The Global Association for Teacher Empowerment

Jay Barth watches as the first students reach Minnijean. The theme of Jay’s campaign is “Together, a better Arkansas.” Indeed it is.

Minnijean & me

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I found this fascinating quote today:

According to Nielsen Mobile, in the first quarter of 2009, the average U.S teenager made and received an average of 191 phone calls and sent and received 2,899 text messages every month. By the third quarter, the number of texts jumped to a whopping 3,146 messages per month. This is equivalent to more than 10 text messages per hour.omgzam.com, Online Media Gazette, Feb 2010

Actually, my 13-year-old daughter will usually get 10 text messages in a matter of minutes!

Why do we imagine that our students don’t write?  They do write, extensively, based on these data.  The real question? How do we harness all that interest in communication through writing (as Computer Mediated Communication) so that it serves education, too?

This same great blog talks about “four distinct generations: Baby Boomers (born 1946-64), Generation X (1965-79), Net Generation (1980-89) and the new iGeneration (born in the 1990s and beyond). The “i” designation represents the “individualized” nature of their media.”

We have to take this generational spread into consideration when we are planning instruction!  Over 45% of teachers today are in the Baby Boomer generation and need legitimate support in addressing the needs of a younger generation.  The two generations quite frankly confuse the heck out of each other.  Neither really “gets” the other and has a regrettable tendency to dismiss the other’s notions of what is necessary for a “good” education, right out of hand.

There are similar conflicts between each generational cohort.  The gap between the Net Generation and the iGeneration is just as confusing, in many ways.  Young teachers of the Net Generation and the iGeneration students often feel a nagging sense of rejection and confusion because they don’t understand each other any better than the older generations understand them.

The students that are in the PreK-12 years of education are truly like no other generation of student.  We must be more attuned to what their lives are like and use that to educate them.  We cannot expect them to live, or learn, in the past, just because we find it difficult to bring ourselves up to the speed of their lives.

Education can no longer be about memorizing facts.  Facts are at our literal fingertips! Education can no longer be about our version of history.  History is available globally for all to read and discover from original sources. Education can no longer be just about long division and showing your work.   The process now is simply to learn which buttons to push on the calculator or computer to get to the right answer.  We are, too often, teaching skills that no longer serve.

Education today must be about teaching these flying-fingered young people how to think critically and create and problem solve. They already know how to relate and communicate on many levels.  We need to help them learn to collaborate and discern excellence and insist on it from their leaders.  After all, it is our job to help shape the future that these iGeneration learners will inherit.

We don’t need to be asking them to leave their connections with each other outside the classroom.  We need to be asking how can we connect with them in the classroom!  And then, we need to do it.

Hello!

Teachers are especially susceptible to what I call “brain drain” and it is easy to get bogged down in the details of the day before we ever get a chance to stop and take a few minutes just for ourselves.  So, when I read this great little article by performing artist, Christine Kane, it impressed me as an easy way to get each day started with a little special time and space for me.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.  We don’t have to follow anything like a cookie cutter pattern, but the ideas here are well worth exploring to begin to carve out some time for creativity each day.

Enjoy!

Teresa

How to Create a Powerful Morning Ritual
by Christine Kane
It is said that your habits create your destiny.

I’d add that your habits also create your confidence, courage and even your creativity!

In other words, your daily choices, routines, and seemingly insignificant moments make all the difference in your results.

One of the best ways to generate great results is to create a morning ritual. A powerful morning ritual sets the tone for your entire day – and your entire year!

A ritual is personal. A ritual is creative. (Not reactive!) A ritual is what gets YOU on track to create your best day. (And subsequently, your best life!) It can be as simple as a 15-minute routine, or as intense as long-distance running. The important thing is that it becomes a HABIT.

My morning ritual combines a mixture of physical, mental and heart-centered activities to engage each of these human power centers!

Here are some ideas to help you create your own powerful morning ritual.

Hydrate First

Many Eastern health practitioners recommend chugging down at least a half-liter of filtered room-temperature water first thing. (Yes, before your coffee!)

