I asked my brother to help me with this. We all know what BTW, LOL and TTYL mean, but what about some of the other more obscure abbreviations like AFAICS?
Find out by clicking the above title for an A-Z index at the "computer hope" website that helps you identify just what it IS that your students are actually SAYING to their friends online! :-)
Monday, February 25, 2008
Sunday, February 24, 2008
My School's Website
This is the webpage for my school (click on above title). If you visit, you can click on classrooms (on left menu) and be taken to any grade. Many of our parents use this to get weekly updates on homework, field trips, and other important dates and events.
Some teachers, like myself, keep it pretty current (updating homework at least once a week). Other teachers are new to internet tools and don't always keep their classroom page current. Nevertheless, we are very proud of it! We all agree that we must try very hard to stay on top of this as it can be a very valuable communication tool between school and home.
Even our 8th grade class helps maintain the school website with special (and limited) password access. They update scrolling items such as the lunch menu and the honor roll students list. Each 8th grader is assigned a weekly job to perform. Using students to help maintain the website is something new that our technology teacher is trying this year. In the 4 years since our site was created, it is looking its best THIS YEAR because it has been kept current by our students!
I believe that the more people you have maintaining something like this, the better the final product is. ENJOY!
Some teachers, like myself, keep it pretty current (updating homework at least once a week). Other teachers are new to internet tools and don't always keep their classroom page current. Nevertheless, we are very proud of it! We all agree that we must try very hard to stay on top of this as it can be a very valuable communication tool between school and home.
Even our 8th grade class helps maintain the school website with special (and limited) password access. They update scrolling items such as the lunch menu and the honor roll students list. Each 8th grader is assigned a weekly job to perform. Using students to help maintain the website is something new that our technology teacher is trying this year. In the 4 years since our site was created, it is looking its best THIS YEAR because it has been kept current by our students!
I believe that the more people you have maintaining something like this, the better the final product is. ENJOY!
Friday, February 1, 2008
Children Are My Priority
I received a really neat Christmas gift this year: a fabric keychain embroidered with the words "Children Are My Priority". I wear it everyday. It has really made me think about how, as a teacher, I need to make every child my priority, including my own 2 children. As a mom, I sometimes wonder, "How can I successfully balance classroom life and home life?" It is not easy, but I must continue to strive for balance.
Regardless of the type of family we have, all elementary school teachers serve as "substitute" parents during the school day when someone else's child is in our care. We wipe noses, tie shoes and open milk cartons. We peel bananas, wipe tears, and put a band-aid where there sometimes is no scrape. We check temperatures and send students to the office when they are ill.
Yesterday, one of my A students in Grade 6, came running up to me, sobbing. He is not prone to doing that. He said he felt quite ill from a migraine and had to use the office phone to call home. I sent him quickly, without doubting his story. He left and his mother later told me that he threw up. I felt true compassion for him and wished his mother well. I was glad that I was able to care for him quickly and in turn, to get him to the school office and eventually to his home with his mom, where he belonged.
I was really surprised that a 6th grade boy was crying. I don't know why I thought it unusual...it's okay for boys to cry, right? Older boys, too? I just thought that as kids get older they cease to become kids somewhere along the line, on their way into adulthood. I was wrong: at that moment he was still very much a child who needed his mother's care.
Thinking of this young child made me remember my daughter's recent fever. She had to be rushed home to be with her father and me. She has since recovered, but I found myself wishing that I had as much time with my own kids as I do with other people's children. I am looking forward to the day that my own children, once school age, will be with me here at school and I will be able to tend to them as well.
Sometimes I believe that I was put in my classroom not only to teach, but to care for children while their parents are away from them. I believe that all children can be my priority, at different times, as circumstances dictate.
I feel that all teachers have a calling to love all of their students equally and to treat them as they would treat their own child(ren): with the greatest care and love. As teachers (and/or parents) children MUST be our top priority: we need to first show them that we care. Then comes the teaching and of course, beyond that, the learning will follow.
Regardless of the type of family we have, all elementary school teachers serve as "substitute" parents during the school day when someone else's child is in our care. We wipe noses, tie shoes and open milk cartons. We peel bananas, wipe tears, and put a band-aid where there sometimes is no scrape. We check temperatures and send students to the office when they are ill.
