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on January 24, 2012

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January 22, 2012
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Summarizing v. Reflection

Heres a Tweet that came @learnteachtech this afternoon from @PaulV8: @learnteachtech might you have anything to stress the difference between summary and reflection?my #avid students don't get it. In the AVID classroom, where I'm lucky enough to guide middle school students, we talk a ton about reflection. We also do a fair amount of summarizing. One summarizing activity that we do is GIST (its in the Tutorial Strategies book). Basically, we take a topic and sum it up in 20 words after the activity or discussion. It can also be a good discussion starter to do the GIST first. The 20 words can be Wordle like (just words) or a couple of sentences. I also have them write Tweets (w/o computers) on notecards. They get 140 characters. I like GIST and Tweets because it's short but complex to get a main idea into a few words. Summarizing is main ideas. What is the point? What was it about? Reflection is thinking about what happened. What did you do well? What specifically...

Teaching: Parents in the Loop

This week, I've started a Teacher Blog. I reworked a tool on our school web site system and turned it into a blog. I've been posted things for parents. I haven't told my AVID parents about it yet. I figured I'd get it started first and then get it going. This week, I'll create a letter to go home explain the use of laptops, Moodle, Blogs and other tools we are using. I'll include a postcard that parents can post somewhere in their home. This is my start. Don't really know where it's going. What are you doing to keep parents in the loop? I'd love to hear more ideas.

Swim Lesson are the Model

So, I've got an almost 7 year old and a just turned 3 year old in swim lessons right now. As I watched them on Saturday, I had a revelation. Swim lessons are the model for successful education. Here's why: The student to teacher ratio is extremely low. No class was more than 5 to 1. I'm assuming the goal is to not allow any students to drown. How's that for a metaphor for the traditional classroom? The lessons are short. In the 30 minute lesson, they work on at least 5 different skills. No skill practice takes more than a few minutes. It's constantly being mixed up. There are many activities to accomplish the same goal. Want kids to be able to jump in the pool? One time you sing the teddy bear song, another you do Chicken, Airplane, Solider. Another you say the Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme. Different routes to the same goal. No child is allowed to sit out. There is a deck supervisor whose sole job during lesson...

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