Constructivism: Critcisms

FIVE CRITICISMS OF CONSTRUCTIVISMS

1. The world doesn't work that way. In other words, companies often require isolated, boring tasks, dutiful employees. Work doesn't have to be meaningful and motivation is almost always extrinsic. If things like bonuses and higher salary weren't motivational, why would companies still use them? In response to this, many constructivists point out that in the New Economy, things are shifting toward a more constructivist paradigm.
2. It can be watered down. Sometimes, in an effort to follow the process, to make things experiental or toreach the "whole student," constructivists can sacrifice parts of the curriculum.
3. It ignores the need for remedial work. There is a time and a place for drill and review and for targetted work on isolated skills.
4. Too much reliance on group work allows students to be lazy. It can also mean that they lose the individual drive to accomplish tasks. In some cases, group work can lead to a dangerous "group think."
5. Misinterpretations are common. For example, people confuse being active with actively engaged, using computers with mindtools, fun with intrinsic motivation. All of these can be dangerously applied in classroom settings.

Constructivism: Project Ideas

PROJECT IDEAS

TEN SOCIAL STUDIES PROJECT IDEAS

1. Independent Project - Begin with inquiry and follow the students through a research, implementation and expression phase. This can work well with the Project Social Voice concept, where students engage in authentic interviews, community Needs Assessments and primary source data.
2. Reflective Portfolios - Allow students to show artifacts of their learning and write reflections about what they learned and how they grew in the process.
3. Solving a Problem - Using the Problem-based learning approach, students can study a conflict, research the implications of the conflict and develop their own solution.
4. Poetry Album - Students place themselves into the role of the Harlem Renaissance. As they explore the time period, they create a concept map and write poems connecting the concept of freedom. It becomes a Jazz concept album. If students are musically inclined, they can even experiment with using jazz beats in their poetry and doing a recorded poetry album.
5. Documentary - Students begin with inquiry, move into research and present their information in the form of a documentary. Working in groups, they create skits and story boards and walk through the stages of production. Encourage students to think critically about the medium itself by asking questions such as, "How do people act differently when they are on film?"
6. WebQuest - Although WebQuests can be too isolated and fail to engage students, a well-crafted WebQuest will force students to make cognitive connections. One idea would be to take a former event and have students find connections between those events and the current events. (For example, the Cold War and the War on Terror)
7. Create a Candidate - As students learn about the executive branch, place them in a team of political experts who will create a political candidate who can win. The process can involve interviews with real politicians, exploration of current issues and a group development of a political platform. Students can use spreadsheets to analyze demographic data to predict the likelihood of winning particular states.

Constructivism: Introduction

WHAT IS CONSTRUCTIVISM?

Constructivism is an elusive philosophy. In many respects, like post-modernism, a definition would defy its own definition. Instead, a true constructivist would say, "You define it and see how the concepts are interconnected."

In general, constructivism is the educational philosophy (some would argue theory) that knowledge is internalized and constructed by the learner; that it must be developmentally appropriate; that it should be authentic in its task and that it should meet the needs of all learners. In addition, most constructivists believe that motivation is intrinsic, so they deny the system of rewards and punishments. Moreover, constructivists believe that students should be mentally active in the learning process rather than recieving instruction via transmission.

In many respects, constructivism can seem like an assortment of loose theories pulled into one. However, the single unifying thought is that, in constructivism, the student is the one who creates meaning and constructs conceptual knowledge.

HOW CONSTRUCTIVISM DIFFERS FROM TRADITIONAL PEDAGOGY

The following paradigm shifts involve moving away from traditional pedagogy and toward constructivism:

• From extrinsic to intrinsic motivation
• From grading to assessing
• From standardized assessments to authentic assessments
• From direct instruction to inquiry and independent projects
• From isolated skills to interconnected concepts
• From the teachers as instructor to the teacher as facilitator
• From passive learning to active engagement (here the issues is not "active" in a sense of having fun, but of being mentally "active" through meaningful, challenging learning)
• From rote memorization to higher level thinking
• From one modality to multiple intelligences
• From one-size-fits-all to differentiated instruction
• From transmission of knowledge to construction of knowledge
• From individual to cooperative learning

