When you’re a Rookie with your 1st class…you’re awfully busy!
<wait for it>
..BUT…
In my opinion – it’s a good thing.
It means you’ve done at least 3 things:
You worked really hard to get a Long Term Occasional or Permanent job (university, more university, AQ courses, resume building, interview prep, volunteering, networking, etc…)
You’re working really hard to engage students in rich learning tasks, foster a love of lifetime learning, build community in your classroom, motivate students to be leaders and collaborate in a variety of subject areas, and reflecting on your practices as a teacher (this lesson worked, this one could have used ____, next time I’ll probably leave out _____, etc…)
You’re maintaining your reputation, building new professional learning networks, and getting involved in your school community
So, if things are a little slow around TheRookieTeacher.ca … you know why… we’re busy little beavers.
We would love to hear your stories…How do you find the new workload? How are you preparing for a new job? Let us know in the comment section below.
ps. please feel free to pass this blog post along to your friends/family members who haven’t seen you in a while (maybe they’ll better understand life as a new teacher)
I was recently in a grade 7 class during DEAR where at least 5 copies of The Hunger Games trilogy were being read, a table group was huddled over the People magazine Hunger Games special edition and another student returned from the library complaining that the school never has an available copy to borrow (they have 6 copies of the first book). As an elementary or secondary educator, it is impossible to ignore the tremendous popularity of The Hunger Games trilogy and recently released movie. It seems that we just can’t get enough.
If you have somehow managed to escape The Hunger Games craze then I would encourage you to get your hands on the book for two reasons. #1 – If you work with kids and/or young adults then you will benefit from being knowledgable about their interests. #2 – I can almost guarantee you will enjoy it yourself.
photo from: HungerTimes.com
Scholastic plot summary
Twenty-four are forced to enter. Only the winner survives.
In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. Each year, the districts are forced by the Capitol to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the Hunger Games, a brutal and terrifying fight to the death – televised for all of Panem to see.
Survival is second nature for sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who struggles to feed her mother and younger sister by secretly hunting and gathering beyond the fences of District 12. When Katniss steps in to take the place of her sister in the Hunger Games, she knows it may be her death sentence. If she is to survive, she must weigh survival against humanity and life against love.
As some of you may know, I provide The Rookie Teacher.ca with some reflections from my experience at OISE studying an M.Ed. I’m currently enrolled in a Co-operative Learning (CL) course which, as the name may suggest, discusses learning collaboratively. It is important to recognize that this is different from many conceptions associated with conventional groupwork. CL involves several key elements that involve careful structuring or design. An essential element is creating positive interdependence, or tasks that have students interconnected in meaningful ways. It is sometimes very difficult to escape the competitive nature that is internalized in many Western schools. Students are constantly ranked and compared, who is better, who is worse, forced to submit to an oppressive hierarchy. But can’t we create so much more together? Even from an efficiency point of view, it is wiser to have multiple people learn various parts of a complex task and share information than to have each master the parts individually. Anyway, I think just by taking the CL survey I’ve made, may lead you to understand CL in a different light. It is a complex task to manage people in ways for them to be successful. It involves explicit teaching and practice of many skills: how to communicate and express one’s ideas, how to attentively listen to others and responding in ways that promote the success of a group, amongst others. But where better to practice than in a safe community in your class?
I’d love to hear your thoughts and how you use collaborative learning in your classroom for my research project in this field. Please take the time to complete my survey be a part of the results. They will certainly be shared!
Here’s an update on what we’ve been discussing in my Pedagogy of Food course at OISE. First of all, we have a severely broken food system. Do you ever think about just where did your orange come from? Was it handpicked in a developing country? Was the worker paid fairly? How old are they? Are they happy? We partook in a mindful eating experience that reflected on these questions while also slowly, mindfully experiencing one raisin at a time. This blindness is called commodity fetishism. It’s an unhealthy attention to a commodity without regarding the social relationships that brought the commodity to us. It’s a product of our economic and political systems, creating a veil so we are unable to make informed decisions as consumers. We are unaware if the
photo: lyzadanger, flickrcc.net
orange was picked by a child or by a woman who was sexually harassed. These types of veils are found everywhere in systems that affect us everyday, but when a small handful of corporations control the entire food distribution of the world, it becomes quite worrisome and dangerous. A phenomenal amount of money is spent selling and buying food, eating out, transporting and storing food, yet such a public necessity stays in a fairly private light, rarely being discussed. So what can we do as educators? Help foster critical thinking! Encourage, nay, praise questions! Excite students to make a difference and challenge them to form values and stand up for what they believe in. Model what active, citizen engagement is and have conversations about food. Plus, the only way you can inform others is to inform yourself.
