Do Now: 9/27/2010

1.  Take out and open your 4 Steps and your book.  Color TS and CD.

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2. Read Ten Commandments of the Web

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3.   Write three sentences in a word document or in your L.A. notebook

a. Which Commandment of the Web you like the most and why.

b.  Which Commandment of the Web you dislike the most and why.

c. One other comment about the Ten Commandments of the Web

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4. Read your book silently

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5 Class Rules: Ensuring Safety & Discipline

Why isn't this awesome sign in every classroom?

1. Follow directions the first time

2. Raise your hand to speak to anyone

3. Raise your hand to leave seat

4. Respect (4A) yourself, (4B) others (4C) school

5. Use common sense!

For effective consequences for broken rules click here.

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Writing & Reading Daily Homework: NCLB Test Prep

The Four Steps

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To share the great results my students have had year after year on the NJASK (New Jersey‘s NCLB test) simply read these directions every day.

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Directions to be read first thing, of each and every class… and try to smile when you say it… remember, yes, they might groan, but they also all know it’s for their own good…

The next school day you must come to class having another 4 Steps.  As always, the description of the 4 steps can be found on my blog.  Any questions/concerns/problems? (wait 5 seconds). Great!  The next assignment is…

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Step 1. Write a sentence about something you did today.

Step 2. Read your book for 20 minutes or more.

Step 3. Write a sentence about one thing that happened in the book.

Step 4. Bring your book back to class.

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For example: (step 1) Jenny gets home and opens her writing binder. She writes about a fascinating language arts lesson she had that day.  (step 2) Next, she kicks off her shoes, and reads the climax of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight biting her nails at each turn of the page. (Step 3)  She then returns to her binder, and in between sips of soy milk, summarizes the thrilling rescue of Bella. (step 4)  She then puts both the binder and her novel in her book bag and pats herself on the back for a job well-done!

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Click here to see template and example of how to start the 4 Steps with just two sentences per day in Phase #1.

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Also, if you are interested in more of the specific details, like why Jenny’s example is colored the way it is, or ways to use the Four Steps for long term use please click here.

© 2010 David Mach

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#GoAllOut

What an inspiring post by sfarnsworth!   All teachers must read her post right now!

It’s like a Chicken Soup for the Teacher’s Soul post but much better!

To read this amazing  post, click here: #GOALLOUT

Also, please join our discussion on Twitter using the hashtag: #GoAllOut

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Top 10 Things Today’s Kids Will Never Experience

It’s official.  I am a 31-year-old senior citizen. More and more frequently, I find myself saying the stereotypical old man things:

“Why, when I was your age…”

“The fashion of these kids today!”

I even tell my students about how much farther I had to walk to school than they do.  That my book bag was at least 40 pounds.  Fortunately, at least, I didn’t try to convince them it was uphill both way.

What really brought this sentiment home to me, was a TIME article entitled, “Top 10 Things Today’s Kids Will Never Experience,” published Thursday, Aug. 19, 2010.

The list:

• Camera Film
• Landline Phones
• Real Books
• Being Lost
• Music Videos on MTV
• Walkmans
• The Glory Days of Nick at Nite
• Tan M&Ms
• Czechoslovakia
• Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Terminator (they must have really been running out of ideas at this point)

After a kiss goodbye to the dream that I was still a young  man , I realized that this article could make a great history lesson.

All teachers should show their students this list. Even if you are not history teachers, there are Cross Curricular Activity opportunities for technology, social studies, writing and reading for your class.  Or if you are a parent, you can still use this article with your kids.

We might start  by trying to  convey how quickly things are developing and changing in our lifetimes. Everyone of the things on this list was most likely around when we were their age.   At the Museum of Natural History,  I saw an exhibit explaining how the technology used in farming hadn’t changed for hundreds of years, and then suddenly advances were being made every decade, then every year, and now almost  daily.  Our students will hopefully appreciate how living in the Information Age, has dramatically  expedited the process of innovation.

Even education is quickly changing. Most subscribers to my blog are the brave educators incorporating blogs, twitter, PLN’s,  Facebook into their  lessons.    None of these words existed when I was a middle school student.

