No bridges falling down over here!

This was an interesting course and not what I expected at all. It was quite interesting trying to relate these “off topics” to teaching. Fashion, design, photography…who would say, “Oh yeah, this reminds me of the time in my classroom that….”? Well, I have to say, in the course of this class, I found myself relating these topics quite a bit! This class really opened my eyes to different forms of teaching. This is exactly what I expect out of a class; Material to look at the way I teach and to reflect how I can change myself to meet my students’ needs.

We looked first at the imaginative bridges from movies and television to teaching. This was my first experience at trying to connect these seemingly unrelated topics. I had to think hard about this connection and I reread the articles that were assigned. Finally I looked at the art of movie making as a whole. I looked at the actors, directors, stagehands, etc. When I was able to step back this far I found a connection! I looked at the students as the actors and myself at the director. I even looked at the para-pros, special education teacher and other teachers throughout the school as the stagehands or the other workers behind the scenes that make everything come together. I was starting to get the hang of this imaginative bridges thing! I saw that I was directing all of my actors through their scenes of my lesson. If I wanted my lesson to be successful I had to direct them.

I mentioned in my blog about architecture relating to teaching in two ways: good support structure and being long lasting. Having a good support structure in a building is what good architecture is all about. The idea is the same for teaching. At my school we have a good support structure from the principal all the way to the part time Title 1 aids and child care workers. My school is small, K-8 with 150 students. We have nine teachers, and 5 classrooms. I find that it is so easy to support each other and it works the other way around. I find myself going to the 5/6 grade teacher to ask her questions about how she taught a certain math concept to her former students who are now in my classroom. I have some of my advanced readers help struggling readers in the lower grades. We wouldn’t be able to do any of this without the support of our principal who looks for ways to have all of the teachers on the same page and working together. I think that if this support system wasn’t in place I wouldn’t be able to do my job as efficiently. We support each other naturally so it was cool to look through my NDCE goggles to see this connection.

The biggest relationship I found was with the music and hook module. I found so many connections with my class. One I already talked about was connecting the John Brown blurb in their textbook to the actual song I found on Youtube. Throughout the history lesson of the Civil War I found different songs I could incorporate into my lessons to make them more interesting and compelling. I think the different ways I incorporated music and other video clips really helped the students interact and understand the material more. I saw their homework answers become more complete and thoughtful. At the end of the chapter they took a test and there was even a slight improvement in the grades. I really think I interested some of the students that weren’t really moved by the standard reading in the textbook. I can’t wait to see what other connections I can make for the upcoming chapters. I’ve found a song from “Our American Cousin,” the play that Lincoln was watching when he was shot. This may be a profound connection to our reading after Spring Break about Lincoln’s assassination.

Lastly, the module about fashion was really fun. I love WNTW so it was cool to already have some background knowledge of the show. Again I talked briefly about this in my blog but I can expand some more here. The poetry unit is still going strong in our classroom. This connection was easily made because Rachel (my partner teacher) came into this unit with new eyes. This is her first year and she really likes poetry on her own. She had so many different ideas that it seemed every day the students were doing something new with poetry. I think this is an important point because the students never had time to be bored. The students are researching poets and are trying to connect with them. They are also making connections between the poets’ lives and the style, format and content of the poems they write. It’s great that Rachel already has great insight into a compelling experience.

This course really made me look at outside sources I could pull in to make my lessons more meaningful and compelling for my students. I think having us find the connection made it more personal to us. I was able to find the connections in my own way. I was able to use my own classroom and use the material in a way I thought was most helpful. I can't wait to continue to use these experiences throughout my teaching career.

