Reading Rocks!

Teaching kids to read is not that hard. Most of my pupils have learned to decode, and read with fluency, and some can even entertain you with wonderful expression. Teaching them to read with comprehension, however, is a different matter. At our school we found that a great number of children tested very low on understanding of reading material. We used AsTTle assessment tests, and an alarming 84% of my pupils were unable to infer or make connections!

This term I have used some amazing tools, online and 'manual' to support me in my teaching of comprehension strategies.

• Our school has adopted the First Steps program. This staff development program comes with comprehensive manuals and great resources. The trainers are professional, experienced and inspirational. The resource books include heaps of fun teaching ideas, games and guidelines. Unfortunately, the program is not online or interactive, but still a fantastic teaching and planning resource. The program is in line with the new NZ curriculum, but I'm sure is adaptable to most international curriculums, and is being used world-wide.
  

• In our reading resource room, I came across a long-forgotten gem: SRA Reading Laboratory. I remember using it as a child, and I believe that my life-long love of reading can be directly attributed to this program. Although our set is a bit out-dated, it's still relevant and interesting for my pupils. How do I know? Well, they love it. I haven't seen kids so enthusiastic about written comprehension tests for ages. Even the boys have taken to the self-evaluating 'Power Builders', and work independantly and steadily, with very little motivation from me.
  

• My all-time favourite online tool this term has been Into the Book. I have downloaded beautiful posters, songs and worksheets from the Teacher's Area. The Student's area is colourful, interactive and exactly on the right level for my Year 5's. The kids love the songs and we have been using the videos each week on the Smartboard as a whole class activity to introduce the strategy of the week. There are usually 3 or 4 interactive lessons to support each strategy, so I've been using them as follow-ups during our daily warm-up lesson before we break into groups. They focus on eight research-based strategies: Using Prior Knowledge, Making Connections, Questioning, Visualizing, Inferring, Summarizing, Evaluating and Synthesizing. Your class can watch their engaging 15-minute videos, and try the online interactive activities.

• Another favourite website is Busy Teacher's Cafe. This cute website is jam-packed with teacher-friendly tools. It has a special area for Language Arts, with links to a variety of great resources.
  

• If you haven't found Woodlands Junior School's website yet, check it out now. This award-winning British school site is fantastic! Although the interface is a bit staid, and not as flashy as some sites, it is not only super for Literacy, but also really useful for Maths and other learning areas. They have a link to some very handy comprehension tests, which are great for kids to do in their literacy computer time.
  

• For excellent, colourful posters on Reading Comprehension strategies, try the Santa-Maria Bonita Schools website. I have downloaded and laminated these posters, and am filing them in a ring-binder for use with guided reading lessons.

Once more, this resource fits in well with all the others I have been using, so there is some continuity in my teaching and my planning is so much easier.

• For loads more links check out the comprehension tag on my Del.icio.us bookmarks!

I have really enjoyed teaching Guided Reading this term. Best of all though, my students have enjoyed, and looked forward to learning these strategies. It's such a thrill to see their eyes light up when they realize that they've made 'a text-to-world connection' or say 'I used my visualising strategies, Mrs T'. See more of our class in our class blog, Sparkle24.

In Room 24 we all agree: Reading Rocks!

Funky Faces

I've just had loads of fun with a cool site, called Befunky. It has a collection of applications, including a cartoonizer, uvatars and a video cartooniser.

I can't wait to use this in class to cartoonize photos and create uvatars. They can be used to enhance students blogs, or ePortfolios. It solves the problem of looking for free images, and is an easy way to protect your student's identities.

The only problem I'm having is that currently our school firewall blocks the uploading of images. I'm waiting for our techie team to sort that out.

Doesn't it just drive you crazy when you find something new, and just to find you can't apply it in class!

Blog Makeover

I've been blogging now for a little longer than 8 months, and I'm absolutely hooked! I started out, not really knowing what it was all about. My first few posts were, well to say the least, mundane!

Now that I actually get it, and have started making some friends in the blogosphere, and actually get comments occasionally - I thought it might be time for a makeover. I've changed the name of this blog, too. (Derek may get away with having his own name in his blog name, being so well known, but now that I know better, I'll stick to a name that actually explains what my blog is about!)


I found these Ten Tips on writing a good blog by Darren Rowse:

Here are his ten tips:

1. Make your opinion known
2. Link like crazy
3. Write less
4. 250 Words is enough
5. Make Headlines snappy
6. Write with passion
7. Include Bullet point lists
8. Edit your post
9. Make your posts easy to scan
10. Be consistent with your style
11. Litter the post with keywords

That doesn't seem too hard to do! Anyone have more tips for improving my blog?

I've just gate-crashed a Voicethread!

I feel a bit guilty for joining in the conversation uninvited, but it was just so interesting, and so real to my teaching, that I couldn't resist joining in! Serves you guys right for making it public!

I'ld rather be a Digital Pioneer!

In answer to the Learning Circuits Blog's May 2008 Big Question.

I've only been on the blogosphere since last year. One debate that I keep coming across, is the Digital Native / Digital Immigrant one.

