Post #3 Communication is Key

Hi everyone,

Every teacher worth their salt has an idea why communication is important. After all, if you can't communicate with the students, how do you expect them to learn new information? That being said, I know that there are quite a few teachers who don't see a reason to call home. Communicating with the parent is actually one of the most important things you can do as an educator! The only three reasons to call home are to praise,  to punish, or to confer.

Sending praise home can be one of the most positive things you can do for your students. When parents hear about the way they have been behaving well in the classroom, it will build a more positive and healthy relationship between the school and paternal relationship. Students can finally see what kind of impact doing a good job can be! One thing to point out about positive calls is they don't have to be made just to kids who often behave. Sometimes students who struggle to work in class can greatly benefit from a phone call home as it helps reinforce positive behavior.

While no one wants to do it, sometimes it is necessary to call home about a child's behavior. I believe that sometimes it can only be the parents who can give meaningful punishment because students who don't behave in class may not understand the relationship between cause and effect, and how their school life can impact their personal life. That being said, do not try to denigrate or imply the parent isn't doing a good job raising their child. You want to bring up the problems and brainstorm a way to fix it together.

The last reason is conferring. Sometimes when you notice behaviors you need to call home, not to punish, not to praise, but to figure out why they are acting a certain way. For example, if a student is seemingly upset in class, the teacher should call home and see why. This is because both the parent and the teacher have the right to know how a child feels. I understand this may seem invasive, but if a student is on the verge of tears, or struggling to stay awake in class, the teacher needs to know why. Sometimes this is due to the student's fault, sometimes it's not. regardless, it is important to figure out the reason so either the teacher can identify and erase the behavior, or so the parent can set up a stronger support system.

All in all, there are many reasons to contact home. Regardless of how you feel about calls home, calling home is essential to any classroom that is worried about the welfare of the student inside and outside of the class.

Post 2: Consistency

As I've realized (thanks to a handy thermometer) my classroom can get up to over 100 degrees. Considering I have my kids for 2.5 hours at a time, that can get stressful for both myself and my students. This is when I realized that the heat claims everyone, and it causes an immense stress that even my 3 fans cannot defend against.

It's during this time that I strive to do the most important part of the rules. Consistency. To me, consistency means something happening no matter the circumstance. This can bleed into a lot of things, but it especially can bleed into classroom rules and procedures. The moment that you are not consistent is the moment that your students begin to disrespect you. The best way to be consistent is to come at an even head for everything. For example, it may be tempting to let the student who has been screaming "I need to go to the bathroom" go to the bathroom, but then you're allowing screaming to become an acceptable way to communicate needs in the classroom. The best way to stay consistent is to be relaxed and remember the rules and explain them. Here are a few ways to do that:

1. Take a deep breath
Taking a deep breath at a high tension moment will give you time to relax and reflect on the situation. Sometimes the first response isn't the best response as an educator and it's important that you come off as a fair judge.

2. Remove self from the equation
It's very easy to allow your emotions to take control and get upset. I know I have before. This is one of the most difficult things to do, but take any anger you have out of your body and realize that the student is very likely trying to get a rise out of you as a need for attention. It's important to not let that happen.

3. Start the day well.
An old trick I was taught during football was what I like to call "decompressing". Basically you sit at your seat and take a 1-2 break where you simply relax. Before you get up, you say to yourself "I am going to be calm today. I am going to be fair today." This helps get you "in the zone" and ready to teach the students.

Those are just a few tips on how to improve your emotional responses so you can act more consistent. Good luck!

Post #1 Rules and Procedures

Hi everyone!

This week was my first week of teaching this year. I know that quite a few of us are trying to get back into the hustle and/or bustle of getting our classrooms looking nice and inviting, while some of us have started their year already! Either way it's definitely time for people to get up and get ready for the brand new school year.


I would like to remind everyone of the one think that they need to have 100% ready to go before the students come into the classroom.

Classwide procedures

 No matter how you slice it, students need procedures for how things in your class should run. If you have gray areas in your procedures, a few of students out there who will quickly become lawyers and try to negotiate every single procedure. While I understand that some people may be a bit lax on rules, it's important to state that rules are not the same as procedures. Are these related? Absolutely!

Accurate depiction of rules and procedures gazing upon the beautiful classroom they have created.

