I made a couple of interesting observations. When I was teaching piano lessons, sometimes mothers would come to watch. It was fine with me but I noticed the students always played unusually terrible. It always surprised me because each student was used to practicing in front of theier mother every day.
One day in kindergarten a father came to visit our classroom unannounced. Again, it was fine with me but I explained that we were testing and it might not be very interesting. He stayed anyway. During the test he positioned himself directly behind his son. He didn't give him any answers to the questions but he whispered in his ear the whole time, things like, "I know you can do it", in an intense way. This may seem to be very supportive but the son performed badly on the test, much worse than usual.
WHAT I LEARNED: Childen can feel pressure when something matters desperately to us, even if it is not verbalized. We need to offer support and help but there must be quiet and genuine confidence that they will make right choices. I guess that is what faith is.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
"Building bridges..."
When I was training to become a teacher, we learned the phrase, "Building bridges from the known to the new". I didn't realize the value of this statement until much later. It is much easier for students to make the leap to something new from something he already knows.
One day I was teaching shapes and I introduced the figure: semicircle. The next day I drew a semicircle on the board and asked if anyone could remember the name of this figure. One boy immediately raised his hand and said it was called diesel.
It took me awhile, several days, before I realized why he identified it with such a seemingly unrelated, unexpected term. His dad was a truckdriver and a semi truck and a diesel truck were very much related.
WHAT I LEARNED; Just because someone appears way off the track doesn't mean he is not thinking in an orderly fashion. Unlocking the thought process should be the goal of every teacher.
One day I was teaching shapes and I introduced the figure: semicircle. The next day I drew a semicircle on the board and asked if anyone could remember the name of this figure. One boy immediately raised his hand and said it was called diesel.
It took me awhile, several days, before I realized why he identified it with such a seemingly unrelated, unexpected term. His dad was a truckdriver and a semi truck and a diesel truck were very much related.
WHAT I LEARNED; Just because someone appears way off the track doesn't mean he is not thinking in an orderly fashion. Unlocking the thought process should be the goal of every teacher.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Carpe diem
Carpe diem = Seize the day! I am not sure about the latin spelling but I have learned that small moments must be appreciated immediately. I could usually tell when a kindergarten aide was inexperienced. Upon looking out the window, She would exclaim, "Oh look, it's snowing!" From then on, excited children were not interested in anything in the classroom. I learned to drop what I was doing, bundle all the students up and go on a "snow march". I would get my umbella with the frog eyes on top and we would march around the playground. Sometimes we would play "Follow the Leader". Sometimes we would try to catch snowflakes with our tongues. Most of all, we would capture the wonder and joy of a snowfall. All too soon, the beginning of a snowfall is over and the order of the day must be resumed.
WHAT I HAVE LEARNED: Learn to recognize special moments and take advantage of them. All too soon they are gone. Even regular moments can become special if you will take advantage of them.
WHAT I HAVE LEARNED: Learn to recognize special moments and take advantage of them. All too soon they are gone. Even regular moments can become special if you will take advantage of them.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Metacognition
Metacognition is thinking about thinking. Because I am married to an educator, my sister and brother-in-law are educators, this topic consumes more of our conversation than in most families.
I used to play a game with my kindergartners. I would show them a number of small blocks in my hand. We would count them so everyone knew exactly how many total blocks there were. I would put them behind my back and put some in one hand and the rest in the other hand. I would close my hands so no one could see what was in my hands. I would open one hand and have students count the number of blocks. Then I would ask if anyone knew how many blocks were in the closed hand. When a student got the number right, I would open up the closed hand and we would count to make sure. I would ask the student if he was magic. When he assured me that he wasn't ( though some 5 year olds still think it must be magic) and he couldn't see inside my closed hand, I would ask him to explain how he knew how many blocks I had in my hand. For the first time, many students were experiencing metacognition.
WHAT I LEARNED: Many think that those that are good at math are magic in some way. Students just have to think the right way. A good teacher teaches how to think the right way.
