Anne Dial's Blog
Posted by Anne Dial
Consumers traditionally splurge during the holidays whether its on holiday food, gifts for everyone under the sun, or the ever competitive neighborhood decorat-a-thon. There isn't anything wrong with getting into the 'spirit' of things by spending lots of money but smart shoppers will admit that they probably plan and follow a budget.
Shopping season is a great time to teach supply and demand. Example: Last year it was the X-Box 360, this year it's the Nintendo Weii. Are there enough of these to go around to all of the consumers who want them? No, and as a result of the supply being low, demand is high and the thing was selling for $2000+ on e-bay.
Plan a holiday spending budget with your kids. Have your child create a budget (real or just for practice) that will account for the total spending on Christmas gifts for X number of people. Supervise your child on the internet or take them to local stores so that they can actually find potential gifts to record on the budget. Teach them how to ration out the money so that even amounts are spent on everyone. You could even talk about deficit and surplus while your at it!
Posted by Anne Dial
Winter celebrations of some sort are common in many cultures. Take some time to identify how different cultures celebrate different events. If you are unsure about which cultures to explore first, I would identify the heritage of your students first. There will most likely be students of German or Irish descent as well as Hispanic, African American, Asian, among others.
Put your students into groups and let them explore holiday celebrations in their assigned culture. Have a share session for groups to present and even make a culturally specific recipe to share with the class.
Posted by Anne Dial
It is helpful to think of ELL instruction in terms of its similarities to IEP planning and implementation. ELL students need goals, structure, consistency, among the other standard teaching practicies that might be frequently overlooked.
As a dedicated educator, you believe that every student can be taught, but does that instruction need to look the same for all learners? Objectives for ELL learners need to be broken down into obtainable, short term, and measured often.
When you are praising or positively reinforcing your students to prompt or promote appropriate behaviors, do your ELL students comprehend these messages? Depending on their levels of comprehension, maybe not. Take some time to reflect on this and make sure that your daily classroom management, including your praising mechanisms extend to ALL learners.
Posted by Anne Dial
If you are like most teachers, you are spending a lot of time, probably your personal time outside of school, creating fabulous lessons, preparing for every aspect of the lesson, even playing it out in your mind. But, for some reason, your lessons are not producing the results that you wanted them to.
Are there interruptions in your lessons? Do your students know when it is appropriate to use the restroom, sharpen their pencils, grab tissues?
What does your teaching style look like? Do you call on one student at a time to answer questions? Do you allow opportunities for all students to communicate their responses?
What about the flow of the lesson? Does it look like an explanation and then some worksheets?
You are a professional. You know what good teaching looks like. Make sure that you take the time the time to reflect on the structure of your class and what expectations you have established. Stay posted for future articles on the Curricula/Lessons website that describe cooparative learning strategies, positive reinforcement, and ideas for simple procedures that will really save you from headaches!
Posted by Anne Dial
Unfortunately, there is usually only one full-time teacher in your classroom. It would be nice if there were twelve of you so that you could give students the one-on-one or small group attention that they need sometimes. But the reality is... its just you.
The next best solution, right behind cloning your self, is to use cooperative learning strategies in your classroom. One of the best things about cooperative learning is that students are working and learning from each other. It enables students to truely 'own' the leadership and responsibility of their knowledge. In addition, cooperative learning keeps everyone accountable for their participation.
Think-Pair-Share: You ask students a question, they think about it (wait time), then they share their thoughts with each other.
Jigsaw: Put students into groups of 3 or 4. Within each group, the students all get numbers. All of the 1's go to one corner of the room, 2's go to another corner, etc. At each corner, students are gathering different information to take back to the group. For example, each corner of the room will be studying a different section of the Periodic Table of Elements. Then all of the group members will come together. The 1 will share what they learned, 2 will share what they learned, etc.
Posted by Anne Dial
Is gender bias a problem in today's schools? Some researchers say 'yes'. The problem is that teachers sometime assume that the ladies in the class understand the concept, becuase they are usually the ones asking questions during the lessons. When the time comes to check for understanding, teachers call on the boys, assuming that they didn't understand the concept (due to lack of participation during the lesson). As a result, teachers are reinforcing male accountability and understanding and sending the message that 'its only important that the males in the room understand this concept.'
Posted by Anne Dial
Be professional with your pre-conference sessions with colleagues. Choose someone that you respect (i.e. administrator, counselor, department head) to consult wtih and bounce ideas off of. Be receptive to the advice that you receive. Role-playing might also be helpful.