My Head is in the Clouds

Fellow teachers who aren’t tweeters often don’t get why it is that I rely so much on Twitter for my professional growth, sharing and sanity. This great tweet visualization site was shared by Darcy Moore (@darcy1968). I thought I’d share with you my tweet cloud.

Then others in my PLN started sharing their Tweet Clouds as well. I wanted to highlight a few that were shared to demonstrate why I tweet!

Patrick Larkin (@bhsprincipal)

Diana Dell (@dianadell)

Ric Murry (@rrmurry)

Who needs words to explain why I tweet and why I have a PLN when I have these great  word clouds? If we all surrounded ourselves with people whose conversational focus was students, school, technology, learning and such, we’d all be in a better place! What does your word cloud say about you?

* A note about TweetCloud… this third party application does ask for your Twitter login and password. If you choose to share this information with TweetCloud and generate your own, you may want to go to your Twitter page afterwards and revoke its access to your account and change your password. Be safe and smart!

Dear Santa

Dear Santa,

Merry Christmas Santa! It’s hard to believe it’s that time of year again. I hope you, Mrs. Claus and your elves are doing well. I know you are very busy. It’s been a tough year, but I am definitely keenly aware of all my blessings. I tried my best to be a good girl, and I know I’ve messed up plenty of times. I’m hoping you will overlook those infractions for me. I have decided that this year I don’t need anything, but I hope you will consider my wishes for some special people in my life.

Santa, my students are very special to me. For them, I ask you bring the gift of insatiable curiosity. Sprinkle them with a hunger for learning that will not be quenched by the questions they ask me or answers I give. Make this gift last a lifetime that no one will be able to discourage the excitement that comes with it.

For my peers, Santa, I ask you to please bring connections. Bestow upon my fellow teachers a group of individuals with whom to laugh, cry, share, challenge and grow. Let them feel the benefits and support of a like-minded group of individuals who all want what is best for our students. Let these connections lift one another up and create an inviting network that will enhance their teaching and learning.

Mr. C., I can’t forget our leaders – the people making decisions that affect us all. Please bring them giant stockings full of fearless and focused wisdom. Let their hearts not be swayed by the forces that negatively affect the focus of our country. Instead, keep their eyes, hearts and minds focused on leading our country to a bright, positive future that embraces our individuality, our gifts and our potential.

For my sweet boys, Santa, please fill their hearts with wonder. When they see a sunset or a grasshopper or a great 3D movie, give them wide eyes and a gaping mouth. Let them gasp at the sight of sparkling lights and giant ice cream cones. Give them the desire to try new things, without the fear of failure. Allow them to be amazed at themselves and the world around them on a daily basis.

Finally, Santa, bring the world a never-ending supply of hope mixed with action. There doesn’t seem to be enough of that going around lately. When things get tough, help us remember to be hopeful of what great things we can be and what we can accomplish – just don’t let us forget to take action.

Thanks Santa for thinking of those people who are most important to me. I think they would all love their gifts. As for me, this year I am just grateful.

Your friend (and true believer),

Kelly

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mysza/ / CC BY 2.0

NCSTA: Day 2 of Teaching and Learning

Today was the second full day of teaching and learning at the 4oth annual North Carolina Science Teachers’ Association, and what a day it was! I want to share some about what I learned, and even some about I shared in my sessions.

Dr. Joseph Levine gave a fascinating keynote this morning titled “What’s Up with the Flu?” He focused on various strains of the flu, zoonosis and the genetic variation of viruses. As a member of my PLN mentioned today, “who needs horror movies. This is real life.”

Powerful resources on the influenza pandemic of 1918

 

Teachers and pre-service teachers working in partnership with East Carolina University shared their projects and activities in a share-a-thon session. They featured many high school activities and programs, as well as some of their summer program offerings. Here are a few things they shared!

