Monthly Archives: February 2014

What to Expect from an Assistant Principal

For Teachers
What to Expect from an Assistant Principal

Your assistant principal is your front line of support.

Unless you’re at a really small school, the teachers rarely interact with the principal. Principals are like the CEOs of the school: they spend more time with the board than the workers. In management, your point of contact tends to be the assistant principal.

And there are many kinds of teachers. Some like autonomy and only need AP interaction during PLCs and evaluations. Others are in the AP’s office every day for a variety of reasons. Here is what you should be able to expect from any good assistant principal. Of course if you have a bad one, none of these are applicable.

A sympathetic ear

Unless you’ve really screwed up, the approach your AP should always take in communications is one of understanding. Teaching is one of the most stressful jobs in the world and sometimes you need to vent to someone who understands. Spouses and friends are great, but you need someone who can relate.

Willingness to give advice

Veteran teachers like to think they’ve seen it all; APs really have. Think about it. They’ve seen every dysfunctional student that has come through your hall, probably multiple times. They get called in on the weirdest classroom stories. This is a wealth of information that they should be willing to share, especially to new teachers who might think their careers are over because a parent is upset with them. Which brings us to our next point…

A buffer between you and the parents

You might try your best, but eventually you will run into an angry parent. They might not even be angry with you in particular. You just happen to be the sounding board. Eventually those angry parents will ask to speak to the AP. When you transfer them, you would like confidence that your boss will have your back (again, unless you’ve really screwed up). Even if they don’t fully support you in this case, they should at least be able to broker an acceptable compromise.

A passion for improving their area of the school

Most assistant principals are put in charge of a hall or grade level. They should always be willing to do anything to improve the situation of their territory, even if it means a change in the status quo that may put them at odds with the principal. It might be a creative idea to remediate a particularly disruptive student. Also, if their teachers have realistic ideas about the hall, the AP should be willing to help implement those ideas. Nothing can improve the lives of the teachers and students in the hall more than everyone, including the AP, working together to make things better.

How to Implement Project-Based Learning at Home

Uncategorized

One of the hottest trends in the classroom is project-based learning. It’s a curriculum in which class instruction is geared toward giving kids the tools needed to complete one big project, preferably one they would be asked to accomplish in the real world.

For example, a geometry class might focus its instruction toward having the kids design their own buildings. A biology class will cover DNA for the sole purpose of having kids take samples of food from restaurants to see if it is, in fact, chicken.

All stakeholders like the approach because it better reflects what goes on in life after students have finished school. Is there a way for parents to approach home life in the same way with their kids? Absolutely! Give these a try.

How to Implement Project-Based Learning at HomeFood shopping

Give your child a realistic budget and the same dietary parameters you try to follow and then put them in charge of food shopping for a week, starting with researching a shopping list. They will quickly find out that eating at McDonald’s every day is not a realistic plan, either for the budget or for the diet.

Show them how to examine recipes, nutrition information, and even coupon sources. With your help, they will find out just how complicated the family’s food shopping can be, while practicing their math and economics skills.

Big projects

Project-based learning, boiled down to its simplest element, can be described as “figure out how to do it, then do it”. There are plenty of projects around the house where this can apply.

Let’s say, with spring coming up, it’s time to landscape the back yard. You might hire a landscape designer and crew… or you can turn your child into a landscape designer. Give them the tools and information to learn about design and the goals of landscape architects, and then have them come up with a plan that makes sense (and, again, fits the budget). Then let them make it happen. They will be bringing some geometry and biology into their daily lives.

Civic responsibility

There aren’t as many options for students to use their reading and writing skills in home-based projects, but the worlds of politics and newspapers can help. Hopefully they have an issue they care about, even something as simple as building a new skate park in town. Show them how to research the issue and find the best place to direct their ideas. It might be a letter to the editor, the mayor, or even the president. But through this project, they will be practicing their literacy and government skills and might even be printed in the newspaper or receive an autographed picture from the president.

How to Run a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign

For Teachers
How to Run a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign

Educators are learning how to get funding from across the globe.