Constructivism: Theorists

CONSTRUCTIVIST THEORISTS

There are many constructivist theorists. In fact, the following theorists are often credited for developing their own educational theories (lending to the notion that constructivism is a pedagogical philosophy rather than a single, unified theory). Some would say that Socrates was the first constructivist, given his style of dialogues. Others would credit Rousseau (we can't give the French that much credit, though. It's simply un-American. It would be like claiming they made the Statue of Liberty)

	Bruner - The first of the educational psychologists to suggest that learning occured in the mind rather than in external behaviors, Bruner helped pave the way for Multiple Intelligences, by suggesting that there were various modalities of learning, including his step theories of enactive representation (action-based), iconic representation (image-based) and symbolic representation (language-based). In addition, Bruner posited the nothion that there are two modes of congition: the narrative (linear, sequential) and paradigmatic (systemic, categorical).
	Dewey - Although he was the founder of modern, progressive education, Dewey was a pragmatist who was less about the "ism" and more about practical reality. Dewey believed in holistic education, knowledge construction and a more human alternative to factory-style education. In addition, he believed that education was not "for the future," but valuable in the moment. He also suggested that knowledge should be experiential and multi-sensory.
	Piaget - In many respects, he was the first to suggest that learners created their own concepts and that it occured through a process of maturation (in stages). Though many educators now discredit his rigid categories, his legacy is important to understanding constructivism.
	Jonassen - His work helped popularize constructivism and helped guide teachers to understand how they could use technology within a constructivist framwork. Jonassen helped to add solid, empiracle research to the constructivist movement. In addition, he demonstrated that technology needed to be integrated holistically and used by the learner to construct knowledge, rather than simply using it passively to recieve knowledge.
	Vygotsky - His contribution included the notion of scaffolding, the importance of groups and the notion that teachers should facilitate a learning environment rather than teach directly. Vygotsky helped pave the way for theories such as the social learning theory and cooperative learning.

Constructivism: Lesson Ideas

LESSON IDEAS

TEN SOCIAL STUDIES IDEAS

• Inquiry-based activity - Students begin by asking a question, developing it in-depth and finding a solution using primary sources
• Defining a concept - Students create their own definitions and rotate around the room using manipulatives to test it. For example, the word might be "propaganda" and they have to decide whether various artifacts are propaganda.
• Developing a philosophy - Students pose questions, engage in a Socratic Seminar and then create their own Life Philosophy. Or it can be more isolated. For example, students could begin with a higher-level thinking question such as, "What is art?" followed by a discussion of whether it should be beautiful. They could analyze a shoe and a painting, which would then lead into the study of modernism and Dada art. As they then look at real example, they would add to a concept map about modern art and make connections between modern art and other areas of modernism.
• Using spreadsheets to organize and analyze information. Students can, for example, input statistics on war casualties of various years in comparison to overall population and analyze which wars were the most devastating. In the process, they can make connections to various time periods.
• Rating technology - Each group reads about a specific technology and spends time researching it. One member of each group then has to stand in front of the class. Students hold pictures of various technology used during a time period and other students have to rate it. They physically move the students from place to place in order to defend their answers.
• Classroom as a Factory - Turn the classroom into a factory and have students make a picture. As they work, begin using Supply and Demand to move the workers in and out. See if the wages drop and if the workers unite for a union. Afterward, have groups answer questions about the pros and cons of the factories (it could be environmental, economic, political, etc.). Introduce the concept of supply and demand within the context of the activity. See if they can create a solution to the problem.
• Have students create a metaphor of what is being taught. For example, if the issue is the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, have them create a metaphor and then work in groups comparing and constrasting the metaphors. Have them describe the metaphor in a paragraph and describe a new metaphor if there was a solution. (Example: Divorced family and each group marries someone else) Afterward, let the group choose one metaphor and have other groups accuracies and inaccuracies of each metaphor.
• Post a reading or a quote on a wall and have groups rotate around the reading, adding their own thoughts or questions to the quote. This can be a powerful way to do high levels of reading while keeping it interactive.
• Civil War Battle - Create a mock battle where students must use trenches, resources, etc. to have a paper fight between the North and the South. In the process, ask students to define which group has more resources, higher population, etc. Ask open questions, such as, "Was it fair of the United States to prevent the South from leaving?" Afterward, have them analyze charts or maps about each side's resources or primary source writings from the time period.
• Have groups stationed around the room to represent concepts. Have one huge ball of yarn. Each group can then use the yarn to find connections between various concepts, if they can explain how the concepts are related.