Can you imagine some of the teachers we had in middle school receiving horrible evaluations from today’s administrators?   “Mrs. Smith during your surprise observation, all you did was lecture!  Where was your use of technology?  You only used whole group instruction!  Where was the hook?  Where was the closure?  And not a single Cross Curricular Activity!  I didn’t see your objectives or NCLB standards posted anywhere in your class!  Your assessments are purely multiple choice!  There was no differentiation for ELL students, nor were there any accommodations for your I.E.P students!”

(That was more fun to imagine than I care to admit.)

The next way to utilize this list in a lesson is to have our younger generations question the validity of this list. Do they really believe all of these predictions will come to pass?    I know the extinction of printed books won’t happen in classes of my wife or my own.  Many teachers like us can get entire boxes of books from yard sales for a dollar a box and then just give them to our students (don’t you love how generous Americans get at yard sales when you tell them you are buying books for your school?  I love the generous attitude of people in my neighborhood!).  If yard sales run out of books then our classes will publish their own books using our computer lab printers.  Failing that, we will make our own printing presses like Benjamin Franklin.  If that fails we will make students copy important texts like the monks used to do before the printing press.  I am imagining students furiously copying To Kill a Mockingbird with a quill by candle light.  Hmmm… maybe a new lesson plan in the works..

Scary tangent thought:  if books weren’t made anymore and eventually all  lost, what if the internet crashes?!  Would we have lost all record and history of Civilization?

Finally,we can have our children write/blog their own list of gadgets and ideas that they predict  won’t be around when they are old men like me. I’ve read a number of articles explaining that most middle school students physically have not yet developed the part of the brain needed for long term thinking.  This is partly what makes them so impulsive and such bad decision makers.  This lesson can be a  fun way for them to get those brain cells in gear.

What do you think?  Does this sketch of a lesson plan seem feasible?  Have you tried something like it?  Please let me know!

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Do NOT Get Rid Of Standarized Tests

This is a response, with all due respect,  to Children and Cardboard Boxes written on August 20, 2010 – 5:02 pm | by Shelly Terrel on the wonderful education blog Teacher Reboot Camp.  Please read Shelly’s post, it’s brilliantly written.

Shelly,

I like the sentiment of your post.  I tweeted a number of quotes from it, in fact.  I loved your clever use of transferring from one box of pure imagination to the imprisoning box of school walls.  It reminded me of a shocking quote I’ve heard attributed to Martin Luther King Jr. “Public school is 12 years long because that’s how long it takes to break a child’s spirit.”

Wow.

However, I’ve also heard it said that in our society “the scientific method is the new God.” This seems true.  This is the reasoning behind the universally despised standardized tests (do we know ANYONE who is says, “Wow! Isn’t it great how well these NCLB tests are working out!?!”).  We need to measure and quantify the progress and current knowledge of our students, because that is just how things if we want to be “scientific.”

Thus, without throwing out the scientific method, and thus our society, which ironically has lead to the advent of most resources mentioned that teachers must utilize to spread seeds of change, what options are we left with?

I believe the answer is the solution to most of life’s problems: compromise.

Yes, sadly, we must keep the tests.  However, our challenge is to improve them.  This is already happening, albeit very slowly. The addition of essays is a relatively new. Surely a step in the right direction compared to the previous decade’s tests with ONLY multiple choice tests, right?  We must push to make the tests measurements of things that COUNT (all teachers know the difference between merely “test prep skills” and quality learning).

Also, we must transform our test preparatory lessons (which, like it or not, are a must in most public schools) into fun, interesting, rich, dynamic, empowering, QUALITY lessons that teach necessary test prep skills AT THE SAME TIME.   This is the challenge of the new generation of teachers.

Of course we can do it! I know because myself and a few colleagues do it almost everyday in class.  I can tell you are passionate about education too, so I’m sure you do it as well.

I am new to blogging (started two weeks ago) but I look forward to reading and responding to the thoughts of you and your subscribers as we all learn to fix our cardboardbox-less school system TOGETHER.

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Use BUY-IN To Achieve Year’s Goals

You are a teacher with exciting plans for the upcoming school year.  You are a principal looking to make a bold changes in your school.  You are a CEO with new initiative to survive in this never ending recession. The leaders that capitalize on the power of “Buy-In”  will reach all of their goals and never have to lose their positive and friendly ways. Buy-in is keeping a new plan, initiative, or strategy alive and growing simply by focusing on success.

