Getting Energized!

As a seventh and eighth grade teacher going for her masters in middle level education, I have been learning about, hearing about, and talking about integrated units for a long while. A few of my team teachers and I have even tried some interdisciplinary work from time to time, but never anything to the extent of the most recent unit I just finished with my students. Our "What's Your Source?" unit sprung from our students' interest in energy.

I teach language arts and social studies on a two teacher team. At the beginning of the year, the math and science teacher I teach with asked the students what their interests were in science. They came up with a pretty extensive list, and on that list was energy. Realizing that this is a topic that needs to be taught in seventh and eighth grade, as stated in our district's science curriculum, we decided to create an integrated unit with the focus of energy. As we got further into the planning of the unit, we realized that it would also make a really great service learning unit, so we added an energy fair where the students would be able to teach others about their energy source focus as the culminating project.

My team teacher and I changed our schedule around a bit so that we had around an hour or two every day for integrated block. During this time we led mini-lessons to teach the students some skills they would need to be successful in this research project and allowed the students time to work with group members on research and reporting. We also had language arts and math classes everyday, but whenever appropriate we would teach about topics that led right back into the energy unit. I taught about citing sources and creating bibliographies in LA, while my team teacher taught about creating graphs and charts in math.

The students used an online wiki journal to log their research with their group members. We also posted checklists for assignments and a calendar with project deadlines on the wiki. This was a great place for the students to share the information they found, as well as read what others had been learning about different energy sources. Much of the research was done online and through the school's library, but we also had many guest speakers that volunteered their time to talk with our students about their particular energy focuses. We were able to get professors from Colby and Maine Maritime Academy to speak to us about coal and tidal energy, we visited a local solar installer's house to take a look at his solar hot water collectors, we had someone come speak to us about the windmill that was just recently put up at the transfer station in our town, and many more volunteers as well. My team teacher and I were truly amazed at the number of people who were willing to volunteer their time to come teach our students about varying energy sources.

As the project was coming to a close, all the research was done, the students had reported on the history and the economics of their source, they had created a public service announcement and a 3D model of their source, and much more, they invited whomever they wanted to the energy fair where they displayed all of this work. Many of the students invited past science teachers, family members, and friends. A few groups of students invited the principals and even our district's superintendent. One student even invited WABI TV 5! We had a great turn out and the students were able to share their knowledge of the energy sources with the public. Even the news casters showed up. Click the link to check out the report...
Pittsfield Middle School Students Get Energized

The Future of Education

One idea that continues to make its way back into my mind is the direction of education in general in the United States and around the world. I feel that many of the middle level documents and publications we have studied this semester allow for, and even ask for, the innovative way of teaching that people are looking for these days.Three of the most important things I am taking away from this semester have to do with the future of education.

1) Keep in mind the media portrayal of the educational system in the US. I think it is important to be outspoken as to how things are actually working, and what isn't working in our system. I continue to wonder how many people making the rules are actually playing the game, or have played the game in the past, when it comes to educational policy

2) We have learned so much about technology, but I think a lot of the time we still have trouble using it to our advantage when it comes to education. Don't get me wrong, I think we (especially in the state of Maine) have come leaps and bounds in the last few years. But, I think we still have a long way to go. I have made it one of my priorities to help my students use this tool of communication to connect them to the world outside.

3) Talking about technology leads me right into getting creative when it comes to teaching. It's going to be hard, but breaking the bounds of the routine and getting creative with the ways in which we actually hold classes and teach will be very important for the future of education. Reading through the history of middle level education this semester really got me thinking about how long people have been trying to make important changes in our field. It is not easy to change anything in the world of education. We can't stay stagnant, however, and I will refuse to be a part of the pendulum swing. Even if change for the better doesn't come quickly, I think it is important to continue trying new things and to be accepting of change.