I used to play a game with my kindergartners. I would show them a number of small blocks in my hand. We would count them so everyone knew exactly how many total blocks there were. I would put them behind my back and put some in one hand and the rest in the other hand. I would close my hands so no one could see what was in my hands. I would open one hand and have students count the number of blocks. Then I would ask if anyone knew how many blocks were in the closed hand. When a student got the number right, I would open up the closed hand and we would count to make sure. I would ask the student if he was magic. When he assured me that he wasn't ( though some 5 year olds still think it must be magic) and he couldn't see inside my closed hand, I would ask him to explain how he knew how many blocks I had in my hand. For the first time, many students were experiencing metacognition.
WHAT I LEARNED: Many think that those that are good at math are magic in some way. Students just have to think the right way. A good teacher teaches how to think the right way.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
I Am a Child of God
I taught college students who were preparing to become teachers for a year at BYUI. I was asked to give a presentation on the Code of Ethics required by the State of Idaho. One point was that you could not teach anything religious like the song, "I Am a Child of God" Parenthetically I stated that while public teachers cannot teach songs like "I Am a Child of God" they had better treat each student like he/she was a child of God.
When I was teaching kindergarten in a public school, I decided I was going to like every child by the end of the year. Some were a bigger challenge than others, like the boy whose mother told me there were diapers in his back pack in case I needed them. (We had him potty-trained in less than a week. I have learned that most deficiencies a child has are really caused by the parent.) I learned to like this boy eventually and enjoy his guileless enthusiasm.
One girl caused lots of problems on the playground. One day she had been sent to my room during the lunch hour to wait for her aunt to come and pick her up. The aunt was beside herself and had her own family to take care of. She had explained to me earlier that this girl's mother had screamed through the phone to the little girl that she didn't want her.
As the little girl sat crying on my lap, I wondered what I could tell her. I couldn't tell her things would be better because I knew they probably wouldn't. All I could think was to love her and teach her that though she couldn't control others, she always had the choice to act how she wanted.
That experience caused me to think a lot. There were many kids in hard circumstances. I was powerless to change their circumstances. I decided that the best thing I could do was to make sure their experience in my class was one where they felt like a child of God.
When I was teaching kindergarten in a public school, I decided I was going to like every child by the end of the year. Some were a bigger challenge than others, like the boy whose mother told me there were diapers in his back pack in case I needed them. (We had him potty-trained in less than a week. I have learned that most deficiencies a child has are really caused by the parent.) I learned to like this boy eventually and enjoy his guileless enthusiasm.
One girl caused lots of problems on the playground. One day she had been sent to my room during the lunch hour to wait for her aunt to come and pick her up. The aunt was beside herself and had her own family to take care of. She had explained to me earlier that this girl's mother had screamed through the phone to the little girl that she didn't want her.
As the little girl sat crying on my lap, I wondered what I could tell her. I couldn't tell her things would be better because I knew they probably wouldn't. All I could think was to love her and teach her that though she couldn't control others, she always had the choice to act how she wanted.
That experience caused me to think a lot. There were many kids in hard circumstances. I was powerless to change their circumstances. I decided that the best thing I could do was to make sure their experience in my class was one where they felt like a child of God.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Anti-Drug Program
While I was teaching, the state government came out with an Anti-drug program we were all supposed to use. Each classroom received a suitcase full of material they were supposed to use. The first thing we were supposed to do was give everyone a true/false test. I wondered how this would work in kindergarten since most kids are not reading yet. Being a dutiful teacher, I gave the test with a disastrous result.
After a couple years of siimilar experiences, I got rid of the suitcase and designed my own Anti-drug program. I decided that to meet the goals of the program, the best thing I could do was to teach them that they were accountable for their own actions. I knew some needed this on th first day of school. After explaining the classroom rules, (keep your hands and feet to yourself, raise your hand before talking, etc.) I would ask the qurstion, "Whose in charge of seeing that you follow these rules?" Immediately hands would shoot up. "The principal,the teacher, our moms and dads", they would say to which I would shake my head - no. I always knew which ones went to Sunday School because they would raise their hands and shout,"I know, I know, it's God!" When I still shook my head no, they were stumped. I explained that they were in charge and it was quite a revelation. Some enjoyed this new found autonomy.
