Tough Teachers Get Results

This article was found in The Wall Street Journal Sept 28, 2013 and is written by Joanne Lipman.

This quote summarizes the article very well. "The latest research shows the wisdom of old-fashioned methods: Rote learning, plenty of failure and stingy praise encourage students to work harderand achieve  more."  It seems the teacher that pushed us the most, and was strict really helped us learn the most.

Here are her eight points.

1.  A little pain is good for you.  Practice makes perfect.  Sometimes you have to do things out of your comfort zone to learn and grow as a person.

2. Drill, baby, drill.  Now we have the common core where sometimes only one problem is discussed in a 45 minute math class.  But doing many problems over and over helps keep them in our memory.

3. Failure is an option.  Sometimes the problems need to be tough.  Showing that failure just means trying again.  It means working harder.  It means re writing the paper.

4. Strict is better than nice.  Joanne brings up a fourth-grader's quote to explain this. "When I was in first grade, and second grade and third grade, when I cried my teachers coddled me.  When I got to Mrs. T's room, she told me to suck it up and get to wrok.  I think she's right. I need to work harder."

5. Creativity can be learned. You really need to learn the material before you can be creative with it.

6. Grit trumps talent.  Grit is defined as passion and perseverance for long-term goals.  Grit is what can determine success.  They also noted that students who had teachers who were optimist had made great academic gains.

7. Praise makes you weak... If you tell a student, 'not bad, or 'you are a good worker' encourages a student to keep working hard.

8. ...while stress makes you strong.  Good teachers have at their core the belief, the faith really intheir student's   ability to do better.

Students reflected that great teachers taught them:

     discipline

     self-motivation

     resilience

     how to fail and how to pick yourself up again 

Clicks, Not Gold Stars

An article was published Monday, November 17, 2914 in the New York TImes, written by Natasha Singer.   Have you heard of ClassDojo?  This is a behavior-tracking app that lets teachers award points or subtract them based on a student's conduct.  I work in a school where a first grade teacher is using this system.  When a teacher awards or deducts points the program makes a sound.  The deductions make a sad sound that the entire class hears.  In addition to this, the parents can see their child's behavior in real time.

I was shocked to find according to this article that one out of three schools in the United States are using this application. Teachers say they like this software because it allows them to quickly record individual class behavior, whole class behavior, and communicate to the parents on how 'their student' is doing.

Teachers can use this two ways.  They can display all student's points or use the system in a private mode.  One teacher said he uses multiple points for good behavior and subtracts very few points for off task behavior.

Problems with this app is having all parents agree in writing to the use of it in the classroom.  One school is concerned about a student feeling publicly shamed.  Some principals do not want the data displayed publicly.

Overall from the use I have seen in the classroom, it is a positive 'sound' that makes the class strive to improve their behavior.  They clap to encourage a classmate.  They fix their behavior when off task and the sad sound is heard.

Please send your feedback if you have seen its use in class or monitor your child's progress in the classroom.

Developing brains switch maths strategies

I found this article on line:  http://www.nature.com/news/developing-brains-switch-maths wtirren by Helen Shen August 17, 2014.

I have been working with a sixth grader who has to process numbers that add to ten.  I have been wondering what could cause this?   This articles states 'that changes in the hippocampus-a brain area associated with memory formation-could help explain how children eventually pick up efficient startegies for mathematics."

Usually adults use memory based stratgies for finding sums and children use counting methods.

What they found using MRI to scan children's brains is that the coordination of signals in the hippocampus with the rest of the brain are the most importnat.  "Children with stronger connections between the hippocampus and neocortex were more likely than others to answer problems with memorized math facts."

So with my student, I plan to work on numbers at the first grade level wuing the common core.  I hope I can do enough work that it can be permaently in her memory and her brain can process sums to 10 in a faster way.

let me know if you have any ideas on this?  I would love to learn.

Exercise Helps!

In the article "A Brain Tonic for Children" by Gretchen Reynolds found in the New York Times on 10/14/14, a study was done that show physical activity helps brain function.  The University of Illinois did a study with 220 students that were 8 to 9 years old.  They divided the group in half.  The control group just did what they did every day after school while the others worked on physical activity.

What a shock to find, "The students who attended the most exercise sessions showed greater
 improvements in their cognitive scores."

The students that exercised were given heart monitors and pedometers.  They were guided through activities like tag how to dribble a soccer ball.  Over all they exerciser about 70 minutes and covered over two miles.