This semester really made me realize the struggle I have with public education. I have made it a personal goal to stay in public education, even though sometimes it can be very difficult as a teacher who sees the need for creativity, and innovation, and change. I think keeping these three ideas I have learned throughout this semester in mind will help in the long run.

Centering on Students

I sit here reading the article "Centering on Students in the Middle Grades Curriculum," by Gayle Andrews the morning after a staff meeting focused on data collection and formative common assessments. I can't help but feel a little conflicted about our focus on common assessments and data collection, especially after reading this article. The article focuses on some changes that Andrews has considered since she originally co-authored the book Turning Points 2000. The changes hinge on the fact that world around us has changed considerably as well. Education has not only begun to shift into a national issue, it has begun to shift into a global issue. With movement around the world, and communication becoming easier and more prevalent, students need to be educated in a more global context.

In the article Andrews mentions turning the backwards planning model that was explained in Turning Points 2000 on its head. She cites extensive research that has been done with student-centered planning and integrative curricula in her explanation of the benefits of this type of curriculum. The research points to an increase in student motivation because the problems they are exploring are real and relevant to their lives. It points to more positive teacher and student relationships with a decrease of behavior problems, as well as more of a feeling of professionalism in teachers. With the little I have done using these types of approaches, I have begun to see that these results do ring true. Students become more involved when they have a choice about what they are learning, and when these choices center on issues that concern them. They explore the concepts presented to them while practicing, and hopefully mastering, the skills that are being taught.

I fully understand and agree with most of what Andrews presented in this article. I worry about the fact that every time I go to a staff meeting (most Mondays) we add a new common assessment to our plate in order to collect data so that we know exactly where all students stand with every piece of our prescribed curriculum. I worry about testing so much that I won't have a chance to teach. And finally, I worry about who these test are really for and what they really tell us about each individual student. Andrews begins the article with the question, "In a world increasingly focused on accountability, extensive federal and state legislation, policies, and mandates seem to clutter the educational landscape and obscure and perhaps overshadow the students who should dominate it. A certain irony, then, lurks behind a critical question guiding this article: Can our curriculum be student centered and leave no child behind?" I believe it can. Actually, I am beginning to believe that the more student centered our curriculum gets, fewer and fewer students will be left behind. The task then becomes to convince the powers that be of this same belief.

Student Teacher

So last week my seventh and eighth graders and I added a new person to our team. Ms. Nelson, my new student teacher. What a crazy week it has been. Here's a little bit about what Ms. Nelson has been hit with since she came to middle school from her first student teaching placement in a second grade classroom. She started on a day when we had an assembly in the afternoon so the schedule was pretty messy. The assembly was put together by our Civil Rights Team and it was centered around the notion that words do hurt.

The second day my new student teacher saw the interruptions that a teacher must deal with at their best (or worst, as the case may be). She saw a bus evacuation drill that interrupted two separate class periods. She also got to see the student mock election, which was wonderful, but also interrupted a couple of the class periods we had. Finally we had a half day on Wednesday and it was devoted to community service projects we are doing in our advisory groups.

This was a very chaotic week in itself. To try to introduce my classes and what we are working on to this student teacher proved very difficult. I am glad that we are starting to get back to normal this week, that is, as normal as middle school can ever actually get.

Teaching Technology

If you've been watching or listening to the news lately, you already know that public schools are "failing our nation's students." A couple of weeks ago I heard a new way in which we are "failing" these students. Again, if you've been watching or listening, you probably also heard about the tragedy at Rutgers College a few weeks back where a student committed suicide due to a crime committed in a digital nature. This is not the first time a young adult has taken their life due to a digital issues. From what I heard on National Public Radio, schools across the nation are not doing a good enough job teaching young adults and adolescents to be good digital citizens.

