Instructify

BY BILL FERRIS

Happy Monday, dear readers. To ease you back into the work week, I thought we’d begin with a fun ice breaker. (Well, I think it’s fun. Your actual fun may vary.)

Consider the tattoo in the picture. Someone, quite possibly a mad scientist, has gotten the entire periodic table tattooed on his arm. For the sake of argument, let’s assume it’s a real tattoo.

Now say you’re a science teacher about to give a test on the elements. Do you make this student cover up the tattoo? Why or why not?

Photo credit: o2b on Flickr.

BY BILL FERRIS

This week’s MBTN features foods that will keep you healthy, a new job-search site for teachers, and tips for stopping conflicts. Read more after the jump.

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BY BILL FERRIS

I like construction paper on classroom bulletin boards as much as the next guy. Cut-out letters on a solid background are a classic look. But consider for a moment what your bulletin board would look like if it instead had a six-foot by four-foot picture of the solar system, or a huge reproduction of a Van Gogh. You can do that and more easily and cheaply at BlockPosters.

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BY BILL FERRIS

Students have gotten used to doing things electronically. Your classroom doesn’t have to be an exception thanks to LectureTools, a learning management thingy from the University of Michigan.

Developers designed LectureTools with huge, impersonal college lecture courses in mind. However, there’s a lot here that K-12 teachers can use, too (though some of them would probably be best suited for 1:1 laptop environments). (more…)

Keep your students on task with E.gg Timer, a simple and stylish timer application. E.gg Timer works much like Class Timer in that you can easily set a countdown timer that plays an obnoxious noise when it hits zero. However, E.gg Timer’s interface is much more slick. For starters, you can program the time right into the URL — http://e.ggtimer.com/2minutes will give you a countdown of two minutes. If you just put a number in the URL (http://e.ggtimer.com/10, for example), it will assume you want that number of seconds. Once the timer starts, you get a clean black-and-white numeral display, as well as a status bar for a graphical representation of how much time is left.

You can use E.gg Timer to let students know how much time they have left to finish a test, or you can give them a set amount of time to get organized for the next activity. Or, I suppose, to boil an egg. -BILL FERRIS

E.gg Timer

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I had some really old school instructors when I was studying Korean. Not only was it great to have instructors with a lot of life experience, but given that they were native Koreans it was even more enriching. In addition to unique teaching styles, they had story after story about what school was like in their home country. How else would I have found out about weird schoolyard games, like the Chicken Fight? (That was the best video I could find.)

That little reflection of mine might be submission-worthy over at CulturallyTeaching. I’d probably have to up the word count, and I’d also need to find out how much they’d plan on paying me. I’d then need to instantly demand they DOUBLE IT. But enough about my negotiation skills.

Have you studied and/or taught while abroad? Do you have a new ESL student? Maybe you’re curious about how you can add some culture to your foreign language lesson. If any of those scenarios struck a chord with you, check out CulturallyTeaching.

Although their blog only recently started up in November of 2008, they have been steadily ramping things up. Its always good when you see a new, useful blog find it’s footing and start posting more and more. Postings at CulturallyTeaching generally fall into a few different categories, with a great deal of images, videos, culture lessons, resources and activities. If you’re interested in how culture affects people both in and out of the classroom — not only in America but also abroad — their blog is definitely worth reading. -NICK YINGLING

CulturallyTeaching

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Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School in Berkley California has an initiative known as The Edible Schoolyard. It’s a non-profit organization developed in order to find ways of cooking and gardening for young people in their everyday lives. Chef and author Alice Waters conceived the program with Principal Neil Smith and has been underway since 1997. In the school, students in the Garden Program see for the care and preparation of organic foods from “seed to table.”

This is the type of initiative that teaches students at an early age where food comes from, and what exactly it takes for their favorite meals to make their way to the table. Students plant seeds, tend crops, and harvest various organic produce, and then go on to prepare their harvest in the kitchen. Students are also encouraged to break into small groups, where they learn the value of working together in order to see their work come to life, as well as keep track of their progress in garden journals. This is a great way for students to learn about ecological principles as well as how nature is an important element in their daily lives. There is plenty of information available at The Edible Schoolyard website, where you can also learn about ways to help support the initiative, as well as tips and suggestions of ways you can begin a similar initiative in your own school. -JEREMY S. GRIFFIN

The Edible Schoolyard

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As educators, it is our responsibility to provide our students with the tools necessary to be successful, not only in our classroom, but in life. As a technology integration specialist, I believe part of this responsibility we have is to teach our students how to be good cybercitizens.

