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Tuesday Tip o' the Hat
2010-10-27 04:11:00
As part of my initiative to get back into being more involved with this blog, I am instituting "Tuesday Tip o' the Hat" -- a feature where I will link to a particularly relevant or inspiring post from somewhere else on the web.Today's inaugural web link comes courtesy of Ed U Cater, who is one of this semester's Teacher Voices contributors for the Dallas Morning News. His column this week is about the importance of recess, and the detriments of not having it.If your school still gives kids their recess then consider yourself lucky, because many school have taken it away altogether. Ed's column is definitely worth a read, and feel free to leave a comment either there or here. I'll be sure he gets it.Read all about Jack Woodson and his first year as a teacher in Learn Me Good, available at Amazon.com! Now available on Kindle and ipad!

Interactive Monday is back!!
2010-10-26 02:23:00
I've been feeling lately like I haven't been contributing enough to this blog. Or that when I HAVE, it's mostly been about Learn Me Good the book. Not that there's anything wrong with touting the book. That IS, after all, why this blog was started in the first place. However, I feel I haven't been balancing that enough with actual school and teacher related "stuff."So I'm ready to remedy that. To get back into a regular routine, I am bringing back an old favorite -- Interactive Monday s! Every Monday, I will pose a question, and I hope that you the reader will contribute your answers, thoughts, and ponderings.This week, the question is What mnemonic, or memory trick, have you found helpful in the classroom? This can be helpful as a teacher, OR helpful to you yourself when you were a student.I posted recently about a new little ditty I had learned to help the kids remember when to regroup during subtraction. The more we use it, the better it gets. The kids are rememberi...
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And now a word from today's sponsor
2010-10-25 14:05:00
Learn Me Good is today's sponsor for the Free Book Alert at Kindle Nation Daily!"Kindle Nation Daily Free Book Alert, Monday, October 25: Four Free "Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith" Books to Get You Ready for Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith #5: Purgatory, plus an undiscovered gem: John Pearson's Learn Me Good (Today's Sponsor ), and over 100 other fully updated free Kindle ebook listings http://bit.ly/bXKspk"Hopefully, this will help to boost sales, at least for a bit. Wish me luck!Read all about Jack Woodson and his first year as a teacher in Learn Me Good, available at Amazon.com! Now available on Kindle and ipad!
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Tutoring Tuesday
2010-10-20 00:54:00
Tutoring began today, and much like the beginning of the universe, there was a great ball of chaos.I got my paperwork taken care of yesterday. Got the names turned in, my lesson plans, their bus assignments. Of course, I didn't get them turned in on time, per se, but that's what happens when the email request comes at 8:34 am, and the deadline is set for end of the school day. I felt like sending an email back saying, "I was TRYING to read and send emails, but these pesky kids kept bothering me with questions!"But at any rate, I got all that turned in. Then today, right before 3:00, we got an announcement over the loudspeaker: we could NOT clock out and log in for tutoring right after school, like we've always done. We would have to wait until 3:45 to clock in. This would necessitate leaving the tutorees unattended mid-stream in the room while we walked down the lengthy corridors to scan in our thumbprints, but we were advised that our neighbor would probably be happy to w...
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A few quick links
2010-10-19 02:14:00
Joel, over at So You Want to Teach, has put together a list of 50 Teaching Tips. Some are pretty universal -- "Choose your battles," "Establish a constant routine" -- and some are much more specific -- "You need to teach fundamental technique before you can presume to teach musicality." But all of them are worth a perusal and possibly a usal.Also, I'm a bit late on this one, but the newest Carnival of Education is up (and has been since Wednesday) at Bellringers! I forgot to submit anything for inclusion, but there are still lots of great articles there, worth your perusal. (and possibly usal)Read all about Jack Woodson and his first year as a teacher in Learn Me Good, available at Amazon.com! Now available on Kindle and ipad!
