Be More Awesome!

Incentives

This week our school held an Ice Cream Social. This is significant to Big Sur because it is one of the first opportunities for our school and community to come together after tragedy.

Our school has been affected by the Big Sur fires and the start of the year was not an easy one. Many homes in the community were destroyed. School had to be held in town because the fire jumped a break and crept down the ridge behind our school. We have in the last month returned to school.

To make sure parents, families and the school community came together our parent club and administration felt it would be important to bring people together. The Ice Cream Social was a huge success and many students and their families attended.

Events like these are great incentives for students. They enjoy coming to school and sharing their success with their families. While working on a project for a class, I came across a great incentive list. Although tailored to PBIS this incentives list has many great ideas for administration, teachers and parent clubs.

Events like our Ice Cream Social are important no matter the time of year, or happenings of the community. It's important for students to have things to look forward to and take pride in their school. I highly recommend looking at this list and coming up with a few incentives you could do at your school!

Restorative Justice in Monterey County

Restorative justice practices bring together those affected by crime/misbehavior with those that committed the offense and have, to the extent possible, everyone work together to come up with an agreement on how things can be made right as possible. 

I am a fan of restorative justice because it encourages dialogue among those students involved. Resolution and agreement are being done together - consequence or punishment are not created TO or FOR anyone. Instead, restorative justice encourages the creation of an agreement WITH one another. This holds people accountable for their actions, ensures the incident won't happen again, AND makes things as right as possible. 

If you are interested in learning more about restorative justice in schools throughout Monterey county contact Restorative Justice Partners, INC. http://restorativejusticepartners.com/ 

Book Summary: The Five Dysfuctions of a Team

The book The Five Dysfunctions of Team by Patrick Lencioni is a great read for any administrator. 

Each and every team has some sort of dysfunction. That is sometimes what helps you function. This book is a great read because it allows leaders to identify the problems of their team, and capitalize on it. 

The author states that "successful teamwork is not about mastering subtle, sophisticated theories, but rather about combining common sense with uncommon levels of discipline and persistence. Ironically, teams succeed because they are exceedingly human. By acknowledging the imperfections of their humanity, members of functional teams overcome the natural tendencies that make teamwork so elusive".

As the title suggests, Lencioni outlines the five dysfunctions of a team. This includes absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability and inattention to results. This book is powerful for administrators because it includes exercises and quizzes to help you and your staff identify the dysfunctions of your school or workplace. 

For a great quick review of this book and to learn about about Lencioni's five dysfunctions please visit the website https://www.talentsquare.com/blog/book-summary-the-five-dysfunctions-of-a-team/ 

Teacher Appreciation Ideas

Teacher's always want to be recognized for their hard work and a lot of appreciation goes a long way. The link below leads to 28 fun teacher appreciation ideas to be used at any school.  

Pun-tastic Teacher Appreciation

My personal favorites include:

Have you told a teacher how much you appreciate them today?

Screencast in the Classroom

I use screencasts in my classroom of second and third graders. I think educational videos are important because video's captivate students' attention. I primarily use screencasts for blended learning in my second and third grade combination class. Below is a video that includes an example of a vocabulary screencast I created for second graders.

Check out the informational blogpost on Screencasting from TechSmith BLOG. The entry was written by Ron Kotlick. Here are the top five ways Kotclick recommends screencasting in the classroom. For more information check out the TechSmith Blog.

1. “Live Screencasting”
“Live screencasting,” creating a live recording during a class activity, is one of the easiest ways for teachers to begin the adventure of using this tool to promote positive change in their classrooms.  The idea of presenting content material through a video that frees class time for more engaging activities and instruction is extremely appealing.

2. Online/Hybrid/Blended Learning
Screencasting can be used for any grade level instruction (K-12 & Higher Education) that involves any aspect of online delivery.  The growth of online instruction has been tremendous. “Personal” videos made by the instructor give the online student a direct connection with an individual that goes beyond posting on a discussion board or email thread.

