The Teaching Tips Machine

It is very important for teachers to address a variety of different learning styles, including the kinesthetic learning style in which learning takes place by the student actually carrying out a physical activity, rather than listening to a lecture or merely watching a demonstration.

Unfortunately, all too often, the kinesthetic learning style is overlooked in our schools. However, kinesthetic learning activities are a great way to spark student interest early in a unit or can even be used as a unit assessment or culminating activity at the end of a unit. One of my favorite kinesthetic learning activities is called the Gallery Walk.

In a gallery walk students create and collect a range of visual material about a single subject that is to be displayed in the classroom in a gallery style. Students will then walk around the “gallery” examining the various material and comment on the teacher created prompts that are posted at each station.

The materials for the gallery walk can be anything related to the subject, including books, photographs, web sites, music, quotes, maps, poems, graphs, charts, paintings, cartoons, newspaper articles, video etc. These materials can be created by the students or not. Students can be given class time to brainstorm ideas, research, and create, as well time at home to collect the materials. Once all the materials are collected and delivered to the teacher, the teacher will display the materials around the classroom grouped in general themes. Next, the teacher will post prompts and/or questions at each station for the students to answer or comment about as they walk around the classroom.

Gallery walks can be as short as 10-15 minutes in an attempt to spark student interest at the beginning of a unit. Or, gallery walks can span several class periods. They can be done with the students working as individuals or can used more as cooperative learning lessons by having students work in groups. If the teacher allows students to work in groups then roles can be assigned such as a note taker, recorder, and presenter. This gives each student in each group a specific task. At the end of the gallery walk, each group can have their presenter give a quick oral presentation to the class.

A gallery walk addresses the kinesthetic learning style in way that is flexible enough for teachers to implement in a variety ways, it has students actively involved in their learning, and is one of many kinesthetic learning activities that students will truly enjoy.

In today’s world it is even more important than ever for teachers to create critical thinking lesson plans that challenge students to think for themselves. One of my favorite critical thinking lesson plans is called the Four-Corners Debate. In this critical thinking activity, students organize their point of view on a particular controversial statement into one of four categories: strongly agree, slightly agree, slightly disagree, or strongly disagree.

Here are the steps:

1. Post signs in the corners of the classroom designating each corner into four categories (strongly agree, slightly agree, slightly disagree, strongly disagree.)

2. Present a controversial statement to the class based on the content of your unit. For example, after completing a unit on World War II, a teacher may make the following statement: President Truman was justified in using the atomic bomb to end World War II.

3. Provide students a few minutes to write down their position and explanation on a piece of paper. This will prevent students from simply following their friends during the next step.

4. Students then move to the corners that most closely correspond with their opinion.

5. Once students are in their corners, allow the groups time discuss their position and the reasons for their responses. Teachers may wish to assign roles prior to this step such as a note taker, discussion leader, time keeper, presenter etc.

6. At the end of the discussion time, have one student from each group present their group’s position

7. While each group is presenting make sure to have students complete a graphic organizer or chart explaining each position.

8. Once all groups have shared, allow students to change their position by having each student write a final position statement that incorporates the points brought up in the Four-Corners Debate.

These types of critical thinking lesson plans not only address higher order thinking skills, but they are also easy to implement. Furthermore, these critical thinking lesson plans work as a great way to spark student motivation to learn.

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Are you looking for more teaching strategies?

For more effective teaching strategies that you can start applying to your very next class make sure read eTeach: A Teacher Resource for Learning the Strategies of Master Teachers @ www.TeachingTeacher.com

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Try a Book Pass.

A book pass provides students with the opportunity to briefly examine a significant number of books.

Simply split students into small groups and provide each group with a variety of books on a given topic. Give students three minutes to examine their particular piece of reading and have them complete a 3-column note chart (Title/Author/Comment).

After their 3 minutes is up have the students “pass” their books to the person sitting next to them. Repeat the process until all the books in the groups have been examined.

This is a great way to spark student interest in reading and introduce new units as well.

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With nearly 90% of all teachers experiencing moderate to high levels of stress it is very important that teachers use stress relieving techniques to improve both their career and their health.