Upon waking, your body has spent hours without hydration. Drinking pure water at this time triggers a series of physiological functions that keep your body super healthy. Some report that this one practice can actually heal many diseases. (I’m not a scientist – but I can attest to the amazing results!)

Get Moving

Exercise is called “The Number One Form of Preventive Medicine.”

It is also a prescription for happiness and a cure for depression! Getting exercise first thing sets your day off right. You can do a simple stretching routine, yoga or an all-out heart-pounding hour at the gym. Pick something do-able and do it.

Meditate

Many people don’t meditate because they find it intimidating. I say, start with just 5 minutes. Meditation connects you to your center, and to the deep silence that surpasses any drama that might be happening in the world of your personality. Don’t worry about doing it right. Just allow yourself the time to BE.

Set Intention

“Intention rules the earth,” says Oprah Winfrey.

It’s true! Your intention is a powerful force to engage.

Remembering your intention puts you back on track. You become focused again.

Reflect for a moment on your Word of the Year. Read a goal you’ve written down for yourself. Remind yourself of a financial dream. (If you’re one of my new students in Uplevel Your Business, read the intention you wrote down on the first day of the program!)

You don’t have to know the HOW. You just need to set the intention so your inner GPS can stay on target!

Be Grateful

Before I get out of bed, I silently create a morning gratitude list. When I begin my day remembering my “gratitudes,” (instead of my “anxieties”) my heart fills with extreme joy and deep awareness. I then bring that energy into everything I do – and to everyone with whom I connect.

Use a Netty Pot

(This one’s a little weird!)

For years, my acupuncturist told my husband and I to use a Netty Pot. We laughed at him. Then, in the face of acute sinus problems, my husband tried it and became a convert. He converted me.

A Netty Pot uses warm water and a special salt to cleanse your sinuses and clear your breathing. Google it, and let the idea sit with you for a while. (You might be a convert too!)

Eat Creative

Your choice of breakfast foods can set up your success with other meals as well. Start your day off in the healthiest way possible for you – and make it a ritual, not a chore.

Be Prepared: Create a Not-to-Do List

Everyone needs a “Not To Do” morning list.

Suggestions here include anything that brings up a “reactive” state: Turning on the local news. Checking email. Answering texts. Answering the phone.

Let these things wait until AFTER your ritual has been completed!

Your Assignment:

After reading this article, don’t just think, “Wow. Those are some good ideas. I should try one or two.”

Instead, deliberately create your morning ritual now. Take about 20 minutes to think about and write down what your ritual will be each morning. Start simple at first. Choose one or two items from this menu. Or come up with your own. Write out your Ritual in detail.

Begin first thing tomorrow morning, and let your habits create YOUR destiny starting now!
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WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE?
Please do! Just be sure to include this complete blurb with it:
Performer, songwriter, and creativity consultant Christine Kane publishes her ‘LiveCreative’ weekly ezine with more than 11,000 subscribers. If you want to be the artist of your life and create authentic and lasting success, you can sign up for a FRE*E subscription to LiveCreative at www.christinekane.com.

What does understanding look like?

Define understanding.  Is it emotion? Is it to share and to apply?  Is it transfer into a new context? Is it being able to articulate? Does it involve stretching yourself? Is there a range of degrees involved? Is it performance, added together with flexibility, to serve the purposes as needed?  Does it involve risk-taking?

For example,  I struggled with the math in Advanced Statistics, but I could perform an analysis of what the statistics meant in any given situation and explain that meaning in non-mathematical terms.  Did I understand?

Understanding is sometimes considered as the ability to perform a range of needed activities. There is knowledge, which has to do with facts or figures, concrete data. There are skills that show what we can do or perform or bring to bear on a problem. And there is understanding. Understanding has been described as “what sticks after everything else fades away.”

Understanding can be viewed through various filters, such as, will it make someone a better human being? Or will it still be important to the learner beyond 10 years or more. There is a difference between understanding and knowledge and skills.

Examples of knowledge:  knowledge would be to know the plot of the book 1984 or details of the book.  Knowledge would be to know about the events or characters in the book.

