Saturday, November 29, 2008

Schools That Learn: Community

On November 20th, I had a great conversation with Diana, Keri and Bette regarding the community section of Schools That Learn. The discipline described in the book was very meaningful to me as I believe increased community involvement would really benefit my school in particular. After having our conversation, I realized that every school can be empowered and and do better work when there is a strong link between community members, parents, administrators, teachers and schools within a district. When void of a relationship or sense of community, a school will and the people within the school (both employees and students) will be void an important element.

I do believe, especially after our conversation, that it is important to make an effort to focus on the positive elements of a school environment and that will enable individuals to take action and steps in the right direction; as well as motivate others to make change. Schools That Learn offers many rich examples of how schools and and groups of people have accomplished such change and community linking. One section describes how the school determined what goals they wanted to achieve and they would then periodically come together to report and describe how they were doing (even if the goals proved challenging) with out judgment from administrator or anyone for that matter. This would allow all to brainstorm and offer support as the book also points out that good ideas can come fro anyone and anywhere; not just leaders.

Reading this section of the book and my conversation with classmates made me clealy realize more than I had before the relevance of community as it pertains to the success of any school.

Sunday, April 27, 2008


Just playing around with Rockyou.com.

Monday, February 25, 2008

WMS Volleyball Team

Honestly, part of me does not look forward to the Westbury Middle School Volleyball Season. Our school facilities are sometimes an issue (as they were this year with mold and water damage in our usual practice area)...among other things. Having said that, I'm always amazed how our girls at the Middle School rise to the challenge in learning the game (often from scratch) and persevere through it all. These girls really inspired me this year. It didn't matter whether we won or lost. They played with the highest amount of effort, sportsmanship and enthusiasm. As a coach, you couldn't ask for more!

Cognitive View of Learning




Bruners ideas of guided discovery learning states that students must be active and must identify the key principles working on their own. As the teacher in such a lesson about problem solving/decision making, I might begin the lesson by asking students to take an index card and describe one hurtful incident that has happened to them without putting their names on the cards. To make sure students in the class don’t recognize themselves in the descriptions, tell students to try to keep the descriptions as general as possible. For example, instead of writing, “I was very hurt when I wasn’t invited to the Valentine’s Day party,” have them write, “I felt very hurt when I was not invited to a party with many of my friends.” After the cards are collected a few examples will be shared. Students will be asked to form four groups and will be asked to come up with a list of common problem or conflicts middle schoolers face. Then the groups will be given one of the index cards with a specific conflict or problem and will be asked to come up with some specific steps to help handle the situation. (example: identify the problem, possible solutions and consequences, etc). Students will write up their steps, analyze the sit uation and come up with a solution for how to best resolve the situation. Each group will share what they came up with, so that students can weigh in on whether their steps and plan will work and to decide on a consensus of what the needed steps are. I can show videos offering additional examples of Conflict Resolution including "Check It Out" from the Second Step Program and also give each group role plays to brainstorm and act out for the class. . Students can also take an online Personal Inventory that rates their decision making skills http://www.glencoe.com/qe/qe642007.php?qi=10395&state=na and then create a Personal Wellness Contract http://www.glencoe.com/qe/qe642007contract.php.

Ausubel's theory on learning through exposition states that the teacher should present the concepts, principles and ideas in complete and organized form; and also relates new knowledge to prior learning. In this case, I would present the same concepts by having students think of a conflict/problem and then introduce a six-step process that will guide them in making a good decision.(1. State the Situation 2. List the Options 3. Weigh the Possible Outcomes 4. Consider your Values, etc). Students would have to call upon what they already know about consequences and values and conflict in general. The organization of the information will be text based, using diagrams or posters outlining the steps, etc. Students would then practice applying the steps through text activities or activities presented through video.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Metacognition in the Making

As I went through school (particularly college) I definitely became clearly aware of what worked for me and what didn't in terms of studying, learning and absorbing new concepts and materials. I'm not sure this was something I was taught, but happened automatically as I'm sure it does for many people at some point during their schooling. I know I'm far better studying on my own in a quiet space rather than in a study group. Even the way in which I take notes helps me when studying later. I highlight certain things or group my notes in a way that makes it easy for me to remember and review later. Even the time in which I study helps. When I wake up early in the morning and study, read, etc, it helps me remember things later. I know what works for me. There are so many individual differences regarding metacognitive abilities that the challenge as a teacher is helping students figure out and encourage what works for them. How do we as teachers facilitate self-reflection, self-responsibility and initiative, as well as goal setting and time management in our students? That's a tough one.

Well, in Health classes, I believe I have a unique opportunity to facilitate this process on a broader scale than some of the other subjects or instead of just focusing on how to get students to pass the final in my class. I teach a unit on goal setting. This would be the perfect setting to have students set academic goals and then allow for self-regulation. In "Self-Regulation through Goal Setting" , Dale H. Schunk states that goals are involved across the different stages of self-regulation including forethought (setting a goal and deciding on goal strategies); performance control (employing goal-directed actions and monitoring performance); and self-reflection (evaluating one's goal progress and adjusting strategies to ensure success). With this in mind, students can set goals for themselves at the beginning of the year in terms of the grade they would like to receive in each class. Then students can create an outline of how they plan on achieving those goals using Inspiration or one of the Web 2.0 mapping tools to plan it all out. For instance, if the goal is to do well in math first quarter (say and 85 or higher average), the student might include attending tutorial and 20 minutes of review a day in addition to homework as part of their map. http://www.mindmeister.com/maps/show/4703127 The map can serve as a visual reminder and checklist for the students. Students first have to assess their strengths and weaknesses regarding a subject when coming up with a plan. For instance, I know that math was a subject in school that required more studying and attention on my part in order to understand what was going on in that class.

Students can use a Web 2.0 service like Zoho Planner to help make to-do-lists, set reminders, organize and add notes to comment on their progress (or in some cases their frustrations).
Also, students can journal using a blog to self-evaluate as they take tests and complete class assignments. Blog topics could include Self-Evaluation of Work, Teacher Feedback, Successes and Problems (monitoring). Teachers and parents can read the students blog and leave comments, suggestions and give further feedback. At the end of the quarter, not only will students have all that they need to evaluate how they did in my class, but they will also be able to evaluate how they performed in their other classes. When they adjust their goals or set new ones for the second quarter, strategies can of course be changed, adjusted or continued if they are working. We could even do something fun like make a movie where students describe or show us their best "study tip" or technique and then edit it using IMovie. I think this would at least be a good beginning at getting students to "think about" regulating their thinking and learning, and what works or doesn't work for them.