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!

Free Technology for Teachers

This is an incredible blog for K-12 teachers that highlights several interesting technology tools and ways to use technology in the classroom. Check it out when you have a few spare minutes!

Backchanneling in the classroom

At NETA this spring, backchanneling was all the rave. So, when I got back to my classroom---I tried it. The verdict: love. it. I've been using TodaysMeet to set up my temporary chat rooms for my students ever since. I create a new chat room for each section of my English 9 classes, leave it open for a week for absent students to participate when they return, and then open it up to students for one class period. I pull the chat up on my projector and jump in with the kids. It's a great way to start a class period and jog students' memories about a reading assignment. Students generally love this activity because it has that familiarity of an instant message but allows for multiple people to be chatting at once.

Application: Could be used in almost any high school/junior high classroom with internet access---also works on iPods! It's also a great tool to use when presenting at conferences. When I presented at NETA this spring, I opened up a TodaysMeet chat specifically for my presentation so attendees could chat about my session with one another in real time. It was a really effective way to share ideas right in the moment.

Benefits: TodaysMeet only allows posts to be 140 characters long (similar to Twitter), so students must be concise. Great virtual discussion tool to ease students into a larger class discussion; very excellent for shy students who don't participate much in a class discussion. Great way to start or end class and check for comprehension.

Welcome

Yes, it's true...another school year has commenced. This fact may find some of you still wallowing, longing for your summer freedom while others are running full-force ahead into the great unknown of a new group of students. No matter where you're at on the spectrum, we can't deny it...school has started. And that means it's time to gather resources. And that's where I can (with your help!) step in.

Throughout the year we are bombarded with emails, brochures, etc. advertising the latest and greatest in the world of education. As a new-ish teacher who doesn't quite have her feet planted firmly yet, I eat up any resource I can get, but the problem is: keeping track of all these! I have brochures falling out of my car, a clogged email inbox full of resources from other teachers, and millions of sticky notes and memos shoved in the most random of places. So, in order to make it easy to share resources, I've created this blog---the OPSD Professional Learning Network. I want it to be a space where we can share ideas for how to provide the best K-12 education possible.

From time to time I will be posting entries that deal with professional development opportunities, available grant funds, technology resources, professional reading material, educational policy updates, etc. I'll keep these organized through a series of tags and labels so it's easy for you to navigate. If you want to receive notifications of blog updates, then type in your email in the top right. And, most importantly, if you have something you want featured on the blog---shoot me an email through the school's webmail and I'll do my best to post it in a timely fashion.