Oh, By The Way…
I was absent from my classroom this morning. It was a planned absence to meet with members of a district committee. I have tried to warn my students ahead of time when I know I will be gone and make sure that we have reviewed expectations for when there is a substitute teacher.
I forgot to do that this time.
Oops.
I also forgot to make a post on Class Dojo to let the parents who are connected know that I would be absent so they could help their children mentally prepare for the slight change of plans during the morning.
Also oops.
Amazingly, my unannounced absence did not result in mass panic or chaos in my classroom. In fact, my substitute gave me a fairly decent report. He shared that a few students had a rough start to the morning but they quickly corrected their behaviour and had a good morning. It probably helped that Tuesdays and Thursdays are the days the students have P.E. in the morning, followed immediately by Fine Arts (currently music). That means that the students aren’t really in the classroom until 9:30 am, which left just two hours of the morning.
So, what did my students do in class while I was gone? They practiced multiplication of multi-digit whole numbers by a single-digit number, they had a morning recess. and they had a class discussion about force, motion, emphasising pushing, pulling, gravity, and friction. In other words, a very typical Tuesday.
All in all, I’m glad that my “Oh, by the way, I’m going to be gone tomorrow” conversation that I forgot to have with students turned out to be not such a big deal. I have three more half-day absences with this same teacher substituting for me, so I am hopeful that each subsequent absence will be even better!
Adjusting to a Substitute
This has been an odd year for me in terms of time away from the classroom. For the past four years, I have been on various committees and inquiry groups and task forces that have met during school hours that I have had at least one full-day or half-day absence a month throughout the year. That changed this year when my district’s administration made the decision to move most of the meetings to after-school hours, cut back on the frequency of said meetings, and the inquiry group I had been a part of was disbanded when funding requirements changed. As a result, I have had very few absences, other than my once-a-week special education collaboration meeting and my once-every-three weeks Response to Intervention meeting. In fact, I have had two sick days and one personal day for the entire year.
As a result of all of this, my class has not had to adjust to substitute teachers very often. Even with our fine arts/library schedule, those teachers have not been gone very often, either, and so the students have gotten very comfortable with the same teachers being there all day every day.
That changed this week. Our dance teacher has been with the fifth grade students at the Krannert Art Museum as part of their Week at the Museum (KAM-WAM) integrated arts project. The students go to the library each Monday so this was the third day with a substitute teacher for dance. The first day was a bit rocky. Some students had to be removed from the class and others had to be moved away from peers. I remember talking to the substitute about it (a retired teacher from our district) and he expressed concerns about what the rest of the week would be like.
Yesterday was totally different, though. I went to pick them up and they were quietly working on their assignment. They lined up and he said, “So, should I brag on you to your teacher?” The students cheered and he told me how great it had gone. (At least one student who had been sent out of the room the day before I approached him at the start, apologised for his previous behaviour, and promised to do better. And he did!)
Today was a repeat of yesterday. I was so happy! The students seemed to have all adjusted to the fact that they were going to have a different teacher for dance this week, they were okay with him being different from the teacher they were used to, and they realised that the expectations were still the same. Tomorrow will be their last day with a sub and I am fully expecting it to be another awesome day. I am looking forward to reporting to their regular dance teacher that they really pulled it all together and had a fantastic week!
This also makes me more comfortable with a few upcoming absences. I am confident that my students will be able to handle themselves responsibly, treat the substitute respectfully, and accomplish all the things that they will be asked to do.
How do you adjust for changes in your regular schedule?
Illinois JAC 2015 – Day One
Today was the first time this academic year that I was gone for the entire day. I am actually surprised that I made it all the way to the middle/end of November without an absence, but I guess that many of the district committees and task forces and professional groups I have been a part of for four years have stopped having meetings that lasted either an entire day or a half day.
To prepare my students for my absence, I told them that it was going to be happening all this week then we spent about half an hour yesterday discussing the students’ responsibilities when a substitute teacher is there, as well as the substitute teacher’s responsibilities. I shared with students what the day should be like for them, going over the schedule and making sure they knew what I expected of them. And, of course, I left detailed plans for my substitute, since I still remember well the terror I experienced when I worked as a substitute and walked into a classroom where there were no plans left for me. (Sorry, Urbana teachers; I don’t remember the name of the teacher I was subbing for that day.)