3. Student Created Content
In any class setting, both online and traditional, students can easily create screencasts for assignments and course content.  Here the possibilities are endless.

4.  Professional Development
Professional development is crucial for the proper implementation of technology integration. Screencasting is a wonderful tool that can capture professional development sessions and make them available for online consumption.

5.  Screencasting & Grading
Educators are always striving to find better and more efficient ways to offer constructive feedback on student assignments. Students can literally watch a screencast of an assignment being graded with the teacher/professor giving audio and visual cues.

Thinking Maps

This summer my staff was trained in Thinking Maps. All members, from instructional aids, teachers and even the school secretary participated. Some of the information gathered from this post can be found on the Thinking Maps website. I have included a video of a teacher who uses Thinking Maps in their classroom.

What are Thinking Maps?

Thinking Maps are consistent visual patterns linked directly to eight specific thought processes. By 

visualizing thinking, students create concrete images of abstract thoughts. These patterns help 

students reach high levels of critical and creative thinking. In a school-wide implementation, 

Thinking Maps establish a consistent Language for Learning.

My favorite part of Thinking Maps is the fact that students create them. After the teacher training, the fifth grade teacher at our school decided to purchase sketch pads for his students. Students will use the sketch pad to create their own Thinking Maps. This creative outlet allows students to take ownership of their learning and enjoy sharing what they know. 

Below is a video of Thinking Maps in action. I really like this video because it shows how a teacher and students use Thinking Maps in the classroom.

  

Outliers

I am a huge fan of Malcolm Gladwell. His book Outliers changed how I view education. My great take away from the book is that individuals who achieve great things do so not by chance but because of advantages granted to them. Therefore if these same advantages were given to all, then all would succeed. I truly believe that all children can learn through repetitions and practice and this book solidifies that belief.

Have you ever heard the stereotype that Asians are better at math? Gladwell looks at that stereotype and breaks it down, so that instead of being a stereotype, he looks at is a fact and an advantage.

 

Rice Paddies and Math Tests 

 

“No one who can rise before dawn three hundred and sixty days a year fails to make his family rich.”

An excerpt from Chapter Eight.

Take a look at the following list of numbers: 4,8,5,3,9,7,6. Read them out loud to yourself. Now look away, and spend twenty seconds memorizing that sequence before saying them out loud again.
If you speak English, you have about a 50 percent chance of remembering that sequence perfectly If you’re Chinese, though, you’re almost certain to get it right every time. Why is that? Because as human beings we store digits in a memory loop that runs for about two seconds. We most easily memorize whatever we can say or read within that two second span. And Chinese speakers get that list of numbers—4,8,5,3,9,7,6—right every time because—unlike English speakers—their language allows them to fit all those seven numbers into two seconds.

That example comes from Stanislas Dehaene’s book “The Number Sense,” and as Dehaene explains:
Chinese number words are remarkably brief. Most of them can be uttered in less than one-quarter of a second (for instance, 4 is ‘si’ and 7 ‘qi’) Their English equivalents—”four,” “seven”—are longer: pronouncing them takes about one-third of a second. The memory gap between English and Chinese apparently is entirely due to this difference in length. In languages as diverse as Welsh, Arabic, Chinese, English and Hebrew, there is a reproducible correlation between the time required to pronounce numbers in a given language and the memory span of its speakers. In this domain, the prize for efficacy goes to the Cantonese dialect of Chinese, whose brevity grants residents of Hong Kong a rocketing memory span of about 10 digits.

It turns out that there is also a big difference in how number-naming systems in Western and Asian languages are constructed. In English, we say fourteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen and nineteen, so one would think that we would also say one-teen, two-teen, and three-teen. But we don’t. We make up a different form: eleven, twelve, thirteen, and fifteen. Similarly, we have forty, and sixty, which sound like what they are. But we also say fifty and thirty and twenty, which sort of sound what they are but not really. And, for that matter, for numbers above twenty, we put the “decade” first and the unit number second: twenty-one, twenty-two. For the teens, though, we do it the other way around. We put the decade second and the unit number first: fourteen, seventeen, eighteen. The number system in English is highly irregular. Not so in China, Japan and Korea. They have a logical counting system. Eleven is ten one. Twelve is ten two. Twenty-four is two ten four, and so on.