 Procedures are how students should act during a specific time. Most classes will have different procedures for each activity. He's a short list of all the procedures that exist in my classroom: voice levels when speaking, getting out of seat, sitting correctly, sharpening pencils, retrieving missing work, walking into class, walking out of class, walking to lunch, going to the computer lab, passing out papers, collecting papers, quiz behavior, post-quiz behavior. I have plenty more procedures. but it just gives you a hint of how many different procedures you need. The more procedures you have, the more efficient you class will be. The more detailed your procedures are, the easier they are to follow. 

The way to enforce procedure is by reteaching it over and over again. For example, I do journals with my students every Wednesday and Friday. I clearly go over the expectation step by step each time I do it. Here is the play by play.

1.  I call everyone to attention.
2.  I explain that today is a journal day and that I will dismiss students based on their section. During this time, no one is talking to each other, and the section I called will come up quietly and quickly to pick up their notebooks, then they will sit down.
3. I then say "section 1, please come up quietly and quickly to pick up your notebooks then go to your seat."
4. I then say "section 2, please come up quietly and quickly to pick up your notebooks then go to your seat."
5. I then say "section 3, please come up quietly and quickly to pick up your notebooks then go to your seat."
6. I then say "section 4, please come up quietly and quickly to pick up your notebooks then go to your seat."
7. I then say "Thank you everyone for quietly and quickly getting out your journals, I greatly appreciate it."
8. I then explain the journal prompt of the day.

Wow! What a play by play!

Notice how repetitive it is? That's on purpose. The more time you spend explaining procedure, the easier it is. While there may be come confusion the first few times, it's important to keep the exact same procedure each time. This drastically increases the smoothness of the classrooms, and makes your life a whole lot easier. That being said, if someone is not good at following procedures, do NOT punish them. Simply retrain and remind them of how they should act.

Rules are a whole different beast. Rules are how the students should act at all times. Make sure you have rules for all the problems that could cause difficulty for students to learn and you to teach. If you cannot do these things, then there is a problem in your classroom and their must be a recourse.  Of course, what some people consider to be important may not be the same all around, and that's why I recommend incorporating your students into helping you create your rules. While you should totally have rules (for example, no one talks when another person is talking) you should also make sure you are giving students the ability to make the rules too. When students are given a voice to input their feelings, they feel validated and a member of the community you are creating.

What happens if someone breaks a rule, however? I really think that should be up to the teacher, as various rules have different consequences. For example, in my class, if someone is talking to their neighbors too much, I will move them. If they are insulting their neighbor, they will have to write a page long apology to the student. No matter what the consequences should be, it's important that students understand what the consequence is. That way, they will not fell treated unfairly because they know that if you break that rule, that is the consequence. 

As a side note, some people may have their students help them create consequences too. To you teachers I say: go ahead! It definitely helps create a more solid classroom culture, but make sure the big rules (fighting with other students) have consequences created by you.

I think that's all for now. If you have any tips on how you create rules or procedures, feel free to comment them below. Have a great week!

A Blog Reborn

Hello Everyone!! I am back! It's been quite a while, and you can see that I have changed my blog title. I'm no longer "Pedagogical Ponderings", I am "Thiede's thoughts". I was definitely thinking about creating a brand new blog for this, however, I think it's important for me to have everything as an open archive. That way I can look back and say "wow, maybe I was such a dummy way back when!"

Me looking at my old blog posts. I feel like I was a little too condescending, but we all change and hopefully for the better :)

That being said, this blog will change a teeny bit. I'll be adding more things than just pedagogical theory, because wowza, is there a lot more to teaching than just teaching. While I don't expect this blog to be a perfect example of how to teach (as there are no perfect teachers) I hope that you can learn a few tips and tricks about being a good teacher, maintaining stress levels, and having a good lesson plan.

I'll be posting my first (technically second but shhhh) new blog post in roughly an hour about starting the school year off right! I hope everyone here enjoys the reborn blog!


PS. I would like to thank a few people for everything they have done. Steffanie Rowinski for recommending that I restart my blog. Truth be told, I probably wouldn't have started it without your help. I appreciate your support and encouragment. I would also like to thank Emily Brondstad for being my only subscriber. I'm pretty sure that you only did it to the class but shout out to you! I hope you both have a very good year full of happiness and growth!