I have a few things I'd like to mention about this. The first is that, in my opinion, being a good digital citizen is a lot like being a good citizen in general. It includes being conscientious about the feelings of others, being open to new ideas and people's differences, and thinking before you speak, act, or click post. Our school just recently had a speaker from The Civil Rights Team Project come work with our students to teach them more about how hurtful words can be. He also spent a staff meeting with us teachers to talk about cyberbullying. One thing that he said about cyberbullying that really resonated with me was "cyberbullying is like bullying on steriods." The severity of the bullying, and the speed with which it can move from person to person or group to group, really can make cyberbullying horrific.

As a teaching staff, we took a look at some of the reasons why cyberbullying can be so harsh. One reason is because there is a disconnect between humans. The computers can serve as a wall between people. Kids feel empowered to say things that they would never say to someone's face. Check out this video from The National Crime Prevention Council that give a good depiction of what cyberbullying would look like if it were to happen face-to-face.

Ad Council And National Crime Prevention Council Launch New Cyberbullying

This ad is meant to make you feel so uncomfortable that it might even make you chuckle a little bit. It is so ridiculous to think that someone would ever speak like this to someone else in front of a crowd, and that people would just sit back and listen to it. But, when you think about it, this is exactly like cyberbullying. People say things they wouldn't normally say and share things they wouldn't normally share in real life.

I do feel confident in saying that at my school we are continually trying to educate ourselves and our students in terms of bullying and cyberbullying so that our school can be a safe environment for everyone. We are also putting into place a new 10 week program, led by our librarian and our technology coordinator, that focuses on teaching students the importance of digital citizenship. This is why, when I hear things like, "schools are failing our students in terms of digital citizenship," my hackles raise. Maybe some schools are failing our students in terms of creating safe digital environment for students, but mine's not!

Corporate Reform Action Pack!

This was too good to not link to. Just add it to the list of hilarious sarcasm necessary to get a chuckle out of our present situation in public education.

Running into the Wall

I have run into the wall many, many, MANY times in my five years of teaching. While I'm trying to get some work done, or while students are researching information, we run head first right into it... the internet firewall. This actually just happened today. I have students researching the candidates and the referendum questions for the upcoming mid-term elections. They were looking around at different websites, and many of them found video and audio clips that they wanted to view or listen to. Most of these turned out to be blocked by our school's firewall. I understand the need to have some regulation on sites like YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, but I wonder if completely blocking the students' access to them is the answer. Many of these sites can be used as learning tools, but when they are blocked from access the student certainly doesn't see them that way.

While we were researching as a class today my students were surprised that most of the candidates in this election shared links to their Facebook or Twitter accounts. They were shocked and thought that it wasn't very professional or "sophisticated", as one student told me, for these public officials to be a part of these types of social networking sites. They get told so often to beware of these sites, or that these sites are bad and they shouldn't be on them. The fact that they can't be on them at school because they are all blocked tells them that these sites are not an educational tool, when in reality, if used properly, they can be a wonderful educational tool. I think it's becoming more and more apparent that if we are to help teach them how to be good digital citizens, we need to allow them the tools to practice these skills.

Trying to be Superwoman

After a week and a half of immersing myself in our country's education crisis, I feel like it's time for a little mental health break.

I've watched NBC's Education Nation reports, viewed trailers for the new movie Waiting for Superman, tuned in to interviews with the people involved in creating the movie, read blogs, newspaper and magazine articles and every day I show up to work prepared to save the world.
This might sound sad, but I have actually been wondering if I am a "good teacher" lately. The media is so powerful and this is what scares me. If I am wondering if I work hard enough, or if I have the natural teaching talent that a lot of these reports refer to, then I am certain that some of the parents of my students are also wondering this. Any of the general public that view these news segments or this new movie will most likely be thinking about this too.