It is now almost 10 pm on Friday night and I didn’t get any phone calls, text messages, or emails about my class, so I am hoping that it means that my students made it through the day without duct-taping the substitute to the wall or setting the room on fire.
So, what took me away from my classroom today? It was the first day of the 83rd Joint Annual Conference of the Illinois Association of School Boards, the Illinois Association of School Administrators, and the the Illinois Association of School Business Officers (often called the Triple I Conference or the Illinois Joint Annual Conference, abbreviated on Twitter as ILjac15 because JACIASBIASAIASBO2015 is a bit over the top). This was my third year attending as a guest of Washington Grade School District 52, where my mother is in her 15th year on the school board. (Of course, since I am in an educational administration program, my hope is that one day I will attend as a member of the IASA and/or as a representative of my own school district!)
Due to traffic and other delays, I wasn’t able to make it to some of the early panel sessions held today, but I did get to hear the first general session speaker, DeDe Murcer Moffett, who spoke passionately about the need to have people in your life who help you snap out of it when you start wallowing in doubt or regret, push you forward, and encourage you to succeed. She calls these people your snappers and pushers and it got me wondering who my snappers and pushers are. I thought about my amazing colleagues in my building and my district and the support that we offer each other. I thought about the fantastic teachers I had in my own educational career and the equally fantastic teachers that I have the privilege of working with in my building and my district. Then I thought about whether or not I am a snapper and a pusher in my role in my school as a teacher, a technology specialist, a union representative, and a member of the building leadership team. I’d like to think that I am.
It was a great way to kick off a conference that I look forward to attending each year! (I also ran into my district deputy superintendent and got to chat a few minutes about the awesome recognition that the district received for the Urbana Early Childhood Center. And somehow managed to forget to introduce my wife. Oops. Sorry!) I’m definitely looking forward to tomorrow’s sessions on family and community engagement, technology, wellness, and student-led conferences!
Student Guest Post 4: Why We Love Mr. Valencic
This is the fourth guest post written by students. I have a feeling that these particular students were trying to flatter me. I appreciate the compliments, even if it is a bit difficult to follow.
Mr. Valencic is nice and sweet. And he love us no matter what. on Thursday Mr.Valencic had to o to a meeting and we had a sub for when we were in 3rd grade and he is so nice and we were doing math. And he was so cool Because he let a kid teach because he was talking to his friends and he was so nice that what he does in 3rd grade. Now we are in mr .V class and he is coolest because he is a movie star and he came 1st place and he is a nice teacher because he is a movie star forever. And he is a super hero of teaching. and he the loves kids and teachers.
As always, I did not make any changes to what they wrote. I think what I am going to start doing is having the class edit the post for mechanics (not style) on the following Monday.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Wear Out
I was gone last Friday attending a conference in Chicago. When I got back this morning, I read through the notes my substitute teacher left for me and saw that the students had played a game in P.E. called Wear Out. She made an observation that the students loved the game. I had actually never heard of it before and so my interest was quite piqued!
I asked my class to tell me about the game so that we could play this morning. It involves the students dividing into two teams on opposite ends of the gym. On the signal, one student from each team races around the gym. As soon as they make it to their base, the next student in line races. The goal is for everyone on your team to make it around first. It is a simple game and the name says exactly what the purpose is: wear out the students as they run, run, and run some more!
The students wanted to compete boys against girls, which they did twice. Then I had them select their own teams of half boys and half girls. They competed two more times. Then I recombined the mixed teams and allowed them to race two more times. After six races, they were quite thoroughly exhausted!
I’m always in favour of learning about new games and activities to use for P.E. We have a lot of resources available in our school and our district, but I am grateful to the retired teachers who share their expertise with me and my students, too!