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League parity
2010-10-14 01:24:00
Today before I left my classroom, I took care of my kids' Thursday folders. Thursday folders are these folders that we send home on... you guessed it, Thursday. This is when we send home graded homework, old tests, fliers from the school, etc.The kids are supposed to bring back their folders on Friday so that the teachers have them for the following week. It has been my experience that many kids often do NOT bring them back, so I devised a motivational system long ago that has worked pretty well. I can sum it up in one word -- Stickers.If a child brings back their folder the next day, with all of the old papers taken out and left at home -- as they are supposed to -- I put a sticker on their folder that they can either leave as decoration, or take and put somewhere else at home. The kids love stickers, and their faces light up on Thursdays as they see what new sticker they got.Today, I was using a sheet of stickers that I got from a Sports Illustrated promotional mailing. It ...
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Let's hit the floor
2010-10-13 03:38:00
Today, we began our unit on subtraction. It seems weird to even say that, as I (still) feel that 3rd graders should know how to subtract BEFORE entering 3rd grade. However, at my school, they often don't, and even when they know the basics, they don't regroup (borrow) correctly. Or in some cases, at all.The kids often just invert things in their minds. If the ones place says 2-7, they turn it around and compute 7-2. If it says 0-4, well that's easy, it's 4. After all, 4-0 is 4.But things went pretty well today, when I shared a rhyme with them that I heard at my session on Friday. This is a rhyme that I'm sure has been around forever, but for whatever reason, I had never heard it before. Last year, I had success with my own made-up, "Tiny Top vs Big Bottom," but that hasn't seemed to stick this year. However, the kids really liked the new rhyme.If there's more on the top -- No need to stop.If there's more on the floor -- Let's go next door -- and get ten more.If the...

It's finally here!!
2010-10-07 05:24:00
My new cover is finished and up on the Kindle page for Learn Me Good! I am so stoked! It will be a couple of weeks before the paperback copies change over to the new cover, but I still just think this is so cool!!Read all about Jack Woodson and his first year as a teacher in Learn Me Good, available at Amazon.com! Now available on Kindle and ipad!
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Rounding the corner
2010-10-06 00:29:00
This week has been, and will continue to be, pretty messy. We're giving Benchmark tests (or as I call them, the dreaded BMs) through Thursday, and that really throws a monkeywrench into our teaching time.So I haven't had as much time to work with the kids as I normally would. However, I have been really pleasantly surprised by how well my kids are getting the concept of rounding, especially given the shorter class periods.Yesterday, I introduced it to them, and, as is often the case, they acted as if they had never in their entire lives heard the words "Estimating," "Estimation," "Rounding," or "Math." (OK, Math they had heard of.) We started discussing why anyone would want to use numbers that weren't exact, as in the case of shopping. I read them a story about 2 kids using estimation to win a jelly bean counting contest. The story was called, "Betcha," and I had to carefully state up front that this was short for, "I'll bet you -- like they are making bets with each othe...
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Cover model
2010-10-04 04:26:00
Thank you to everyone who put in their 2 cents yesterday. I really appreciate all of the feedback! The voting turned out to be just a bit rigged though, because after I posted those initial 4 ideas, I found ANOTHER photo that screamed out to me even more. This new cover makes it feel like I'm almost there on the cover myself (hey, that IS what my arm looks like, after all), and I can write whatever I want on the chalkboard.Here's a sneak peek.Read all about Jack Woodson and his first year as a teacher in Learn Me Good, available at Amazon.com! Now available on Kindle and ipad!
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Judging a book by its cover
2010-10-02 02:28:00
Hello, Gentle Readers! (As Stephen King would say... Oh wait, I don't write horror. Usually.)Reader AND Lurker alert! I need your feedback!I am strongly considering changing the cover of Learn Me Good, at least for the Kindle version, and I have a few concepts that I have been playing with. All of them involve an actual, professional photograph, as opposed to the (very much self-admittedly) amateur cover that currently graces the book.Below, you will see 4 possibilities for new cover designs. Please note that the rights still belong to the artists at istockphoto, that's why their logo is prominently stamped in the center. You'll have to imagine that gone.I would really love to hear any and all feedback on these ideas. What do you like? What do you dislike? Which do you like best, if any? Why?Thank you in advance!Edit: I added one more to the mix. This one has a male teacher's arm, which could very well be MINE...Read all about Jack Woodson and his first year as a teac...