Examples of skills:  To be able to quote from the book.  Or to write well and construct good sentences. To be able to compare and contrast the characters’ motives.

Examples of understanding:  To make connections between the events in the book and today’s world.  Or to make connections between the ideas of losing freedoms and paranoia and fear.  Understanding brings a sense of the personal to the learning.

The most important thing for all of us to remember, whether teaching young people or adults, is this:  the person doing the reading, writing or thinking, the doing, is the person learning.  I’ve tried to keep this uppermost in my mind whenever I teach. But even more importantly, I try to keep it in mind when I am planning.  How can we bring that sense of the personal to the learning? How can we best foster understanding?

If you know what you want them to learn (knowledge) and what they will be doing (skill) to foster that learning, it is easier, not harder, to figure out ways to accomplish the goal of understanding, and to adapt to changing circumstances or needs.

Remember to allow learners to use a variety of strategies and styles to accomplish the learning. Not everyone learns the same way or with the same set of tools.  Not everyone views the process through the same filters or will arrive at the same answers.  And not everyone will come to the same understanding.

So, what does understanding look like?  I don’t know exactly.  That’s one of those Big Questions.

The Big Questions really have no predetermined answers when personal learning –understanding– is taking place.   If they did, there would be no advancement possible.

Enjoy!
Teresa Roebuck

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Technorati

Hello!

Since I am in the throes of helping my online Spanish learners to do their first recorded assignments, it made me realize how much easier it is to teach a phonetic language like Spanish than it is to teach English. I empathize with all teachers who are teaching English Language Learners because both the teacher and the student could easily end up struggling.

Here is something to think about that might help.  Plus, there is a special free offer for you when you finish reading…

Enjoy!
Teresa Roebuck

Differentiated Instruction For Struggling ELLs

By Dorit Sasson

As a way of thinking about differentiated teaching for ELLs, “each student needs and deserves a teacher who will be an active partner in helping that student identify and build upon personal strengths and identify and address areas of weakness” [Carol Ann Tomlinson, An Educator's Guide to Differentiating Instruction, 2006].

Since more and more ELLs (English language learners) are not achieving proficiency in general education classes, teachers need to differentiate instruction so that their struggling ELLs can encounter words heard orally on both a word and text level.

A balanced mode of teaching reading using oral instruction is slowly becoming the accepted norm for teaching early reading skills for entering ELLs in ESL learning groups and large general education classes. Unfortunately, there is no transitional group for such groups and very quickly, ELLs need to catch up with their native English speaking peers with regard to achieving reading proficiency.

Defining a Balanced Mode of Reading Instruction in Differentiated Learning Contexts for ELLs

A balanced mode of reading instruction is differentiated when teachers provide activities that reinforce ELLs’ oral knowledge within a reading-based context. Here are some examples of a balanced mode of reading instruction in action:

* Lower-performing ELLs-This group reads orally a list of targeted vocabulary words of varying length and difficulty depending on their performance.

* Middle-performing ELLs-This group reads orally a list of targeted vocabulary words/sentences of varying length and difficulty and and then matches the word to the picture or matches the sentence that describes the picture.

* Higher-performing ELLs -This group reads a short text of varying text and difficulty using the targeted words teacher has taught previously. In pairs, they then read the sentence found in the text that corresponds to the questions. This assumes that ELLs have acquired a deeper meaning of the words and sentences.

For struggling ELLs in general education classes, teachers need to strengthen the decoding process, which leads to comprehension. This allows ELLs to make connections between ideas while reading. Teachers should provide effective oral reading instruction that includes vocabulary and phonological skills. It is absolutely critical that teachers use oral instruction with other teaching approaches to maintain student interest. Many discipline problems have been known to occur when teachers rely too much on oral instruction.

Helping ELLs Succeed using a Balanced Approach to Differentiate Reading Instruction

In conclusion, when teachers differentiate oral instruction to support early reading instruction, they have a higher chance of helping struggling ELLs achieve fluency and deeper comprehension. As ELLs are expected to read with deeper understanding, oral instruction helps teachers close some of their reading gaps in word and text based skills.

Make Your Teaching Sparkle. Teach for Success. Make a difference in the classroom.