Subbing for Myself
I had a substitute teacher in my classroom on Tuesday afternoon while I was attending a monthly inquiry group meeting. There were some aspects of the afternoon that did not go as well as I had hoped, and so I spent a considerable amount of time yesterday discussing with my class what they could do better in the future. I purposefully avoided getting into any details about Tuesday, though, because I wanted the class to realise that every day truly is a brand-new day with brand-new opportunities to make positive choices. So instead we talked about kindness and the impact our actions, for good or bad, have on other people. I used a story by Jacqueline Woodson, Each Kindness, to illustrate the point. Several students were familiar with this story because we used it as a building-wide read aloud last year.
Then I told the class that they would have an opportunity to practice there skills at being kind to a substitute again pretty quickly because I was going to be gone all day on Thursday (today), too. I am a member of a district task force examining effective strategies and tools for integrating technology in the classroom. As our building instructional technology specialist, it is a major focus of what I do. This has become even more important since I received my classroom set of Chromebooks and have been working with other teachers to use them in our instructional practices. I wanted the students to know I would be gone so that they could start to plan and mentally prepare themselves for having a different teacher for the day.
But then I got a message from my principal this morning letting me know that the district’s substitute teacher line had still not located a sub for me yet, so she needed me to plan on being at school after all. No problem! On my way to school, though, I had a thought: what if I subbed for myself?
Longtime readers of my blog know that I worked as a substitute teacher in Champaign for three years. During that last year, I was also a substitute in the Mahomet-Seymour school district and in Urbana (although I actually only subbed in Urbana for two days). Also during that last year, I started blogging about my adventures in substituting, which is actually how this blog came about. (I transferred all of the subbing posts to this blog, but the old blog is still active and I get the occasional visitor there still.) After I got hired, I decided to keep the blog going, although I changed the name and the focus. With all of that experience as a substitute, I got very good at stepping into a classroom with little notice and doing all I could to command attention and respect for the short time I would be with the class. I worked with students from early childhood all the way through high school. It was a wonderful experience that taught me a lot about what works and what doesn’t work as a teacher in general and as a substitute in particular.
One thing I found helpful was to introduce myself to the class early in the morning. Not first thing, since they always had several other things going on (attendance, lunch count, bell work, etc). So this morning, after my class got settled and the morning announcements were done, I introduced myself to the class.
Good morning! My name is Mr. Valencic and I am your substitute teacher for today! I believe that your teacher, Mr. Valencic, told you that he would be gone today, so none of you should be surprised to see that I am here instead of him! To start off, I thought I’d tell you a little bit about myself. Like I said, my name is Mr. Valencic. I know that my name can be a bit challenging to remember, though, so if you prefer, you may call me Mr. V or just “sir.” You may not call me “hey you,” “mr. teacher dude,” “dude,” “bro,” or “you-with-the-curly-hair.” You may call me Mr. Valencic, Mr. V., or Sir. I, in turn, will do my best to use your names, but I may also call you “sir” or “ma’am” as a title of respect, just as I expect you to respect me.
I am a certified teacher employed by your school district to come in and teach when your regular teachers are gone. I am not just some guy who wandered in off the street because I woke up this morning and though, “Gee, I’d love to spend my day with a bunch of rambunctious 9- and 10-year-old children!” I am a teacher and I have been teaching for several years now. You have probably even seen me around in the halls from time to time.
I have some plans here that your teacher, Mr. Valencic, left for me. I see that he says that you should have done journal writing this morning and that we have P.E. later in this morning. I am going to do my best to follow his plans as best as I can. If he says that you are supposed to do something, then that is what he wants you to do. If he has not told me to do something then you are not going to do it. It is really that simple. However, I want to point out that, as much as I know I may look and even sound like Mr. Valencic, I am not him! So if I do something different, that’s okay! We are going to have an excellent day today! When you all go home at three o’clock, I hope that I will be able to leave your teacher a note letting him know how well everything went and telling him that I would be delighted to come back again anytime!
Now, let’s go over the classroom expectations you have here.
I then went through the expectations posted in the classroom: Be Respectful, which means to use kind words, raise your hand, listen to the speaker, and ask to borrow materials. Be Responsible, which means do your own work, follow directions, ask for help, and accept consequences. Be Safe, which is to KHFOOTY (keep hands, feet, and other objects to yourself), give others space, walk with a purpose, and use a chill pass. Throughout the morning, I referred to the sub plans that I had left and asked students to explain what they meant so that they could show that they knew the expectations for the day.