Most districts in the United States and around the world implement some sort of web filter. In some districts, the web filter is doing exactly what it is designed to do, protect our children from online pornography, obscene material, and anything else deemed harmful to minors as required by the Children’s Internet Protection Act. Others, however, are much more restrictive.

Jon-Michael Poff, a senior at Batesville High School in Batesville, Arkansas, has written an excellent article in Edutopia  entitled “Stop Blocking Online Content” which focuses on web filters from a student’s perspective. He discusses his frustration with the filters in place and describes a situation in which a fellow student was unable to access a blog that was assigned by his teacher and an incident in which another student was unable access image files, from a popular image hosting site, for her desktop publishing class.

No responsible educator would argue that students do not need to be somewhat protected when accessing computers in our schools, but what about teachers? Teachers are trusted with the safety and well-being of our nation’s children everyday yet, in most districts, they are not trusted to make sound, responsible decisions with regards to the internet.  In some cases, teachers are “digitally handcuffed” and are unable to use some of the best resources available. Google Docs, YouTube, and Flickr all have high educational value but are blocked in most districts. Why?

Last I checked, we live in an unfiltered world. Are we truly preparing our students for life after school when we have such restrictive filters in place?  In many districts, why are teachers not treated like professionals and given the opportunity to make the decision on what is appropriate or inappropriate for their classroom?

This topic always raises many more questions than answers. If you have an opinion, let us know in the comments. - JERRY SWIATEK

“Stop Blocking Online Content”

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Well, it looks like Ol’ Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, so that means six more weeks of winter. Not to worry, though, as here’s a list of lists to keep you warm.

5 Steps to Becoming a Teacher - The Apple delivers this list of five things you need to do in order to get on the road toward becoming a teacher. Since most of you reading this are already teachers, feel free to pass these tips on to your friends and family members who want to know what it takes. Each step is further broken down into more detailed categories, such as “Characteristics teachers need” under the first and possibly most important step, “Decide if teaching is right for you.”

5 Online Tools to Help You Cite Your Research Papers - We’ve mentioned EasyBib before, but The Students’ Blog brings four more citation tools to help your students breeze through the often headache-inducing process of creating a research paper bibliography.

Top 100 Tools for Learning 2008 -I know, I know, it’s 2009, but that doesn’t mean this list is totally irrelevant. With 100 tools on the list, there’s bound to be some things you’ve seen or possibly used before, like Firefox and Skype, but there are plenty of new toys to play with, too. This list comes to us from across the pond at C4LPT (Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies).

69 Free or Open Source Tools For Students - We don’t believe in having to pay for software, especially when it comes to tools that are useful for educators. That’s why lists like this one from “This is the OC (Online College)” are so useful. Again, you’ll probably see some old favorites here, but the list is divided by categories like “Learning & Brainstorming,” so you can discover new open source software no matter what your students need. -JEREMY S. GRIFFIN

Photo credit: curly_exp(l)osure on Flickr

You are boring. No, not the person sitting next to you. You. I don’t care if you are the “cool” teacher, but you are going to be perceived as a total bore unless you do something to make sure those kids are paying attention to you and not daydreaming or becoming distracted by their newly found way to draw their own initials. Here are some tips to help you stay in control of the classroom, based on some of my own observations along with the help of some other great articles I’ve found:

