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.