Outsourcing My Job

The term "outsourcing" has such a negative connotation, but it is the best word I can use to describe what I do to save time. There are many jobs that I either hate to do or am not well-qualified to do that are a part of the regular teaching profession. So, what I have learned to do is outsource those jobs so that I can focus on teaching. I now spend more time really analyzing student work, creating lesson plans, tutoring students and participating in IMPACT projects.

The following is a list of jobs that I outsource:

Teacher's Assistants

• Edit all the videos we do
• Help maintain the website
• Take my lesson plans and convert them into the SIOP format (that the school demands
• Make phone calls

Parents

• Translate information into Spanish
• Help take the recycling to the recycling place
• Chaperone field trips

Students - In each class, I have students do the following job

• Monitor the computer equipment
• Provide technology assistance
• Collect and pass out papers
• Answer the phone and take messages

Community Members - people who I know that want to be involved

• Community Editors - they provide an extra set of eyes and offer comments to students when they publish articles
• Interviews and Guest Speakers
• Online Tutoring - They are allowed to take anonymous questions (that go into a website) and offer their feedback in their core subject. I'd like to expand this to real, face-to-face tutoring some day

Technology
Although technology is not a person, the use of GMAIL, RSS feeds, Google Docs, etc. allow me to access and organize student work whenever and wherever I want. I'm thinking of trying MOODLE as a course management system to expand upon this.
So, the question I pose is: What other things could I outsource? What are some things that you, as a teacher, outsource to free up your time?

Tips for Using Internet in Research

The internet is a virtual anarchy of information. There is no sense of peer review, which means anyone can publish anything. Critics, seeing that students often plagiarize or accept any information as valid, simply dismiss the internet as a bad idea for education.
The problem with this rejection is that there are great sources out there. Simply handing a kid a textbook and saying "this is the truth" is equally dangerous. According to our textbook, Hawaii offered to become a state and the Spanish-American War occured only after they attacked us first. In reality, we acquired Hawaii through a military coup and we sunk our own ship, the USS Maine, to continue with our own expansionist goals.
So, how do I get students to think critically about the internet? A major part begins with teaching students to find bias by examing sources. On the first day of class, rather than spending the period covering rules and procedures, students do an activity about the dangers of dyhydrogen monoxide (water) and later see the lies from former teachers. Many students have no idea that the George Washington cherry tree story is a lie or that Columbus what not the first European to go to the Americas.
During the actual activity, I have them fill out a chart.

The first row has: Questions
The second row has: Facts
The third row has: Bias of the site - any elements of propaganda
The fourth row has: Reliability: Reason the source is reliable or unreliable

The chart might seem convoluted, but it forces students to ask, "Is this a credible site?" Also, the "in your own words" is key, given the propensity of students to simply copy and paste. Often this had led to some healthy debtates about sources. For example, can we trust either Fox News or CNN? A liberal or conservative will have different views. Should we trust wikipedia? It's often very accurate, but there are many times when someone sabotages a page.

Socrates in McDonalds

She greets the students with a faux smile and haggard eyes, offering the same rehearsed line, "pick up your bell work," and like androids, they wander to their assigned seats. Though she resembles a Wal-Mart greeter, the classroom most closely resembles a McDonalds. With the prefabricated, inoffensive posters, brightly advertising fractions, there is a subtle message that math can be cheap and easy and fun. From the ordered desks to the grating fluorescent lights, the entire classroom has an atmosphere of edgy boredom, tempered only by the fact that the work is so easy students really can’t complain.