My principal was able to get a sub for me in the morning, and she arrived as we were getting started with P.E. I went over the plans with her and then took my leave. I am pretty certain that at least some of my class thought I had lost my mind. They were looking at me like they thought I was crazy! What did I mean, I wasn’t their regular teacher! Of course I was! But I think they also got the point I was trying to make: it doesn’t actually matter who the teacher in the room is; the classroom expectations, the procedures, the routines, they are still the same. Did my class have a fantabulasticaliciously #awesomesauce day while I was gone? Well, no, they still had some bumps along the way. But the day was much better than Tuesday afternoon had been. I was able to catch the sub at the end of the day when I got back to the building and we talked about what went well during the day and what wasn’t so great. I was really glad to see that she had left me detailed notes that focused on the positives, though! I think that some substitute teachers forget that the students are still children and they are still learning to navigate the world and deal with changes, especially changes that they don’t like.
And who knows… Maybe I’ll sub for myself again!
Substitute Teachers
I am a part of a number of different committees and inquiry groups that take me away from my classroom from time to time. Most of these absences are for half a day, either the morning or the afternoon. There will be several that will be full-day absences, but fortunately not too many. I also have about half an hour or so once a week that I meet with members of our support staff to collaborate on services for students who need it. Because of this, my students will be getting used to seeing substitute teachers in the classroom from time to time.
In an effort to promote consistency in my students’ lives, I try to have the same couple of substitutes in my room. Now, obviously, I can’t always get what I want, but I try and I am usually able to get the veteran retired teachers who spent almost more time in the classroom than I have being alive. There is the added benefit that they are teachers that my students have seen in the building regularly for as long as they have gone to school.
Today was my first extended absence for professional work. While I was away for the morning, I left my students in the very capable hands of one of these subs. While I was away, i did not have to worry about what was happening in the room. While I was working on examining our district’s writing curriculum and discussing possible strategies for improvement, my students did their typical morning work: PE, Book Exchange, writing, science, and literacy.
I got back early and saw my class sitting on the carpet, listening a the sub read an adaptation of The Magic Flute to them. (This was in preparation for a trip to the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts next week to watch a stage production of the Mozart opera based on this story.)
After she finished reading, I took over and asked the class to review their day. For each part of the day, each student rated how the class did on a scale of one to five with one meaning everyone was off task and a five being everyone doing exactly what was expected. For each four or five, the students received one pebble in our incentive jar. The morning had five parts, so the class could earn up to five pebbles. However, when they receive all five, the pebbles are doubled, but when there is a substitute and they earn all five, they are tripled! The class had, in the words of the sub, an exceptional day, and so they earned all of their pebbles! What a wonderful way to end our week!
Always On
Today was our district’s Opening Day Institute. All of the teachers, administrators, and other staff gathered together for a day of professional development. This post is not about the Opening Day Institute, though. Instead, it is about a thought that came to me on Friday evening while I was with my wife and my in-laws at the Taste of C-U, a fundraiser for the Champaign Park District.
The thought was one I have had many times before. It is simple yet profound:
As a teacher, I am always on.
What do I mean? I mean that I am always “Mr. Valencic, fourth grade teacher at Wiley Elementary School.” I am a lot of other things, too. I am a son, a brother, a husband, an uncle, a nephew, a cousin, a friend, a colleague, an employee, a mentor, a leader. And I am always all of those things, too. And I am always on. I am on in that I am on the stage. People see me. People hear me. People know me. People hear what I say. And they talk about it.
Maybe not all the time, maybe not even for more than a few seconds. But it happens. I can’t control it. But I can control what they see, what they hear, or what they know. While I was with my family, I ran into a student. I have absolutely no idea who he was, what grade he was in (or is going into), or even if I know him. But he saw me walking past and shouted out, “Hey, Mr. Valencic! Hi!” I said hello and continued on my way as he continued on his. Later I walked past my superintendent, who was out with his family. While going over the vendor options as the Taste, a colleague was passing with her son, who is a former student of mine, and her other children who are in Wiley now. We greeted one another and chatted about my former student’s transition to middle school. I also saw some parents who didn’t say hi, but I am willing to bet they saw me, even if they weren’t quite sure how they knew me.
