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Tuesday, June 30, 2009

H. Wong's 7 Principles

Harry Wong talked about his "Secrets" to year long success based on what you do on day 1.

1. Am I in the right room?

2. Where am I suppose to sit?

3. What are the classroom rules?

4. What will I be doing in your classroom this year?

5. How will I be graded?

6. Who is my teacher as a person?

7. Will I be treated fairly in the classroom?

How well these questions are answered in planning prior to the 1st day is critical to success.

Online Gaming = Learning?

The session, Game On, described something just around the corner. MMORG games that support curriculum. http://www.spngameon.ning.com
Their focus is on playtesting games written for curriculum support. I wonder what's out there where lessons and units are using MMORG as the environment. I'll follow the ning to learn more.

June 29 Highlights

Yesterday was a mind filling experience. Starting with McNulty on student engagement through relevance I attended many good sessions. See previos post on Harry Wong.

2 highlights were an elementary and a middle school. English Estates Elementary does project-based learning as curriculum approach. http://teachercenter.scps.k12.fl.us/ees What makes this worthwhile is their culture-building element. All students engage into Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People as part of their learning content concepts. See their resources on their site. They have several resources on their systemic work.

Salina Intermediate School uses teacher leadership with the principal to improve instruction and learning. http://salina-int.dearbornschools.org

They're doing great work on establishing focus on learning as a learning community. Students and teachers use many methods to teach and learn together. One example is through videos, such how and how not to meet collaborative and Co-Teaching.



Here are some usefulresources.

D-Tube: http://video.dearbornschools.org
Blog: http://blog.dearbornschools.org/salinaprincipal/my-presentations
http://battee.blogspot.com

Today, I'm at a session called Game On.
http://www.spngameon.ning.com

More later!

Monday, June 29, 2009

Harry Wong

Harry Wong is amazing in person. High energy, full of examples, humor, and laser focus ideas. Classroom management is not discipline. It's having a plane to communicate meeting needs of students, making kids feel valued and safe, and getting them to work. Read his work online. Buy his book, First day of school. He and his wife write a monthly column in the Teachers.Net Gazette. The online zine, TG, is worth checking out.
Ok, I'm at the models school conference this week. http://www.leadered.com. I'm blogging by text as things happen, as long as battery holds. Will

Sunday, June 28, 2009

In my desire post more often, I'm linking text messages. Adventures abound.