That difference means that Asian children learn to count much faster. Four year old Chinese children can count, on average, up to forty. American children, at that age, can only count to fifteen, and don’t reach forty until they’re five: by the age of five, in other words, American children are already a year behind their Asian counterparts in the most fundamental of math skills.

The regularity of their number systems also means that Asian children can perform basic functions—like addition—far more easily. Ask an English seven-year-old to add thirty-seven plus twenty two, in her head, and she has to convert the words to numbers (37 + 22). Only then can she do the math: 2 plus 7 is nine and 30 and 20 is 50, which makes 59. Ask an Asian child to add three-tens-seven and two tens-two, and then the necessary equation is right there, embedded in the sentence. No number translation is necessary: It’s five-tens nine.

“The Asian system is transparent,” says Karen Fuson, a Northwestern University psychologist, who has done much of the research on Asian-Western differences. “I think that it makes the whole attitude toward math different. Instead of being a rote learning thing, there’s a pattern I can figure out. There is an expectation that I can do this. There is an expectation that it’s sensible. For fractions, we say three fifths. The Chinese is literally, ‘out of five parts, take three.’ That’s telling you conceptually what a fraction is. It’s differentiating the denominator and the numerator.”

The much-storied disenchantment with mathematics among western children starts in the third and fourth grade, and Fuson argues that perhaps a part of that disenchantment is due to the fact that math doesn’t seem to make sense; its linguistic structure is clumsy; its basic rules seem arbitrary and complicated.

Asian children, by contrast, don’t face nearly that same sense of bafflement. They can hold more numbers in their head, and do calculations faster, and the way fractions are expressed in their language corresponds exactly to the way a fraction actually is—and maybe that makes them a little more likely to enjoy math, and maybe because they enjoy math a little more they try a little harder and take more math classes and are more willing to do their homework, and on and on, in a kind of virtuous circle.

When it comes to math, in other words, Asians have built-in advantage. . .

An Interview with Sonia Aramburo

There is a lot that can be learned from others in your field. 

As a teacher I have grown the most when I visit other classrooms and observe other teachers. There practices are easier to implement once I have seen them in action, and there is more buy in because I am able to see their results. 

The same could be said for administrators. As a future administrator, I believe there is a lot I can learn from great administrators already in the field. I was given a great opportunity to interview a local administrator who has done great things for her school and the community. 

Mrs. Aramburo is a well-respected and effective principal in Monterey county. She successfully led a school out of program improvement. Mrs. Aramburo has single handedly transformed multiple school communities by bringing unique experiences like the Turnaround Arts initiative to her students.

I learned so much from this amazing administrator and would interview another principal without hesitation. Thank you so much Mrs. Aramburo for being an inspiration to me and others within the educational realm!


Below are some of the interview questions I asked Mrs. Aramburo and her responses:

How many years have you been a principal? Ten

How many years have you been at principal at this school? Six

How many years of experience did you have teaching before you became a principal? Seven

How many years of experience did you have as an assistant principal, counselor, or district coordinator? I had seven years of the counseling experience and four years as an assistant principal. 

In general, how much time do you have to make decisions? Most times there is not much time to make a decision. It depends on the decision. Sometimes you have more time but as a principal you have to make decisions quickly.

Do you have specific guiding principles? My guiding principles are I’m very collaborative with my staff and we always keep our students’ needs on the forefront.

If so, can you tell me more about these? Every child receives core content instruction, they are never pulled out during core content, and they receive universal access, the families are crucial to a child’s education, and at my school, reading is fundamental. Students needs to be able to read to access core content. 