This happens a lot. Even though I currently live in a different community than my school, I still see families and fellow teachers when I am out in public. I love these moments. It is wonderful for students to see my outside of the school setting, when I am wearing casual clothing instead of my nice shirts, slacks, and ties. I love when a student grabs a parent to introduce me. (A cherish memory from my life as a substitute teacher was when a student who was very challenging in the classroom ran up to me at Walmart, hugged me, and introduced me to his dad as his substitute teacher! This from a student who had pushed against every boundary he could when I was subbing in his room.)
As I prepare for students to arrive for their first day on Wednesday, I want to keep this in mind, along with some words of wisdom shared during our Opening Day Institute. As our superintendent reminded us, the parents in our schools are sending us their very best students; it is up to me to give them my very best, all the time. And as our keynote speaker. Dr. Joe Martin shared, we don’t care about our students’ past problems; we care about their potential. How do I give my very best so that they can achieve their very best? By always being on.
Happy new school year!
Necktie Knots
My wife had surgery today, so I had to call in for a substitute. While my students were continuing their work of improving their literacy skills, learning about the colonial era of America, taking a math test, working with their first grade buddies on our arts infusion project, going to art, listening to a story about the Revolutionary War, and reading or writing independently at the end of the day, I was sitting at the hospital, waiting to hear how the procedure went, and then getting her home (and wondering once again why the speed bumps at our complex are so big!), and caring for her during the post-operation phase.
Instead of a post about what happened in the classroom today, I decided to do a post about how I dress for work. I am 99% certain that anyone reading this blog knows that I wear neckties to work nearly every single day. (The only exceptions are when we have our assemblies and I have to wear a school shirt and when we have a full week of school and I wear a college hoodie on Friday.) I don’t know how many know that I have been learning different ways to tie my ties over the past several months. I am not going to provide tutorials for all of them, as you can easily find them on YouTube by searching the name of the knot. (My favourite tutorial are made by a fellow named Alex Krasny, if you are interested.) I apologise in advance for the poor quality of the photos. I was working in a room with poor lighting, using the built-in camera on my computer.
Relationships, Trust, and Community
I love my job. Really, I do. And I love my class. I loved my class last year, and I loved my class the year before. I loved all of my classes that I had during the three years that I worked as a substitute teacher in Champaign, Mahomet, and Urbana. I can honestly say that I love all of the students I have had. They are amazing, wonderful, talented, insightful, funny, enthusiastic, independent youth who are going to take over the world before we know it.
There are days that they drive me crazy, of course. Just as there are days that I drive them crazy. There are days that I don’t like what they are doing, but I still love them. I look forward to coming to work each day, to seeing what they will unveil, to watching them learn, and to observe their interactions with one another. And when I am gone, whether for a meeting with an inquiry group I am part of or the district focus group that is trying to make sense of the learning standards we have adopted or I have a doctor’s appointment or am just sick, I worry about them. I worry about whether or not these children, who trust me to be here each day and to help them learn, will be able to put that same trust in a relative stranger.
I have a core group of substitute teachers that I usually request for my classroom. It isn’t because I don’t trust other substitutes. It isn’t that I don’t like them. I know well the struggle of finding assignments as a new substitute. The reason I usually request the same substitutes is simply that I know them, they know me, and, more importantly, my class knows them and they know my class. They have built relationships of trust with each other, and so I can feel just a little bit less worried about my class when they are in the capable hands of one of these substitute teachers.
But every now and then the substitutes I have requested are not available, or messages get crossed, and someone new comes into the room. It happens. And those are the days I worry the most. I know that I have established trusting relationships with each of my students. I know that we have a sense of community in this small classroom. But does that sense of community transfer to when I am gone and there is someone different, someone unfamiliar?