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Friday Night Sites
2010-10-01 03:00:00
So my super-short work week was actually increased by 50%, due to the fact that my off-site training, scheduled for today, was canceled. It was canceled yesterday at 4:00 PM. I'm really thankful that I checked my email before I left yesterday, because otherwise I would have been wondering where everybody was at 8 o'clock this morning.When I got to school this morning, I was told not to clock in, because my sub was already there. Eventually, that was changed, and I was able to clock in and resume my duties. I got down to my room just as the sub was closing the door and starting to introduce herself to the kids. The kids who were sitting and standing around their desks, looking like they had absolutely no idea what to do. Despite the instructions for the day ALWAYS being written on the board, despite me telling them yesterday exactly what they should do when they entered the room -- there was only one kid who had his spiral notebook out and ready to do the first morning proble...
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Shortest. Week. Ever
2010-09-29 00:58:00
Do you remember the discussion of a 4-day school week? How it would save electricity, power, the universe, etc? And my counter-proposal was that if cutting ONE day off of the usual week would do that much good, why not shave FOUR days off?Well, this week is going to be pretty darn close to that proposal.Yesterday (Monday) was a student holiday/staff development day. No kids, no lessons, no teaching.Today was a regular day.Tomorrow is a regular day.Thursday, I have to attend an off-site meeting for some math program I had never heard of before. Thus, I will not have kids, or lessons, or do any teaching.Friday is Fair Day, so there is no school.This boils down to a 2-day school week for me. Thank goodness it's the end of the grading period, and we're just reviewing. I'd hate to try to introduce anything new and expect it to stick.Read all about Jack Woodson and his first year as a teacher in Learn Me Good, available at Amazon.com! Now available on Kindle and ipad!
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The newest voice online
2010-09-26 00:47:00
A good friend of mine is one of the "Educator Voice s" in the Dallas Morning News this year, and his first editorial column ran today. It's very well written, and I invite everyone to check it out.Read all about Jack Woodson and his first year as a teacher in Learn Me Good, available at Amazon.com! Now available on Kindle and ipad!
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Down with the sickness
2010-09-25 18:35:00
**Big news! For whatever reason, Amazon.com has discounted Learn Me Good from $11.99 down to $8.63! I have no idea how long this will last, but please spread the word! ****Last year, as I recall, I made it about 2 days into the school year before getting sick. Whether it was a cold, allergies, "the crud," whatever, I'm not sure. I'm never sure, as they all seem to have the same symptoms, and they all make me feel the same way.This year, I managed to make it into the 5th week before succumbing to the evil illness. Maybe it's marital bliss that staved it off for so long, or maybe I really have built up a better immunity. But it was finally my time to fall victim. Several kids had been absent, or even worse, PRESENT with sniffles and wet hacking coughs.I started to notice that scratchy tickling in the back of my throat on Monday, and Tuesday was worse. It probably didn't help that I stayed up way to late on Monday night, watching the exciting end to the Saints-49ers footbal...
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Seems to have worked... for now
2010-09-18 21:47:00
Last week, I bemoaned my students' lack of work showing. Monday, I put into play a plan of action that I hoped would solve that issue. So far, it seems to be working.I have always used a system that involves blue tickets to reward the kids for making good choices. They get blue tickets which they can put in a basket on my desk, and at the end of the week, I pull out 3 names for simple little prizes like pencils and small toys and such.Now I've added orange tickets into the mix (ORANGE!!??!!!!!). Where blue tickets are like raffle tickets, orange tickets are like cash. If the kids get an orange ticket, they can use it to buy a prize, they don't have to get lucky to get their ticket pulled from the basket.But the only way they can earn an orange ticket is by getting a 100 on a test and showing all of their work. Anybody who marks all the correct answers but doesn't show how they got those answers will not receive an orange ticket. Anybody who makes a silly mistake and gets ...

