Last week I sent out an email letting people know about a handful of upcoming teacher job fairs.

I have to say I was a little overwhelmed by the response…

I got flooded with emails asking me what other teacher job fairs I knew about…

So instead of writing each person back individually, I decided to create a new blog (http://www.TeachingJobFair.com) that I will update regularly with information about upcoming teacher job fairs…or any open teaching positions for that matter.

Like I said in that email…It is not going to be easy to get a teaching job this year so it is important to keep your options open and make as many connections as possible.

Here is the link to my new site: http://www.TeachingJobFair.com

I suggest signing up for email updates (or newsreader updates - MyYahoo, MyAOL, Google etc.) so you can keep up-to-date on the latest teacher job fairs.

If you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask.

Best Wishes,
Adam Waxler
Teaching Tips Machine, LLC

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Last week I discussed how Guided Lectures work as great active learning activities. Well another type of “interactive” lecture that that can easily be incorporated into the Guided Lecture is known as the Think-Write-Discuss Lecture.

In the Think-Write-Discuss Lecture the teacher does the same type of 10 minute lecture as the Guided Lecture, but this time gives the students three questions to answer: one before the lecture, one during the lecture, and one after the lecture. Students write their response to each question and then share their response with a partner.

This helps keep the students actively involved in the lecture by breaking it up a bit, but also helps the students focus on what is important. The Think-Write-Discuss Lecture also allows the students to use higher order thinking skills when the teacher uses questions that are open-ended critical thinking questions.

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Wow…lecturing and active learning are certainly two concepts that one would not expect to see in the same sentence. In fact, as a proponent of active learning activities, lecturing is not something I do very often. However, regardless of your teaching style, there are times that all teachers must directly teach, or lecture, to their students. Unfortunately, as we all know, students simply don’t have the attention span to keep up with a lecture that carries on for too long. That is why Guided Lectures work as great active learning activities.

A Guided Lecture is a teaching strategy that simply combines lecturing with student interaction and feedback. What’s great about using Guided Lectures as one of your active learning activities is that they require little or no preparation.

In a Guided Lecture the teacher will lecture for 5-10 minutes depending on the grade level and ability level of the students. During the lecture students are NOT to take any notes. After the 5-10 minutes of lecturing, the students create a list of everything they remember about the content of the lecture. After they create their lists, the students pair up with a partner to share their lists and add anything they missed. The teacher can then repeat the process with another 5-10 minutes of lecturing.

It is important that teachers always let the student know before hand how long the lecture will be and what they will have to do afterwards as students will be more likely to pay attention if they know that the lecture is going to be short and that they will be required to provide immediate feedback based on the content of the lecture.

Active learning activities are based on the fact that students who make frequent responses during a lesson will learn more than those that do not. Guided Lectures force students to make those frequent responses by listening, writing, and speaking, thereby turning the passive learning into an active learner.

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As a teacher I am always looking for ways to keep my students actively involved in my lessons. One of my favorite active learning activities is to simply have students use Response Cards. The reason why this is one of my favorite active learning activities is that it is easy to set up and gets ALL the students involved in the lesson rather than just the usual few.

Response Cards are simply sheets of paper or card stock that students simultaneously hold up to indicate their response to a question or prompt asked by the teacher. Response Cards can be blank with the student then writing in the answer or the teacher can provide pre-printed responses with words or pictures that the students choose from. Another option is to simply make the Response Cards different colors with each color representing a different answer.

For example, the teacher gives each student a blank laminated Response Card and a dry erase marker. The teacher then poses a question about the previous day’s content. Students are given a minute or two to think about their answer and write it on their card. The teacher then signals the students to ALL raise their cards at the same time showing their answers.

Here’s another example…To review the three branches of the federal government I give each student three cards each pre-printed with either Legislative, Judicial, or Executive. I then ask a question about one of the branches and signal the students hold up their card to show which branch they think has the particular power. For example, I may say, “Which branch has the power to veto laws?”

What’s great about using Response Cards for active learning activities is not only does this get all student actively involved, but the teacher can also quickly determine which students comprehend the material and can then plan lessons accordingly.

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