Search results matching tags 'teaching' and 'general'

I love anonymous donors on DonorsChoose

Anonymous — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 14:55:35 GMT

Instead of assigning everything my students will read, I’m trying something new this year: a move to Reading Workshop in my English 9 class. My ninth graders will participate in The 1,000,000 Word Challenge.

When I look at the research (thank you, Stephen Krashen), it’s a no-brainer. Free, voluminous, voluntary reading is the way to go. Besides, test scores have gone down among ninth graders at my school (to only 27 percent proficiency) over the last five years, so something new needs to happen.

Still, it’s a controversial choice. Questions (from colleagues) abound. Here are a few: (1) Will students actually read? (2) If they read, will their reading be rigorous enough? (3) Aren’t you giving up on “real” homework?

Instead of getting caught up in those questions, I’ve decided to focus my attention to connecting my students with good books. Donalyn Miller and Nancie Atwell are my inspirations. If I unabashedly share my love of reading — if I show my students I know them and care about them through the books I recommend to them — they will like reading, too.

One of the requirements of a Reading Workshop is to have a substantial classroom library so students have access to high-quality books. Although Kelly Gallagher is correct when writes in Readicide that “building a classroom library is a career-long pursuit,” I can’t wait. I need books now.

In addition to finding books at used book stores and Salvation Army stores, this summer I turned to DonorsChoose for help. It was easy: I selected the books I wanted, 10 to 15 books at a time, wrote up a little proposal, submitted the project, and waited.

I didn’t end up having to wait that long.

Six projects, 100-plus books, and an Amazon Kindle later, I can safely say that I love anonymous donors on DonorsChoose! Sure, a few of my friends and family helped out, but my main donors have been strangers: wonderful people out there who love reading and learning and who believe in my project.

If anonymous donors have contributed more than $1,000 in just one 8-week summer, perhaps I have struck a chord. My donors will help me to withstand the criticism I’ll face and to remain singularly focused on working with students to deepen their interest in reading.

You too can be one of my anonymous donors! Here are my current open projects on DonorsChoose. (No pressure, you don’t need to remain anonymous!)

Back to school — already?

Anonymous — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 17:07:14 GMT

It’s always a shock to come back to school, but this year, it seems even earlier than normal.

Students return next week, so there’s limited time to finish setting up my classroom, writing my syllabus, and taking care of business.

All those things seemed challenging even before finding out just a few minutes ago that I’ll be sharing my classroom and teaching in two classrooms this year.

Ugh.

I don’t mind sharing; my colleagues are wonderful. But I was looking forward not to have to cart my stuff around the building all the time. There will also be implications to my reading workshop and 1,000,000 Word Challenge, not to mention my ideas with technology. Even though there’s nothing I can do about it, and even though it’s best for the school, I’m very angry. It makes me feel like my prep over the summer won’t matter. Is there a point, for example, to spend money on furniture for a reading nook if 1/3 of my students won’t have access?

8 Teachers Who Changed History

Anonymous — Tue, 11 May 2010 20:45:16 GMT

Melissa Tamura writes about online degrees for Zen College Life. She most recently ranked the best criminal justice schools

Throughout history, teachers were making discoveries, taking actions, or participating in events that forever changed the world.

Pythagoras was a mathematician, philosopher, and teacher who’s theories are still taught in schools. He’s best known for the Pythagorean Theorem that relates to right triangles, however, he also determined the relationship of math to music and the movement of stars and planets. Later in his life, Pythagoras was a teacher in India and founded a Croatian institute where he taught philosophy. He also founded the Pythagorean Brotherhood, a secret society devoted to the study of mathematics.

Known as the person who established the theory of gravity, Sir...

Seven Deadly Sins of Veteran Teachers

Anonymous — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 04:49:27 GMT

So here’s the situation:

You’ve been teaching for quite a while. You’ve pretty much gotten a handle on classroom management, paperwork, classroom rules, and any number of the other day-to-day tasks we encounter. But how many of these teaching vices do you struggle with? I know I’m not guiltless in these areas. In fact, I’ve had run-ins with most of these. Not all of them, of course.

Luxuria (extravagance or lust)
While most people think of lust in a sexual kind of way, in the original context, it essentially meant excessive love of others. Even so, some teachers take this one quite literally and end up losing their jobs over abusive relationships with their students.
Gula (gluttony)
Gluttony is typically

...

Golf And The Art of Teaching

Anonymous — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 20:09:08 GMT

This summer, I began playing golf. I’ve actually wanted to learn for a while now as I have a handful of friends who enjoy the game. Over the last few years, I have expressed that interest to some of my friends. Last spring, one of my friends saw me at church and told me to come out to his truck. When I got there, he handed me ten golf clubs.

So last summer, I went to...

Carnival of Education #214: The Day To End All Days

Anonymous — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 05:00:19 GMT

It all started innocently enough. As a band director, I have been to numerous rehearsals of orchestras, jazz bands, mariachis, bands, and even choirs. So when Mr. Teacher (of www.learnmegood.com) asked me if I wanted to join him for choir practice, I was excited.

“Well, I was just watching these 100 Free Online Lectures that Will Make You A Better Teacher. But I have a few minutes to spare. Wait a minute, I didn’t know you could sing!” I responded.

“I doesn’t,”…

Standardized Reading Testing

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 00:57:33 GMT

I have a very simple question for the language arts teachers out there. A little background first When I was in school and took the TAAS reading exams (as well as the SAT), I quickly discovered that I am a fairly slow reader. I also don’t get a lot of the specific details when I read a [...]

Turn It Upside Down: Oblique Strategies As Writing Prompts

Anonymous — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 03:40:16 GMT

Is It Finished? I recently took a step of faith and downloaded the Oblique Application for my iPhone. It seemed intriguing enough. It definitely makes me think. Use Filters Just what is Oblique Strategies? Oblique Strategies is essentially a card game. But it’s so much more than a game. As best as I can tell, each card has a [...]

Can We Reach Every Student?

Anonymous — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 02:15:10 GMT

I believe that every teacher has the potential to reach out and impact the life of every student they have in their class. The key is that it takes a whole lot of dedicated attention and effort. My theory is that it is relativaly easy to positively impact about 60% of the kids in each of [...]

Networking To Save Your (Teaching) Life

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 00:40:32 GMT

Everybody makes mistakes Everybody has those days Everybody knows what what I’m talkin’ ’bout Everybody gets that way Nobody’s Perfect! I gotta work it! Again and again ’til I get it right Nobody’s Perfect! You live and you learn it! And if I mess it up sometimes, Nobody’s perfect! Oops. I got a little carried away there in my Hannah Montana glam rock! Sorry about that. But [...]