Yesterday, one of my A students in Grade 6, came running up to me, sobbing. He is not prone to doing that. He said he felt quite ill from a migraine and had to use the office phone to call home. I sent him quickly, without doubting his story. He left and his mother later told me that he threw up. I felt true compassion for him and wished his mother well. I was glad that I was able to care for him quickly and in turn, to get him to the school office and eventually to his home with his mom, where he belonged.
I was really surprised that a 6th grade boy was crying. I don't know why I thought it unusual...it's okay for boys to cry, right? Older boys, too? I just thought that as kids get older they cease to become kids somewhere along the line, on their way into adulthood. I was wrong: at that moment he was still very much a child who needed his mother's care.
Thinking of this young child made me remember my daughter's recent fever. She had to be rushed home to be with her father and me. She has since recovered, but I found myself wishing that I had as much time with my own kids as I do with other people's children. I am looking forward to the day that my own children, once school age, will be with me here at school and I will be able to tend to them as well.
Sometimes I believe that I was put in my classroom not only to teach, but to care for children while their parents are away from them. I believe that all children can be my priority, at different times, as circumstances dictate.
I feel that all teachers have a calling to love all of their students equally and to treat them as they would treat their own child(ren): with the greatest care and love. As teachers (and/or parents) children MUST be our top priority: we need to first show them that we care. Then comes the teaching and of course, beyond that, the learning will follow.
Trauma Affects Children More Than We Know
"Any child old enough to laugh and experience pleasure can also experience grief and trauma. Children need not understand what is happening to be terrorized. Grief and trauma are what we experience, not what we know, understand or comprehend."
- Dr. William Steele
- Dr. William Steele
This is a great article that really makes you think about where our students are coming from and what baggage they bring to the classroom with them.
(Click on the above blog title to be taken directly TO this brief article.)
Sometimes teachers may perceive some children as behavior "issues" to be "dealt" with. We think some children are just morbid, sad, or even "odd" and we just don't know why.
What if we could be a fly on the wall in the homes of our students? What would we learn about each child's upbringing that would make us more compassionate towards them in the classroom?
It is so easy to lose our patience with the "difficult" child or to throw our hands up (figuratively speaking) and to say in frustration "I give up...I don't know what to do with that student!"
While we do see our students for a large part of each day, we are not with them each evening, on weekends, and on vacations or summer break.
Thankfully, most have a home life that we would consider good. Some have an adequate home life. However, sadly, there are others who have an unsuitable home life and who are sometimes largely unprotected from those who might bring them harm.
Our duty as teachers is so much more than teaching: To love, to serve, to protect. That sounds similar to an oath a police officer or other community servant might take. I think that we as teachers have the same obligation to our students: To love, to serve, and to protect all children.
If you do not know where to start, begin by becoming more informed about the signs of child abuse and also by being more aware of each student's emotional wellbeing. Watch for any actions or speech that would be quite out of place for that child. Then, take action to begin to bring protection to that child.
Keep your eyes open and talk with your students. Most child abuse prevention programs tell children to talk with a trusted adult, like a teacher. Be the kind of teacher that your students can trust! You might be the one and only person to help save a child in real danger!
Friday, January 25, 2008
HALFWAY THERE!
Most of us have just completed our 2nd Quarter Report Cards: it's hard to believe that we're halfway finished with this school year!
The students we teach right now are on their way to the next teacher in the next grade. We have done our best. We hope that THEY, too, have done their best.
We begin to become comfortable with the personalities and individual mannerisms of our students. We may have a few changes to implement in order to improve our students, to push them academically to go as far as (we believe) they can go.
We may decide to change what we, as teachers, do. Or we may change nothing, being truly satisfied with the path we have taken with our students this year. Some may continue stay the course, others may refine or re-work their focus for the remaining time we have with these children.
I am always amazed at how quickly the school year actually flies by! I find myself thinking that I will truly MISS my students. I even look ahead to see what students are coming my way next year!
What an interesting time of year January is for a teacher!
The students we teach right now are on their way to the next teacher in the next grade. We have done our best. We hope that THEY, too, have done their best.
We begin to become comfortable with the personalities and individual mannerisms of our students. We may have a few changes to implement in order to improve our students, to push them academically to go as far as (we believe) they can go.
We may decide to change what we, as teachers, do. Or we may change nothing, being truly satisfied with the path we have taken with our students this year. Some may continue stay the course, others may refine or re-work their focus for the remaining time we have with these children.