You threw me down. but I'm gonna fly

Due to some "technical difficulties" It seems like all D2L has gone down. Just like a mighty phoenix, this blog has been resurrected to show off my first lesson plan.

Romeo and Juliet: Character Analysis of Romeo

This is meant for grades 9-10 and takes 50 minutes

By: Max Thiede

Lesson Description: Using Romeo and Juliet, we will examine the personality of Romeo from “Romeo and Juliet”.  Students will present a trait they see in Romeo and Juliet, including those that conflict. They will be required to back up their arguments using textual evidence when talking about Juliet. They will also know how to look up this trait in a dictionary. 

Text Description: Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy about two young lovers named Romeo and Juliet. They wish to marry, but their parents forbid it due to a fierce rivalry. Once Romeo and Juliet both die for each other, their parents reconcile their differences. It is written written by William Shakespeare.

Learning Objectives	CCSS Addressed
Children will be able to explain, using sources from the text, what kind of character they think Juliet is, and why they believe that he is how they describe.	CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.1: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
Children will be able to think about all the ways Romeo and Juliet are described by classmates and come to a decision that either justifies the adjective they use to describe Romeo or Juliet, or is contrary to it.	CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.9-10.1.D: Respond thoughtfully to diverse perspectives, summarize points of agreement and disagreement, and, when warranted, qualify or justify their own views and understanding and make new connections in light of the evidence and reasoning presented.
Children will be able to look up words in the dictionary, understand their meaning and learn how to pronounce them.	CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.4.C: Consult general and specialized reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning, its part of speech, or its etymology.

Pre-Teaching Procedure: Group Discussion (10 minutes)

1. Begin the class by talking about how they felt about the story and how they think about the characters. Are they smart? Are they good? Are they bad?

2. Ask the class how they feel about Romeo.
a. Explore the ways the students describe him.
b. Make students wonder, if they haven’t already, if Romeo is a reasonable person.
i. This is done by offering examples of Romeo contrary to the ones they bring up. For example, if they are talking about how loyal Romeo is, bring up Rosaline.

3. CCSS Objectives that can be taught : CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.9-10.1.D
a. In the discussion students will be given several diverse perspectives on how Romeo is viewed. Some may agree and disagree on how Romeo is described and will have to “Respond thoughtfully to diverse perspectives, summarize points of agreement and disagreement, and, when warranted, qualify or justify their own views and understanding and make new connections in light of the evidence and reasoning presented.” Through the ten tips for facilitating large group discussions” the teacher is presenting ways that a student can engage in this topic while adhering to CCSS. (McCann 15)

4. Rationale: In “Talking in Class” by Thomas McCann, McCann reminds us that “Meir reminds us that active, frequent engagement in meaningful discussion not only promotes learning of the skills and substance of a particular subject but fosters an environment of tolerance critical thinking, and democratic spirit” (McCann 5). In my class I am trying to create a space where everyone feels accepted. I ask how they feel about the script to make sure that they are ready for a more intermediate discussion on how they feel about a particular character. I intend to follow the “ten tips for facilitating large group discussions” (McCann 15) to ensure that every student feels like they are contributing to the conversation. This discussion will also help students think about the next project they have later on in the class.

Teaching Activity: Walkthrough (9 minutes) 

1. As a class, agree on one word that describes Romeo.

2. Have the class find one scene to that proves that this word describes Romeo, if they haven’t already figured one out.

3. As a class, then we will look that word up in the dictionary, with the teacher explaining how to look things up in a dictionary, step by step.

4. At the end, the teacher presents what the class did. This will include the following things:
a. Who the character is
b.The word
c. Its definition in the dictionary
d. Proving that this word is true by citing dialogue from the text.

EXAMPLE:

Character: Romeo
Word: Brave
Definition: Ready to face and endure danger or pain; showing courage
Cited Source: "Tybalt, here slain, whom Romeo's hand did slay;"
Connection:  Romeo is willing to fight Tybalt, proving he is ready to face danger

5. CCSS Objectives being taught: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.1, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.4.C

a. Students are being taught how to analyze a text by finding a quote that supports their argument.
b. Students are being taught to “Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning”. They can use me as an example to follow.
c. While it is only the print, students are being taught on how to “consult general and specialized material to find the pronunciation of the word… [and] clarify its precise meaning.” Finding words using digital material can be done in another lesson.

