Education Station Newsletter
Vol. 2 #3 Summer 2003
***--------- ---------***
Welcome to the Education Station monthly newsletter! Here we take a look at great teacher tips, useful teaching links to great sites and helpful ideas and activities for celebrating holidays, seasons and special days in your classroom. Our great specials section will help you save money and we have also included articles that look at the latest practices in education. We hope our newsletter will help inspire you to be the best teacher you can be! This newsletter is produced by the Education Station website, which is located:
http://www.educationstation.ca
----------------------
In This Issue
----------------------
1. Quote of the Month
2. Teacher Tips
Spilled Paint
Baby Wipes
3. Great Links
Puzzlemaker
End of the Year Printables
End of the Year Poems
4. Current Specials
5. Celebrate!
Father’s Day
End of the School Year
6. Article
Using the Summer to Improve your Teaching
*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^**^*^*^*^*^**^
1. Quote
I hear, and I forget. I see, and I remember. I do, and I understand.
Chinese Proverb
*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^**^*^*^*^*^**^
2. Teacher Tips
Spilled Paint
When mixing powdered tempera paint, use one part liquid hand soap and three
parts water. This makes clean up a lot easier and helps with the laundry in
the case of spilled paint.
Baby Wipes
During the school year, I have the students donate several items for classroom
use. Items that are particularly handy are boxes of Baby Wipes. These are excellent
for wiping hands after recess or before lunch, cleaning up desk tops, wiping
dry erase boards, cleaning off overhead transparencies and even cleaning small
spills on the floor. You'll be surprised at all the helpful, quick uses these
wipes will provide! A package of baby wipes could even be added to a beginning
of the year supply list.
*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^**^*^*^*^*^**^
3. Great Links
Puzzlemaker
Sometimes it is difficult to get any work done during those last few days before
summer break. Make learning fun and reinforce important concepts taught through
the year with customized puzzles from Puzzlemaker.
http://puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com/chooseapuzzle.html
End of the Year Printables
Looking for a nice poem for the year end report card? A summer home learning
sheet to send home or a few fun recipes to keep kids busy this summer. Check
out AtoZ teacherstuff’s great page.
http://atozteacherstuff.com/printables/cat_endyear.shtml
End of the Year Poems
Here is a great list of poems to use for the end of the year.
http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/songspoems56.html
Here is a good one.
You're a very special person,
And I wanted you to know,
How much I enjoyed being your teacher.
How fast the year did go!
Please come back to visit me
As through the grades you grow,
Try hard to learn all that you can
There is so much to know!
The one thing I tried to teach you
To last your whole life through,
Is to know that you are SPECIAL
There is no one else like you!
*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^**^*^*^*^*^**^
4. Current Specials
The following products are currently on sale at Education. Check back often as the sale products change every week. http://www.educationstation.ca/index.php
For those in the Edmonton area, Education Station will celebrate the end of the school year with a School’s Out Blow Out! Sale. Stop by the store (12237 Fort Road, Edmonton) during the week of June 14-21, 2003 and enjoy many specials. Buy one Bulletin Board Set at regular price and receive a 2nd one at half price. Buy one Border at regular price and receive a 2nd one at half price. All Charts will be on sale for $2.49. Save $0.50 on every package of stickers. $0.20 pencils. Many items throughout will be priced to clear and there will be door prizes and draws. Hope to see you there!!!
Also, don’t forget about our Annual Trade-In-A-Trimmer Event! Simply bring a small piece of old, ugly trimmer to Education Station from August 15-31, 2003 and trade it in for a Brand New Package of Trimmer for FREE! There is a contest searching for the oldest, ugliest border.
*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^**^*^*^*^*^**^
5. Celebrate!
Celebrate Father’s Day with hundreds of great ideas.
http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/dad/
http://www.songs4teachers.com/fathersday.htm
http://www.freekidscrafts.com/gifts_dad.htm
Celebrate The End of the School Year!
http://www.teachingheart.net/endoftheyearpage.html
http://www.education-world.com/a_lesson/lesson184.shtml
http://www.abcteach.com/MonthtoMonth/June/JuneTOC.htm
*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^**^*^*^*^*^**^
6. Article
Using The Summer To Improve Your Teaching
by Bill Page
Teachers don't have sufficient time during the school year to read professional journals, research papers or educational magazines. They don't have many opportunities to spend time on the Internet or in the professional library. Most teachers must rely on the summer for squeezing in some time for their professional development and looking for fresh ideas. Educational web sites, professional journals or teacher magazines contain articles and ideas, which if adopted and adapted, could be implemented by teachers in their classroom, to improve their teaching effectiveness.
Let me give you a personal example. About ten years ago, I read a Phi Delta Kappan article, Give Students Time To Respond by Mary Budd, which described the value of "wait time" in classroom questioning techniques. Her article reminded me that if I called on a student immediately after asking a question, no one other than that student would need to bother thinking about it. But by waiting just a few seconds, everyone had a chance to think about the answer for himself and would consider that s/he could be called on.