What was the role of external influences on your decision making? Our leadership team plays a part. I believe in shared decision making although I do make the final decision. I have a great team that I work with, I take things before the team, we discuss it, and decide what we can do.

Force Field Analysis

On Monday the School Growth Team at my school held a meeting to discuss a Force Field Analysis. I thought the process was extremely valuable and wanted to share an overview of what a Force Field Analysis is and how it can be used in an elementary school setting. 

What Is a Force Field Analysis?

A Force Field Analysis is an effective technique used to analyze and drive change within a school. It was developed by psychologist Kurt Lewin, an innovator of the study of social organizational science. It is a tool that develops actions that help achieve a desired state.

What Is a Desired State?

A desired state is a goal. According to businessdictionary.com, “when reorganizing a business or an investment portfolio, it is crucial to keep its desired state firmly in mind in order to maximize the overall efficiency of the restructuring process.”

How Is a Force Field Analysis Conducted?

For a Force Field Analysis to work, a desired state must first be established. Once the desired state has been created, factors that impact the desired state are identified through a brainstorm. These factors are known as driving and/or restraining forces. Driving forces are those factors that promote change, while resisting forces maintain the status quo and inhibit change. These forces are always in play and affect movement toward the desired state.

In order to move toward a desired state, driving forces must increase and restraining forces must decrease. According to Lewin, the most effective way to move toward a desired state is to remove restraining forces. The driving forces already in place within the organization will naturally move the organization toward the desired state once restraining forces have been reduced or eliminated.

Once the driving and restraining forces have been identified, evidence must be cited as proof of a problem. Next, the actions of the organization will be determined. These actions need to take into account driving and restraining forces. Actions that help remove restraining forces are a top priority for an organization because once they removed, driving forces can propel an organization toward a desired state. Data can be used to progress monitor the actions thus ensuring forces are eliminated and/or developed.  

How Do You Use a Force Field Analysis Tool?

1. Describe desired state
2. Identify forces for change on left column
3. List forces against change on the right column.
4. Assign score to each force from 1 (weak) to 5 (strong)
5. Use evidence to verify forces
6. Plan actions

Should Headphones Be Allowed in the Classroom?

I allow students to use headphones in my classroom when they are working on assignments. When I am talking to the class I do not let them use headphones.

However, I know other teachers feel differently.

Debate.org has posted this same question. You can view peoples responses here.

What do you think? Should students be allowed to use headphones in the classroom?

Organized Classroom

For years, a secret weapon of mine is Organized Classroom.

Charity Preston started the Organized Classroom as a blog to share tricks of the trade.

I have used it to create:

• content my classroom website
• organizers for teacher binders
• parent letters 
• tags for classroom libraries

I highly recommend exploring her blog at: http://organizedclassroom.com/classroom-diy/

Literacy Stations: Debbie Diller

One of my favorite educators is Debbie Diller.

Early on in my career I read her books and she transformed the way centers were done in my classroom. Debbie is all about student led centers and independent activities for students. Once students are familiar with these stations you as the teacher are able to work and lead small group interventions without interruption.

My favorite of her books is Practice with Purpose Literacy Work Stations for Grades 3-6. I have literally ripped pages out of this book and refer to this book before teaching each year. Debbie's ideas are simple. If you teach literacy stations to your whole class and they became very familiar with activities, they will be able to do these activities independently without you!

Debbie just published a new book in February. It is titled Growing Independent Learners From Literacy Standards to Stations K-3. I just ordered the book on amazon and will have a review for you soon.

 

Classroom Themes

I have always known that one can tell a good teacher based on their classroom.

When I was a preschool student, we had Jurassic Night and the teachers transformed the entire room into a dinosaur dreamland. Vines hung from the ceiling and giant paper brontosaurus' roamed the room.

My second grade classroom hardly had anything in the classroom. It was a state of disarray with papers and boxes piled throughout the room. There were no art projects that adorned the walls.