Free online tools for species identification and classification

Interactive web-based Genetics labs (Mendel is an action figure – so cool)

Energy Smart Resources from Scholastic and the Magic School Bus

 

Today was also a chance for me to share with my fellow science education professionals about areas of science instruction that I love – those related to technology. I shared sessions on interactive sites for teachers and students to use on interactive whiteboards, just with a projector or on individual computers. I had 30 minutes to share resources and ideas with teachers from grades K-12 – talk about a whirlwind! I was very pleased with how it went, but I certainly could have talked for hours. Find my presentation HERE.

 

My personal success of the day came during my social media session, Science Teacher as Science Learner. I took on WAY too much for an hour, and many of my participants actually hung around later to finish and expand discussions.  One teacher came in saying that she didn’t like the internet. She left saying she was going to try some of the social media/PLN ideas I shared. I was blown away. I was curious about what changed her mind, and she mentioned that she felt validated that there is dangerous and useless stuff on the internet, but I convinced her that the possibilities for learning that exist with a Personal Learning Network online. I learned an important lesson here.  She was open to learning more because I didn’t tell her she was wrong. I didn’t try to convince her that there was nothing to worry about with social networking. Instead, I acknowledged these concerns but pushed through to the benefits! I’m definitely filing that one away for next time.

 

Thanks for sharing in my learning from NCSTA this year!

Learning at NCSTA

This week, I am attending the annual professional development institute of the North Carolina Science Teachers’ Association. This yearly event focuses on providing two full days of professional development for K-2o science educators and pre-service teachers in the form of general sessions, concurrent meetings, exhibit halls and more. The learning sessions are provided by university educators, classroom teachers, vendors, government agencies, and non-profit organizations. There are sessions for everyone. The focus of the 2009 institute is sustainability.  If there’s anything that I’ve learned from my Personal Learning Network (PLN), it’s that sharing is power. So, here I am – wanting to share some snip-its of the goodies that I learned today. There are links, resources, tips and ideas. There are even a few questions that I may or may not have had answered today.

The current NSTA president, Pat Shane. She focused on the 3Rs of Science Teacher Retention: Resources, Respect, & Renewal in her keynote address. While many things she talked about were noteworthy, here are a few that really stuck out to me.

• What do Bones, NCIS, House, CSI have in common? Not just shows about science – focus on problem solving and collaborative teamwork!
• Are you in first 3 years of teaching science? Apply for the NSTA New Teacher Academy. Get a mentor, sponsorship to national conference, etc.
• There are things we know, things we know we don’t know, & things we don’t know that we don’t know. The latter is why we need on-going professional development (this applies beyond science, obviously).

Food MASTER:

Food MASTER is a Food, Math and Science integrated curriculum unit designed to teach students in grades 3-5 about food, energy, food safety, nutrition and more. The hands-on lessons cover various levels of inquiry. It was developed as part of a SEPA grant and is being “test driven” across North Carolina. I am excited to follow its development and see how I can incorporate the resources into my classroom, especially since it thoroughly covers one of the four main science goals in fourth grade.

 

Picture Books and Novels. Oh My!

This session focused on using literature to enhance science instruction. tItfocused on building math and literacy skills through science using trade books like The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Mr. Brown Can Moo. Can You?, and The Cloud Book. We explored various ways to expand learning using these mediums.  A list of novels can be found HERE with linked science standards included. There are also many interactive learning simulations HERE that can be utilized in conjunction with picture books and novels.

Sustainability

The Environmental Protection Agency provided many ideas and resources for providing sustainable education.

• Sustainability resources for students
• Environmental Kids Club
• Air Pollution What’s the Solution
• Air Quality Resources
• Pollution Simulator
• Climate Change Tool Kit for Teachers
• General Environmental Ed resources from EPA

 

What To Do with Your Rock Kit

*The North Carolina Geological Survey provides rock samples from across North Carolina for teachers at no cost. This year, they also offered additional professional development for finding ways to use your rock kit in the classroom.

Much of what I got here is still in a folder and I haven’t really been able to dive in yet. I will say that one thing that excited me is the amount of resources available from the North Carolina Department of Transportation. There are historical maps, transportation maps from state archives, and more – all for free!