The article further reminded me that my pattern of calling on and avoiding calling on certain students was too predictable. I immediately tried the extended wait time in my next class discussions. It worked! The new questioning technique improved student participation, interest and attention. As I used wait time, my teaching changed. Waiting became a natural part of my regular teaching and questioning technique. I saw the value of delaying calling on students, experimented with variations, felt more comfortable with it and received positive feedback at several levels.
Three factors made increased wait time a success for me. First, discussing the idea with my classes before implementing it, reading article excerpts to them, giving my reasons and expectations, while welcoming their reactions and ideas. We decided together to try it as an experiment. Second, I used a five second hourglass timer out of a board game; inverting it each time I asked a question. Whatever the interval, the definitive marking of time was helpful. (I could just as well have used a stopwatch, or a kitchen timer. Or I could have counted seconds out loud.) Third, I used a mug containing popsicle sticks on which each kid's name was written to establish a random selection pattern. I had a student call on others by drawing a stick to see who should answer. That kept everyone alert in anticipating the possibility of being selected.
I have devised a dozen or more variations of this idea. For instance, in reviewing a unit I would let students ask multiple choice review questions while the others used a hand signal to indicate the answer. By holding their hand close to their neck, under their chin, they could show one to four fingers to indicate the number of the answer. That way everyone could respond to the same question at the same time and only I, from the front of the room could see each student's answer. In the same way I can trace and mark this specific change, I can also trace and mark other specific educational articles that have influenced my teaching to varying degrees.
I have seen many articles that have the capability of influencing teaching or helping teachers to improve. When students were involved in the rationale and implementation of the ideas, when they saw the change in me and were aware of their own improvement, they never let me revert back to my former habits and procedures.
Consider this brief report that appeared recently in USA Today. "What teachers do in the classroom -- such as conducting hands-on learning activities and emphasizing higher-order thinking skills -- matters more to student achievement than do other measures of teacher quality such as professional development and years of experience." Analyzing data from The National Assessment Report on 14,000 eighth grade math and science tests, Educational Testing Service found, "Students whose teacher conducted hands-on learning activities outperformed their peers by about 70% of a grade level in math and 40% in science." Searching and researching hands-on articles and ideas this summer could be doubly rewarding; learning some authentic techniques, and seeing great possibilities for increasing student achievement.
A Little Gimmick For Jogging Memory
Let me suggest a way to keep track of all the ideas you find this summer and a creative way to remember them when you really need them. In my summer courses, I always end by having the teachers write a "Dear Me Letter" noting in the letter to themselves such things as: what I've learned, what I will avoid doing, promises to myself, what I will do differently this coming year, ideas I will remember, strategies I plan to implement, what will be different for my students, and so forth. I have them put the letter in a sealed envelope addressed to themselves at their school, put a stamp on it and turn it in to me. The envelopes are put away until the first few weeks of the new school year was underway, when they are mailed. From the feedback I have received it is a surprise, a delight and a tremendous memory jogger.
As a spin-off of this little gimmick, I learned to make notes to myself in journal or diary form, beginning with reflections on the current year. I review my successes, shortcomings, intentions, and usually recommit to some personal goals while they are fresh in my mind. I once asked my fourth grade class to tell me what they remembered about the year. After discovering that Anthony throwing-up on a field trip, and a substitute teacher leaving the room crying topped the list, I narrowed my summer search to, "How I plan to make my teaching more memorable next year." I had sub-categories of ways to have more outdoor lessons, guest speakers, thematic units and projects.
As I take time during the summer to ferret out ideas and techniques to use and add to my repertoire for the new school year, I write them down using index cards, on a mind-mapping chart or in a separate 4" X 6'' notebook. As I run out of time or energy, I put all of these notes aside and try to forget them. If you are one who can't trust yourself to let them alone or to remember them when back-to-school meetings start, give them to a friend, or to your mother asking that they be returned to you when school starts. Should you find additional opportunity to search for ideas, just start a new journal.
>From my personal experience, I can assure you that you will be pleasantly surprised and delighted next August when you review the great ideas ready for a great start for a great new year.
For clarification, questions or comments, contact, billpage@bellsouth.net
Or visit Bill's web site www.teacherteacher.com
*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^**^*^*^*^*^**^
** If you find the Education Station newsletter to be a useful tool for your
classroom experiences, please forward it to a friend or two. Thanks! **
------------------------------------------------------------
PRIVACY STATEMENT: Your information is held confidential and is
used by our company only.
The above newsletter is copyright 2003 by Education Station Inc. All rights
reserved. Feel free to forward this newsletter to others as long as you forward
it in its entirety and leave this notice. This newsletter may not be included
in any compilation, electronic or printed, or as part of any commercial endeavor
without written permission.
______________________________________________________________
