Teaching to reach every single student

I have been spending a good part of this summer’s theoretical vacation from teaching trying to organize myself for next year.

Some of this work has been the typical curriculum planning that I have been fortunate enough to do with some of my colleagues. I have been able to work with a fellow science teacher (I teach 7th and 8th grade science in a Northern Westchester County district middle school) to create some interesting cooperative learning activities for our 7th graders. And I have spent some time working with a special education teacher with whom I will be co-teaching a section of 8th grade science.

All of this work has been productive and I feel good about it.

I have also been spending time learning about, thinking about, and planning for making good use of various internet technologies in my classroom. I have read Will Richardson’s book and blog; I have been reading blogs like The Thinking Stick and G-town talks and I have set up this blog to get a sense of how it all can work.

I would like to report myself moving ahead fearlessly. I am totally behind the ideas presented in the various edublogs. I am inspired by what I see educators doing with blogs and wikis and podcasts. I am just having some difficulty seeing where to start.

I used a fair amount of internet projects with my students this past one. I set up a website celebrating the last project with my 7th graders, where some students set up websites, recorded and posted a podcast, did some animations and PowerPoint presentations.

So, I guess I am having some difficulty figuring out where to start. Here are the two most developed ideas so far. First, to set up a classroom blog where students can respond to various articles. The second is to set up a class wiki so they students and I can collaborate on a class text.

More as it happens.

Blogged with Flock

Yesterday, I heard what was the last of a series of reports on NPR on one-room schoolhouses. This last report was on a school in Sioux County Nebraska, which is closing with only three students left.

What really struck was something their teacher, Moni Hourt, said about her job:

As the teacher at the Glen School, it’s her job to get the boys ready to move on, whether that means high school, college or something else. Part of her strategy involves exposing them to the world outside Glen on one of her many field trips.

It occurred to me that what she considered essential about her teaching was knowing each and every one of her students and giving them experiences that would prepare them for the world beyond school.

I never would have thought prior to hearing this story that those of us engaged in using collaborative internet technologies in our classrooms and with our students could be using the model of the one-room schoolhouse.

But isn’t that what we are doing? We are trying to teach our students to interact with their world — which is what blogging is all about. We are teaching them to work collaboratively with students and adults at different age and grade levels. And we are teaching them the skills that will surely be a part of their future.

I plan to keep Moni Hourt’s vision of her job as I do mine this fall.

Blogged with Flock

I began the summer by reading Will Richardson’s book “Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and other Powerful Web Tools for classrooms.” Before I read it, I considered myself a new (I just finished my first year) but technology savvy teacher. Frankly, I have had a headache since I put it down.

In the meantime, I have been (as Will suggests) reading other edublogs, playing with Flickr, thinking through Wikis. Still, the headache remained (at least it didn’t get any worse).

Then I read an inspiring post on G-town Talks discussing the cost of avoiding change. After reading and reflecting a bit, I got to the source of my headache: I was resisting change. I was resisting participating in such a community-based set of activities. I was resisting really freeing up my students. I don’t think my motives were bad, but I realized that if I am serious about wanting to reach and engage each and every one of my students, that I had to get myself out of the way.

So, here I am. More as it happens.