On the other side, I do realize that the system is broken. I work in a public school, and hope to continue working in public schools throughout my teaching career because this is where I have chosen to work. I don't have anything against private schools, but I think the public school system is one of the foundations of this country. I want to be a teacher of all students. I'm not sure if I totally agree with tenure, but I do belong the NEA, MEA, and my local union. I appreciate what they have done for me and for many other teachers across the country. In terms of employment, teachers have come a long way because of the union. But, I know there are some teachers out there who shouldn't be teaching. I agree that teaching should be like every other profession; if you're not doing your job, you get fired. I think in order for this type of process to work, however, the entire system would have to be revamped or maybe even reconstructed.

So, for almost two weeks I have been going back and forth and back and forth in my head about what should be done. How do we fix this broken system? Well, I'm still not sure about this. All I know is that everyday I have to show up prepared to deal with all sorts of issues and problems that are definitely not mentioned in any of these reports about how I, along with all the other teachers in public schools, are failing this country's children. So for for my mental health breather, I turn to Lewis Black on the "Back in Black" segment from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart because the only thing that can get me to smile about these circumstances is good old fashioned sarcasm.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Back in Black - Education Crisis
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity

Multi-Age Classrooms

We have recently decided to mix things up a bit on our teaching and learning team and have grouped our seventh graders and eighth graders together in two separate classes for social studies and science. We kind of took a "dive in head first" approach to this grouping and mixed them basically arbitrarily. Yesterday was the first day we tried out this grouping and we (my team teacher and I) both agree that it went fairly well. We will continue to use this grouping structure as well as look at different ways to group our 40 students throughout the year.

I have looked at a bit of research done on the topic of multi-age classes at the middle level. Maranacook Middle School in Readfield, Maine has different teaching teams grades six through eight. Each team has a different make-up of these students. The parents do have the option of having their student on a multi-age team or not because Maranacook has both types of teams. In researching the effects that a multi-age middle school classroom might have on its students, I had trouble finding a definitive "good" or "bad". A lot of the research I found stated that there was no negative academic effect seen or known in these classrooms, but that no direct positive effect could be determined either. I did find, however, a research article from the NMSA entitled "Is Multi-Age Grouping Beneficial to Middle School Students?" that stated that there were some positives associated with multi-age grouping at the middle level even if they are not of academic persuasion. "It enhances students' self-esteem, decreases behavioral referrals, reduces the effects of labeling, encourages the formation of close communities, and leads to social and academic continuity." It seems to me that these types of positives in a middle school classroom could very easily lead toward higher academic achievement as well.

On a side note I did notice that throughout this research article from the NMSA, the writer continued to mention looping and the positive effects that this type of organization has had in middle schools. As a teacher who has gone through a couple of looping cycles, I have to agree. Students at this age need consistency even from grade to grade. They need someone they know they can trust and relate to and gaining this trust and understanding can sometimes take a very long time.

Middle School Mentality

They might look like teenagers. Sometimes they can even get mistaken for adults, but they continue to remind me day after day that they are definitely still kids. This afternoon during announcements, right before dismissal, my eighth graders were milling around the room waiting to leave school for the afternoon. They want to get out and play their soccer games, or go to their friends house, or hang out at the library down town. I looked around the room as they were all anxiously awaiting the words, "At this time all students are dismissed." Three boys, who look like they might be college searching soon, or who might even pass for college students, were happily playing with my finger puppets of Edgar Allan Poe, William Shakespeare, and Charles Dickens. They were making them talk to each other, and fight each other; they were simply enjoying the puppets just like a young student would. Even after five years I am constantly reminded that looks in middle school can be deceiving. I am reminded that these kids are just that... kids.

lost middle

I loved the University of Maine at Farmington... wait... let me rephrase. I still love the University of Maine at Farmington. I graduated with a K-8 teaching certificate in December 2005, ready to explore the wide world of teaching. My professors were spectacular, both as educators and as people. I had leaned everything I needed to know about teaching through my theory classes and my practicum and my student teaching. If I could go back in time and go through my undergraduate courses all over again there would be nothing I would change... well... almost nothing.

