Relevant Classroom Tips of the Week

New Home!

2010-01-22T22:45:00.002-06:00

We are thrilled to announce that our blog is now located on our homepage. Check it out at www.relevantclassroom.com/blog.

2009-10-19T11:57:00.004-05:00

Have you or your school implemented Career Clusters? Did you host an event or a project that went really well? Please share! The Career Clusters Institute is looking for those programs with success stories to share. See the information above for submitting proposals or email Carrie at cderner@relevantclassroom.com. Additionally, there are some specific slots for green program ideas, so if you've had some success in those arenas we really want to hear from you.

Sink the "Sub"

2009-10-19T11:44:00.006-05:00

This game is often played by high school students when there is a substitute teacher in their classroom.

Rules of Play: be as obnoxious as you can be and don’t pay attention.

Outcome of the Game: see who can make the sub give in, make them the most frustrated, and the highest of all rankings: who can make the sub cry.

I imagine the winners getting high fives in the commons.

As a substitute, I have never been totally sunk, but there have been some close calls. Those occasions have usually been accompanied by not-so-informative lesson plans. As a sub, it’s helpful when I can position myself as a supervisor, as someone who can assist and someone to ensure students are on task. I much prefer this than being set up as the “warden” of the class. I am not there to make enemies with the students in your class because when I show up to sub a second day, you can bet my sub is under water before I’ve even begun.

As a teacher you play a large role in keeping subs afloat. Even just a little effort up front goes a long way. My favorite classes to sub for usually have some kind of “Survival Notebook.” Below are few ideas of items that can be collected and placed into one notebook. You need only exchange the handouts and daily lesson plan and it can be used each time you’re gone.

Hint: most of this can be compiled by one of your lovely student assists!

IN THE FRONT OF THE BOOK INCLUDE

The Bell Schedule

Seating Charts—can also be under the tabs below (Note: if you have pics of students with names—that is SO useful)

Classroom Rules and Procedures

Attendance and Tardy Forms

Fire alarm info with escape routes

Map of the School

Teachers who might be helpful

Quick phone number reference (office, attendance, helpful teachers, technical support, etc.)

CREATE A TAB FOR EACH PERIOD

Under each period include:

Identify two helpful students in each period

An outline of the period

Any handouts

Something to assign or read if there is extra time

Road Trip Nation—Why Didn’t We Find This Sooner?

2009-10-08T22:04:00.002-05:00

(See Annie's comment below!)

Do not be surprised if you see future Tip of the Week with nearly the same title. Why? Because I just stumbled upon their site/project today and I can't get enough of it! As we did deeper I’m sure there will be more gems to share.

First, there has to be well over 100 video interviews with people from all over the country, in all different careers. Now that have your attention, you may be asking, “What the heck is Roadtrip Nation?”

Well, it started with a few college graduates who didn’t know what to do with their lives. They took a road trip across the country, filming and interviewing industry leaders with the purpose of exposing themselves different careers and discovering how others found their passions. Here is their manifesto:

So, what do you want to do with your life?
“You should be a doctor, an accountant, a consultant…..blah, blah, blah.”
Everywhere you go people try to tell you who to be and what to do with your life. We call that THE NOISE. Block it. Shed it. Leave it for the conformists. As a generation, we need to get back to focusing on individuality. Self-construction rather than mass production.
Define your own road in life instead of traveling down someone elses.
Listen to yourself. Your road is the OPEN ROAD. Find it.
Find the Open Road

The project was picked up by PBS and has now been through several seasons. You can watch episodes or individual interviews. Use the project to expose your students to what’s out there! If you teach a careers class or have an advisory, dive into the Roadtrip Nation as a project. If you are just doing your part to expose students to careers in the fields related to your subject matter, pull off a related interview or two.

Enjoy!

Hi Relevant Classroom!My name is Annie and I'm the Director of Education for Roadtrip Naiton.

We were so excited today to see your shout out to us on your blog - and I just wanted to add a few things to your original post to further explain how we fit into the classroom setting.

First of all, you can view our entire Interview Archive at http://www.roadtripnation.com/explore/archives.php?i=archive&view=ALL

Secondly, over the last year and a half, we have been developing a curriculum geared towards secondary school students to help them define their own roads in life.

Our curriculum, The Roadtrip Nation Experience, is made up of 24 Internet-based, multi-media/interactive lessons that essentially sit on top of our Interview Archive. Students participating in The Roadtrip Nation Exprience will receive full access to this online curriculum as well as a supplemental workbook which provides experiential activities that correspond with each online lesson.

Our curriculum is geared towards our end goal in mind - to provide students with the resources they need to 'hit the road' in their own communities and find Leaders who might be able to provide insight about careers and life experiences that the students find interesting and meaningful.

It is our hope that this curriculum enables students to gain the self-confidence they need to create a life based on what matters to them most.

For more information about The Roadtrip Nation Experience, or how you can bring it to your school site, please visit roadtripnation.orgLooking forward to hearing from you.

Cheers!

Annie Mais

Director of Education

RoadtripNation.org

annie@roadtripnation.org

The Wisconsin Careers Conference: One of our Favorites

2009-10-01T11:57:00.001-05:00

This may sound like a sales pitch, but I promise we’re not being paid.

For the past two years, we’ve attended the Wisconsin Careers Conference in Madison, Wisconsin. Now, you may think it’s crazy to visit Madison in January, but it’s worth it! The conference is designed for those in the field of career guidance and those who teach students about careers and career planning. It may have started as state show, but word has gotten out and folks from across North America have come to appreciate the quality professional development and opportunities to network that the conference provides.

The Conference runs January 25th – 27th.

Registration information can be found on-line.

We will be there again this January and hope to see you!

Lunchbox Lessons

2009-10-01T11:29:00.004-05:00

One of the perks to attending several professional development conferences for teachers is the opportunity to see the latest “good stuff” from others in the field. While in Wyoming this past week, we ran into a company called Lunchbox Lessons. I’ve been checking out their free, on-line resources since, and am impressed! Here’s a little about their company as taken from their Facebook page.

“Lunchbox Lessons is an education company. We engage kids in 21st Century Skills with innovative children’s books, workbooks, lesson plans, DVDs and BrainSnacks for learning at home and in the classroom. Working with top shelf authors like Jean Craighead George, TA Barron and Ken Thomasma and organizations such as the Apple Learning Interchange, NHNZ and NOAA, Lunchbox Lessons brings the best resources available to parents and teachers alike.”

As teachers, you’ll love their “Brainsnack” videos which are 3-5 minutes in length. As opposed to those lovely 80’s videos that our students make fun of, these are up-to-date with great live footage. Additionally, they offer some well-written and age-appropriate lesson plans to accompany the video material. I love that the videos allow students access into the careers of real people.

Lunchbox Lessons is up-and-coming so they’re continually adding new material. Each topic listed below has several different BrainSnack clips to peak your students' interest. Here’s a short list of some of the topics you’ll currently find on their site:
What’s Up in the Universe?
Several Story Tellers
The Making of the Movie Australia

Coming Soon Items:
Broken Circle-Endangered Species
Powering the Web of Life-Energy

Need more reason to check them out? Look at their list of partners for each topic; it's an impressive list!

Anchor and Twist

2009-09-10T08:41:00.002-05:00

Have you heard? The new CPR isn’t really CPR.

Those of you required, or just plain disciplined enough, to stay current on your CPR/First Aide certifications likely know what we’re talking about. Those of you still in the dark, fear not, this isn’t really about CPR.

The new CPR (the kind when only one person is around) isn’t technically CPR because there’s no breathing (AKA the Pulmonary component). Research demonstrated that just doing chest compressions was ultimately more effective. CPR is practically already a household name, but it took many years to accomplish. A change in names could have set back the cause. So, a smart group of marketing folks convinced the medical gurus to keep the “CPR” and add the words “hands-only” to it. The theory here: anchor to something people already know and twist it to show them the difference. You can apply to same thing in your classroom. Start with providing your students’ brains something they are familiar with and then explain how this new thing or process is different.

Here’s how it might sound:
If I had never seen an earthworm and you had to describe to me how to draw one, what would you say?....(drawing) How does it look?...Anything I should change?...
Now, we’ve been investigating amphibians. Are earthworms amphibians? Nope, you’re exactly right. However, if I were to color this in with a bright color like blue or orange, it would look just like a certain type of amphibian. These bright, worm-like amphibians are called caecilians .That’s spelled c-a-e-c-i-l-i-a-n, but pronounced “see-sill-ee-un.” Say that with me….

Next time you introduce a new concept to your students, figure out what you can anchor to from their world and you’ll need only explain the “twists.”
Sidenote: The scary thing is that infomercials do this really well. They show you all horrible and non-functional products you’re familiar with and then show you their miracle-gadget and its new features. Now admit it, you’ve wanted to order at least one as-seen-on-TV item!

A big thanks to FastCompany Magazine for sharing the “Anchor and Twist” concept below. I’ve done my best to summarize, but you should really read the original article. It’s short, sweet and to the point.

Welcome Back!

2009-09-10T08:36:00.003-05:00

Whether you've been back two days or three weeks, we hope your classrooms are off to a great start! It's been an incredibly busy summer at Relevant Classroom. It was wonderful meeting so many of you throughout the summer at your conferences and workshops.

We're looking forward to our fall routine including this weekly blog, visiting more classrooms and finishing up our new products for 2010. In fact, our annual product development and writing gathering started full-force yesterday. Look for snippets of the GREAT STUFF IN THE PIPELINE over the next two months!

Teach Kids to Fail (or at least understand that failure is unavoidable when taking risks)

2009-04-13T10:02:00.001-05:00

When we discuss leadership with young people we almost exclusively focus on success. We help them envision success, plan for success, and even celebrate success. But when do we talk to young people about what to do with failure?

Ironically, I think young people think (and worry) about failure far more than success, so the fact that few teachers, parents or other adult leaders address the topic leaves kids without useful strategies or attitudes for when – not if – failure occurs.

Check out this video from BluefishTV about failure and think about how you could use it to have a discussion with students about how to expect for and use failures as a springboard for greater things.

Leadership Development Tip for the Week of April 13, 2009

Another Online Source for Career Clusters-based Information

2009-04-13T09:58:00.002-05:00

I’m always on the lookout for websites that are simple, easy-to-use and provide quality, current information about career planning. This past week, I found another one worth mentioning here on the Relevant Classroom Tips of the Week: ISEEK.

ISEEK is Minnesota's comprehensive career, education, and job resource. The website is sponsored by a partnership of Minnesota agencies and institutions formed in 1999.

Here’s what I like about the site:

Objective, data-driven perspective about careers
Uses the Career Clusters model to organize careers
Easy navigation
Up-to-date content
Clean, simple layout and design

Kudos to the team at ISEEK. Even though the site has components specific to careers in Minnesota, there is a lot of great information that anyone can use.

If you are looking for a free, easy-to-use site for students to explore career possibilities, I’d recommend starting here: http://www.iseek.org/careers/clusters.html.

Career Development Tip for the Week of April 13, 2009

Play Games. Really! It's okay!

2009-03-30T09:55:00.004-05:00

A while back, we put up a post to spread the news about Edutopia. I’ve become a self-proclaimed junkie (with a name like Edutopia, how could I resist?). I get their weekly newsletter and love to peruse their site. The March 25th update was about computer games and teaching social issues. It had such valuable resources that I just had to pass them along. The update was based around this article titled “Computer Games Explore Social Issues: The fluid, interactive nature of simulations makes them ideal for tackling complex subjects.”

If you’re interested in trying some games out in your classroom, here are a few to explore:

Games for Change – Real World Games, Real World Impact. You’ll find games in many academic areas.

Operation Climate Control. You’ll find games to help students grasp climate changes and carbon emissions. There are even lessons plans and helpful links to accompany the game!

Play the News! Here are games to engage students in what’s currently happening in the world.

…and there are more!

Do you like what you see, but aren’t sure how to manage teaching through games? Here’s some great advice.

Are you still trying to convince your administration that games are good? Check this article (“Serious Gaming: Computer Games Become Potent Student Motivators and Evaluators: A new generation of video games sneaks into assessment tools”) out.

Classroom Engagement Tip for March 30, 2009

High Tech High

2009-03-30T09:22:00.013-05:00

Wow! That’s all I can say. If my roots weren’t already planted with my family and our careers, I’d drop everything and move to San Diego to be part of this phenomenal charter school system. While in San Diego for the NASSP convention, I made a stop to tour High Tech High. They started in 2000 as a single charter high school – they’ve quickly grown to include eight schools ranging from elementary to high school. A little background (according to their Web site): “HTH combats the twin problems of student disengagement and low academic achievement by creating personalized, project-based learning environments where all students are known well and challenged to meet high expectations. HTH schools attempt to show how education can be redesigned to ensure that all students graduate well prepared for college, work, and citizenship.”

There is so much that excited me about the schools and their philosophy! They’ve taken a holistic approach to school reform. There are no baby steps being taken to try to change the environment students learn in – it’s an “all or nothing deal” unlike any school culture students have been in before. And that’s why it works! We were told that there have been students who were so committed to being a part of it, that they drove over 80 miles one way to attend.

I was most impressed by the results of the education model they have in place. Every student we talked to was articulate, confident and highly knowledgeable about the project and content she was immersed in. Other things that struck me:

The schools and staff are now approached by colleges and outside partners with project ideas and resources. Through organic growth, teachers provide students incredible real-world experiences while facilitating academic content.

The staff is a group of positive, solution-oriented teachers. They have to be! It’s part of teaching in a project-based environment.

It’s a very intense educational experience. Students and teachers alike gain huge knowledge and experience. As a product of the environment and its demands, the average age of teachers is below 30 and their tenure is typically short (as compared to the traditional school environment). Not everyone is cut out to work here, but those who rise to the top do a tremendous job!