Students fill out prepackaged worksheets, photocopied and handed out with a time deadline. Though the knowledge may be superficial, they learn it quickly and can retain it long enough to vomit it back into the state-mandated, fill-in-the-bubble test. Later, the teacher delivers a freeze-dried, pre-packaged lesson with the same passion and charisma of the photocopy machine, quietly attempting to transfer knowledge that can be measured and quantified and consumed by these wild, hormonal teenagers whose eyes have grown glassy from the sedative of standardized instruction. Thus the factory-model continues with the uniforms and ID cards and rote memorization testing.

Sure, some students drop out, attempting a dollar menu effort and receiving a cheaper meal than others. Most settle for a value menu with inflated grades, specialized with fancy, descriptive words, but containing the same lethal dose of indoctrination. A few kids will go the extra mile and earn a super-sized education, banking on the hopes of an American Dream that promises a magical ticket to the posh suburban lifestyle if they can just behave well enough and memorize the quadratic formula. Except, just like a super-sized Big Mac Meal Deal, the drive for success might some day lead to a heart attack.

The cynic in me wonders if there can be any nutrition in fast-food education. I wonder if we can replace customer service with a relationship, management with mentoring, knowledge with wisdom. Perhaps I can teach a few practical skills, offer some opportunities to connect to the community, generate meaningful discussion an allow students to think independently. I feel like I am subverting the system, like I'll be caught one day. I imagine myself as a doctor replacing fast-food fare with something meatier, tastier and more costly. Other times, I wonder if I am becoming a sell-out; a practitioner trained to follow the bottom line. There's a subtle message that it's better to be mediocre than to try something different, make a huge mistake and disrupt the bulwark of bureaucracy. After all, if the sales aren't high and the results aren't measurable, I have failed the system.

I find it interesting that the values of the fastfood industry are identical to the values of the educational industry. Even the term “industry” bothers me, as if teaching humans is some kind of a business. Both value cost-effectiveness. A full restaurant and a full classroom both mean higher profits for someone – though not necessarily the workers at the bottom. A standardized, formulaic method works for creating a Big Mac and for educating a child. In both cases, the bottom line is efficiency, especially if it can be quantified. There is something disturbing when McDonalds keeps a marquee sign telling customers that billions of hamburgers had been sold. Now, I cringe when schools boast an “exceeding” test-score label on their marquee signs.

Despite my mocking of the system, there are days when I give in to the convenience of a fast-food education. I give a test or pop in a movie or simply re-use a lesson from the previous year. I disengage and manage, so that I can finish grading or fill out paperwork. In the end, like a trip to McDonalds, the result is wasted calories. I feel sick to my stomach. What is shocking to me is that some teachers act as fast-food junkies – sitting behind a desk all day and passing out worksheets and crossword puzzles.

Thus, it is all standardized. Who we teach, becomes mere data in a spreadsheet and categories based upon reading levels or math skills. The teacher becomes a mechanical practitioner, missing the creative notion of a vocation. There is a sense that, like the fastfood worker, curriculum is now “teacher-proof” so that no one deviates from the standardized norms. What we teach grows politically mandated, with strings connected to federal money. Curriculum maps guide the state standardized objectives so that we can assess students with standardized tests, based upon the standardized textbook material. Teachers deliver scripted lessons and students, for their part offer scripted answers in a sort-of mindless regurgitation – a meaningless, secular catechism.

Digital Ghettos

The Digital Divide is not a large chasm separating the "haves" and "have nots." The notion that we can simply fill this chasm with resources and make a bridge is a failure in metaphor.

Technologically, lower-income and middle-income students live in separate worlds. It is less of a chasm and more of a massive wall - perhaps an invisible wall; one so deceptively invisible that low income children can believe they are participating in the Digital Age when they sign up for a myspace account.

The reality is that low-income students often inhabit digital ghettos that prevent them from accessing, analyzing and applying the resources needed to thrive in a global economy. Yet, what are the walls that prevent integration? Technology segregation is not as simple as the former "whites only" signs that were once posted all over the Deep South.

Ghetto Walls:

1. Lack of Access - Although many schools have new technology, the students do not have access to these media because teachers rarely integrate technology into lessons. In many schools, the issue is a simple re-organization of computers. For others, it is switching from proprietary software to open source and freeware. Still, for others, the issue of access is not accessing the technology, but accessing the professional development. They don't know where to go to learn more.

