Case Study

This is a very different case study that I am accustomed to reading. The first section of the case study took a close look at children's book. The second section of the case study examined a higher order thinking novel, The Giver.

The beginning of the case study seems very similar to lessons that a kindergarten or first grade teacher would teach in a typical school day. One aspect of the case study that I believe is very beneficial is having the students draw what they are reading. This gives the teacher a great idea at how the students are perceiving certain characters or processing the information. The making of the masks was also a great idea because it can be utilized in other subject areas such as art or music.

Another part of the case study that I believe is necessary in education is silent sustained reading. In my opinion, students do not read enough in today's society. Although it may seem like a "waste of class time" to spend reading, this is not the perfect world. Students need class time to read in class. I am not saying that students should be reading in class every single day, but a few times a week is not the worst idea in the world. There are many great ideas that are found in this case study and I hope you incorporate some of them in my classroom.

Guided Reading Lesson Video

When pulling small groups, teachers need to perform many of the tasks and ask similar questions that resembled those of the teacher in the video. The first guided reading video spells out how easy it is to guide students as to the different facets of reading that they should be focusing on. The one part of the video that stands out, in my mind, is how the teacher wants the students to predict what will happen at the end of the story. This is a great way to keep students motivated to learning because it keeps them engaged throughout the story. This tactic gives students an opportunity to use their creativity when it comes to reading.

Having students questioning stories and primary sources will keep them engaged in stories and articles and, in some cases, improves their creativity. This will give them the opportunity to put their spin on different stories and characters.

Merit Pay and Tenure

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/18/education/18teach.html?_r=1&scp=26&sq=education&st=cse

This article was sent to me by a teacher from a public school and the author, Sam Dillon, makes a few good points regarding the topics of merit pay and teacher tenure. In terms of merit pay, Dillon states, "all teachers in a participating school to receive extra pay when that school excels." I am not sure if I agree or disagree with this point. I believe that teachers should have some form of an incentive for excelling in their profession, but I am not sure how schools and administrators should judge if these teachers are excelling. With merit pay, I believe that politics within schools would cause a wave of controversy. Placing students in particular classrooms may turn into a draft. It would allow certain students to be placed in certain teachers classrooms because of their academic ability. This is one of those topics that will always be up for discussion until a better solutions comes to the forefront.

In terms of teacher tenure, there are positives and negatives to the topic. Tenure is necessary in education, but teachers need to be held accountable. Again, I am not sure how you judge if a teacher is being held accountable, but changes need to be made. Maybe solutions to tenure would be to make it more than three years and a day, to six or seven years to earn tenure. Maybe an evaluation by some type of government agency needs to be created to tenure teachers. These are just a few thoughts on two controversial topics. I am interested to hear your thoughts and ideas.

Reaction to MY Access! Writing Program Video

As a Delawarian, it is very refreshing to see my home state get a little publicity at St. Peter's. Red Clay Consolidated School District was not known as one of the upper echelon districts in the state of Delaware, but it is very interesting to see that they are using new technology to improve reading and writing. The program that RCCSD is using seems like a great idea that would benefit many teachers and students nationwide.

With over one hundred students, assigning one five-paragraph essay turns into hours and hours of grading that may take a week to return to the students, or longer. I'm not going to go down the road of complaining about the grading, but the problem that I have noticed is that many of my students only care about the grade on the paper compared to the comments. If the essays are returned a week later, students will briefly look at the comments, look at the grade, and in most cases, throw the paper away. One "perfect world" solution would be to have students read the comments that I have written on their papers and have them see me either before/after school to receive their grade. In my opinion, the only way to improve on writing, is to talk about the writing......talk about the positives and negatives of individual students' papers.

I would love to find more information on this program to see if I would be able to implement it in my school's curriculum. Thanks for the great video.

Primary Sources

As a high school teacher my administration has been pushing the use of primary sources for the past few years. At times it is difficult to find primary sources on certain topics as well as websites that provide primary sources. Believe it or not, the United States Government has a wonderful website that I have listed below that allows access to many primary source documents. There is a good chance that this website will have what you are looking for.

http://www.archives.gov/research/arc/

Reaction to ipod Article

My first reaction to the ipod article is that all technology will have ups and downs, positives and negatives, as well as much room for improvement. The author had a thorough explanation as to how the ipod can be used in education, albeit confusing at times. As a high school teacher, I have seen ipods used negatively in education for the most part. Many students of today believe that their everyday lives must involve an ipod. For example, if students are assigned seat work, many will ask if they can listen to their ipods. After explaining to them that they may indeed work more diligent when listening to their ipod, they are not grasping and comprehending the information, however, Deborah Vess explains that ipods need to be used as tools of learning rather than a learning crutch.

