This week I had the most annoying thing happen. Someone used my email address fraudulently to send who knows how many messages and over a 1000 of these messages got bounced back to me as undeliverable and most landed in my junk folder. I had no idea what was going on. Who were all these people that got these emails? I didn’t even know them. How did the people sending these emails get my email address. I know that I don’t share anyone’s email address that visits my blog. Please know that I keep email addresses confidential. I wouldn’t wish that experience on anyone. Obviously, someone was able to get my email address and use it fraudulently. If anyone got any of those messages, I’m sorry. What can I say. If anyone has any hints for me to help reduce the chances of that happening again, I would really appreciate it if you could leave them as a comment. I don’t quite understand how this could happen.

Today, Winter sent us another snow storm and another Snow Day. That’s two Snow Days in less than a week. Last Friday we had our first Snow Day and now again today.That must be a first! I can’t ever remember having that happen before. Most years we don’t even get one Snow Day let alone two in one week. I got the Snow Day phone call early this morning to tell me that the schools would be closed today given the weather. Take a look out my window in the photo above, and you’ll get a sense of what the day was like. Snow Day, great I thought. I can spend the day learning how to use some new- to- me software and work on my class blog. The software Voice Thread looks like it has lots of possibilities for engaging the reluctant writers in my class. I have to thank Kevin for telling me about Voice Thread, and I have to thank him for helping me understand how to use it. I was stuck and thought “now what?”. Then I though of Kevin. He has lots of patience. I know because I’ve tried it before. I sent Kevin an email asking for help, and he responded at once with a link to Chrissy’s site where she explained things so that even I could get it. Thanks Kevin. Thanks Chrissy. Why is it that once you know how to do something it seems so easy? I experience that a lot when I’m sitting in front of a computer. As far as PD sessions go, I have to say it was a pretty good one. If I had one of those forms to fill out that you usually get at the end of PD sessions, I would have to rate the day excellent in all categories - if I do say so myself. Lunch was even really good-thanks to Kurt who has a passion for cooking and had his famous chicken soup simmering for hours on the stove-what better on a day like this. Now that I can use Voice Thread thanks to some help, I want to have my students use it in the classroom. If you have moment, take a peek at what I’ve done using Voice Thread in my class blog. It’s very basic because I haven’t learned to use all the bells and whistles yet. Students really like writing comments about the pictures and quotes that I’ve posted. Their comments are actually quite thoughtful. Students didn’t ask how many words they had to write. I haven’t had one complaint about writing thus far. I hear them laughing and commenting on what they’ve written. It’s nice to hear laughter. There was a bit of confusion when I introduced the blog, but now everyone pretty well knows knows what they’re doing more or less. I guess when I introduce Voice Thread to the class there’ll be a bit of confusion, too. To try to minimize that, I’m going to introduce it in stages. First, I’ll show a few of my stronger students how to use the program , and then they can show other students how to use it. That’s what our Board does when it rolls out something new. I think the Board calls it “teachers teaching teachers”. Someone goes and gets trained on some new piece of software we have to use and then that person comes back and shows the rest of us- if there’s time. Oh yes, before I forget, Voice Thread has a version for educators. That’s the one I signed up for. There’s some good ideas for the classroom on the site. I’ll take a closer look at those later. I also like the security features like having the option of going public or keeping the thread private, having or not having search engine access and allowing or not allowing comments. I’ve discussed the security options for our classroom blog with the students and most prefer to have the security of no search engine access and the comment moderation. As I get more comfortable with my students, I’l l open things up more. Right now I’m a bit hesitant, but I’m sure that’ll change as I get to know the students better and our classroom and blogging agreements of mutual respect, no put downs, attentive listening, appreciation and the right not to participate during class discussions get entrenched. I see that happening already. The kids are identifying put downs and instances of disrespect. I think that’s the first step because for some kids so much of the inappropriate behaviour is an unconscious habit. When I call them on it, the response I get is “What?”. First they have to know what’s appropriate in order to do it, and then once they start doing it I’ll can catch them doing “good” to reinforce that appropriate behaviour. That catching them doing good is part of the appreciation and mutual respect that I want to show my students. As Ken Weber wrote so many, many years ago The Teacher is the Key. I agree.

