve the problem. It's like having manipulatives on the computer. I struggled with math in high school partly because I am such a creative, visual, hands-on learner who was quite honestly scared of the subject. I think this tool would've taken the edge off of math for me. It would've given me a visual, hands-on way to solve word problems. If you're interested, check out the Modeling Tool page to find videos of the tool in action.

"Twenty Tidbits for New Teachers"

Props goes out to Mr. Dietz today for sending me a link to "Twenty Tidbits for New Teachers" on Edutopia.

After reading this article, I am convinced the title should be edited to read, "Twenty Tidbits for Every Teacher." As we rack up the years of experience, it sometimes is hard to grow professionally. I truly believe the mark of a quality teacher is one who is seeking to improve. Some of the tips mentioned in this article may seem daunting (especially if you're a techno-phobe), but I challenge you to pick five to work on throughout the semester...you might amaze yourself!