The HTH system recognizes that, in order for the schools to operate as they’re supposed to, much attention must be given to new teachers. Since the teaching staff typically hasn’t seen anything but a traditional education culture, a new paradigm must be built. Even with the fast growth of the charter schools, they’ve been deliberate about how to make sure all the support systems are in place to replicate the philosophy of High Tech High strategies.

All of the schools are full of open, transparent spaces. They are very flexible environments. Classroom walls are filled with glass panels, there are “white” boards on most wall surfaces, many classroom walls slide into storage so larger spaces can be created and commons areas serve multiple purposes.
How do they afford to do all of the projects in the schools? They forgo textbooks. All of the money saved on books is available for teachers to purchase needed materials for the projects they have going on.

If you have the chance to see one of the schools, grab it. I applaud those who teach in and administer the HTH system. Well done!

Want to see what they’ve accomplished to-date?
Want to learn more about the schools? Check out their FAQs .
Check out some of the projects their students have made happen.
Want to experience the school? Take a tour, be a part of a professional development institute or apply for their graduate school program!
This isn’t’ your typical summer school!

Credits: All photos are from High Tech High’s Web site.

Professional Development Tip for March 30, 2009

Making the Most Out of an Online Group Project

2009-03-20T16:19:00.006-05:00

When I received the syllabus for my most recent online graduate course I noticed that the final project was a GROUP project. I thought, “How in the world?” Like many of you, my experiences with group projects has been a mix of both good and bad. I have to admit, my impression of working in a completely online work group has changed. Our group has found a nice stride and we meet each of the milestones with high quality products and time to spare! I thought I would share some tips and tools we’ve employed to make it work. Try some of these tools out in your own classroom or your next online course with group work.

Tip #1 - Chunk up the Project and Assign a Leader to each Chunk
Our project is divided up into several chunks. For each chunk we appoint a leader. This person’s role is to set a schedule for completing the chunk and start the discussion about the content we plan to include in that piece of the paper we are writing.

Tip #2 – Use a Discussion Board to Collect/Discuss Content Before You Develop a Draft of Anything
We use the discussion board provided as part of the course management system to start our discussion about the content to include in each section (Blackboard in this case). If you don’t have a discussion board you might consider using a tool like Google docs or even set up a Wiki on Wet Paint. We each post a few things we want to see in our finished section of the paper. After a couple days on the discussion board, the “leader” for that piece uses the content we’ve identified to draft up a version of the section to be included in our final report.

Tip #3 – Use Web 2.0 Tools to Allow Everyone to Edit/Revise the Draft
The draft copy of the section is then uploaded to Google Docs and shared with everyone. (Just a side note, Google docs is completely free. All you have to do is sign up.) The benefit of using a tool like Google Docs is that each member of the group can see and edit the exact same version of the paper. The most current file is always on Google Docs. The editing tools in Google docs allow us to edit the document in a way that looks a lot like the track changes feature in Microsoft Word®. We each edit the paper using a different color of text so it’s easy to see who added what. We also make it a point to leave a comment using the tool provided so that it’s easier to understand why we thought something needed to be stated a certain way. After a few days of editing the draft copy the leader takes the edited copy and starts to clean it up.

Tip #4 – If You Need to Meet, Keep the Meetings Short and Focused on Making Decisions
If there are some significant questions the entire group needs to weigh in on then the leader sets up a really short web conference using a free service called OOvOO or Skype. OOvOO allows up to six people to video chat at the same time for free! Skype offers a nice multiple person chat feature too! During the brief meeting we make decisions about the lingering questions and then the leader produces a near final draft.

Tip #5 – Take Advantage of the Extra Eyes Available to Proofread
The rest of the group proofreads the paper and makes edits as needed. For the most part, we’ve found that by this point there are usually few, if any significant changes. After the proofreading phase, the leader pulls the content off Google Docs and submits it in the format required for the class.

Professional Development Tip for the week of March 16th, 2009

Free, Printable Success Cards from Relevant Classroom

2009-03-02T10:52:00.004-06:00

We've been promising a PDF version of our Success Cards for months. Well, here is the link!

The Stimulus Package: WIIFE (What’s in it for Education?)

2009-03-02T10:36:00.008-06:00

There’s been a lot of hoopla and media coverage over the stimulus package. One of CNN’s favorite clips to show was the 1100 pages of it sitting on a desk and to talk about how no member of congress has read it. By the way, the text for the final bill (called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) is a mere 407 pages. There are 230 instances of the word “education.” I turned to the Federal Fund Information for States report on the bill to gather information as it was only 58 pages and included some great tables noting the funds that will funnel through state programs. Additional summaries, available to the general public are available via the whitehouse.gov site.

I’ve tried to note all funding listed specifically under education as well items in other areas that are directly related to education. Have I missed something? Probably, but I believe the list will still help to clear up the question as stated in the title of the post.

The final total on the package was $787 Billion. In the chart I’ve created--which excludes a few items for adult skills training and independent living items—the total for preschool thru higher education is roughly $95 billion.

(Clicking on the chart will bring up a larger version.) Here's the brief, bulleted version:

Education Portion of the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund: $39.5B
Title I $13B
IDEA/Special Education $12.2B
Education for Homeless Youth $670M
Teacher Incentive Fund $200M
Impact Aid $100M
School Lunch Equiment $100M
SNAP (school lunch) $20B
Head Start $1B
Early Head Start $1.1B
Job Corps $250M
Pell Grants $6.6B

Professional Development Tip for March 2, 2009

And the “Oscar” goes to…

2009-02-22T22:32:00.002-06:00

What a show last night, eh? The Academy Awards are the most watched award show of the year. Celebrating success is an important part of creating culture. America treasures motion pictures so it makes sense that we all love to watch the celebration of movie making success.

What skills are important in your classroom; what are you trying to promote beyond academic success? How about effort, teamwork, compassion, service to others, or critical thinking?

If these are important skills then celebrate them. You might ask, “But an awards ceremony…really?” Well, maybe or maybe it’s a personal note or maybe a phone call home to a parent praising the student’s efforts. The key to celebrating success is that it is heartfelt, meaningful to the recipient, and conveys importance of the award itself.

Take a minute to identify ways to celebrate the success you see in your students. The red carpet is optional.

Leadership Development Tip for the Week of February 23, 2009

The Ladders – give students perspective

2009-02-22T22:27:00.003-06:00

Have you seen the commercials for the jobsite, The Ladders? In the commercials, the announcer proclaims that The Ladders is a premium jobsite for premium talent – those who people who are qualified for $100,000+ per year job. If you were like me, you might have wondered, “What exactly does it take to get one of these ‘premium jobs’?” I logged in this weekend to check out the job listings. (I signed up for the free service-I’m not taking myself too seriously, here)

This is what struck me: most of these jobs are within reach to ‘regular’ people who have worked to get the education and experience needed to qualify. None of the jobs were available to recent college graduates and most required evidence of success in previous jobs.

I think many high school students have one of two huge misperceptions. Misperception #1: they’ll never have a shot at a $100,000+ job. Misperception #2: they’ll get a $100,000+ job right out of college. The problem with Misperception #1 is that the belief becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy when many students have the skills and work ethic to earn a great job in the future – with guidance and a plan. The problem with Misperception #2 is that students fail to recognize the value of performance outside the classroom. Employers care little about grades after you’re hired. You’ve got to work hard to create success on the job, too.

Take a minute to log in and check out the site. Find a few job openings related to your subject area and share with your students. Use as an opportunity to have a discussion to talk about long-range career plans and the importance of education and work performance.

Career Development Tip for the week of February 23, 2009

Existing Resources

2009-02-13T09:55:00.007-06:00

There are many organizations and individuals willing to share their talents and time to help students and staff. Some are willing to come in when a teacher needs a little help setting up or prepping for an event, others are specific about the students and services they offer. Either way, they can be tremendous resources IF THEY ARE UTILIZED. This means both staff and administrators are aware of the resources available, what they offer and how to use them. A client of ours is working to pull together this exact information to help their staff and students better utilize existing community resources. The process has been fairly straight forward thus far. We collected existing contact information for the resources from both existing lists and teachers who currently coordinate with them, set up an electronic information form, and sent it to the contact person responsible for each resource. Our next step will be a small “summit” meeting where each organization will share a little about themselves and the school administrators and staff can share their needs. We’ll update you on the summit after it happens, but for now thought we would share a template of the information form. Discuss the idea with an administrator or take on the project yourself.

The only requirement for the form is Adobe Reader, a free download that most of us already have on our computer to view PDF’s. Occasionally MAC users use a different product that doesn’t always play well with PDF forms, so it may be useful to add a note about this to your contact e-mail. In any case, here’s the form for you to adapt to your needs. Another idea would be to set up the form using a free on-line survey host such as Survey Monkey or Zoomerang.

Professional Development Tip for February 12, 2009

Decreasing Down Time between Student Presentations: A PowerPoint Trick

2009-02-12T12:19:00.006-06:00

You have 20+ plus students in class.
You’ve assigned a small project and want each student to give a small presentation to the class.
Students, or you, spend more time loading their presentation onto the computer than they do presenting.
The class grows restless.
You grow restless.

Sound familiar? Science teacher, Malinda Burk, found a solution. She used the “Reuse Slides” feature in PowerPoint® to combine all the students’ slides, including their custom backgrounds into a single presentation. She loaded it, each student presented using their slides and when they were finished they scrolled to the next slide which happened to be the title slide for the next student to present. No time was wasted and she could review each presentation later without having to open more than one file. Check out the nifty how-to video to see for yourself.

PowerPoint 2007 Directions
- Open a new file or the file you would like to add slides into
- Click on New Slide>Reuse Slides
- (On the right side of your screen) Click Browse>file
- Navigate to a file you would like to use
- Select the slide(s) you would like to include from the file and click to add them to your new master presentation
- Choose Browse>file again to select other files

Classroom Engagement Tip for February 12, 2009

Edutopia

2009-02-06T17:11:00.003-06:00

Matt Mineau from Appleton Area School District (East High School) tipped us off to a great resource filled with multi-faceted gems – Edutopia. Edutopia was created by the George Lucas Educational Foundation to provide the educational community with innovation. As they say, “we spread the word about ideal, interactive learning environments and enable others to adapt these successes locally.”

Edutopia exists in three realms – www.edutopia.org, Edutopia magazine and Edutopia video.

You may see several pieces of Edutopia pop up in the future on here; today my favorite resource is the video library (

http://www.edutopia.org/video). “Through an extensive offering of documentaries, Edutopia video is a catalyst for innovation by helping educators and parents, as well as business and community leaders, see and understand pioneering best practices.”

A few best practices to check out when you have 10 minutes: Team Teaching: Two Teachers, Three Subjects, One Project and Tricks of the Trade: Using a “Fishbowl” for Discussions .

Professional Development Tip for February 6, 2009

GNAP

2009-02-06T17:06:00.003-06:00

as shared by Jenison Public Schools Family Consumer Science teachers

Jenison school district requires every junior to take a one semester “Decisions” class. Three weeks of the class are dedicated to career development. They shared a simple tip called GNAP (“guh-nap”).

G - greeting
N - name
A – affiliation
P – purpose

GNAP is an acronym to teach students how to properly introduce themselves. It’s practiced with a smile and a handshake. Here are a few samples:

“Hi, I’m Carrie. I am a junior at Lincoln High School and am here to pick up an application.”

“Hi there, my name is Carrie. I’m a member of the Blaze softball team. I’m here to drop off these flyers for Randy Wilson.”

“Hello, my name is Carrie. I work with Relevant Classroom. I’m looking to print a small catalog and am wondering who I would speak with about a price estimate.”

It may seem small, but it is empowering to have a quick strategy to take charge of an introductory type situation, be it on the phone or in person. Jenison High School teachers model GNAP with their students on a regular basis, rehearse with their students and require students to GNAP them as their “ticket to class” the next day. Hopefully, GNAP will be their “ticket to an interview” or a “ticket to a great career” someday as well.

Career Development Tip for February 6, 2009

Local Economy

2009-01-15T17:16:00.003-06:00

I wouldn’t blame you if you read the word “economy” in the title to this post and wondered if you could handle any more depressing economy news at this point; thanks for reading on. I’m actually referring to the makeup of your local economy. What industries keep your area afloat? Another way to ask the question is who are the largest employers in your area? They might be the food processing plant, the hospital, lumber yard, grain co-op, insurance agency or university. Whatever, or whoever they are, it’s worth knowing for at least three good reasons.

1. Many of your students’ parents probably are employed by them.
2. These are the jobs currently available to students who stay in the community.
3. These are the jobs available to you in the area should you leave your current profession.

Let’s assume number three isn’t relevant at this point. Look at the first two as your ticket to relevant examples to draw from. When we connect and apply concepts to students in their world, we make learning more impactful. Next time you prep to teach a new skill or concept, do a little homework and provide examples of the careers in your area that apply it regularly. You can begin setting up a chart of your local examples similar to Relevant Classroom’s Making the Connection Charts provided in the My Career Kit user’s guides. Challenge yourself to provide at least two local, applied examples in your current units.

Career Development Tip for January 15, 2009

That's What I'm Looking For!

2009-01-15T15:34:00.005-06:00

We’ve discussed Positive Psychology and Positive Behavior Support in prior postings. Both programs share a common element of placing focus on desired behaviors in our students. I don’t think that means you can let little Jimmy disrupt class for 15 minutes with his not-so-desired behaviors, but you can make a concerted effort to praise good behaviors.
Appropriate praise varies from situation to situation and student to student. If you have a brand new group of students this semester, it may take you awhile to determine what each responds well to. Here are a few options of varying degrees to get you started (Click on the table to increase its size):

The last suggestion, positive note home, reminds me of a random progress report and note my freshman English teacher mailed to my parents sharing how impressed he was with my first poetry analysis. He was hard to snag a compliment from, and it meant a lot to my mom and me.
Commit to focusing on the positive in your classes this next week or so. It can really make a difference. Besides, it’s much more fun to be the bearer of good news than bad!

