The exceedingly successful Tennessee businessman may have shrieked with excitement when he realized all along he likely knew what would work well in American schools. "More is best." "Too much is never enough." For an Entrepreneur these adages are thought accurate. Bob Compton, founder and head of several technology and medical firms, a man with a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard knows how to tackle a problem and achieve results.
As I perused the poems Melissa shared I was reminded of why I teach. I treasure the opportunity to interact with another in ways in which we both learn. This chance awareness, is precious. The many people who, each day, help me grow, richly bless me. I value and cherish being emotionally and intellectually touched by students, families, friends, and colleagues. In the process of sharing ideas and exploring life, I learn. I feel. I grow, and appreciate the unimaginable greatness of being one with many.
It's the end of the school year. Can you believe we've made it? Six months ago, June seemed so far away. Now it's here. Some of you have finished the school year, but those of us who haven't, I wanted to talk about end of the year love.
Recently, I was asked to share some ideas for Title One month. The question posed were "What can we, as teachers and supervisors do to better involve parents in our pupils' formal education?" "How can we bring Moms and Dads to the classroom?"
Please realize I do not have all the answers. I will offer a few thoughts; however, my true intent is to invite each of you to add your comments. I hope to start a dialogue, one that will help each of us discover what we had not imagined. Too frequently, we know what we know, do, as we have done and do not delve deeper.
With this in mind, I decided I might explore beyond the boundary of what I knew and did. Hence, I sought a little help from my Catapult colleague friends. I turned to Barbara Pennucci, Program Supervisor in Dayton Ohio. Ms Pennucci shared what she and her teachers do to help Parents feel welcome and part of their child's education. Barbara wrote in response to my request for inspiration . . .
As a Title I teacher, I am constantly stressing how important it is to have a positive attitude in school and generally, throughout life. One of my classrooms rules is "Have and 'I Can' attitude!" When a group of Catapult 5th grade reading students, (all girls), began reading Oprah Winfrey's biography, I used the book as an opportunity to further emphasize this point.
The class was usually well behaved, but the students had moments of self doubt and negativity. The girls came from diverse family situations and they all had to cope with inner city stresses (homelessness, alcoholism, poverty, etc.) in their every day lives.
Although it took me almost 30 years before I could fold an origami crane without assistance, I think that origami can be a fun way to promote math and celebrate API heritage. There are many stories, real and legendary, behind the crane which can help with reading.
The California Dept. of Ed. Lists origami as one of the many "suggested activities for accommodating students' learning styles." http://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/eo/is...
The Federal Resources for Educational Excellence has as a National Science Foundation program called ScienCentralNews http://www.free.ed.gov/resourc... which has a really interesting link to Extreme Origami , http://www.merrimack.edu/%7Eth... an informational site by a former laser physicist/current full time origami artist. Part of the site is dedicated to "origami mathematics" http://www.merrimack.edu/~thul...
This site also links to an interesting, but technical article, A Mathematical Theory of Origami Constructions and Numbers, published in the New York Journal of Mathematics. http://nyjm.albany.edu/j/2000/... It may help boost students' confidence to first do an easy origami project and then show all the formulas in the article and tell them they did it! There are many websites with directions for children's origami and many books. If you are interested but have trouble finding ones that work for your class, then let me know. You don't need special origami paper - any paper will do as long as it is cut into a square (you can make it a more environmentally friendly activity by using paper that would otherwise be recycled).
Also, let me know if you want more info or a link to see my version of the story of "Sadako and the 1,000 cranes," which was recorded as part of my ECE storytelling class years ago. I remember my mother telling me this story, which was always easier for me to remember than how to fold a crane!
If your students have a hard time with it, you can let them know that we had an annual event with law students, who had a very difficult time folding cranes. Also, they can decide what real or "original" animal their origami looks most like and make up a story about it.
Once you label me, you negate me. ~ Soren Kierkegaard [Danish Philosopher]
"Union gives strength." ~ Aesop's Fables, The Bundle of Sticks
The Mentors, Co-authors of Beyond the Bake Sale: The Essential Guide to Family-School Partnerships (with Vivian R. Johnson and Don Davies), Anne T. Henderson and Karen L. Mapp offer advice and dozens of practical solutions for building strong family-school-community relationships to benefit student learning.
