Need an idea for an "Idea Tree" in the classroom?
Thanks to the brilliance of the art teacher at East Bay Conservation Corps K-5 Charter School.
Thanks to the brilliance of the art teacher at East Bay Conservation Corps K-5 Charter School.
Friday, April 20, 2007
"Reflection Center"
Everyone needs a reflection center sometimes. This blog is kind of like my reflection center, and I am thankful for it.
Once in a blue moon, my graduate program organizes a trip for us to visit other classrooms from other schools... I always thought we should do this more often, both as a student learning to be a teacher and as a teacher who desires to continue learning.
On one of these learning field trips to a small charter school, East Bay Conservation Corps, in Oakland, I came across the most inviting, content-rich and brilliantly organized art classrooms ever!
And of course, it even had a very reflective "Reflection Center".
Once in a blue moon, my graduate program organizes a trip for us to visit other classrooms from other schools... I always thought we should do this more often, both as a student learning to be a teacher and as a teacher who desires to continue learning.
On one of these learning field trips to a small charter school, East Bay Conservation Corps, in Oakland, I came across the most inviting, content-rich and brilliantly organized art classrooms ever!
And of course, it even had a very reflective "Reflection Center".
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Yet Another Best Part of Me
This is another Best Part of Me photo and poem done by a student. I love his choice of appreciation here! Why shouldn't we celebrate our uniqueness?
The Best Part of Me
by Aaron
The best part of me are my teeth,
because they are beautiful and strong.
I could eat well.
They look like my mom's teeth.
I like my teeth,
because they show when I'm happy.
And here I am,
busy posting these beautiful treasures
that my beautiful students
have created
in the classroom!
The Best Part of Me
by Aaron
The best part of me are my teeth,
because they are beautiful and strong.
I could eat well.
They look like my mom's teeth.
I like my teeth,
because they show when I'm happy.
And here I am,
busy posting these beautiful treasures
that my beautiful students
have created
in the classroom!
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Happy D.E.A.R. Day!
Drop Everything And Read
Sometimes, I wish I could just drop everything and read. I think there is a big misconception that every teacher loves to read. I know this is not always true because, I never grew up as a reader. For the longest time, the best sleeping pills for me were reading books in bed. I really used this strategy one time when I couldn't sleep at night during high school. It worked like magic.
I always felt puzzled by why I never liked to read. Both of my parents are humongous readers. My dad is a professor in a university in China. He loves to read about philosophy and think about questions that tend to have no answers. My mom read hundreds of books from all over the world even as a teenager. She loves novels and autobiographies. In fact, she got in a lot of trouble for reading novels under her desk during school. From a genetic perspective, if you believe in it, I should have an advantage or at least a predispositon for reading simply by being born into a reading family. But it wasn't the case with me. I really didn't enjoy reading, any reading. In fact, this became such a strange phenomenon to me, I attempted to trace back my memories for reading as a child. Even more strangely, I realized that I don't remember having a single book as a child. Were there no picture books or any kinds of children's books in China during the time frame that I grew up? The only books I can remember were the text books that I got in first grade. But this can't be true. How could there be no leisure books for children in China in the late 1970's?
Just a few months ago, the answer finally came to me during a conversation with my mom and my sister-in-law about the books that my mom loved to read. It turned out, my lack of interest in reading was the result of a deliberate decision. Because my mom got into so much trouble for her uncontrollable love for reading during her childhood, she didn't want me to repeat the same path again. Therefore, she 'discouraged' me from reading as a child. And that probably explained why I don't remember having any books growing up. It is ironic that in my graduate classes, we learned all about how to develop literary beings, yet there I was, realizing that I was raised with the conscious effort of a lack of literacy. As much as I love my mother, I must say, this was probably one of the most silly and daunting things I've ever heard of!
Fortunately, right around the time when I started graduate school, I finally began my journey of appreciation for books and reading. Although still a turtle-speed reader, I love seeking out the beauty, enrichment and peacefulness to be found in reading.
Believe it or not, one of my favorite and most memorable and touching moments with reading was a gift from a 4th grade student. While I was student teaching in his class, he read The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein to me as a rehearsal for his buddy-reading with his little kindergarten buddy. His voice was filled with emotion and sincerity. It felt as if he was the Giving Tree himself. Both, his tender heart and the beautiful storyline had brought tears out of my eyes and out of my heart. I will always be thankful that he introduced me to my favorite children's book for the first time, even at adulthood!
Thank you Rene for the gift of giving!
Thank you Martin, my colleague, for the inspiration of this posting!