Leadership Development Tip for January 15, 2009

The Leadership Link, from Tim Elmore

2009-01-08T15:52:00.005-06:00

A client recently shared a monthly article on Leadership called The Leadership Link. We really enjoyed the content and have since read more. The articles are written by Dr. Tim Elmore, founder of Growing Leaders, a non-profit dedicated to equipping and mobilizing youth to serve and share their talents with the world. If you’re familiar with Habitudes®, he also produced those as well. If you’re not familiar with Elmore, you should take a quick peek at his resources. They are great for those passionate about fostering leadership skills in today’s youth.

Click the icon to view a past article or sign up for the monthly Leadership Link email from Dr. Elmore.

Leadership Development Tip for January 8, 2009

Questions that Count

2009-01-08T15:43:00.005-06:00

Nearly a month ago, I had an appointment at the local university to meet with a professor. I was early and waited on a bench in the hallway. To my right was a classroom. I couldn’t see in, but I was close enough to eavesdrop for 15 minutes. I concluded that the class being held was an entry-level college algebra class. The professor was using an overhead transparency (the creak of the overhead knob is hard to miss) to guide the class through a number of problems.
Perhaps it was because I could not see, but I clearly noted the following distinct pattern:

Professor asks a question…Professor answers her question…Professor asks a question…Professor answers her question… (Repeat.)

The above situation is not isolated; we’ve all taught classes where creating discussion felt like pulling teeth. Here are my thoughts on why student often don’t participate:

It is easier, requires less thought and is less risky to wait for the teacher to answer his or her own questions.
Teachers don’t provide enough time for students to think and discern an appropriate answer before the teachers answer themselves or move on to the next question.
Students don’t feel confident or safe sharing their initial thoughts.

How do we fix the problem? Here’s what I’ve learned from watching good teachers and by trial and error in my own classroom.

It’s not easy. You have to commit to setting the expectation of participation and plan to work through the initial awkwardness.
Create a safe environment to share. Consider asking more open ended questions or those with no particular right or wrong answer.
Ask clear questions.
Wait! Students need time to think, digest and work up the courage to say something aloud
Lower the level of risk by starting with:
a. “Think to yourself…”
b. “Share with the people next to you…”
c. “Who will share something they heard with the class?”

Number five is a personal favorite of mine as it can be used as a bail out when you’ve asked a question and students aren’t willing to share with everyone. Eventually students understand they are expected to participate and the process becomes more natural. Remember, it will take time and effort and it is worth it!

Classroom Engagement Tip for January 8, 2009

Celebrate the Year

2008-12-23T11:25:00.003-06:00

We’re quickly approaching the time of year when resolutions are set and we put what we want to do better at the top of our list. How often, though, do we invest as much thought in celebrating all of the things we’ve done well over the past year? In these few days before the Holiday break, help your students celebrate their growth and achievements in the past year (or semester!). Think of the good deeds you’ve witnessed, the improvement in grades, all of the effort that went into that “ah-ha!”, the positive outlook… Follow this link to a template you can print off and jot a quick note to individual students.

Leadership Development Tip for December 22, 2008

Adding Artwork to Your Materials

2008-12-23T11:19:00.006-06:00

Clip art was so 1990. Okay, so maybe it has its purpose now and again, but the next time you need artwork to help solidify a point or illustrate a concept, check out Pics4Learning. It’s a website created just for teachers and students.

Pics4Learning is a copyright-friendly image library. The Pics4Learning collection consists of thousands of images that have been donated by students, teachers and amateur photographers. Unlike many Internet sites, permission has been granted for teachers and students to use all of the images donated to the Pics4Learning collection.

If you have your own collection of photos with educational merit, upload them here so others can enjoy them too.

Other image bank sites for teachers:
· Civil War
· Depression Era
· EduPic
· Maps
· NASA Image eXchange
· Roosevelt Presidential Library

· US Air Force
· US Fish and Wildlife Service
· US Navy Images

Classroom Engagement Tip for December 22, 2008

Ready for Resolutions

2008-12-15T15:57:00.003-06:00

Tis the season to start thinking about New Year’s resolutions. Here’s a great You Tube video we found to get you in the mood.

While the video suggest forgetting resolutions, we think they provide a great opportunity o promote leadership development with your students. Here’s an idea we brainstormed:

Announce during class that New Year’s is around the corner and that part of your tradition (at least starting this year) is to have each class come to a consensus about a New Year’s Resolution. Here are the rules:
- The resolution must increase positive behavior that can be applied in this class
- Everyone in the class must support the resolution
- The resolution must be realistic

Use the opportunity to teach about how to build consensus and work together in accomplishing a common goal.

Once the resolution is settled, write it down and post in the room for all to see. Your task is to help hold the group accountable through the weeks and months of the new year. Each time you reference the resolution they made use the opportunity to speak about the importance of follow-through and commitment to excellence; all traits of effective leaders.

Leadership Development tip for the week of December 15, 2008

Getting All Students to Think About College

2008-12-15T15:49:00.005-06:00

A great resource website is up and running, KnowHow2Go.org, and it effectively and clearly lays out the case for going to college. You should take a few minutes yourself to review some of the facts and tips (especially the ones for mentors).

Teachers often think most students have already had someone talk about preparing for college with them. That may be true for some, but likely there are many others who are under-informed to make good planning decisions.

Remember, it’s not just preparing for a 4-year college or university. Many of today’s most in-demand jobs require degrees from community colleges and technical schools and the preparation for going to these schools is nearly the same.

Here are a few ideas for sharing this website:

1. Use as a discussion following a quiz or test
Take 5-10 minutes during class to project the website using an LCD projector. Explain how your class is helping them prepare for both college and a future career. Encourage students to write down the site address and to ask questions about preparing for college.

2. Post a link with description on your webpage
Many of you have a webpage on your school’s site. On your page add a note about the importance of college for all careers and post a link to the KnowHow2Go website.

3. Add a link to your email signature
Your email signature likely includes your contact information and might include a favorite quote of the school’s mission statement. If you’re allowed (check your IT policies) add a link to the KnowHow2Go website with a statement encouraging everyone to check it out.

4. Include in notes and progress reports home to parents
Use communication to parents as an opportunity to help them prepare their students for life after school, too. Share the website address and tell them about the great resources available on the site.

5. Provide “prizes” to students who look up the site on their own time
For fun, take time to make a virtual scavenger hunt using the site. Challenge students to find all the information on the website. When students have found all the information provide prizes of pencils, stickers, etc.

Resources like this website are excellent ways to help students help themselves in their college and career planning.

Career Development tip for the week of December 15, 2008

Inviting Students to Be Active Learners

2008-12-03T21:19:00.003-06:00

Last week I read an interesting article about learner engagement. The author drew a strong distinction between just "showing up" and truly "active" learning. I have to admit this article like any other on the topic struck a cord with me.

(Allow me a moment on my soapbox...) All too often we mistake simply "showing up and going through the motions" as real engagement. It reminded me of an article I wrote about how to create active learning. You can check it out here: Inviting Students to the Active Learning Process. I wrote the article to agricultural educators (I must admit... I am one!), but I think the underlying principles "stick" in any classroom. If you're a skimmer, like me, then you may want to skip the intro (nice academic background stuff...) and head on over to the third column on the first page. Start reading after the sub-heading there and I think you'll find the most useful information on pages 2 and 3. Enjoy!

Professional Development Tip for 12.3.08

Smart Art is Your Friend

2008-12-03T20:41:00.005-06:00

You’ve heard the mantra of graphic and advance organizers for years. Quit wasting your time drawing them by hand! Open up an Office 2007 program, choose INSERT and click on SMARTART. Choose the graphic that meets your needs, enter your information, play with the colors or the layout and you have a beautiful graphic organizer! Below are a just two examples.

Want some more resources on creating effective advance organizers? Check out these sites:

Ausubel's Theory - Ausubel originally proposed advance organizers as an instructional tool.
Example Advance Organizers - A great page with a few easy to use examples!

Classroom Engagement Tip for 12.3.08

rubistar

2008-11-10T13:54:00.002-06:00

I have a love hate relationship with rubrics. I love that they provide students with guidance, clear criteria and demonstrate the type of evidence I’m looking for in a project. I hate making them. I love that I can transfer responsibility for learning by answering most questions with a simple, “check your rubric.” I hate that rubrics take me forever to write. I love that the quality of projects usually increases when I’ve written a good rubric. I hate that, even if I write a good rubric, I have to spend adequate time and effort training my students on the rubric before they “get it.”

A rubric ensures that a project supports your learning objectives by defining the criteria students will be evaluated on and listing the evidence that is to be produced for each criteria.

If you have a favorite rubric resource, please share in a comment for the rest of us! One of my favorites (which is free) is rubistar. Rubistar allows you to find, create and share rubrics. You can search examples or browse by subject area. If your project needs a little spicing up, you can visit the inspiration page for help.

When creating a rubric on rubistar, you don’t have to start with a blank slate. The site helps you find a similar, customizable rubric to help you start. Here’s the beauty: there are drop down menus of criteria choose from (or you can enter your own). There are also presets for the evidence columns and you can choose how you want to weight each criteria. When you’re finished, you can save, print and go!

Classroom Engagement Tip for November 10, 2008

It's Up and Running

2008-11-10T13:46:00.002-06:00

In April, we released the book Strategies to Integrate NOW, a desktop reference to help career and technical education teachers who want to be more purposeful as they integrate academics in CTE courses. Here are a few of the highlights:

• Simple, effective strategies to approach integration
• Provides ideas for quick, limited use or for full-scale efforts
• Suggests practical ways to Prepare, Plan, Deliver and Assess
• Easy-to-read - great for individual use or with teams/groups/PLCs
• Supplement efforts already underway with additional ideas and strategies

The book and strategies have really caught on and we’ve had great response with our professional development sessions around the country.

We’re happy to announce that the website supplement to the book is now up and running! The site has free customizable templates, excerpts from the book, example integration plans and more. Visit for yourself and tell us what you think!

Career Development Tip for November 10, 2008

Storyboarding to Build Understanding

2008-11-02T21:26:00.003-06:00

The next time you deliver a lecture or assign students to read a long passage, encourage them take notes using a storyboard format. A storyboard is a timeline of events that are visually displayed for use in movies, commercials and animations. Storyboarding notes during the lecture or while reading involves the students creating a series of frames with images to represent a sequence of events or topics. Under each frame students should place a caption that describes the particular event in the sequence. The storyboarding process will encourage students to meta-cognitively process the information in the lecture and/or passage. The following shows an example of storyboarding a basic photosynthesis process.

Tips for success with storyboarding:

If this is the first time you have students take “notes” in this way demonstrate what you expect them to do for the first few frames by showing them an examples.
If this is the first time that students are learning the content make sure to share the number of “frames” students should have in their storyboard. This will help scaffold their understanding as they complete the task.
This approach works especially well when the content of the lecture or passage is a process or procedure.
If you use this technique with a lecture pause intermittently throughout the lecture to let students capture the information in a frame.

Classroom Engagement Tip for 10.31.08

High Demand Jobs

2008-11-02T21:19:00.003-06:00

Have you ever wondered what jobs are in highest demand in today’s labor market? Afterall we are preparing students for careers and life after school. What opportunities are out there for them after they have a diploma or complete some form of post-secondary training? Career Voyages, a partnership between the Department of Labor and the Department of Education is a unique website designed to help students explore careers in a number of high growth industries.

According to their Web site the following are today’s highest growth industries:

• Advanced Manufacturing
• Aerospace
• Automotive
• Construction
• Education
• Energy
• Health Care
• Homeland Security
• Hospitality
• Information Technology
• Retail
• Transportation

Emerging industries include: Biotechnology, Geospatial Technology and Nanotechnology. If you’re like me you are probably wondering what a couple of those even mean! Check out the Career Voyages Web site it’s well organized and provides a number of resources to help both you and your students understand opportunities in these high growth and emerging industries.

Career Development Tip for 10.31.08

Who’s On First – A Quick Communication Activity

2008-11-02T21:11:00.004-06:00

Employers continue to cite communication as an important skill for successful careers. Consider using this short 10-minute activity to begin a discussion about effective communication in your classroom or during a student organization meeting. To prepare, ask two students to read through the script prior to the class or meeting. As you select students to act out the story remind them that practice, enthusiasm and careful enunciation are important for success. Have the two students read the following script and then ask them the debrief questions that follow.

Script for Activity:

Abbott: Alright, now whaddya want?
Costello: Now look, I’m the head of the sports department. I got know the baseball players’ names. Do you know the guys’ names?
Abbott: Oh sure.
Costello: So you go ahead and tell me some of their names.
Abbott: We have Who’s on first, What’s on second, I Don’t Know’s on third.
Costello: That’s what I wanna find out.
Abbott: I say Who’s on First, What’s on second, I Don’t Know’s on third.
Costello: You know the fellows’ names?
Abbott: Certainly!
Costello: Well then who’s on first?
Abbott: Yes!
Costello: I mean the fellow’s name!
Abbott: Who!
Costello: The guy on first!
Abbott: Who!
Costello: The first baseman!
Abbott: Who!
Costello: The guy playing first!
Abbott: Who is on first!
Costello: Now whaddya askin’ me for?
Abbott: I’m telling you Who is on first!
Costello: Well, I’m asking YOU who’s on first!
Abbott: That’s the man’s name.
Costello: That’s who’s name?
Abbott: Yes.
Costello: Well go ahead and tell me.
Abbott: Who.
Costello: The guy on first.
Abbott: Who!
Costello: The first baseman.
Abbott: Who is on first!

Debrief Questions:

What happened?
What was the source of the confusion?
Where do you see this kind of communication confusion in real life?
Based upon this experience, what can we do to improve our communication with others?