Vess states, "I am a firm believer in using technology only when it allows me to accomplish something better than I can do without it." I completely agree with this statement, however, does the ipod really improve learning that much more? It appears that, at times, the process of using the ipod is a great deal of added work get the information from point A to point B. From what I gather, it seems like a voice recorder could do the same as podcasts. Sure, the podcasts can be listened to on the go or in the gym, but do teachers want their students listening to lectures or discussions in these environments?

In some ways I feel that by using the ipod in this manner only inhibits the learners from interacting with each other, including the professor. It seems like more and more in today's society, people who work in the same school or office would much rather send an e-mail instead of walking down the hall to interact with their superior. Again, the ipods do serve an educational purpose, but I believe that attempting to implement them into the curriculum of a high school or middle school is a great deal of time that is being wasted.

Crazy Professor Reading Game

After seeing the title of the video for the, Crazy Professor Reading Game, I was expecting to see some type of a game format, but it appeared to be more a good idea for a lesson that went bad. It reminded me of student teaching when I would think of great lessons, different types of assessments, and/or activities that seemed like excellent ideas on paper, but then failed miserably when the class executed them.

In theory, this "game" has some merit to it. It looked like the students were reading, but were more concerned with acting out the gestures with their partners. One variation that this teacher should use in the future is to have one student read the book, while the other student is acting out the story with gestures. Then, students could switch roles after every page, or every few pages. It was also very chaotic because all of the students were packed in like sardines. One helpful tool might be to assign different spots in the room for each reading group. This would alleviate some of the noise problems so that students could hear themselves read the book instead of surrounding groups. The last problem that I noticed with this "game" was that the teacher seemed to be in hiding. Maybe this was because she was filming the activity, but an assistant or a para should have been circulating around the room to make sure the students were on task, or simply helping the students with difficult words.

Thanks for the video.

A Teacher That Can't Read?!?!?!?

I heard this guy on my drive home from school today on the radio and I could not get over his life. John Corcoran, a college graduate and retired teacher, could not read, write, or spell until his late 40s! He taught high school for over 17 years. When I finally got home, I googled him and found this article on his life. It truly is amazing. Has anyone ever heard of him before or read any of his books? Very interesting stuff. Let me know your thoughts.

http://www.10news.com/news/15274005/detail.html

Free Rice

I hope this link works....I used the journal search through the SPC account. For those of you that cannot access the link, I will briefly summarize it. Basically, research has shown that male students perform better with male teachers while female students perform better with female teachers. This news was astounding to me. I was under the assumption that it would depend on the teacher him/herself, compared to the gender of the teacher. Also, they had a website on their called www.freerice.com that donates 20 pounds of rice through the United Nations Food Program. If you teach middle school or high school, this is a great way for students to study vocabulary for SATs in addition to helping feed the hungry people across the world. Take care.

http://216.44.254.21:2052/ehost/pdf?vid=50&hid=115&sid=449f1e7c-5eb4-4d90-ae51-e53bb3065891%40sessionmgr109

Reaction to Spelling Video

As a high school teacher I see just as many errors as the elementary school teachers. Spelling words correctly is, in my opinion, a lost art. I am just as guilty of it as the students are at times. I am amazed on a daily basis how many common words that are used often in our dialogue are often misspelled. Through time, we as a society have relied on word processors (i.e. spell check) more often than the good old dictionary. However, some of the tips in the video were definitely helpful for all teachers that stress spelling words correctly or teachers that still use spelling tests.

Why we spell check...

Tip #4 stuck out in my mind as a helpful tip/tool that all teachers can and should use. Tip #4 explains that teachers should present words in chunks. For example, the word together should be shown to the students as to-get-her. This may help some students that find it difficult to remember the entire spelling of a word. Remember, this may not work for all words.

One tip that I have used in the high school setting is simply spelling the words on the board that I know students will have a difficult time spelling before my lecture. That way, I will not have to stop the lecture to spell a word such as Dien Bien Phu or Ho Chi Minh.

As far as penalizing students for misspelled words, I have not enforced point deductions on in-class essays since student teaching. I have noticed that students are better served seeing the misspelled word circled on their essay rather then having points deducted for every word or every five misspelled words. For essays that are completed at home, points will be deducted because students need to be held accountable for checking over their work before turning in final drafts. These are some of my suggestions/comments, but I am looking forward to what everyone else does in their classes. I guess I better spell check this to make sure I have not made any mistakes. Take care.

