I'm in and ready to roll!!!! Bring on Class Management!

Okay - I got a little carried away when I realized my blog was finally up and running! Who hoo! Classroom management - what ever classes they have at the college level do not prepare you for the actual classroom. When we student teach we are going into a classroom that has already had a seasoned teacher show them the ropes. The biggest tool I learned was to talk to other teachers - take what you like and leave the rest. When you open yourself up and ask what works for them - you might find what you need. I like resources like Middle Ground, Edutopia, Instructor, and The First Six Weeks of School. I like to keep learning about what I can do differently and hopefully better than what I was doing before. There's always room for improvement! One of the classroom management tools that I use is actually during study hall. Several (sometimes up to 8) math students come in - we sit around my table that I use as a desk - and go over our math homework and discuss questions we may have. Now, this is not a quiet study hall - if students need that they know this is not the place. Work is getting done, candy dish may come out, questions are being answered, students are being supported, and sometimes a little life lesson comes out. All of these things happen and these students are finding success - learning to come in for help - asking questions - me being available. Now, to be honest, the other 8th grade teachers are not supportive of this and want to limit students that come in to see me at 2 at a time. Their study halls are extremely quiet. What I'm saying is this - this management style works for me and most importantly for my students. Isn't that what I'm here for? When I read the article about the school in Belfast (ah! my back yard!) I thought - you go! What a great idea! What exactly do we want the students to learn about detentions and suspensions? Wouldn't we want to turn this incident into a learning opportunity? Not only as a teacher do I see this but as a parent of two not so perfect teenagers. This is part of school management as well. And the article on barbed wire - quite an analogy - especially since I grew up on a farm with that! It's all in knowing - and knowing what could work - to get the best out of the situation.

vvvv

What Does It Mean to Be 13?

I, personally, would never go back to being 13 again. I remember my teen years as a very rough ride and I remember them when I talk to my middle school students when they come to talk to me - boys are a big issue as well as parents getting on their back. Sex is huge - from the clothing they want this age to wear, make-up, making out, movie and magazine portrayal - all a huge money maker for this age. Students have a lot more disposable money than ever before as well - where are they getting all this money from? I find students are a lot more material oriented from previous generations - is it because parents want more for their children? I see parental involvement drop - yes, it's because both parents are working and no one is paying attention to the student. So what can schools do? Mentoring, role models, connect to them, listen to them. As a previous article stated (and other evidence we've read before) students do better when they feel their teacher is connected to them.

Articles for Parents & Community

The articles listed here are great! In fact, I emailed three articles to my seventh grade parents - Advocating for Young Adolescent Learners in the 21st Century, Technology Tips for Parents, and Health and Young Adolescents. It's great these articles are available to us as educators and yes, we should be reading these. But I also think it's important for parents to read these as well. And yes, I forwarded them to my colleagues here in the middle school, too. Much of what I read - I have read before but they were worthwhile having the refresher. Overall, our students need to know that there is a team there for them in middle school - teachers, family, and community.

Digital Youth Portraits

Wow, wow, wow! I have to say I was always excited about what I do with my 7th grade science classes and technology - we learn about power points, comic life, note share (still learning), webbing/outlining....... I am very excited about learning how to help them make a blog(yes, I had trouble setting mine up), use scratch, and start with woogiworld.com! I've always been concerned about how little we actually use our MLTI in the middle school at our level - some teachers very rarely use them except as a word processor. Ugh! I like seeing how these 5 students integrate the technology into what they are learning - I have always believed we all can learn - we just don't all learn the same way - and this is what they are showing us. Jobs for these students probably haven't even been invented yet - as teachers we need to start preparing them for these jobs and technology is one of the tools to prepare them for. I have had students come through, that if given the opportunity to use technology to show what they know, would have thrived. As I have said before, I think using technology in a middle school classroom should not be an option - it should be a requirement. We should all be on board with this.

Welcome!

As part of the requirement for EDM520 here is my blog! This blog will be used for class postings in regards to readings, discussions, and class work. Bring it on! :)