Leadership Development Tip for 10.31.08

Do You Know Your Targets??

2008-11-02T21:01:00.005-06:00

Last week we exhibited at the National Career Pathways Network Conference in Cincinnati Ohio. The booth across from us happened to be the International Center for Leadership in Education. You may be more familiar with this group due to their founder and CEO, Willard Daggett. Mr. Daggett has been a champion for improving rigor, relevance and relationships in our schools. We, of course, share a passion for making classrooms and learning meaningful and relevant to students’ futures. Throughout the course of the conference, we learned about a neat resource offered by this group – the Curriculum Matrix.

The Curriculum Matrix assigns a priority rating to each state standard in English, math, and science based on the emphasis given to that standard on state tests. Standards are also crosswalked to the Essential Skills study, which ranks the importance of curriculum content in the subjects relative to what graduates need for success in adult life. The International Center uses education experts in each state to assist in creating the Curriculum Matrix.

In their book, Strategies to Integrate Now! authors Seth Derner and Dr. Jack Elliot discuss the importance of locating, in writing, a clear list of the academic standards/ benchmarks as a first step in making meaningful real-world connections in either a Career and Technical Education or Academic classroom. The Curriculum Matrix does this well! It’s a resource to consider having at the school or district level to guide curriculum and instructional decisions and priorities. This kind of resource is one tool to help ensure that schools and teachers don’t have to lose their vision of a complete education to the practice of “teaching to the test.”

Professional Development Tip for 10.31.08

Consider Benefits

2008-10-27T13:54:00.003-05:00

Not many high school or summer jobs include benefits such as insurance, 401k, flex time, tuition reimbursement, paid vacation and sick leave. It seems natural then that students may overlook these items when considering where to apply or accept a position. As a teacher, you know that not only do different districts have different pay scales, but there are also differences in benefits offered. In the corporate world, it varies even more. Check out this quick video on working for Google and you’ll see what I mean.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6h-gm01Fb0

Hold a class discussion on benefits. Share standard benefits to look for and some of the perks available as well. The following site has a nice list to get you started:
http://www.career-resumes.com/blog/category/job-benefits/.

Career Development Tip for October 23, 2008

Company Visions Activity

2008-10-27T13:42:00.007-05:00

Last week’s posting included a tip on personal branding. It reminded me of a fun activity on visioning we put together for a youth leadership conference. The activity had students match vision statements to familiar companies. It led into a discussion on a vision for their leadership teams. If you’re not familiar with the concept of vision statements, they are essentially a collaboratively developed statement that expresses where an individual, organization or company wants to be within a certain time period.

I think a small version of the activity would be a great bell work activity and/or could be used to tie in your school’s vision, your vision for your classes or to help students develop a vision for the semester/year.

Here's a few to get you started:

Leadership Development Tip for October 23, 2008

Google Docs

2008-10-27T13:25:00.005-05:00

There is a lot of emphasis placed on teachers working as teams: team teaching, small learning community teams, Professional Learning Communities, department teams, etc.. I buy into the concept 100%, but feel like I speak for many when I say, “it does require extra time and effort.” Without a common prep period or extra time after school, it makes it difficult to collaborate. Our friends at Google get it. While they can’t fix everything (yet) they do have a few tools that can make our lives easier. One such tool is Google Docs. In its simplest form, Google Docs allows groups to share all sorts or documents (including spreadsheets and presentations) and track changes. It eliminates the need to send attachments back and forth, passing around thumb drives and the guessing game of which version is the current version.

Common Craft does an excellent job of explaining Google Docs in less than three minutes. Check it out! Share it with your teams! It’s easy and secure.

I’ve already heard of one team using it to track student discipline issues and parent contacts. When a teacher needs to document a parent or student interaction, they log into the team and create a document with the students name (if it doesn’t already exist) and add a short description of the interaction. This helps everyone on the team stay informed of the student’s progress and behavior in other classes and serves as great documentation when meeting with parents.

Professional Development Tip for October 23, 2008

Genius Playlist

2008-10-27T13:22:00.003-05:00

My husband and I are the world’s worst “name that tune” or artist players. It’s not that we don’t like music, it’s just that we don’t remember the names of songs, artists, movies, actors or actresses. It’s not the worst handicap to have, but considering my students lived and breathed music, I was certainly out of the loop. I liked to play a little music in the classroom when appropriate, but making a playlist wasn’t my favorite task.

Now, i-tunes is making it easy with their Genius feature. Choose any song, click on the Genius playlist button and voila! Genius sorts through your music and creates a playlist of as many similar style songs as you wish.

Classroom Engagement Tip for October 23, 2008

What’s your brand?

2008-10-20T08:59:00.002-05:00

“The tiny, spontaneous, human act has enormous power.” Tom Peters

About ten years ago, Tom Peters lit a fire in the business world around a concept called personal branding. As commonplace as the idea seems today, how do we best prepare our students to be “branded” as they enter the workforce?

Guide your students through an exercise in identifying their brand and then creating an action plan to “be the brand.” To start the conversation, ask them what they know about company brands (Apple, Nike, Toyota, Target, etc.). What does a brand do for a company? Why does a company want to have a great brand? Share the point that, similar to a large company working to make a strong identity in the marketplace, each of us needs to establish a personal brand to help us stand out and get ahead in the workplace. Personal brands don’t involve logos and traditional advertising. Personal brands are all about how you’re perceived – what value do you bring to an employer (or the school, your group of close friends, the activities you’re involved in)?

To help students begin the process of identifying their brand, have them read the following except from Tom Peter’s Fast Company article from the late 1990’s:

“The…important thing to remember about your personal visibility campaign is: it all matters. When you're promoting brand You, everything you do -- and everything you choose not to do -- communicates the value and character of the brand. Everything from the way you handle phone conversations to the email messages you send to the way you conduct business...is part of the larger message you're sending about your brand.”

After they’ve read it and you’ve had a chance to discuss their take on its meaning, have them spend some time answering questions that lead them further down the road to identifying what they want to be known for.
*In terms of my work and ethic, what do I want to be famous for?
*What value to I bring to the groups I’m a part of? Do I follow through on my promises? Do I solve problems as situations arise? Can people count on me to help them? Do I spend money wisely and within my means?
*What have I accomplished that I am very proud of?
*Who do I admire most? What can I learn from that person’s work ethic that I can learn to do in my own life?

Have students condense their thoughts into once or two sentences. What do I want to be known for? This may be a struggle. A few prompts that may help make the process easier:
*I am all about…
*When people work with me, they will be struck by my ability to consistently…
*If someone were to describe my brand, they would say I am…

Finally, have them create an action plan. This can be as formal or informal as you’d like it to be. The whole point is that students are identifying ways they can build their personal brand as they prepare to enter the workforce. Here are a few questions that may help guide the action plan creation process: Out of the ideas you’ve listed, what do you most want to focus on developing? What do you need to be more purposeful about sharing with others? If you are able to be the brand they’ve described, what positive effects will it have on their workplace? On you personally?

Leadership Development Tip for October 20, 2008

The Countdown is On!

2008-10-20T08:56:00.001-05:00

Here’s a great tool to help keep your students on track during self-paced or group work time. Countdown Clock allows you to post the time remaining during reviews, group discussions, lab processing, research…you get the idea. The clock can function either on your computer’s desktop or you can integrate it right into your PowerPoint presentations. Download a free-trial here.

Classroom Engagement Tip for October 20, 2008

Tools of the Trade

2008-10-20T08:50:00.001-05:00

Get your students’ minds buzzing with opportunities for their futures! Gather tools and instruments (either actual objects or pictures of them) that are used in a wide variety of professions. Possible tools could be a tripod, a hammer, a stethoscope, a utility knife, a scientific calculator, a canvas, a cardboard box and an electronic writing pad. Challenge students to come up with at least two professions that employ the use of that instrument on a routine basis and then describe what the tool is used for. When the list is complete, have them identify which career they are most likely to pursue, which they are curious about and which they are least likely to pursue. If you have the time, they can also detail their reasoning behind those choices.

To put a twist on the activity, have all of the tools you select relate to professions within your academic area. An easy way to draw the connection to how relevant your class actually is to your students’ futures!
Career Development Tip for October 20, 2008

The Strengths Philosophy – What’s Right with You?

2008-10-20T08:35:00.006-05:00

DO NOT TRY TO BE SOMEONE ELSE. STRIVE TO BE THE PERSON YOU REALLY ARE – FULLY AND COMPLETELY. THIS IS YOUR BEST AVENUE TO ACHIEVING EXCELLENCE. – Chip Anderson

What would happen if the world focused on what’s right with everyone instead of trying to fix each others’ weaknesses? Can you imagine all the great things that would happen? Dr. Don Clifton started a movement in psychology about 50 years ago called Strengths Psychology. The whole premise of the movement centers on research that proves “we have several times more potential for growth when we invest energy in developing our strengths instead of correcting our deficiencies.”

A great tool that Clifton developed in his quest to help people understand their talents and strengths is an assessment called StrengthsFinder®. Not only is it an interesting experience to learn about what our top talents are (since most of us struggle to identify what we do well!), but there is real application provided so that we learn to recognize what we do well and repeat personal success more often. Instead of being good at what we do, let’s use our talents purposefully to be great!

The assessment can be purchased (yes, it is worth every penny) and taken here.

Once you learn about and embrace the strengths philosophy, you may want the rest of the world to learn about it, too. If you’d like to help others see what’s right with them, check out the StrengthsQuest® website under the “Educator Resources” tab. There’s a ton of information (including research and case studies on why this psychology works) for you to learn more, incorporate the concepts into your classroom or sports team and reform your high school.

Other helpful resources for the education world that incorporate the strengths philosophy:
Teach with your Strengths
How Full is Your Bucket?
Vital Friends

References:
Rath, Tom. StrengthsFinder 2.0. Gallup Press. 2007.

Professional Development Tip for October 20, 2008

Seating Charts Made Simple

2008-10-10T17:55:00.002-05:00

(Bless the folks at 3M, especially those who work in the Post-It division. I am a self-proclaimed office supply junkie, but here’s something to try even if you’re not!)
Supplies Needed:
- Colorful Sticky Tabs
- Fine Tip Permanent Marker
- Sheet Protector
- Paper

Directions:
1. Draw or print a map of the desks/tables in your classroom. Make sure desks or tables are larger than the tabs you’ve purchased.
2. Write each student’s name on a tab. (You can even color code here: say pink for girls and green for boys or blue for seniors and orange for juniors. Ohhh…the possibilities!)
3. Place the desk map in the sheet protector and start arranging the tabs.
4. Slip- the finished product in the scanner and you can project your new seating chart on the wall with your LCD projector.
5. Need to make a change? Pull the sticky off and place Sally up front (or in the hall!)

Here’s a sample:

(Will Post Soon!)

Professional Development Tip for October 9, 2008

Well Done, Target!

2008-10-10T17:51:00.003-05:00

My younger sister attended her first college career fair this week. We enjoyed looking through the list of participating employers while searching for internships. Target® happened to be one of the companies exhibiting. Being a fan of the brand, I surfed on over to their careers site. Now, I like them even more. You must check it out for yourself and then send your students.
1. Go to www.target.com/careers
2. Click on Explore Careers in the left hand column
3. Choose a college major from the list
4. The site brings up a display of different Target employees. Click on any of them to hear more about what it is they do, how they came to work at Target and they’re description of Target’s culture.

I appreciate that clicking on a major brings up several people with a wide variety of careers and believe it’s useful for students to recognize there are a number of career pathways within each area.

Make it an assignment by having each student or group of students visit the site, choose a major and select the employee with the career they would most like to have.

Career Development Tip for October 9, 2008

Good Sheets

2008-10-10T08:58:00.003-05:00

On a recent visit to Starbucks®, I picked up a cute mini-newspaper-looking thing (see below). My tea was much too hot to drink so I unfolded my discovery. I was delighted and immediately told my husband, “This is my next tip-of-week.”

Starbucks partnered with an existing magazine called GOOD to produce a series of GOOD Sheets (the mini-paper I picked up). GOOD Sheets are weekly series breaking down an important issue to help make sense of the world around us. As of today, there are four sheets: CO2 World, Bill of Health, Coming to America and Getting Gas. GOOD Sheets use visual/graphical representations of the issues and create a great centerpiece for conversation. Each sheet is available to view or print on-line.

Here are a few basic questions to get the discussion rolling:
- What surprises you?
- What did you find interesting?
- What did you already know?
- How does this affect your life?
- What other questions do you have about this topic?

Leadership Development Tip for October 9, 2008

Wordle

2008-10-09T14:52:00.002-05:00

I think the Wordle site describes itself quite well:
Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.

You must visit www.Wordle.net and hit create to see just how easy it is to use. You can view the gallery to see recent “Wordles.” Below are some thoughts on how you might go about incorporating Wordle in the classroom:

- Copy and paste your notes or the pages of a text on your next topic to produce a Wordle. Show it to class and ask them what they think the next chapter might be about based on the words they see.
- Have students create Wordles using articles or text from on-line sources and compare them to the sources their classmates choose. How are they are similar and different?
- Have students create a Wordle using the text from a daily newspaper and use it to discuss current events.

Classroom Engagement Tip for October 9, 2008

Personal Growth Plan Template

2008-10-02T09:19:00.008-05:00

How will you help your students grow the skills necessary for positively leading and influencing others? While conferences and one-time leadership experiences provide a springboard for student growth and development they do not suffice as the only growth experience prepare your students with the skills they need to lead and influence in the 21st century. Meaningful growth and improvement happens over time – not in one or two days!
This post offers a basic personal growth plan template to use with your students. Here’s how to use it effectively:

Offer students a meaningful leadership experience. This may be achieved through a service-learning event, participating in a workshop/seminar, participation in a student organization, etc.
After students complete an experience encourage them to reflect and identify areas for growth.
Provide students with a copy of the personal growth plan template and work with them to complete the template.
Mentor and meet with the student as they work to achieve the goals stated in their plan.