If you were to ask me which class I remember more, it was preschool. I remember more content and was happier going to class. In comparison, I don't remember anything about second grade except that I didn't like my teacher. I don't actually remember her but you get the point...

SO every year I try to create a classroom theme that embodies my preschool experience. Two years ago I created a forest hanging redwood tree limbs from the ceiling. Anthropologie gave me hundreds of butterflies from their previous display and I pinned each butterfly to the wall with a seaming pins.

This year my classroom's theme will be Where the Wild Things Are. I have created a Pinterest board with different ideas of what the classroom will look like. I have already updated my classroom website to reflect the theme. I think my students will really enjoy how I transform the class. The Where the Wild Things Pinterest board can be viewed at:
https://www.pinterest.com/analis99/where-the-wild-things-are/

Classroom themes from previous years include:
Superheros
https://www.pinterest.com/analis99/superhero-classroom/
Harry Potter
https://www.pinterest.com/analis99/harry-potter-classroom/

TeachingChannel

This past week I presented Collaborative Conversations to twenty elementary through high school teachers. This process was nerve wrecking and extremely intimidating however I was able to lead a great lesson because of one amazing resource: TeachingChannel.

TeachingChannel is a VERY useful resource. The website showcases videos of effective lessons in the classroom. Although I enjoy reading about how I can improve my teaching I found the most effective way to change my teaching is by observing other teachers. I work at a small school of only five staff members in a very isolated community. TeachingChannel allows me to watch teachers in elementary through high school classrooms in cities across the United States.

The video that helped me most in developing the Collaborative Conversations presentation can be found at https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/formative-assessment-example-ela-sbac
I lead these teachers through the process of answering questions collaboratively and establishing rules just as this teacher does with her fourth grade students.

Another great part of the website is the guide section of the side of each video. It guides your viewing through a series of reflective questions.

The Gut-Level Teacher Reflection

The end of the year is here and I am sure that the last thing you want to think about is school.

This is a great time for you to grow as an educator. Now that the year is complete is important for you to reflect on your year while it is still fresh in your mind. You can remember those assignments that students struggled with. You know where in your classroom things are because your classroom hasn't been overhauled and cleaned yet. You can remember more or less what went really well this year and what you want to improve on next year.

One of the best reflections I have found is called The Gut-Level Teacher Reflection from the Cult of Pedagogy. It's a simple five question survey that pinpoints what your strengths of the year were and areas you want to improve on as an educator.

My favorite component of the reflection is walking around this years classrooms and finding those areas that make you uneasy. Each teacher has a go to area for putting those papers that you'll one day file. Or those resources that you'll one day use. Jennifer, the creator of Cult of Pedagogy, encourages you to find these spaces and acknowledge their existence.

I like to think of this reflection as a great way to start planning for next year. I am able to identify what is most important to me and my classroom. I plan to work on school work in the latter part of summer and will use this reflection to create a plan of action when organizing and planning for the next school year.
 
For an audio version of this file check out:
 http://www.cultofpedagogy.com/gut-level-reflection-questions/

To download the reflection visit:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/FreeDownload/The-Gut-Level-Teacher-Reflection-1429271 

Animoto Review

Animoto is a video resource that can be used to share videos with students and staff alike.

I was curious what others thought about Animoto and whether or not it was something I could use with students and staff alike. I found the following comprehensive review from Desktop Documentaries.

You can find the review below or at http://www.desktop-documentaries.com/animoto-review.html

Animoto Review |
The Good and The Bad
Guest Blog PostBy: Scott (USA)

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Animoto Review

While nothing can replace hard work, perseverance and attention to detail when making a documentary or even a short family video, Animoto comes close and it doesn’t require nearly as much time, work or effort on the user’s part.
As with many instant products in today’s “now” environment, you take the good with the bad. A frozen dinner may never taste the same as a meal cooked by Julia Childs, but Julia Childs couldn’t feed you in less than 5 minutes.