You may recall from a couple of weeks ago that I have given a lot of time and thought to my students’ ability to work independently. I shared one of my favourite quotes, that states that the entire object of my job is to essentially put myself out of a job (at least with any given class). Now, in reality, there will always be a need for me to do what I do. No matter how independent my students are, they are still children, most of them around 9 or 10 years old. They need guidance and direction from adults, not because the adults are bigger or smarter, but because we’ve gone the way before and can show them the paths to take. The question then, isn’t, “Can my students get by without a teacher?” so much as it is, “Can my students get by without me?”
Today I was gone in the morning for a doctor’s appointment. My regular substitutes were not available, so I took a chance and asked for someone who had only been in my room once before this year. I worried the whole morning and hoped that all was well. I came back just before lunch and came into the room to see my students working independently or in small groups, practicing multiplication, helping each other, and asking the substitute for help when they needed it. The substitute told me that they had had a wonderful morning, that everyone had been working, and that there were no problems!
I was greatly relieved. Not only can my class work independently when they are with me, and not only can they follow the directions of the teachers they know, but they can also do it when I am gone! They are well on their way to becoming independent learners, independent thinkers, and, perhaps most importantly, independent doers!
Sick
Last weekend I came down with a nasty cold that I battled long and hard. On Tuesday I dragged myself to school and discovered nearly a fifth of my class had also come down with nasty colds. I survived Tuesday and dragged myself to work again on Wednesday so that I could be there for my student teacher’s first observation and also so that I could participate in our fourth grade data review meeting. But by the end of the day I was still stuffed up and slightly nauseated.
So I made sub plans, called in sick, and have spent the day finally recovering from my cold. My nose is still a little stuffy, but not as bad as it was the past few days. I was able to sleep in (and on my brand-new mattress, too!), rested all morning, and felt better so my wife and I finally got our bedroom organised. (It took us slightly more than a month, but our home is finally unpacked, organised, and ready for guests to visit!) Then I spent the remainder of the day resting.
I hope that my class had a great day today. I know the sub well, as she has subbed for me many, many times in the past few years and she is a retired fourth grade teacher who used to work in the same room I work in now. I hope that my class had fun during P.E., that they wrote excellent paragraphs about a story they’ve read a couple of times, that they learned more about ecosystems, that they enjoyed continuing to learn the story of August Pullman, and that they have a better understanding of the properties of addition and subtraction that help explain how and why certain computations always work.
I hope. I won’t know for sure until tomorrow, of course. But any parents who are reading are encouraged to ask their children how their first day with a substitute teacher in fourth grade went and what they accomplished!
Penpals
My mother-in-law is a fourth grade teacher in Champaign. While I was a substitute teacher, I subbed for her many times. (If you are interested in what that was like, you can browse any of these posts.) She is also the one who came to my class a couple of weeks ago to share some self-defense lessons to my students.
She taught fifth grade last year, and we came up with the idea of having our students write to one another as penpals. We started during the second half of the year and it went pretty well, so we decided to to it again this year. (She is teaching fourth grade now.)
Her class wrote to my students first. I didn’t tell anyone about this until today. Before even telling them they were going to have penpals, I taught a brief lesson on how to write a friendly letter. I asked the students to raise their hands if they had ever written a friendly letter to another person. Almost everyone in the class said that they had, so I asked them to walk me through the steps of writing one.
Many students said that the first thing you do is start with your greeting (Dear…). A couple said that you actually start by writing the date. We discussed writing a heading and how the person sending the friendly letter includes his or her address as the first thing to make sure that the person receiving it will be able to write back. (I explained that envelopes often get damaged when they are opened, so having the address on the outside doesn’t guarantee they’ll know it.)
Then we reviewed appropriate salutations, the body of the letter, and the way to close a letter. After doing all that, I began to hand out penpal letters. I am amazed that, despite all the changes in our world and our society over the past several decades, the way students write to their penpals never seems to change.
I gave my students time to read their letters, talk about them, and then write their own responses to their new penpals. Several asked if they could send pictures or meet their penpals. I told them that we were going to focus on just writing letters for now. My mother-in-law and I will have plenty of time to think up ways we can further this project beyond letter-writing. At present, my top goal is to give my class as many authentic writing experiences as possible!