2. Lack of Motivation - Some teachers and students do not want to use technology. It can seem like a fiery, mysterious box. It can feel too complicated and foreign. For some, it can seem like a waste of time in the greater battle of "student achievement." As one teacher in my school put it, "Why should we use computers if we will be tested with paper and pencil?"

3. Lack of Self-Efficacy - Many teachers and students believe that they can't learn computers. They have few opportunities to use it and so they never try. Past experiences taught them that it's too hard and so now they avoid trying rather than being embaressed or dissapointed.

4. Beliefs - For some teachers, it's an issue of a paradigm shift (segregation to integration). For others, it's a matter of seeing the connection between educational theory and the available technology.

the role of technology

Teachers say they want "cutting edge technology" in their classrooms. They view the latest technology tools as a great cure that will finally transform their mundane teaching experience into a twenty-first century, state-of-the-art facility. Words are powerful and often dangerous. True, the computer is a tool and it can be "cutting edge?" But which edge is it cutting? Who and what is it changing?

The notion of a tool assumes we, as humans, have the ability to maneuver technology however we please and it will not change us in the process. The reality is that technology is always a double-edged sword. In being cutting edge, it often slashes through difficult tasks in hyper-speed and creates work that would once have seemed miraculous. But it also cuts us, leaving us scarred and addicted so that the soul of a tech junkie looks like the arm of a heroine addict. We can connect instantly, but we are losing our ability to communicate. We look constantly, but we rarely see. We access information from millions of sources, but there is no transfer into wisdom. I'm not anti-technology.

I don't believe the solution is to create a neo-Luddite paradise among the Amish. What I am suggesting is that technology will never create the paradise promised to us by technocrats like Steve Jobs. Instead, I wonder what it would look like to teach students to use technology, but also to be technology critics. What if we helped them to see the double-edged sword for what it is - something powerful and dangerous that, even when used for good, can still have negative side effects.

Bloom's Taxonomy: Cognitive Theory

KnowledgeWhat happens? This is the rote memorization, basic recall of information. Here a student learns some information (or recalls from prior knowledge) and can restate it exactly.
Synonyms (for Objectives): Recall, Identify, Examine, Define, List, Tell, Describe, Label, Match
Questions: Any question that has a yes/no, objective answer Example:
Who won the war of 1812?
What causes photosyntheis?
Is this a right triangle?
Activities: lecture, note-taking, textbook reading, filling out a graphic organizer ComprehensionWhat happens? The mind is able to take the information and summarize it. Thus, rather than simply being able to identify the definition of racism, a student could explain what racism is. This is the point where a student can transfer knowledge from one context to another.
Synonyms (for Objectives): Summarize, Interpret, Discuss, Explain, Estimate, Generalize
Questions: Questions which require the summary of information. Example:
What is another example of __________?
Can you put that in your own words?
Roughly speaking, what is ___________?
Who do you think ____________?
What was the main idea of ______________?
Activities: Write a summary, join a discussion, state in your own words, generate a group definition ApplicationWhat happens? A student at this point is able to take what has been learned and use it in another context. There is a greater sense of action here.
Synonyms (for Objectives): Demonstrate, Use, Solve
Questions- Example:
Given a case study, what would be the best _____?
Given an example, what would you ___________?
How would this apply to ______________?
What would have happened if _____________?
If you were in that situation, what would you have done?
Activities: service learning project, interactive activity, lab, critical thinking questions, case studiesAnalysis What happens? This is where a the mind separates out different ideas and “picks them apart.” Many people confuse this with synthesis, but analysis is not creating an organization, but rather using organization to separate out some other knowledge.
Synonyms (for Objectives): Differentiate, Categorize, Organize, Order, Classify, Arrange, Infer Compare, Contrast, Discriminate
Questions - Example:
What is the difference between _____________?
How is this different from _____________?
Which category would this fit best in?
How are these similar?
How could this be modified to be like that?
Activities: deconstruction paper, categorizing experiences, concept maps, Venn Diagram, SynthesisWhat happens? This is where the mind works like a web. Ideas connect and combine to create a new, coherent whole . This is also the creative, more intuitive aspect of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Here the mind works as a creative force to generate something new and different based on prior knowledge. Synonyms (for Objectives): Create, Generate, Combine, Integrate, Compose, Formulate, Plan, Design, Invent
Questions - Example:
What would happen if __________?
What would be the best solution for __________?
What would be a compromise for _______________
Activities: poster, play, poem, video, website, mural – anything that involves the creation of something newEvaluationWhat happens? The mind judges whether something is true, valid or accurate. There can even be a moral component to this. Synonyms (for Objectives): Judge, Defend, Rate, Predict, Assess, Test, DefendQuestions - Example:
What is the best?
What is the worst aspect of ______?
What is the top _________?
Why is this _________?
What do you believe about __________?
Activities: Socratic Seminar, debate, discussion,
Modifications of the Theory
Others have attempted to modify Bloom’s Taxonomy. The most common revision changes the terminology slightly, from adjectives to verbs. The idea is that, in learning, humans are doing rather than being. The mind is active at work. Personally, I doubt that people really needed to see “apply” instead of “application.” Besides, in describing levels of thinking, it is perfectly reasonable to use adjectives. More recently, data-driven theorist Marzano created a revision that changed the knowledge category, skipped application and split synthesis into generating and integrating. Marzano’s terminology was:

