African elephant Bubble Map - graphic organizer

Once a week, students go to the listening lab where a Cambridge CD is played and they are to respond to questions.

Chinchu monitoring the students and providing assistance to the listening activity worksheet.

Earlier in the week, Chinchu had used a Bubble Map graphic organizer and was very proud of the student's work!  As she noted to me, students were totally engaged in the lesson while completing the Bubble Map.  Chinchu found the Bubble Map to be a much more effective strategy to help students take notes on a article, as compared to the traditional note taking process.

Story Book - an instructional strategy students love!

Class began with the "Bell work" or as I call it in the Maldives (since Meynaa School does not use bells when classes change) "Starter Activity." 

Little weird perhaps, but the students got into it!

This was one of those classes, where I'd planned the whole lesson.... then when class started, realized I needed to do something different.

I'd planned on building on a lesson from earlier in the week, to take the brainstorming notes and turn it into an essay.

Wrong plan for today!  Quick shift.... and we did "Story Boards" instead.



The students could choose one of the above topics for their Story Board.  All of them built on topics the students would have background knowledge.



A Story Board involves giving students large sheets of paper and then having them fold the paper three times.

When unfolded, the paper has eight individual sections.  The story begins in the top left hand box, and ends with the bottom right hand box.  The six boxes in between, tell the story...... in words and pictures.

No Internet and No TV was a very hot topic for the student's Story Boards!  You can guess which side of this debate the students were on!

It's always good to check one's notes, and lesson plan.... even if the lesson plan has suddenly been changed!

Moving through the classroom, answering questions and monitoring student work.

In this Story Book, the student told a story of what the Maldives would be like if the islands were connected by bridges.

Story Boards can be used as a type of brainstorming activity which involves the visual with pictures and the written words. 

These short sentences could be used to expand the story, turning the Story Book into a written paragraph or an essay.

100% student engagement!

When the timer went off, I had the students form a double circle.  The students in the inside circle faced the students in the outside circle.  Those inside explained their Story Board to theie outer circle partner.  Then the outer circle was given time to tell the inner circle partner their Story Board. 

Using the timer, each student was given about one minute to explain their Story Board to their circle partner.

Quick wrap up conversation with the students at the end of this lesson to get their thoughts on the activities of the day.

Since I was demonstrating the Story Book lesson to the Indian expat English teachers, we had a short reflective conversation once the students had left the classroom.

These end of the lesson reflections with the teachers, have been a powerful tool for us to think through what happened and what we might do differently.

New way of looking at the work week...





The weekend, here in the Maldives, basically begins Thursday evening.  Friday and Saturday are the weekend.  Friday is the day of prayer, and then Saturday is more of a free day.

The Maldividan work week starts on Sunday...... so tomorrow, Sunday my work week begins too with two workshops scheduled.  The first workshop will be at 10:30 a.m. for about 20 Meynaa School secondary teachers covering issues related to diagnostic, formative and summative assessment.





My second workshop will begin at 8:45 p.m. for some 20 elementary teachers at Meynaa School.  This will be more of a planning workshop, where teachers will discuss their professional development needs. 

The focus question for this workshop will be:
"What kind of training do you need most to advance as a teacher?"

Based on this needs assessment, I will then design and conduct a series of professional development workshops for these elementary teachers.



The elephant in the middle of the room - Classroom Management!



Discussions of classroom management can be intense!  My professional development session on this topic with the Meynaa School English teachers was no exception.



It is amazing how quickly students learn what a teacher's hot buttons are! Students are experts at identifying hot buttons and pushing them! The trick for the teacher is to understand this principal, keep their cool, and never allow the students to get under their skin! 





Classroom rules and procedures were a big topic of conversation. 

I asked the teachers to think about what their expectations of their students were?  These expectatons were stated to me in general terms.  So I then asked the teachers if the students knew what their expectations of them were?  None of the teachers shook their head yes.... their expecations had not been verbalized to their students.



To ground my question about teacher expectations I used the example of bellwork. Bellwork or a spong activity at the beginning of class, was a new concept to these teachers.  So I explained to the teachers that my expectations of the students related to bellwork was very specific.

For example, my expectation of my students was that when they came into the classroom, they would sit down at their desk, get out their notebook and immediately begin working on the bellwork.



The key to good classroom management (for me) is a fast paced, student focused, and engaging lesson plan.  Students know what is expected of them, the teacher gives explicit instruction, questions are asked with "think" time given before the teacher randomly calls on a student to respond, the teachers allows for ample student processing time for new information with a partner, multiple learning stules are used, and the lesson ends with a quick assessment of the learning objective.



I was on a roll this whole sesson as we discussed classroom management with tips, stories and practical solutions.  The workshop became a blurrrrrrrrr of activities and action.... none of which I got on film..... because.... we were all so engaged.... just did not think about taking pictures!














    




 







Teacher teaches 1/3rd of the time and Students teach 2/3rds of the time - Listening and Comprehension Strategies

Mini Power Lessons have the teacher teaching for a short period of time (1/3rd) and then the students teach and reteach each other for 2/3rds of the time.  I teach, then with the timer running..... Student A teaches Student B what I just taught.. followed by Student B, again the timer is running, teaching Student A what was taught.

Students hear the information two times and teach it one time.  This is an excellent way for students to process information.  When checking for understanding while using this strategy, the teacher finds that student comprehension of the lesson is usually 100%.

To model this instructional strategy, I tell students about my life growing up on a farm in Minnesota.  The part of the story the students find most fascinating is that there was no running water on the farm, no bathroom, and no hot water.

When I tell them that all seven family members took a bath only once a week, and that we all bathed in the same water.... my mother first, then my sisters, then me, then my older brothers, and last my dad..... Neeless to say, by the time my dad took his bath, the water was pretty dirty!  The teachers in the workshop could not believe it! 

Here on the island, people take three baths per day!

Think - Pair - Share Strategy

I continue to spend a good amount of time discussing the need for mental "processing" time for the information that is presented by teachers to students.  More importantly than my just talking about it, I have the teachers practice it too!

The basic concept is that the teacher provides a limited amount of information, then gives the students time to talk with each other about what they've just heard.  In other words "processing" time.

When given time to "process" the information presented, the brain then is able to move that information from the short term memory into the medium / long term memory.

As teachers, we want to provide ongoing activities to help our students process information from their short term memory into their long term memory.  Think-Pair-Share is a fantastic strategy for doing just this and it can be used continuously.