Download the free template!

Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit. – Conrad Hilton, Hotel Executive.
Leadership Development Tip for 10.2.08

Free! Career Exploration Resources Web Quest

2008-10-02T09:15:00.007-05:00

I recently completed a Web design course. I learned a couple things: a) it’s not as hard as the Webmaster I used to work with made it sound and b) I wish I had learned a little Web design in my preparation to be a teacher! The Web with, in all its media and resource rich glory, is a tremendous resource to help students explore careers.

One of my class projects involved creating a Web Quest. For my project, I married my interests in career development with my new found Web development skills and viola’ I produced my very first Web Quest on Career Exploration Resources. I thought I would share the Web Quest as a free resource for your career development toolbox. The activity may last for a 50 minute class period or you may want to provide this as an ongoing project that is due at the end of a unit. (It’s always nice to have meaningful material to engage students if they finish early on other classroom activities and assignments.)

The content for the Web Quest was inspired by Relevant Classroom’s very own middle school career exploration curriculum – Engage! During the development our team found a number of great resources to help students in their career exploration efforts. This Web quest and a number of other resources are all included in the Engage! CD-ROM.

If the link above does not work you may access the Web Quest at: http://web.missouri.edu/~dpk392/miniproject3/career_web_quest.html

Career Development Tip for 10.2.08

Read This! Doing School by Denise Clark Pope

2008-10-02T09:12:00.005-05:00

As I finished up my masters degree last year I took a class on motivation. It was fascinating how the class influenced my view of student motivation – or why students behave the way they do in the context of school. I went in with a certain view of what a “motivated” student looks like – interested, prepared, always engaged in class conversations, gets good grades, etc. I came away with a different way of looking at motivation in schools. The most important principle I learned – all students are motivated, they simply may not be motivated to do what you expect.

If you are even the slightest bit interested in what motivates your students I encourage you to read Doing School: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students by Denise Clark Pope. (For a quick taste of the book check out this Q and A with the author.) The book tells the stories of five high school students – each with very different motives and approaches to “achievement.” I could see some of the students I’ve worked with over the years in the characters described on the pages of this book. If you read it, I’m guessing you will too. In fact, the students in this book were likely in your class today. I wouldn’t call it just a “good to read” it’s an “essential to read” for educators. This book offers a great reminder about what we we’re called to do – help young people learn – plain and simple. It seems to me that an unbalanced focus on anything else (grades, test outcomes, awards, etc.) creates the potential for the phenomenon Denise Clark Pope calls “doing school.” Find a copy today!

Professional Development Tip for 10.2.08

Priming Students for Learning

2008-10-02T09:09:00.007-05:00

Have you ever heard someone say, “Let me give you a little context.” Setting context is something we do on a daily basis as we engage in conversations with others. You tell a little of the background or at least express where you are headed in the conversation. It gives us mental pegs to understand where a conversation is coming from or where it is headed. How do you “set context” to prime students in your classroom? Here are a few tips for setting context effectively:

Setting context in a learning environment means that we put a “frame” around the learning event at hand. Just like a frame around a painting helps to focus our attention on the picture, setting context is a way of focusing student attention on what you want them to notice and/or do during the learning event without giving away the “punch line.” As you set context let students know what they should be thinking, feeling, and/or doing with their body to achieve the desired result. Remember this, if you don’t set context – they will! When they set the context, they may not focus their attention on the same things you hoped they would. The end result? You have to go back and re-explain what they “should have noticed.” Here are some examples of what “setting context” might sound like:

In this short video you’ll see the photosynthesis process come to life. We’ve studied the process, now let’s see how the process works in the real-world. Grab a pen and your notes on the process. Follow-along in the video and when you notice a step in the process is complete, check if off in your notebook. After we finish the video you will use the examples to answer a few questions on a quick quiz – sit up, lean in and let’s get started.
As you complete the scenario provided pay close attention to what it takes to be successful.
Think about a time when you struggled to bring a group of people together to accomplish a goal. Jot that experience down on a sticky-note and keep it nearby. The next few moments will reveal two fail-proof strategies for rallying people around a common goal. As you listen to the strategies think about how you could have employed them in your own situation. Be prepared to respond with your example.

Classroom Engagement Tip for 10.2.08

Pass It On!

2008-09-25T16:41:00.003-05:00

As I was driving home from the airport the other day, a very cool billboard caught my eye. The image was simple – members of a little league team sitting in the dugout cheering on their team with the phrase, “Unity: Pass It On” written in the bottom corner. By now, you have likely seen these billboards near your community too. They are the work of a group called The Foundation for a Better Life.

The nationwide billboard campaign launched in 2001 and has grown ever since. Today, there are “Pass It On” messages on the Internet, Television, in Theaters and now available through Podcasts. The Foundation’s mission is simple – “to encourage adherence to a set of quality values through personal accountability and by raising the level of expectations of performance for all individuals.” (The Foundation for a Better Life Web site).

Strong values and leadership go hand-in-hand. Here are some simple ways you can “pass it on” in your classroom:

Choose a value per week or month. During that period introduce the value, what it means and identify real-world examples of people who embody that particular value.
Send students on a mission to notice a certain value in themselves, their classmates, the school and the surrounding community. During bell-work, have students share where they’ve noticed the value displayed. Encourage students to identify ways they can embody the value too.
Reward individual students when you notice them demonstrating a particular value. Make sure you label the value for them and highlight the example publicly to providing a learning opportunity for all students.
Have students listen to a Podcast on one of the values highlighted at http://www.forbetterlife.org/be-inspired/podcasts.asp Then ask students to choose a value and create their own pod- or vod-cast about the value. There are a number of free resources available to help them begin on The Foundation for a Better Life Web site.

Inspire your students to pass it on!

Leadership Development Tip for 9.25.08

Piecing Together a Career Portfolio

2008-09-25T16:31:00.005-05:00

Developing and maintaining a professional portfolio is a useful experience for students as they begin their careers.

A career exploration portfolio is a “beginning” version of the student’s professional portfolio. A career exploration portfolio should help students actively reflect upon their career exploration as it unfolds throughout middle and high school. In addition, a career exploration portfolio should help students practice the same skills associated with the creation and use of a professional portfolio. Here are four easy steps to help you guide students in setting up a career exploration portfolio:

Step 1: Outline the criteria for a career exploration portfolio. Some criteria we suggest:
1. Store your artifacts in a common location. Some places to call "home" include:

A file folder
An electronic file folder on the student’s school workspace
A Web page created by the student to host the files
A three-ring binder with sheet protectors and dividers

2. Include up to 6 artifacts that show others:

…your current career interests and,
…relevant skills you have that will help you be successful in a career.

3. Include a paragraph about each item that summarizes:

What is the item?
Why did you select the item for your portfolio?
How did you improve the item before including it in the portfolio?

Step 2: Help students select artifacts to include in a career exploration portfolio. Some potential artifacts to create and include are:

Personal Mission Statement
Presentation about a Career Cluster that interests you
6-8 year career and education plan
Results from a career interest inventory
A journal entry or reflection on career interest inventory results
A self-rating sheet showing how you rate yourself on career skills with a paragraph reflecting on how you have grown since you completed the self-rating sheet.
Picture or map of the local community showing where the 16 career clusters are found locally
Summary of an interview with an individual who has a career that interests you

Step 3: Have students create the portfolio, evaluate the artifacts and then present it for assessment. For example, you may have students present their portfolio to their parents, a counselor or an adult mentor. Use this as an opportunity to continue the conversation between the student and parents about the student’s interests, desires and plans.

It's that easy! Engage your students in starting a career exploration portfolio today!

Are you looking for more career exploration resources? Our middle school career exploration curriculum, Engage!, offers a project based approach to career exploration. In fact, the project described here is adapted from the detailed plan included in Engage! For more information check out Engage! at www.relevantclassroom.com.

Career Development Tip for 9.25.08

Readability Matters!

2008-09-25T16:12:00.004-05:00

Have you ever paused to assess the reading level for materials in your classroom?

As our team creates educational materials, one thing we keep in mind is reading level. Readability describes the ease with which a passage or document can be read. Selecting and/or preparing materials that are written at an appropriate reading level is one way to differentiate instruction to “meet students where they are at” when they enter your classroom. The bottom line – matching the reading level of texts in your classroom to your students promotes understanding and learning. (Click here to check out the most current research on readability.)

You may be asking yourself, “How do I assess reading level?” Most classroom textbook publishers will identify the reading level in either the teacher’s manual for the textbook or the introductory section of the textbook itself. You can also contact the publisher or go-online and find readability information for most textbooks.

If you develop materials for your classroom (i.e. tests, scenarios, etc.) you likely have a readability statistic readily available. Modern versions of Microsoft Word® will produce a readability check as you conduct the built in spelling and grammar check on your document. Word™ provides you with the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level . This scale roughly translates to the number of years of education generally required to understand the text. You must find and activate this feature. In Word 2007, you can turn it on by completing the following:

Select the “Office” button in the top left corner of your screen >
Go to Word Options >
Select “Proofing” from the menu on the left >
Check the box next to “Show readability statistics on the Proofing Options page.
Now, run a spelling check on the document. You will receive a box showing readability statistics for the document.
To set this feature up in previous versions of Word™ simply go to help and search for “readability.”

Curious about the reading level of this posting? This posting is written between a 9^th and 10^th grade reading level. Start checking the reading level of materials you use in your classroom today. We bet you will be surprised!

Professional Development Tip for 9.25.08

Don’t Let A Blank Page Intimidate You Anymore!

2008-09-25T16:01:00.005-05:00

Do you ever find that your students are intimidated as they begin to complete a writing assignment?

Who isn’t a little intimidated to start writing when all you have is a blank white page staring back at you? The next time you hand out a writing assignment, consider making some time for the class to collaborate and share ideas to “pre-populate” the blank page prior to sending students off to complete the assignment. Here is one way to facilitate this process:

Step 1: Present the topic for the paper to the whole class.

Step 2: Ask each student to write at least two main points they would include in a paper about the topic. If possible, have them capture each of these on a separate sticky note, index card or small slip of scrap paper.

Step 3: Place students in groups of 4-5. Ask them to share the main points they generated in step 2.

Step 4: Encourage each group to brainstorm additional main points to include in the paper. They should capture each new main point on a separate sticky note, index card or small slip of scrap paper. To encourage collaboration ask groups to appoint an ambassador. This person is responsible for selecting the group’s three best ideas and sharing those with another small group in return for that group’s best ideas.

Step 4: Direct groups to organize the slips of paper with main points into a short outline for the paper. Encourage students to use a large table or area of the classroom floor to complete the sorting activity. Depending upon the level of experience in preparing outlines, you may have to scaffold the group through this process. Encourage them to put similar points together and identify larger themes in the points they have generated to include in the paper.

Step 5: At the end of the process. Have students capture the outline their group generated. If time permits, have students conduct a gallery walk around the room to review the outlines generated by other groups. As they do, encourage them to personally collect additional ideas and revise their initial outline.

Students are sure to walk away with plenty of ideas to start writing the paper you assigned!

Classroom Engagement Tip for 9.25.08

Passport with a Purpose

2008-09-18T09:03:00.024-05:00

You’ve just taught an incredible lesson, students’ brains are full of new ideas and they’re making connections like crazy to other concepts you’ve covered in class and they’ve learned elsewhere. You think... Why not affirm your thoughts and hold them accountable for the information they’re processing?

Sometime in the next week, pose a question at the end of class, have students answer on a slip of scratch paper (with their name for credit!) and, as they leave class, collect their answers (their passport out of class). This may sound like, “In a moment, you’ll provide your thoughts to a question I pose about today’s class. Be ready to hand it to me as you leave the room – it’s your passport out the door today. You’ll record your thoughts on a piece of scratch paper. The question is: "INSERT QUESTION HERE?" (see suggestions below)

Now you know where students stand and they’re continuing the learning process, even as they leave your room!

Some possible questions to pose for their passport entry:
· What piece of knowledge from today sticks with you most?
· What concept are you interested to know more about?
· How does what we learned today connect with our conversations last week on "INSERT IDEA HERE?"
· What concept do we need to cover more or in a different way to solidify your understanding?
This activity can become a tradition in your classroom with slight modification. Instead of having students hand you a piece of paper at the door each time, have them reserve a section of their class notebook for “passport” entries. Each time you’re looking to do a quick review like listed above, have students enter their answer in their passport section and you can “stamp” it for credit. Initials work just fine to stamp the entry. If you want to go crazy, use a fun stamp you find at the store! This version of the passport, of course, takes more time than collecting papers quickly at the door, but students are able to check back over their learning in their passport throughout the course of your class.

Classroom Engagement Tip for September 18, 2008

From the Mind of Tom Drummond

2008-09-18T09:03:00.021-05:00

With the start of the new school year, my husband took on his first teaching assignment as a college teacher. We’ve spent many hours at the kitchen table planning classes, assignments and determining the best way for students to “get it” in each class. In some quick research to add twists and turns to class (so that he meets his goal that his history class doesn’t feel like every other history class students have ever taken), we came upon this reference-backed collection of best practices for use in the college classroom. Don’t be fooled – the strategies translate directly to middle and high school classrooms.

The practices include ideas for lecture, group discussion, questioning, reflection, active learning, group assignments, aligning course goals and grading, modeling, giving feedback, establishing the “state” of the classroom and helping students take responsibility for their learning. Great work, Tom Drummond!
Professional Development Tip for September 18, 2008

Decoding a Job Description

2008-09-18T09:03:00.009-05:00

We often hear that many applicants for jobs aren’t qualified and their applications are thrown out. My best guess tells me that part of those that aren’t qualified are in desperate need of a job and are fishing for an interview. The other side of my guess says that part of that group simply couldn’t decode the job description/announcement so that they could put together a rock star application.