focusing
information gathering
remembering
organizing
analyzing
generating
integrating
evaluating

Although Marzano’s theory was a genuine revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy, The benefit of this initital theory was that it viewed knowledge as an earlier process of investigation. Teachers have seen how a student failing to “focus” or “information gather” will struggle through the higher levels. The failture of his theory was that it left out application and viewed learning as too traditional. It assumed that prior knowledge was not a part of learning. Also, as Critical Pedagogy would point out, there is little application and action. In the end, the final revision read: knowledge, organizing, applying , analyzing, generating, integrating, and evaluating. Thus, it was basically the same as Bloom’s Taxonomy; which attests to the durability of Bloom’s theories

Bloom's Taxonomy: Biography of Bloom

BLOOM'S BIOGRAPHY
Benjamin S. Bloom was born into the tumultuous time period of World War I. Yet, his early life was shaped in many ways by the typical Eastern American experience. Born on Februray 21, 1913, Bloom grew up in Lansford Pennsylvania. He was a small and unassuming man with a sharp wit and a deep desire to learn.

He attended Penn State University and later earned a PhD from the University of Chicago. At the time he developed his famous taxonomy, the United States was at the forefront of educational theory. From John Dewey’s Progressive school to the boom in Information Processing Theory to Skinner’s science of Behaviorism, the U.S. paved the way in educational theory. As a Board Examiner from 1943 to 1959, Bloom developed his famous Bloom’s Taxonomy. Unlike other theorists, his grew out of a pragmatic need to re-tool the assessment of students. Indeed, Benjamin Bloom was one of the first theorists to advocate the absolution of norm-referenced tests.

To him, all learning must be individualized and criterion-referenced. Eventually, on their own, students would reach the same level. Bloom had an affinity for science and statistics, which enabled him to classify information quickly. Those who knew him would often remark on his messy office, filled with books, notes, scribbles of information and statistical research.

Although his theories have been largely adopted by the more traditional teaching movements (especially in standards-based instruction and in the Core Curriculum Movement), Bloom considered himself a progressive. His style of teaching was interactive and encouraging to new ideas of research. Indeed, he was more Progressive than people could have guessed. Before Social Learning Theory existed, Bloom suggested that the environment played a major role in a student’s learning. Before differentiated instruction was an educational buzzword, he believed in tailoring instruction to an individual’s needs. In his later years, Bloom became an educational activist. He worked as a consultant for India and Israel. His advocated an educational system based upon higher-level thinking and a progressive style of teaching. Later, he testified before Congress about the importance of early childhood development. To him, one of his greatest victories was the creation of the Head Start Program.