According to those in the know, the Digital Native's are users that automatically and intuitively use new technology. Digital Immigrants are starting to use the technology, but seem to keep reverting to hard copies and tried and trusted methods for finding information / communication and collaboration.

Where do I fit in? I'm not that young anymore, and didn't grow up with computers, but I have been around them since the advent of Windows 3.1. I still believe that my students should know some facts and have some general knowledge. I still drill their Times Tables into them. (Yes, yes, I know, it's sooo old-fashioned - but I do use online interactive activities to do it!)

I'm not an expert at anything, really. It keeps changing too fast. I dabble in blogging, create a podcast here, try my hand at Voicethread and RSS feeds, there.

What I do find, is that a lot of the stuff I'm trying and introducing, is new to my students. I'm leading my students into unchartered territory. They trust my leadership. To them, I am the one that tests the waters; I tread unknown paths before I let them try; I lead the way to safe learning. My next years' students will probably find the projects I've done this year ''old hat". But I think of it this way: Together we will be on a new adventure in new technology highways, that do not even exist yet!

Do I need to change the way I teach? Yes and No. Change is inevitable in some ways. The resources may have changed. I see computer technology as a tool, and not as a pedagogy. Learning has not changed, though. My students still need structured tasks. I will still be choosing appropriate learning areas, asking open-ended questions, keeping my students engaged and interested with whatever resources I can find. The classroom may have glass walls. We may be part of a global community. But we still want to optimize learning, just as we always have.

One thing I am certain of. Together we will have Digital adventures. Together we will navigate new lands. My students and I are Digital Pioneers!

Prensky, M. (2001) Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants.

Image: http://www.wmtps.org/eletech/w_crossingshalloww.jpg

The New Learning

I found this video on Youtube. It really underscores the new learning reality:

- Teachers are no longer the experts.
- Cost no longer curtails our learning, but access rights can!
- Participation and collaboration are vital to successful learning, and one of the most important skills we can teach our students.

Have a look for yourself!

Becoming a better Teacher!

Darren Drake writes the following in his blog:

Carl Glickman hits the nail on the head on one of the pages in his book entitled Leadership for Learning: How to Help Teachers Succeed. In my opinion, his message should be read and synthesized by every teacher worldwide.


He also provides a solution. "How do teaching and learning improve? The answer is no mystery. It’s as simple as this: I cannot improve my craft in isolation from others" (p. 4). "

• Glickman, C. (2002). Leadership for learning: How to help teachers succeed. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
  

In reading this, I was inspired to start thinking about my own teaching career. I have been teaching for many, many years. Am I the best teacher I can be yet? Surely after all these years, I should know how to teach?

I remember a time when I thought I knew it all. I had been in the job for a handful of years, and had become quite secure in my knowledge that I was pretty good at what I was doing. During another successful appraisal, a man I still remember with warmth and respect, Gerhard Koen, told me that I knew just enough about teaching to think I knew something. I was pretty taken aback. What did he mean? "You will reach a point," he said, "when you will know enough to realize how little you know." Now, a lifetime later, I know what he meant. It has become true that the more I learn (about Teaching, about Learning, about Children, and definitely about ICT) the more I am aware that I still have so much to learn. I'll certainly be looking for Carl Glickman's book!

How to Encourage Effective Learning

We all know that effective learning occurs when...

• Student autonomy and initiative is accepted and encouraged
  
• Teacher asks open-ended questions and allows wait time for responses
  
• Higher level thinking is encouraged
  
• Students engage in dialogue with teacher and each other
  
• Students engaged in experiences that challenge hypotheses
  
• Class uses raw data primary sources, physical and interactive materials
  
• Knowledge and ideas emerge only from a situation in which learners have to draw them out of experiences that have meaning and importance to them

Derek writes: "In my experience these are exactly the sorts of learning experiences that many of these emerging social web applications enable and encourage."

This brand-new state-of-the-art 21st Century pedagogy was first written about in....
1915 by John Dewey in his "Constructivist Pedagogy". Makes you think about how much progress we've made in the last 100 years in education, doesn't it?

These are my top ideas for using Web 2.0 tools in class, to encourage the type of learning experience John Dewey was dreaming of:

Tip #1
Class Blog: Use blogging software such as Edublogs or Blogger to create your class blog. In a Primary class, it works well to have one student log on username and password, and let them publish their best writing and pictures. I let my class look at our blog every morning just after we've done the roll, and the excitement is always great if we have a comment. The clustermap also lends itself to a quick Atlas search to find out who our readers are!

Tip #2
Class Wiki: I like to use Wetpaint. (You can ask for the ads to be removed, if it is an educational wiki. You can also use PBWiki. For me a wiki is the ideal showcase for students' work. You can create a page for each project, and students can add a page for themselves, on which to add their notes, links and work. Students can edit and comment on each other's pages, and you can have a discussion thread going. This is also something parents can access (but not edit, unless you let them.) My class wiki is still under construction, but it will be used as a sort of filing cabinet to store our work digitally.

Tip #3
Voicethread: This is something I've just learnt about, and I can't wait to try it out in class!