Sometimes, I wish I could just drop everything and read. I think there is a big misconception that every teacher loves to read. I know this is not always true because, I never grew up as a reader. For the longest time, the best sleeping pills for me were reading books in bed. I really used this strategy one time when I couldn't sleep at night during high school. It worked like magic.
I always felt puzzled by why I never liked to read. Both of my parents are humongous readers. My dad is a professor in a university in China. He loves to read about philosophy and think about questions that tend to have no answers. My mom read hundreds of books from all over the world even as a teenager. She loves novels and autobiographies. In fact, she got in a lot of trouble for reading novels under her desk during school. From a genetic perspective, if you believe in it, I should have an advantage or at least a predispositon for reading simply by being born into a reading family. But it wasn't the case with me. I really didn't enjoy reading, any reading. In fact, this became such a strange phenomenon to me, I attempted to trace back my memories for reading as a child. Even more strangely, I realized that I don't remember having a single book as a child. Were there no picture books or any kinds of children's books in China during the time frame that I grew up? The only books I can remember were the text books that I got in first grade. But this can't be true. How could there be no leisure books for children in China in the late 1970's?
Just a few months ago, the answer finally came to me during a conversation with my mom and my sister-in-law about the books that my mom loved to read. It turned out, my lack of interest in reading was the result of a deliberate decision. Because my mom got into so much trouble for her uncontrollable love for reading during her childhood, she didn't want me to repeat the same path again. Therefore, she 'discouraged' me from reading as a child. And that probably explained why I don't remember having any books growing up. It is ironic that in my graduate classes, we learned all about how to develop literary beings, yet there I was, realizing that I was raised with the conscious effort of a lack of literacy. As much as I love my mother, I must say, this was probably one of the most silly and daunting things I've ever heard of!
Fortunately, right around the time when I started graduate school, I finally began my journey of appreciation for books and reading. Although still a turtle-speed reader, I love seeking out the beauty, enrichment and peacefulness to be found in reading.
Believe it or not, one of my favorite and most memorable and touching moments with reading was a gift from a 4th grade student. While I was student teaching in his class, he read The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein to me as a rehearsal for his buddy-reading with his little kindergarten buddy. His voice was filled with emotion and sincerity. It felt as if he was the Giving Tree himself. Both, his tender heart and the beautiful storyline had brought tears out of my eyes and out of my heart. I will always be thankful that he introduced me to my favorite children's book for the first time, even at adulthood!
Thank you Rene for the gift of giving!
Thank you Martin, my colleague, for the inspiration of this posting!
Monday, April 9, 2007
Are We Teaching to Create Future Dinosaurs?
Now that the ELD club had ended, I am in full force preparation for my master's thesis, which, you guessed it, its about this blog and the use of technology in the classroom.
Through the past few month of keeping this blog, I've been so thrilled by the tremendous positive feedback I've received from my students, other teachers, my colleagues and even people I've never even met before. Aside from providing gratification and encouragement, all of these positive responses led me to believe, even deeper, in the reasons for why I wanted to start this blog in my classroom in the first place.
Technology is such a huge element of our lives today, we cannot pretend that our students are neither part of nor being effected by its constant evolution. Knowing the significant role that technology plays in everyday lives, higher education and work places, it feels even more wrong for me to not prepare our students for this ever-so crucial skill demanded by the current and future lifestyle.
Clearly, from my experience with the upkeep of this blog, I've become more and more inseparable with the idea of infusing the use and exploration of technology into everyday teaching. I am not arguing that technology should be taught in school at the expense of teaching math and reading. In reality, for most of us, technology is used as a modern tool to express and communicate. That is exactly what my goal is: to teach technology in the way that it is represented in reality, not as a new subject to dictate as part of a school day's schedule on the board. Just as adults use it everday, I believe our students should also be taught the use of technology as a tool to express and communicate, rather than as a subject that requires too much dictated instruction. Of course, in order to become free and flexible in the use of technology as an everyday tool, some direct instruction and drill style practice such as the basic skill of typing, as I mentioned in an earlier posting, will still be necessary.
Overall, it is time that we, who care for and want to contribute to the education of our children, recognize that we will no longer be doing our kids justice if the only preparation we give them is based off a list of skills that reflects only the demands of life as we were kids. To teach and prepare our children for the future that they will grow up in, we must push ourselves to think beyond our comfort zone and update our skills and our To-Teach list in order to reflect the present and future demands of life.
For preparation of my thesis, I need to find related researches and articles to read and reference. If you know of any, let me know! :)
Through the past few month of keeping this blog, I've been so thrilled by the tremendous positive feedback I've received from my students, other teachers, my colleagues and even people I've never even met before. Aside from providing gratification and encouragement, all of these positive responses led me to believe, even deeper, in the reasons for why I wanted to start this blog in my classroom in the first place.
