Teaching Ideas from Across America -- Page 3

The Importance of Sharing

Sharing with others has become an important part of my professional life. Every day I look forward to sharing with two special groups of teachers: my two first-grade teaching colleagues, and my 50 first-grade teaching friends online. The children in my classroom are the beneficiaries of this sharing.

Each day I eat lunch with two special friends in one of our classrooms. It's really a working lunch that we purposely keep positive. We each bring our ideas, needs, and thoughts to our lunch, and as we nourish our bodies, we also nourish our teaching lives. We fine-tune our ideas and plans and head back to our classrooms to work with our students.

My other sharing group consists of first-grade teachers from around the country. We found ourselves in the teacher's lounge on AOL and formed a support group. This group has been active for about a year and includes new and veteran teachers from all parts of the country.

Each day I receive about 30 messages from these teachers. We've covered many topics -- from class size and standardized testing to coping with children's grief and having a bad day! One member will ask for help with ideas on a project, and we willall post suggestions drawn from our experience. We even look forward to meeting each other one day.

Dotty Young, First Grade Teacher, Murphy Elementary School, Branford, CT

Effective learning takes place when students are actively engaged. While teaching a science practicum lesson about condensation to first-graders, it was obvious that the "cloud-in-the-jar" demonstration looked like magic. The students could not see the air in the jar warming or cooling as the cloud formed and disappeared; the concept was not being received.

Looking at their wide-eyed expressions, something clicked. I asked them to move in very close to each other; they felt crowded and became warmer. Next, I had them spread out and they cooled down. They were able to experience the air being compressed (warmed) and expanded (cooled) within the jar. The concept was no longer abstract. As a future teacher, I will always strive to make learning tangible for my students.

Karen A. Francesco, Elementary Education Major, University of Alaska, Anchorage, AK

After they've learned how to tally, my kindergartners use that knowledge by taking surveys about the likes and dislikes of their classmates. I have two clipboards available with preprinted survey forms, and I encourage them to start out by asking questions that require simple yes or no answers.

The children discuss the survey and record and illustrate the results in a class book. We also write down all the mathematical things we discover. We've learned how many children have pets, how many like pizza, and how many can ride a two-wheeler.

This activity allows each child to be successful at his or her own level in both taking and analyzing surveys.

Elizabeth L. Clements, Kindergarten Teacher, Jamestown Elementary School, Arlington, VA

I often use rubrics in order to assess learning in my classroom. Students are given the rubric to provide concrete guidelines that define "exceptional work." When students know in advance the requirements and criteria for grading, they earn, rather than receive, their grade.

I often help them create their own rubrics. We discuss the reasons for a particular assignment and the skills involved and then prioritize the important aspects. This metacognitive process is an important part of the students' education. It provides them with opportunities to talk about their thinking, reasoning, and learning. Once all of the criteria for assessment have been identified, we determine point values.

Learning new information, applying it, citing examples, and exhibiting effort and creativity are all skills used repeatedly on the rubrics students have created.

Judy B. Rogers, Middle School Teacher, Desert Ridge Middle School, Albuquerque, NM

How did we ever manage without self-stick notes ­or "stickies," as I like to call them? Here are nine ways you can use them:

1. Stick one on a child and it's an instant parent note: "Today was a good day."

2. Use them as map keys. Once a map is made, primary graders can put the symbols on a stickie and ­voila ­the map is complete.

3. Color-code them to identify cooperative groups. It makes finding a group a breeze.

4. Have children build graphs with them.

5. Encourage readers to use them as bookmarks. They're great!

6. Leave instant notes on desks before school starts.

7. Write a word family on the board. Have different children bring up a blend (written on the stickie) to make a new word.

8. Place under a completed illustration to show the artist's name and the date.

9. Reuse on the other side for a recycling lesson.

Marian Brovero, Second Grade Teacher, Crescent School, Waldwick, NJ

One of our fourth-grade science units is "Rocks and Charts." The students learn how to classify rocks and minerals and chart their findings. Our project, The Pet Rock Project, was an extension of that unit.

Each student chooses a pet rock. The student names the rock, completes a birth certificate for it, makes a home for it, and keeps a diary of the rock's adventures for at least 10 days. The student is also responsible for finding 10 interesting or scientific facts about the rock. Each student also has a chance to present his or her pet rock to the class.

Though the diaries and homes are quite unique, we emphasize that recycled items should be used and that no one should purchase anything for the project.

(The above idea was a collaborative effort by Carol Meier, Susan Gaske, and me. We taught fourth grade together for three years in Fairfax County, Virginia.)

Gail Smith, Fourth Grade Teacher, Clearview Elementary School, Herndon, VA

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