HOW TO USE INTERACTIVE NOTEBOOKS

INTERACTIVE NOTEBOOKS

 

LDP ON ACTION RESEARCH AT SMJK SIN MIN, SUNGAI PETANI

Date: 18 February 2012
Venue: SMJK Sin Min
Topic: Action Research in Education
Participants: Administrators & teachers of Form 6, Maths, Science & English Panel
My role: As facilitator / presenter
Content: How to plan and carry out an action research in school.
Reflection:
1. Active participant involvement.
2. Venue was conducive.

THINK-PAIR-SHARE

THINK – PAIR – SHARE
1. Have students read a passage by themselves, read in pairs, or listen as you read the material aloud to them.
2. At an appropriate point, pose a question about the text and have them think for a moment to themselves, then share their ideas with a partner.
3. After a moment or two of discussion, the pair can share their ideas with the class.
It allows them to formulate their ideas on their own, test them out in a non-threatening way with their partners, and then, reinforced by their partner’s feedback, share the ideas with the class.

 Assign Partners - Be sure to assign discussion partners rather than just saying "Turn to a partner and talk it over."
 Change Partners - Switch the discussion partners frequently.
 Give Think Time - Be sure to provide adequate "think time." I generally have students give me a thumbs-up sign when they have something they are ready to share.
 Monitor Discussions - Walk around and monitor the discussion stage.
 Timed-Pair-Share - If you notice that one person in each pair is monopolizing the conversation, you can switch to "Timed-Pair-Share“.
 Randomly Select Students - During the sharing stage at the end, call on students randomly.

• Before introducing the Think-Pair-Share strategy to the students, decide on your target for this lesson. You may choose to use a new text that the class will be reading, or you might want to develop a set of questions or prompts that target key content concepts that you have been studying.
• Describe the strategy and its purpose with your students, and provide guidelines for discussions that will take place. Explain to students that they will (1) think individually about a topic or answer to a question; (2) pair with a partner and discuss the topic or question; and (3) share ideas with the rest of the class.
• Using a student or student(s) from your classroom, model the procedure to ensure that students understand how to use the strategy. Allow time for students to ask questions that clarify their use of the technique.
• Once students have a firm understanding of the expectations surrounding the strategy, monitor and support students as they work through the steps below. Teachers may also ask students to write or diagram their responses while doing the Think-Pair-Share activity.
• Think: Teachers begin by asking a specific higher-level question about the text or topic students will be discussing. Students "think" about what they know or have learned about the topic for a given amount of time (usually 1-3 minutes).
• Pair: Each student should be paired with another student. Teachers may choose whether to assign pairs or let students pick their own partner. Remember to be sensitive to learners' needs (reading skills, attention skills, language skills) when creating pairs. Students share their thinking with their partner, discuss ideas, and ask questions of their partner about their thoughts on the topic (2-5 minutes).
• Share: Once partners have had ample time to share their thoughts and have a discussion, teachers expand the "share" into a whole-class discussion. Allow each group to choose who will present their thoughts, ideas, and questions they had to the rest of the class. After the class “share,” you may choose to have pairs reconvene to talk about how their thinking perhaps changed as a result of the “share” element.

SAMPLE LESSON PLAN: SENSELESS SENTENCES

SENSELESS SENTENCES
Level: Elementary to Lower Intermediate
Duration: 80 minutes
Theme: Any of the 5 themes
Objectives: Proofreading and checking for common mistakes in spelling/word usage.
Grammar Item(s): Subject – Verb Agreement, Tense Sequence
Educational Emphasis: Thinking Skills, Preparation for the Real World.
Materials: Sentence Cards, dictionaries

Activities:
i. Collecting a set of cards and carrying out tasks in Think, Pair & Share.
ii. Underlining the errors and correcting them, using dictionaries if needed.
iii. Turning to another pair and reading aloud corrected sentences.
Prepare a set of cards with the sentences on the front and the correct answer on the back. The mistakes in the sentences should be words that contain the same letters as the correct word. In this manner you are presenting sentences that contain all correctly spelled words; however, the words have been incorrectly used in the context of the sentence. The following is a list of possible sentences to utilize. The correctly written sentence is given in blue:

A. Be careful of the name dog.
Be careful of the mean dog.
B. She cooked in a nap and top.
She cooked in a pot and pan.
C. We caught the turtle in a ten.
We caught the turtle in a net.
D. The act is drinking milk again.
The cat is drinking milk again.
E. The next town is a lime away.
The next town is a mile away.
F. The cup is no the dining room bleat.
The cup is on the dining room table.
G. There was an low screeching in the attic.
There was an owl screeching in the attic.
H. A white save is on the shelf.
A white vase is on the shelf.
I. She tea the ripe lump.
She ate the ripe plum.
J. The little pig's house saw built of warts.
The little pig's house was built of straw.
K. The fox was caught in a part.
The fox was caught in a trap.
L. She watered the garden with a shoe.
She watered the garden with a hose.
M. John now the slat game.
John won the last game.
N. Leon didn't tea her doc sandwich at lunch today.
Noel didn't eat her cod sandwich at lunch today.
O. She has a grin on her finger.
She has a ring on her finger.
P. Please don't pest no the rug.
Please don't step on the rug.

