Join us for this FREE interactive webinar. All new and experienced teachers welcome. This is a time for sharing with other teaching professionals about the surprises, difficulties, and “a-ha’s” of the job so far this year. There is no script, just discussion that is all about sharing your experiences and learning from and listening to others. This is a time to connect and help each other. Conversation will be positive and productive, so each teacher can leave with at least one new tool or idea to implement in their practice.

Join us on Thursday October 20, 2011 at 4:00 PM Pacific Standard Time.

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Connect with other teachers from across the country and work with your mentor in this group mentoring call. More information regarding times and registration will be sent directly to our mentees.

Next Meeting: November 17, 2011

Here’s the website: http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/itmrlsx/ Use the Questions Tools to search and create pre- and post-assessments! My district uses Edusoft for assessments, so I’m loading mine there today.

Don’t forget to message me with your feedback before the Literacy webinar!! Hope this gives YOU a little more time to sit at a local coffee shop. . .and do something besides lesson planning!

Connect with other teachers from across the country and work with your mentor in this group mentoring call. More information regarding times and registration will be sent directly to our mentees.

Next Meeting: October 18, 2011

Ranada is Connecting with Students One Stitch at a Time and she is sharing her secrets in this special Knitting in the Classroom Webinar. In this webinar, you will learn…

• How Ranada incorporated knitting in her ESL, Alt Ed classroom and how the students responded.
• How to incorporate knitting in your classroom.
• Where to find supplies.
• Project ideas and what to do with finished items.
• Tricks and tips for beginning classroom knitters.

If you enjoyed this video, be sure to sign up to our mailing list to learn about Ranada’s upcoming professional development offerings!

Ranada has been in education for more than 15 years, with a diverse work experience, including teacher training and leadership. Her passion for sharing resources and relieving stress for her fellow educators has made her a key resource person. Be sure to check out her blog posts at TeacherMentor.net and stay tuned for more upcoming professional development opportunities.

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As the school year began in the middle of August, there were the usual frustrations and moments when I wanted to pull my hair out, but each time I felt like venting to my friends, I was pulled up short. How could I complain about my job when more than a few of my teaching friends didn’t have a job to complain about? So I began to only post lovely, positive, non-work things on Facebook, only talk in positive, non-complain-y ways to my friends who were going back to jobs they didn’t want, or who didn’t have jobs at all. Know where it got me? Nowhere good, I’ll tell you that!

While it’s nice and polite to be sensitive to the needs of others, it is still important to be true to your own feelings, and to be honest and open with those around you. When I finally told my friends that I felt guilty about complaining about work when they weren’t working, we were able to move past it, and I didn’t have to be fake and lie to them. It also helped me to ask them what they were doing, and connect them with some people or companies who might be interested in hiring them for things such as tutoring, after-school programs, etc. By me avoiding the topics of work, I was robbing them of the opportunity to share what new and exciting thing they were doing because of their new job situation.

I guess my point here is to tell you a few things:

1. It’s ok to feel guilty about having a job. But get over it.
2. Be honest and open with your friends and former colleagues about your feelings.
3. Lay-offs, RIFs, pink slips, transfers and all those things we want to avoid allow us to do something very important: look into ourselves and our situations and see what needs to be changed, eliminated or added.

While the “recession” and all its consequences have been difficult to weather (and we’re not done yet, I predict), it has allowed for introspection, evaluation and change. And that’s never something to feel guilty about.

Ranada Young has been in education for 15 years. Her experiences range from small private school teaching, overseas education, to training teachers in ESL and Literacy in the second-largest school district in Oregon. Her passion for sharing resources and relieving stress for her fellow educators has made her a key resource person. Ranada has worked with teachers in creating and implementing curriculum for Language Arts; ELD; ESL Language Arts, Math and Social Studies. In her spare time, Ranada is a knitter, runner, and socializer.

Ranada Young has been in education for 15 years. Her experiences range from small private school teaching, overseas education, to training teachers in ESL and Literacy in the second-largest school district in Oregon. Her passion for sharing resources and relieving stress for her fellow educators has made her a key resource person. Ranada has worked with teachers in creating and implementing curriculum for Language Arts; ELD; ESL Language Arts, Math and Social Studies. In her spare time, Ranada is a knitter, runner, and socializer.

• Telling them a little about yourself. This isn’t a group therapy session, but it’s important that they know a little of your background.
• Asking questions. Even in a class of 40, if you ask questions regularly, you’ll get to know your students.
• Do a get-to-know-you activity. I used to think these were hokey, but now I actually enjoy them! (I use this About Me activity regularly.)
• Lots of group discussions. I’m big on interacting with my students every day. Which means that I’m up front chatting with them, and at my desk working with them one-on-one.

