Contributions to other WikEd Sites

1. Teacher Burnout - I have only been teaching four years, but I can see how teaching can cause burnout quickly. Teaching is a profession where things can be very repetitive: filling out IEP's, teaching the same subject several times a day, and meetings that go on and on. I teach the same geography lesson six times a day. If you take into account that I have taught four years that means I could have taught the same lesson 24 times. It does not get much more repetitive than that. I think I am able to avoid burnout, so far, by switching my lessons every year. Each year I attempt to make new and better lessons, use more technology, and switch around the formats that I use. This makes the lesson more fun for me and helps me to not burnout. Coaching/Extra-Curricular Activities also help me to not get burntout. I feel that working with your students outside the classroom makes the classroom experience more enjoyable for the students and teacher/coach. I know coaching takes a lot of time and is not highly compensated, but I feel it has helped me keep teaching fresh and fun. As RTI and NCLB continue to take more and more of a teachers time we all need to look for ways to avoid burnout. We need to keep all the hard working, talented, and successful teachers in the profession that we can. B. Moore

2. Single Sex Schools - My interest in Single Sex Classrooms came about when a school in Springfield, Illinois started doing it. I have not seen the results from this pilot, but it raised my curiosity. While teaching junior high I have seen many girls not answer questions in school because they didn't want to stand out. I have also seen boys act out to get the attention of the girls they like. I was very surprised when I read the statistics above about the number of girls who would attend an all girls school if given another chance. I feel that if given the opportunity to teach an All Girls Geography Class and an All Boys Geography Class I would definitely want to do it. I think that it would be a great experience to see how the different sexes learn. B. Moore

3. Graphic Organizers - I have used graphic organizers to help me teach Jr. High Geography. Graphic organizers give students a purpose to their reading. Students who struggle in school often need this purpose to motivate themselves for the activity. I use Venn Diagrams the most in my classroom. It is a very easy format that works well when comparing and contrasting two countries, continents, landforms, culture, etc. These diagrams also are good prewriting activities for students. I have also used Inspiration to make concept maps for my students. This allows them to see how things in class are connected. B. Moore

4. Grade Retention - I currently have a student that is in my 7th grade class for the second year. This student has not worked any harder the second year. He is still on the verge of failing my class, and other classes, a second time. I do think that I have a much better relationship with this student this year, but I am struggling on how to turn this into the student getting better grades. I know this student has failed at things in the past and will continue to fail in the future. I am not sure that retaining a student is the best consequence for low grades, but I have not found better consequences. B. Moore

5. At Risk Students - have dealt with at risk children in a camp setting. I will not mention the name of the camp, but it is a week long overnight camp for at risk children. At the camp though we call them "Kids at Hope". What we try to do is instill in the kids that they can be succesful if they try hard. The Kids at Hope philosophy actually states that there are no at risk kids just Kids at Hope. If people make connections with these kids and help them they to can be succesful. This camp has helped many kids to take a more positive path then they may have otherwise chosen. In fact when ex-campers turn 18 they have the opportunity to come back and be counselors as long as they are drug and alcohol free. Every year they have several ex-campers come back and work for the camp. A few of them also go on to college and get out of poverty. Even though it is an idealistic view I think that if all kids were shown attention and care at a young age a lot of the problems our society has would stop. B. Moore

6. Block Scheduling - had block scheduling when I student taught. The year after I left the school went back to a more traditional schedule because it cost too much. For the last three years I have been in a more traditional 8 hour day except that we have Literacy blocked. I see positives to both ways of teaching. Our high school has full block scheduling and there is talk that our junior high school may be switching to full block. I think that for some classes it can be very beneficial. Our literacy teachers all really like having blocked class. It gives them time to teach both reading and composition. I feel the problem with block scheduling is with math. It will be really hard for math teachers to teach more than one concept in a day. Some schools have blocked schedules, but do not block math so the teachers can have the students everyday. I feel that this is a very good format. B. Moore

7. Cutting - I did not know much about cutting until a family friend went through it. The girl who was fifteen at the time had just undergone a major surgery. She was in the hospital for several weeks and it took about a month before she could even stand up. Even though her physical wounds began to heal it caused her great mental anguish. She got into drugs and alcohol to ease the pain that she was going through. She also started hanging out with friends who were involved in cutting. They would challenge each other to see who could make the most cuts. This went on for almost a year. With a lot of love and care from her friends and family she has been able to overcome her drug, alcohol, and cutting episodes. She does have 10-15 scars on each arm. These will be permanent reminders to her and others to the problems cutting can have. She is very embarrassed by these scars and tries to keep them hidden under long sleeves whenever possible. Some positive has come out of this and she has done several presentations to show other students the dangers of cutting. I luckily have not seen any of these tendencies in my students, but it is definitely something that I have started looking for. B. Moore

