Creating Lifelong Learners

It happens to everyone and it happened to me last year…my laptop hard drive died.  The Apple Store replaced it, of course, but along with it I lost all of my data.  I do regularly back up my data but if I back up every month or so, I lost a month or two of data.

Since that time I use one of my favorite free applications, Dropbox which solves two problems for me at once. Dropbox gives you remote storage that is accessible on every computer you use.  This means your data is constantly backed up and that you can work on the same files from multiple computers.

So, for example, I am enrolled in graduate school and there are several papers I need to be writing at any given time.  I keep those files as either Word documents or Pages files in my dropbox folder and I can sit down at either my desktop, my laptop, or even a friend’s computer, login to dropbox and work on those same files.  Once I save the file, the changes are instantly reflected on every computer and, of course, there are multiple backups to the file available on each of those computers after syncing. There’s even an iPhone app which provides access to your files on the go.

I have a paid MobileMe service which does the same but it costs money and though it pains me to say it, I have had trouble syncing folders via MobileMe whereas Dropbox works reliably and seamlessly.  Check it out.

Here are some free additional photo effects for Apple’s Photo Booth program. Some of these only work in Leopard.

Cat’s Eye

and More iChat Effects

These are great fun and come by way of Smashing Magazine.

To paraphrase Chris Lehman in his five minute Ignite Philly speech on the Schools We Need:

Good data costs more than we want to spend in this country and the best data is the data that teachers collect every day.  The best data is the work kids do every single day.

I agree with this statement.  Teachers are constantly collecting qualitative data about their students that is just as valid as any quantitative data collected from tests and quizzes.  However, as valid data we need to treat it as such. While every teacher has a vague idea of the academic progress of his/her students, it is the skillful teacher who that data to strategically plan instruction and monitor progress.

I think the best way to use this collected data is to record it.  Speaking for myself, in the course of a particular lesson I notice that Sally has trouble with the spelling of long u and Tommy doesn’t know how to rhyme and it’s crystal clear to me in that moment in time.  However, by the time I’ve gotten home at night, unless I’ve written this down and made a plan, I’m just kind of praying that Tommy and Sally might practice these skills and come back to me tomorrow “fixed.”

I don’t have any elaborate recording system for these things.  However, what I’ve been starting use is a low cost program called MacJournal from Mariner Software.  This is a mac only program.  I’m sure there is a PC equivelant, please leave a comment if you know of one.  This is basically a journaling program (as the name implies).  It allows you to create mutliple journals and multiple entries.

What’s different from a program like Word is that each entry is automatically dated and collected with all the others.  There’ s a search box so you can search for names of students or particular skills (e.g. search for any reference to Tommy or any reference to rhyming words).

What’s different about this from an online gradebook is that a gradebook is for recording numbers.  Numbers have their place but they belong to the less useful category of data.  A journal allows us to keep track of what’s between the lines.

I use it very simply, just to make a few notes that are stored and recorded for me to find later to make independent work time groups or plan mini-lessons.  I don’t necessarily write in complete sentences and I don’t write about every student every day.  I just jot notes down when they occur to me on a post-it and then transfer it to the journal.  This is a new thing for me so I’ll let you know how it goes. I am open to suggestions and would love to hear how you keep track of data.

How do you keep track of student data?

I hope you’re enjoying your vacation and a well deserved break. I expect to return to serious blogging in the new year but this is just for fun.

I’ve learned in 2007 that I’m a sucker for interactive advertising. It doesn’t make me go out and see the movie but it does get me to tell my friends. Perhaps because I’m particularly immune to most advertising I can enjoy the ads without feeling like I’m being suckered.

My favorite interactive marketing sites of the new year in no particular order:

• Insert your own words into Bob Dylan’s iconic card flipping from “Don’t Look Back”
• Send a message from Transformer Optimus Prime
• Create your own South Park character
• Create your own Simpsons character
• Munk yourself…record your voice and become a chipmunk
• Elf yourself…Send a holiday greeting with you (and three friends) dancing like elves

What makes these fun?  They make it seem personal.  They’re interactive.  They allow you to participate in the experience. Sounds like good classroom resolutions for 2008.

I’ve become a better teacher of English Language Learners by watching one of my favorite TV Shows, Jim Cramer’s Mad Money. This is a show about buying stocks. If you’re not interested in stocks you might be turned off already, but Jim Cramer is an entertainer. He takes what could be boring and incomprehensible and makes it engaging and completely understandable for people who know little about stocks AND those who know a lot. Isn’t this what we’re trying to do in the classroom, particularly for English Language Learners and students with limited language exposure?