Too Many Movies
Over the past couple of weeks, my students have been doing some prep work for their second independent research project. The first project was an inquiry for science related to a given animal’s characteristics, ecosystem, and placement in the food web, among other things. The students had three weeks to work and nearly all of them completed the project on time. (Those students who have not yet turned in their research projects have until this Friday, which marks the end of the first quarter. Students reading, take note!)
The second project will be for social studies. Our unit is going to focus on early European exploration of Africa and the Americas. Since this prep work coincided with a couple of doctor’s appointments I had recently, I took a break from my usual plans for substitutes (which is to have the students do what they typically do with me) and arranged for them to watch a couple of videos about the Portuguese and Spanish explorers.
This didn’t go quite as planned. Instead of watching two movies, the class only watched the one about Spanish explorers. I actually wanted the students to watch these movies anyway, since they do a decent job of previewing the accomplishments of European explorers, so over the past week, we have watched the other movies. While watching, the students have had to write down at least five interesting facts that they learned, and then they shared them afterwards.
Today we watched the last movie. As I rolled out my excessively bulky TV cart, I heard something I never thought I would ever hear in my career:
Oh, man, we’re going to watch another movie?!
Guess this picture isn’t as true as teachers generally think:
Of course, nobody complained about watching a movie after we got started. And everyone who shared was able to pick up some excellent points as they learned about European explorers in the Age of Discovery. This will be particularly helpful as we invite a local historian to visit the class next week to share more about this time period and offer tips on conducting research into historical topics!
Researching in the Computer Lab
Today was another half-day, but only for me. I had surgery about a month ago, and while recovery was quick and uncomplicated, I’ve had a series of early afternoon doctor’s appointments that have led to a number of half-days. I still have more to come but, fortunately, my class is moving along quite well and learning how to work on assigned tasks, regardless of the teacher in the room.
Not that I am implying I am not important to our classroom community! Far from it! I am just as much a part of my class as any one of my twenty-seven students. But it is nice to know that if I have to be gone due to a professional conference, a workshop, an inquiry group, a meeting in the building, or an appointment with my doctor, I can trust my students to keep working and moving forward in their learning. I tell my students my one-line summary of my philosophy of education on a regular basis: My job is to help my students learn how they learn so that they can learn without me telling them what to learn. I could add to this that I also want them to learn without my telling the how, when, or where to learn. Learning is a life-long objective, which means the boys and girls in my classroom will be constantly working on improving in this area of their lives.
All of this ties into the research reports that my students have been working on during the past couple of weeks. The reports are due on Friday. I have been monitoring the students’ progress while they are working, but these are independent research projects, so they are expected to work on their own. Many students have told me that they are done with their reports already. Others are still working. A few admitted today that they are have barely begun. It is because of this last group that I have made sure the class has had time to work in the computer lab to do more research.
While researching today, one student cried out in frustration, “I hate computers! I can’t find anything on here! Computers are so stupid! They don’t have anything on them! When I look on Google, all I get is a long list that doesn’t actually answer my question! Why did they even invent computers, anyway?!”
I admit I found the outburst amusing. I didn’t laugh openly at the student, but I found the complaint rather silly. For one thing, computers are stupid; they don’t contain any information that isn’t programmed into them by an intelligent person. For another, I clearly need to spend more time teaching my students how to use search engines. Most of the class understands that Google provides a list of links to websites that will lead you to a page with information that relates to your original search query, but there are some who think that the answers should be on the Google search results page. I’m hoping to do some interesting projects using the computers in the lab, so I need to make sure that everyone understands what they are doing when they are using different research tools, such as Google, World Book Online, and Ask.com.
Outbursts notwithstanding, I am really looking forward to seeing the results of the independent research projects! This has been a pretty heavy first project for the year, but it will give me a solid baseline for what the students understand about conducting independent research projects and will help them as they undertake similar projects in the future. And eventually they will do research on their own just because they are interested in something and want to know. Once they start doing that, I’ll know that I’ve done my job right: my students will know how they learn so that they can learn without me telling them what, where, how, or when to learn. Even if I have a doctor’s appointment and have to leave for a few hours, a day, or even a few days.
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