Parents, pupils, professional educators; the lines are drawn. Distinctions define these individuals. Too often, each of us forgets what we are intensely familiar with in our personal lives, we are people. No two of us are identical.
The month of May was come,
when every lusty heart beginneth to blossom,
and to bring forth fruit;
for like as herbs and trees bring forth fruit and flourish in May,
in likewise every lusty heart that is in any manner a lover,
springeth and flourisheth in lusty deeds.
For it giveth unto all lovers courage,
that lusty month of May. ~ Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur, 1485
April showers have given rise to May flowers. The rain nourished the soil. Roots spread. The sun, water, and wind supported the seeds and buds blossomed. Our children are as kernels planted in terra firma. Educator, parents, and teachers grow a garden of pupils when they attend to the needs of the littlest plants. Catapult colleagues in Tennessee understand this. In this, the last Parent Link publication of the school year, instructors from the South offer ideas, so that teachers may help sustain the bloom on the current crop of students. Beginning now and through the summer, Moms and Dads may wish to consider ways to nurture a child's creative interests.
The newsletter also offers ideas to further the relationship between parent and child, home and school. Mentors in Tennessee consider how we might foster financial expertise in our youngsters. Television time will also be a consideration if we are to rear critical thinkers. Teachers in the Volunteer State offer ways in which guardians might seek other activities and opportunities for the offspring.
Joanne Hawley and those who work with her invite us to peruse and use this communiqué to help our parents grow their glorious garden, otherwise known as the profound and beautiful progeny. Passages taken from the pages may tantalize . . .
Parents can help their children find opportunities for learning in everyday activities. Ask your child what his or her interests are and let the learning discovery begin! Here are some tips:
Seek local studios and businesses through the Yellow Pages. Visit your local library for telephone books of nearby cities, or use the Internet. Offer to take classes with your child in his or her areas of interest.
Search the newspapers. Look for articles about local residents with the skills you are looking for and share these stories with your child.
Call museums. Museums have a lot of information about local artists and often offer free admission. Call early in the day during the week so you won't compete for attention with large crowds.
Contact your Chamber of Commerce. Local Chambers provide names and telephone numbers of people in the industry you desire.
Surf the Web. This is a good way to view lists of local and national associations. Many offer calendars of regional events and weekend seminars in your area.
Attend local fairs, conferences, and festivals. Many artists and craftspeople work out of their homes or in studios. Special forums may be the best place to find them. Ask about receiving instruction or referrals of other teachers.
Remember that the search may not end overnight. To support your child's interests in the meantime, buy books about the field he or she is interested in and about famous professionals. You can also rent or borrow videos about the activity for your child. Always encourage your child's interests in non-traditional activities. Hobbies often turn into great careers. Even more important, your child learns other skills along the way and develops creative self-expression.
Please share this publication with Principals and Parents. We welcome your ideas. What have you done to teach our children? We know the options for instruction are infinite. In May, the sun shines brightly. Let us ensure our children will radiate and glow as the star in the sky does. Nourish the flowers and the souls who sit in a classroom. Perchance, by the Fall of the year what was but a blossom will be a field of flora.
Please share how the buds you call students have grown with loving care. The Tennessee teachers await the bouquets of blossoms you call lessons.
Dear Catapult colleague, if you have a newsletter, a lesson plan, a counseling strategy, a helpful hint, or any other materials you think might benefit your associates please share it with Encourage Education readers. Suggestions are also welcome.
If you need assistance, and feel uncertain of how to best publish an entry, please do not hesitate to contact Betsy L. Angert, the Web page Administrator. Please mail your questions, comments, and request for assistance to learnglow@yahoo.com.
As educators, the issues that concern America's children are important to us. Many of us at Catapult Learning are aware of what occurs when a child is seen as nothing more than a statistic. When people are taught and assessed as though they are numbers, little knowledge is gained. Discipline problems are prominent.
Our students have experienced invisible hurts. These hinder their ability to learn. Too many suffer emotional loss and physical pain. The intellect is slowed by all the commotion at home. Personal angst consumes a child's mind. Our young have trouble in school. All that happens in a tot's, teens, or adolescent's life is not separate and safely filed away for a time when adults can assist a young child to cope with tribulations. Children are whole beings and if we are to effectively educate them, we must treat them as such.
