But I got faith in you and I believe in you

Scrolling through lists of education blogs, looking for one from which to draw a particular inspiration, Teachers at Risk caught my eye. The author, Elona Hartjes, writes about insights and strategies she has come to hold dear in her years of teaching through all sorts of situations including a great deal of work with students on the cusp, students who may not make it.

One subject close to my heart that she often speaks of is building relationships between teachers and students. For me, a feeling that the teacher cares about the students and cares to know about them not only makes the classroom an enjoyable place to be, but also makes students care more about what they are learning, want to work harder, and makes learning easier. “I have come to the conclusion that while excellent management techniques are necessary for classroom success, they are not sufficient for classroom success.  I found that developing an authentic relationship with my students helped my classroom management more than any of the latest classroom management techniques,” Elona writes. 

It has often been mentioned important hitting the ground running on the first day in September is. The first day of class is the day when students are most open to you and most willing and able to see value in your class. As Elona puts it, “I need my students’ first impression of me and my classroom to be a positive one because I know that if for some reason things don’t get off to a good start it’s going to be an uphill battle for a long time.”

Some vital strategies she offers for making a good first impression are earning respect through demonstrating competence and organization and getting to know your students. She accomplishes this by asking nine questions. The questions are things like, “When have you felt particularly successful in school?” and, “What three things can I as the teacher do to help you become more successful as a student in this class?” She uses these questions to understand where her students are coming from, decide the course the class will take, build lesson plans, support teamwork between teacher and students, and make it clear to the students that they are the focus of the class. 

Elona offers a lot of insight into what relationships are like with students and this blog is a great resource for learning to build them. It is so important to me because I know nothing else made a bigger difference in my classroom success than my relationship with the teacher and the kind of environment they created. I am very keen on learning to provide that for my students. I got love for you.

So come down from your mountain and stand where we've been

            During the last bit of our class on Monday, while we were discussing the games we looked at, someone mentioned a class they were familiar with in which students were assigned a country to study and act on behalf of during negotiations. I loved this idea. I think taking on roles can be incredibly educational and I can imagine using it in my class to create a miniature model UN, reenact The Constitutional Convention, the Seneca Falls Convention, or dozens of other events and organizations in politics. It also reminded me of another game I played around with once. 

            NationStates is an online simulation game in which to found your own nation and respond to issues that arise based on your values and ideals. You can play seriously to try to build a thriving nation or for fun as a raging dictator. Just yesterday, I founded The Rogue Nation of Secmac. We are a beautiful and free land founded by “plucky, but malnourished pioneers” dedicated to social welfare. Our national animal, the Dolphelian, “frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.”

            I imagine Nation States being used in the classroom to teach students about different types of governments, issues government handles, and the full spectrum of responsibilities government has. Every day, your nation is faced with one or two issues to which the player must decide how to respond. How do you spend extra tax revenue? Secmac used it for education. 

            Teachers could also form their own region and have students join and engage in regional politics through electing a delegate to the World Assembly. This is a feature I have not had the opportunity to explore, but could add valuable structure and new dimensions to the lesson. I think Nation States is another interactive platform that could be a lot of fun while also building a deeper understanding of the material.

P.S. Our economy is in the tank.

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot

If there is one game series that defined my childhood, it would be Super Mario.

If there is two game series that defined my childhood, however, the other would be Sims. We had SimCity for the SNES and SimTown on the computer, and of course I played The Sims 1, 2, and 3. One of my favorite Sims games though was the terribly underrated SimCity Societies. 

SimCity Societies allowed you to build a metropolitan region from the ground up. As creator, you were responsible for ensuring your city had enough housing and workplaces for the residents, transportation and infrastructure, law enforcement, and everything else upon which society depends. What you built changed the nature of your society. Add a Propaganda Ministry and it would tilt the scale toward an authoritarian regime. Dive bars help keep hardworking Sims happy.

            The focus was on the values the society held. Depending on what you built, your region could move on a spectrum toward productivity, prosperity, creativity, spirituality, authority, or knowledge. This game lends itself well to the civics classroom. I would use SimCity Societies to as an enrichment activity for my students to explore the functions of government and the attitudes of societies. The students could then reflect on how they built their society and report to the class.

            There’s also the possibility of a more in depth look at government and urban planning through other SimCity games. I have not gotten the chance to play the new SimCity, but the gameplay could help illustrate complex issues in how government responds to the needs of its citizens. The game incorporates features from pollution and transportation to healthcare and energy resources. This could be a fun way of demonstrating what government does.  

I Remember When I Lost my Mind

            20 questions was always the game my family played on long car rides. There were only three of us, so the game tended to go quickly. As much as I love the game, it never struck me as lending itself to a full class activity. 

            The version of the game we played in class would not be something I think I would play early in the year, it was a bit high risk, as my mentor teacher would say. We set the parameters that the person answering was allowed to lie up to two times and did not have to admit to having lied until halfway through the questioning. The risk, however, was in working as a team.

            The students asking questions all had to work as a team. Learning that kind of collaboration is quite possibly one of the most important things you learn in school. To ask a question, we had to discuss and critique it, we had to think as a group about what we really know and what information could be wrong, and we had to come to an agreement on what we would ask and how we would phrase it.

            That process takes a lot of thought and a lot of patience. To do this in class, the students would have to be able to take turns speaking, feel comfortable enough to state thoughts openly, be able to take criticism, and sit back and be open to other ideas. That’s enough to drive a high school student crazy.

            What they get out of it, however, has the potential to be a great tool. Those skills are necessary for a good education and for being a member of a community. As an added bonus, the game is a pretty fun method for practicing it.

From the Corner to the Block

            I suppose I should not have sat down to write about how to use Evernote the night before I had to teach it. 

            I did actually start the assignment earlier than that. I had just begun to use Evernote for note taking a few days prior when I was handed the card saying it would be my tool to explore, so I just continued what I was doing. I learned the ins-and-outs of making notebooks, organizing my notes, and syncing (and losing) information on multiple devices. I should have realized than I needed to look into it more on Friday when I learned of the checkbox feature for to do lists by looking over someone’s shoulder in class. 

Then came Sunday night, when I sat down with a plan about how I was going to write a guide to note taking in Evernote. I decided to look up a few tips and shortcuts to add. I watched a few tutorials for ideas on how to use it. It was quite surprising how many features Evernote has that I had never noticed. It a pretty nifty tool, and much more powerful than I had anticipated. 

 

What I discovered was that there are many little features that could be very useful to some and completely unnecessary for others (I really cannot imagine why anyone would need to have all their tweets sent to and saved in a note). Instead of laying out the step-by-step for every feature, I chose to focus my guide on what you can do with Evernote and what it can be used for and then allow readers to pick what they want to explore further. I decided to begin with a simple explanation of what the tool is, hit some important information, and throw in tips and tricks people might find interesting along the way. I think my guide came together pretty nicely.

I suppose the biggest takeaway for me is something teachers have to learn quickly: plan, plan ahead, and plan to revise your plan.