First Day of School Jitters

The first day of school looms ahead-and you find yourself biting your nails.  It does not matter if you are a veteran teacher who has taught for thirty years or more, or a recent graduate from a teaching college facing your first class as a solo teacher.  It's just normal to get a bit of "stage fright" as the first day of school rolls around.

As teachers, we all have good reasons to examine our feelings and emotions when faced with the challenges of the year of teaching ahead.  It takes a great deal of energy to be a teacher.  It requires high levels of commitment, responsibility, knowledge, and leadership skills to handle a class and to guide and engage students in the learning process.  How you feel about your work affects its quality and the degree of pleasure you take in it.

Being willing to be shut inside a classroom with a large group of children actually takes real courage.  As teachers, we are less free than business people to take breaks, go out for lunch, on the spur of the moment, or to walk away from our responsibilities.  While we may not work 9-to-5, many of us actually devote all our waking hours to our classroom concerns.  Teacher requires some real sacrifices - and each time we start a new year, it may be wise to look at how well we have balanced our "real lives" outside the classroom with the rewards we receive from teaching.

You will be juggling schedules, objectives, materials, regular classwork, homework, grades and much much more.  Will you have the organizational skills, patience, and energy to keep up with it all?  Having the energy to 'do it all' becomes a real question for many teachers.  The rate of "burnout" in the teaching profession is high.  Make a point of looking at how well you take care of yourself.  You will want to build pleasures, relaxation, and refreshment of various kinds to help you continue to enjoy and be effective in your work.

In conclusion, as the Boy Scout motto teaches, your best protection is preparation.  Of course, you cannot prepare for every eventuality but you can prepare sufficiently to feel confident that you can handle most of your important work as a teacher.  So to my fellow teachers, the best of luck to you in coming school year!

All the best,
Steve

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The Importance of Project-Based Learning

If you are conducting a systematic process to bring new ideas into your classroom, but you feel unsure how to start, you may find this article useful. To conduct an effective project-based learning (PBL) activity, you need to adapt to new developments and technologies that are available. It therefore makes sense to utilize the student's familiarity with technology from a young age in order to maximize their engagement in the classroom.

PBL in the elementary grades contains classroom-tested guidance, including step-by-step instructions and tips on how to use planning tools. This can be used in development workshops or just as a stand-alone guide. PBL is well designed to show results. The self-directed lessons require lots of advance planning and preparation.

These lessons begin with an idea and an essential question that the student must seek answers for. It is important to know that content standards have to be addressed when designing the project. Once your elementary grade students have devised a plan, they can integrate it into many subjects.

Having the right materials and resources accessible to the students is important. To implement PBL, you need to start by coming up with an essential question. Next, you need to help the student design a plan for the project and create a schedule. By monitoring the progress of the task and assessing the results, you can evaluate the experience.

The kind of question that launches a PBL lesson must be engaging to the student. Remember that there is not just one solution or answer to the situation and this must be emphasized to the students. PBL grabs hold of many notions and fosters deep learning in order to engage your students. With the available resources, you can use a variety of approaches and research for solutions. You can transform your students into independent thinkers who are interested and engaged in the assigned task.

All the best,

Steve 

If You Want to Learn Something--Teach it!

That's good advice.  Giving your students opportunities to "teach" each other gives them chances to exercise many skills and build their abilities as leaders and persuasive speakers.  Whether working in pairs or reporting to the whole class, writing an essay or short story, or debating a point, give students opportunities to engage with content and feed it back.

One final point:  HOW your students may solve problems or interpret your directions and assignments can be a surprise - usually pleasant but sometimes not.  You may have a clear idea of how you expect they will answer questions, perform in role plays, etc.  But they may have "filters" to do with their own background and limited experiences of life.  They may come up with very imaginative solutions to problems.  Perspectives, attitudes, degrees of maturity all affect problem-solving in children as well as adults.  Remaining open and really listening to the students as they share their interpretations can be the best teaching.

Give them problems to resolve.  Let them use their creativity and critical thinking skills to solve problems in their own ways.  Getting students to "take ownership" of content and problem-solve independently can provide important insights and lessons for both students and teacher.

One of the pleasures of teaching is seeing your students gain greater confidence through successfully resolving various problems.  Help them succeed by giving them the freedom to fail.  And teach them to persist!

All the best,

Steve 

Teachers Pay Teachers

Brain-Based Research: (Part 3)

Music for Math

I have used Mighty Math Songs by Ron Brown -- available from the Intelli-Tunes website and Amazon.com. I learned about them from a math workshop I took from Kim Sutton (creativemathematics.com) -- who is a phenomenal teacher of math concepts. 

Many connections can be made between musical and mathematical abilities. Musical elements like tempo, meter, rhythm, frequency, harmony and tuning systems can be used to demonstrate math (and language / literature) concepts in real applications that students can hear and experience. Math concepts like counting, sets, ratios, and various kinds of measurements can also be presented using musical ideas.

A 1993 study set off a lot of interest in educational circles about the "The Mozart Effect." Rauscher et al showed that there were real improvements in spatial intelligence when students listened to Mozart while doing activities. Don Campbell's 1997 book about "The Mozart Effect" makes many controversial claims that listening to classical music improves brain function -- but some research supports it. Playing classical music to babies pre-birth may indeed have real effects on brain development.

