Here’s a great article from Edutopia, on the parent-teacher relationship.  http://tinyurl.com/ct9dc5m

You can also find more helpful hints in section six, Effective Communications in our book  You’ve Got The Job–Now Keep It! (shameless plug). http://www.tipsforteachers.net/store/

I have been in education for about 20 years and what I find interesting is the gigantic pendulum that swings back and forth.  From open classrooms, whole language and inventive spelling to back to basics, more phonics and more testing.  The list goes on and on, and the pendulum swings back and forth.

So now the pendulum is swinging again and technology seems to be the target.  At first glance you might think, more technology in the classroom? Great!  That’s what kids need to stay on top, cutting edge technology.  More learning; faster, better, smarter (sounds like the six million dollar man!)

Not surprisingly there are those who say the more technology the better.  Technology is changing the world at warp speed and so too must our schools.   Then there are others who say, less is more.  Children don’t need all the bells and whistles to learn the basics, to explore themes and learn academics.  As usual, I fall somewhere in the middle.  It’s not that I’m purposefully straddling the fence. I just think in this case, as with many things, it’s all about balance.

Technology is great and I think if used correctly and for a specific purpose it can advance students’ learning in new and exciting ways. Technology is something that kids are using in their day to day lives and without it, school threatens to become a monotonous relic in their lives.    But technology in the classroom for the sake of having technology in the classroom, really does nothing except waste precious resources and time.

With all that said, here’s a recent article from The New York Times http://tinyurl.com/7dbjk22 based on a school in Silicon Valley CA (the very heart of technology) which takes a very different view.  Take a look and let us know what you think!

There is a new verb in town and it’s called redshirting.  Well, it may not be new, but it is becoming more mainstream.

Redshirting was recently addressed in an article from CBSNews/60 Minutes.    http://tinyurl.com/78l22wq If you are a teacher or if you are a parent of a child 18 or younger, you may not be familiar with the term “redshirting”, but you definitely know what it is.

In a nut shell, redshirting is holding your child back from Kindergarten until he/she is 6 years old.  Some say parents do it so their child has an “advantage”.  If you hold a 5 year old back a year he/she is now not only bigger than the other kids, but also developmentally further along. The bigger might be better once that child heads to high school (especially if they are boys and their parents have their eyes on sports), but the developmentally further along definitely has an advantage for children in kindergarten.  Some parents say they do it because they want their child to have every advantage possible or that they don’t want their child to be the youngest in the class.  I suppose it makes sense if your child has a birthday that falls right before the cut off, but parents are now holding children back because they have a “summer” birthday.

There are so many things to consider when thinking about redshirting.  For example a recent NY Times article came out that suggested that students who are held back may not be as successful as they move on in grades (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/opinion/sunday/dont-delay-your-kindergartners-start.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=general ).  Why?  Perhaps things were too easy for them early on and they became afraid of failure.  Perhaps they didn’t learn how to attack an academic challenge.  Another recent CNN article (http://us.cnn.com/2012/03/05/health/adhd-diagnosis-youngest-kids/index.html)  suggests that younger children in  may be more prone to be labeled ADHD.  Why? Perhaps the academic challenges are too much for them at that age; perhaps they are not developmentally ready or mature enough for Kindergarten.

There are definitely two sides to this coin.

Take a look at the articles and please leave us a comment on what you think.

Final food for thought: If parents continue this trend, then most children in kindergarten will be 6 years old.  Then what?

If you also have a lot of books for your room, make sure that you haven’t just shoved your books into a corner and forgotten about them or have them set up in such disarry that nobody is interested in looking.  This can easily happen when you’re teaching the older grades and don’t have as much time for independent reading time.  A few space saving ideas for organizing books that you may not have thought of before are to use shoe boxes, a shoe organizer, or milk crates.

To use shoe boxes, you can place books, spine up in a shoe box and pile the boxes on top of each other.  Let the students decorate the boxes to give them more incentive to take a book.  Organize them by theme, author, reading level, or however you want.  This also gives you the option of putting the lid on the box and putting it away when you don’t want those books circulating any longer.  This might hold true if you have a box of books on a particular theme or are tired of the students only going for certain popular or trendy books.

Hang a clear plastic shoe organizer over a door and put a book inside each pocket.  Turn a milk crate sideways and get an instant shelf.

There are many ways to organize and store your selection of books.  Check out section one (chapter 6) for other great ideas to organize a classroom libraryhttp://www.tipsforteachers.net/store/youve-got-the-job-now-keep-it/.

Leave us a comment and let us know some of your favorite organizational ideas!

