Category Archives: For Teachers

Google Search Tips for Students

Google Search Tips for Students

Find what you need when you need it on Google.

Kids use Google to search for the most obvious information. Although you might worry that they are becoming dependent on technology, Google is still one of the most powerful tools in a student’s arsenal. Share some ways for them to use it more effectively.

In-depth search tricks

The Internet is immense and it’s easy to get many results that you don’t want, especially if you’re searching for something broad. It helps to use some search field tricks to narrow the results.

  • To find a specific phrase, use quotation marks. For example, “Bill Clinton Library” would be more effective than searching for those words without the quotes.
  • Use a minus sign to exclude a certain word or phrase from your results, like “Bill Clinton –Library”.
  • Site types, like .edu and .gov, can be exclusively searched using site:edu, site:gov, etc., followed by your search phrase.
  • Site: also works to limit the search to a specific site, like site:nytimes.com
  • If you want a certain word or phrase in the title of the page, use title:[search phrase]
  • Author: works the same, but for a specific author.
  • Limit to a certain file type, like PDFs, with (you guessed it) filetype:

All of those tricks can be used together to really zero in on the desired result.

Search shortcuts

Sometimes you want something simple, like a definition, translation, or math calculation. With the right shortcut, Google will give you the answer directly without having to go to another site. This is just a selection of shortcuts. For an exhaustive list, visit this site published by Google itself.

  • Conversions – “[number] [unit] to [unit]”, like “7 pounds to grams”.
  • Calculations – just type in the equation. You can also get a graph by just putting “graph” before the equation. Also typing “calculator” brings up the calculator itself.
  • Definitions – just type in the word. It will show at the top of the results.
  • Translations – “translate [word] into [language]”. Google Translate can also be used for bigger chunks.
  • Times in other cities – “[City] time”

Deep research with Google Scholar

Searching peer-reviewed journals and articles can be really challenging for secondary students. They simply don’t know the different between the journal Nature and a blog from an environmentalist.

Google Scholar is easy to use and limits the results to “serious” publications. It also makes exporting citation information for bibliographies and footnotes easy. Here are some tips from Google to get the most out of the tool.

Image search without Google Image Search

Google Image Search can show a lot of results—most of them unnecessary or flat-out inappropriate. To add some pizazz to reports and presentations, limit your image search using the LIFE photo archive, which has collected award-winning photos from the magazine. You can also use the search modifiers above in Google Image Search itself.

 

 

Maintaining Work/Life Balance as a Teacher

We’re entering some crucial months of the school year. The getting-to-know-you stuff is over and the classroom is not yet sullied by talk of the holidays. Time to cover some real ground in the curriculum! This might lead to extra grading and other “extracurriculars” that might encroach on your home time. Here’s how you get it back.

Maintaining Work/Life Balance as a TeacherFirm boundaries

The first key in any work/life balance situation is establishing firm boundaries for your time.

We’ve all brought work home to grade. It’s a tradition—one that should be as limited as possible. Whatever can be done to bring that workload down, implement it. It might come down to cutting home grading out for good. That’s what planning periods are for!

Also, the evening might be the best time to reach parents by phone but it’s also the best time to annoy your family. Stay on email and look into some texting solutions. They can be ignored at inappropriate times. But never text with your actual phone number or you’ll never get a moment’s peace.

What are your responsibilities?

Teachers tend to be the kind of people who take on many different responsibilities because they want to make a difference. There are the responsibilities of the job, then maybe heading a department, coaching a sport, serving on a committee, or sponsoring a club.

Be really honest with yourself about what you like to do, what you feel is making a difference, and what you felt obligated to pick up. Don’t let anyone bully you into added responsibilities (even administrators). Remember that family and the actual job of teaching your classes come first. If anything else is getting in the way of those two, it’s time to cut bait.

Use that time off!

Some teachers are really, really good at this next point. And others hoard their sick/personal time expecting a catastrophe that might never come. When it comes to events and travel, not everything can be done over the summer.

Save a reasonable amount for an unexpected illness relative to your age and health (for example, if you’re relatively young you don’t need weeks upon weeks for a broken hip) and make an effort to use the rest for something fun for yourself and your family. Sprinkle in some long weekends (or extensions of three-day weekends) to keep yourself fresh and remind yourself that there is a life outside the school’s walls. Your sub pool will thank you.

Keeping Your Child on Track During Family Troubles

Unfortunately, more than half of marriages in this country now end in divorce. Dealing with separated parents is something that teachers have gotten used to, but for the parents themselves it might be new territory. Here are some things to keep in mind during these challenging times.

Keeping Your Child on Track During Family TroublesBe clear with the teacher

Some people move forward with a separation with the mindset that it’s no one’s business but theirs. When it comes to the teacher, that’s the wrong approach.

Teachers spend more time with your child than anyone else. They can alert you if there are psychological or work-related side effects occurring with the separation. They also need to know who to contact if they have something to share. Finally, they’d love to avoid any awkwardness at parent conferences or other meetings. So give the teacher all the information you can, including visitation schedules.

Both parents still need to be included

Unless one parent has washed their hands of the entire situation, make it an effort to include both sides in any education-related matters. That can eliminate a lot of miscommunication.

Make sure the teacher knows to send any emails to both parents, to invite both parents to any conferences, awards assemblies, or concerts (sometimes that information is forgotten by the child during visits), and finds a way to get progress reports and grades to both parties. It will help both parents stay engaged.

