Online Projects

Here is a link to some online projects.

http://www.mrshurleysesl.com/onlineprojects.html

Take a look. Although some may be on the elementary level, they are worth a glance.

Questions for the Interviewer

You will all be interviewing VERY soon for teaching jobs.

So, you get the interview... You answer all of the required questions. What comes next?

Most candidates will have an opportunity to ask questions. These questions should be prepared in advance.

You should have several questions in mind before you arrive for the interview.

Here are some examples:

•What are you looking for in a teacher?
•How does the teaching staff support new teachers?
•Are teachers encouraged to earn advanced degrees?
•What is the teacher/student ratio in your district?
•How supportive is the community?
•Do your schools use teacher aides or parent volunteers?
•What allowances are provided for supplies and materials?
•Does the administration encourage field trips for students?
•What textbooks does the district use in this subject area?
•How are teachers assigned to extra-curricular activities? Is compensation provided?
•What technology is available in the district?
•Do teachers participate in curriculum review and change?
•What are prospects for future growth in this community and its schools?
•What support staff members are available to help students and teachers?

Teachable Moment

Today was just that-- a teachable moment.

Last Wednesday we all experienced something that we will never forget. The memory will most likely diminish with time. The text messages will be deleted. And, eventually, the heightened feelings you have right now will fade, but the day will remain in your memory forever.

Some may say "nothing happened".

"There was no violence."

"There was no gunman."

Yet, we all know something happened. Something very important. Something that needs to be discussed.

A teachable moment is a situation that opens the door for a person to talk to a child or any other person about subjects that are difficult but necessary to discuss. These difficult conversation topics may include sexuality, alcohol and drug use, smoking, violence, eating disorders and depression.

Today the discussion was school violence and terrorism.

Hopefully you will not experience school violence when you start to teach. However, if you do, you can initiate a discussion like the one we had today to guide and teach your students. They may resist, but you need to try. Everyone has something to say; they just may be scared to say it.

I know I did not *want* to have this discussion, but it was necessary.

I would like to thank each one of you for being brave, and sharing a piece of yourself today.

Our Blog is Listed here...

....take a look under "Professor Luongo's Blog"

http://supportblogging.com/Links+to+School+Bloggers

Vantage Learning Reach Blog

Take a look at this brand new blog. It is a blog for educators and students using MYAccess! (the K-12 writing software I told you we will preview next month):

http://reach.vantagelearning.com/

Also, take a look at the main site:

http://www.myaccess.com/myaccess/do/log

Positive Parent Communication

Just a quickie...

For every phone call you make to the parents or guardians of a struggling student, attempt to make a positive call to the parents or guardians of a successful student.

Any thought on this? Did any of you receive positive calls from teachers? Ask your parents... If not, would you have liked to hear positive feedback from a teacher? Do you think your parents would have liked those calls?

Let's think outside the box and be positive!

Online Courses

Just saw this post in an online educational journal I receive:

The Washington Post reported on an Arlington, Va., continuing education program called Arlington Mill High School, "an initiative that offers not only classroom courses to help students get their degrees but also an online component that is becoming an increasingly important tool for educators to prevent students from dropping out."

The Post noted that the high dropout rate in low-income areas is "blame[d] in part on large, impersonal, rule-bound schools that don't adjust well to individual needs and peculiarities" by experts. Online courses allow students to work at their own pace, as well as provide them with a measure of independence. Even so, "[t]eachers involved with online courses for dropouts say that [some] kind of drive is essential."

However, there are limits to online learning. Some students' lack access to the necessary technology. Also, the courses are "dependent on students' reading abilities," and therefore students who do not speak English as their first language can find the courses difficult.

Sound familiar?

Any thoughts?

Positive Reinforcement...Friend of Foe?

Friday's class got me thinking about the use of positive reinforcement in the high school and middle school. Can we be "too"positive? Can our positive nature turn students off? Jackie's comment about taking the positive comment as sarcastic got me to think about how we can be positive in a way that actually helps the students.

My search brought me to an educational blog D-Ed Reckoning, which claims, "The primary problem with K-12 education today is the problem of dead reckoning--an estimate based on little or no information. We don't know what a good K-12 education system is because we've never seen one operating. A good education system is one that is capable of educating almost every child" (Derosa, 2007).

Take a look at his blog and specifically this October 8, 2007 post. In it, he talks with a practicing urban teacher who explains, "Negative reinforcement almost never changes peoples' behavior. That's virtually an axiom. If you want to change behavior, you have to organize the environment so that you can reinforce (reward) the behavior you want. The behavior you notice, pay attention to and reward is what you will get more of; positive methods are far more powerful than negative ones" (Derosa, 2007).

Any thoughts?

Reference

Derosa, K. (2007). D-ed reckoning. Retrieved February 9, 2008 from http://d-edreckoning.blogspot.com/

Math/Spanish/History Site

Here is a link to for those math/Spanish/history teachers in our midst.

This is a great example of how we can touch multiple subjects in one lesson or unit.

Also, what a great site for some lesson plans ideas (Hint, hint ;))

Take a look and see what you think....

http://www.exploratorium.edu/ancientobs/chichen/HTML/TG-math.html

Widgets update

I just realized the link below weas not working. That tricky SPC website! I apologize. Here is the proper link to the Widgets:

http://blog.wikispaces.com/2008/01/wikispaces-widgets.html