For most of the last two weeks my head’s been spinning. There’s just too much going on. Final evaluations are marked, report cards completed, one meeting attended , two meetings attended, three meetings attended, my desk in office all cleared off, well almost, new classroom blog created using www. edublogs. org, learning how to get more out of my widgets, learning about hyperlinks and html, learning how to customize my blog roll learning, learning, learning. I need a break from learning. Most of this learning has been learning things in order to set up my classroom blog. I’m really serious about having a class blog for my Advanced Learning Strategies Class , and I’m trying to remember my own advice: think big, start small. Except, I want to think big, start big and do it all now, hence the spinning head. I’ve decided to take it one small step at a time. I’m going start by posting journal assignments in The Advanced Learning Strategies Blog, my classroom blog and then have students write their reflections as a comment. I’m having a lot of fun finding pictures for my blog. I’ve only got a couple of posts up because it’s the new semester. Ironically, today was supposed to be the first day of the new semester but school was canceled because of a wonderfully impressive storm. The groundhog is in for a real surprise tomorrow, Groundhog Day, when he comes out to see if he can see his shadow and tell us how much longer winter will last. As far as the blog goes, I’m trying to grab the kids attention so later next week I’m posting a photo of a tattoo that’s really cool and fits in with the classroom agreements about mutual respect. I also have a photo of face piercings that I just know will generate some buzz. I want to catch their attention. I don’t want the blog to be just another form of a notebook. I’ll see how that goes. I’ll start by moderating any comments, too. I know that students would like to see what they have written instantly, but I’m not ready for that yet. Yes, I think that sums it up as far as classroom blogging. I’m not ready for the big time, yet. Maybe I need to have something like a graduated license for student bloggers much like the graduated license we have for new drivers here in Ontario. Now, I know there are huge advantageous to throwing student blogging wide open. I’d like to do that, but I know that some of my students - how shall I say this - need to have boundaries in place for them so I’m reluctant to give them free range even after discussing appropriate behaviour while on the blog. I think the appropriate behaviour on the blog would be much the same as the appropriate behaviour in my classroom- mutual respect, attentive listening, no put downs, and showing appreciation when appropriate. I think that covers everything. If someone reading this has had experience with a wide open class blog with kids who can be very creative in the ways they amuse themselves at the expense of others at times, I would really appreciate some feedback. If not, I’ll just take one baby step at a time until I feel comfortable having a more open blog. At this point, I want to say that the edublogs.org site has been very user friendly and the new Edublogger by Sue explains things so that even I can get it. Believe me, sometimes I have a hard time getting even the obvious. My brain just doesn’t think in a digital fashion ,and I won’t be able to get something to work because I miss the obvious. My kids tell me that I’m making it too hard. I used to think that I had this problem because I was a digital immigrant, but I’ve come to the conclusion it’s not that. It’s just my brain. I just don’t get the obvious. Lucky I’m persistent and people around me are patient.