1. When formulating your new plan try to build on past successes in your school, class, or company. For example, my school has had a “Go Green Club” for years.  So when the principal asked for a new program to keep our town’s soccer field clean, we didn’t start a new club, we merely piggybacked on the existing one.  Thus,  “Green K.I.C.K.” (Keep It Clean Kommittee) was born.  Plus, we took full advantage of our students’ well-known love of playing soccer by promising members a chance to kick the ball around after collecting 10 pieces of trash.

2.  While presenting your new plan, look for the few people who really seem to be “on board” with you (those nodding their heads in agreement,  furiously taking notes, or smiling). You have already succeeded with these people, time to build on your success.  With “Green K.I.C.K.” I already knew which 8th graders were open to new ideas, so I went directly to them first, and got them excited.

3.   Make these “on board” teachers, students, or employees your Lieutenants. Foster their support by rewarding them with relative freedom in their implementation of the plan and a closer association with you.  Those that were excited about “Green K.I.C.K.” became the team captains for when we played soccer after cleaning the park.  Team captains chose teams and got to make all decisions for their teams.

4. Get the Lieutenants’ feedback on how to improve your plan/strategy further AND what they like about it. Exactly which words appealed to them?  What are they doing to help your plan that you hadn’t thought of?  This feedback informs your next stage of implementation.  Never underestimate your employees or students.  Even my Eighth graders had some brilliant insight into “Green K.I.C.K.”

5. Build on your new success. The others in the group that liked your ideas yet hung back, will feel more confident to follow you now that they see others supporting you.  Reinforce those aspects of your plan that your Lieutenants said they liked, while modifying/rewording those parts they weren’t crazy about.  The captains of “Green K.I.C.K.” told me they hated the idea of picking up the trash with their bare hands, so we got everyone plastic gloves.  Needless to say, there isn’t a student alive who doesn’t like the getting out of school-work.  Also, we get to play soccer, so we emphasized the fun and downplayed the garbage part.

6. Don’t dwell too much on winning over those who fiercely oppose you (and they will always exist). However, LISTEN CAREFULLY to what they say.  Abraham Lincoln was a genius by hiring his biggest rivals into his presidential cabinet.  Nothing is more valuable than someone who does nothing else but look for weakness in your plan (which of course is priceless information).  Some students still refused to clean or play soccer, but sat in the park on the bleachers.  This gave me the chance to pick their brains while keenly supervising the others cleaning and playing soccer.

7. Be patient as your plan grows and takes root. Remember that nothing of any value is ever created quickly.  Time to grow, time to strengthen, time to adjust to unforeseen obstacles, time to reorganize, time for others to get used to your plan are all key ingredients to your success.  In my judgmen,t “Green K.I.C.K.” had fair success this past year, and I expect it will only grow this coming year.   Now that I have the kinks worked out I will try expanding the club to include other classes or grades.

This post was inspired in part by reading a post by  Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik

Copyright © 2010 David Mach

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How Technology Can Help Your First Day Of School

Most Importantly: On the 1st day, you MUST start work in earnest

I like the idea of using technology the very first day of class, as mentioned in an EduDemic blog.

However, I feel using a smartphone “app that lets anyone set up scavenger hunts anywhere they want is too chaotic for the first day.”  As the blogger says in the first line, it’s already “a nerve-wracking and difficult process.” I think too many complications would arise.  Plus, it might easily alienate those who can’t afford a smartphone.

Thus, I created the following list of ways Technology Can Help Your First Day Of School:

1. Showing off your PLN. It adds validity and creditability to your teaching methods if students see that you are connected with hundreds of other dedicated teachers.  As a bonus, it may just give them the impression you are a “hip” teacher who has lots of friends.
2. Showing off a slide show of the cool pics you uploaded on you Facebook page. I traveled to Normandy, France this summer.  My students EAT UP anything about WWII, so I am sure to show off me standing in front of a Sherman tank and the thousand of American soldiers’ graves.  Make sure you don’t have anything inappropriate about you or your friends (see: Ten Commandments for Teachers on the Web)
3. Giving a sneak peek of the amazing, new websites you found during the summer. I can’t wait to show my students “animated maps and battles in American History”  Classzone
4. Viewing an introductory movie you filmed of yourself. Something short, sweet, and age appropriate.  Upload it and give students the URL so they can show their parents who their amazing, tech savvy new teacher is.
5. Presenting a PowerPoint you made as an introductory about your class and/or yourself. Students are so nervous about the upcoming year.  Why not demystify your class with a syllabus right up front?  Why should only colleges use a syllabus?  Maybe show the work done by last year’s class.  Make sure you say, “Your work will be EVEN BETTER than theirs!”
6. If you had a lot of time with them you could set up each student with their own  blog and have them start reading and writing.

