Let's stop being app snobs

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I've done it. You've probably done it. One specific friend of mine does it all the time. It starts innocently enough. You're in a conversation with a friend about keeping up on RSS feeds or blogs or the latest app you're in love with. Your friend says, "Oh yeah, I use [fill in the app YOU used six months ago and are SO over]." Without knowing it you roll your eyes and let a disgusted puff of air escape your lips. You have just become an app snob.

I think this goes along with what fellow ADE, Kyle Pearce mentioned a while back about how we push our colleagues out of the comfort zone and then chastise them when they aren't using what we're using or if we feel they're using something passé or subpar. 

An Entry Point
Yes, responders are not the most modern tech. An iPad or any web-equipped device can do so much more than most responders can. However, sometimes, that's what a teacher can see themselves using or that's the only thing available. If a teacher says, "I want to use responders!" You responding with, "Really?" and an expression akin to smelling rotten eggs, will kill that teacher's enthusiasm guaranteed.

Amazon Wasn't Built In a Day
Do you think drug dealers tell a prospective customer, "Oh....you want crack? Meth is so much better." No...well they might. I don't know drug dealers. Essentially, if you're trying to get your colleagues or teachers to use technology, let them suggest what they'd what to use and then build from there. Start with responders and then have them try out something like Socrative or Infuse Learning. Start with PDFs on an iPad and then move to Google Docs. Use Google Docs as a substitute for Office and then show the teacher how to make a survey. Give that teacher Springpad links enough and that teacher will 1) become more comfortable with the idea and 2) maybe even ask how to create one. Augmented reality might have made QR codes obsolete, but QR codes might be more approachable and that's ok.

You Say Potato, I Say French Fries
Also, keep in mind that people have different needs and like different things. I might be a fan of Diigo for keeping track of my links while you might prefer Delicious. Some people are more visual. Some people are minimalists. Respect that the other person just might like something different and don't be a jerk about it.

Quick Tip: Managing Kid Flow

Often times the sheer number of bodies in your room will make you realize your power is all an illusion. An illusion you must keep up at all costs. Thus, sending these bodies to do things like return to their desks or work areas, line up, or retrieve materials can become a running of the bulls type situation. This is especially true with kindergarteners and fifth graders. I posit these solutions (I'm using getting in line just for the example's sake, but you can substitute any other similar situations):

• Call students by what they are wearing. If you're wearing green, you may line up. 
• Side note: Kids who camp out by the door in an effort to be first bother me. I will intentionally avoid calling something which includes them because of it. This is part of maintaining that illusion of power and control.
• Also, this is a good opportunity to discuss things like what a collar is and give some inverse examples like, "If you're NOT wearing your hair in a ponytail, line up.
• My favorite is when only a couple kids are remaining and I say, "If you're wearing clothes, line up." Inevitably, at least one kid just looks at you with a blank stare.
• Call them by the first letter of their name.
• Call them by their job title. I posted here about classroom economy and classroom jobs. Even if you're not using the economy portion, the jobs would still apply.
• In the same vein, use their numbers. If you have your class assigned to numbers make it a mini math lesson. Call all people whose numbers are prime or divisible by three. It makes lining up a little more challenging.
• Avoid using things that are not factual. For example, do NOT say, "Line up if you like Justin Bieber." There's no way to prove this and even though you're positive not every boy in your fifth grade class is a Belieber, you will find yourself on the losing end of a stupid argument if you try to say any of them can't line up.
• Call them by who is following directions. I always say, "Criss cross, applesauce, hands are in your lap, voices are off." It's to the point where the kids will finish it I say it so often.
• Use a ticket out the door. Use this as an opportunity to reinforce your objectives or I Can statements for the day. Have them solve a math problem or tell you a way to say eight. For example, one plus seven or two to the power of three. They can tell you a fact from the reading or answer a question about the material. This could even be written down on a literal ticket and they can line up when you approve it.

What are your favorite ways to manage the flow of your kids to prevent them from becoming an educational mosh pit? 

Classroom Economy including Jobs

Classroom economy seems to be a love/hate thing. Either you love it or you hate it, but I think it depends a lot on how you manage it. I liked the lessons my kids learned and the black markets that popped up along the way. Just like many successful classroom management ideas, this one is very front loaded. Setting it up and getting good practices going might take some time and you have to know it can always be tweaked, but I believe the pay off is worth it because your students become invested in being members of your classroom society.

What is a society?
I started with a discussion of what society is and what people do in a society. I led the conversation to point out that if everyone made their own clothes, took their own trash to the dumb, manufactured their own cars, and had to grow and harvest their own foods, raise cows, chickens, etc., it would be very costly and people wouldn't have time to do fun things because they would always be working on something. So, we each take on a job. One person makes cars for everyone. One person takes out everyone's trash. One person makes all the food. This way, everyone has a job so we all share the work. However, some jobs are ickier than others. Some job require more expertise and therefore, those people get a little extra money because of that.

Jobs
This naturally leads into the question: What jobs do we need done in our classroom? By putting the responsibility on the students to create the jobs, it creates investment and dedication from the beginning. They've chosen what needs to be done. It also gets them thinking critically. Be sure to point out that kids will be absent and someone needs to take care of that. Some jobs might require two people. Delegating will make your life easier too. While you can't delegate your gradebook, you can delegate checking papers like I mentioned in my post A Whole New View on Math Practice. Really take a look at what things in the classroom you CAN delegate to your students and give them that responsibility. It takes a lot off your plate and gets them further invested in your microcosm. Avoid giving students anything that has sensitive information about other students. Checking papers isn't usually an issue because students in the same class tend to know where one another stand. However, always ask yourself if it is infringing on the student's educational time. If you're using your higher level students to check papers every day and they aren't getting enrichment time from you, that's a bad thing.