Divide the responsibilities

Custody arrangements can be a complicated mess. Eventually everyone gets used to the idea of sharing the child, but it can still lead to difficulties when it comes to school-related responsibilities.

Obviously if one parent has the child on a weekday night, they should be responsible for making sure the homework for that night is done. But things that reoccur less frequently, like projects, should be divided—perhaps by subject area, if one parent is better at certain topics than the other is. In addition, who handles fundraisers, PTO responsibilities, and meet ups outside of school? That all needs to be sorted ahead of time.

The classroom is not a battlefield

Finally, the most important point. Divorces are often messy and that’s sad and not productive for anyone. If that’s the case, save the fighting for the attorneys’ offices and the courtroom. The classroom is not the place to continue the fight—metaphorically or literally.

First, the teacher really doesn’t have time for your issues. Second, the classroom has probably turned into a sanctuary for the child during this time and now you’re invading it. Finally, you both have a stake in the continued success of the child. Let the teacher do their job rather than trying to score points by getting your way on petty educational issues.

Making the Most Out of Pre-School Week

Making the Most Out of Pre-School Week

How do you spend your pre-school week?

A lot of teachers trudge slowly back into the grind during the pre-school planning week. That’s a mistake. It’s far too valuable to spend an inordinate amount of time arranging posters and chatting with colleagues about what they got up to over the summer.

Here are some ways to maximize pre-school week and hit the ground running before the small people come through the door.

Reconnect, but not with chit-chat

Sure, it’s fine to exchange some pleasantries and talk about the summer for a bit. But aside from faculty meetings and the occasional in-service day, this is one of the few times you get to really “talk shop” with your colleagues (who wants to talk about work during lunch?).

Find a mentor (or mentee). Talk to that teacher that always seems to be on the cutting edge in pedagogy and see what you can steal from them. Reach out to the new teachers. Talk to your department head or administrator in depth about what this year’s priorities are and how you can help. All of these are a more productive use of time than comparing lazy beach days.

Change up the décor

Take the opportunity to spruce things up a bit.

One of the great pastimes of pre-school week is setting up your classroom. For the new teachers or those who are moving to a different room, this might dominate the week. For the veterans, they probably don’t have much to do.

A change in the arrangement of the room signals a renewed sense of purpose. Even just updating the posters and other decorations can have a positive effect on learning. An organized room that is pleasing to the eye has a positive effect on student achievement. Hey, it can’t hurt.

Write up some grants

Grants offer an opportunity to procure items for your students that wouldn’t otherwise be available.

At some schools, grant writing is just as much of a tradition as the school colors. Some even take an entire pre-school day to host classes and have group grant writing parties. Budgets aren’t increasing. They probably never will, so teachers need to take their needs into their own hands.

There is always someone at every school who is a maven at sourcing materials and tech toys from uncommon sources. She probably knows every grant opportunity out there. Pick their brain. If they don’t exist, become that person yourself. Then share that knowledge with your colleagues.

The Books That Will Get Your Kids Reading This Summer

Summer is a big time for reading for pleasure. Hopefully your kids feel the same. The mantra of teachers everywhere is that it doesn’t really matter what a child is reading for fun as long as they’re reading. It helps during the school year and it certainly fights off the summer brain drain. Graphic novels, trashy romance, courtroom thrillers, or spy stories are all fair game. Just make sure to preview first, if not for content then for what teachers call “Lexile”, or the level of challenge in reading the book.

That being said, teenagers tend to stick to what they know, which is young adult fiction. There are now two divergent (see what I did there?) schools of YA. One is the vampire/dragon/dystopian kind of books that are frequently made into movies.

Then there are the young adult books that might as well be literary fiction for adults. The only reason they are considered YA is that the characters are teenagers. They deal with sex, violence, death, loss, betrayal, and all sorts of issues that you’ll see in any other adult book you can find on the shelves.

That being said, the subject matter is graphic and sometimes considered inappropriate by some parents and teachers. Of course, the best way to get a kid reading is to tell them how inappropriate it is. If you think your kid might be susceptible to that trap, here are three selections that will certainly fit the mold.

The Books That Will Get Your Kids Reading This Summer

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

You can’t escape the #1 movie in America and the book it’s based on, which is firmly entrenched on bestseller lists even though it’s two years old. The story is about two “cancer kids” who meet in a support group and fall in love. The kids, Hazel and Gus, are sarcastic, blunt, and occasionally vulgar. For your information, they also have sex once. If you can put all that aside, it’s really a remarkable book—for both kids and adults.

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Eleanor & Park are two social outcasts in the 80’s. Eleanor is from a broken home and poor. Park is Korean-American and exists just on the border of popular and not because of it. They bond over late 70’s and 80’s rock music while sitting together on the bus.

The language is quite pervasive and the themes dealing with Eleanor’s relationship to her abusive, alcoholic stepfather are mature, but moving. There is also a sex scene. But again, if you can get past those caveats, it’s a great book.

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Although almost five years old, If I Stay is getting traction again because its movie is being released in August.

Cello prodigy Mia is in a serious car accident that puts her in a coma. During the coma, she has an out-of-body experience where she relives pieces of her life and can see her friends, family, and boyfriend visit her in the hospital. Eventually she has to decide whether to come back to the land of the living or fade away. Sex, profanity, and underage drinking all make moderate to heavy appearances and the car accident is described in graphic, violent detail.