An excellent resource for more information is “The No-Nonsense Guide to World Food” by Toronto author Wayne Roberts. It’s an essential read for everyone!
In Nova Scotia students banned together to stop bullying. It all began when a grade 9 boy was bullied for wearing a pink shirt to school. Bullies used homophobic slurs to taunt this boy, for wearing pink. David Shepherd and Travis Price, two grade 12 students, were sure to stand up and speak out against the bullies.
In Victoria, BC, Canada over 600 students and teachers from Reynolds Secondary School, Arbutus Middle School and Cedar Hill Middle School staged an anti-bullying flash mob on the grounds of the BC Legislature. The students danced to “Born this Way” by Lady Gaga.
For more information, news, and resources visit PinkShirtDay.ca.
The Lounge is a biweekly podcast brought to you by TheRookieTeacher[dot]ca.
Welcome to our Occasional Teacher Mini Series. On this episode, two RookieTeachers discuss Life as Rotary (Planning/Prep Coverage) Teacher: When you only have 40 Minutes. It’s no secret that as rookies, most of us will begin our careers as a supply teacher, 0.## contracts, planning, rotary, long term occasional teacher, etc. Chances are that you will begin your permanent (or LTO) in a part-time contract with prep coverage, even .18, is better than nothing! Listen in to hear Andrew share his experiences as a French Teacher, including: his classroom management strategies, the routines he built, and how he manages assessment and evaluation for ~200 students.
SHOW NOTES
Each episode features three segments:
Topic Discussion
Quick Tip for Tomorrowsho
The Rookie Resource Bank
Topic: Life as a Rotary (Planning/Prep Coverage) Teacher: When you only have 40 Minutes
photo: creativeorganizing.typepad.com
Quick Tip for Tomorrow: Something you could do the next day in class with little or no prep and is applicable to most grade levels.
Andrew: Magazine Boxes (for yourself, for students who require accommodation, and to keep your students organized). As a bonus, you can have students decorate them (according to The Arts: Visual Arts curriculum). There are many DIY magazine box projects on Pinterest.com.
Natasha: Permanent 4-corner sheets (put them in page protectors with butterfly clips for easy transportability)
The Rookie Resource Bank: any electronic, print, or event resource that we found helpful in our first few years of teaching. Of course, these are all applicable to all teachers.
Andrew: Index Cards on a Ring (assessment/evaluation strategies, observation notes, handy to pass off to someone else). Option: colour code them!
Natasha: CDs (or websites) that come with resource/text books – USE THEM! Often contain lesson plans, printables, assessment/evaluation strategies
Quick Shout Outs
New Teacher Chat <#ntchat> on Wednesdays at 8:00pm EST on twitter > twebevent.com/ntchat [using this website saves you from having to add the hashtag to each post]
Thank you to all the guest bloggers who have submitted an article to the site – we really appreciate your support and willingness to share your stories and experiences
photo: Neon Mic by fensterbme
Rookie Teacher Online
We are always looking for ideas, feedback, tips and tricks of the trade. Find us on Twitter @RookieTeacherCA, Facebook.com /TheRookieTeacher. If you are looking to get involved with our team, please contact us!
Thanks for listening. Join us for our next episode when we discuss So, you’re the new one, eh?
Of course it’s a word.
And unless I’m very much mistaken, I think it’s going to prove a
rather useful one.”
If you’ve listened to The Lounge Podcast, then you’re familiar with our segment called “Quick Tip for Tomorrow.” This segment is dedicated to building a list of quick, simple tasks that you can do in your classroom the next day with little to no prep AND is applicable to most grade levels.
I wanted to share my most recent post from my classroom blog where I touch on Breakfast for the Brain (problem of the day, morning challenge, etc):
Friday, February 10, 2012.
Each morning when students from 5-1 arrive in the class, we take 10/15 minutes to settle in, sing O Canada, listen to morning announcements, and work on a problem of the day, called “Breakfast for the Brain.”
Today, was Musical Friday!
Because I am a musical buff – I was excited to see where this challenge would take the students.
Recently, I saw the Broadway musical, Mary Poppins…and I just knew that this song would be a PERFECT activity for students. I developed this Breakfast for the Brain activity with the idea of a word study in mind. Students were required to use their knowledge of letter combinations and sounds to spell out:
Communication is an essential piece in the learning process – it provides students an opportunity to justify their reasoning or formulate a question, leading to gained insights about their thinking. In order to communicate their thinking to others, students must be given authentic tasks to reflect on. Through cooperative learning, students can learn from the perspectives and mathematical processes of others. Further, they can learn to evaluate the thinking of others, building on those ideas for their own assessment.
The purpose of the Math Word Wall [MWW] is to identify mathematical language that students need to understand and use. If they are unfamiliar with this vocabulary, they will struggle to effectively apply strategies in the problem-solving process and will have difficulty communicating their thinking with others.