Most importantly, on the first day you must have students writing and reading, and generally engaging in whatever type of work you expect them to be doing throughout the entire year.  It is essential students have the expectation they will be working every second they are in your classroom

Footnote: After writing this post I came across a Sardine Blog that used a Twitter survey to discover the 5 top technologies teachers will be using in their classes this upcoming year.  I am glad to say this helpful blog only reinforces what I say above.

Copyright © 2010 David Mach

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Ten Commandments for Teachers on the Web

We have all heard nightmares about the teachers who lost their jobs because they posted something  scandalous  on the web.

To prevent good teachers from making bad posts, I have created the following list.  I hope it helps!

This is a rather conservative list, but we live in a  morally & sexually conservative culture.  (Note: multiply the cautious attitude of this list by ten if you are not tenured.)

1. Thou shall never publish anything you wouldn’t show your boss or mom.

2. Thou shall avoid intoxicants in posts or pics

3. … the same generally goes for anything that legally requires 18 years.

4.  Thou shall only post pics with a minimum of boxers and a T-shirt on, regardless of sex.

5. Thou shall not post pics of your students, nor shall you use their real names unless they are over 18 and have expressly given consent.

6.  Thou shall not curse, dummy (even this sentence would be shocking to a 1st grader).

7.  Thou shall avoid ANYTHING erotic or sexual.

8.  Thou shall never break any local, state or federal laws.  If you do break laws, for HEAVEN’S SAKE! don’t document that fact online!

9.   Thou should remember that every pic and post is your face to the world.  Therefore, look for every possible chance to include posts or pics of you and your student’s successful work (ask students’ permission and block their names.)

10.  Thou shall never lie in a post.  It’s a terrible precedent to set for the future of our world.

Remember ,

“What happens in Vegas stays on FaceBook forever.”

What do you think? Did I leave something out?  Do you disagree?  Help me refine this list.  Do you think it’s actually detrimental to our students that we as public figures are forced to pretend we are saints in our lawsuit-crazy world?

Click here for Commandments added by readers like you.

Copyright © 2010 David Mach

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Mission Statement/Purpose of Blog

My Goal in Life: (my wife, also a teacher, puts it best)

” Help others enjoy their lives as much as possible, while enjoying my own as much as possible.”

Finding the balance between helping others and helping oneself is a constant juggling of priorities.  For me, teaching in an urban, low income district helps me accomplish both parts of my goal in life simultaneously.

I teach in East Newark Public School (ENPS) which is directly next to the town I grew up in and live in now.  Thus, I am able to dedicate my professional career to connecting and supporting a community that helped raise and nurture me.  I relate the students and the parents, because we come from the same place even though my family is European and they are South American.  Also, I get to walk to work, so my carbon footprint is only the rubber from my shoes on the stroll through the rolling paths of West Hudson Park.

I love my job (even though there are days, especially in the winter, where I can’t seem to get out of bed) and pray I get tenure.   The impending budget crisis of New Jersey public sector threatens to rob me of a job I love so much, so I’m being proactive.  In an effort to make myself more desirable to my district, and fostering my love of teaching, I have dedicated this summer of 201o to learning technologies to add to my teaching skills.  The results of my efforts to learn classroom 2.0 skills, thus far…

1. I grew my professional twitter account to 170 followers
2. I created this blog (700 hits world-wide to date)
3. I read a number of Public Relations books on how and why to use web 2.0 for teaching
4. I connected with equally passionate teachers from all over the world
5. I found thousands of AMAZING new resources
6. I began growing a PLN that is supporting my efforts
7. I learned the basics of Spanish using Rosetta Stone

I hope you will join me as I enter my fourth year of teaching (I will get tenure if I don’t get fired before the second day of school) and offer feedback for my ideas and projects.  I hope to read your blogs and learn from you as well.

The nicest part of it all: Every website I bookmark, every blog I read, every book I high-lite, every teacher I interview, every word I type now is accomplishing both parts of My Goal in Life.

Copyright © 2010 David Mach

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