Options:
• Prepare the cards and place them in a learning center. Individual students can use them at a specified time or as an extra activity when their class work has been completed.
• Prepare the cards and present one a day to the whole class. You may designate a specific time during the day as Senseless Sentences time or allow the students to work on the activity throughout the day until a solution is reached.
• Award a small prize to the student or small group who reaches the solution first.
• Encourage students to create their own Senseless Sentences.
• Use a word processing program to create professional looking cards.
• Notch the upper right hand corner for easy sorting.

School Improvement Specialist Coach (SISC)

What Are Peer Coaching and Peer Review?
Peer coaching and peer review are professional development strategies for educators to consult with one another, to discuss and share teaching practices, to observe one another's classrooms, to promote collegiality and support, and to help ensure quality teaching for all students.
In peer coaching, usually two teachers (though sometimes three or more) come together, share in conversations, and reflect on and refine their practice. Their relationship is built on confidentiality and trust in a non threatening, secure environment in which they learn and grow together; therefore, peer coaching is usually not part of an evaluative system.
Similar to peer coaching, peer review pairs an experienced consulting teacher with either a new teacher or a veteran teacher who needs assistance. The pair observe each other's classrooms and share ideas, skills, and study materials, with the mentor providing instructive feedback and recommendations to the novice or struggling teacher. Peer review has one added element that is not part of peer coaching: The consulting teacher conducts formal evaluations and makes recommendations to the participating teacher's supervisor regarding his or her employment status.
Why Use Peer Coaching and Peer Review?
Both strategies provide job-embedded, ongoing professional support. Peer coaching is effective for the following reasons:
It allows teachers to work together professionally, thereby eliminating feelings of isolation.
• It encourages reflection and analysis of teaching practice.
• It promotes specific feedback over time.
• It fosters collaboration among teachers throughout the school building.
As a result, teachers experience positive changes in their teaching practice.
Peer review is an effective way of ensuring quality teaching and helping inadequate teachers improve. Proponents prefer peer review to traditional principal evaluations, because principal evaluations may be rushed, superficial, or perfunctory. Peer review does not have to replace more traditional methods of evaluation, however, but can deepen and expand the processes of accountability. Peer review also allows teachers to take a more active role in their professional development. Because peer review can lead to changes in employment, teacher unions often have been involved in the implementation and evaluation of peer review programs.

Benefits of Journaling

What Are The Benefits of Journaling?
Journaling allows people to clarify their thoughts and feelings, thereby gaining valuable self-knowledge. It’s also a good problem-solving tool; oftentimes, one can hash out a problem and come up with solutions more easily on paper. Journaling about traumatic events helps one process them by fully exploring and releasing the emotions involved, and by engaging both hemispheres of the brain in the process, allowing the experience to become fully integrated in one’s mind.

The benefits of regular reflective writing
Reflective writing enables the documentation of experiences, thoughts, questions, ideas and conclusions that signpost our learning journey. A scholarly approach to teaching requires critical inquiry into practice and into learning; change and improvement result after reflection, planning and action. Keeping a journal develops this as part of our every day practice.
Scholarly teaching involves an appreciation of the teaching and learning process and the ability to intervene purposefully and positively in the learning experience. Reflective writing provides an opportunity for us to think critically about what we do and why. It provides
• a record of events and results and our reactions to them,
• data on which to base reflective discussion,
• opportunity for us to challenge ourselves and what we do and to free us to do it differently and better,
• impetus to take action that is informed and planned,
• the means to develop a personal philosophy of teaching,
• an opportunity to view our teaching objectively and not see all problems as personal inadequacy,
• an enrichment to our classroom because we are prepared to innovate,
• increased confidence through increased insight which enables us to trust our students and enjoy them,
• basic documentation to support future entries in our teaching portfolio and for job applications etc.

