CABE Career Fair

CABE (California Association for Bilingual Education) is hosting a conference and career fair in Los Angeles February 23-26. I am going down tonight after EDUC 481 in the hopes of finding a teaching position. It will be interesting to see how school districts value the technology training from this class. Perhaps superintendents and interviewers will want to view this blog.

Nuns on bicycles

Nuns on bicycles, originally uploaded by _Justice.

Sometimes we all need to take a break from technology and just relax. Photo courtesy of www.singingnuns.com/ photo18.html

Re: Nuns on bicycles

This photo is posted courtesy of www.singingnuns.com/ photo18.html.

Sub Kit 2

The following information is not given in the Cal Poly Credential Program. Please take a look at it, because I learned these things the hard way. This is a list of items every K-8 substitute teacher should have when entering a school site:

• Timer with a bell or alarm - this will keep you on top of transitions and rotations. Do not assume the normal teacher has one.
• Stopwatch, or wristwatch with a stop watch - allows you to circulate room and keep track of timed events without an alarm disturbing students.
• Dry erase markers - Do not assume the normal teacher has them. You will lose valuable time with dried out markers and/or trying to locate markers that are buried in the teacher's desk.
• Chalk (see above)
• Transparency pens (see above)
• Small spray container with water for cleaning overhead projector & transparencies
• Post-Its - very useful for leaving brief notes on the teacher's sub plans and also a back up if lunch count/office pass/detention forms are missing.
• Highlighter - you can model correctly formed numbers/letters on the students' paper and they can trace over it
• Flash cards (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) – I got some at the 99 cent store.
• Colorful puppet - useful for taking roll in primary grades, reading stories, etc. - the children will listen to a puppet when they won't listen to you.
• Whistle on a lanyard (PE, outdoor activities) – check Walmart or Big 5 in sporting/hunting section.
• Children's videos/DVDs - Dr. Seuss, Clifford, Discovery Channel, Bill Nye, etc. Good for rainy day recess, incentive to stay on-task, Fun Fridays, etc. Having a worksheet to go with the videos (ie, Bill Nye or Discovery Channel) is a good fall-back when you have a meltdown emergency (i.e., there are no sub plans whatsoever!)
• Children's music - have a mix of restful and energetic songs. Sometimes the most off-task class will come back into focus in seconds with a familiar song.
• Small stickers – immediate rewards for good behavior and exceptional work
• File Folder Labels – can be used as emergency name tags if there is no seating chart or you are outside. Check Walmart or any office supply store.
• Detention/citation forms (2) – pick up in the school office. When your teaching authority is deliberately defied, you need to remove the offending person(s) immediately. Don’t waste time scrounging through the teacher’s pile trying to find a detention form. This delay will support the student’s challenge that you are “not a real teacher”. Be prepared for this beforehand, especially in upper grades.

Label all items. If you forget something you can prove it belongs to you.

Keep these items in your car:
• Athletic shoes (PE)
• White polo t-shirt (PE @ Jr. High schools)
• Hat (PE @ Jr. High schools can keep you outside all day)
• Umbrella - you will be sending students to the Office with Attendance on rainy days. Keep their mothers happy.

This kit is not comprehensive, but it is a place to start.

Bad Blog! Bad!

This blog has not been very cooperative lately. It is publishing blanks. Has anyone else had this problem?

Sub Kit

Project #3 Taught

We taught the Surfing with Sharks lesson today. Classroom management was an issue. Many of the students were rambunctious and off-task, so I was glad we only had 3 computers. One of us managed a large group and the other teacher took 5 students at a time to view the private copyright and public domain websites. It worked out well. Ideally, in the theoretical world of pedagogy, we would have had everyone at their own computer typing in the URLs. However, in the physical reality we experienced today, that would not have worked. I was originally discouraged to hear that we would not have access to the computer lab for this lesson, but having taught it, I believe it was better that things worked out this way.

Surfing with Sharks Rubric

Today I finished the rubric for Project #3, Surfing with Sharks. This lesson was so time-consuming! I thought I would be able to grab a lesson of cybersmartcurriculum.org and use it as-is for our class. WRONG! The lesson had to be stripped down and re-written; only 15% of the original lesson was kept in the final plan. The new product is much more in line with Proficiency Standard 2.8 and more fun, which is exciting. We will be teaching it Wednesday afternoon, so we'll see how it goes!