I am always amazed at how quickly the school year actually flies by! I find myself thinking that I will truly MISS my students. I even look ahead to see what students are coming my way next year!
What an interesting time of year January is for a teacher!
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
SNOW DAY: Teacher's best friend or worst enemy?
A TEACHER'S WORST ENEMY:
Some teachers view a Snow Day as a great thing! (Myself included...until this year!)
I did not welcome today's snow day with my normal excitement. I had a number of things planned for my students in multiple grades today. Some had tests to finish or missing homework to submit (or at least to FIND!) I had all of my weekly lessons planned out to the minute! Report cards are also looming very closely on the horizon!
There was even a special group (Windy City Players) scheduled to come to school today to perform the play (Cinderella) for our children. (And this was a reschedule already from last Fall when Cinderella was ill on the original performance date...)
Everything was put on hold with the coming of winter weather this morning! I was really bummed that I would now have to re-organize all of the lesson plans that I had worked so hard on! Having just 1 unexpected snow day affected my entire week!
We had another "problem" snow day just last month! Before the Saginaw blizzard of December 16, 2007, the teachers and I knew we had EXACTLY 3 (yes, only THREE!) school days to perfect our Christmas program (which I help direct)! We had been working for months! Having no school that Monday pushed us back a day: we feared our students would NOT have nearly enough time to pull it off "on-stage".
Thankfully, it all worked itself out (barely) between our first staged run-through at 9:00 a.m. Tuesday until the 7:00 p.m. performance on Wednesday evening! We had just barely 2 days!
A TEACHER'S BEST FRIEND
The other opinion held by most is that snow days are amazing and wonderful! A true gift from heaven to overworked, underpaid teachers who labor night and day for their hardworking (or hardly-working) little students with sometimes little thanks.
I DO enjoy having that unexpected day of freedom to spend with my 2 babies at home, who sometimes take the back burner to my classroom duties each day. So, not only are THEY truly surprised & overjoyed, but I, too, become quite giddy at the fact that I can stay home with them and just be a kid myself all day!
WHAT DO YOU THINK? TAKE MY POLL ABOVE
Whatever your opinion on snow days as of this year (or in years past), please take my poll so I can see what you and everyone else out there does with their "FREE" day!
A TEACHER'S WORST ENEMY:
Some teachers view a Snow Day as a great thing! (Myself included...until this year!)
I did not welcome today's snow day with my normal excitement. I had a number of things planned for my students in multiple grades today. Some had tests to finish or missing homework to submit (or at least to FIND!) I had all of my weekly lessons planned out to the minute! Report cards are also looming very closely on the horizon!
There was even a special group (Windy City Players) scheduled to come to school today to perform the play (Cinderella) for our children. (And this was a reschedule already from last Fall when Cinderella was ill on the original performance date...)
Everything was put on hold with the coming of winter weather this morning! I was really bummed that I would now have to re-organize all of the lesson plans that I had worked so hard on! Having just 1 unexpected snow day affected my entire week!
We had another "problem" snow day just last month! Before the Saginaw blizzard of December 16, 2007, the teachers and I knew we had EXACTLY 3 (yes, only THREE!) school days to perfect our Christmas program (which I help direct)! We had been working for months! Having no school that Monday pushed us back a day: we feared our students would NOT have nearly enough time to pull it off "on-stage".
Thankfully, it all worked itself out (barely) between our first staged run-through at 9:00 a.m. Tuesday until the 7:00 p.m. performance on Wednesday evening! We had just barely 2 days!
A TEACHER'S BEST FRIEND
The other opinion held by most is that snow days are amazing and wonderful! A true gift from heaven to overworked, underpaid teachers who labor night and day for their hardworking (or hardly-working) little students with sometimes little thanks.
I DO enjoy having that unexpected day of freedom to spend with my 2 babies at home, who sometimes take the back burner to my classroom duties each day. So, not only are THEY truly surprised & overjoyed, but I, too, become quite giddy at the fact that I can stay home with them and just be a kid myself all day!
WHAT DO YOU THINK? TAKE MY POLL ABOVE
Whatever your opinion on snow days as of this year (or in years past), please take my poll so I can see what you and everyone else out there does with their "FREE" day!
Monday, January 21, 2008
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