All the best,

Steve

Brain-Based Research: (Part 2)

Trumpets and  other brass instruments most often are used for marching and martial music -- most people experience a very celebratory, happy feeling hearing this kind of music. Violins, violas, basses and other strings often give a soothing, even romantic feeling to listeners. Jazz saxophone and clarinet are known for their melancholy sounds while flutes and pipes are often used to play light, fun tunes that can even make people laugh.

Once you have chosen several possible pieces of music to use in class, consider the beats-per-minute concepts that can help you choose between options. To figure out the BPM in a piece of music, here is a simple how-to: Start to play music that you think might be appropriate to a given activity. Use a stopwatch or clock with a second hand that makes it easy for you to know when one minute is up. Listen for the drum down beats or "pulse" in the music. Start the stopwatch, and begin to count the beats. Stop at one minute and write down the number  of beats. Do this a few times until you feel confident that you have estimated the approximate number of the BPM.

The BPM is likely to have real effects on student learning and the mood in the classroom. Like a conductor, you can orchestrate the mood of the class. Theoretically, listeners' physical heartbeats may change to sync up with the musical beats. Again, try to match BPM appropriately to the task or activity you want students to do while the music plays. 

• For instance, if you want students to engage in a brainstorming session activity, then you would want to play music that has no lyrics and a pulse rate above 90 BPM.

• On the other hand, if you are after focused learning as in 'think-pair & share' activities, then you would want to achieve a pulse rate of about 60-80 BPM.

• For activities of an independent nature such as independent reading and or problem-solving, you would want to achieve a pulse rate of below 60 BPM.

Simply put, you cannot just arbitrarily play any piece of music to just any activity and expect to yield results. Note that both the tempo and appropriateness must guide your selection. 

If you have never used music in the classroom, I would recommend that you gradually introduce music into the classroom to coincide with your instruction. Music itself and the technical issues to get it playing can become distractions. Start with a few minutes a day (when students enter/depart the classroom), and gradually increase the use of music as you feel comfortable with its use. Before you know it, incorporating music into your classroom instruction will become natural.

Activity: Use a 'Call Back Song'

During the first few days of school, I introduce the class to our "Call Back Song" which calls them back to their seats. I teach -- model --rehearse the following procedure over and over again until it is routine!

Whenever they hear the "Call Back Song," students must react with the following actions:

• Stop all talking
• Return as quickly as possible to your seat
• Wait for the next set of instructions

Naturally, the "Call Back Song" is a theme of your own choosing and can be any song you like. Mine was "Brown-Eyed Girl."

I would love to hear from you regarding your thoughts or comments about this post. 

Stay tuned for Brain-Based Teaching: Part 3, as we will talk about Music for Math!

All the best,

Steve

Brain-Based Research (Part 1)

"Brain-based teaching" is not just a fad in the education world; it is a scientifically based understanding of how people learn. Scientists and educators are now collaborating on studies of the human brain as it relates to learning with applications to disabilities and "Special Needs" students. There are specific practices emerging from brain research that teachers can use to enhance learning by all students.

The National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities is one place to look for resources. Their website lists hundreds of excellent articles and websites for further research. The National Association for the Education of Young Children is another that focuses specifically on elementary (primary) school education.

I would like to share with you a bit of what I have done with respect to brain-based research as I applied it to my classroom. I have used a variety of techniques that scientists have shown make a real difference to the brain and student learning. Among these are the use of music in the classroom, making deliberate changes to mental states, and specific ways to give directions to student learners to achieve positive results.

Music in the Classroom

Kids today are exposed almost constantly to music of various kinds on television, in malls and office buildings, on their own cellphones or computers. As movie makers know, music can set the mood for any scene. Playing music during classes can change the atmosphere of the class from noisy to quiet, from chaotic to organized. It is an important tool that is not used as much as it could be by teachers.

As far as the type of music that I have played in the classroom, it's mostly from Eric Jensen's CD collections of music. Jensen has become internationally recognized for his "brain-based" publications for teachers. He links current brain research with strategies to improve student achievement. Music is one of the key tools he uses to stimulate positive feelings in the classroom.

He suggests considering the emotional state you are trying to elicit, the age of the listener and the types of music that are most familiar to them. Songs with words should be reserved for special occasions or games; Jensen suggests relying mainly on instrumental music of various kinds.

To celebrate the start or completion of tasks, something upbeat can get students inspired. For lengthy writing tasks, calming music with a slow rhythm can aid concentration.

According to various brain studies, beats per minute (BPM) can have profound effects on the human body and brain. Jensen writes:

"Songs in the 35-50 BPM range will be more calming, while those in the middle 55-70 BPM will be more moderate for seatwork. For activities, the pace might be 70-100 and for energizers, maybe 100-160 BPM will REALLY rev it up."

I bought an expensive Bose IPOD music system that I have used regularly in the classroom. Now I am not saying that teachers need to spend a lot of money. I would suggest going to Wal-Mart and picking up a CD player for around twenty-five dollars -- or if your school offers Audio-Visual equipment, to request that a CD player be made available to you in your class every day. Alternatively, you can attach good speakers to a computer or smartphone - just be sure that they can put out sufficient volume to be heard bay a classroom of excited, noisy kids!

The point here is that it is not the cost of the system but rather that appropriate music can assist students with a given activity  and that you will want to be able to access music as a teaching tool at any time.

All the best,

Steve