Okay. I think I outdid (is that a word?) myself. I thought of a mneumonic for the provinces from left to right with not just the first letter of each province but (insert drum roll here), the first two letters of each province! I am geographically challenged so these types of things are handy for me.
Yucky, no nuts!
Bring all sad matters onto Quebec.
Never print notes neatly.
You’ll have to figure out the provinces yourself. I’m sure you can do it now!
photo from kidzone.ws
Recently, on one of the blogs I follow, I read:
If you have not structured your classroom to be able to work with small groups, you’re not meeting all your kiddos at their level. Whole group instruction addresses the needs of only about 1/3 of your students.
a quote from the blog called “Math Coach’s Corner“
The author was talking about math instruction and I would add reading. I agree with the quote, although I did not always practice this. I have observed whole group instruction where some of the kids figured they already knew the info so they tuned out, some of the kids really needed to listen but things went too quickly and they didn’t understand so they got distracted.
I’m not saying whole group instruction can’t work, the challenge is to find ways to keep your audience engaged, and then when it comes to practice and reinforcement time, find ways to meet the needs of students at different levels (and we’re back to working with small groups).
I was waiting in a waiting room when I picked up a Macleans magazine and read the article Why Sitting is a Dangerous Health Threat.
Interesting!
The article talks about changing our workplace culture to include and even expect walking and standing breaks. We ALL need these breaks!
What a great challenge – not only to get our kids and students moving more but also to get up off our seats and really get involved!
I often hear, “I don’t know what to write.” This is my attempt at a visual to direct descriptive writing. (Don’t judge – this was a quick pic I put on the white board.) Students were given small pictures of different aliens and then asked to write a description. This lesson worked well – the visual gave a direction and the fact that they were describing a fictional character meant the description could not be judged as wrong.
I had another thought about my last post….
Mainstreaming is managing, while inclusion is investing.
Investing is more work, and does not always give the return we hoped for, but it is worth the time. If we stick with it for the long haul, and take some risks, we will see gains.
(Can you tell that we are studying metaphors in my classroom and that I had a meeting with our accountant today?)
Lat
ely I have been driven by circumstances to be more reflective. What really happens in classrooms? Are our ideals met by practice?
Inclusion and mainstreaming have been used interchangeably but according to Katy Arnett in CAP Journal, 2013, the philosophies are very different. Inclusion should socially and academically benefit all children in a classroom even if they have different abilities and needs. Mainstreaming gives students with special needs access to the general ed classroom but the “different” abilities are not viewed as the teacher’s responsibility and peers work beside each other rather than with each other.
research showed that inclusive teaching practice was facilitated through the use of questioning that helped to build students towards more complex and challenging ideas, rather than take for granted that the students immediately and clearly understood the concepts under study before moving onto more complex questions
(Jordan et al., 1997, as cited in Arnett, 2013, p. 16)
the concept of ‘differentiation’ has also been heralded as a way to support inclusive teaching practice.
(Tomlinson 1999; 2001; Tomlinson & McTighe, 2006, as cited in Arnett, 2013, p. 16)
So the challenge is to turn ideals into reality. Do our practices reflect what we believe to be most beneficial to all? Can we start with becoming more aware and move towards becoming more proactive? I realize the issues are complex but the ideal is worth the ongoing discussion.
I asked some of my students what they would like me to tell teachers about what frustrates them. I got some very insightful replies:
It’s really hard to take a ton of notes. I try to keep up but my notes are all over the place.
When I have to read in a group I wish other kids didn’t jump in so fast to give me the words. They don’t even give me a chance to try and figure it out.
When I work in a group, kids don’t let me do anything. They think I can’t.
It’s frustrating when the teacher explains a question and I’m not there yet. When I get to the question I ask for help and the teacher says, “Weren’t you listening?”
It’s frustrating when the teacher does not explain things because she thinks we already know.
Some positive things were mentioned. Trusted, nonjudgmental peers and teachers that take some extra time, definitely do not go unnoticed.
I should have called this “Apps I Currently Like” because the fun of the iPad is always finding more. (Speaking of finding more… I found an unused iTunes card in one of my bags!! Yay me!!) A colleague asked me to compile a list so I thought I would share it here. I am sure the list will change as time goes on. I would love to hear about apps you love.
This week I tried something. I put an abbreviated version of my anchor chart onto a template for fraction operations. It was quite successful. One more step towards independent work for my students.
The Resourceful Resource Teacher 