Realia

When talking about stocks he wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole, Cramer brings in a ten foot pole. When recommending baby boomer stocks he wears a diaper. When recommending Energizer he wears bunny ears. When talking about the differences been Hasbro and Mattel he brings pictures of a HazMat team (Hasbro/Mattel…HasMat). Think about how you can take something that you’re teaching that’s incomprehensible and bring in something visual to make it comprehensible and engaging for people who may not understand what you’re talking about otherwise.

We need to bring something physical into the classroom. It’s not always the actual thing that you bring because it’s not always possible to bring an elephant into the classroom. But you can bring in a symbol of that thing. A teddy bear can substitute for a man about to undergo open heart surgery. A tossed bean bag quickly replaces a comet flying across the sky. When you’re talking to students who don’t have the academic language to understand everything that you’re saying, give them something they can see that’s not just you talking.

Vocabulary Objectives

Your lessons should have a vocabulary objective.

When Cramer wants you to know about PE Ratios (that is price to earnings ratios) he will put the word on the screen. He makes it clear at the beginning of the lesson that he wants you to understand “PE Ratios.”

English Language Learners’ have a much smaller lexicon of academic English. Teachers include new vocabulary in their lessons all the time but are not often explicit enough about the words they are teaching. A lesson might include the word persuasion without making it explicit that you want students to learn and use the word persuasion. Students can generally figure out the meanings of words long enough to understand your lesson but we’re trying to add new words to students’ long term vocabulary and so we need to make sure they understand that’s an expectation. We also need to make sure they know how to use the word. A linguistic frame works for this purpose.

Example linguistic frame for fossils unit:

Cramer provides these linguistic frames by applying new vocabulary to multiple stocks using consistent language and then provides the audience practice by having them call in the show and use the vocabulary.

In our rooms we need to write the new words on the board. Make it clear before the lesson starts that today students are learning the words X and Y. Give students opportunities to practice using the new words and help them by providing them with a linguistic frame. Get them to talk to each other to practice using the new vocabulary. We can then add another step that Cramer doesn’t have time for in a one-hour show and have students write with the new words. We’ve scaffolded it enough now to expect that they will use those new words in their writing.

Engage Students

I know some teacher have the attitude that they do not need to be entertaining. But couldn’t you be a little interesting to watch? One of my colleagues refers to teaching as doing a six hour one-woman show five days a week with props. Imagine yourself in the audience of that show. How good a show are you? Would you like to be in your class?

I’ve added a fake ear to my repertoire. When students are too quiet, I put it to my ear and say “I can’t hear you!” A rubber chicken helps to lighten the mood when no one is responding and even wait time isn’t working. One cluck and suddenly students feel comfortable enough to come forward and venture an answer.

Cramer makes it fun with all the props, the excitement in his voice, and even sound effects. Cramer shares his sound board and all his sound effects are available online. I use these when students are half-asleep (think math after recess). When a student gets an answer right you play the Hallelujah chorus. Today we’re going to talk about fractions…”Tah Dah sound”…applause…

Not all sounds are appropriate for the classroom but you can use your judgement. I’ve also used a free Mac download called Buzzer for much the same purpose.

Before using this I tell students that I’m going to be using sound effects that are silly but if they get too silly I’ll have to stop. And a couple times I have stopped when students got carried away, but most of the time it helps them pay attention. The sounds bring them back to the lesson when they wander off.

Link to Sound Board

The Take Away

Teachers are entertainers whether we want to be or not. Use your post to be interesting. It’s true that it’s not your job to entertain but when students are entertained they pay attention, they comprehend, and your classroom management is stronger.

Also recommended: Making Content Comprehensible for English Learners: The SIOP Model by Echevarria, Vogt, Short

MacUpdate is currently offering seven Mac Apps for just $50.

The apps are ForkLift, RapidWeaver, Swift Publisher, Marine Aquarium, Xslimmer, MemoryMiner, and Yep.

I’m familiar with Yep, it’s a cool iPhoto like application for PDFs which helps you organize and tag them. Marine Aquarium is an aquarium simulator (fun but not particularly useful). RapidWeaver is for web design. SwiftPublisher is kind of like Apple Pages lite. Xslimmer promises to slim down the size of applications by remove unneeded code and memory miner is a kind of cool program for labeling photos with the names of people and locations and then linking photos together. Forklife is for FTP.

If you like any of the seven apps you get the other six for just about the price of the one app you like.

I’m not quite ready to purchase but very tempted. If you buy let me know how you like it but you only have six more days to take advantage of the sale.