While stress is evident in any job, teachers seem to face increased levels of stress due to their unique circumstances. Think about what a teacher must deal with day in and day out…high stakes exams, overcrowded classrooms, grading tests, grading homework, grading classwork, administrative paperwork, meeting with parents, department meetings, faculty meetings, challenging students, angry parents, an unsupportive community, and the list goes on…

Without using stress relieving techniques, teacher stress can manifest itself in many ways including headaches, back pain, frequent illness, heartburn, anger, impatience, depression, eating disorders, and insomnia. If not addressed, these manifestations may likely turn into heart disease and hypertension. Stress can even damage memory and cognitive skills.

What’s worse is that teachers often don’t know how to handle their stress and therefore it comes as no surprise that nearly 50% of all teachers quit within their first five years.

Fortunately, there are many simple stress relieving techniques that teachers can use that will help improve both their health and their career.

Here are five stress relieving techniques:

1. Get exercise! Do NOT use the excuse that you don’t have time. You must make time. Make it part of your routine everyday. While it may be tough at first, you’ll quickly find yourself with more energy and you’ll be much more efficient at work.

2. Learn to say no. This can be quite difficult…especially as a new teacher. New teachers think they must say “yes” to everything in order to keep their job, but this can quickly lead to teacher burnout.

3. Join teacher discussion boards/forums. There are many teacher forums on the internet where teachers can not only vent their frustrations, but get real advice from real teachers who have experienced the same problems.

4. Think positive. In fact, don’t just think positive thoughts, but actually say them out loud. In the morning, or on your way to work, say positive things about your job, about your students, about your colleagues. You’ll be amazed at the impact that saying these things out loud can have on the rest of your day.

5. Cool down and take breaks. Teachers have a tendency to go straight through the day (and night) without taking a break. This is unhealthy and only adds to your stress level. Make sure to NOT work through lunch. Take that time to eat a healthy meal and talk to colleagues about things other than school. In other words let yourself take a mental break from the job during the day. Also, at the end of the school day, make a to-do list for the next day and then take ten minutes to relax and cool down with some other stress relieving techniques such as deep breathing exercises, stretching, or visualization.

There are many stress relieving techniques you can use to improve your health and your career. To get 21 FREE stress relieving techniques and a FREE copy of How to Win Your War Against Stress visit www.1-800-Stop-Stress.com

Is it possible to teach these days and still support a family?

Unfortunately, the answer is no.

These days, especially with the economy the way it is, it is nearly impossible to survive on a teacher’s salary. The cost of everything has gone up (gas, groceries, taxes etc.), yet teacher salaries have not nearly kept up the same pace. In fact, many school districts around the country are either freezing teacher salaries or even cutting teacher salaries.

Sure, if you live on your own and have no kids then yes, maybe, you can survive on a teacher’s salary. However, if you have a family then either you or your spouse has to work a second job.

Most every teacher I know works more than one job. Some teachers work nights in restaurants, some teachers work weekends landscaping, some have started their own online business (like myself), but the most common, and possibly the easiest way for teachers to earn extra money, is by tutoring.

Tutoring is great way for teachers to earn extra money. Most tutors simply put an add in their local paper or advertise at their local school and then go to their client’s house or have their client come to their home.

However, these days, with all the technology available, online tutoring jobs have become quite popular. Online tutoring jobs open up many more possibilities for both the student and the tutor. Online tutoring jobs provide tutors much more flexibility about when and where they can work. The best part is, by using today’s technology, online tutors can really motivate and inspire their students to learn. Not only that, but online tutors have a much greater reach than their local area and therefore can turn their tutoring business from earning a little extra cash into a real income producer.

In the end, online tutoring is a win-win-win situation. Everyone benefits…the parents, the tutor, and most importantly, the student.

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Lately, much of our professional development has focused on providing feedback…or rather, providing students with “specific” feedback on tests, essays, projects, class discussions etc.

While I agree that specific feedback is important, it is also important to realize that students, like us, can only accept a certain amount of information at one time…especially when it is perceived as negative.

For feedback to be really effective, teachers should focus feedback on what is most important…teachers should focus feedback on the objectives of the lesson, test, essay etc.

For example, if a student receives an essay back that is completely marked up with red pen (spelling, grammar, transitions etc.) there is simply too much for the student to focus on. However, if the objective of the essay was to focus on transitions and that is all that teacher comments on, then the student received not just “specific” feedback, but feedback that was “focused” on the lesson’s objective.

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Are you looking for more teaching strategies?

For more effective teaching strategies that you can start applying to your very next class make sure read eTeach: A Teacher Resource for Learning the Strategies of Master Teachers @ www.TeachingTeacher.com

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This Friday is notoriously the most difficult day to teach all year…

Why?