I'm not sure how much has changed since 2005, but when I graduated there were not many classes focusing specifically on middle level education. Actually I think there was one to be exact. While you could go through the elementary program and get the K-8 certificate, or through the secondary program and get the 7-12 certificate, nothing really focused on middle level education. I continue to wonder about this. The longer I teach at the middle grades, the more I realize that they really are their own entity. I'm beginning to think that we should start treating them like that from the beginning... from education of our teachers.

True Teaming

Not counting when I was actually there myself, I have always loved the atmosphere of middle school. Maybe that's one of the reasons I like teaching middle school so much. I can still remember how hard it was getting more responsibilities as far as academic work and sports and chores at home. I can still remember how hard it was to fit in one day and not the next. I remember being so interested in what was going on both academically and socially (most of the time the social outweighing the academic, but nonetheless interested in both) in my classes and with my peers.

One of my greatest aspirations for this year is to truly team teach. This year I am working on a small team with one other teacher. I am teaching language arts and social studies and she is teaching math and science. While we both have individual curricula to follow for these subjects, we have been working hard to integrate what needs to be taught through all content areas. These subjects should not each be taught in their own vacuum. It is important for students to see the connections between their world and what they are learning in school. It is also important for students to feel like they are part of a team, like they are part of a community. We are off to a great start with our teaming process, but it hasn't proved to be extremely easy to do. We will continue to work at it and refine what we do, all the while keeping in mind the benefits of true teaming with middle school students.

First Day

I'm beginning to feel like a veteran teacher. I have been at the same school for five years now. I know the ropes, the ins and outs of everything from the duty schedule to the curriculum to fixing the copier when it's jammed. So why do I still get nervous before the first day of school. Every year I spend endless hours getting my classroom ready, and getting everything organized for the first day. And every year the night before the first day that students show up I barely sleep. Is this normal?? Does this ever go away???

Things are a little different for me this year. My classroom has moved, I have a new team teacher, and I am teaching a new subject, but I'm still not sure that these changes should warrant the nerves I begin to feel as the first day of school approaches. I don't think I ever felt like this as a student in school. I know I used to get excited and probably got a little anxious, but I'm pretty sure I never had any sleepless nights before the first day.

What's really strange about this anxiety is that it always goes away so quickly. I spend all this time getting ready and all night before the first day worrying, but when the kids actually show up it's like we didn't even miss a beat. We jump right back into everything and I continue to wonder why I go through these emotions every year. I wonder if they will always come back to me at the start of the new year. Something inside me tells me I can plan on it.

Wikiing

I started a wiki with my eighth grade students to share ideas about a writing assignment they are going to be doing. My idea was that they could use this to discuss with each other what they might want to write about and then they can each have their own pages to begin writing their stories, getting input and editing from their classmates throughout.

Then, something very funny happened today. During class the students all logged on to the wiki and began chatting with each other through the discussion forums. It was at this point that I noticed a couple of things. First, the classroom was so quiet, except for a random chuckle or chair moving, you could hear a pin drop, And second, the students were totally and completely absorbed in each others' ideas for writing.

I know from experience that if I had asked these students to bring in ideas for writing and discuss them in their groups or as a whole class, there would have been no where near as much "discussion" as there was online this afternoon. For some reason, these students know how to discuss way better through the computer. It reminded me of a story I heard on the Moth Radio Hour about a father trying to talk to his 12 year old son. He realized the only way to really ever be able to get anything out of his son was through instant messaging. The story is hilarious, and just reconfirms my ideas about these kids being much better at sharing ideas and feelings through the computer. The story is in Moth Radio 3 and it is the second story told.

Taking away their tools

Picture this, you're back in seventh grade, writing notes to your friends about what you are going to do after school, or maybe about which boy you like in class, or maybe you are even writing a nasty note about a teach or another student in the class. The teacher catches you and tells you that your punishment is that you can't use pen or paper for 3 weeks...