So if you are in a district where they are cutting back on PE classes and having shorter recesses, you can improve your student test scores by having them workout every day.  So start a run club for once or twice a week, start a walking group at lunch.  Take a break and do physical exercise while learning the times tables or just counting.

If students in your classroom are not exercising after school you really need to add  some in your teaching day.  Think about it, you both will benefit.

Students with ADHD in Your Classroom

Do you have trouble with those students who just can stay in their seat.  They seem to be jumping up and out of control most of the time.  Now there is research that shows, "Exercise Helps Children With ADHD."

This was found in the Wall Street Journal, Sept 8, 2014, in an article written by Sumathi Reddi, "Exercise Helps Children with ADHD in Study".  Listen to this, "half-hour sessions of aerobic activity before school helped you children with symptom of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder become more attentive and less moody."

Wow, do parents and teachers love this new development. When I had students who knew they were in trouble, feeling out of control, I opened my classroom door and told them run to the gate and back.  I would then ask, "how do you feel now?" Most were able to go back to their seat and start working on their classwork.

Many schools have cut back on time for PE, recess, lunch to fit in all the new common core standards.  This is trouble.  We need our students running.

So take short exercise breaks through out the day.  Have your class do 'jumping jacks', run in place, hop up and down (great way to do some counting in a k or 1 class), etc.  When ever I have a student who just can't sit still i have them move.  Usually they can relax and do class work after that.

Ask parents if their child could run for 1/2 before school each day.  Let me know if it works.

The Best Language for Math

This is an article written by Sue Shellenbarger in the Wall Street Journal on Sept 10, 2014.  The opening sums it up quite well, "What's the best language for learning math?  Hint:  You're not reading it."

English has confusing terms in it for children to learn while learning numbers.  Eleven - this is a whole new word for English learners. Other languages see 11 as ten one. Numbers over 10 need to label place value.  Seventeen and seventy one are easily reversed.

Experts find that "these may seem like small issues, but the additional mental steps needed to solve problems cause more errors and drain working memory capacity."

Math video games that can help include:

• Addition Blocks by Fluency Games
• Hungry Guppy by Motion Math
• Hungry Fish by Motion Math
• Match by Motion Math
• Addimal Adventure by Teachley
• Monster School Bus by new Mexico State University Learning Games Lab

Let me know if you check out any of these games and would recommend them.

This is a math lesson -More Education = Higher Income

Middle school students need to have an understanding why they need to work hard at learning material now so they can be financial secure later.

The New York Times, Sept 11, 2013, has an article written by Eduardo Porter who shows some facts about education through history.

The United States was one of the first countries to have education available for everyone.  In Europe only the elite were educated.

One important fact - "American workers with a college degree are paid 74 percent more than those with only a high school degree."

"Historically education in the United States was the great equalizer."  My grandfather only had an 8th grade education but he went on to be a very good accountant.  But he made all three of his children obtain a college degree.  All three became teachers. But my dad went on to be awarded 3 masters degrees and a law degree.  Of course my brothers and I went to college.  I have only obtained 2 master degrees and a second bachelor's degree.   I didn't catch up to him.

But now in the States it seems the underprivileged are not being able to attend college.  My son worked for an Indian Tribe in Nevada, where there were scholarships for a free education but no students worked hard enough to qualify.

I understand college is expensive, but when it is almost free why aren't high school students working hard to qualify for college?

Is it truly that teachers who work with the underprivileged are not doing a good job or is it something else?  Somehow nations like Canada and Japan have learned ow to educate socially disadvantaged children.


So take the class and have each student survey how much pay is awarded to certain jobs.  So income for 10 years, 20 years and have them discover why we want them to learn and succeed in school.

Test Results and Teacher Performance

Do you feel you are evaluated appropriately when you rely on how your students perform on their end of the year tests?

I have not seen where the student's last year test result is compared with the year you taught them.  That would be a little more appropriate to evaluate each student on their growth from the year before.

But what happens if a divorce is affection your student?  What happens if your student is not homeless?  How will their test be if they had a parent die, or loose a job?

Motoko Rich wrote in the New York Times, on 8/22/14, in an article called, "States Given a Reprieve on Ratings of Teachers that states could delay the use of test results on teacher-performance ratings for another year.

Secretary of Education, Mr. Duncan wrote, "I believe testing issues today are sucking the oxygen out of the room in a lot of schools."