It’s HALLOWEEN!

And, it’s on a Friday this year!

As always the best approach is to be proactive. If you want to have a good Halloween with your students then you better have something fun planned. However, that doesn’t mean it can’t be educational as well. For example, since I teach U.S. History I usually do something involving the Salem Witch Trials.

If you’re looking for Halloween activities that are both fun AND educational then check out this site: www.Kids-Halloween-Activities.com

Teaching doesn’t necessarily get easier. In fact, I would say that this year is my toughest year teaching.

Why?

It’s not the kids…it’s my working conditions. Over the past four years I have seen my working condition deteriorate…my work hours have increased, my planning time has decreased, the number of students I have has increased, the number of classes I teach has increased, and this year my pay has actually decreased. Yes, you read that right…I am actually making less money this year than I did last year.

I can go on and on, but as you can imagine this “chipping away” of the teacher’s working conditions takes its toll.

Then the other day I got an email from a former student I taught just a couple of years ago. The email was a nice reminder of why I do what I do…why I continue to teach…

I pasted the email below. It’s from a boy named Carlos (I left out his last name for privacy). Carlos was an ESOL student who started my class roughly half way through the first quarter.

I posted his email below not to toot my own horn, but rather as a friendly reminder of how important a teacher’s job really is. I will continue to teach the best way I know how despite the deterioration of our working conditions because the fact of the matter is…I make a difference.

To all the teachers out there who are making a difference in the lives of their students everyday I say Thank You!

Here’s the email from Carlos:

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Start email
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Dear Mr. Waxler,

I recently got a hold on your email. I was looking through some old papers and up came your name. It may be hard to remember, but i was one of your U.S history students. My name is [name removed], but everyone just called me Carlos. I went to Haile middle in 2006 when I was in eighth grade. I just wanted to let you know that I truly enjoyed your class and the best part about it is that I learned more in that class than I have in my current history classes. I can honestly say that I consider you to be THE best teacher that I have had. All the knowledge that I acquired during that class definitely helped me my freshman year. Now I am a sophomore and I am very grateful for your hard dedication to teaching. Thank you and keep up the good work.

Your former student,
[name removed]

P.S: Don’t worry if you don’t remember me.

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end email
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Here’s a great teaching strategy you can use to activate and build upon background knowledge at the beginning of a new unit of study.

It’s called: “List-Group-Label”

The steps are quite simple:

1. At the beginning of a new unit have each student generate a list of words/phrases/names that they would associate with the new topic.

2. Next, put students into groups and have them combine their individual lists.

3. Next, have students group their words/phrases/names into categories.

4. Finally, have students label the categories.

For example, I may tell my students to create a list of everything they can think of related to the topic of the American Revolution. Next, I put students into groups and they start combining lists, grouping words/phrases/names into categories, and then label their categories.

Students usually come up with categories such as Causes of the Revolution, Effects of the Revolution, Major Battles, Important Events, Famous People, and Famous Quotes. Each category has items from their various lists written under it.

This activity works great to not only tap into and build upon prior knowledge, but it also effectively sparks the students’ interest in the new topic.

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Are you looking for more teaching strategies?

For more effective teaching strategies that you can start applying to your very next class make sure read eTeach: A Teacher Resource for Learning the Strategies of Master Teachers @ www.TeachingTeacher.com

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Are you still having trouble getting students to complete their homework?

Personally, I am always looking for new ways to improve the percentage of students who complete their homework.

Here’s something one of my colleagues recently told me about…

When students do not complete the homework they must fill out a “Homework Responsibility Card”.

The card is quite simple and may look something like this:

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Today’s Date:

Student Signature:
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Cards are available as soon as students walk into the classroom. Any student who did not complete the homework must fill out a card.

This way every student is handing in something. The teacher is either collecting the homework or is collecting the “homework responsibility card”.

The homework responsibility card works well for several reasons:

1. Students do not want to fill out the card…so to some extent it works as a minor punishment.

2. Students are forced to actually think about why they did not do the homework.

3. By having students sign the card they are accepting responsibility of their actions.

4. The teacher has a copy of student excuses that can be used during parent-teacher conferences.

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Are you still having problems getting your students to complete homework?

For more homework strategies that you can start applying to your very next class make sure read eTeach: A Teacher Resource for Learning the Strategies of Master Teachers @ www.TeachingTeacher.com

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