Actually I got A question. One of you asked about what I taught when I taught sixth grade. First of all I must remind you that I indeed taught during the last ice age when most sixth grades were self-contained classrooms... that means you taught everything. Everything and everybody. During my first year of teaching, in addition to all the traditional academic subjects I was responsible for teaching physical education, art and music. Thank God for record players. The everybody was the really difficult part... kids with all sorts of abilities and disabilities were clumped in the same rookie teacher's classroom. A rookie and a system with no notion of special or gifted education.
The questioner wanted to know if I taught science given my reference to the inflatable black trash bag balloon. The answer is, "Yes I did". We also made a pin hole camera out of a refrigerator box so kids could be inside the camera and see the inverted image on the screen. We made candles with wax melted on a hot plate... solid/liquid/gas (not a good idea in a room with limited electrical circuits). But we also made life size paper mache figures to retell the story of "The Hobbit" (literature/language arts). We made commercials for historic events using a black and white video camera and a reel to reel recorder (social studies). I read aloud every day after lunch (Hiroshima and Dracula were favorites). We used calculators as soon as they were available. Ask me about the computer that used a teletype machine as a terminal.
Technology is an artifact of its era. My era was primarily analog... real objects repurposed to engage kids and empower them to be part of their own learning. Today in the digital age Web 2.0 tools which were designed for business or art can be bent to the will of creative teachers. I encourage you to suspend disbelief, suspend the pressures of testing and governmental medling. Forget for a few hours each week that what we do in 675 is not practical in the "real world" of teaching today. See if you can find an idea or two that are so compelling that you'll do something really goofy with your kids and they'll go home and tell their parents about what they did in school today without being asked. I could happen. Really.
I really like the types of science projects and activities you did with your students. They involved such active participation, exploration and discovery, and much creativity. Those are the types of science lessons students remember - ones in which they really had to think about the concepts being introduced, and do some problem-solving and higher-level thinking. For my kindergarteners, that type of experience really engages them: they love any type of hands-on activities, where they can work together, manipulate things, try different strategies, and be creative. Unfortunately, even my kindergarten students have standardized testing coming up, and we have to take time to prepare for test-taking procedures. But I agree that the more learning students can do in that manner, the more memorable the experience and the content taught to them.
ReplyDeleteI know I'm a little late with posting but we were on Spring Break and came back just in time to enter grades for our Achievement Records, which brings me to a question. Our district is on it's second online grading system. The first one we invested 4 years in and never really was able to have a true standards based integrated grade book. We scrapped that one and started trying to get another to work. We are in the second year and it still doesn't work. I have been using web based grade books since I started teaching, 5 years ago. All of them have been free. I came across Snapgrades which is wonderful! A true grade book based on summative standards based grading. Has anyone else used it? What has been others experience with cloud grade books?
ReplyDeleteNow on to my response to the posting. I think good instruction is good instruction whether you are using "analog" or digital tools. You use whatever you can come up with to make learning engaging. I think that is a sign of a truly great teacher. I totally agree that we just need to jump in and try these things out. We learn just as much from our failures as we do from our successes!
I have to admit that I've been looking at a lot of these Web Tools thinking how I could use them to teach my standards specifically... I have since started looking at these as a way to keep students engaged with technology and motivated to learn. I enjoy looking at what there is out there and thinking of ways to utilize it!
ReplyDeleteI think it's great to be able to incorporate both the web/technology-based activities that we're learning about now and the hands-on activities that Dr. Heigle is talking about having done in the past. I think a lot of students (especially younger ones) still really enjoy and benefit from the arts-and-craftsy type activities and lessons because they can manipulate and "play" with what they're learning in many different ways than what they can with technological activities.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I think students also get a lot out of technology-based lessons/activities that they can't get out of the "old-fashioned" kind. I love the activities and lessons that combine both the new and the old because students learn from so many different angles that way. Just think of how many creative combinations are out there!
I'm with Daphne. Just returned from spring break so I'm also catching up with the various blogs. I shook my head in disbelief when you said that 6th grade was a self-contained class and you taught every subject including Physical Ed. and Art. Wow! I only teach one subject and it is so broad (there are so many aspects to teach) that I couldn't imagine having to split my time to teach other subjects and most importantly, do it effectively. Bravo to you Dr. Heigle!
ReplyDeleteAs for something Daphne said concerning grades, I've never heard of "Snapgrades"...what is the website for that? Is it free? I currently use Engrade and that's pretty nice. It's free but it doesn't necessarily deal with summative standards based grading, so I'd love to look into Snapgrades.
The very fact that I have found this page and (I hope) am succesfully adding a comment to it is success enough for me right now!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds to me that Dr. Heigle and I started out in the same era of teaching....work cards and banda work sheets were thought to be really funky then I earned the name 'banda queen' at a high point in my career.
Trish
Those are all great ideas and I'm sure your students really enjoyed taking part in them. I am looking forward to learning how to use this technology to teach the standards I am required to cover every year. It's is espeacially hard to conduct hands on activities in science class when your school cannot afford to buy supplies. However I can use these free resources online to help me combat that problem. I am looking forward to learning how to use my technology to make my class more exciting for the kids.
ReplyDeleteI love this: "See if you can find an idea or two that are so compelling that you'll do something really goofy with your kids and they'll go home and tell their parents about what they did in school today without being asked." I think I'm going to make that a goal for myself for the remainder of this school year! I wish my stepson (in the ninth grade) would come home and tell us what he did in school without being asked. All we get even when we ask how school was is, "Good... boring." It would be great to know that I did something with my students that was so remarkable and memorable to them that they wanted to tell their parents about it!
ReplyDelete