Have your students search online, in a local or major newspaper, at their favorite company, in the local government/university listings, etc. to find a job description that contains details about the duties of the job, minimum qualifications and preferred qualifications. It’s an added bonus if the job description is one they’re interested in applying for in the future. In small groups, have students identify key phrases and words that describe the job and qualities/qualifications the ideal applicant would possess. Once those components are identified, have students create a “translation” of the job description: What are priorities for this position? What skills are necessary? What experience would lend well in applying for this job? What kind of education is required to apply for this position? What qualifications would the company like to see in the applicant, but aren’t absolutely necessary? Talking through advanced job applications like this will be of benefit even as students apply for hourly jobs throughout high school and their post-secondary education.

To extend the learning, challenge students to identify workplace qualifications they already possess. What specifically have they done that shows valuable skill in terms of the job market? For ideas about how to detail qualifications, even from seemingly simple experiences check out Penelope Trunk’s Brazen Careerist blog (specifically the section titled “Every line must quantify success").

Career Development Tip for September 18, 2008

Rule the School: Learning the Art of Constructive Feedback

2008-09-18T09:03:00.004-05:00

Hopefully we’re all settled into the new school year and have our routines down again. Students, whether new to the district or established in the culture, certainly have opinions about the environment they’re required to live in throughout the day. Next time you have 10 minutes left in class, harness that knowledge to help improve the school and share some insight with your class on giving constructive feedback. Your teaching team, counselor(s), administration and others will appreciate knowing students’ thoughts and students will have a better understanding of an invaluable life skill!

Context to Provide Students (from Giving Feedback for Dummies):
·Let your students know up front that all the feedback they provide will be anonymous (as long as they leave their name off their paper) and will be shared with staff in the school so they can work to make it a better place.

·Constructive feedback should be specific, centered on issues and based on observations they’ve made.

·When sharing their feedback, they must clearly identify the topic or issue for the feedback and then provide details to back it up.

·Their feedback should be shared by starting out with “I.” Example: “I have noticed…”

Possible Questions to Ask:
·If you could change one thing about the environment at this school, what would it be?

·Do you feel safe at school? Why or why not?

·What specifically would make this school a better place to be?What’s your favorite thing about this school? If you don’t have an answer to that question, what keeps you from being able to respond?

Leadership Development Tip for September 18, 2008

Exploration via Case Studies

2008-09-11T12:55:00.002-05:00

It’s fascinating to read about the ways successful companies problem solve, overcome obstacles and impact the marketplace. Your students will be making those solutions happen in the near future. Isn’t that fun to think about? Help them see themselves in those roles by diving into case studies. Check out these free resources (they have great sources for both students and teachers!): CasePlace.org and The Times 100 Business Studies Resources Centre.

CasePlace.org is designed for students and teachers in an MBA setting, but has loads of case studies available to read (via great search features) and provides teaching modules for expanded learning. The Times 100 Business Studies Resources Centre has lesson plans and quizzes in addition to the archives of case studies.

One idea to urge students to see themselves in a future career is to have them read one or two case studies of their choice. As they read, have them think about the problem that was overcome or the new way the company was able to influence their market. From there, start a discussion on what types of people or specific jobs were involved in the study. It may open students’ eyes to career possibilities they never knew existed.

Career Development Tip for September 11, 2008

Judging a Book Completely by Its Cover

2008-09-11T12:51:00.004-05:00

As a teacher, you wear a million different hats. Not the least of which is that of marketing professional. You have content that your students need for their life experiences and you work to fulfill that need by engaging them in a learning adventure. Marketing 101.

Did you realize the colors you use in your classroom and on the materials you provide play a key role in their connection to the content that you share? It’s a big conversation in the book publishing industry now – What colors do we use on a book cover to entice customers? What color will best connect with our target audience? Check out this reference chart. It’s written, based on research conducted by publishers, for those who design book covers, but the concepts apply in the classroom as we design handouts, bulletin boards and learning centers. Do you often run content outlines or handouts on yellow paper (or green, blue, salmon, goldenrod, etc.)? Who in your class does that most connect with? Who could you better connect with if you used a different color on your next copy job? What messages could you send your classes with the predominant color that’s up on your bulletin board right now? How about the PowerPoint you put together for an upcoming unit opener? Color can do so much to impact the messages we send our students!

For more detail, check out the expanded report.

Classroom Engagement Tip for September 11, 2008

A Glimpse at another Side of Life…

2008-09-11T12:16:00.002-05:00

One of the hardest things about connecting and relating with students is understanding their life at home and where they get their point of view. So many have such different experiences than our own! For insight on what it’s like to be a parent of a drug addict, check out David Sheff’s book Beautiful Boy. He reveals unforgettable and painful experiences from his journey to help his addicted son, Nic, in a breathtaking and compulsory way.

Nic also wrote a haunting memoir on his experiences with drugs and alcohol, Tweak. If you don’t have time for the full book, check out his blog. Beware: it’s very honest and raw. You’ll definitely get a better perspective of the feelings some of your students may have, but it’s not easy to stomach.

Professional Development Tip for September 11, 2008

So that’s what they meant!

2008-09-11T11:56:00.001-05:00

Quotes from famous folks or those who impacted the world in some way resonate with many of us. Often our students cling to the words of others even more than we do as they look for descriptors for their dynamic, changing lives. So, take the opportunity to bring context to what your students are reading and hearing!

If you’re a music teacher, have students find a quote that resonates with them from a famous musician. What was the musician referring to when she said it? What was happening in the world at that time? What is the underlying message? Why does that particular quote stick? Does it still mean as much after learning more about the events surrounding it? If you’re teaching biology, search out the words of scientists. Quotations by noted historians abound. Have fun! Sneaking in learning is perfectly legal in all 50 states.

Leadership Development Tip for September 11, 2008

Show Off!

2008-09-03T14:13:00.002-05:00

That’s right, take a little time show-off the great things happening in your classroom. Now is the perfect time of year to start a file of student work, great lesson plans and a few photos for your brag book. It’s something you can share with administrators and will certainly come in handy should you decide you may want to transfer schools next spring. Student work samples really give you good talking points and physical proof of your skills. Consider saving back a few tests over the course of the year to show student improvement as well. There are a million ways to organize your brag book/portfolio. I purchased a fancy report cover with tabs and a clip and sorted items into the following categories:

Teaching Philosophy

Classroom Procedures

Sample Unit Lesson Plan

Sample Unit Assessment

Student Work Samples

Student Assessment Samples

Professional Development Tip for September 4, 2008

Dots

2008-09-03T14:10:00.002-05:00

One of my favorite review games for those days when some students are finished with assignments and others need a little catch-up time is “dots.” You’ve probably played the original game at some point. It’s simply a grid of dots that you take turns connecting; the object is to create squares. The game easily transfers to a vocabulary review by writing words inside the boxes. When a student makes a box around one of the vocabulary words, he or she must define the word to earn a point. I usually make boxes with words worth two points as well. You can get really crafty and require students to use the word in a sentence or act it out. It’s a really handy last-minute activity. The trick is to keep a few blank grids handy so you can fill in and copy at a moment’s notice. Even better, have students design their own game boards by providing the blank grid and having them add the words before playing. Click here for a blank template.

Classroom Engagement Tip for September 4, 2008

You Must Be Your Own Advisor

2008-09-03T14:09:00.001-05:00

As I helped my sister register for classes this fall, I was again reminded of a lesson my high school biology teacher shared. “When you go to college, you must be your own advisor.” He shared that there are good college advisors out there, but in the end, the responsibility to look out for yourself is your own. Not looking out for yourself can easily cost you an extra semester (maybe even two) and big bucks.

Help pass the message onto your upperclassmen. Engage your school counselor in the process by asking him or her to bring in college catalogs. Ask students to choose a major and list the requirements needed. Have them note any prerequisites for each class. Send them to the college or university web-site of their choice to make a mock class schedule for the semester. Share extra tips with your students on registering early and how to ask permission to join a class listed as full.

Career Development Tip for September 4, 2008

Leadership Challenge Card: Communication Line Up

2008-09-03T13:02:00.017-05:00

Here's a sample of one of our products from Relevant Classroom. The Leadership Challenge cards are a set of 40 activities. Thirty of the activities are 10-15 minutes in length and ten are a bit longer. All activities are very low material. The activities focus on leaderships skills ranging from time management and goal setting to decision making, morals and self respect. Click on the images below for a larger copy of the text.

Leadership Development Tip September 4, 2008

Time Management

2008-08-28T11:42:00.005-05:00

Have you ever tracked how you spend time at work or the time you spend behind your desk? It’s fairly eye-opening to see how long some tasks actually take and how quickly you can complete others.
Like many businesses, we try to track our hours by project. A few months ago we ran across a free program to assist in the process called Klok. Klok is time-tracking software with many features.

I don’t use Klok constantly anymore, but it certainly made me aware of where I’m wasting time and helped me rearrange a few tasks throughout my day to make me more efficient. As a small business, it has helped us better estimate the real-time needed to complete projects and budgets.

Time management is one of those skills we all would like to be just a little better at. As educators, we’d really like for our students to be better time managers! The first step to improving is to look at where you’re currently at. How about asking your students to track their work time over a certain timeframe: a few periods, during the school day, over the course of a unit or say during a select 48 hours? Follow up with a journal entry or discussion to reflect and provide time management strategies. If you’re into technology, test out Klok. If you need something simpler, use the good old pen-and-paper method.

Suggestions for Effective Time Tracking:

Set up the general categories you want to track
-General category examples: sleep, homework/studying, in-class, non-school related computer or games, TV, hygene, etc.
-More specific examples would be broken out by subject or even by specific tasks within subject

Keep track while you’re doing the task (we are often off when we try to estimate after the fact)

Be sure to sum totals for all categories (could be a good graphing exercise as well)

Reflection and Follow-Up Items:

What surprises you about how you spend your time?

What doesn’t surprise you about how you spend your time?

In what areas could you easily be more efficient?

How could you better balance your time?

What tasks would you like to spend more time on?

List 2 goals for how you would like to better allocate your time next week

Leadership Development Tip for August 28, 2008

Avoid Power Struggles with Choices

2008-08-28T11:38:00.002-05:00

During my first year of teaching, I had a really good mentor in the classroom next door. I picked up a few good habits by simply watching. Perhaps the best thing I learned from my mentor was how to avoid power struggles by offering students choice. When a student was off track she would approach them with the following statement:

“You have two choices: you can head back to your desk and complete the assignment before class ends or you’re welcome to join me today after school and finish it then. Why don’t you take a minute to think about what would work best for you.”

Then she would purposely walk away for a minute or two to give the student his or her space. She never approached the student looking for confrontation and she always remained calm. She also stuck to her word of requiring students to show up after school if needed.

I tested out both methods: the “do this now” and offering choice and much preferred the results of the choice. I’ve since found more theory and great suggestions in two books: Teaching with Love and Logic and Positive Behavior Support. Next time you’re dealing with a challenging student, try it out for yourself!

Love and Logic offers these Rules for Giving Choices (pg. 31Teaching with Love and Logic first edition):

Always be sure to select choices that you like. Never provide one you like and one you don’t, because a child seems to have a sixth sense in selecting the one don’t like.

Never give a choice unless you are willing to allow the child to experience the consequence of that choice.

Never give choices when the child is in danger.

Never give choices unless you are willing to make the choice for the child in the event he/she does not choose within ten seconds.

Your delivery is important. Try to start your sent with:
- You’re welcome to ___ or ___.
- Feel free to ___ or ___.
- Would you rather ___ or ___?
- What would be best for you ___ or ___?

Professional Development Tip for August 28, 2008

Career Cluster Interest Inventory

2008-08-28T11:36:00.003-05:00

Looking to expose your students to Career Clusters? Wanting to dig a little deeper than just asking what your students want to be when they grow up?

Check out the Career Cluster Interest Inventory available on CareerClusters.org. It’s a PDF you can print off for each student with the scoring directions and brief information on each cluster. The inventory itself is straightforward and very easy to score. It will help students identify the top three clusters they may be interested in. If you’re planning for students to take the inventory in class, budget at least 20 minutes for the actual assessment and scoring.

Take it one step further by compiling classroom results to help you cater content examples to your students’ interests.

Career Development Tip for August 28, 2008

Very Cool Class Project Idea

2008-08-28T11:26:00.004-05:00

If you’re teaching in the classroom or work with teachers, you’ve got to checkout Common Craft. They’re a small on-line company doing great things. They self describe their product as “explanation.” They produce short, on-line videos which explain things like social media and the election process in “plain English.”

Electing a US President in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo.

As a teacher, I can see several of the videos coming in very handy in the classroom as they explain things much clearer than I typically do. I also think you could show a sample or two to your students and then charge them with the business of explaining something they’ve learned in class by making a similar video or presentation. All you’d need is white paper, a few markers and some kind of camera to record. Even a $15 web cam would work just fine. Picture a few students writing a mini script and making a little video explaining photosynthesis, the Civil War or proper sentence structure. And, you could add it to your own library to show classes in the years to come. It may also come in handy to show off to parents and administrators. Very cool!

Check out the

Common Craft Store for yourself. You can preview all the videos. Additionally, Common Craft offers a 50% discount on site licenses for school districts.

Classroom Engagement Tip for August 28, 2008

Add a Trip to the College Bookstore

2008-08-22T11:41:00.001-05:00

Recently, I went with my sister-in-law to help her pick up books for her college classes this fall. Not wanting to hover, I started to ramble around the aisles and pick up books that look interesting (and some that didn’t). Somewhere between Computer Science and Horticulture it struck me – there really are a lot of cool careers out there…something for everyone. I never considered mechanical engineering as a field of study, but after spending three minutes flipping through books and seeing the kinds of projects they work on, I kind of wish I had.