Bloom's Taxonomy: An Introduction

Bloom's Taxonomy often gets a bad reputation. Aligned with the behaviorist / transmission view of traditional education, the use of objectives now seem synonymous with standardized education.

The reality is that Bloom's Taxonomy was never meant to be a part of the factory model, standardized approach. Instead, the use of objectives were simply a part of a larger theory that combined the study of cognition (using an approach that was later co-opted by the constructivism movement), psychomotor learning and affective learning.
In many ways, Bloom's initial research helped lead to the development of challenging, conceptual, critical thinking rather than simple memorization. He recognized the need for emotional intelligence and self-efficacy in learners.

ten time-saving ideas

1. Check e-mail at specific times of day. It's very possible to check e-mail too frequently and nickle and dime your time. Checking e-mail a only during prep or after school can help save time on tasks.
2. Sort through mail in the staff lounge. Any unnecessary papers can then go straight to the recycle can. That will not only save time, but also give you a chance to make sarcastic remarks about junk mail.
3. Have a filing system. This can include things like "goes to office" or "needs signatures" or "pass out to students." This way, you don't waste time looking through papers.
4. Don't read useless blogs on how to save time. Oops. I take that back. Continue reading.
5. Have a specific time when you do copies once a week and get the entire stack done all at once. This works best if you can come really early, stay really late or if there is a copy machine that actually works.
6. Delegate jobs to students - such as passing out papers, doing bulletin boards, etc.
7. Spend more time on preventative discipline (lesson planning, getting to know students, body language) and less time on discipline conferences with parents.
8. Instead of writing a ton of comments, use a rubric with specific comments to provide more targetted feedback.
9. Ride a bike to work. I know it sounds insane, but you can get to work, excercise and think of lesson planning ideas all in one setting. Plus, it's good for the environment and saves money on gas.
10. Type your lessons so that you can go back and modify the lessons the next year rather than having to re-write them from scratch.

help with ELL

I have taught here awhile and I feel like I have heard things here and there about English Language Development. I've been bogged down, however, by things like "affective filter" and all the various acronymns.

Is there a place I can go with some very basic information about how to help ELL students in reading? In particular, I am looking for a list of strategies. I read the book they gave us and it was helpful and I feel like I get the theory. But I am wondering if anyone has any ideas of what has worked with you on a practical level. Any thoughts?

presentation

What are some general rules that you would have in using presentation software in the classroom?

portfolio and plan

By the end of the semester, you will create a technology integration plan and portfolio. The entire thing will be online. You will create it during the professional development time, so that you don't have to do anything extra outside of your time.

Part One: Technology Integration Goals
-3 Goals for Technology Integration
Part Two: Technology Access
-How and where you will obtain hardware
-How and where you will obtain software
Part Three: Technology Literacy
-Defining technology literacy
-Technology Integration philosophy
Blogs
Example of a blog
Pros
Cons
Potential uses in your classroom
Websites
Example of a website
Pros
Cons
Potential uses in your classroom
Wiki
Example of a wiki
Pros
Cons
Potential uses in your classroom
Video
Example of a video
Pros
Cons
Potential uses in your classroom
Mindtools
Example of a mindtool
Pros
Cons
Potential uses in your classroom
Podcast
Example of a podcast
Pros
Cons
Potential uses in your classroom
Presentations
Example of a presentations
Pros
Cons
Potential uses in your classroom

pros and cons of presentation software

What are the pros and cons of using presentation software?

great expectations

We all know that there are teachers who have low expectations. These are the teachers who never challenge students and have a low view of what students can accomplish.

So, what are high standards? What does it look like to have higher expectations? Does this apply to all students? Or can some students legitimately accomplish more than others?

10 Helpful Sites in Tech-Integrated Classroom

By John Spencer

I've written before about my current classroom configuration. Using old (and I mean old!) computers, I was able to speed them up really fast using the xubuntu operating system. (xubuntu.org) I am not a techno-geek by any stretch of the imagination. I simply downloaded a the operating system, burned it to a disk and then burned another eight disks. Within a day I had all 36 computers running on xubuntu.