6. Rationale:

a. As McCann says: “Another strategy for encouraging more authentic discussion of literature is to help students learn to run and participate in discussions on their own without the teacher leading.” (McCann 83) By teaching them how to do this before, they can focus more on participating in a deeper discussion.

Learning Activity 1: Small Group Discussion (17 minutes)

1. Split the students into groups of 4-5. Each group must come up with a unique word that they think best describes Juliet. As a group, it is their job to prove that this word correctly describes Juliet.


1. The Presentation will include the following:
a. The word
b. Its definition in the dictionary
c. Proving that this word describes the character by citing two sources from the text.

3. CCSS Objectives met: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.1 CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.4.C
a. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
b. Students are required to “Consult general and specialized reference materials both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning.” They do this by using the dictionary they are given.

4. Rationale:
a. The presentation format is kept the same,  because as McCann says: “Another strategy for encouraging more authentic discussion of literature is to help students learn to run and participate in discussions on their own without the teacher leading.” (McCann 83) By teaching them how to do this before, they can focus on how the issue at hand.I am focusing on Juliet, as it is possible that all information on Romeo has been exhausted by the class in the time we spoke, and students might just copy my work and do nothing else.
b. I am also following strategies from “Talking in Class” because “students learn best when they are involved and can contribute to the lesson”. (McCann 35) For those too nervous to speak in large groups, these small groups can help them learn the best possible way they can, with an alleviation of nervousness. I am using the “Planning and Managing Small Group Discussion”(McCann 35) to ensure that students feel ready to talk in these small groups.

Learning Activity 2: Exit Slip (7 minutes)

1. Each student will reflect on what they think of Romeo or Juliet as a character and how it changed over today.
a. This does not have to be done in a professional manner.

2. CCSS Objectives met: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.9-10.1.D:
a. During this writing response, students are expected to “Respond thoughtfully to diverse perspectives, summarize points of agreement and disagreement, and, when warranted, qualify or justify their own views and understanding and make new connections in light of the evidence and reasoning presented.”

3. Rationale:
a. According to Adlit.org, “Exit Slips help students reflect on what they have learned and express what or how they are thinking about the new information.” Because the students were just bombarded with a lot of new information in the presentations, I would like to take this as an opportunity for the children to think about how characters can be described. The second is because “while some students can readily express their ideas verbally, other students… may be reluctant to share their responses.” (Beach 188) Up until the exit slip, most of the dialogue has been with others. To ensure that these low level participants are given a place to do express their opinions without the anxiety that can come public expression, they are given these freewrites.

Overall Rationale:

Central Focus: Being able to express how which characterize people is very important. Knowing how a character works allows for a deeper understanding of the character and analysis of themes. If a student begins to think about a character in a different light, an entire story is changed. Romeo and Juliet’s relationship could go from true love to truly idiots, and neither of these opinions are wrong. This leads me to the CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.9-10.1.D, as I believe that children will have a lot of different opinions on these characters ranging from annoying to romantic, and as long as can argue it well, it’s not wrong. I have chosen both Romeo and Juliet as my two main characters to be analyzed because they both have the most amounts of lines, and are present throughout the novel. This should give students more than enough examples to find in the text that support their ideas. Though, due to the open ended nature of my lesson, if the class finds a different character particularly divisive, we could to it on them instead, and not much would change.

Pedagogy: According to Talking in Class “Cognitive psychologists observe that meaningful interaction among students is not just a philosophically attractive aspect of school; it is essential to learning” (McCann 5). Not only this, but also “discussion helps us put thoughts together and sometimes discover what we know.” (McCann 8) Everyone has an opinion on anything, so I know that these students will have them on characters from Romeo and Juliet as well. I am just helping them realize their own skills and hone their ability to make arguments. This is why I made sure to have group discussion, then small groups, then singular. I give them the most guidance, to help them show their own prowess. That courage and scaffolding allows them to be a bit more talkative in their small groups, where they can go deeper and examine their feelings intimately. Lastly, they are given thoughts to themselves in order to reflect on their now known knowledge. This is done for two main reasons. The first reason is to make sure the student can “Respond thoughtfully to diverse perspectives, summarize points of agreement and disagreement, and, when warranted, qualify or justify their own views and understanding and make new connections in light of the evidence and reasoning presented.” As this is one of the main objectives of the course. The second is because “while some students can readily express their ideas verbally, other students… may be reluctant to share their responses.” (Beach 188) Up until the exit slip, most of the dialogue has been with others. To ensure that these low level participants are given a place to do express their opinions without the anxiety that can come public expression, they are given these freewrites.

