You know, I forgot all about showing you guys the cake my students made for me for my last day as their substitute teacher. Hmmm. I may not have even told you guys about that. I was a substitute for a teacher who had her baby. I taught the same class for about 8 weeks. During that time, I claimed them as my students. And actually, I still claim them as my students.¹ Although I have new students, I miss those students very much. So without further ado, here’s a picture of a cake they made for me for my last day.

1. I just can’t help it. I got to know them all so well. [«]

Posted by Saphrym

“Huh?”

Yeah. That title would confuse me too. At least maybe. See, I came up with this tweet on my Twitter¹ account a few minutes ago:

Polishing off produce while pondering and postulating pixels for a purchaser.

And it reminded me of one of the tools I use to increase my vocabulary for writing. I pick a random letter of the alphabet and try to use alliteration to create some silly sentence.² For example, if I would have wrote the tweet³ in normal English I would have said, “I’m eating fruit while thinking about the graphics I’m doing for a client.” Instead, I decided to use alliteration to make it sound funnier and/or more interesting. Alliteration is good for that. But it’s also good for “waxing your word wisdom.”⁴

Sometimes you just don’t have enough words in your head to cover the words needed for creating the alliteration. So you look to a thesaurus.⁵ While doing so, you are naturally increasing your vocabulary.

Try it for yourself. Pick a letter of the alphabet and use it to create alliteration in your comment to this post. You’ll see what I mean.

1. Make sure to follow me: http://twitter.com/Saphrym [«]
2. Hey. I used it again! [«]
3. Not everything must be typed of course. You could use some promotional pens to write it by hand. [«]
4. Which means increasing your vocabulary. [«]
5. I use thesaurus.com. [«]

Posted by Saphrym

(The following was in response to a discussion question at my University’s forums.)

Some of my favorite quotes can be used to describe the “perfect” teacher.¹

“The mind is a terrible thing to close.” – Saphrym

Yeah. I said that one. It’s a play on the old slogan of the mind is a terrible thing to waste. But it means that we should always keep an open mind. And that goes double or even triple for teachers.

“If you capture kids’ hearts, you have their heads. If you don’t capture their hearts, you have no business messing with their heads.” – Menville Flippen

Teaching is not just about spitting out information for students to learn. Teachers are role models whether we want to be or not. Students will come to us for advice. They will want us to understand them as people. If a teacher doesn’t want that part of teaching, they should probably pick a different career.

“Know your students.”

I have no idea who said that, but it is the foundation of teaching. How can you possibly provide the best education for a student without knowing about that student? Sure, a mediocre education can be provided to just about anyone, but the best education can only be provided when the teacher knows how to teach each individual student. That requires knowledge of the student.

Those are the 3 quotes I live my life and professional life by. Of course, I’ve recently added another one to that:

“Risk more than others think is safe. Care more than others think is wise. Dream more than others think is practical. Expect more than others think is possible.” – Claude Bissell

It may be a common cadet quote, but I think it fits the teacher profession quite well too. Don’t you?

1. Although there is no such thing as a perfect teacher because there’s always more to learn. [«]

Posted by Saphrym

Claude Bissell said:

Risk more than others think is safe. Care more than others think is wise. Dream more than others think is practical. Expect more than others think is possible.

I know this because I recently purchased a plaque for my wife that had that saying on it. Figured it would be a great decoration on her desk. She’s now a special education teacher. So I thought the quote was quite appropriate when I saw it. That last part is especially important: “Expect more than others think is possible.”

Isn’t that what we should do as teachers? We should always expect the best from our students. And when I say that, I don’t mean they should always get 100s on their tests. What I mean is we should always expect them to do THEIR best. And we should always push them to do better. This means EVERY student. We should never give up on our students. We should never say, “Well, he’s got [insert disorder here] so he’ll never be able to [insert activity or goal here].” There are students with disabilities that have surpassed any expectations that were put on them because people believed in them and expected the best from them. What about those people without arms who paint beautiful paintings with their feet? What about the blind people who can navigate a room better than most sighted people? What about deaf people who can see things we never could see?

Students can and will meet our expectations with the right tools and dedication. So if we set those expectations low, then can we be surprised when they meet them and go no further? And those labels should have absolutely no bearing on us expecting their best. None. Nada. Zip.

Posted by Saphrym

Ever read “Lord of the Flies?” Well, in that book the boys find a conch shell. They make a rule that only the person who has the conch can talk during a meeting.

So I decided to try it in my class. I bought a very soft ball. It kind of looks like a big golf ball but it squishes down flat on the table.¹ You could hit someone and it wouldn’t hurt. Actually, this one could probably even be played with inside a house easily.² My point is, the ball is safe. A sponge ball would work well too. You, know, like those orange ones that Nerf put out.

Now, what I do is I make all the students be quiet. Only the person with the ball can talk. So I throw it to the students I want to answer questions and such. A good side benefit of this particular method of classroom management is the fact that I also throw it to random people who might not have their hands up. What this does is makes the students pay attention to me so they don’t get hit with the ball without notice. So, now the students are paying attention, they’re having fun, and they’re answering questions. It’s hard to beat that as a classroom management tool.