Encourage Education invites each Catapult Learning colleague to be part of a broader community. May we each consider the possibilities if we choose to encourage the Whole Child concept. Perchance it is time to ponder as The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development asks us to do. ASCD sponsors The Whole Child Home webpage. This site features numerous interactive and informative resources.
Here is a quick idea to incorporate Earth Day (and art via an exhibit called Running the Numbers: An American Self Portrait) into math lessons.
This reminded me of the book/video about how much a million is, but with an environmental twist. Some of the images may not be appropriate for class, but are compelling to look at on your own).
On the website linked below, there are zoomed out images (as well as partial zoom and actual print size images) of huge huge numbers of items we use in our daily lives -- a picture of 1 million plastic cups, 2 million plastic beverage bottles, 426,000 cell phones, 1.14 million paper bags, 106,000 aluminum cans, 410,000 paper cups, 60,000 plastic cups. Students can try to guess what the individual item is. They can write the number in expanded notation or, when given the frequency of use, can practice proportions or mental math. For example: if there are 1.14 million paper bags used in the US every hour, then how many every minute? how many every day? etc. (These frequencies are on the website)
There are many other math activities that can be derived from this art - let me know if you have any questions. I offer a superb reference . . .
Running the Numbers;An American Self-Portrait. By Chris Jordan
Also, the resource book Activity Math: Using Manipulatives in the Classroom (Bloomer & Carlson) has some good ideas:
"Have students research the capacity of neary lakes, resrvoirs... Have them then figure the equivalent cups, pints, and quarts. How much water is used for a bath? A shower? A bath a day for a week, month or year? A faucet that leaks a cup an hour?" p. 216
By the way, changing part of an Achieve Reading lesson script on sequence can be an environmental lesson related to the water one above. When introducing sequencing and order (with the example of brushing teeth) the script makes it seem like wetting the toothbrush before putting on paste is a requirement. This can be an environmental education moment -- we don't need to wet the toothbrush first. How much water would we save in a week, month, year, lifetime if we skipped that step?
For a hands-on activity: 1) count (and keep) the paper towels you use when you dry your hands after you wash them. 2) calculate how many are used in a week, month, year, etc. 3) brainstorm ways to reuse -- eg: wipe the boards, erasers, and desks; clean up spills etc. 4) how many trees does it take to make the paper towels? 5) what percentage of landfills is paper products?
There are so many opportunities to reinforce math (and reading) with environmental and environmental in/justice issues that are relevant to our students - especially those who live in areas that are especially affected by pollution and/or those who suffer from asthma, which can be triggered by pollution.
I'll try to post more ideas, but for now there are tons of resources on the Federal Resources for Educational Excellence link above.
"Now that the winter's gone, the earth hath lost
Her snow-white robes, and now no more the frost
Candies the grass, or casts an icy cream
Upon the silver lake or crystal stream;
But the warm sun thaws the benumbed earth,
And makes it tender; gives a sacred birth
To the dead swallow; wakes in hollow tree
The drowsy cuckoo and the humble-bee.
Now do a choir of chirping minstrels bring
In triumph to the world the youthful spring." ~ Thomas Carew, The Spring, 1630
As you read the rhyme, did you envisage the billowy snow banks that exist no more? Were frost filled fields prominent in your mind's eye? Might the lake covered in ice have been the memory evoked? A sense of warmth may have come upon you as the word "sun" appeared on the page. Inquire of yourself. Instantly, are you transformed by the words? Sounds echoed in your ears if you felt what the poem speaks of. Did the beauty of what you know to be the month of April inspire you as you perused The Spring? If you were inspired and imagined as you scanned the words the author offered, then, according to the information in the April 2008 Parent Link newsletter, you may be a Visual - Spatial learner. If you were not, you may be one of millions who interpret information in another manner. Please peruse; ponder how you might best learn.
Please note, a Spanish version of the Parent Link is now accessible in a Portable Document Format [pdf] file. The Link for this printable edition is offered at the close of this composition.
Here is an idea based on info from the CA Dept of Ed.'s Cesar Chavez Day model curriculum for grades 4-6 (specifically Lesson 5: César Chávez, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Civil Rights ) http://chavez.cde.ca.gov/Model...
I mainly chose this lesson out of the many in the model curriculum since Black History is so important at this school and I could make a math lesson from it, even though the model curriculum is for history-social science.