Ranada Young has been in education for 15 years. Her experiences range from small private school teaching, overseas education, to training teachers in ESL and Literacy in the second-largest school district in Oregon. Her passion for sharing resources and relieving stress for her fellow educators has made her a key resource person. Ranada has worked with teachers in creating and implementing curriculum for Language Arts; ELD; ESL Language Arts, Math and Social Studies. In her spare time, Ranada is a knitter, runner, and socializer.

Your Turn

Feel free to post some of your best ideas for building relationships with kids! Here’s to a great start to the new year!

Clear: it is important to explain your expectations to your students, and to include them in the syllabus. I don’t usually have wall space to put them up in poster form, but I find that if you enforce the expectations consistently, you won’t need to post them.

Some examples:
• We will interact respectfully in this classroom
• We will ask permission before leaving our seats
• We will not use any electronic devices while in this classroom

Concise: it is crucial that you don’t overwhelm your students with rules. If the building has expectations , you may want to only had one or two “pet-peeve” rules to the list. If you have too many things, students will just give up trying to follow everything. If you feel the school expectations are unrealistic or not beneficial, you may want to join your Site Council or other group to begin to change some of these expectations.

Condensed: the Golden Rule: if you can’t fit all of the rules onto one piece of poster board for the wall, you have too many. (See Concise, above!) Keep it simple and both you and your students will be able to follow them with little effort.

Above all, remember that ALL students need structure and rules. No matter if they are AP students or incarcerated. Children thrive on structure because it creates a safe place for them to learn and take risks. Hopefully, with the right expectations, your students will feel cared for, safe and willing to take risks in your classroom.

Ranada Young has been in education for 15 years. Her experiences range from small private school teaching, overseas education, to training teachers in ESL and Literacy in the second-largest school district in Oregon. Her passion for sharing resources and relieving stress for her fellow educators has made her a key resource person. Ranada has worked with teachers in creating and implementing curriculum for Language Arts; ELD; ESL Language Arts, Math and Social Studies. In her spare time, Ranada is a knitter, runner, and socializer.

If you’re sitting at your computer right now thinking, “Sweet! I don’t have to look at those because I teach __(insert non-Language Arts/Math content here)__!” don’t get too excited. Because of increased focus on Literacy and Math literacy, most content areas need to include some of these into their curriculum. So take a look. It won’t take long for you to realize how easy it is to include some of these Core Standards into your curriculum. You’re already doing it; now, you’ll get a pat on the back from your Instructional Leaders for being so innovative and thorough in your planning. And we all need more pats on the back!

Now that you have some idea of the standards your students will be assessed on (and you might be evaluated on, depending on your district or state), you can begin thinking of Learning Targets/Objectives that you can use during the year. Some examples:

Core Standard: English Language Arts Standards » Speaking & Listening » Grade 7

Comprehension and Collaboration

SL.7.1. Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 7 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.

• Come to discussions prepared, having read or researched material under study; explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence on the topic, text, or issue to probe and reflect on ideas under discussion.
• Follow rules for collegial discussions, track progress toward specific goals and deadlines, and define individual roles as needed.
• Pose questions that elicit elaboration and respond to others’ questions and comments with relevant observations and ideas that bring the discussion back on topic as needed.
• Acknowledge new information expressed by others and, when warranted, modify their own views.

Learning Targets/Objectives:

Today, we will learn how to discuss in a group setting by practicing: listening to others, staying on topic, building on what others say, disagreeing respectfully.

Today, we will discuss pages 121-123 in our textbook, using our group discussion skills.

Today, after discussing, we will be able to answer the following questions: Who were the people involved in the French Revolution? What events led up to the Revolution? What were the results after the Revolution? Could Louis and Marie Antionette avoided the guillotine; if so, how?

Other places to find/create Learning Targets/Objectives:

• Teachermentor.net! Of course!
• Collaborating with colleagues
• District website (many districts have curriculum leaders who have been working diligently to create objectives for teachers to use)
• Teacher’s Guides in your curriculum
• Websites:
• www.corestandards.org
• dww.ed.gov
• www.ncela.gwu.edu

And here is one last tool for planning: Organize Your Teaching. Print this chart out and keep handy to help remember some great teaching and learning tips from Doing What Works by the US Department of Ed.

Ranada Young has been in education for 15 years. Her experiences range from small private school teaching, overseas education, to training teachers in ESL and Literacy in the second-largest school district in Oregon. Her passion for sharing resources and relieving stress for her fellow educators has made her a key resource person. Ranada has worked with teachers in creating and implementing curriculum for Language Arts; ELD; ESL Language Arts, Math and Social Studies. In her spare time, Ranada is a knitter, runner, and socializer.

Your Turn

Please post a reply on this blog to share ideas!