Reaction to the Letter Writing Video

As a high school teacher, it is very difficult to give any type of input (good or bad) regarding this video. However, I spoke with a kindergarten teacher that is always looking for new lessons and methods to teach letters. One of the biggest problems that she faces as a kindergarten teacher pertains to the different levels of her students. She has a number of students that understand the letters to the alphabet, but then there are a handful of students that cannot comprehend what a letter actually is. She said that she is going to try this activity with her students. Separating the students by level will be the best way to get her students to understand the letters. Has anyone else tried this?

Ron Clark

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozxu5q0YD5w&feature=related

I'm not sure if everyone is familiar with Ron Clark or not, but if you are not, this is a short video of an amazing teacher and author. I believe a few years ago he was awarded the Teach of the Year Award through Disney. Clark had the ability to motivate the students that many of their previous teachers had given up on. He set the bar very high for the students, but at the same time, never let them give up on their goals.

Clark created 55 rules or goals that he wanted his students to achieve by the end of the school year and use throughout their lives. The goals were created to shape the students into mature, respectful men and women. Eventually, Ron Clark wrote a book that explains his life experiences and the challenges he faced as a teacher. Matthew Perry, also known to many as Chandler Bing, portrayed Clark in a made for tv movie which aired on USA a few years back.

If you ever get the chance to read his book, The Essential 55, or watch his movie on youtube, I would greatly reccommend it.

Do's and Don'ts of Multiple Choice Tests

I was searching the internet on a few of the sites that Professor Luongo graciously gave us the other night at our on-line chat and eventually stumbled upon one on multiple choice exams. For me, History is a difficult subject to only have multiple choice exams, but when the time comes, here are few helpful hints as to techniques teachers should and should not be using when creating multiple choice questions. For the purposes of this class, some students have a difficult time reading and understanding what the question is asking. This is one problem I have seen more often than not concerning my students. Students may recognize one important person or event and, based on the answer choices, will choose the one that best describes the aforementioned person or event. However, the students have a difficult time analyzing what the questions is really asking them. I have tried to cover this in class many times, but students are still making the same mistakes. Any suggestions? Enjoy the article...

http://pareonline.net/getvn.asp?v=4&n=11

Different Types of Questions

http://www.edarticle.com/differentiated-learning/higher-level-thinking-as-easy-as-a-question.html

Although this article may not answer some of your questions on higher order thinking, it definitely gives one perspective on different question/answer methods and techniques. From personal experiences, I find it very difficult, at times, to ask the higher order thinking questions in a discussion forum in the high school setting. For example, my first period class (Freshman World History) this year is having a hard time adjusting to lectures and discussions. They are also unresponsive when lower level thinking questions are asked, so what advice would you give me to get these students to answer lower/higher order thinking questions?

Summer Reading

I have a bit of a problem and I was hoping that you would be able to give me some advice for what I should do. As the students returned from summer recess I have been asked by a few about what the class is responsible for with the summer reading assignment.

I asked my students if they read the assigned book and very few admitted to actually reading it. The summer reading is not stressed in our curriculum, but I still believe that the students should be given a grade in some form. What can I do as their teacher to make sure that the students who did read the book receive credit? I have been thinking about offering extra credit points to those students who read the book as well as wrote a paper on the book. Any suggestions?

Introduction

Hello everyone. My name is Mark Rindfuss and I am currently teaching World and U.S. History at Paramus Catholic H.S. in Paramus, New Jersey. I was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (go Steelers) and grew up in Wilmington, Delaware. After graduating from the University of Delaware with a degree in History Education, I decided to make the move to Hoboken. I heard great things about St. Peter's College from co-workers and finally decided to enroll in the Administration and Supervision program. I have had nothing but positive experiences thus far in the program, but eagerly looking forward to graduating this spring.

At first I thought I was very computer savvy until the first night of class when I finally learned the ins and outs of blogging. Being a huge sports fan, blogging has really taken off in the past few years. I have a much better appreciation for those who have the time and ability to keep their blogs up and running.

I really hope to gain a great deal of knowledge in the reading area for high school students because I have noticed that students at this age despise reading. I have tried assigned readings from the textbook as well as current event articles and students make every attempt to get out of reading. If anyone has any suggestions, I would love to hear them.
I hope this works!