Shake up some Buzz
2010-09-16 05:16:00
Is it that time again? Every other Wednesday, Carol at Bellringers serves up the latest from the world of edumacators in her Carnival of Education Buzz . Today, Episode 4 (The Tinman and the Unicorn) is presented.Check out all of the great posts found there, and be sure to comment on a few!In my classroom, I have decided to shake things up a bit. I just drew up a completely new seating chart, new partners, everything. I will implement this first thing tomorrow, and MAN do I hope it results in some positive changes. Too many kids thinking that just because they sit at the table farthest from the white board, that they don't have to pay attention when I'm writing on it. Nevermind the fact that I'm still less than 10 feet away from them (it's a very small room).Keep your fingers crossed!Read all about Jack Woodson and his first year as a teacher in Learn Me Good, available at Amazon.com! Now available on Kindle and ipad!

Who grades the test?
2010-09-14 05:29:00
I was speaking to my kids today about the TAKS and the importance of filling in the answer bubbles neatly. That, and the reason that they should never ever write anything in or near the bubbles other than filling in the one that they are choosing.So I asked my class who they thought actually would be grading their TAKS tests. Several hands went up."The teacher?" one asked."Nope," I replied."You?" the next one guessed."Uh, I AM the teacher, so still no," I countered."The principal?""No.""The President?"One of my kids actually thought that President Barrack Obama might take time out of his busy schedule to pick up a red pen and grade his TAKS test. Forget the mess of the economy, the whole international politics scene -- give him a key to the 3rd grade math test, and put him to work!Read all about Jack Woodson and his first year as a teacher in Learn Me Good, available at Amazon.com! Now available on Kindle and ipad!
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Words escape me
2010-09-11 01:58:00
Today was NOT the greatest Friday in the world. By 8:20, I had already put one kid in time out in another classroom, ripped up one kid's homework and thrown it across the room, and taken two kids down the hallway to the phone to call their parents.I've had better mornings, to say the least.My rage just continued to simmer all morning long because of my homeroom's seeming apathy about their education. We've been studying number forms this week. Standard form, expanded form, and word form. For most of the 3rd graders, this is the first time they have been required to know how to read a 4, 5, or 6 digit number. On Tuesday, we went over expanded form, and Wednesday and Thursday, we went over word form.Expanded form never ceases to frustrate me. It is, quite possibly, the absolute SIMPLEST type of problem in all of 3rd grade. It involves adding, every question has plus signs in it, to remind you to add, just in case you forgot, and mostly, you are adding zeros!! A typical que...
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WHEW!!
2010-09-09 01:50:00
Well, my wife and I apparently just dodged a tornado. Or 2. Hard to tell, because we didn't have access to a television from our tiny downstairs workout room where we were taking cover. But the people that came in to join us said that they had just seen report of a tornado touching down at Love Field airport, which is only about a mile from us.All I had to worry about today at school was a few lights flickering. The week has been going pretty well (short week, we had Monday off) though. We've been doing various number forms. Expanded, word, standard. The kids are picking them up pretty well, which is no small feat with the words, since they've never had to read a number bigger than 3 digits before. I still have a few kids that are total dead zones when it comes to listening, and that's just a bit irritating, but one of my kids who had been a total slug for the first 2 weeks, has had an INCREDIBLE 2 days this week. I talked with him Friday about changing his attitude and ...

A new way of doing things!