8. Dodge Ball - My school holds a dodgeball tournament for students every year. They hold this tournament during lunchtime and it is not mandatory. The students get to pick their own team, but each team must be co-ed. We end up with a 7th grade champion and an 8th grade champion. After the tournament we have a schoolwide assembly where it is faculty against the student champions. It is one of the most fun things we do all year. The student body loves to watch the teachers get beat by the students. It is a great bonding activity. Unfortunately, dodgeball can be dangerous if not monitored closely by the teacher. We have not had students get injured, but our P.E. Teachers do a great job making sure the students don't get into any situations in which they can get hurt. The teachers also will remove any student who is being wreckless. If not monitored by teachers I can see how dodgeball could be used by bullies to pick on smaller students. Because most students really like dodgeball they give it 100% effort. This helps them to get into better shape and makes the students more healthy. B. Moore

9. Parent Teacher Conferences - We run parent teacher conferences as a 7th Grade Team. In a previous district we had to do conferences on our own and it made it easy for parents to tell the teacher "my child is only struggling in your class" when we knew that wasn't true. Having a team conference allows teachers to talk before the parents arrive about what they want to cover and it makes it harder for the parents to play the teachers off on each other. I feel that when possible all conferences should be done with some type of support system. It makes it much easier on teachers, but can bee seen as intimidating to parents. B. Moore

10. Laptops in Schools - We have just moved into a new school and we currently have two computer labs and a traveling laptop lab. I wish my district had a laptop for every student. My students learn so much better when we are on the laptops or in the lab. Teachers can make great assignments and the learning can be much more meaningful to the students. One drawback I have seen is that a lot of teachers are afraid to make computer lessons because the feel the students know more than they do. I think there needs to be more teacher training if laptops are to be used by all students. B. Moore

11. Purple Leisure - I also agree with the above statements. I have taught at a fairly poor urban school and also at a wealthier school. Both schools have their embedded problems. When dealing with pre-teen and teenage kids there will be problems with drugs, sex, and drinking no matter what type of district you are teaching at. All problems don't just come from kids from lower economic families. Sometimes the problems are different and the "purple leisure" activities might be different, but the problems are still there B. Moore

12. Anorexia - This year is the first year I have dealt with anorexia. We had one 7th grade student who would not eat hardly anything. She began looking very sick and her face was sunken in. To make matters worse she was also an athelete and continued to go out for sports. The school actually let her continue going with the team, but would not let her practice or play. Fortunately, with counseling and various medical interventions she is getting better, but is not back to her normal size. One of the interesing things is her personality completely changed while she was suffering from anorexia. She was very moody and almost mean spirited. I coached this girl the year before all of this happened and she was not like this at all. Since she has been recovering her personality has improved a lot as well. B.M.

13. Authentic Assessment - I have begun using authentic assessments this year in my Geography class. Yes, they are much harder to make and grade, but I think the students learn better and take more of an interest. This year I have actually not given one test. I have given projects that allow my students to show me what they know. When reviewing their projects I can really assess what they know and do not know. I do not think this is possible in a fill in the blank or multiple choice test. Unfortunately, most of the assessments given by the state are not real authentic assessments. They are moving towards more open-ended writing questions so this is definately a positive step. B. Moore

14. Class Meetings - I try and use class meetings about once every week or two. I allow the students to have some imput in the things that we are doing. I make sure that the options I give them are options that are o.k. with me. Students usually appreciate having imput and even if it is something trivial it makes them feel more accepted and important. Another way I use class meetings is to discuss the positives and negatives of a project, activity, or unit. I usually learn a lot from the students and this helps me to do better next time and gives the students an opportunity to reflect on what they have been doing. I'm not sure class meetings are something that need to take place on a daily basis. I think this may work better for younger grades where the teacher has a set of students all day. B. Moore

15. Cliques - In reference to the video list on Cliques I think that all junior high and high school students should watch Mean Girls. It is one of the most surprising movies I have seen. It really breaks down how mean students can be to each other and how much of an affect that can have on someone. Cliques are not always a bad thing when students who are in different cliques interact in a positive way. Cliques become bad when students see other cliques as enemies or rivals. I think that throughout life we stay in our cliques. We hang out with people who have common interests, jobs, hobbies, etc. and this is not a bad thing as long as it doesn't make you close minded and open about others. B. Moore

16. Cyber Bullying - I have not come across any cyberbullying in my school. However, I am doing a project this year where students need to sign up for an email account so they can make a Google Webpage. In my letter home to parents I had to tell parents and the students that this email account could not be used to send or receive emails. I felt this was important to keep the students from cyberbullying or being contacted by other people who they shouldn't be in contact with. I am concerned that if this happens then it will come back on me even though my intentions were good. I have had my letter home approved by the district office, technology coordinator, and principal. One of the concerns I have with cyberbullying is the number of ways it can take place. It can take place through websites like Myspace and Facebook, Email, YouTube Video Clips, Instant Messaging, etc. Schools should be taking an active role in preventing this, but I'm not sure that this is happening yet. B. Moore