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Animoto Review: THE GOOD

Not everyone has the time, patience or money to invest in high end, or even medium priced video editing software.
If you are pressed for time and absolute control of your final product is not a requirement, Animoto may be just what you are looking for.
If you have a client that “needs it yesterday”,  Animoto may be for you. If you are back-logged with clients waiting for their product, Animoto may be your site in shining armor.
Wedding photographers are able to take advantage of the beautiful edits Animoto so easily provides. I can’t begin to tell you what technology has gone in to making Animoto work. And the best thing about it is, you don’t need to know anything about video editing technology to make Animoto work for your needs. Put your fears aside and let Animoto handle the job.
While an intimate knowledge of technology is not a requirement to use Animoto, a clear understanding of what you want your video to convey is.
Animoto works well when you know what you want. For all practical purposes, you have three considerations when using Animoto; how long does your video need to be? What music will best convey the mood of your piece? And, what photos or video clips will be used?
Animoto takes a lot of the typically detailed decisions away from you. You no longer have to debate over which edit style you want to use. Gone are the days when you worked for hours on end to sync your music with your clips. Animoto does this for you, making the final product one that can be done in hours (or even minutes) rather than through weeks or months of tedious editing.
Simply upload the photos or videos you want to use in the order you want them to appear, choose your music (Animoto provides royalty free music choices so you don’t have to worry about any legal issues) and hit the “create video” button. Then grab a cup of coffee and come back to see your production.
If you are not pleased with the end result, no worries, simply hit the “1 click remix” button and grab another cup of coffee. You can use the “1 click remix” as often as you like until you have something that makes you and your client happy.
Animoto also provides you with the ability to add text-only frames in your video. Sometimes a picture cannot convey what a few words can to help you tell your story.

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Animoto Review: THE BAD

While all of the good is good with Animoto, it does have drawbacks.
Don’t expect James Cameron to use Animoto to produce his next movie. All of the instant and easy aspects help beginners and professionals alike to make great, professional looking videos. But as a producer you lose the ability to control the details of your video.
You cannot make subtle changes to one frame.
You cannot control the style of edits Animoto provides. (You do have some control over this based on your music choice.)
With Animoto you lose the ability to edit just one section of the video without affecting the entire video.
Just like TV dinners, you can’t get a master chef taste with the food you bought in a cardboard box. But you do get to eat now. And you will eat well.

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A Final Word Or Two...

As for this Animoto review.. in the end, it’s up to you.
With practice you can work through Animoto’s limitations to provide you with a final product that will dazzle friends and family and clients alike.
Everything has its limitations.
Even James Cameron has to work with what he’s got. His cameras, actors, editor and software programs are not infinite with possibilities. He takes full advantage of what’s available to him.
With Animoto in front of you, you can use its finite possibilities to produce world class videos that are as fun to make as they are to watch and it won’t cost $200 million to make them.
(Scott is a freelance photographer who LIKES Animoto)

JUST RUN

This past weekend students, parents and staff ran a 3k marathon in Pacific Grove, California. We ran because we are a JUST RUN school and have been for many years now.

JUST RUN is promotes active lifestyles and healthy eating to keep students healthy and happy. Our students enjoy being outside and participating in many of the JUST RUN activities. This years activities include tracking students' miles, running in the morning and holding a weekly school boot camp. 

JUST RUN is a fun and engaging program and can be implemented easily at your school.  For more information click on the image below. 

Collaborative Conversations

The last class you were probably in was a giant lecture series in college where a professor stood in front of the class and spoke. 

As a twenty something students you were probably bored but able to follow along. 

Now... imagine how hard that same structured class, of a lecture series, for an 8 year old! 

Even fifty years ago, people knew that kids have a hard time listening to giant heads in front of the class!!