Today I was browsing through my file clippings and came across these headlines in the November 15, 2007 Toronto Star , “Parents equipping kids with bullet-proof backpacks” and “Slash-proof hoodies selling well”. My first thought now, as it was back when I first read the headline was “What a sad state of affairs”. We’ve come to this. Parents are buying slash-proof vests and bullet -proof backpacks for their kids to wear to school. It makes me shudder. Are these items of clothing going to be the new in-thing next September? Will we see slash-proof vests and bullet-proof backpacks in next September’s back-to-school ads? Are slash-proof vests and bullet- proof back packs going to be the new school uniform kids for kids? Are school boards going to insist that teachers wear them? Where is this ride down the slippery slope taking us. It’s scary! I suppose I should appreciate the American and British entrepreneurial spirit that saw the opportunity and seized it to produce and market these $130.00 slash-proof vests and $195.00 bullet-proof backpacks. More than 1000 of these backpacks were sold within two months in the States and hundreds upon hundreds of the slash-proof hoodies lined in Kevlar sold on-line around the world in the first six months of their existence. Bullet proof back-packs and slash-proof hoodies- I don’t know, but I think this is way over the top. Kids are apprehensive enough about going to school without the message the slash-proof vest and bullet- proof backpacks are sending them. Dr. Eilenna Denisoff, a trauma expert with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health notes that fear can be taught and the excessive safety measures will lead kids to think the world is a terrible, frightening place. Kids will become more anxious. Marc Lewis, professor of developmental psychology maintains that this is an awful development given that 13 percent of children in North America suffer from phobias, panic disorders which are often reflect parental fears. I, myself, can see this might add to the problem of school phobias. Every year we give support to kids who are school phobic. School phobia is a real problem for the kids, parents and teachers. This development isn’t going to help. I think some kids are going to be afraid of everything, even afraid to leave the house. The two entrepreneurs, Mike Pelonzi and Joe Currans, who developed the bullet-proof backpack were inspired to do so by their desire to keep their own kids and the kids of their neighbours’ safe. After some research, they decided that the bullet-proof backpack was the best way to go because most kids had backpacks, and they could hold them it in front of them to protect themselves. The slash-proof hoodies are the brain child of a British firm specializing in protective clothing for security and police forces. Their research showed that approximately 90% of the street-smart youths who hung around street corners wore hooded tops. The company targeted this group but was surprised when the demand for the slash-proof hoodies came from parents of 12-13 year old girls and from women over 60. So now the hoodies are available in pink and baby blue. The company is also developing stab-proof school-uniforms. What can I say to all this except it’s so sad. School doesn’t seem to be as safe a place as it used to be. That’s for sure. People have been shot and killed right inside high schools here in the Greater Toronto Area . People have been stabbed and killed right inside high schools here in the Greater Toronto Area. Just this past week two innocent bystanders at two different times were shot and killed on the street as they went about minding their own business because they got caught in the cross fire of someone else’s violence. It’s scary. I guess it is the new reality. I think we need to do more than buy slash-proof hoodies and bullet-proof backpacks to protect ourselves. Related Blog EntriesIt's time to implement the restorative justice process to help make schools safer

I’ve written here about homework before. Homework is a contentious issue. How much is the right amount? Should we be giving homework at all? ASCD’s most recent issue of ASCD Express features thoughts on homework by various authors. I’m really pleased to say that the article I submitted “Differentiating Homework” is included in the issue. If you have a moment and are interested in the homework question, you can access the articles here . Lots of food for thought and discussion in the staff room. Now, I’m going to move from thoughts about homework to thoughts about math. “Math is so confusing- sometimes you have to add and sometimes you have to subtract’.” Granddaughter #1 who was in grade one at the time and I were having a conversation about life in general when she came up with that valuable insight. She’s is in grade three now and tells me she loves geometry because she got to build a castle out of clay using the different geometric shapes and promptly went on to name them all very proudly. She’s not confused anymore. Now, she gets math. She’s into crafts and loves making things so this was a great activity for her. As teachers, we need to do more to match the learner’s strengths with the topic at hand. Some of the students I teach at the high school level are still confused about what to do when faced with a math problem. Earlier here I wrote about kindergarten math being the best predictor about future achievement. Understanding math early in a child’s school career is really important, and yet so many kids are still confused about math when they reach high school. The results of the EQAO math test, the Ontario provincial math test given to nine students make that clear. Only 35% of grade nine students in the applied stream were able to achieve the ministry standard of level 3 or 75%. 