For over fours years, 40 states have adopted test scores affect teacher evaluations.  This is scary to me.

If I could test my classroom at the beginning of the year and then give them a similar test at the end of the year, you could base that performance on my evaluation.   But if you give my students the fifth year test and I have increased their personal performance from second grade to fourth grade knowledge, I would only be seen as a failure because the student does performs very below basic for 5th grade material.

I don't mind the common core and these evaluations, but they need to be focused just on my students and how much they have improved over the year.  Their environments also need to be documented at the time of the test.

Unless there is careful analysis of the data, test results might not show how great a teacher really performs.

Help Students Learn Like the Cleveland Browns Football Team

Sometimes a teachers has students that believe they will be the next sports superstar.  And sometimes they don't like school or doing the work in school very much.  Now there is a new motivator tool available for teachers.

From the Wall Street Journal, August 12, 2014 "The Browns'Strategy: Write This Down" written by Kevin Clark explains to a teacher why students need to write down their notes.  If pros have to write down information to remember it, then it proves that students need to write things down to remember them.

"I would talk to teachers all the time and they would say, 'To write is to learn,' Pettine", 1st year Brown's coach.  "When you write stuff down, you have a much higher chance of it getting imprinted on your brain."

Two university professors discovered in a study " that, because the hand con't possibly keep up wight he speaker's words, the writer must rephrase what was said in his or her own words, which in turn processes the information at a deeper level."

I especially like the phrase "if you make it too easy for students to learn something, they won't remember it".  Wow, teachers need to make it touch.

Because I work with special education students I spend most of the year demonstrating how to take notes and summarize.  I lecture and turn to the smart board and make notes of the important things.  Later I can change that into a pdf and post it on my web page.

The next step is to lecture and then stop and have the students' summarize the important things.  I lead a guided discussion about what is important.  Again I put their words on the smart board.  Each students has a spiral notebook to take notes and I grade it.  Five points for each day's lecture.  Many students won't copy the board.  So I still need help in motivating students who don't want to learn.

One way that I help my students after they have had written their notes is to type them.  To review for a test, I want them to say the words they see from their notes and type them in the computer.  This helps for all learning styles.  They hear the words (Audio learner) they see the words (Visual  learner) and they touch the letters (Kinetic learner)

See, you can learn educational ideas from the Sports page.

Proverbs 12:1

Somewhere I found this translated as "To learn, you must want to be taught."  I just love this.  When I tutor students who don't really want to learn I feel like I am talking to a brick wall.

So I need suggestions on how to help someone want to learn.

So I looked up the verse in New International Version and found, "Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid."  That does sound a little rough.

The title of chapter 12 in the Message translation is,  "If You Love Learning".  That is a nice title.  Verse one reads, "If you love learning, you love the discipline that goes with it--how shortsighted to refuse correction!"

When I am around pre-schoolers or kindergarten students, they all seem to want to learn.  They go to school excited and full of joy.

When I enter a middle school classroom, most of that is gone.  What happened?  I still enjoy everyday and try to learn something new every day.

Can we blame it on negative teachers?  Can we blame it on boring curriculum?  Do most students in private schools still have joy and excitement about learning?

I would love to hear opinions on this issue!  Please send feedback!

Delay Common Core Testing

"Delay Urged On Actions Tied to Tests By Schools" by Motoko Rich, New York Times, June 11, 2014

There should be a two year wait before school districts make decisions on teachers by the results of the new common core testing results.

The process of putting the new core in place and then developing the tests to see what the students know has been too fast.

Schools in California are suppose to have each student taking the tests online.  As a substitute teacher. I see net-books used that are small to see the questions, log ins not working, networks crashing.  Middle school students switch to different web pages to listen to music while they work.  Many students do not care about standardized testing so it seems like a weak link when evaluating a teacher.  Are you a 'bad' teachers if you have a room of students who do not care about their education?

I have students that have trouble reading and the new core shows them far below basic because that can't read.  They may know the material but are being tested a way that does not show their knowledge. 

I would love to see other teacher's comments on this article!

An Undecorated Classroom?

An article in the New York Times, June 10, 2014 says that a busy, decorated classroom distracts students from learning.  I don't remember too many discussions, while earning my teaching credential ,about what the classroom walls should look like.

By sixth grade, children have more ability to tune out the distractions all over the walls.  So when you enter your classroom next year, think about what the students will be looking at while you are trying to teach.

It is simple really, just don't go overboard on classroom decorations.