Collaborative conversations are a way to change that because students are the ones doing the talking. To see collaborative conversations modeled in the classroom I recommend the video Formative Assessment: Collaborative Discussions. I tried the lesson with my students and it did not go well. Then as a class we watched the lesson, teacher and students. The next day when students worked collaboratively they improved dramatically. Now I am filming my class as a way to focus students on using one collaborative conversation skill. 

Cult of Pedagogy: The Podcast

A great resource for classroom teachers is the website Cult of Pedagogy. Jennifer Gonzalez started the website with great resources, one of which is her podcast. She has a range of topics that she discusses.Topics include technology, supports for English Language Learners, behavioral issues in the classroom and quick tips for teaching. 

I recently listened to episode 31: The Power of

Being a Dork. In it she talks about how teachers need to be silly and first to dismiss the inhibitions of students.  

You can access the podcast on itunes and 

listen it to your commute to work.  

Word Nerds

Everyone should be obsessed with the book Word Nerds. 

The title alone is enough for a passerby to pick it up off the bookshelf. 

I picked up the book due to the needs of students. Many of the students in my class have below grade level vocabularies. I have always known the correlation between vocabulary and reading ability but am trying to be more explicit with my vocabulary instruction to support struggling students. 

This book has turned out to be much more than a book about effective vocabulary instruction. It is a book about great teaching practices! Another reason I am enjoying this text so much is that it is a fun read. Many of the books about education and best practices are dry and boring; not this book. 

It follows the classrooms of two young teachers and how they are supporting vocabulary development in the classroom. Vocabulary development, these two teachers believe, can be found in all parts of the classroom. For organization, to teaching approaching, behavior management, and explicit instruction vocabulary is being supported.

Now, I am not a new teacher. I have been teaching for many years. My sister and husband are teachers. My mother and two aunts are principals. Even my grandmother was a teacher! On breaks I spend time in classrooms observing teachers to refine instruction. With that said, I have learned a lot from this book and would recommend it to teachers of ALL levels, abilities and experiences.

Take this excerpt from the book for example:

Click on the book text above to enlarge.

This excerpt has nothing to do with vocabulary instruction YET has EVERYTHING to do with effective teaching practices and therefore strong vocabulary instruction. This book is amazing!

A few paragraphs is enough to change a stagnant or ineffective teacher's approach as to how they should model their classroom.

As a teacher, many of the practices from this book I can take and use in the classroom. I can read a chapter a night as a quick and enjoyable read. Then I use strategies talked about in the text when planning. This section, for example, put into words how I feel about classrooms.

As an administrator, many of the approaches presented in the text would be a quick fix if presented and discussed with staff (i.e. professional development or staff meeting). You can present this text in a passive and welcoming way to promote self reflection!

Like I said... it's amazing.

For more information on the text check out GoogleBooks where you can read many of the first 147 pages for free. Or if you would like to see other reviews on Word Nerds check out this review from The Electric Journal for English as a Second Language.

Works Cited:

Overturf, B. J., Montgomery, L. H., & Smith, H. M. (2013). Word Nerds. Portland, Maine: Stenhouse.

The Problem We All Live With

This American Life is a wonderful podcast produced by NPR. You can access it for free on the website http://www.thisamericanlife.org/ or through the Podcast App.  

I have enjoyed listening to this hour long podcast from This American Life. It is titled The Problem We All Live With. It discusses integration in schools today and highlights to inequalities students in public education face. I highly recommend it to anyone who works in education.

Here is a video version of the podcast for your listening pleasure. Please share your thoughts!  

Donors Choose

Principals and teachers alike should be sharing DonorsChoose.Org with EVERYONE!

The website is a great resource and I have seen it used countless time to get supplies for classrooms. 

Two years ago I created a DonorsChoose project and was lucky enough to have more than 100 new books donated to my classroom! You can view the project I completed by clicking here. 

Teachers and administrators create projects, post them to social media or share with others, and then people donate to your project. Once the project is completed students send a thank you to those who donated to the project.  