 

I am looking forward to more learning tomorrow and presenting my own sessions on interactive whiteboards and social media for teachers. I will be sure to share more!

 

K-12 Online Conference

In early October, I saw a tweet about the presentations for the 2009 K-12 Online Conference. I was excited to check out what great things I would be learning. I can’t begin to tell you how shocked (and totally stoked) I was to see my name on the list! In a time of budget crunches and travel restrictions and limited availability for professonial development, I am honored to be a part of this online conference that crosses these boundaries of time, location and budget. The theme of this year’s conference is “Bridging the Divide” and will kick off the week of November 30 with a keynote speech by international teacher and inspiration, Kim Cofino.  My session, “Little Kids, Big Possibilities” is part of the Getting Started series during the week of December 7-11, 2009. I am looking forward to sharing detailed tips, resources and testimonials straight from the kids themselves about free sites and programs that can bring our elementary students into the forefront of teaching and learning with technology and web 2.0 applications. I encourage you to check out the list of sessions and start making plans to “attend.” No matter what you teach or how old your students are or how advanced your current participation in social media might be, there’s a session (or ten) for you!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/candiedwomanire/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Just an Idea: Make n Take

Last night a wonderful conversation emerged in the #edchat session last night on Twitter about how we might facilitate discourse about technology in the classroom with our fellow classroom teachers. It was mentioned that people were tired of being inundated with tools without context, presenters with sales-pitches and no real-life connections to what they are being shown. If we are hoping that teachers will adopt educational technology for use in their classrooms, we have to provide the instruction, direction and on-going support to help them make the experience a success. Many wonderful ideas were shared and I am hoping that others (ahem! Todd Williamson and Tech in 20) will blog about how they implement teaching and sharing about all things ed-tech within their school communities. I thought I’d give a few more details about our school’s monthly “Make n Take” sessions.

Over the past few years, our administration has been outfitting each classroom with SMART Boards. We were the first in the district to really put our money where our mouths were, so we were well ahead of the curve of what professional development was being offered by the system. From that need, and an expressed desire by teachers to learn more about how to implement technology in the classroom, came the idea for monthly “Make n Take” sessions. Each month, a “Make n Take” was hosted by a different grade level in the school in one member of that team’s classroom. The host grade level was in charge of an hour-long sharing and question session that highlighted how they used technology to enhance instruction in their grade level. The members of the grade level team decided together what they would like to use as a focus, and they were also allowed to ask for “help” coming up with a topic if needed. As a result of these monthly “Make n Take” sessions, there were many excellent outcomes:

1. School community was focused. It’s often difficult to organize vertical curricular planning. By having each grade level in charge of one month, and by having all staff attend, we were able to see one another and see first hand how our strands of curriculum were fitting together. Wonderful dialogue was generated when we were around others who weren’t in our “normal” collaborative  planning groups.

2. Authentic professional development was offered. We were learning about technology integration strategies from our peers – people we trusted, people we knew were in the trenches, and people who we knew had the same “stuff” sitting in their classrooms and were teaching the same kids. No matter the discrepancy in ages between the sharing groups, there was always information that could be gleaned and adapted.

3. It fit our local requirements. It was focused on our curriculum. It integrated 21st century skills. It was free.

4. We covered a myriad of topics without being overwhelmed. Because each team took on a “theme” for the month, you had a month to go back to your classroom and try one or two of these ideas before another one was thrown at you. This time to implement was key. Having a team full of specific tech support was also essential in the success of this model. Over the course of the year, we got excellent real-world examples of using SMART boards, SMART Response Systems, Podcasting, Blogs and Wikis, Our School Webhost, and more. As each topic was addressed from the perspective of a “real” classroom teacher, it was invaluable and inspiring.

So if you are looking for a way to bring more educational technology to your school or your district, consider looking in. Teachers are often doing more than we give them credit for and they have amazing ideas. And why not harness what great ideas are already floating around in your own building and district?!