How many of your students have never had three minutes to consider a career field?

Schools and parents are great today about having students visit colleges to find out where they might like to go to school. Here’s a suggestion: next time, encourage them to stop by the college bookstore to spend a half hour browsing books of the fields of current interest and those that might inspire interest. The activity can be applied to any type of college and can be accomplished individually or with groups. And…it’s free! No fee to use this “career interest inventory.”

Yes, books are “old school” – you can send them to a college’s online book store to do a similar activity, but it’s not the same. We all have a emotional connection to books from childhood; there’s something about feeling the pages and seeing the words and pictures on paper that speaks to us in ways that screens cannot. And what decision is more emotional than choosing a career field and college?

Career Development tip for the week of August 21, 2008

Olympic-sized Leadership

2008-08-22T11:40:00.000-05:00

The Olympics are a great opportunity to discuss traits of leadership and success with students since it is one of the few cultural events that most Americans follow (even more than American Idol). Here are a few discussion questions you might use with students:

Who has inspired you in this Olympics? Why?
Who has shown leadership during these Olympic games? Why?
Are successful athletes leaders? Why or why not?
What can we learn about leadership and teamwork from the Olympics?
How is “real life” different than the competitions at the Olympic games?
What traits do successful leaders and successful athletes have in common?
Why do we cheer for some athletes/teams and not others?

Leadership Development tip for the week of August 21, 2008

Digg It – Classroom Style

2008-08-22T11:39:00.001-05:00

Digg is a popular Internet widget that allows readers to “tag” articles that they enjoy. Every time an article is tagged (when the user clicks on “Digg It”), that information is sent to the Digg website where a real-time listing of the Internet’s most popular articles is presented. In this way the rest us can see which internet articles (of the millions posted every day) are most popular with fellow readers. It helps us sort through the blizzard of information to find the “good stuff.”

As a unit review activity, have your students “tag” their favorite “article(s).” Have students review notes, activities and assignments and make a list the things they found most interesting, helpful or unexpected (at least one). Have the class share and compile on the board. It will be interesting for students to see what their classmates were “Digg-ing”. It’s also great information for you to see if there are consistent activities, points, or assignments to which students positively responded

Classroom Engagement tip for the week of August 21, 2008

Get Your Own Email – Seriously

2008-08-22T11:37:00.001-05:00

We see lots of stories about students sharing stories and pictures on sites like Facebook and MySpace that make us gasp with astonishment. Comments like, “I can’t believe they would put something like that up for everyone to see.” and “Don’t they know that anyone can access that?” are common in conversations when the topic comes up.

What’s equally astonishing, though, are the number of professionals that use their work email for personal purposes and think that their privacy is protected. It’s not. Stop using your school email to schedule doctor’s appointments, complain about your colleagues, or apply for other jobs. There is nothing private about email when it’s provided through your employer. Besides, your friends and family who haven’t worked in a school likely have a belief that teachers and school professionals are to remain at all times, well, professional. An innocent act such as forwarding a favorite recipe to a friend on your school email can give the impression “must have a lot of free time up at the school” when that recipe is forwarded on two or three times.

Some email services are more susceptible to filters and firewalls – Hotmail is an example, but others seem to have more success – Gmail, for instance. See what works for you. Remember, though, that even using school computers to send personal email can be a slippery slope, but it certainly provides you more opportunity to present yourself as the committed professional you are – in every mode of communication.

Professional Development tip for the week of August 21, 2008

If You Do Nothing Else

2008-08-14T08:50:00.000-05:00

If You Do Nothing Else

My efforts to come up with something crafty and useful for this week’s Career Development Tip haven’t been all that fruitful, but they did lead me to ask myself, “What is it that teachers/counselors/administrators/paraprofessionals/coaches must do to help students do in the career development arena?” I’ve come up with the line “the first step is to start showing we care.” Please don’t be offended—I know you care dearly about your students. By “care” I mean, make it priority, start the conversation with students and follow up. They’ve been asked a number of times what it is they want to be when they grow up, but how many adults have taken a genuine interest in what they’ve said or challenged them to consider careers that fit with their talents and interests? How many adults have asked how they will go about accomplishing their goals?

As you’re settling into the routine of school again, make it a habit to show you care about their future careers. If it feels like too much, focus on two or three students who could use guidance and encouragement.
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Career Development Tip for August 14, 2008

Reflecting

2008-08-14T08:46:00.004-05:00

Reflecting

Outside of reviewing a test, rarely do we ask students to reflect on learning. It’s understandable since by the time students have turned in an assignment, we must hurry on to the next topic. What is the payoff of asking students to reflect?

Let’s answer this question first: what do I mean by reflect? A few simple questions that students are expected to answer honestly about their learning process and the effort they contributed. It doesn’t have to be graded, but you do need to read (or listen) and respond either in conversation or writing. Below is an example of a form that could be used as a standard, post-assignment or evaluation reflection guide.

Back to the question of payoff in asking students to reflect. For one, reflection helps hold students accountable. It’s more difficult for Jake to turn in poor work when he knows he will be asked to reflect on it. Second, reflecting is critical life skill. It forces students to articulate and review their thought processes. In the education world, this is called metacognition. For many students, it’s not a natural skill; they learn it from others and by practice. Helping students increase their metacognitive skills helps them to become more aware of their own strengths and weaknesses. This is a critically important leadership skill, too. Use the reflection exercise as an opportunity to discuss how leaders must learn to recognize what they are good at and what they aren't so they can use the talents of others to build great teams and produce outstanding results.

Leadership Development Tip for August 14, 2008

Classroom Blog

2008-08-14T08:44:00.000-05:00

Classroom Blog

I applaud all of you who have built and maintained functional classroom websites. In my first years of teaching, it was simply too much to keep up with. Lately I’ve seen a few teachers keeping a classroom blog. I think this is brilliant as it:

is much easier to set up and maintain than typical classroom website
gives you a real voice to write to your students
students don’t really have to navigate much to see the current content

If you’ve never set up a blog, it’s very quick and easy. There are a number of host sites such as blogger.com and tumblr.com. If you do have plans of launching a class website at some point, I’d recommend starting your blog in wordpress.com as it offers the option to easily transfer everything to your website when you are ready.

Here’s my favorite example of a simple, effective classroom blog—Mrs. Plas’ Virtual Classroom.

Professional Development Tip for August 14, 2008

Roll the Dice Review

2008-08-14T08:41:00.002-05:00

Roll the Dice Review

Looking for an easy way to wrap-up a lesson? Prepare six questions and post them on the board. Grab some dice (even just one is fine). Select a few students or have students partner with a few peers around them and roll. The number they roll is the question they will answer for the class.

You can write content-specific questions or have a general set of questions. Below is a sample set of general questions:
What was one thing you learned during class today?
Of the topics discussed today, what things seemed confusing?
Of the topics discussed today, what did you already know?
What is one test question you could write based on what we learned today?
If you had to summarize what was covered in class today in three sentences, what would you say?
How would you explain to an elementary student what we are learning about in class right now?

Consider posting a generic set of questions on a poster in the class to refer to whenever needed. Depending on the time available, you can have students roll two numbers, share answers aloud or write them down.

If you’re looking to go the content-specific route, consider having small groups of students write sets of questions and trade with other groups.

If you’re looking for some fun dice to use, a quick Google search yields many options. Here is one: http://dicegamers.com/m_foam.htm.

Classroom Engagement Tip for August 14, 2008

Base Teams

2008-07-31T11:30:00.003-05:00

Base teams are teams of 3-5 students in your classroom who may do any of the following:
· Relay homework to students within their team who missed a class
· Help take attendance by noting who is missing from their team
· Take notes and provide them to students who missed a class
· Complete group projects
· Complete various classroom duties

Students love working with one another. Establish a routine on the first day of school that shows students how certain tasks will be completed in your classroom during the semester. They can create their own rules and procedures, vote for how to complete certain tasks and determine roles within their team. Students will feel good about the trust you place in them, and you’ll feel good when you can say, “base teams” and students move into their teams and get busy. In addition to all of the great content you teach, students will learn an incredible amount about team work, communication, accountability and responsibility.

Leadership Development for July 31, 2008

And Now for the Day's Current Events

2008-07-31T11:23:00.002-05:00

It’s great if you can make your classroom material relevant to your students’ worlds, but what if you could also make your students’ worlds relevant to your classroom? It’s amazing to discover the diversity of students’ habits of learning about the world around them. Some pick up a newspaper each day, others listen to their parents’ conversations about the news, some hear tid bits of news on the radio during their commute to school, and others, when told about a recent occurrence, respond with a quizzical look and reply, “Oh really? I had no idea.”

Encourage your students to be students of the world by announcing that at the beginning of each class (or every Friday, or at the end of each class, or every Monday and Friday…whatever works for you) the class will have an opportunity to share current events they hear about. This will give you great insight into how students get their news, what they care about and how they react to various topics in the news. You might even be surprised by how often they pick up on something that directly applies to your course!

Classroom Engagement for July 31, 2008

Write and Speak Good

2008-07-31T11:16:00.003-05:00

You’re right, you’re right. The above title should probably be “write and speak well.” Whether you’re an English teacher or not, students benefit from you modeling appropriate word usage. So take a few minutes to polish your skills. Here’s a quick and fun website to visit as often as you like. You can even subscribe to its useful RSS feeds.

http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/

Professional Development Tip for July 31, 2008

Sales Skills

2008-07-31T11:11:00.002-05:00

Whether a person’s job title includes the word “sales” or not, chances are, we will all sell something during our time in our respective careers. While we may not all sell products, we’ll have to sell employers or co-workers on an idea of some sort. As an educator, who taught you how to “sell” (or really communicate) your ideas for changes and improvements? Maybe no one did. So give your students a jump start and a little practice in the safety of your classroom.
1. Complete a short lesson on basic sales tips. Use the following resources for your students to look at or for you to gather information:
a. http://marketing.about.com/od/salestipsandadvice/Sales_Tips_and_Advice.htm
b. Here are five steps found at: http://communication.howstuffworks.com/sales-technique1.htm for generating a sale:
i. Attention: You have to get the attention of your prospect through some advertising or prospecting method.
ii. Interest: Build their interest by using an emotional appeal such as how good they will look to their boss when they make this deal that will save the company thousands of dollars!
iii. Desire: Build their desire for your product by showing them its features and letting them sample or test-drive it.
iv. Conviction: Increase their desire for your product by statistically proving the worth of your product. Compare it to its competitors. Use testimonials from happy customers.
v. Action: Encourage the prospect to act. This is your closing. Ask for the order. If they object, address their objections. There are then many variations of closing techniques that can help get the business.
c. You might even look for a few useful videos on www.youtube.com and have your students watch them.
d. http://sales.quickanddirtytips.com/
2. Ask your students to choose an object or idea they might work with in a future career.
3. Guiding students with the information and resources you’ve given them, have your students develop a “pitch” for the product or idea they’ve chosen.
4. Have the salespeople deliver their pitch in front of the entire class or act with a few people at the front of the room as though they are making a house call.
5. Celebrate your students’ success and encourage them to look for ways they “sell” ideas each day.

Career Development Tip for July 31, 2008

Classroom Engagement: Whole Foods Help Students Succeed

2008-07-23T20:37:00.001-05:00

When it’s time to celebrate success or there’s a special classroom event, carefully consider the foods you share with your students. It’s best not to use food as a reward. If you are rewarding behavior, a non-food item is preferred so as not to teach young people to make a habit of rewarding themselves with food: this can lead to unnecessary weight gain. The surgeon general of the United States has described obesity as the number one childhood health problem. The U. S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) stated that “childhood obesity is more serious than any infectious disease epidemic we have ever faced.1” Consider this startling statistic: 80% of obese adolescents remain obese throughout their lives. 1 The Healthiest Kid in the Neighborhood. William Sears et al.

Countless studies support the fact that healthy eating contributes to better scholastic performance in the classroom: higher grades, better handling of complex tasks and more attentive students who participate in class.

When celebrating with food: think whole foods (the outside aisles of the grocery store): fruits, nuts, whole grains, low fat yogurt, etc. The more students eat wholesome foods, the more they will crave it and the better they will feel. And maybe they’ll even save an apple for the teacher!

Leadership: Turning Resistance into Cooperation

2008-07-23T20:30:00.001-05:00

Each one of us faces conflict in our daily lives, whether we like or not. Clearly, some of us like it more than others. There are those of us who try to avoid conflict at all costs but alas, it is inevitable. When we are equipped to handle conflict, it becomes much easier to manage. Here are some steps to turn resistance into cooperation. Don’t be hard on yourself if you don’t get it perfect the first time, it will get easier with practice. Have an attitude that allows you to be influenced:

1) Ask for what you want.
2) Listen to understand.
3) Reflect back your understanding: summarize or paraphrase to be sure you know what was said.
4) Focus on underlying interests: what does the other person really want?
5) Confront covert resistance by perception checking: state your observation.
6) Suggest a test or a trial run to enhance cooperation (and make a date to check back on the test).
7) Identify the cost of noncooperation: tell another what happens when they don’t cooperate.
8) Confront and clarify mixed messages: don’t let a mixed message slip away without addressing what was meant.

Professional Development: How to Gain Credibility and Respect

2008-07-23T20:29:00.001-05:00

The first step to gaining credibility and respect is to take yourself seriously and respect yourself. Be congruent in both your verbal and non-verbal communication. Value who you are and what you have to say so much that others won’t even question whether what you’re saying is worth listening to.

Verbal communication:
· make statements
· avoid trivial modifiers and disclaimers
· show a sense of humor
· share information appropriately.

Non verbal communication:
· take up more space
· hold your head straight and high
· use direct eye contact
· speak with sufficient volume

Exploring Career Options

2008-07-23T20:24:00.003-05:00

Careers:

What if there was a way that your students could virtually learn about and explore career options? Believe it or not, if you visit www.CareerTours.com, that’s exactly what you’ll find! The site is a recruiting platform that allows job seekers to "experience" their next career through video. Sometimes lauded as the “YouTube” of careers, CarreerTours.com has 2,300 career videos and nearly 150,000 job postings in five countries.