WNTT - Fashion - Poetry

I like this What Not To Teach project. I am actually in the middle of a poetry unit with my partner teacher. This is the perfect opportunity to do this WNTT project. This is the first year of teaching for my partner. She is actually bringing in a ton of new ideas on how to introduce poetry to our 7^th and 8^th graders. In the past, other LA teachers have read to the students from their literature book or brought in short poetry books for them to look at. This year she is having the students create poet projects, their own poems, they are sharing their poetry with the younger students in our school, and she is all around getting them interested in poetry. She started the unit by having them listen to music and to try to find the poetry in each song. This was a cool example and way for the students to get introduced to poetry with modern “poets” instead of long dead ones! So far the students are enjoying poetry which is something I don’t think I would have said before!

Hooks (from March 24)

“The hook brings you back…” – Blues Travelers

“Check out my hook as my DJ revolves it.” – Vanilla Ice
These are some fun examples of hooks used in songs. They blatantly point it out but there really isn’t a need to. Based on repetition and the change up of music we know it’s there. I also think of the hook as something that sticks in your head and you are constantly singing it over and over.
 I tried focusing on a hook for my social studies lessons the past few days. I actually sat down and wrote out my lesson like I normally do. Then I looked at it and asked “what is going to stick in their heads about this lesson?” We are currently learning about the civil war. For one lesson we were learning about John Brown and the book actually talked about the song about John Brown. Of course I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to add a “hook” but also incorporate music with the lesson. Most of the students knew the tune from movies. Most of them walked to lunch marching and humming the tune! (Another hook??) The song actually provides details from John Brown’s life that was also featured in their textbook. A lot of them actually pointed this out without any prompting from me.

Hooks (from March 17)

Since this module focuses on them, I will focus this blog on hooks. Hooks in teaching…this got me thinking… what would be a hook in my teaching? I guess the hook would focus more on my lessons. What do I do to keep the students coming back for more? Or what do I do to help them remember what I just taught? These are some questions I should be looking to answer, especially with this Work of Art project.

Design (from Feb. 24)

A designer works with their client to make sure the client is getting exactly what they want or need. A good teacher works with their students to determine exactly what they need. In my classroom the students take math assessments every 5 problems sets (assignments). They take a pre-test and then they take the actual test. I grade their pre-test and then return them to the students. By looking at their pre-test I can determine what concepts they are having difficulty with and what concepts they have caught on to. I can see their needs and work with them to solve their “design” problem. I also try to think of ways to redesign my lessons to make them right for all the students.

Architecture and Interior Design (from Feb. 17)

The work of art in architecture and interior design. This theme has an obvious connection to the work of art of teaching. If you don’t have a good support system, your structure won’t last. Trying to stay away from the obvious I looked a little deeper into this theme.  I thought about architecture and its way of being long lasting. If you build something correctly, strongly, and logically, it can stand the test of time. I looked at teaching that way too. If teachers build the foundation for their students, their learning will be lifelong.  In the Susanka article, “The Not So Big House,” she states that, “the secret to finding a sense of home lies in changing the way we have been taught to think about houses and value -- for example, reevaluating the rooms you need in a home, designing a floor plan inspired by today's informal lifestyle, and building to last.” I think about this in teaching. Teachers have to constantly reevaluate the way they are teaching. We have to step back and take it all in at times. We have to ask ourselves, “Is what I am doing actually working?” “Am I reaching all students?”

Film and Television (From Feb. 5)

Teaching is like film and television. You have actors who are like the students. And you have directors who are the teachers. All of the “behind the scene people” are like the support staff. I don’t know where the principal would fit in. Maybe the executive director. Looking at this connection it’s actually humorous to me now to stand in front of the class and “direct” them. I imagine myself cueing the actors to their proper place and directing them on how to say their lines. Standing at the board today teaching a math problem actually made me giggle. “First you do this” , and I wrote the problem down. “Now you write it down…” “Ok now the next step is what?” I’m trying to draw out their “acting ability” or their ability to try to solve a problem. I also like the connection that if you have no direction from your director, the resulting movie will be a bomb. Just like in teaching, if the teacher isn’t willing to do what is necessary to help the students succeed, you can see the results in the students’ work. I also think that if you didn’t have the support and staff needed, the teacher can’t be a success.