Illinois taking a step in the right direction

“Illinois taking a step in the right direction”

By: Jonathan Baymon

 

The new Illinois funding plan will greatly improve the education potential in underfunded schools throughout the state.  This remedy has been hard fought and it’s time is long overdue.  The funding will not be a success overnight though.  This is an important time in Illinois for lawmakers, school administrators, educators and parents in low income areas.  With great wealth comes great responsibility.  An increase in funding could mean a chance at closing important education gaps. 

How can legislators help.  

Legislators can help by keeping this topic in the forefront and continuing to advocate for improvements in state funding.  This bill is highly related to local property taxes and districts that are wealthy in property taxes will receive less money from the state.  It is important that new funds can continue to go towards education in areas that need it the most.  Low income areas will need allies in all parts of the state to advocate for equity.

How can school administrators help.  

Administrators can help by being innovative and fiscally responsible.  School districts that survived on less than 70% adequacy will receive the biggest increases.  This is a great time to make improvements that will make a school more attractive and help improve curriculum.  There are so many ideas to choose from and it is extremely important that schools have a plan that can sustain time.  Schools with such an inadequate funding will need a long time to catch up.  Looking for quick fix solutions is not the answer.

How can educators help.  

Educators can help by being innovative and fiscally responsible as well.  The new funding is public record.  Teachers will ask for improvements that benefit them most and they have every right to.  However, the best way to look at these improvements is sustained growth.  This increase is just a patch and will take years to reach adequacy.  Teachers can come up with ideas that will be useful to the school as a whole and will be good for the next group of educators that will come into their building.

How can parents and community members help.  

Attend board meetings and Local School Council meetings.  Encourage other parents to come along.  Ask for transparency from your school.  Ask that your school involve stakeholders in it’s decision making.  Ask that the school share information in a way that more people are aware that changes are taking place.

This is an exciting time in Illinois.  After years of debate and research to prove the inadequacy of our funding system, a change was actually made.  This is something that the state can be proud of.  However, this is an improvement that needs the help of the entire community of stakeholders in order to be truly successful.  

For more information on this topic see the Advance Illinois website below.

http://www.advanceillinois.org/datadesk-equitydashboard/

4 ways to Ace your Teacher Evaluation

Acing your observation / evaluation 

My principal would tell us that our observations were not a dog and pony show. And I believe him. However, it is important to put on a good show when you are being observed. If for no other reason, it shows respect for the hierarchy by taking the time do something special when you know he or she is coming to see you.

1. Prepare like a comedian

No, don't do any Eddie Murphy jokes (no matter how much you enjoyed Delirious). You should look at your observation the same way that an entertainer prepares for a show. When a comedian does a one hour special they do not come out with untested material. They practice the jokes at other earlier shows to find out which jokes work best. This is how you should prepare for your observation. Try out new teaching methods first to see which ones the students like. And use the most effective ones on the day that you are observed. And don't focus on the content, focus on the presentation. How will you deliver the lesson?   How will students be seated?  Will students work individually, in pairs, or in groups?  These questions are much more important than the exciting information you will discuss on MacArthur’s tactics in the Pacific Theater.

2. Let the students do the heavy lifting 

Your principal does not want to watch you lecture for 45 minutes. No matter how interesting you think you are!  They want to see your ability to engage students and get them to work. Create a hands-on lesson where students are building, creating or discussing. This takes the pressure off of you and also allows students to be active. It also gives you some time to interact with your evaluator instead of watching him take notes wondering if he has noticed a kid shooting a spitball while you were explaining the military ingenuity of MacArthur to a group of disinterested 7th graders!

3. Bell ringers and Exit questions 

Start your lesson by activating prior knowledge.  Find out what students know about the lesson. This works in a couple of ways for your observation. First, if you are in the middle of a unit, you can show off to your evaluator what students know so far. Or, if students do not know very much, you give merit to the lesson because you will be teaching them new information

Exit questions are great because you can demonstrate to the evaluator how much new information the students have gathered during the lesson. Make the exit questions simple enough that students will know the answers.  This will give the students confidence as the leave class which could reflect well on your evaluation.  Also, if possible have students take notes during the lesson or activity, that way they will be able to refer to the notes for the exit questions.