♦ Introduce math vocabulary using relevant objects, pictures and/or diagrams. Visuals are KEY!
♦ Clearly explain word meanings and make connections frequently
♦ Do not teach math vocabulary in isolation — use open-ended questions to helping students understand mathematical ideas and model how to use mathematical terms correctly.
Using literature in math can spark students’ imaginations, helping to dispel the myth that math is dull, inapplicable, and inaccessible. Reading about math can help reach at-risk students who struggle in the mathematical process, opening their minds to the ever-present phenomenon in their world that is math!
Integrate the curriculum — teach mathematical concepts and skills through literacy
Helps to motivate and engage students in problem-solving experiences connected with real world
Addresses different learning styles and helps to promote an appreciation for both math and literature
Check out these resources for teaching mathematics through literature –
When students are encouraged to write in math, they examine, express, and keep track of their thinking, which is especially useful for assessment and differentiation. To enhance and support their learning, students must first understand the reasoning behind writing in math. Further, they need to understand how to write in math – explain and model mathematical writing using details such as pictures, numbers, and words. Students’ writing can be used as springboards for classroom ‘math chats’, highlighting different approaches to problem-solving.
Be sure to provide writing prompts –
What do you think? What idea do you have?
What are you confused about?
What did you learn?
Describe what was easy and hard for you.
What type of math concepts do you find interesting? Why?
When I hear this math word, I think….
If I could ask for one thing in math, it would be…
Tell me about your prediction. Were you right or wrong?
What strategies do you like to use the most? The least? Why?
When students are given an opportunity to talk about math, they are better able to clarify their own thinking, ‘talk out’ misconceptions, and learn from others’ problem-solving strategies. It is the role of the teacher to facilitate these discussions by engaging students in sharing and listening, questioning and responding, and agreeing and disagreeing. During ‘math chats’, the teacher can further assess students’ understanding of concepts and redirect or differentiate instruction based on the students’ immediate learning needs.
However, the classroom must be a safe and inclusive learning environment so that students feel comfortable to share and make mistakes publically. Students need clear, highly set expectations on what ‘doing math’ looks like, sounds like, and feels like in the classroom. Once the ground rules for respect have been established, then authentic mathematical dialogue and collaboration can evolve…that’s when the real learning begins!
Math think-alouds can engage students and help them to make their way step-by-step through the problem-solving process. Best of all, they can be used quite effectively both in school and at home! For more on getting students to talk, check out these Math Teacher Tools!
The Lounge is a biweekly podcast brought to you by TheRookieTeacher[dot]ca.
Welcome to our Occasional Teacher Mini Series. On this episode, two RookieTeachers discuss The Supply Teacher. It’s no secret that as rookies, most of us will begin our careers as a supply teacher, long term occasional teacher, 0.## contracts, planning, rotary, etc. That’s why Natasha and Andrew discuss supply teaching tips, routines, and networking, we look into the classroom teacher’s perspective, and finish off with a bag ‘o tricks for the occasional teacher.
photo: zoomer, flickrcc.net
SHOW NOTES
Each episode features three segments:
Topic Discussion
Quick Tip for Tomorrow
The Rookie Resource Bank
Topic: Occasional Teacher Mini Series: The Supply Teacher
Quick Tip for Tomorrow: Something you could do the next day in class with little or no prep and is applicable to most grade levels.
Andrew: Conferencing Notes (Supply): Create a sheet that works for you that shows the classroom teacher who you helped, gave advice to etc.
Natasha: Mix up seating arrangements with colour strips
The Rookie Resource Bank: any electronic, print, or event resource that we found helpful in our first few years of teaching. Of course, these are all applicable to all teachers.
Andrew: Centralized Digitized Media Services from your school board
Any feedback you can give us for TheRookieTeacher.ca or The Lounge Podcast would be greatly appreciated > it’s as simple as commenting on the blog, sending us a tweet, posting to the FB page, or emailing us
#ntchat on Wednesdays at 8:00pm EST on twitter > Natasha recommends using twebevent.com/ntchat
Rookie Teacher Online
We are always looking for ideas, feedback, tips and tricks of the trade. Find us on Twitter @RookieTeacherCA, Facebook.com /TheRookieTeacher. If you are looking to get involved with our team, please contact us!
Thanks for listening. Join us for our next episode when we discuss Life as Rotary (Planning) Teacher: When you only have 40 minutes…
The Rookie Teacher is committed to facilitating new teacher collaboration, offering ideas, information, and resources, and inspiring a future of life long learners. A wise educator once said, “Take Chances, Make Mistakes and Get Messy.” Thank you for visiting our blog and joining in on the discussion. Please take a moment to listen to The Lounge podcast.
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