Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Professional Learning Summit Day 2

Wow! Today was a day full of wonderful ideas! As I mentioned before, our county wrapped all of our professional development into 3 days. Today we had an AMAZING speaker, Rick Morris. He has made me rethink the way I manage EVERYTHING in my classroom! The Theme for the day was Eight Great Ideas. Here is a summary of what we learned and what I am planning on doing with ALL of this information: 1. Sign Language in the classroom: One of the key topics today was that teachers are doing way to much talking in the classroom. Rick Morris showed us several ways for teachers to be able to HUSH and use a variety of methods to get the students talking. The sign language approach was more about less talking for everyone. For example, He showed us a method for having students use different signs to signal if they have a comment, question, or answer. By having the students sign why they are raising their hand, the teacher is able to see who they need to call on. If it is a student with a question, the teacher needs to answer them immediately. If it is a student with a comment, the teacher can signal for them to wait. You can download this posters for your classroom at his website: Sign Language Posters 2. Echoing in the Classroom Another great point that he made with regards to teachers talking to much in the classroom he referred to a method called "Echoing" which is when a teacher repeats what a student has just said. He made some very valid points for not echoing student responses which is why I will be trying very hard to bite my tongue and not echo student responses this year. Morris said that by echoing student responses we as teachers are validating their responses and not letting the students think. he suggests a simple "Thank you" after the student response regardless of whether the response was correct or incorrect. Let me give you an example- Teacher: "What is the capital of Tennessee?" Student 1: "Nashville" Teacher: "Thank you." Student 2: "Nashville" Teacher: "Thank you" Student 3: "Memphis" Teacher: "Thank you" Wait... The capital of Tennessee is Nashville, not Memphis, so why did the teacher not correct the student? By not validating any answer as right or wrong, the students begin to question their responses. Student 10 may be thinking, "wait, I thought the answer was Nashville, but he said Memphis. Could it be Memphis?" Then the student stops, looks up the answer sees that it really is Nashville, and then raises her hand to answer Nashville. Other Points for Not using Echoing in the classroom: -Echoing enables students -Students think they do not have to listen to their peers, they think that teachers will restate important information. -Quiet students do not have to learn to speak up. -Students say "Echo" when they need something repeated, then it is the responsibilty of the student who said something to repeat what they said. -By allowing multiple correct answers, more students are getting to voice their opinion. 3 and 4. Timers and Sound Makers Morris gave really good reasons for using music, timers, and sound makers in the classroom. We learned today that a child's attention span is their age plus or minus 1 or 2 minutes. He suggests setting timers in your classroom for that length of time to give students breaks and processing time. He used sounds to signal events. He had a sound for students to come and pick up hand outs, a sound for students to line up at the door, etc. He used music to signal transitional times and talk times. 5. Student Numbers Student Numbers are already something that I use in my classroom. It is a great time saving tool, plus you can write numbers on things and then be able to use them year after year! He did make some new suggestions though, like having a student job be to put homework and classwork in number order. Then that student can write a post it to you with numbers of work not turned in, then you know exactly who needs to go to study hall or finish something during recess. He also suggested using these check off sheets that you can get on his site to know who has turned in things like school forms, permission slips, etc. You can get all of the things I mentioned above, plus a TON more at his website: Rick Morris

14 comments:

  1. I just learned SO much by reading your post. (and I've been teaching 28 years) I love these ideas you learned!!! The only thing I couldn't find in a printable was the list of numbers so you could check off who had not turned in an assignment. Could you help me with that? Thanks for the helpful tips and printables.
    susanlulu@yahoo.com

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    1. Yay!! I am so glad that you enjoyed reading this and that you were able to get something from it! I am a new blogger, so it is great to know that people are actually reading what I write :)

      I will email those printables to you!

      If anyone else is reading this... You can get the number checkoff sheets at the website at the bottom of the post. That will take you to his home page, from there, click on "Download files" then you can click to download the set of blackline masters that meets the needs for your classroom.

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  2. Hi Jodi! Thanks for stopping by my blog today. I am your newest follower. First off, your site is adorable! Secondly, I learned a lot from this post, too! I know I'm an echo teacher...I need to work on that! Love the signals and plan to use those in my classroom this year. I've only been blogging a few days myself, but I've found that commenting on others' blogs and leaving your link in the comments helps others find you! Also, if you have any pictures on your site that you can pin to pinterest that seems to help get the word out about your new blog, too. Feel free to email me (email button at top left of my blog) if you want to talk blogging with me. I love that I've found some other NEW bloggers to chat with. ;)

    Amanda
    Teaching Maddeness

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    1. Thank you so much for taking a look at my blog! I have just learned how to add my blog as a link in comments, before I was just typing it in and who wants to take the extra time to type in a link... not me lol so I'm sure that will help a ton! Its so great how much you can learn from other bloggers and their willingness to share and help out! So thank you thank you thank you!

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  3. OH...and as a fellow southerner, I love the name of your blog! =)

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    1. Thanks again :) I thought it was a little cheesey at first but its growing on me lol

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  4. Jodi,
    Do you mind if I link up to this post tomorrow? I'm thinking Saturdays will be a day when I share some great online finds for the week and I loved this post...such great ideas to implement right when we get back to school!

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    1. Please!!! You are welcome to link up to anything of mine anytime! Yay!

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  5. Rick Morris is great. A timesaver in the classroom.


    Yearn to Learn Blog

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  6. I love using some sign language and silent signals in my classroom. My bathroom sign looks different than his poster though. I learned it so that you make a letter T and shake it back and forth. Great ideas!

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  7. Just found your blog! I use sign language in my classroom all the time and my students love it!

    Sara :)
    Smiling In Second Grade

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  8. I'm your Newest follower. I use sign language in my room once in a while. We do the pledge everyday in sign and I use some signs to praise their efforts. I like the idea of echoing...that is me for sure!
    Come check out my blog at 2ndinline.blogspot.com. I have many freebies that you might like for your classroom. For some reason, Icahn not leave my blogs name hyperlinked for you to click on, so you have to type it in directly.
    Patty
    2ndinline.blogspot.com

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  9. This post was so interesting to me! I use those same signs with my students when I teach but never heard of anyone else using them. I have an aunt that is deaf and 2 special needs children. They could talk in ASL before they could speak words. This idea came so naturally to me. I love that others are doing this too!

    Misty
    Think, Wonder, & Teach

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  10. Thanks for sharing this. I'm a new follower and would love if you stopped by my blog!

    Brandi
    Success in Second Grade

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