Works Cited:

McCann, Thomas M. Talking in Class: Using Discussion to Enhance Teaching and Learning. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English, 2006. Print.

Shakespeare, William, and David Garrick. Romeo and Juliet. London: Cornmarket P., 1969. Print.

Anonymous. "All About Adolescent Literacy." Exit Slips. Adlit.org, unknown. Web. 17 Apr. 2016. <http://www.adlit.org/strategies/19805/>.

Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. Ed. Dympna Callaghan. Boston: Bedford Books/St. Martin’s Press, 2003.

Fisher, D., and Frey, N. (2004). Improving Adolescent Literacy: Strategies at Work. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Beach, Richard. Teaching Literature to Adolescents. Mahwah, NJ: L. Erlbaum Associates, 2006. Print.

Thanks for Playing!

Well everyone, this is it. The last post ever (maybe). As such , I am going to highlight some of my "best" work. Yes, I know, it's foolish to discern between the plethora of perfect works I have created, but dang it, I will try!

Most Professional: Knock Knock, Get the Door, it's Digital Storytelling

I must admit, I find the concept of "most professional" rather silly. I have never really tried to speak in a professional manner. Like the late Justice Scalia, I find it that people find readings more interesting if you give them strength and emotion. I feel like my writing in this post went over pretty well, and I am very proud of it.

Best Design: I think without a doubt it is my Writers Profile

I like it because it's short, sweet, and gets to the point. Much like my rationale! I don't think there's much else to add, other than this is what the full image of my profile looks like:

what a looker!

Most Creative: Show and Tell

I thought this was the most obvious because I literally went out and created that bad boy. The rest of my blog posts were me interacting with things through writing, not making a movie. It was also a lot of fun.

what most thought of my video

People's Choice: Me (Probably)

"I know the Haitian People because I am the Haitian people." -Papa Doc

Like all other great men before me, I am nothing without the voice of my people (the ones who say what I want them to, anyway. Dissent looks bad on the news.) I look to you, my loyal audience, to determine my fate.

My vote, as important as it may be, goes to Travis. His blog is very well written, has some sweet images, and he did the baseball thing when no one else would. For that I am in his debt. I highly recommend it to any other readers.

I wish you all the best in all future endeavors,

Max Thiede

Show and Tell

This week I did a digital composition project. Admittedly, I forced myself to keep a the time I spent on the project to be 40 minutes, as I know that my perfectionism would lead me to endlessly polish this for several hours, despite being "mini".  I present Book Trailer: Steel Ball Run

While I admit that this product is relatively poorly polished compared to my other work, I had a lot of fun doing it. In Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century, Jenkins explores the use of play in learning.

"When children are deep at play they engage with the fierce, intense attention that we’d like to see them apply to their schoolwork. Interestingly enough, no matter how intent and focused a child is at that play, maybe even grimly determined they may be at that gameplay, if you asked them afterwards, they will say that they were having fun. So, the fun of game play is not non-stop mirth but rather the fun of engaging of attention that demands a lot of you and rewards that effort." (Jenkins 2006)

When I think about all that I had to do I was surprised how much that was related to the book. I had to correctly identify several characters from the text and determine which individuals should be included. This, along with my summary, showed off my knowledge of the book's content. 

That's not all, though. I also had to determine a good song to fit in the background. I chose "Personal Jesus" by Depeche Mode, because a common theme through the story is salvation through the use of Steel Ball Run. For example, Gyro needs the money to pardon a child in Italy abd Sandman wants to win the race so he can save his tribe from poverty and be welcomed again. What's also neat is that  I got to tune the film up to different parts of the song (albeit somewhat poorly) as a way to transition to different parts. 

This was a very interesting learning experience because it didn't feel like learning. It just felt like me fooling around on Windows Movie Maker for a while. I didn't actually realize how much I learned or analyzed in the text until I looked at it now. It's like I was being tricked to learn. As a result, I highly recommend trying to do this in the class because it's educational and isn't just a plain old grind.