17. Discipline in the Computer Lab - Using technology can be a difficult thing. You are usually out of your classroom in a computer lab and this takes the students out of their element. This opens the teacher up to a lot of different classroom management problems. One way to combat this is to give the students assignments that are interesting and fun. This gets them to focus on the task at hand. Another way to keep problems to a minimum is to have a program like NetTrakker ID that allows students to only get onto approved sites. This keeps the teacher at ease when it comes to students "accidentally" getting on inappropriate sites. Another thing that helps is to have the students have a seating chart. One more tip with keeping a computer lab running smoothly is to model the activity for the student. If a student is confused they will ask their neighbor or constantly ask questions. B. Moore

18. Empathy - I first became aware of using empathy in the classroom when I took a course on Love and Logic. This class helped me to see that being empathetic (not sympathetic) can really help your students behavior. I think using empathy allows you to connect with the student and allows them to be comfortable with you. When this connection is made the student will rarely cause disruptions in the class. It also allows teachers to feel good about connections they have with their students. B. Moore.

19. Enabling - I feel that a lot of teachers enable students while trying to help them out. I think students need to see the consequences of their actions. If you forget something you need for class then you will have to complete the activity later. In my first year of teaching I used to give pencils and paper to students who forgot theirs or didn't have any. I had kids on a daily basis asking me for these supplies, a lot of times because they were too lazy to get theirs. Since then I have stopped given students daily supplies and the students all seem to have these supplies now. They know not to ask me for these and if they need them they need to solve the problem on their own. A lot of teachers disagree with this idea, but as teachers we need to make sure that we are not doing things for the students that they can do for themselves even if it makes life easier on us. B. Moore

20. Ethnocentric - As a Geography teacher I am constantly trying to show my students that there are people out there who are different and different isn't necesarily bad. My students think every other country is poor and people don't have anything and are not smart. I love showing them all of the neat stuff about other cultures and how other people can actually do things better than Americans. This really opens up their eyes. B. Moore

21. Homework Motivation - I think the most important thing a teacher can use to motivate students to do homework is to show them the importance of the homework. I also think that teachers need to get away from worksheets. This is an effective tool some of the time, but not all the time. I try and give my students projects that allow them to be creative. They like these assignments (even though they do eventually get tired of projects) and seem to complete them most of the time. If I give a homework assignment that is a worksheet I have a lot more students not turn them in. Students usually can figure out when homework is just busywork and when it is an important activity. There is a group of students that will complete every single assignment you give them no matter how boring or unimportant. However, there is a group of students who will only complete homework that they feel is important. If they come from a background where parents don't value education getting homework done is unlikely. B. Moore

22. I-Messages - I use I-messages with my students on a daily basis. I have found them to be very effective to keep the classroom atmosphere more positive and enjoyable. I think keeping this positive atmosphere is very important to good classroom management. I learned I-messages through Love and Logic and it has been one of the most important classroom management tools I have learned. B. Moore

23. Lack of Physical Education - The P.E. Department at my school does a fantastic job of getting kids to be active. They do Plyometrics twice a week. I think it is great that when students come to my class after P.E. they are tired and sore. Unfortunately, these teachers get a lot of complaints because parents think they are working their students too hard. I think P.E. should be a class where students work hard, learn good nutrition, and learn life-long skills on how to stay healthy. It is sad that P.E. is usually one of the first classes that gets cut from school budgets when times get tough. There are a lot of classes where students learn stuff that they may not use again, but learning how to lead a healthy life isn't one of them. B. Moore

24. Reading Comprehension- Social Studies - Since I began using Reading Strategies in my classroom my students' understanding of my class has increased. In this day and age it is not a good teaching strategy to give students a reading assignment and expect them to pull out the important pieces of information. All content area teachers need to be reading teachers. We need to give our students strategies on how to read and retrieve important information. This can be done through organizers or by teaching different strategies. A lot of teachers I work with feel that you should be able to just assign chapters and expect the students to learn. They feel it is not their job to teach them how to succeed at reading. Reading is one of the skills that every student needs to master to become a successful adult not only in the work force, but also in everyday life. B. Moore.

25. Speech Anxiety - This year was my first year assigning a speech to 7th grade students. The speeches were a disaster. When I reflected on the problem I realized nobody had ever taught these students how to speak in public. I have been giving them pointers and am assigning another speech soon. Hopefully, since I have modeled this for them they will do much better. I think a public speaking class would be a great elective for junior high students. To cut down anxiety I have the student relax and turn off one of the lights so it is not as stressful. I think that with more speeches their anxiety levels will decrease. B. Moore