1. Be Interactive - It’s one thing to ask questions aloud, hoping that one of your students will raise his hand and pipe right up to join in the conversation, but it’s another to actually engage your class by making the whole group get involved at once. This is why in-class games like Jeopardy can be so much fun and ultimately more beneficial than a lecture. Find games or activities that require active participation by the whole class, rather than just wait for one or two go-getters to do all the talking. You also have to keep pace with the entire class, not just the ones who already get it.
2. Be Interesting - History teachers, listen up. I had the hardest time paying any sort of attention in history class because of the horrifying monotony and relentless memorization of dates and events that I still am not sure really happened or not. Make a history lesson interesting by providing information about those heroes of yesteryear that aren’t just the ones found in the text books. Have your students literally act out, too. Give assignments that allow them to take on the roles of historical figures and act out pieces of history. It will help them visualize the past, and put things into perspective as well.
3. Be Funny - As a disclaimer, I don’t suggest you do anything that will get you in trouble, but having a sense of humor can really get your students to pay attention to you. When was the last time you wore KISS makeup to your Algebra class? Okay, so maybe that’s taking it a bit too far, and you want your students to take you seriously, but don’t forget to keep it light. I used to have a teacher who would threaten to “stand on the desk and yodel” if we’d rather listen to him do that than lecture. Luckily, he never had to, but it always got a laugh when he said he might.
4. Be Relevant -  Your students are not dumb. They also don’t live under rocks. Use pieces of pop culture and current events to pepper your lectures, and you might even see a head or two rise off the desk. Teaching about electromagnetism? There are some episodes of LOST you can check out to help support your lesson. And hey, who knows, maybe you can bring in some ideas you found on your favorite educator’s blog?
5. Be Confident - If you don’t know what you’re talking about, then your students will see right through you. How can you expect your students to be passionate about anything that you could give a rat’s patoot about? Be sure of what you’re saying, don’t keep referring to the teacher’s edition, and try to make eye contact every once in a while. Your confidence and leadership abilities are paramount for establishing you as the authority. Don’t be afraid to be human, but don’t forget that you are in charge and they will see you falter if you let them.

These are just a few of the ways you can get your students to stay awake and engaged in the classroom. We’d love to hear about what techniques you employ when it comes to keeping yours engaged. Let us know in the comments. -JEREMY S. GRIFFIN

Photo: credit:  ***pim*** on flickr

What’s your classroom layout? Do you have the desks in classic row setup? U-shaped? Circle? Whichever setup you’re currently rocking, maybe you should think of switching things up a little. A change of scenery is a great way to recharge your brain and your students’ brains. Maybe even add some plants for atmosphere.

What you shouldn’t do, however, is start changing up things without planning ahead. You don’t want to end up moving all those desks and chairs only to find out that you made a poor estimate. Make a floor plan using Gliffy.

Gliffy is more than just a floor planning app; Gliffy offers up many more charts and plans to help you organize and share your thoughts. Everything I’ve written above was just to bait and hook you. It also made it relevant to the classroom and allowed me to incorporate that funny link.

While its similar to a lot of mind mapping apps out there, Gliffy outshines them by lending more attention to providing better design details to the shapes and images used in diagrams, plans and charts. Don’t believe me? Check out this example of a network diagram. It is much more engaging for the viewer, and it makes you look even more professional.  -NICK YINGLING

Gliffy

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It’s getting cold out there, but that doesn’t mean Instructify is freezing over. Here are some educational lists to keep you nice and warm.

21 Online Student Tools to Help With Research, Communication, and Organization - EduChoices brings us this list of some essential tools to aide in researching and staying on top of things. Your students probably need all the help they can get at this point in the year, as the thought of holiday breaks are distracting them left and right. Check out Grademate for your own grade organization as well as Studeous for online course management.

75 Questions to Ask Yourself - Did I leave the iron on?  might be at the top of your list, but for some more insightful self-queries, check out this list from Lyved. Your students might not consider themselves masters of their own egos yet, but some of the questions on this list might help them get some direction in getting there. Questions like What are my talents? might seem easy enough, but provide some inner understanding nonetheless.

Help Your Children Set Goals for Success - Top Ten Tips - These tips, designed for parents, are applicable for teacher use, too, but if you want to share some with parents, then by all means, I say go for it. One of the more important tips here is to set achievable goals, because Goals need to be set at a level that is more advanced than the level the child is currently working at, but not so advanced that it is unachievable or beyond reach. Well said, via Oxford Learning.

Teach Creative Writing With These 5 Steps - Since I’ve been bitten by the NaNoWriMo bug, I’ve really managed to rediscover my love of writing in a purely creative and uninhibited atmosphere. Though it was my major in college, creative writing was something I never got enough of in school. Do your students a favor and prod them a little using these 5 steps from Bloggeron.

10 Things to Do When You only Have Five Minutes Left in Class - Ack! You’ve come to a stopping point, the kids are restless, and yet there’s no time to start something new! Or is there? The Apple provides these 10 things you can do to keep your students engaged and learning without starting something you can’t finish. Included on the list are great activities like Journal Writing and something called the Toilet Paper Game, which isn’t as weird or gross as it sounds.