Our new anti-drug program was playing a childhood game called "Chutes and Ladders" ( some people call it "Snakes and Ladders"). In this game the player rolls a die to see how many spaces he may move. There are pictures of children doing something nice or thoughtful or doing someting thoughtless mean such as pulling the cat's tail. Depending on where they land, they can either go up a ladder, closer to the goal of winning or down a chute where they must keep working towards the goal a little behind the others. No one is ever out of the game.
We would play the game first using a die to determine the outcome. Then we would play the game again with the children choosing how many spaces they would move. When I explained that they were in charge of the choices they made in life, good choices usually brought good results and bad choices usually brought unhappy consequences. They were amazed. From that point I only had to teach that drugs were a bad choice.
WHAT I LEARNED: The most important thing young children can learn is that they are accountable for their own acyions.
After a couple years of siimilar experiences, I got rid of the suitcase and designed my own Anti-drug program. I decided that to meet the goals of the program, the best thing I could do was to teach them that they were accountable for their own actions. I knew some needed this on th first day of school. After explaining the classroom rules, (keep your hands and feet to yourself, raise your hand before talking, etc.) I would ask the qurstion, "Whose in charge of seeing that you follow these rules?" Immediately hands would shoot up. "The principal,the teacher, our moms and dads", they would say to which I would shake my head - no. I always knew which ones went to Sunday School because they would raise their hands and shout,"I know, I know, it's God!" When I still shook my head no, they were stumped. I explained that they were in charge and it was quite a revelation. Some enjoyed this new found autonomy.
Our new anti-drug program was playing a childhood game called "Chutes and Ladders" ( some people call it "Snakes and Ladders"). In this game the player rolls a die to see how many spaces he may move. There are pictures of children doing something nice or thoughtful or doing someting thoughtless mean such as pulling the cat's tail. Depending on where they land, they can either go up a ladder, closer to the goal of winning or down a chute where they must keep working towards the goal a little behind the others. No one is ever out of the game.
We would play the game first using a die to determine the outcome. Then we would play the game again with the children choosing how many spaces they would move. When I explained that they were in charge of the choices they made in life, good choices usually brought good results and bad choices usually brought unhappy consequences. They were amazed. From that point I only had to teach that drugs were a bad choice.
WHAT I LEARNED: The most important thing young children can learn is that they are accountable for their own acyions.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Rewards/Punishment
Our playground at school was covered with tiny rocks about 1/4 inch
in size. The principal decided that the punishment for throwing rocks would be to fill a large coffee can with the tiny pebbles using a small plastic spoon. As soon as the first student had to fill the can I had other students clamoring around me asking for a can and a spoon so they could join in on the fun.
Another surprise that made me think was when I wrote a note or gave a sticker to a student for being good hoping the "reward" would change behavior. The rest of the students started to wail, "I've been good too". It was true but I did not have time to write a note for every sthdent every day.
The most effective behavior modification plan was when I would consult with a parent. The parent would give the child something small to carry in his/her pocket. If the child came home with it, the parent knew it had been a good day. That way the child could be accountable for his own behavior without it becoming a public issue. In the first two cases the reward or punishment initially did not bring the desired behavior change.
WHAT I LEARNED: Rewards such as stickers or good notes are not always the best motivator. Skinnerian rewards work for training dogs as shown by Pavlov. Children will respond just as the dogs. They want to please as well as satisfy their own gratification but the outcomes are noy akways what one would expect.
in size. The principal decided that the punishment for throwing rocks would be to fill a large coffee can with the tiny pebbles using a small plastic spoon. As soon as the first student had to fill the can I had other students clamoring around me asking for a can and a spoon so they could join in on the fun.
Another surprise that made me think was when I wrote a note or gave a sticker to a student for being good hoping the "reward" would change behavior. The rest of the students started to wail, "I've been good too". It was true but I did not have time to write a note for every sthdent every day.
The most effective behavior modification plan was when I would consult with a parent. The parent would give the child something small to carry in his/her pocket. If the child came home with it, the parent knew it had been a good day. That way the child could be accountable for his own behavior without it becoming a public issue. In the first two cases the reward or punishment initially did not bring the desired behavior change.
WHAT I LEARNED: Rewards such as stickers or good notes are not always the best motivator. Skinnerian rewards work for training dogs as shown by Pavlov. Children will respond just as the dogs. They want to please as well as satisfy their own gratification but the outcomes are noy akways what one would expect.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