Here is the idea:
1. Read the telegram that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. sent to Cesar E. Chavez.
2. Students count all the letters in the telegram.
3. Students calculate how much it would cost to send the telegram if it was, for example, 2 cents per letter. (You could expand the lesson by charging more/less for vowels, punctuation, special letters, etc.)
4. Students find the ratio of vowels to consonants, and convert to percentage and decimal form.
More math lessons could be created from the same info linked above, focusing on:
1. wages of farm workers/minimum wage then and now (also could practice subtracting decimals and compare federal v. state minimum wage)
2. economic impact of grape boycott (or, would be easier to make various calculations based on advertised price of grapes today -- you can bring a pound of grapes and have students calculate how many grapes in a pound and how much each grape costs, etc.)
3. the distance from your school to a Cesar Chavez mural or between murals (students determine miles, yards, feet, inches as well as metric conversions) (take and bring a picture of mural; if time, can make guessing game for local students for where the mural is). This might work better in San Francisco or other cities where these murals are common, but pictures and imagination can help! Also, you can get into proportions if the students are interested in going from small sketch to wall-sized murals...
I did the following quick activity with my 5th graders today: 1) wrote spaces for each letter of Cesar E. Chavez's name on the board; 2) told students today is the birthday of someone whose name we will guess on the board; 3) asked the class if they know any student in another school who didn't have school today and why (it's a holiday for some public schools); 4) read students the telegram that Dr. Martin Luther King sent; and 5) had students guess letters. We probably should have also done a ratio/decimal/percentage activity for the vowels and consonants.
(Cmays reminds us of the power of words.
She offers a thought that may evoke more essays.
How has an essay helped evoke more than a discussion on literature?
Please share your stories. - promoted by Betsy L. Angert)
Just a short note to say, "thanks" to Betsy for posting Maya Angelou's poem. We read it in my high school reading group, compared the caged bird and free bird, then had a great discussion about other opposing groups - slaves and owners, American Indians and white settlers, abusive spouses and their mates, etc. Interesting and powerful.
It's not too late to remind principals to return their surveys.
Also, remind your students to return their parents' surveys. Make it a contest, give them a prize, or just let them know the importance of the survey.
TITLE 1 MARCH UPDATE
HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY
HAPPY SPRING
HAPPY SPRING BREAK
Good Luck to the schools/students participating in ITBS testing this month.
REMINDERS:
• The Parent Workshop will be held on March 7, Friday @ St. Joseph Family Life Center, 1217 Gallatin Pk. Madison @ 12:00-1:30. Topic "What to do over Spring Break-Reading and Math Activities," by Fran Gregory.
• PRINCIPALS MEETING---MARCH 12, WEDNESDAY @ St. Joseph Family Life Center, 1217 Gallatin Pk. Madison @ 11:30-1:00. Lunch will be provided. Lunch selection form is attached.
• Catapult Learning has mailed to you an evaluation survey. Please return it to the Philadelphia office by March 19. Thanks so much for taking time to complete this survey.
Newsletters will be sent home this month. Attached is a copy. Enjoy!
Progress Reports will also be sent home at the end of the month.
The quarterly Teacher 2-way communication forms will be given to your classroom teachers this month. Once again, this communication is required by Title 1, and it helps to plan lessons for the students.
Classes are going well. Students are being added, as slots become available.
Professional Development workshops need to be planned. Please let me know of your ideas regarding this area. Also, for PD360, emails are needed to complete the process for licenses.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.
The Tennessee teachers, as they move into Spring wish to work with the Whole Child. The basics are not behind us. They are integrated into our lessons. Math, Reading, Writing cannot stand alone as academic achievements. These disciplines are part and parcel of a package we call "pupil." A parent might label that same person, progeny. Whatever we wish to title the little wonder that stand before us, we must honor his or her importance. In the March 2008 Parent Link. adults are given guidelines to assist in developing a child's esteem.
Please note, a Spanish version of the Parent Link is now accessible in a Portable Document Format [pdf] file. The Link for this printable edition is offered at the close of this composition.
(We thank you bbartney. - promoted by Betsy L. Angert)
A friend told me yesterday about a great website, so I checked it out this morning. www.mathfactcafe.com
You can generate your own worksheets on time, money (with real looking coins) and basic math facts. This is a great site and worth checking out! Thanks, Nicole