I know this might be extreme, but this is how I feel when my students get their laptops taken away for misuse. Depending on the crime some of my students have gotten their laptops taken away for one, two, or three weeks, and sometimes even indefinitely. Of course most of these infractions and punishments always seem to happen just as we are about to start a digital story telling project that will require the use of a laptop...

Of course these misuses can't go unpunished, but sometimes I really beginning to feel that I am being punished more that the students are. I have to come up with an alternate way of completing this assignment, as well as an alternate assessment seeing part of the rubric for the initial assessment does deal with use of the technology.

I am beginning to be of the mind that we really need to do a better job of teaching these students how to responsibly use the tools that they possess. If we keep taking them away, how are we going to do that???

Why is it not cool to like reading?

This is one thing I really don't get!
I feel really lucky to be able to say that I have a lot of readers in my 7th and 8th grade classes. When I say "reader" I mean someone who constantly has a book that they have chosen on their own. Someone who will search for a new book to read once they have finished the one they were working on. Someone who is lost without a book to read. I have so many students who love chatting with me about the books they are reading. Why then do some of these "readers" act like they don't like reading? They feel like they have to complain when I say that we are going to have SSR for a class period, yet when we finish reading they are so excited to tell me about what just happened in their book. The other day I actually had a student tell me that it was "scary" that he was actually enjoying the book he was reading. This is a student that likes to read! I have seen him like multiple books. I have seen him talk with friends about good books to read. I know for a fact that he has liked many books in the past. So why does he feel like he has to act like he has never liked a book before in his life?

Work on Just One Thing

Surprisingly, I seem to have a little time to myself this Friday morning, so I thought I would explore some of the blogs I added to my Google reader. I'm glad I did, because I just got some of the best advice I have received in months. English teacher and writer, Jim Burke, posted a piece called "Work on just one thing" yesterday. He writes about how neither teachers nor students can work on everything at once. We all have 10, 234 other things we could be working on as well, but in order to get better at any one thing, we need to focus our attention on that one thing. This is exactly the advice I need when I am trying to get my classroom blog working well. I have been introduced to RSS and am trying to figure out a way for my students to utilize this tool. I have just create a Wiki, a Ning, and a Twitter, none of which I have used yet, but all of which I was very excited to create and to at least think about using. Jim Burke's advice was very timely. I will work on blogging and blogging well! And when the time comes to move on to RSS, Wikis, Ning, and Twitter there will be 10,234 other pieces of new technology to work with... one at a time of course.

Girls Singing the Blues

I almost always listen to the news on NPR on my way to and from work. The 40-minute drive is a perfect time to drink my coffee, hear a little bit about what’s going on in the world and mentally prepare myself for the day ahead. But sometimes, when I need a little help in the mental preparation department, if it’s been a hard week, or if I’m just not feeling particularly stellar emotionally for one reason or another, I’ll listen to music. Somehow music always seems to put things into perspective for me. Granted, sometimes it is a difficult task finding just the right music to fit with my mood and to make me rethink some of the ideas spinning around and around in my head. This morning it was easy… the blues. In particular girls singing the blues. Bonnie Raitt and Susan Tedeschi were my saving graces this morning.

Post Number One!

This is post number one for my new blog for class. So, I have blogged for classes before and I always give up on them after the class is over. I set up a blog for my seventh graders on EduBlogs a few weeks ago, but things have been a little spotty. Each student has made at least one post and commented on other students' post, but it is not something we use regularly. I'm not really sure how to make it a regular part of our class I guess. I don't want to blog for the sake of blogging, but I do feel that if I can figure out how to use this tool in a productive way, it can be very useful and helpful for my students. So... my first blog post is a cry for help about how (and why) to use a blog!!!

P.S. I was inspired by the quote in the syllabus, "I believe that effective teachers of writing regularly write themselves." I'm going to keep this in mind in terms of blogging and... hopefully... I won't give up on this blog after this class is over :)