Experience...

So I've been lazy lately. I've fallen behind on blog posts, I've not planned for next year, I've done only a little for preparing my presentation for ATIA Chicago, and I have no excuse. But that got me thinking about other summer's I've had.

As I've stated before this will be my 10th year of teaching coming up. I've taught many different students, from Kindergarten all the way up to 8th grade, as well as many different disabilities, and every summer I spent a lot of time preparing for the next year! I've created materials, I've colored folders, I've made tons and tons of pictures on Boardmaker, and I've done it all summer. Every summer, except this one... I remember back to my first classroom, and I think of coming home every night getting materials ready for the next day. Struggling to have lesson plans done each week, and and setting up my classroom. I must have changed the room around about 10 times that year (and I was teaching kids with autism so I'm not sure that was the best idea), and literally spent every spare moment getting ready for the next lesson.

So what's different? I'm not exactly sure, I just feel comfortable and ready for next year without having to spend too much time getting ready. That's not to say I'm not learning a ton this summer and getting ready to try all sorts of new stuff next year, but I'm not stressed and feeling overwhelmed. Maybe it has to do with mastering behavior management skills, or not having to learn a new curriculum, but it's a different feeling this summer. And it took me almost 10 years to get here!

So, that got me thinking, are we doing new teachers a disservice by dropping them into a classroom with such little training? What about students, are we holding them back? What are your thoughts?

Patrick

Photo courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons: Vikingg



Share this

Do you know somebody else who would find this post interesting or useful? Please forward it to them. Did somebody forward this post to you? Visit Teaching All Students and subscribe to receive posts for free. If you need a tutorial please visit this post: RSS Readers

Happy Birthday

Apparently I missed an important date. July 1 was the 1 year anniversary of Teaching All Students. I started this blog as way to share information that I had learned. I've learned so much from all the discussions on the blog, and thank everyone for their comments. I hope to continue writing, and actually plan on getting back in the groove now that summer school has started. Thank you again to all my readers and please keep reading!

Patrick

Photo courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons: Robokow

Share this

Do you know somebody else who would find this post interesting or useful? Please forward it to them. Did somebody forward this post to you? Visit Teaching All Students and subscribe to receive posts for free. If you need a tutorial please visit this post: RSS Readers

Blogs Worth Reading

Recently another poster on the QIAT forum asked for ideas of blogs that everyone thought was worth reading. I thought that I'd take that idea a step further. I have created a Google Spreadsheet of blogs I read, and think are helpful to those in education. I would like anyone else who reads or sees this to contribute also. You can submit a blog, podcast, or other resource using this Google Form. I would encourage you to send this out so we can get a really good list. Any topic related to teaching students, parental help, AT, education, etc... is welcome. Please help so we can create a resource to be used by many different people.

Patrick

Photo courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons: MichelleM_

Share this

Do you know somebody else who would find this post interesting or useful? Please forward it to them. Did somebody forward this post to you? Visit Teaching All Students and subscribe to receive posts for free. If you need a tutorial please visit this post: RSS Readers

Classroom Management Software

Recently a conversation took place on Twitter between several individuals, @shareski, myself, & @mbjorgensen concerning Classroom Management Software.

The start of the conversation came from @shareski, who stated that "Never been excited about demos that show how to control or lock student computers. We can do better." This stuck a chord with me and I responded, "If we're always controlling what they see, when do they learn to think for themselves? Just my opinion!" From my recollection @mbjorgensen felt that there was a place for such software, and posted a response on his blog, Jorgie's Learning Blog.

I've read the post, and agree heartily, there is a place for such software, especially in a computer lab setting. I've not spent much time in computer labs, and actually never considered the uses for such software. I love projecting the monitoring software so that students can self-monitor! It also seems very useful to help students collaborate from across the room.

I do also want to admit that I took @shareski's comment a little differently than @mbjorgensen. When I read the original comment I was thinking about filtering type software. I do agree there are certain sites that are not for student use, but we also have to start teaching students to be intelligent consumers. There is a lot of bad stuff out on the net, if we filter everything students will never learn how to navigate safely on their own.

I want to end by saying, I respect and follow @mbjorgensen, but this is one of the limitations of a platform like Twitter. I think both @mbjorgensen, & myself had different takes on the same comment. Twitter is very useful, I constantly find new and exciting information on Twitter, but the conversation can be confused. Thank you Jorgie for your comments, and clarifications! Please check out @mbjorgensen at Jorgie's Learning Blog and @shareski at Ideas and Thoughts from and Educator.

Patrick

Share this

Do you know somebody else who would find this post interesting or useful? Please forward it to them. Did somebody forward this post to you? Visit Teaching All Students and subscribe to receive posts for free. If you need a tutorial please visit this post: RSS Readers

GameGoo

Annemarie, from SMARTBoards & More, shared another great site. GameGoo is a fun site for teaching literacy skills. It's fun, easy to use, and would work great on a SMARTBoard!

Patrick

Share this

Do you know somebody else who would find this post interesting or useful? Please forward it to them. Did somebody forward this post to you? Visit Teaching All Students and subscribe to receive posts for free. If you need a tutorial please visit this post: RSS Readers

Good Company!

Apparently Teaching All Students is in good company. On a recent post at Learn Me Good Teaching All Students was listed as one of 25 Edublogs to read! Included in the list were some blogs I love to read including Free Technology for Teachers, and Larry Ferlazzo's Website of the Day. I'm honored to be mentioned with these blogs, and I found quite a few that I plan on start reading like Learn Me Good and I want to Teach Forever. Make sure you check out the other blogs on this list.

Patrick

Share this

Do you know somebody else who would find this post interesting or useful? Please forward it to them. Did somebody forward this post to you? Visit Teaching All Students and subscribe to receive posts for free. If you need a tutorial please visit this post: RSS Readers

Twelve Essentials for Technology Integration

Richard Bryne over at Free Technology for Teachers has done it again! He's created an amazing resource for getting teachers started using Web2.0 Tools. Twelve Essentials for Technology Integration is a great resource for introducing Web2.0 to new teachers. Each website is listed with what it is, as well as ways to use it. Check it out today, and share it with someone new!

Patrick

Share this

Do you know somebody else who would find this post interesting or useful? Please forward it to them. Did somebody forward this post to you? Visit Teaching All Students and subscribe to receive posts for free. If you need a tutorial please visit this post: RSS Readers