Looking at the Same Thing Differently

Looking at the Same Thing Differently

9/5/2010

Teach Like a Champion (TLAC)

Remember to practice the "No Opt Out" technique from Doug Lemov's book. No question asked by a teacher should not be answered eventually by the student (s) asked. "I don't know" is no longer an option.

Posted at 9:39 AM by SEAFORD\TFishburn | Category: Education | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

2010-2011 School Year

Wow - we are off and running for a great school year! Thanks to everyone who got the school year up and running (custodians and Mrs. Morris) - things look great and are running smoothly.

I look forward to making this an outstanding year as we look to build on many of Dr. Harris' wonderful accomplishments. As always, my door will be open and together we WILL make a differecne each and every day. - Dr. Fishburn

Posted at 9:35 AM by SEAFORD\TFishburn | Category: Education | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

3/14/2010

Building a Better Teacher

I read this article (see link below) titled: Building a Better Teacher in the New York Times Sunday Magazine and thought it was not only worth reading, but aslo worth sharing. Simply put, the article revolved aound Doug Lemov's research on what works in the classroom. He found by video tapeing successful teachers in action, that there are 49 techniques that the best teachers practice. He composed these findings in a book entitled: Teach Like a Champion: The 49 Techniques That Put Students on a Path for College (http://www.amazon.com/Teach-Like-Champion-Techniques-Students/dp/0470550473).

Links to the article and other material:

Article - Building a Better Teacher: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/magazine/07Teachers-t.html?ref=magazine

Videos of teacher's using a few techniques: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/03/07/magazine/20100307-teacher-videos.html#/readingaloud

Related links - Lemov's Taxonomy: http://www.uncommonschools.org/usi/aboutUs/taxonomy.php

Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~dball/articles/HillRowanBallAERJSummer05.pdf

Good quote from the article: "Teaching depends on what other people think, not what you think." - Deborah Loewenberg Ball

Posted at 12:23 PM by SEAFORD\TFishburn | Category: Education | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

12/26/2009

The Neuroscience of Failure

Hope you and your families are well and relaxing. I find that when I am able to relax I can read and think with greater clarity (curse you - hectic world)! Here's an article from Wired magazine (a subscription I get) about the neuroscience of failure. Very interesting stuff and after I read it I thought of my own experiences going through some classes with my cohort and now specifically in my profession. Some things that resonated with me (I copied this from the article:) "Modern science is populated by expert insiders, schooled in narrow disciplines. Researchers have all studied the same thick textbooks, which make the world of fact seem settled. This led Kuhn, the philosopher of science, to argue that the only scientists capable of acknowledging the anomalies — and thus shifting paradigms and starting revolutions — are “either very young or very new to the field.” In other words, they are classic outsiders, naive and untenured. They aren’t inhibited from noticing the failures that point toward new possibilities." - read the entire article to put this into context. Now me thinking: This is more of a note to myself as I wedge myself in my profession so I do not get narrow-minded and am unable to see out of the box solutions for change and to solicit the help of others from within the organization and also some with fresh eyes outside of the organization. Regardless, an interesting take on failure, because I do believe that these failures are necessary for strong, influential growth as life long learners. Check out the article: http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/12/fail_accept_defeat/all/1 Happy Holidays, Todd

Posted at 9:31 AM by SEAFORD\TFishburn | Category: Ramblings | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

10/12/2009

Extended Day

We are in the process of implementing a Learning Focused strategy of acceleration and previewing for our extended day program. Teachers in grades 2 - 5 will be pulling vocabulary and key concepts from the Trailblazers curriculum according to the scope and sequence. Next we will organize the key concepts and vocabulary as we prioritize according to the state standards. Lastly, we will gather materials to teach the key concepts and organize vocabulary strategies. All this will be organized into a binder whereby a foundation will be created to eventually have vocabulary and concepts pulled for each unit for the entire year. What we want to eventually have is for each grade level and each subject to have a clear and concise framework by unit so all our support folks can better integrate the materials to help accelerate and remediate. We will also be using Math out of the Box and Marilyn Burns materials to teach some of the key concepts.