PLN’s Redefined

In October 2008, I was introduced to Twitter as a PLN, a Personal Learning Network. From that moment on, I was convinced. My love for learning was reignited as I found other educators who thrived on conversations about learning, teaching, technology and leadership in education. I was suddenly challenged, engaged and enriched professionally and personally. My students benefited from this personal resurgence because it was contagious. My enthusiasm for my own learning translated into a renewed passion for teaching. I looked at their learning as more than something that I could offer them. It was something that I could teach them to dig deep below the surface to find in themselves. Attending NECC 09 this summer in Washington DC took on a special personal meaning as I made face to face connections with the people in my virtual networks. Today, my view of my PLN shifted.

I will still shout from the rooftops that everyone should have a PLN, but do not compartmentalize this wonderful resource to your learning and teaching. It struck me tonight after I shared with my PLN that I was experiencing some stress in my family’s recent decision to become certified foster/adoptive parents and the stringent regulations that come with it. We may have to move because the historic home we live in now (which I love) won’t meet the strict fire codes. I was immediately bombarded with encouragement, support, sympathy and blessings. If it hadn’t already, that moment cemented for me that my PLN is not a Personal Learning Network. It’s a Personal Living Network. And who couldn’t benefit from that?!

Flickr photo by Aussiegall

Set Up for Success: Procedures

I recently got the opportunity to get into my classroom and get the physical space set up for the new school year. I rearranged bookcases for ease of access and organization. I moved my desk to a different location in the room to maximize flow and efficiency. I rearranged the computers in my room to change focus of their use. I arranged students’ desks to foster collaborative working relationships between students. Although my arms and back may have been a bit tired, the real work is still waiting to begin. The arrangement of the physical space of a classroom is a core component to creating an inviting learning environment, but I believe that there are more important needs in a classroom: Procedures.

Procedures and routines are, in my opinion, the critical factors that separate successful classrooms from those who are not. When students know what to expect and feel comfortable in how to carry out their daily routines, there is an ease that fosters success. So, what in your classroom requires a pre-determined routine? Well, everything. Can there be more than one routine for a particular objective? Sure, as long as you teach it. Here are a few of the routines that I establish (and practice religiously) in the first days of school.

Handing Out Papers:

• Each student in my classroom has a “mailbox” constructed from a standard office mail sorter. I return all papers to the individual student’s mailbox. There are designated times throughout the day when students are allowed to check their boxes. Anything that must be returned is stamped/sticker-ed with a brightly colored notation and also written on the homework board.

Absent Students:

• If a student is absent, I put all of their papers from the day they are out into their mailbox. Students know that if they have been out, that’s where they should check for their work. I also go ahead and write all due dates on that paper (traditionally, one school day for each day absent).
• I also keep my own mailbox in our sorter. Students turn in their excuse notes (and any other communication from parents) to my mailbox. I can check it and take appropriate action when it is convenient for me, and I know where they are!

Hallway Travel:

• Obviously, this tends to be a more primary/elementary issue, but it’s always something to consider. I have students treat hallways like a two-lane road, and they must follow traffic rules for an intersection each time they reach one. I teach students early to stop at each intersection (or if it’s a long hallway, a particular “landmark” like a fire extinguisher or teacher’s door). This helps me to keep my stragglers in check and not end up with half of my line at the destination and the other half still in the room.
• I don’t do door holders. I know lots of people do. I have adopted the idea that students should work on general, real-world courtesy. They learn to hold the door for the person  behind them with a “tap and go” practice. Hopefully this idea will translate as they are walking into community buildings, as well.

Starting the Day:

• My students come in the room each day to background music and explicit directions on the board. Even on day 180, I do not assume they remember what to do. They become conditioned to check the board as they walk in each day. I usually remind students to unpack, check their mailboxes, sharpen pencils and use the restroom before the announcements. I also often have a starter assignment for the day. If the starter assignment is a worksheet, it is in their mailboxes.

