Conference Time

The Arkansas Cirriculum Conference was an interesting experience. I started the day off by convincing my fellow students to pet an alligator. We then returned to the work of learning to teach better.

The workshops I atended were interesting. I think the one I liked best and learned the most from was the first one I went to. It was presented by two teachers that teach writing, and I recieved some great ideals about how to get my students started writing in new and interesting ways. I learned to Doodle Write and how to use it as a method to get my students to begin writing by breaking the blank page with a doodle.

Another fav was the presentation on using music in the classroom. I found new ways to used music to lead my students to write. It was a good day overall with a few minor pet peeves (such as teachers behaving like my ninth graders!!). I had a good trip and learned quite a bit.

The Power of Empowerment

Please click here to ponder with me on my thoughts on attending the Arkansas Curriculum Conference on November 5-6.

Teachers: Are we our own worst nightmare?

After attending the curriculum conference in Little Rock last week, I became acutely aware of teachers' inappropriate behavior in mass workshop settings. In just 4 hours, I saw more inappropriate cell phone usage, disruptive behavior, and downright rudeness than I have seen in close to 3 months of teaching 8th graders.

Why is it that teachers abandon every rule they set for children in their own classroom as soon as they enter someone else's? It astounded me that teachers could exhibit the very behaviors they complain so often about; they had, in fact, become their own worst nightmares.

Micromanaging as teaching?

My 8th grade class is wrapping up a unit on Edgar Allan Poe Over the next two weeks. Because of block scheduling, I've decided it's easier to think of lesson in 2 week groupings since 2 weeks allows me to see all classes 5 times. Anyways, I assigned a group project which asks groups to act out a Poe poem that we've read. Watching students work on these projects has been an interesting observation experience for me. I hate micromanaging, but as I watched Mrs. F help the groups, I realized that micromanaging is somewhat necessary at this age. The more I think about it though, the more I realize that this miromanaging is serving as a means to teach the students how to work on group projects independently. We ask them questions that force them to thinka bout the process of a group project, and by doing so, we lead them to understand the group process just a little better than before.