- JEREMY S. GRIFFIN

Photo credit: HeavyWeightGeek on Flickr)

9 Questions I ask my Students on the First Day of School - Teacher Elona Hartjes believes in the value of making a good first impression. That’s why she asks her students these nine questions to make sure the school year gets off to a good start. She provides some valuable insight, and makes her students think about their successes and wants when it comes to education. Perhaps the most important question on the list: What three things can you do as a student to help yourself be more successful this year?

15 Sites that will Make You Smarter - You’re already plenty smart just for reading Instructify, but if you want to exercise that gray matter even more, check out this list of brain boosting games and memory tools from Tipr. These tests, quizzes and trivia sites can come in handy if you want to relax with some online games that aren’t solitaire, or if you want to get some ideas for keeping your students sharp.

Einstein’s 5 Maxims for Creative Excellence - I’m no Einstein, but Einstein is. Besides that whole “Theory of Relativity” thing, Einstein also had these five pieces of advice for creative excellence. The first is my favorite: Imagination is more important than knowledge. So the next time someone says “you can’t make this stuff up,” prove them differently. List via Ace Online Schools.

7 Actions That Can Help Your Wallet in a Troubled Economy - Times are tough in this economic crisis, so take advantage of these tips to make sure you are managing your money in all the right ways. From Lifehack comes these simple, but effective rules that will help make sure you don’t relive your college days and have to eat Ramen noodles for lunch AND dinner. Perhaps one of the simplest things you can start doing: ignore the news. Just because the rest of the nation is fretting over the economic crisis doesn’t mean you have to buy in to how grim the media makes things out to be. -JEREMY S. GRIFFIN

Photo credit: shootingstarr(isablur) on Flickr

5 Sources for Free and Legal Images -If you blog or use any sort of photography in your presentations, you might want to start thinking about making sure those photos and images are legal for you to use. If you want to skip that step, try using one of these five sources from The Blog Herald. The best part is that they are free, so you won’t have to dole out any hard-earned cash, and you’ll still feel fine about using the images copyright free. Of course, there is always Creative Commons Flickr if all else fails.

Classroom Survival Kit: 25 Items You Need to Have on Hand In Your Classroom - From TeachingChildren.ca, this list includes all of the essentials for teachers, not  necessarily students. Though some of the items sound more like things you might need if you were going to commit a crime (tool box, dice, metal nail file, duct tape), most of the items here are crucially handy to have around. I personally would have never thought of keeping “thank you” cards around until the last minute, but I guess preparation helps.

11 Things You Shouldn’t Leave for School Without- This article from Dumb Little Man is meant for the college-bound, and it is never too early for seniors to start thinking about preparing themselves for success. These are all online resources, so if nothing else, sites like Ottobib.com — an online bibliography — provide resources students of all ages can use.

10 Quick Lesson Ideas for Substitute Teachers - Substitutes have it tough. My own mother substitute taught many classes in my school system, and though she had it pretty easy because many people loved her, most other subs didn’t top the list of people students respected.  These tips from Work Sheet Library should come in handy for any subs out there who might otherwise spend their whole day asking students to “settle down.” My favorite on the list: magic tricks. Nobody can make fun of a substitute teacher who does magic tricks…right?  -JEREMY S. GRIFFIN

Photo credit: curly_exp(l)osure on Flickr

If you’re finding yourself nervous about the first day of school, you’re not alone.  The first ten days set the tone of your classroom for the entire school year, and the very first day sets the tone for your first ten.

Blogger Dan Meyer ruminates today on the first day of school and making a first impression with students by angling “severe eyebrows at anyone who’d suggest The Jonas Brothers aren’t the best summer band of all time.”  Meyer astutely profiles the kind teacher students want based on his experience as a high school math teacher:

In two sentences, here is the teacher profile that will do you the most good with the most students. Your students want a teacher who is capable of unkindness but who chooses instead to be kind, a teacher who is capable of severity but who chooses levity instead.

They don’t want a cruel teacher, obviously, but neither do students appreciate a teacher made of soft edges and kittens, someone wholly unfamiliar with the unkindness they must endure on a day-to-day basis.

That definition sounds pretty good to me, but one of the best things about Meyer’s blog is that he has developed a smart, thoughtful readership, and some of his readers are disagreeing in the comments section, so be sure to check that out as well.  And while we normally love it when you comment on Instructify, we’ve turned comments off for this post — we hope that if you have something to contribute, you’ll join the conversation that’s already brewing over there.  So, what kind of teacher do your students want?  -ROSS WHITE

The Teacher Your Students Want via dy/dan

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