The Operating System has a few irritating features. For example, it does not run Flash, so you can't show videos or play games (which I find to be more of an asset than a liability). There is a way to run both, but it's more complicated. In addition, if the hard drive is faulty the date and time will fail and so you'll have to change that each time you reboot. Yet, what it lacks in versatility, it makes up for in speed. Firefox runs faster on a first-year iMac running xubuntu than on Apple OS X.

With only a few programs on xubuntu (Open Office, a calendar program, a calculator, etc.) I try
and run everything on the Internet so that nothing has to be saved to the actual computer. Thus I can move students around the classroom and they can work on things at home. For that reason, I have created a list of ten helpful sites that assist in this process.

1 - Google Documents - This versatile site allows students to create, download and upload documents (think Word), Spreadsheets (think Excel) and presentations (think PowerPoint). They can share their documents with one another allowing for group work and collaboration. I can add comments and questions as well. Part of what makes it nice is that it saves every variation every thirty seconds or so. This means I can see how a student has edited work. It lets me "peak" into his or her brain. What this has also meant is that students are not losing papers anymore!

2 - Blogger - I could just has easily chosen WordPress or any other blog. In fact, WordPress has more features, such as building pages. However, I have found that Blogger is very quick and intuitive. Plus, students can create Google Documents and then publish them straight to their blogs.

3 - Google Pages - You can probably tell that I like Google. I like the simplicity of this site, especially when it comes to adding attachments. It's been pretty successful when students create group websites and when they design their own online portfolios. However, about a third of the students have chosen FreeWebs instead. Wet Paint has even more options, including creating discussion boards and wikis within a site. It can become a sort-of social networking site. It's a matter of personal preferance, I guess.

4 - Photobucket - I know that there are other image hosting programs out there, but Photobucket is great for its usability. Many of the students have chosen the online version of Google's Picasa instead, but I found it to have too many illogical components.

5 - PBWiki - Some swear by Wiki Spaces and other wiki sites, yet I have found that students click well with the PBWiki format. In group projects, it allows students to create a wiki that has many interactive gadgets. The range of choices are all easy to use and very intuitive. Plus, students like the side bar that works as a sort-of table of contents for them.

6 - Mindomo - There are many mind-mapping and concept-mapping sites available. What I like about Mindomo is that students learn it quickly. The task bar is similar to that of a document program, such as Word. It is easy to edit the mindmap and move things around. Then, when they choose to insert a mindmap into a blog or a website, it is as simple as copying and pasting a url.

7 - Ning - I am still a little skiddish in creating a social networking site (especially with the negative image of sites such as myspace) so I sent a parent letter home with students in my English Language Development class where I am launching the a social networking site. Ning is very user-friendly and privacy has not been much of an issue. Students, accustomed to myspace and facebook, catch onto it quickly.

8 - Engrade - So far, this has been my favorite site for creating an online gradebook. It is visually appealing, easy for students to use and it has all the features I would expect in a gradebook including attendance procedures.

9 - Proboards - There are many discussion board sites and the one that worked best for me is proboards. It is easy to customize the avatars and create a site that has the right feel to it. Yet, it is not threaded, which can be frustrating for me. One the other hand, it has great security features to keep things private.

10 - Google Calendar - Many students have started using Google Calendars to keep track of various projects. I can share my class calendar and IMPACT calendar with them as well. It's been an excellent organizational tool.

HONORARY MENTIONS:

Moodle - It's a course management system that has many of the features listed above. It's great for doing just about anything that is listed in these other sites. For a teacher who is serious about an online platform and does not want to spend time using multiple sites, Moodle is better than Blackboard or WebCT. The only down side is that, though it is free, it is tricky to create.

Gaggle - I'm not fond of it, because there can be a spam problem. Yet, it's designed for students and teachers. There are some great features, especially for younger students. Where this really comes in handy is that many of the sites above require that a person is over the age of thirteen.

Think.com - This site is very teacher-friendly. Teachers control who the users are and can monitor them well. it works great in terms of an all-in-one site with very little explanation or wasted class time signing up. The down side is that students have fewer creative options. Like Gaggle, it is a great site for children under 13 who cannot sign up for many of the Google programs.