2010-09-04 16:51:00
Yesterday morning, as the kids were returning to their seats after Calendar Math, I was walking around checking to see if they had shown their work on the homework from the night before. It was a set of 10 place value questions (ie, What is the value of the 5 in 498, 256?), and I had insisted that they show a place value chart for each question before choosing their answer. We had even done the first question and chart together in class the day before.All of the kids had done their charts except one, A, who had not been doing his homework this year anyway. So that really didn't surprise me.As I picked up his paper to look on the back, he watched me with a spark in his eye. I of course saw nothing on the back except the one chart that we had done in class, but before I could ask, "Where are your place value charts?" A proudly exclaimed, "I did it a DIFFERENT way!" As if he had independently discovered a new element.I tried not to be TOO harsh as I told him that merely filling i...
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Traipse through the sawdust
2010-09-03 02:10:00
The newest edition of the Education Buzz Carnival just came out over at Bellringers, so mosey on over there and smell the greasepaint and try not to point at the freaks. I haven't really had a chance to head over there myself just yet, but if you save me a seat on the Tilt-a-Whirl, I'll be there.Tomorrow, at my school, we're supposed to wear a shirt that somehow symbolizes a form of labor, in honor of... wait for it... Rosh Hashanah. No, I think it's for Labor Day. Anyway, I haven't decided what I am going to wear.I suggested to a female colleague that she stuff 3 pillows under her shirt, walk around sweaty and holding her back all day, and around noon, spill a bunch of water on the floor. She politely declined.My next thought was to wear a shirt depicting Hercules, he of the 12 Labors. After all, what public school teacher hasn't at SOME point felt like he was cleaning out the Augean Stables or skin the Nemean Lion? (OK, I googled it.)There's always the plumber route, b...

Everything in its Place
2010-09-01 01:22:00
My kids really impressed me today. We started talking about Place Value, reviewing what they should know from second grade -- Ones, Tens, and Hundreds. Usually, despite the fact that this is NOT new material, it's like teaching a brand new topic. Today, though, my kids showed me that they had it down cold.And not just one class! BOTH classes went pretty similarly, and we sailed right through things. I started off by writing the number 979 on the board and asking somebody to read it. I then asked them to discuss with their partners whether or not the two 9's in the number meant the same thing.I heard great discussions, and in both classes, kids told me that they were not the same because the first 9 was equal to 900 but the second 9 was merely 9. When I asked about the 7 in the middle, a good majority of the kids were able to not only tell me that it represented 7 Tens, but even that that equaled 70!! That's pretty major!!I busted out the place value blocks, and the kids s...

24/7
2010-08-28 04:59:00
We got a bulletin in our mailboxes today, beginning with, "This year, two of the courses that are mandatory for all campus staff members will be online. The courses, Confidentiality and Ethics, will be accessible and available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week."This makes it sound like we can access the programs at any time and fulfill the requirements at our leisure.Until I read further and saw that the window for completing the Confidentiality course is August 16-28.Yeah, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week really doesn't mean jack when you're told about the MANDATORY course the day before the window closes.Read all about Jack Woodson and his first year as a teacher in Learn Me Good, available at Amazon.com! Now available on Kindle and ipad!

Um, no one wants to see that, dude
2010-08-26 02:17:00
They finally fixed my air conditioning! I think. Today was quite a bit cooler, due to a nice rainstorm this morning, so that may have skewed my perception. But for a while, the unit was running, and it was nice and cool. I turned off the fans and closed the windows. Later in the afternoon, it seemed a bit warmer, but still not nearly the sauna that it had been. What a relief!This year, there is a kindergarten class on the 3rd grade hallway. This is not exactly optimal space planning, in my opinion, but it is what it is. Our hall's bathroom schedule thus includes this kindergarten class, and of course, they happen to go immediately preceding my class.This morning, I took my class down to the restroom at our appointed time, and the kinders were still down there. As we stood there waiting for them to finish, this little boy walked out of the bathroom with his pants down around his ankles and his tighty whities visible to the whole world.This kid wasn't showing the appropriat...