1. I know this because I like to flatten it and watch it grow again. I know. I’m easily amused. [«]
2. Of course outside is even better on sunny days. And no need for outdoor furniture covers to protect them form the ball either. [«]

Posted by Saphrym

This is a week long project for students who are in the 8th or 9th grade. To accomplish this lesson, the teacher must have a good deal of knowledge of the students so that they can be grouped accordingly.

The students will be divided into groups of 4 or 5 students. The students should be grouped in such a way that at least one creative student and one student who is not shy are in each group.

Day 1: The students will be introduced to the poems The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes¹ and Yet Do I Marvel by Countee Cullen². They will be asked to read them in their groups and try to comprehend as much as possible. Teacher lead discussion will be used to help the students understand the poems.

Day 2: The students will write a compare/contrast short essay about the two poems. One essay is due per group so they can work on this together.

Day 3: The students will use the information they learned on the first two days to rewrite both of the poems. The poems will be rewritten in such a manner that the poems still contain the same meanings that the students found but in a modern day language.

Day 4: The students will continue rewriting the poems and will also prepare for the poetry reading.

Day 5: Each group will present their custom written versions of the two poems. They will also read their comparison/contrast essay to the class.

Some notes about this assignment:

• Students should be encouraged to be as creative as possible with their rewrites of the poems. To incorporate more “modern” language, they could make the poems sound like a conversation that takes place on the Internet or use jargon that is prevalent these days.³
• Students should also be allowed to prepare for the poetry reading in a creative manner. The poetry reading should be set up to be a similar atmosphere as could be found during the Harlem Renaissance. The smoky jazz clubs are where these took place, so provide candlelight and maybe some piano jazz in the background. Dry ice could be used to create the smoky environment. The children could wear costumes that fit the time period or if that’s not feasible, maybe hats could be found to give some semblance of the era.
• The instructions are provided in a simple manner because the creativity of the teacher truly comes into play with this type of lesson. The school administration might allow this to be a presentation to the entire school. Parents could be invited and asked to dress in their Sunday best. There are many routes a teacher could take with this lesson to make it fun for the students⁴.

1. Hughes, Langston. “The Weary Blues.” Anthology of Modern American Poetry. Ed. Cary Nelson. New York: Oxford Press, 2000. 504-505. [«]
2. Cullen, Countee. “Yet Do I Marvel.” Anthology of Modern American Poetry. Ed. Cary Nelson. New York: Oxford Press, 2000. 530-531. [«]
3. As long as they leave out the spam language like “Leptovox” and other such nonsense found in e-mails today. [«]
4. Or even the whole school [«]

Posted by Saphrym

“Lord of the Flies” is one of those novels that is taught often within the schools. It can be found most often in high schools and middle schools. However, “Lord of the Flies” is also one of those novels that is sometimes hard for the students to understand¹. Although they may be able to answer questions about it, sometimes the action is hard to follow. To help students understand it, during reading they should have questions that lead them to the most important aspects of each chapter. After reading the movie should be shown to provide a summary of the book and allow the students to see what it is they’ve been imagining. In this instance, the movie directed by Peter Brook in 1963 is the preferred version. But before reading there are a few different activities that can be used to get the students in the right mind for this novel. (more…)

1. I had a tough time with it too when I first read it. [«]

Posted by Saphrym

I took a memorization course because of the grocery store I worked at when I was much younger. It taught how to memorize lists of items by creating images of the numbers and attaching them to images of the items within the list. You can memorize a list of 10 things with the information I’m providing.

The way it works is first you need to have the basic number images memorized. You will always use the same images to represent those numbers. The reason why the images listed below were chosen is because they look like or represent the numbers really well. So make sure to have the first list in your mind to begin with. Once you have them, you have them for good. I haven’t used them in a few years, yet I was still able to easily recall them for this post.

Here are the images for the numbers:

1 – A candle. Have it burn whatever the item is.
2 – A swan¹. Have it biting the item.
3 – A sideways W. Have it act like a handle on the item.
4 – A sailboat. Have the item balancing on the mast²
5 – A hand³. Have it grabbing the item.
6 – Golf club. Hit the item with it.
7 – A garden hoe. Have it chopping the item.
8 – Two links of a chain. Have the item going into and out of the links over and over.
9 – A balloon on a stick. Have the item pop the balloon.
10 – A martini⁴. Stir the martini with the item.⁵

Now, in your mind, imagine those pictures for the numbers interacting with the items you’re trying to memorize. So for example⁶:

1. Tire - The candle burns the tire. Could even mention the burning rubber.⁷
2. A book - The swan has taken a bite out of the book and is chewing it.
3. Pencils - The W is attached to the side of the pencil. But now there’s more pencils. You now have a suitcase made of pencils.
4. A computer - The computer is plugged into a socket in the sky and is balancing on the mast. It falls over and shorts out in the water.
5. A mountain - Your hand is holding the mountain. You must be a giant.
6. A water melon - The golf club hits the melon and gets embedded into it. Now you could hit a soccer ball with that club.
7. Homework - Chop up those papers like you mean it!
8. Phone - The phone has sprouted legs and is running through the links of the chain.
9. A spoon - Actually it’s now a spork so it has pointy tips and you pop the balloon with it.
10. A broom - Must be a really large martini if it requires a broom to stir it.