Housekeeping:

• I use a passing system to collect papers. I don’t usually let students go around and pick them up. I don’t always have students pass the exact same way, but there’s always a target.
• I usually don’t mind if students get up and sharpen pencils during independent working time of a lesson. If I am teaching though, the grind of the sharpener can get a bit distracting. I use an empty cubed tissue box to help my students know when it is not acceptable to get up and walk to the sharpener. The tissue box slides neatly over the sharpener as a great visual cue not to get up right then.
• When students need help during work time, I have a couple of different ways to organize that. Usually, I have students ask their tablemates for clarification. If the lesson needs to be individual in nature, I hand out red plastic drinking cups. If a student is in need of assistance, he/she can put the cup on the corner of the desk as a cue for me. This trick also works great when in the computer lab because the cups will easily prop on top of the computer monitors.

There are dozens more procedures and routines that are integral parts of my daily classroom life. I probably could not even begin to list them all because they are so ingrained in my own head. They have certainly been honed throughout my ten years of teaching. We often set routines to make our lives easier, but we do not think about how that make learning more effective and more efficient. So, how will you make your students’ lives easier this year?

My Hair Is Not on Fire

When the summer began, Lee Kolbert made a call for recommended summer reading for educators by educators. One of the first titles that streamed across my PLN was Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire by Rafe Esquith. I picked up the book at a local bookstore and started reading write away. I was initially impressed and even blogged on the first chapters of the book here. I was excited about what it set up to be and how it was playing out, but something changed for me as I continued to read.

I have struggled over the blog post because there are lots of things I want to say about my reactions to the book, but I do not want to undermine what  Esquith does with his students. I think the dedication he displays to the children in his room is remarkable and admirable, and his students are very lucky to have a teacher who is devoted to help them develop as learners and leaders. Esquith offers great ideas for engaging students in reading, writing, math, science, social studies, and the arts. He even talks about teaching students about testing as a process, rather than a stressor. That being said, there were several moments in the book that I found myself questioning what was going on – the how’s of it all.

How does Esquith get students to arrive at school at 7:00 AM and stay until hours past the official end of the day?

How do students get to school and get home?

How do his students feel who don’t want to or can’t participate in all of these extra events?

How do the students in other classes feel who aren’t having these experiences?

How do his students react to their teachers when they leave him and move on to other grades?

How do the students balance their lives outside of school?

How does Esquith balance his life outside of school?

Throughout his book, I wondered how he had the time. I worried about new teachers or those getting ready to enter the teaching profession might feel when reading this book. I give a lot of myself to teaching and to my students, but even I was overwhelmed. If you are not putting on plays, teaching how to play musical instruments, teaching from 7:00 am to 6:00 pm, driving kids on cross-country college tours, facilitating home-based film clubs and organizing tours of the nation’s capital, you are still an amazing teacher. As this post evolves in my own head and on the screen, I am finally figuring out how I can love this book and dislike it at the same time. Only a small percentage of us can do what Rafe Esquith does. I am not one of them, but what can I do?

1. I can know what my students need. Esquith recognizes that his students may not ever get the opportunity to “know what they don’t know.” We, as teachers, have the unique chance to open our students’ eyes to a world they may not know exists beyond their neighborhood. While I may not be able to make a cross-country trip with them, I can emerge them in great literature, take them on virtual trips, and connect them with others world-wide through technology.
2. I can find a way. Esquith set up his Hobart Shakepearans as a non-profit organizations to raise money for their expenses and trips. If he can do this, I can certainly fill out the occasional grant application to offer a new experience to my students. I can encourage parents and community members to put their monies where their mouths are. I can communicate regularly with my elected officials to keep funding and adding more funding to public education.
3. I can encourage service-learning. In Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire Esquith highlights his students’ holiday meal service. Even if this is too much of an undertaking initially, take from it the idea that you are providing a priceless lesson for your students by teaching them the value of service. The experience of service-learning cannot be written in a lesson plan or numerated through goals and objectives. It touches the heart, and lessons that do that will last much longer than any science lab you will ever do. Collect cans for a food drive. Sing holiday carols at a nursing home. Write letters to troops serving overseas. Find a way to make students dig deep into their hearts, not just their parents’ wallets.
4. I can let students have it. It may be your classroom. It may be your materials. But it is their learning. Allowing students to own their work and to share it with others in their classroom, school and community will instill in them pride for learning. They will learn discipline and hard work. They will learn problem solving conflict resolution. If you you hold so tightly to the control of your classroom, everything you try to accomplish will stay within your walls. If you let your students have it, they can take it with them.