The Reflective Teacher

JOURNALING: THE REFLECTIVE TEACHER
Journaling is one of the easiest and most powerful ways to accelerate your personal development. By getting your thoughts out of your head and putting them down in writing, you gain insights you’d otherwise never see.
Here are 3 other powerful benefits of journaling:
• Solve tricky problems. Some problems are very difficult to solve when you’re stuck in an associative, first-person viewpoint. Only when you record the situation and then re-examine it from a third-person perspective does the solution become clear. Sometimes the solution is so obvious that you’re shocked you didn’t see it sooner.
• Gain clarity. A great time to turn to your journal is when you’re just not clear about what to do. Should you quit your job to start your own business? Should you marry your current romantic partner? Are you on the right track financially? It’s amazing how much clearer things become when you explore them in writing.
• Verify your progress. It’s wonderful to go back and re-read journal entries from years ago and see how much real progress has been made. When you’re frustrated that your life doesn’t seem to be working out as you’d like, go back and read something you wrote five years ago — it will totally change your perspective. This helps you in the present moment too by reminding you that you are in fact growing and changing, even when it feels like you’re standing still.
Journaling, as a stress management and self-exploration tool, is not the same as simply recording the happenings in one’s life, like keeping a log. To be most helpful, one must write in detail about feelings and cognitions related to stressful events, as one would discuss topics in therapy.

Are You a Mean Teacher?

Are you a Mean Teacher?


By Laura M Staunton, New Jersey and Barb Erickson, Michigan


A MEAN teacher insists that each student do the best s/he is capable of doing.

A MEAN teacher insists that students hand in their assignments on time and takes off points for late assignments.

A MEAN teacher does not accept incomplete assignments.

A MEAN teacher requires each student to think carefully and to make her/his own decisions.

A MEAN teacher holds each student responsible for her/his own behavior.

A MEAN teacher makes students keep the classroom, themselves, and their belongings neat and clean.

A MEAN teacher does not allow free time in class until all class-work is done.

A MEAN teacher gives homework regularly, sometimes even on weekends.

A MEAN teacher calls on students who don't raise their hands to answer questions.

A MEAN teacher requires all students to treat each other with respect.

A MEAN teacher makes life miserable for students by insisting that they always tell the truth.

A MEAN teacher produces students who are respectful, responsible, and successful.


THE WORLD NEEDS MORE MEAN* TEACHERS!

*(MEAN = Making Excellence A Necessity)

A Real Teacher

Real teachers grade papers in the car, during commercials, in faculty meetings, in the bathroom, and (at the end of the six weeks) have been seen grading in church.

Real teachers cheer when they hear April 1 does not fall on a school day.

Real teachers clutch a pencil while thinking and make notes in the margins of books.

Real teachers can't walk past a crowd of kids without straightening up the line.

Real teachers never sit down without first checking the seat of the chair.

Real teachers have disjointed necks from writing on boards without turning their backs on the class.

Real teachers are written up in medical journals for the size and elasticity of kidneys and bladders.

Real teachers have been timed gulping down a full lunch in 2 minutes, 18 seconds. Master teachers can eat faster than that.

Real teachers can predict exactly which parents will show up at Open House.

Read teachers volunteer for hall duty on days faculty meetings are scheduled.

Real teachers never teach the conjugations of lie and lay to eighth graders.

Real teachers know it is better to seek forgiveness than ask permission.

Real teachers know the best end of semester lesson plans can come from Blockbuster.

Real teachers never take grades after Wednesday of the last week of the six weeks.

Real teachers never assign research papers on the last six weeks or essays on final exams.

Real teachers know the shortest distance and the length of travel time from their classroom to the office.

Read teachers can "sense" gum.

Real teachers know the difference among what must be graded, what ought to be graded, and what probably should never again see the light of day.

Real teachers are solely responsible for the destruction of the rain forest.

Real teachers have their best conferences in the parking lot.

Real teachers have never heard an original excuse.

Real teachers will eat anything that is put in the workroom/teacher's lounge.

Real teachers have the assistant principals' and counselors' home phone numbers.

Real teachers know secretaries and custodians run the school.

Real teachers know the rules don't really apply to them.

Real teachers hear the heartbeats of crisis; always have time to listen; know they teach students, not subjects; and they are absolutely non-expendable.

I am me!

I am Me. In all the world, there is no one else exactly like me. Everything that comes out of me is authentically mine, because I alone chose it -- I own everything about me: my body, my feelings, my mouth, my voice, all my actions, whether they be to others or myself. I own my fantasies, my dreams, my hopes, my fears. I own my triumphs and successes, all my failures and mistakes. Because I own all of me, I can become intimately acquainted with me. By so doing, I can love me and be friendly with all my parts. I know there are aspects about myself that puzzle me, and other aspects that I do not know -- but as long as I am friendly and loving to myself, I can courageously and hopefully look for solutions to the puzzles and ways to find out more about me. However I look and sound, whatever I say and do, and whatever I think and feel at a given moment in time is authentically me. If later some parts of how I looked, sounded, thought, and felt turn out to be unfitting, I can discard that which is unfitting, keep the rest, and invent something new for that which I discarded. I can see, hear, feel, think, say, and do. I have the tools to survive, to be close to others, to be productive, and to make sense and order out of the world of people and things outside of me. I own me, and therefore, I can engineer me. I am me, and I am Okay.
-- Virginia Satir