• have a simple calendar section
• post only current art projects that the students make
• have a simple word wall
• use less neon colors and attention borders
• put most of the distracting materials in the back of the classroom so you can tell who is looking at them and not at you while you doing direct instruction.

When in doubt just remember less is best.

(Based on an article by Jan Hoffman "A Wall as a Barrier to Learning".)

Math Anxiety

When you worry about a math test it can lead to a decrease in working memory so you really can not remember.

When learning new formulas, I recommend rewriting the formula every time you use it.  I also recommend you say the formula out loud.  This lets you see it many time, hear it many times and write it many times.  When you take a test you don't need to worry because you will recall it.  It may seem like overkill but it works.

Also tests should not be timed anymore.  The stress of time makes a student worry.  Ask to take the test in the library for as long as you need.  If your grade improves you and your teacher will understand the time is creating your anxiety.  A good teacher will let you take all your tests that way.

Also when you feel like you are not good a math.  Some will say, " you just don't have a math brain", so you just give up.  You may not be good at math but what you do need is more practice with math.  Maybe most of the class totally understands new material after doing 10 problems but you might need 20 problems.

So you need to work harder and perhaps hire a tutor to work with you.  Math is like a foreign language.  You need to learn the vocabulary and understand each step.

From "Reducing Math Anxiety by Liana Heitin June 10 ,2014

Idea of a New Attention Disorder Spurs Research, and a Debate

This is an article by Alan Schwarz published in the New York Times 4/12/2014.   It states that there are more than six million children in the US with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.  There is concern over this being too often diiagnosed and too much medication.

But now there is a new disorder called sluggish congitive tempo.  This consists of students show lethargy, daydreaming and slow mental processing.  Researchers feel this in present in around two million children.  This disorder has been identified back in 1980 but it was not recognized the the Diagnositc and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

They feel some students are not hyperactive but merely inattentive.  This diagnosis would be for the childre who are the daydreamy ones, the ones who don't turn inthe homework, forget to put their name on their papers.

The drug companines are involved trying to find a medication to fix this problem.

But think about it.  Isn't day dreaming part about what being a kid is all about.  Don't children learn responsibility when they forget to turn in their homework.  I think many children are just being children and don't need medication or a diagnosis.  They just need to be kids.

Intensvie Tutoring and Counseling Found to Help Struggling Teenagers

I found this article in the New York Times, January 27, 2014 by Motoko Rich.

According to testing about half of the African American boys have not master basic math skills.  there have been a few studies which show with intense tutoring and behavioral counseling in eight months they can learn three years of normal math.

Administrators understand that 'it is nearly impossible for a teacher in a class of 25 or 30 students to tailor lessons to individual needs, particularly with those who struggle to understand concepts they should have learned years earlier."

To meet the needs of these students experts are arguing an hour of tutoring a day can make a different.  The tutor would be in the classroom with them keeping them focused.  They can be paid only $17 per year because they don't need to be credentialed teachers.  These tutors would not be having to manage large classes.  These tutors might also need to help the students with emotional coping skills to calm themselves during classes.

Students who have faced failure in math probably don't have a lot of positive or stable adult role models and these 'new' tutors could make a difference in a life of a child.

I think the most important item for success is a change of attitude within the child.  A child needs to determine they want to learn.  By that attitude change, learning can take place.

How to Rate a College Class

I found this article "Frequent Tests Can Enhance College Learning Study Finds by Benedict Carey, in the New York Times on 11/21/2013.  Benedict states that grading college students on quizzes given at the beginning of every class, rather than just a midterm and final improve attendance and performance.

Taking a test or writing down all you can remember can deepen the memory of the material.  The people doing this testing showed that frequent quizzes seem to help the students from lower economic homes.  When a students only has a midterm and final to show they learn the material, it allows only one test to bomb and then a passing grade is just a dream.  Frequents tests give feedback to the student on what to study and how well they are grasping the material.  In most colleges this would mean more work for the professors.  How many would really do this?

So daily quizzes can be done on a computer.  They can only be seven questions long.  It is also good to put in a question that the student missed previously so they keep learning what they missed.  Daily quizzes improve attendance because their is a zero for that day if they are not there. It makes the student keep up daily on the reading or problems to solve.  They can immediately tell what they don't understand and get additional help.

So if you want to rate a college class, check out the teacher syllabus.  See how many tests are given and take the class where the professor seems to work hard to help his/her students succeed.