So, no, I don’t teach like my hair is on fire. I don’t really think that Rafe Esquith does either. He teaches like his heart is on fire, and that’s the greatest thing a teacher can offer his/her students. And when you are reading about astounding things that others are doing, don’t get overwhelmed by the how’s. Focus on the why’s. When you do that, you will find inspiration to light the fires of your students.

Photo from Flickr: Balancing Act by SashaW

If No Textbooks, Then What?

You hear a lot of talk these days about ditching the textbooks and moving toward a more open-source means of creating content for our students. Donelle O’Brien shared her enthusiasm for the idea in a recent blog post but posed some great questions about what and how this works in a traditional classroom setting. I stopped using textbooks in science and in social studies a few years ago, so I thought I’d share a little bit about why, alternatives that I use and how it has impacted student learning in 3-5 grade classrooms.

Because textbooks are written to be mass marketed, the curriculum covered in them is actually much more broad than what most state-standards require at a particular grade level. In our school’s science text, we could only use three of the eight units that are published in the book and it doesn’t include one unit goal that I am required to teach. Our social studies book is specifically designed to teach about our state, but it does so in a static and unengaging manner. Why would I want to use these materials? We know that textbooks do not equate knowledge, which is why I appreciated this Flickr photo because it is titled “Just the Ones I’m Getting Rid Of” by Plutor.

So, if you are pondering the great journey of letting go of the textbook or you are entering a classroom where there weren’t any textbooks to start with, here are a few ideas.

Fiction and Non-Fiction Literature:

Last year, my grade level team decided to forgo the adoption of a new textbook and to spend a fraction of that budget on purchasing various class sets of novels that serve as foundations for most of our curriculum. Carole Marsh, author and founder of Gallopade International, has a great series of mysteries that teach about many areas of our curriculum. She has great titles such as Mystery on the Underground Railroad and The “Gosh Awful” Gold Rush Mystery. These books put children in the middle of historic places to teach about them and why these places are important to our history. We also research picture books that would help tell the story of events in American history in their context of North Carolina’s past, such as Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins. We visited the State Archives and ordered many publications from there that were collections of primary resources to add to our students’ research experiences. For a fraction of the cost of a set of textbooks, we have a collection of literature that adds life and unique voice to our curriculum. Studies Weekly is another of my favorite resources, as it is a content based weekly newspaper publication for students that teaches in exciting and engaging ways. I usually get a mini-grant for these (about $5 per student/per year) and the kids have a consumable resource that evolves from year to year – and, of course, they have excellent on-line support.

Check out community resources:

There are dozens of community resources that will provide free or very reasonably costing programs for classrooms. There are also many who will “lend” these resources to educators. Here are some links to some resources that I have used.

Ag in the Classroom: Ag in the Classroom offers resources for science and social studies lessons, including lesson plans, contact information, a Teen Zone and a great Kids Page.

4-H Programs: 4-H puts together amazing “kits” for educators across the curriculum. We have their Electricity Kits which teach everything from circuits to motors in an inquiry based manner that is designed to get kids thinking and experimenting. The resources for teachers are top-notch and the training/support by 4-H is also excellent.

Government Officials: Who better to talk about state and local government than government officials? Invite your elected and appointed officials into your classroom to talk about what they do all day and how government works. Don’t forget that with the ease of free video conferencing (like Skype), distance no longer has to be an option. When we studied Louis and Clark, we talked to a class in St. Louis who had been studying all about them in their home state!

Museum Speakers and Lending: Check with your local and state museums about sending programs to you, if you cannot go to them. Also, consider the possiblities of the Lending Libraries that many museums, like the North Carolina Museum of Art, have to offer.