Budgets are tight, but classroom supplies and technologies are staying expensive. With that equation, more and more teachers are turning to crowdfunding websites to make their (and their students’) educational dreams come true. Sites like Kickstarter and IndieGoGo are full of great ideas, but don’t specialize in education. Donors Choose, on the other hand, is only for teachers seeking help with classroom supplies or activities.

Here’s some tips on how to turn crowdfunding into your own educational ATM.

Cool and original sells

You might need basic classroom supplies, but unless you’re doing something novel and buzzworthy with them, your campaign will struggle. The campaigns that take off are the ones that people are excited to get behind and share with their social networking friends, usually with the headline “Look at what this teacher is doing!”

If you’re having trouble coming up with ideas, simply cruise the crowdfunding sites to see what’s doing well. Then put your own spin on an idea you like and that fits with your curriculum. If the idea is cool enough, money can be no object.

Be as specific as possible

Say you want a 3D printer for your classroom. That’s a great (if not original) idea! What are you going to do with it? If your answer was “print stuff”, your campaign won’t be funded.

Donors want to hear concrete plans, especially on how the campaign will impact student learning. Describe how this fits into the curriculum, as well as the role the students will play in the process. Also, promise to keep the donors updated on the kids’ progress in the project.

Follow through

That last point brings us to a key factor on which campaigns get picked up. Donors might have hearts of gold, but they’re also human. They would like to get something out of the deal, even if it’s only a thank you note. In fact, Donors Choose has a policy that any donation of $50 or more will receive one. Some campaigns even give their donors commemorative t-shirts or stickers.

Keep a blog or post videos of the project’s progress once it gets started. Make sure the kids find ways of showing their appreciation, then make sure you follow through on all of your promises. A quick way of making sure you never get another campaign funded is to drop the ball on your donor gifts.

With crowdfunding, it’s more than possible for a teacher to completely revolutionize how they teach certain concepts. All they need is creativity, some communication skills, and dedication—traits most teachers already have.

Is There a Need for Handwriting Instruction?

For Parents

Is There a Need for Handwriting Instruction?

Cursive is dying. Some people believe it’s already dead, and has been for a couple of decades now.

The days of young elementary students practicing their handwriting on paper with a large triumvirate of lines are over. Unlike the existing standards in some states, handwriting instruction does not appear in the Common Core, although states and districts have the option to include handwriting instruction if they so choose. Keyboarding, on the other hand, plays an integral role in the new writing standards.

The case for typing

Students are more likely to take notes in class using a laptop or handheld device, as far down as the elementary grades. Some students even take pictures or videos of lectures with their device, circumventing the note taking process entirely. In the 21st century, cursive might be equivalent to Egyptian hieroglyphics or cave painting. Some specialized people might be able to read it, but the vast majority don’t need to.

Of course, paramount to the whole move is the use of class time. A crunch that has led to reduced recess and elective time has forced the hand of schools and districts. There are only so many hours in the school day, with a new set of standards that use those hours to their fullest extent.

The case for handwriting

Opponents of the move away from handwriting point to the need to read historical documents, like the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, as well as write cards and thank you notes. Cursive seems to be an effective teaching tool for dyslexic students. Students also still have to write testing essays, such as those in the SAT and ACT, by hand (though it’s only a matter of time before those tests are administered digitally).

Proponents of handwriting instruction also tend to be opponents of the Common Core itself. In what has become a partisan fight, handwriting is the first pawn that’s moved.

The verdict

Manners are important, as are the founding documents of our country, but they are not a reason to waste class time. Grandparents, believe it or not, are just as likely to appreciate a thank you text or email as they would a card. And most historic documents have been transcribed into text and made available for the world to read via the Internet.

It’s sad that our children won’t learn skills that were taught with great importance when we were in school. But remember, we didn’t learn certain skills that our parents might have, such as using a slide rule or typing on a typewriter. Our parents probably didn’t use an outhouse. The world changes, and right now that rate of change is faster than at any time in human history. Cursive, and handwriting in general, is an unfortunate casualty.

photo credit: mezone via photopin cc