Am I still 'fit to be a Teacher'?

This term has been a wopping eleven weeks long. This is a tongue-in-cheek look at my state of mind as a teacher by the end of the term!

In the April edition of NZEI Rourou, a small insert asks the following question: Are you of "Good Character" and "Fit to be a Teacher"?

It continues:

The Teachers Council defines "good character and is fit to be a teacher" as someone who

a) 'has a police vet satisfactory to the Council';

Yeah, this I can attest to, after months of waiting. I applied for my Police vet in November for immigration purposes. (I had to have it done through the South African department of internal affairs, although I hadn't set foot in the country since moving here in 2005.) After months of telephone calls, payments to various individuals (I won't go into details) and desperate emails to family members living in Pretoria, I now have the police vet. Actually, I don't have it. I sent it straight off to NZ Immigration. I've just thought of something: I hope the Council finds it satisfactory, once I get it back!

b) 'displays respect for persons, for cultural and social values of Aotearoa New Zealand, for the law and for the views of others.'

Well, I have a bit of a confession to make here. While I do respect said persons, cultures and values of Aotearoa and also the law... the views of some others are not always to my taste! And by the 11th week of the term, I find myself, well, a trifle outspoken. I don't think I actually always display the respect I feel. As a matter of fact, what I might be displaying is considerable disdain at some people's views. (I'm thinking: That's ridiculous! I don't agree. What a nincompoop! Oh, no, don't ask me to do that stupid admin again. It's too much work / too hard / too boring. I don't wanna!) I'm not normally a negative kind of person, but I seem to have undergone a personality change of late. Hope no-one gossips about me to the council! I probably just need some rest!

c) 'upholds the public and professional reputation of teachers;

I haven't been dancing on the tables recently, so I reckon I could say 'Yes' to this one. Fat chance of putting the reputation of anyone at stake, including myself, with the work load we teachers have! Life has pretty much been school, school, school for the past 11 weeks. Note to self: Go somewhere, over the rainbow, where no-one knows you're a teacher, and have a wild party during the holidays. Stay up until at least midnight. Be wild. Throw all caution to the winds, and go to bed without flossing.

d) 'promotes and nurtures the safety of learners within his or her care;'

Yes, they've got the 'his or her' part right. I don't know whether I'm Arthur or Martha by week 11. Regarding the 'safety of learners' I've told my learners all about Cybersafety, Road Safety, Water Safety, not talking to strangers (except while blogging) and saying 'No' when it's appropriate. I've encouraged them to wear their hats all summer (repeatedly) and their shoes on rainy days. I've asked, cajoled and commanded them to 'walk, not run'. I have reminded them over and over and over again to wash, blow and wipe the appropriate body parts. How do you 'nurture the safety of learners'? I've nurtured the learners themselves, though. I've even been pretty patient. Well, mostly.

e) 'is reliable and trustworthy in carrying out duties;'

Oh Dear! Does that include Road Patrol? Shh, don't tell anybody, but I forgot to go out the other day to check on the duty parent. No-one noticed. Does that make me unreliable? I can say uncategorily that I am trustworthy, though. You can trust me to put my foot in my mouth at least once a day. You can trust me to forget to check that my window monitor has closed the windows. You can trust me to steal a few moments of quiet before I go out to field duty. You can even trust me to wait until after school before I read my RSS feeds. Except today. I have to confess, I sneaked a peak today.

f) 'is mentally and physically fit to carry out the teaching role safely and satisfactorily.'

I dunno...! Kids drive you crazy on rainy days. And windy days. And hot days, too.

Physically I'm not doing too badly. I do count kilojoules and at least once a fortnight I remember to wear my pedometer. (So far my upper limit has been 7500 steps per day.) Not completely sedentary. I have the occasional wack at a golf ball at the driving range. I even beat my teenage kids at mini-golf the other day. Much to their chagrin!

Mentally? Is it OK to keep on babbling away, while you have a group of kids looking at you in awe and wonderment? No, it's not the riveting lesson I'm teaching that's creating the awe. It's the fact that I've absent-mindedly reverted to my home language - which they don't understand. Am I still mentally OK, if all I want, after a term of hard work, is to crawl under the covers with a soppy, mind-numbing, zero-literary-value-at-all love story? (I've been reading kid's books day after day, week after week. I have to progress to adult fiction slowly, step-by-step.) Can the snappy, grumpy, growly, quick-to-criticize, slow-to-smile, cannot-be-pleased-even-by-a- chocolate-peace-offering person I have become (after a hectic first term) still qualify as 'fit to be a teacher'?

I realise that I do have some introspection to do about my character and desirability as a teacher. But first I'm going home, pouring a big glass of red wine, and relaxing with my feet up! I'll worry about the laundry/ planning / groceries / kid's squabbles / term goals / classroom displays next week. When I'm on holiday!

A Vision for 21st Century Learners

This video was created to inspire teachers to use technology in engaging ways to help students develop higher level thinking skills. Equally important, it serves to motivate school leaders to provide teachers with the tools and training to do so.