4. Teach like every day you will be observed
Obviously you should use best practices every day. We all have bad days, and we all have lessons that don't work. We have students who are disruptive, wi-fi that goes down at the worst time, and copy machines that break down twice a week! But if you are using good strategies all of the time, you will have new and exciting lessons every day.   And when you are evaluated, you will have plenty of tricks up your sleeve!

How to Engage Uninterested Students

Get off the stage!!

Students like to be hands on learners.  I notice this in teaching all of the time.  I even notice it with my nine year old daughter.  Whenever I am teaching her something, or telling her a story, she immediately wants to give her own insight or act it out.  What I realized is that, teachers need to make as much time in their lesson for students to demonstrate as possible.  Although you are the teacher, that does not mean that you should do all of the talking and acting out.  Give your students a chance to talk and demonstrate too.

Teacher Helpers

Give those uninterested students a job.  They can be in charge of passing out papers or collecting homework.  With technology being used more often in class, you can make a student a computer helper.  They can be in charge of changing slides during a powerpoint presentation.

During group work, you can allow a struggling student to be a “facilitator”.  You can give this student the answer to a difficult question that also includes the steps to get to the answer.  Then, they can help the other students arrive to the answer (without actually giving them the answer of course).  This can help a student become engaged, and also give them more confidence during the lesson.

Turn and Talk

This is a great method for students who are nervous about answering questions out loud.  It is also a good way to bring in students who tune out during lectures. 

Instead of asking the entire class to raise their hands to tell how to complete a difficult math problem, or explain the cause and effect of a historical incident, have students answer the question with a small group of 2 – 4 people.  The students may not want to share with the class because they are afraid to be wrong.  But in a small group, they may be more willing to share, or admit what they don’t know.  While students turn and talk, the teacher walks around to make sure that students are on task, but also gathers insight on how well students understand.

Think, Pair, Share

A follow up to the Turn and Talk method, is “Think, Pair, Share”.  After asking a question and having students discuss in partners or small groups, have the students share the answer with the class.  With students being in pairs or groups, now you can have a designated speaker.  Also, now that the students have had an opportunity to go over the answer with a partner, they may have more confidence to share with the class.

Brain Breaks

Brain breaks are a great way to turn students’ attention away from work, while still keeping them engaged in learning.  Most brain break activities involve movement.    A teacher can go to YouTube and find a fun video with dance moves and instructions that students can follow along with (Brain Break Video).    Sometimes, doing physical education exercises can also become a fun activity to take students minds off of work.  Fitness Bingo can be used to give students different exercise options that they can perform.

Some brain break activities don’t require dance or exercise, but still give students a chance to be off task.  I have recognized that older students don’t like to exercise and dance in front of their classmates as much as younger students.  Using a quiz game is a great way to get students thinking and moving, while not exerting too much energy (or embarrassing them in front of their cool friends).  Ask the whole class a multiple choice question, then, have students move to a certain area of the class based on their answer.  You can label areas of the class with letters or colors and have students move to a specific location (Fun Quiz Games). 

Brain breaks work best when the activity is age appropriate and the setting of the activity is taken into consideration.  Plan out the amount of space that you will need so that the students have enough room to move!

Student Presentations

I notice that students who are often disengaged from daily assignments, such as note taking, lectures, and worksheets, usually give more effort when it comes to projects and presentations.

Student presentations are a great way to keep students motivated and engaged.  This works even better when students are given a choice of what they will present.  Of course, there will be rules and guidelines.  As a social studies teacher, I tend to use countries or biographies as topics.

When students know that they will have to speak in front of class, or display their work, they tend to take better care of the final product.  Sometimes, they are more invested.  Also, although they may work alone on the assignment, they will enlist the help of others, or even the teacher, to come up with the best way to complete the assignment.

Conclusion

The most important way to keep students engaged is to have a variety of tools at your disposal.  Depending on the grade that you teach, many students have seen the tricks that teachers have and have lost interest or are turned off by them.  None of these ideas can be used all of the time.  They should be used at different times based on students’ age, ability and overall interest.  The school day will not always be fun, but it should never be boring.  As long as you are able to be innovative and look for ideas that encourage students to be hands on in their learning, you will be able to keep students engaged.   Good luck!