Their mission includes changing the way on-line recruiting happens through career videos, innovative technology and out-of-the-box marketing strategies for clients and candidates with the objective of increasing their quality of life.

Direct your students to www.CareerTours.com and encourage them to really experience a career of choice!

Public Speaking Strategies

2008-07-10T15:26:00.001-05:00

Isn’t it amazing that more Americans are afraid of public speaking than death? Wouldn’t it be great to help alleviate those fears through activities in the classroom? Often times a student’s first public speaking experience is in a lengthy presentation in front of an entire class. It is helpful to allow students to have shorter, less stressful experiences in public speaking that add to their confidence and natural curiosity about sharing ideas in front of a group.
Here is one activity for students to take a small step into public speaking.
1. Ask students to take one minute to brainstorm simple everyday topics. Examples might be bubble gum, video games or summer vacation. Instruct students to write down each idea on a separate slip of paper and collect the papers.
2. Next ask students to choose a partner. Share that in just a moment they will select one of the topics from the brainstormed list. The partner that goes first will have one minute to share all that they know about that topic with their partner.
3. Once the student has finished with the first topic, instruct the same partner to draw a new topic to discuss in the next one minute segment. The change for the second minute is that the person must sit on his or her hands while talking. Once that partner finishes, repeat the same activity with the other partner.
Following the activity, facilitate a lively discussion about what the students experienced.
Discussion Questions:
1. What kinds of feelings did you experience during our activity?
2. How did it feel to speak about your topic when you could use your hands?
3. How did it feel the second round without using your hands?
4. Listeners, what differences did you notice in your partner’s speaking ability during each round?
5. What’s the difference between verbal and non-verbal communication?
6. What role do our gestures play in communicating with others?
7. What other discoveries did you make about speaking in public today?

Leadership Development Tip for July 10, 2008

Learning and Socializing in a Fast Paced World

2008-07-10T15:22:00.001-05:00

It seems today, learning has become work and frankly socializing can feel that way too. Finding time to really explore something that interests you can feel like another task to check off the list.
How about combining the two and having some fun just for you? One solution from a group of friends in Indianapolis, Indiana was to get a jump on holiday decorations and presents. They scheduled monthly meetings and gave them a high priority. (We all know how life seems to creep in on good intentions.) The group selected projects that were inexpensive so money wasn’t a barrier to participation. Each month a different friend hosted the gathering and chose a project from the list that was created by the entire group. They sent out an email reminder two weeks before the event with a list of supplies needed to participate in that month’s get-together. The friends began purchasing supplies together when time allowed which added another opportunity to spend time with each other. At the meeting, the host was responsible for teaching everyone how to accomplish that month’s activity. The outcome was lots of laughter, a head start on the holidays, a new skill learned and sometimes a gift only a parent could love.
Holiday presents and decorations might not be your priority, so how about applying their idea to your profession? Your group might gather to create bulletin boards, classroom activities or visual models to name just a few ideas. Remember you deserve time to relax and re-energize. Add some fun into the great work you do. It will definitely mean a better you!

Professional Development Tip for July 10, 2008

Out of the Bag

2008-07-10T15:17:00.002-05:00

This review activity is great fun for your students and establishes a review procedure that students become familiar with so you can use it with ease over time.
To succeed with this strategy, assemble a durable bag and three different colored balls (foam, racquetball, rubber, etc.). Place the balls in the bag. During review time, without looking, students choose a ball out of the bag and answer a review question that corresponds with the ball color.
Here are a few sample questions:
What is one new concept you learned today?
What idea challenged your current thinking?
What new connections did you make between our topic today and your life?
How does what we learned today connect to what we learned yesterday?
The questions should be open-ended enough that you could ask multiple students to respond. You might want to avoid right/wrong questions unless you think there could be discussion among students about which answer is really correct.
The benefit of this strategy is that is provides a consistent activity for review. Once established, you don’t need to introduce and explain the activity. You can just pull out the bag and list the questions. Let the fun begin!

Classroom Engagement Tip for July 10, 2008

20 Questions About Careers

2008-07-10T15:06:00.003-05:00

Young people are curious about everything. Whether they ask a million questions or sit quietly in your class, they’re all curious about something. Our hope is that they’re really curious about what they might do beyond high school. You can help develop the attitude of an eager learner by creating a spin on the game “20 Questions” with your students. Here’s how:
1. Go to www.bls.gov. Click on Occupational Outlook Handbook. Click the link for A-Z Index. Click on a letter to find careers or do a search for careers. It contains pertinent data and information about many careers that currently exist. Print off one different career summary for each student in your classroom. Select careers that vary in educational requirements, salary range, working conditions, etcetera. And of course, promote your specialty by printing a few careers that have some connection to what you teach.
2. Instruct students to select a career summary and allow them two minutes to review the information. Instruct them not to share the paper with anyone.
3. Announce, “In a moment, you’ll be asking questions about a career another person in the room holds. The catch is, you may only ask 20 questions and they must be able to be answered with “yes” or “no”. When I say “go”, you have one minute to jot down a few questions you might ask. GO! (You might provide a couple sample questions to get your students started.)
4. Say, “When I say, ‘career,’ find a partner, select one person to ask questions first and begin. The object is to see if you can identify the career your partner is holding. You have three minutes for each person to get through their 20 questions.”
When both students have completed their 20 questions, ask how many students were able to guess their new career. Depending on the time available, have students share their career with the entire class or in small groups and state how that career uses the content from your classroom.
Enjoy providing relevance around the questions that your students ask!

Career Development Tip for July 10, 2008

Hard Decisions and Elastic Options

2008-07-03T12:52:00.002-05:00

This is a great team activity that demonstrates how leaders sometimes have to make irreversible decisions based on best available knowledge at the time.

Set-up: Divide students into teams of three. Give each team 5 rubber bands (same size) and a sheet of Post-It® pad paper.

Announce that the goal for each team is to use the rubber bands to propel the Post-It note as far as possible. Each team will get one chance to launch their Post-It note. Nothing but rubber bands and team member fingers can be used. Rubber bands can be cut, broken and tied, but nothing can be added such as tape, pencils, staples, etc. All three team members can be involved in launching the Post-It Note.

Give each team 10 minutes to come up with their solution and be prepared to demonstrate in front of the group.

Have each group attempt to launch their Post-It Note. Record the length of each and announce the winners.

Use the following processing questions. Have multiple students respond to each question.
What happened as your team determined the design of your rubber band launcher?
Were there any disagreements about the design?
What was most challenging about choosing a final design?
How did it feel to make a decision – like cutting a rubber band – that you knew you couldn’t undo?
What kinds of decisions are leaders faced with where there is uncertainty about the outcome but the decision is irreversible?
What did you learn from this experience that could apply to those situations as a leader?

Enjoy the activity!

Leadership Development Tip for July 3, 2008

Get more from Power Point®

2008-07-03T12:49:00.001-05:00

The transition from overheads to LCD projection has allowed many of us to simply type our notes in Power Point® slides and use the software as mechanism to deliver content – lots of it. A movement is underway to transform the use of Power Point and reclaim the role of educator not just content provider. Here’s a great You Tube video of Garr Reynolds, author of the book, “Presentation Zen” making the case at a Google meeting for better, more engaging presentations.

Of course, the act of taking notes is still a useful learning activity. This tip shouldn’t be seen as a condemnation of using Power Point to provide notes, rather a suggestion to use Power Point for more than providing notes.

Classroom Engagement Tip for July 3, 2008

Invite your school counselor

2008-07-03T12:45:00.002-05:00

Too often the distance between classrooms and the guidance department creates an “out of sight, out of mind” situation. Get to know your school counselor(s). At the recent ASCA annual conference in Atlanta, Georgia, school counselors reaffirmed commitment to a national model for their own counseling programs that include career and leadership skill development for all students. (Check out an executive summary of model from the ASCA website)

In short, school counselors can be a tremendous resource for your efforts to create a more relevant classroom. Here’s a few ideas to engage your school counselor:
1. Ask your school counselor to share resources and information about careers, post-secondary options and leadership development.
2. Seek to involve your school counselor in planning events like career day or guest speakers in your classroom.
3. Invite your school counselor to teach or co-teach a series of sessions on preparing for careers or leadership skill development.

School counselors balance many activities that make their daily schedules busy, if not hectic. Nonetheless, student instruction and teacher assistance are high priorities for most professional school counselors. Make the effort to engage yours.

Professional Development Tip for July 3, 2008

Get to know the Career Clusters model

2008-07-03T12:35:00.005-05:00

There are a lot of ways to categorize and organize career options for students. Some models are based on how schools have organized subjects (math, philosophy, arts, science), or based on dimensions of the careers (creative, physical, people-oriented), or based on the level of education needed (professional degree, college degree, technical degree, high school). While these categories all have usefulness (more in the past than in the present and future realities this author would argue), a new model has emerged over the past decade that seems to be generating great interest because of its usefulness and adaptability – the Career Clusters model.

The Career Clusters model organized careers into 16 loosely defined clusters of related industries. Here are a few, for example: Arts, Audio-Visual Technology and Communications; Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources; and Architecture and Construction

Within these “clusters” you can find careers that use all subjects, have all dimensions and require all levels of education.

Why have Career Clusters become so popular? We’d offer these three reasons:
1. It is an easy way for students and parents to make sense of the universe of careers
2. Exploration can be based on student interest in a broad area
3. There is no implied judgment about “better” or “worse” careers – all clusters hold promise

If you’re not familiar with the Career Clusters model, take some time to explore the website www.careerclusters.org. (Full disclosure: at RC we believe so much in the Career Clusters model that all of our career development products are based on the model)

Career Development Tip for July 3, 2008

Spot ‘N Swat for Vocabulary!

2008-06-19T09:24:00.001-05:00

Here’s a fun way for students to learn vocabulary words by spotting them and then swatting them. They will have so much fun that they may not realize that they are learning.

Here’s what you need:
Two fly swatters
3”X 5”cards with the definitions of each word written on one side
3”X 5” cards with the words that match the definitions written on one side
(20 cards of both the words and 20 of their definitions is a good number for play)
4-6 students ready to play
A parent volunteer/student teacher to assist is ideal.
Spot ‘N Swat can be played as a team or individually. Place the 3” X 5” cards with words in columns and face up on a flat surface so that all of the words are easily seen by students. Write the definition for each word on another 3”X5” card. Ask a volunteer or student teacher to lead this and you can stay in the classroom and continue teaching. The volunteer holds all of the definitions in hand and reads the definition (one by one) and the students must spot and then swat with the fly swatter the correct word that matches the definition. The student who swats the correct word first gets to keep that card and the team with the most cards in the end, wins. Students continue to try until they find the correct word. This game can be used for a variety of subject areas and their definitions and can be modified to accommodate your needs.

Classroom Engagement tip for June 19, 2008

Compassionate Communication

2008-06-19T09:20:00.002-05:00

You and your students can serve as role models to others by positively influencing them through your non-violent communication. In the heat of the moment, it’s easy to lose one’s temper and overreact; often this leaves us feeling guilty or regretful. If we learn to utilize the steps below, we will be better prepared to meet our own needs and those of others while also contributing to the betterment of our society. You may wish to role play situations in the classroom to give students an opportunity to practice this. And also ask students to share experiences in which they successfully utilized non-violent communication. For more ideas, visit www.cnvc.org.

10 Things We Can Do to Contribute to Internal, Interpersonal, and Organizational Peace
(1) Spend some time each day quietly reflecting on how we would like to relate to ourselves and others.
(2) Remember that all human beings have the same needs.
(3) Check our intention to see if we are as interested in others getting their needs met as our own.
(4) When asking someone to do something, check first to see if we are making a request or a demand.
(5) Instead of saying what we DON'T want someone to do, say what we DO want the person to do.
(6) Instead of saying what we want someone to BE, say what action we'd like the person to take that we hope will help the person be that way.
(7) Before agreeing or disagreeing with anyone's opinions, try to tune in to what the person is feeling and needing.
(8) Instead of saying "No," say what need of ours prevents us from saying "Yes."
(9) If we are feeling upset, think about what need of ours is not being met, and what we could do to meet it, instead of thinking about what's wrong with others or ourselves.
(10) Instead of praising someone who did something we like, express our gratitude by telling the person what need of ours that action met. The Center for Nonviolent Communication (CNVC) would like there to be a critical mass of people using Nonviolent Communication language so all people will get their needs met and resolve their conflicts peacefully. 2001, revised 2004 Gary Baran & CNVC. The right to freely duplicate this document is hereby granted.

Leadership Development tip for June 19, 2008

Videotape Your Students' Presentations

2008-06-19T09:07:00.001-05:00

Guess what is one of the American public’s greatest fears? Flying, death? No, actually the number one fear of adults is public speaking, this need not be so. It’s great to give your students experience speaking in front of groups and a classroom of peers is a comfortable environment in which to enhance one’s public speaking skills. Give each student a rubric including the basics upon which they will be graded. Include: eye contact, voice, body language, clarity of speech, content and use of visual aides. Make it fun and have each student select their own subject, after you approve the topic, provide a few tips to students. Suggest that they dress comfortably, eat a good breakfast that day and take time to really practice their presentations with their skills in mind. Borrow a school video camera, if not available, use a tape recorder. After each student gives their presentation, find a time to review the video/audio on an individual basis with each student. Ask them what they did well and what needs improvement. Give them a chance to make the presentation again. Public speaking gives students an opportunity to share useful knowledge, establish themselves as an expert in a certain area and gain real confidence. We all need this skill even if we are not making formal presentations. Practice makes perfect!

Professional Development tip for June 19, 2008