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.
CREATE A TAB FOR EACH PERIOD
Under each period include:
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!
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.
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.
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!
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
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:
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
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:
…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.
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.
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.
Credits: All photos are from High Tech High’s Web site.
Professional Development Tip for March 30, 2009
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
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:
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
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
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 – purposeGNAP 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
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
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:
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.
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