Technology is such a huge element of our lives today, we cannot pretend that our students are neither part of nor being effected by its constant evolution. Knowing the significant role that technology plays in everyday lives, higher education and work places, it feels even more wrong for me to not prepare our students for this ever-so crucial skill demanded by the current and future lifestyle.
Clearly, from my experience with the upkeep of this blog, I've become more and more inseparable with the idea of infusing the use and exploration of technology into everyday teaching. I am not arguing that technology should be taught in school at the expense of teaching math and reading. In reality, for most of us, technology is used as a modern tool to express and communicate. That is exactly what my goal is: to teach technology in the way that it is represented in reality, not as a new subject to dictate as part of a school day's schedule on the board. Just as adults use it everday, I believe our students should also be taught the use of technology as a tool to express and communicate, rather than as a subject that requires too much dictated instruction. Of course, in order to become free and flexible in the use of technology as an everyday tool, some direct instruction and drill style practice such as the basic skill of typing, as I mentioned in an earlier posting, will still be necessary.
Overall, it is time that we, who care for and want to contribute to the education of our children, recognize that we will no longer be doing our kids justice if the only preparation we give them is based off a list of skills that reflects only the demands of life as we were kids. To teach and prepare our children for the future that they will grow up in, we must push ourselves to think beyond our comfort zone and update our skills and our To-Teach list in order to reflect the present and future demands of life.
For preparation of my thesis, I need to find related researches and articles to read and reference. If you know of any, let me know! :)
Friday, April 6, 2007
"We Got Game!"
One of the brilliant ideas I came across from visiting other classrooms during the last day of our ELD club, was English learning through games. One of our teacher groups used the entire 8 weeks of the club to focus English development through the playing of fun games like Charades, Taboo, Telephone, Candy Land, etc...
At first, I was thinking, this sounded really fun, but not very academic. But after listening to their reasoning, I realized it was a brilliant idea.
As suggested by my first instinct and a natural instinct really, playing games is fun. Fun for both adults and children. But as linguistically developed adults, we take for granted the language skills involved with understanding the rules of the games that we play. For younger children, especially English learning younger children, learning to play fun and mind-challenging games is an exciting and engaging way to develop a new language and even a specific form of language.
As the eight weeks went on, students learned to read the directions and rules of the different games they played. While playing these games with other kids, they also had a lot of opportunities to develop their authentic use of language. They were then challenged even further to by making up their own games and rules. Finally, in order to play their own games, they had to teach the rules to other students.
Along this process, every moment was evidently a learning moment. The most brilliant part of it all was that my fellow teachers have proven the point that learning does not have to be boring! Thanks Brooklyn and Pha Pha, my brilliant teaching divas!
Game: Castle Land
Characters:
- Rattle Snake (yellow)
- King Cobra (red)
- Dragon (blue)
- Dinosaur (green)
Game: Iceberg - This one has very complex directions and rules!
Game: North Pole Soccer
I just love the name of this game. I wonder who the players would be if there really was a soccer game at the North Pole. Maybe Polar Bears (Home) Vs. Penguins (Away)
I just realized right now that all the games I saw were created by boys. I really wonder what the girls decided for their theme?
At first, I was thinking, this sounded really fun, but not very academic. But after listening to their reasoning, I realized it was a brilliant idea.
As suggested by my first instinct and a natural instinct really, playing games is fun. Fun for both adults and children. But as linguistically developed adults, we take for granted the language skills involved with understanding the rules of the games that we play. For younger children, especially English learning younger children, learning to play fun and mind-challenging games is an exciting and engaging way to develop a new language and even a specific form of language.
As the eight weeks went on, students learned to read the directions and rules of the different games they played. While playing these games with other kids, they also had a lot of opportunities to develop their authentic use of language. They were then challenged even further to by making up their own games and rules. Finally, in order to play their own games, they had to teach the rules to other students.
Along this process, every moment was evidently a learning moment. The most brilliant part of it all was that my fellow teachers have proven the point that learning does not have to be boring! Thanks Brooklyn and Pha Pha, my brilliant teaching divas!
Game: Castle Land
Characters:
- Rattle Snake (yellow)
- King Cobra (red)
- Dragon (blue)
- Dinosaur (green)
Game: Iceberg - This one has very complex directions and rules!
Game: North Pole Soccer
I just love the name of this game. I wonder who the players would be if there really was a soccer game at the North Pole. Maybe Polar Bears (Home) Vs. Penguins (Away)
I just realized right now that all the games I saw were created by boys. I really wonder what the girls decided for their theme?
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