88% of students in the academic stream were able to meet or exceed the ministry standard. Why are so many of the students in the applied stream having so much trouble with math? That’s very good question? I think little Granddaughter #! has the answer- math is so confusing for them I was on the school’s Math Literacy Data Analysis Committee (what a mouthful) which among other things looked at the math questions on the provincial test that the students in the applied level classes were finding difficult. The committee determined that students in the applied stream had difficulty applying what they knew. They knew lots of math facts, but didn’t know how or when to apply them. We need to help students make more sense of math. In his article Making sense out of teaching mathematics , Bruce Lieberman writes about a program called Cognitively Guided Instruction that is helping kids make sense out of math. CGI is A teaching philosophy for elementary school math that builds on a child’s natural problem-solving abilities. Helps children understand numbers by having them manipulate objects to add, subtract, multiply and divide. Goal is to prepare students for more abstract mathematical thinking needed for algebra. Why does this approach work? Diane Brown who is on leave this year studying math education at San Diego State University maintains it works because it builds on what children already know about math when they come to school. Most know how to count. They know what it means to get more toys or treats, so they have a basic concept of addition. They know what it means to lose something, or subtraction. And they know the meaning of sharing, which requires division. She goes on to say that Traditional textbooks lean heavily on learning rules to add, multiply and divide. Think about those work sheets with problems like “11 times 36” and “17 divided by four.” Children have a better chance of understanding what those problems mean if they develop a sense of how numbers can be manipulated rather than merely memorizing a set of rules. Although I don’t teach primary school aged kids, what Brown says makes perfect sense to me in my high school classroom. Kids know the facts and know the rules, but can’t manipulate them to apply them. The Cognitively Guided Instruction program is geared to kids up to grade six. If you are interested in finding out more about the Cognitively Guided Instruction program the The Promising Practices Network has rated the program as promising and gives more details about it. I ‘m also optimistic about a computer software program that I recently found out about called The Academy of Math . The Academy of Math is Proven to deliver significant gains, the Academy of MATH® is a reader-friendly math intervention software solution that helps at-risk elementary, middle and high school students develop computational fluency. Using a patented methodology that incorporates an adaptive intervention engine and positive motivation principles, the Academy of MATH builds foundation math skills for beginner through to algebra-ready students in 10 skill areas that align to National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) standards. If you are interested in knowing more , please check out the website for more details by clicking on the link I’ve provided. The Academy of Math can be used at home as well as at school so parents might be interested in it as well as teachers. All the special education teachers at our school had the opportunity to participate in a live on-line presentation. That was cool because we got to ask questions. The Academy of Math looks very promising, especially since it claims that a student’s mathematical achievement level can improve by two grade levels in the relatively short time of 11 weeks. If I remember correctly, it takes 3, 30 minute sessions for 11 weeks to improve a students achievement by two grades. That’s absolutely amazing! I’ve been encouraging our math head and the head of Alternative Programs to share the expense of getting it for our school so that kids with weak math skills could use the program to fill in the gaps and make math less confusing for them. Come to think of it, there’s lots of math in science and geography as well, so those departments could help share the expense because it would help their students do better as well. I’ll have to keep checking to see what’s happening with my suggestion. There’s so many good initiatives going on at our school, I don’t want this one to get lost. There is also an Academy of Reading to help kids improve their reading skills that works along the same lines. I don’t know as much about it, but I intend to find out about it as well. What makes both of these programs great for teachers is that there’s not a lot of time consuming record keeping to be done. The program does it for us. I like that. I don’t need any more paper work. Thank you very much. We’re coming to the end of first semester and it’s kind of bitter sweet. I look forward to the new start in second semester, but I’ll miss the semester 1 kids. I feel I’ve finally got to know them well enough to know what will work in the classroom and what won’t. I’m going to try some new tings with my semester two kids and that’s exciting. I’ve got a couple of weeks to get it all organized. Mathew has organized a Digital Story Telling carnival and the timing couldn’t be better. I’ve already taken a peak at bjennings’ article “A camera for your classroom”. I know nothing about anything and his article really helped. I’m going to take some time toread all the contributions so that I can get up to speed on the topic of digital story telling in the classroom. Before I close, I want to thank Sukhdeep, Kelly, Doug Belshaw, John, Mathew, Meka and Rebbeca for leaving a comment. I really enjoy hearing what you have to say to me and to one another. By the way, I’m pleased to say that Doug Belshaw’s hiatus is over and he’s back blogging with a new site, with a new name and renewed enthusiasm. Good! I’d also like to invite you to participate in Kevin’s “Day in a Sentence”. I participated for the first time last week thanks to Mathew’s invitation. He was the guest host for “Day in a Sentence” last week. Actually, I found great fun to participate and to see what kind of week other people had. Although, I have to admit at first it was a bit of a challenge coming up with one sentence to describe my week. Those of you who know me, will know that I usually don’t stop at one sentence while writing or speaking. I definitely need the practice! It was also interesting to see what kind of week other people had. Finally, I do hope this coming week will find you peaceful, at ease and filled with happiness.

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