Other successful DonorsChoose projects include Miss Downer's project. She contacted a local newspaper and had the project featured in their blog. Within a day her project was completely funded.

Below is a quick video highlighting DonorsChoose and how easy it is to use.

The Triple Focus: Social Emotional Education

This story excerpt was featured on the HUFFPOST BOOK blog on August 8^th 2014. 

The Triple Focus: A New Approach to Education is a fantastic quick read. I highly recommend this book to anyone working with students. It provides insight to the emotional well being of children.

A New Approach to Education

 

The following is an excerpt from Daniel Goleman's new book with Peter Senge, The Triple Focus: A New Approach to Education.

Empathy and Academic Success

The key to compassion is being predisposed to help -- and that can be learned.

There is an active school movement in character education and teaching ethics. But I don't think it's enough to have children just learn about ethical virtuosity, because we need to embody our ethical beliefs by acting on them. This begins with empathy.

There are three main kinds of empathy, each involving distinct sets of brain circuits. The first is cognitive empathy: understanding how other people see the world and how they think about it, and understanding their perspectives and mental models. This lets us put what we have to say in ways the other person will best understand.

The second is emotional empathy, a brain-to-brain linkage that gives us an instant inner sense of how the other person feels -- sensing their emotions from moment to moment. This allows "chemistry" in our connections with people.

Those two are very important of course; they're key to getting along with other people, but they're not necessarily sufficient for caring. The third is called, technically, empathic concern -- which naturally leads to empathic action.Unlike the other two kinds of empathy, this variety is based in the ancient mammalian circuitry for caring and for parenting, and it nurtures those qualities.

That last type of empathy offers the foundation for what's been called a "caring classroom," where the teacher embodies and models kindness and concern for her students, and encourages the same attitude among the students. Such a classroom culture provides the best atmosphere for learning, both cognitively and emotionally.

Learning in general happens best in a warm, supportive atmosphere, in which there exists a feeling of safety, of being supported and cared about, of closeness and connection. In such a space children's brains more readily reach the state of optimal cognitive efficiency -- and of caring about others.

Such an atmosphere has particular importance for those children at most risk of going off track in their lives because of early experiences of deprivation, abuse, or neglect. Studies of such high-risk kids who have ended up thriving in their lives -- who are resilient -- find that usually the one person who turned their life around was a caring adult.

If you ask them what made the difference, very often they'll tell you it was that teacher who really saw them, who really understood them, who really cared about them and saw their potential. Such caring and genuine concern is important not just in the classroom but also throughout the school.

Administrators need to care about teachers so that the teachers feel they have a secure base. When you have a secure base, your mind operates at its best. You can function optimally. You can take smart risks. You can innovate and be creative, feel enthused, motivated, and tune in to other people. Compassion comes more easily.

The more upset we are, the more self-focused we become. We tune out the people around us, tune out the systems around us, and we just think about ourselves. Being able to manage your inner life lets you tune in to others with genuine care, and function at your best. It's true for teachers, for parents, for administrators, and for kids.

Several research centers have been piloting programs that cultivate an attitude of kindness and concern, Stanford and Emory Universities among them. The Mind and Life Institute has created a network of educators and researchers (from these and other institutions) to distill the active ingredients from this research and adapt it into a curriculum for younger students. They plan to start with the first or second grade, and then roll out developmentally appropriate versions for each successive grade level.

For instance, one of the guided reflections a teacher in such a program might lead students through is all the ways other kids are "just like me." The children would be instructed to consider their common hurts and hopes, their fears and anger, their kindness, and their need to be loved. Such a widened view of how others feel and see the world acts as an antidote to a one-dimensional view of other children that can lead to negative stereotyping or bullying.

One appeal: these are empirically tested methods, and so this program in cultivating compassion should be state of the art. Helping children cultivate their capacity for caring and concern -- for empathic action -- will likely be the next major step for SEL.

From The Triple Focus: A New Approach to Education. Copyright 2014 Daniel Goleman and Peter Senge.