Scribbler's Den

Not only can a teacher NOT do everything, but if they try to things will soon start to fall apart.  There is no sense in doing a dozen things at once if they aren't going to be done well.  So, delegate!  Set up roles for your students to do each lesson or each day.  The time spent setting up a roster will pay off a hundred times over.

Getting students to open and shut the windows, set up and pack up the projector, collect and return the text books saves you time and establishes a routine all students love (even if they won't admit it).  Even if the task is a minor job like writing the date in the corner of the white board it is an opportunity for the student to be involved in the class team.  Errands are an opportunity too.  I delegate errands to those students who always have energy to burn.

With students contributing to classroom management teachers can focus on their pedagogy rather than being distracted by the petty organisational aspects of classroom management.

Jobs I have in my classroom include:

Floor Manager (keeps the floor clean)

Table Crew (return tables to a specified layout)

Chair Stackers (pack up and dispense chairs)

Fan Controller (controls the ceiling fans)

Window Openers & Window Closers

White Board cleaner

Whiteboard Date writer (Otherwise I get asked 10 times every lesson)

Projector Setup & Projector Packup

Note Deliverer/Errand Doer

Text Book Collecters & Text Book Returners

Handout Deliverer

Whiteboard Writers (must have neat handwriting for short passages or note taking)

Time Keeper (oral presentations, activities etc)

What roles do you delegate in your classroom?

(This is an article I submitted to a local English Teaching Journal.  Hopefully they will publish it.)

When teachers think of technology, it is the application of it in the classroom that often comes to mind.  This is understandable, after all classroom pedagogy is a large part of a teacher's core business.  ICTs also help to make pedagogy easier to implement.  However, classroom implementation of technology shouldn't be the only use of technology in a teacher's arsenal of best practice.

Blogs too can be a powerful influence on classroom practice.  No longer are blogs the private domain of the internet geek, the navel gazing teenager telling the world what they had for breakfast or the star struck proclaiming their love for Rob Patterson (The new Brad Pitt?).  With internet use now ubiquitous blogs are common place and used widely by teaching professionals.  Blogs are quickly gaining a reputation as a valuable resource for almost any industry.  They offer a range of benefits to teaching professionals too.

1.  What is Blogging?

For those not yet familiar with the practice of blogging, ProBlogger (a popular blogging blog) has an interesting article discussing what blogging is -  http://www.problogger.net/archives/2005/02/05/what-is-a-blog/ Typically though a blog is a journal website with a mixture of articles, videos and discussions between readers.  Alternatively, think of blogs as a series of open letters or a live and organic personal magazine. Blogs are usually (but not always) written by one person and often (but not always) written on a particular topic.

Google Wave sounds great.  I can see the benefits of its use in the classroom, in the staffroom and in my personal life.  But until I know more, I have my reservations.

I need a question answered.  Will the application be beholden to Google only, like Google Docs is, or will it be open for any client to use?

Surely for it to take off and become ubiquitous like email is today we must be able to use Google Wave with any client, even a non Google one.  After all we can use email with any email client we want.  If Google Wave is only useable in the Google suite of applications then I doubt it will take off outside of Google's usual users.  Also, I fear my school's admin team or my state's education body will block Google Wave.  After all they have already blocked Google Documents.

If Google Wave truly is as open as today's email then I will be a very happy teacher.

Edit: I have since been able to procure myself an invite and am very happy.  I don't have any invites though :(  It seems only initial users are given invites hand out.

This is a guest post from education writer Karen Schweitzer.  Karen is the writer for the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes about courses online for OnlineCourses.org. I use a couple of these resources myself so I thought her article would be useful.

High school teachers who want lesson plans, curriculum ideas, and other resources for the classroom can find almost everything they need online. There are tons of websites dedicated to helping teachers become more productive and engage students in the classroom. Here are 20 web resources to explore before the beginning of the school year:

EDSITEment - EDSITEment was created by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Trust for the Humanities, and the Verizon Foundation. The site offers language arts, foreign language, art, history, and social studies lesson plans for teachers as well as links to trusted resources around the web.

Thinkfinity - Thinkfinity is an amazing website for K-12 teachers. The site hosts interactive games, a lesson plan search engine, and professional development opportunities for teachers.

PBS Teachers - This PBS website offers many useful resources for K-12 teachers, including lesson plans, suggested activities, and other classroom resources.

Highlights for High School - This MIT website provides open courseware for high school teachers and students. Teachers can find a wide range of materials to help them in the classroom, including video demonstrations, homework problems, science labs, and study material for AP exams.

High School Ace - High School Ace was created for students, but it also doubles as a useful resource for high school teachers. The site provides educational games, guides for major subject areas, and links to handy references.

Learner.org Interactives - Learner.org provides teachers with content and interactive activities that can be used to improve learning and skills in the classroom.

Secondary Education - The About.com Guide to Secondary Education offers articles, a blog, lesson plans, a community forum and other resources for educators who teach grades 7-12.

Random House for High School Teachers - This Random House website is designed specifically for high school teachers. The site offers reading lists for every major subject area and other free resources that can be used in the classroom.

Shmoop - Created by Ph.D. and Masters students from top universities, Shmoop offers free teacher resources and fun study guides for poetry, literature, and history.

Bibliomania - Bibliomania offers thousands of free books, literature summaries, author biographies, and other resources that would be useful to high school English teachers.

LiTgloss - LiTgloss is a University of Buffalo project that hosts a collection of texts written in foreign languages.

Teaching Shakespeare - This free resource from Folger Education provides lesson plans, audio, video, classroom activities, and other materials for educators who teach Shakespeare.

C-SPAN Classroom - This C-SPAN site provides a wide range of resources for teaching civics and U.S. government. Specific resources include standards-based content, downloadable videos, and links to PDF worksheets.

Smithsonian - The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History features a virtual tour option that allows students to visit the museum and various exhibits from the classroom.

American Museum of Natural History Anthropology Collection - The museum's anthropology division hosts an amazing digital collection of ethnological objects. Students can explore nearly 200,000 objects by continent.

Getty Museum - Getty Museum is home to one of the world's greatest collections of Western Art. The museum provides many online resources as well, including standards-based lesson plans, teacher workshops, and student activities.

Edmodo - Edmodo is a free, private social platform for students and teachers who want to be able to communicate online. It can be used for microblogging, file storage, event tracking, assignments, grading, and much more.

TeacherTube - Similar to YouTube, TeacherTube provides a place for teachers to share instructional videos online.

Edutagger - Edutagger is a social bookmarking site for K-12 teachers and learners. It can be used to bookmark URLs and share content over the web.

Classroom 2.0 - This site is a free social network for teachers who want to learn more about incorporating web 2.0 technologies in the classroom.