Now close your eyes and try and list the items in your mind. You’ll find that you remember this entire list. Not only that, but if you get someone to call out random numbers, you should be able to tell them the specific item for that number. And finally, get them to call out about 5 or 6 items/numbers, and you’ll not only be able to tell them the item or number that goes with it, but also the items and numbers they did not call from the list.

Try coming up with your own lists. Give your brain time to “forget” between lists though or you’ll end up getting them confused. Oh, and for this to be useful, you might want to make up useful lists. Works great for short shopping lists.

1. looks like one [«]
2. the weirder, the easier to remember. [«]
3. five fingers [«]
4. toothpick and olive [«]
5. Since the days of capresso machines have been around, you could also try making this the overhead view of a cup of coffee and a straw. The stirring still fits. [«]
6. make sure to picture each of these in your mind as you read them [«]
7. Smells are easy to remember. [«]

Posted by Saphrym

I have another school assignment that I just wrote for a class that I’m going to share with you guys. I hope you enjoy these. When I enjoy writing the assignment, I like sharing them with you.

Is change always good and necessary? Why or why not?

The answer to this question depends on the context of the change. If we’re speaking of education, which I’m assuming we are, it also depends on the change itself. Not all changes are good. Not all changes are bad.

For example, the original concept of education in Colonial times was to teach the Bible, and that was about it. No science; no other history; nothing but the Bible. If that was the way education was still today, we wouldn’t have made the advances we’ve made. But even those advances can be separated into good and bad. Sure, the medical advances help save human lives. That’s great. However, warfare advances have helped destroy human lives; not so great. So was the change in education from the Colonial times good or bad or even necessary? It’s all very subjective.

And no change is truly necessary. It’s like the old saying goes, “Nothing is certain but death and taxes.” But to be honest, not even taxes are certain. There is nothing is this world that any one person must do except die and live until they die. That’s it. They have to suffer the consequences of their actions, but they may choose any action or “non-action” they wish. Same goes for change or the choice of change. But if we’re talking about consequences, the consequences of not changing from the Colonial period’s way of thinking about education would have meant less knowledge. Again, is that good or bad? We have Amish out here who would say it’s neither.

But in the pursuit of education, anything that changes the way we educate in a positive way is good and necessary, as long as the final goal is to educate our students as much as possible, which as teachers, that is our final goal. On the contrary, anything that changes the way we educate in a negative way is bad and necessary to avoid. But again, it’s very subjective.

For instance, No Child Left Behind is viewed by some as a bad thing as it has made teaching into a profession that focuses on preparing students for tests. But it’s good because it holds schools accountable for their educational systems. As I told my daughter today, decisions about anything (including change) should be made by weighing the pros and cons of those decisions and ranking them based on importance. For example:

NCLB

Pros:

Holds schools accountable – 9
Supposedly helps to provide equal funding for schools – 8

Cons:

Causes “teaching to the test” syndrome which is not a truly educational experience – 10
Doesn’t always keep it’s promises for funds – 8

9+8 = 17

10+8 = 18

The cons win in this example, but by a small margin, which means more qualities need to be discussed and weighed.¹

How can teachers positively impact change?

Embrace the positive and fight the negative. I was just telling my wife that if a decision is made that negatively impacts your ability to educate your students, something needs to be done. People need to be told about the problems. Parents need to be involved in the decisions.

However, if the change is positive, embrace it and don’t be scared about it. A recent change would be the introduction of technology.² Many teachers, to this day, can’t stand using technology. But it is a change that has allowed education to be tripled in efficiency and with further improvements, that will increase. It is a positive change in the context of education. It is a necessary change in the same context.

So I’d say a teacher should embrace the positive changes. They should take PD courses to improve their knowledge of the new methods and technology available. The tools and methods available to teachers are constantly evolving, and just like other professional occupations³, teachers need to evolve right along with them.

1. And of course, that is purely a hypothetical example. *cough* [«]
2. Recent in terms of life of the country, that is. [«]
3. such as doctor, lawyer, computer programmer, understanding what a KVM switch is, etc. [«]

Posted by Saphrym

I don’t know about you guys, but this particular movement impressed me. Not just because of the thankfulness to the soldiers, but also because this movement could be used for any profession that works for the community. I loved the video. But of course you have no idea what I’m talking about¹, so feel free to go there now and then come back:

The Gratitude Campaign

These people protect our futures.² But there are also professions³ that work for our communities and could use the thanks, as they create our futures. So remember to give thanks to these people.

1. Unless you’ve been there. [«]
2. Not to be confused with the futures broker in Florida. [«]
3. Teacher. Hint hint. [«]

Posted by Saphrym