Colleges & Universities: Need resources to teach about geology? Who better than a geologist (or at least someone studying to be a geologist)? Universities and colleges are often thrilled to send professors and or graduate students to do programs for K-12 classrooms. They have access to amazing specimans and samples that a regular classroom teacher could never afford to collect. For example, we study rocks and minerals. A graduate student from East Carolina University was more than willing to come out to our school, bring a huge rock collection, streak plates and other activity materials for my students to get hands-on learning experiences with rocks. They also bring the interesting dynamic of how to turn curricular passions into a career!

Getting Organized:

I have to admit that I love plastic storage boxes. They are stackable, fillable, and easily labeled. To start our textbook-less movement, our grade level team organized what we already had. We grouped like topics, added supplemental resources we already had, stuck in any videos/multimedia materials that we owned, and we created a folder on our school’s share drive for each unit. When you check out a unit box, you are agreeing to use the materials from inside that interest you and to add anything that you create/find to supplement it. After a year of six teachers using the same unit, it was exciting to watch those resources grow and evolve. We also have a shared folder of resources (documents, multimedia presentations, findings from Discovery Education, and links to online sources).

One Unit Box we have is the “Kitty Hawk” box. Contents include:

1. Class set of The Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk
2. Teacher created reflection questions and comprehension/vocabulary practice to accompany novel
3. Link to Animated Hero Classics: The Wright Brothers on Discovery Streaming
4. Photos and literature from a family visit to the Wright Brothers’ Memorial National Park in Kitty Hawk, NC
5. Various supplemental books about Kitty Hawk and the Wright Brothers
6. Writing prompt ideas/support for newspaper writing exercise (as if the student were the witness to the first flight)
7. Curriculum connections to the science of flight
8. Coloring pages from various sources that teach about others in the race to fly
9. And more and more every time someone uses the unit box

So, don’t be afraid to let your textbooks start collecting dust. Use your personal learning network (both face to face and online) to collect resources that will enrich and enhance your teaching and learning!

I’d love your comments, suggestions and tips on more ways to teach without a textbook.

*Added June 30

A few people have asked me to talk a little bit about how I teach math without a textbook, so I thought I’d just talk about my typical math lesson (90 minutes daily). I divide my class into 4 flexible groups and they learn our routine early in the year.

I work with 1 group at a table at one side of the room on introducing new concepts or reviewing skills that need attention. We do guided hands-on activities together, use personal dry erase boards, etc.

At the same time, another group is at the interactive whiteboard doing a lesson that I have chosen/created that reinforces skills that we have already worked on. This station might also be used for a learning game or other educational experience disguised as something fun.

Another group is working collaboratively on problem solving skills as a group. They each have their math journals in which they record their problems, strategies and results. Each Monday of the first several weeks of school I introduce a “new” problem solving strategy. Throughout that week students focus on practicing that skill. In following weeks, problems demand that students choose a skill or multiple skills to solve their problems.

The final group is working on an independent assignment at their seats, from Accelerated Math or on a specific computer site that I have chosen (like AAAMath, Multiplication.Com, or even an assignment on Edmodo).

We rotate through these groups daily on about a 20 minute rotation for each space. I get to sit down face to face with every student every day. I have found that my need for grading daily papers, etc. has been reduced drastically. I know how my kids are doing because they have to prove it to me and their peers on a daily basis. We establish such a solid routine that even substitute teachers are happy to carry out these rotations. The students have told me how much they like the varied opportunities within each day to have time together to talk and time to process on their own. I pull resources from across the internet, design projects with my peers and even use worksheets (gasp) occasionally. By carefully choosing the worksheets I want to use rather than just relying on what comes with the book, I know that these papers are going to meet specific needs and targeted objectives. Again, we stay with the county’s pacing guide, take common assessments with other 4th graders and jump through the necessary hoops. Using these methods of instruction, I can effectively and seamlessly differentiate learning for my students and help to ensure their success.