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Not my finest day
2008-05-08 04:39:00
This morning, I got to exercise the algebra muscle in my brain and figure out a puzzle without using a paper. Mr. Hard Drive, our IT guy, drove by while I was out in front of the school doing my morning duty and presented me with a math problem. "A guy on a bike is following a path that goes up and back down a hill. He rides for five hours. Going up the hill, his speed is 8 mph; coming back down the hill, his speed is 12 mph. How many miles did he ride?" I won't post the answer here, so as to ruin the joy of discovery. And I do mean joy, as solving that problem was the high point of my day. Lump was back from suspension and up to his usual modus operandi today. You can pretty much set your clock by when he's going to raise his hand and tell you he has a potty emergency -- 8:00. Also, have I mentioned how much of a hypochondriac he is? My knee hurts, the knuckle of my fourth toe is aching, my outer elbow appears swollen. Two weeks ago, he called me over and just pointed a...
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Everything I need to know in life, I learned from Captain America
2008-05-07 01:19:00
I saw the new movie Ironman over the weekend, and it was spectacular! From the previews I had seen, I was very excited to see it, and I already thought it was going to be super cool, but it greatly exceeded my expectations. It had a great story, great special effects, lots of action, some very humorous moments throughout, and it was all about one of my favorite topics -- superheroes! Seeing Ironman -- coupled with the fact that my unwritten topic list already included a column about kids and comic books -- inspired me to write today's Mr. Teacher column over on education.com. I could talk for hours about comic books and superheroes, but I kept the focus of this column on the benefits kids can obtain by reading comic books. Check it out, and until later, Excelsior!! Read all about Jack Woodson and his first year as a teacher in Learn Me Good, available at Amazon.com! Start with a preview here.
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Who WAS that midget???
2008-05-06 01:55:00
What a weird, wild day!!! This morning, a couple of my team members were running late, so I was asked to look after one of their classes until they could get to the school. So I got all of my kids into my classroom, tasked a couple of them with passing out breakfasts, and then went and picked up one of the other classes. I was down in their room with them for about five minutes until a teacher's assistant came, then I went back to my own classroom. When I entered my classroom, the first thing I noticed was that one of my boys looked like he had been in a bar fight. He had a black eye, and several bruises on his face. I asked, "What happened to you??!?" and he replied in a very matter of fact tone, "Oh, I got my butt kicked by a midget." Now THAT'S something you don't hear every day, Chauncey! I wasn't going to be phased, though. He said it so nonchalantly that I figured I should respond in kind. I just said, "Oh, ok," and then turned to talk to one of the other children. ...

Worry about yourself?
2008-05-05 03:26:00
Why is it that so many of my kids have a supreme sense of responsibility when it comes to OTHER kids in the room, but they can't seem to look after themselves? There are so worried about the kids around them not following the rules, but they never seem to notice when they're not following the rules themselves. I think it's great for kids to take on responsibility, but one of my boys, A, always wind up taking responsibility AWAY from somebody else. I'll ask one of the kids to hold open a door so the class can walk through, and seconds later I'll turn around and A will be holding the door. Or someone in my class will ask if they can take a basketball out to recess, yet A is always the one who winds up holding the basketball after lunch. On Friday, with a few minutes before the bell rang at the end of the day, I asked everyone to clean up the area around their desk, as I always do before we leave the classroom. Usually it's the kids with the lumber yard right under their desk...
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Testing is over!!
2008-05-02 00:50:00
Unlike Tuesday and Wednesday, today I did not have to administer a state standardized test!! The only people taking a test today were the fifth graders, who were taking the science TAKS. Third and fourth grade or allowed to resume their normal schedule, complete with outside recess and afternoon specials. Yesterday was the reading test for fourth grade, so I was up in Ed U Cater's room monitoring the test, and he was down in my room teaching my students. After that experience, I have no doubt that he is anxiously anticipating next year, when he will have these kids ALL year long. Throughout the course of this entire school year, my kids have frequently interrupted my teaching with statements that begin with, "Miss Credit told us," or "Miss Credit always said," or "Miss Credit used to..." Then they go on to inform me as to exactly what she told them or said or used to do. Quite often, what they're telling me they learned from their old teacher is EXACTLY what I'm telling them...
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