An example would be an ELL teacher working with her small groups on key vocabulary that is about to surface in math class. Or a music teacher could incorporate math concepts and vocabulary into her lessons while meeting and addressing her musical components.

Collaboration and planning will be key as we unroll this initiative. Each extended day teacher will collaborate with grade level colleagues to make sure she is able to preview according to the pace of the grade level.

Upon completion of the extended day program we will evaluate the effectiveness of the program by evaluating how the students faired on their math assessments before the implementation of acceleration/previewing and afterwards.

Posted at 9:53 AM by SEAFORD\TFishburn | Category: Education | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

8/29/2009

Personal Educational Press

This is a cool site where teachers can create great activities such as word games, flashcards, BINGO boards, study sheets, quizzes, and much more. Basically you choose a category (language, math, science, social studies), pick from a list, chose features, click create, and your creation is ready to print. Here's an example of what I did: I picked language arts then chose DOLCH second words, I then clicked flashcards, next I chose 2x3.5 (business card size), and clicked Create Print Window. The flashcards can up, I printed them, and had my daughter cut them up and we went to work.

It takes a few minutes to explore the site and mouse around to figure out some of the cool features, but it is a great resource. This would be a great tool to use to create materials for individuals or small groups of students after you have given a diagnostic inventory that allowed you to pinpoint specific weaknesses. Try it out!

http://www.educationalpress.org/

Posted at 12:40 PM by SEAFORD\TFishburn | Category: Education | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

8/28/2009

Agents of Change

Siemens, Discovery Education and the National Science Teachers Association charge students and teachers to create solutions to environmental problems. This authentic endeavor creates a slew of integrated curricular opportunities. Arranged by grave level clusters, this challenge is localized, authentic, and offers possible prizes. check it out: http://wecanchange.com/

Posted at 9:29 AM by SEAFORD\TFishburn | Category: Technology | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

7/28/2009

TechCamp Day 2

It is amazing to be around so many educators who are passionate about leraning! These kinds of events/activities are contagious and create a welcoming and refreshing atmosphere. I even heard a teacher (Susan Stephens) comment that she added her first unit of reading (vocabulary) on Quizlett. Way to go Susan!

I am so lucky to be associated with all these fine folks - Todd!

Posted at 9:09 AM by SEAFORD\TFishburn | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

7/27/2009

TechCamp 2009

Check out Todd's PowerPoint from the Summer 2009 TechCamp entitled: Students as Contributors

Todd's PowerPoint

Posted at 3:19 PM by SEAFORD\TFishburn | Category: Technology | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

12/7/2008

K12 Handheld Files on the Web

K 12 Handhelds, a company out of Long Beach California, has been a partner with the Seaford School District and the Mid-Atlantic Handheld and Emerging Technology Conference the past four years. This collaboration and professional development initiative has afford our teachers the opportunity to influence student achievement with technology.

Basically, our teachers have collaborated with the company, who in return, have created multimedia applications to target specific skills taught at various grade levels. Most of these materials have been created for use on each schools' handheld computers. However, many of these files can be used using a desktop computer in the classroom or projection on the screen using a multimedia projection cart.

I invite you to navigate to the site below and check out some of these resources (they are arranged by grade level). Some sample titles include: letter sound and recognition, sight words, writing letters, word families, ten frames, cause and effect, counting, time, money, subject-verb agreement, reading workshop, mixtures and solution and many more.

If you have any questions about the files or how to use them please let me know. Please note that if you are using a desktop computer click on the desktop files from the site. This is a password protected site so please do not share the password with those outside our district. To get the password please contact Dr. Fishburn.

www.k12handhelds.com/seaford

Posted at 12:06 PM by SEAFORD\TFishburn | Category: Education | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

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