Once we had a list of jobs, we would write a description for each one and evaluate, informally, if the jobs were extremely out of balance or didn't make sense. Each job was assigned an A, B, or C and that was the pay grade. A was $40 per week, B was $35 per week, and C was $30 per week. The C grade jobs were a little lighter than the A grade jobs. Next, each student was assigned a job. All of my students had numbers and I kept a jar full of popsicle sticks with their numbers so I could pick a kid actually at random. I used numbers instead of names so I could reuse the popsicle sticks each year. Drawing at random, each kid would choose a job. The following week, the students with C level jobs would pick first. Basically, I would reverse the list. I kept an Excel document so that if I needed to see who was assigned to which job or if I needed to see which jobs kids had already had in the past.

Credits & Debits

Just like the jobs, the kids mostly generate the credits and debits, but the teacher is an equal member of the classroom society so, he/she can contribute ideas as well. As the teacher, you can usually use reasoning to guide the discussion. To the left are some examples of things my third grade class from my third year of teaching chose. From my experience, the kids are actually pretty harsh on themselves. This is one particular area where you have to re-evaluate these every week to make sure the fees and credits are extreme. As students earn credits and debits, make a note on their credit/debit sheets immediately. If you wait until the end of the day, you'll forget.

Managing Their Money

While I think all the parts of a classroom economy benefit students and reinforce standards-based skills as well as real-life and character-building skills, managing their credits and debits has a direct connection to math. I usually just kept a general eye on my students, maybe a little closer on kids who might have the tendency toward shadiness. At the end of the day, as part of the closing routine, students would balance their accounts for the day. At the end of the week, students would get paid and be able to buy things from my store. The store was comprised of random things from around my house and things I found in clearance bins at Office Max. Folders, game books, erasers, pencils, books, and other useful things as well as some fun things. It gave students who came from low income families an opportunity to buy things for themselves as well as siblings. This was a big confidence builder for a lot of students. I just put post-it notes on items as "price tags."

Credit/Debit Log: Students had to write how many 1s, 5s, & 10s they would get/lose.

A Word on Black Markets

While your first reaction might be to quash black markets, you might want to think twice. Maybe you're thinking, "What do you mean 'black market'?" I had a student in my third grade class who saw the other kids needed a way of keeping their money safe, so she started making wallets out of duct tape. She made designs on them and made them in different colors and soon, she had a fat wad of cash. She was quite the little entrepreneur. On the other hand, I heard tell of a class where another young girl started requiring students to pay her protection money otherwise she "wouldn't be their friend." As long as the black market goods are within the guidelines of the classroom rules and promote positive, helping behaviors, I'd let the free market reign.

The Beginning

I love to teach. I'm a born teacher. That's not my ego talking. It's just the kind of person I am. From when I was young, I delighted in seeing people learn new things. Heck, I love learning new things. I've been an official, license-carrying teacher for 7 years now, although I subbed that first year I had my license. So I've had a classroom of my own full time for 6 years. I started in fifth grade. Two years were spent there. Then I spent about a month in second grade before redistribution sent me to third grade. Glorious third grade where the attitudes are still mysteriously absent and they LOVE to make their teacher happy, but they're reading chapter books and asking questions like, "Is Santa real?" After that I applied for a position labeled "writing/technology" at a school I would soon come to call home. That oddly flown position became mine and I've treasured nearly every day of it. The last couple years though, I've seen other teachers, mostly new teachers, a few seasoned vets with difficult classes, struggle with a lot of the things I've struggled with in the past. I got very lucky my second year and found myself with a particularly skilled teacher who I milked for all she was worth. After all, teaching is mostly about stealing ideas from each other right?

This last couple years though, I've run into a conundrum. As teachers, we spend a lot of time alone. We rarely get the chance to share our ideas with one another and plan things. By the same token, we're expected to be superheros and we rarely feel comfortable asking for help particularly when it comes to things like classroom management or curriculum. Heaven forbid we even appear weak and admin will bring the axe down on us. So, we keep quiet and suffer and scream at our students out of frustration. I've seen my colleagues and friends deal with this. They cry in their rooms, punch holes in things, cry in the staff lounge, cry at the bar, cry on the copier, curse up and down, cry in the car and it makes me sad. It makes me sad that it's looked on as a sign of weakness to say, "Help me." In some cases, I think we start to believe screaming and yelling is the only recourse we have. If we just scream enough, loud enough, long enough, they'll finally get it and stop talking RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY DURING MY MATH LESSON. Boy HOWDY have I been there too. I spent the majority of my second year of actual teaching crying and crying and crying over some boys I referred to as "The Magnificent Seven." They feared NOTHING and wanted NOTHING (til the consequence & privilege charts came along).

Here's the thing, it's kind of poor form to go to your colleague or friend and say, "Hey your kids don't have to hang from the rafters. Let me help you." Yet, I can't take seeing teacher after teacher cry and wring their hands because they feel they can't do anything about their unruly class. So, my thought was, what if you could steal ideas, tested ideas, and ask questions, but no one really knew who you were? Maybe, just maybe, that would help. So here it goes:

This is my blog where I'll post things I've stolen, things other people have stolen, but not just random ideas, things that have worked and stood the test of time. If a real teacher hasn't touched it, I won't post it. Sure, it's not the same for every class, but I have a few things that have stood through some pretty nasty, rough classes that have worked.

My first post, which will be separate from this intro, will be about my favorite classroom management strategy. Now, if you happen to work with me and you happen to read this and you'd like to see it in action, PLEASE ASK!! I will always be more than happy to do that (and it can be our little secret). If you're at your wits end, you're ready to quit teaching, please don't. Most of us give up within the first 5 years for very good reason. Teachin' ain't easy.