Here are just a few ways to make quick and fun bulletin boards for your room:

• Use cloth instead of paper.  Works the same way but give a totally different feel to the room.  I did a unit on the rain forest once and found some inexpensive jungle cloth for our rain forest bulletin boards.

• Make your bulletin boards stand out, literally.  Go 3D. Use crumpled tissue paper, boxes, or anything you can staple or tack to a board.

• Paint on paper.  Save yourself the time of cutting out letters and use paint!

• One of my favorites is to use the newspaper.  This bulletin board needs to be changed throughout the year but it’s a supplemental learning tool.  Stay tuned for a bunch of ideas on how to use this bulletin board as a classroom activity.

*Find more ideas in Section One of You’ve Got The Job–Now Keep It!

• Add comfy places to sit such as bean bag chairs and pillows.

• Create curtains by placing fabric along the tops or sides of the windows in your classroom.

• Add a table floor or lamp.

• Bring in some real plants to liven up the classroom, especially during those long winter months where we crave anything green or flowery.

• Search out garage sales to find inexpensive items for your classroom.

For more teacher ideas on setting up your classroom and organizing yourself, check out sections one and two in You’ve Got The Job—Now Keep It! (Shameless plug, sorry)  http://tinyurl.com/3kv3j6j

Right up there with the debate over standardized testing is the debate over homework.

Every year children and parents dread it and, if they are truthful, most teachers don’t have a particular love affair with homework either.  After all, it’s just one more thing they need to keep track of, grade, and create consequences for if it’s not completed.  So why do teachers give homework?  Some answers are: to practice or extend skills taught in school, to see what students can complete independently (which is never done independently at home), or to reinforce good study habits.

There are arguments that more homework will increase standardized test scores, yet there are studies that show the opposite.  There are arguments that homework prepares high school students for college.  But compare the amount of time high school students spend actually sitting in a school each week (average 35 hours) to the amount of time college students spend sitting in class (average 12 hours).  If a college student only spends 12 – 15 hours actually sitting in a classroom what are they doing with all their extra time?  We should assume they have all that extra time to complete their college assignments.  Whereas high school students spend an average of 35 hours sitting in school but are still expected to complete an additional 5 – 15 hours of homework a week, depending on the classes they take.   That argument alone is worth another blog, but back on point, is the homework really worth it?

On the other side of the debate are those who think homework is nothing more than a time waster for kids, parents and teachers.   Homework lacks creativity, takes time away from kids being able to come home after school and be kids, and in those cases where children really struggle on a nightly basis, it can create a hate of learning and school.

Is there a middle road, a balance, some moderation?  I’m wondering how I was able to go to school and hold down a job after school and still be on a high school team.  I know the answer is that I didn’t have 2 or 3 hours of homework a night. Now my age is showing.

In a recent Time Magazine article, The Myth of Homework, Claudia Wallis discusses this debate in a very clear concise manner.  http://tinyurl.com/lkhsl Check it out and post a comment here to let us know what you think!

There is now year round schooling in many parts of our country and many parts of the world.  I’ve spoken to teachers and students who attend year round schooling and none seem to mind.  They get several three week breaks during the year so instead of one long vacation, they get many mini breaks.  The idea of summer vacation began when children needed to leave school to help out on the farm when the crops needed picking.    Since that’s no longer the case, at least in most parts of the country, the question needs to be asked:  Is summer vacation still necessary?  Gone seem to be the days when children ran out the door in the morning to play and came home at dinner time.  With so many families where both parents are working outside the home, children are being shuffled to summer camps and day programs anyway.  So has the idea of summer vacation met its end?

In my ideal world a “school summer” wouldn’t be traditional but would instead be about discovery and learning:  math games, science experiments, larger than life social studies projects, literacy circles, drama, art, music, and fun.  There would be no grades, no tests, no homework, and no worries.   Students would enjoy learning and teachers would enjoy teaching without all the constraints.  That’s my ideal world.  In reality I can’t even imagine how that would happen.  But one can always dream.

Enjoy your summer!

For further reading on the subject, NPR has a great interview on their site http://tinyurl.com/3jq5auk

Please post a comment and let us know what you think!

Pam Allyn’s article, Best Books for Boys, doesn’t just cover boys, it gives straight forward practical advice on getting children interested in reading whether it be in the classroom or at home.   Following the acronym READ she lays out the steps for instilling a lifelong love of reading in children:

R – Ritual

E – Environment

A – Access

D – Dialogue

Sound interesting?  Check out the link above and read her article in its entirety.