Subscribe to receive your FREE e-zine and e-book, “Taking Charge in the Classroom” when you visit the New Teacher Resource Center at http://www.newteachersignup.com.

Purchase your ebook of classroom tested tips – “Tips and Tricks for Surviving and Thriving in the Classroom,” at: http://www.MakeYourTeachingSparkle.com and you’ll receive a FREE ebooklet, “Yes! You Can Teach K-12 English language learners Successfully!”

Dorit Sasson is a freelance writer, speaker, educator and founder of the New Teacher Resource Center.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dorit_Sasson

http://EzineArticles.com/?Differentiated-Instruction-For-Struggling-ELLs&id=3584181

Teresa Roebuck, Teresa Sheree Crites

Congratulations to Sheree Crites, Outstanding Distance Education Faculty in Arkansas for 2009!  She has received a complimentary membership in the GATE to show our appreciation to her!  Way to go, Sheree!  Keep up the great work!  We know you make a huge difference in the lives of your students.

This  award was awarded to Sheree Crites, teacher with the Arkansas Department of Education Distance Learning Center by the Arkansas Distance Learning Association.  Sheree exhibits enthusiasm for using technology and has impacted not only her colleagues, but also her peers in both public and private schools. Wherever she meets with colleagues and during presentations, she demonstrates the many ways technology can facilitate, enhance, and enrich student learning. She was the first of the Distance Learning Center’s faculty to use podcasting for literature, grammar, and short story lessons; her excitement about the difference it made in her classes encouraged colleagues to try it in their classes. She can frequently be seen at school sporting events or awards banquets at the schools after hours, when the activity or school is within driving distance.  Nominees were submitted by the faculty member’s president, chancellor, or senior administrative representative.

We will be hearing more from our newest member of the GATE community in the near future.  Look for her contributions to our online professional learning community when you join with us!

Hello, 21st Century Teachers!

One of the biggest concerns that we hear from novice teachers, or any teacher,  is that they feel isolated. They feel isolated in the classroom among the students. They feel isolated among their fellow teachers. They really feel isolated from the administration. They even feel isolated at home, because of the work load that bleeds into family time.

What is it about the teaching profession that makes it generate such a sense of isolation? There might be as many explanations for this as there are teachers out there, but I imagine the main reason is in the simple daily realities of the job. We, generally, spend the greater part of our day in a closed environment behind closed doors with 20 or so other people who, generally, don’t want to be there with us.

We are held accountable for other people’s learning. We are held accountable for other people’s physical well-being while in our classrooms. We are held accountable for other people’s psychological well-being while in our classrooms. We are held accountable for other people’s skill sets and motivation. We are held accountable for other people’s actions, even if they are not in our classrooms, if we think that they might be in danger from self- or other’s abuse.

Wow. Wow. We do great things. We are good people. We put ourselves out there. We care.
Why, then, do we receive so little appreciation? Why do we so often feel like it is us against the world? Why aren’t we the greatest force for change the world has ever known? Oh, wait. We are. We just don’t get the credit for it often enough. And we don’t connect to one another enough to see it in action in our daily lives.

We need to reach out to each other. We need to encourage each other. I may be having a terrible day, but someone, somewhere, might be able to provide me with a small acknowledgment that what I do matters and I will feel better. It is a simple thing to do, really. Just connect with someone you know who is a teacher and let them know that you appreciate what they do. Connecting can be a multi-lane expressway and it is open to all.

The world in 2010 is ripe for connection. You don’t have to be isolated and you can change those feelings of isolation into a sense of community. Professional learning communities can help and just talking to each other can help, too.

But you have to take a first step and get out of your own way and simply connect. It doesn’t matter if you do it virtually, like in our association community or on Twitter or Facebook or in some physical location. Use the faculty lounge. Use the supermarket aisles. Use your in-service time… just let some other teacher know that you understand what they do and that you appreciate it. Tell someone how great they are. Maybe they will return the favor.

Call or email me. I’ll tell you how great you are. In a heartbeat.

Enjoy!
Teresa

From Seth Godin via Squidoo…

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