mangofirst
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Posts posted by mangofirst
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1 minute ago, wvu80 said:
Aren't you a little too conservative to be a teacher?
I'm beginning to have doubts about you...
I do not fall under the labels of conservative or liberal thank you very much. GDI till I die!
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16 minutes ago, windashine said:
8th grade level or ….
Middle school would be a great time to start social media literacy, however I started my teaching career at the high school level, so discussion of any and all levels is great.
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1 hour ago, dwilawyer said:
I don't think they let teachers give the tests anymore, and I think they are done on computer terminals so that teachers cannot manipulate tests and avoid scandals.
Oh yes, we are test proctors. There's a whole bunch of stuff we are told not to do, but the first and the most heartbreaking is not to help them with anything besides technical issues. Just imagine teaching a group of kids every year, modifying your lessons based on different learners' styles and ability levels, then watching them struggle for 4-5 hours a day for a week straight. It's all so logical. 🙄
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2 hours ago, garyrc said:
Good for you.
It may be the Louisiana version of a vended test, compiled with the permission of, and payment to, the manufacturer. In California, at least in the past (before my retirement in 2003), they used the so called Stanford test, with added questions and sections, to make the torture more exquisite. The name and address of the test's owner should be on the manual, often on the back; you were given the test's technical manual, weren't you? Teachers should be, at least, allowed to read the manual and see how the test's creators assessed reliability and validity, as well as looking at reviews of the test, especially in Mental Measurements Yearbook (Buros) in the library. A good test librarian can help interpret comments concerning the manufacturer's testing of the test, i.e., the methods used to test the reliability and validity and any other assessments by the reviewers. Those reviewers (always at least two) are experts, and as such, sometimes disagree with each other (we used to say they should be regarded as "The Siskel and Ebert of testing," but that's hardly appropriate anymore).
Students in lower grades were often given one of two tests. One test manual warned that their test's validity suffered if the student didn't finish, "every student must attempt to answer every question," so all students should be allowed to work on it until finished. That didn't always happen. The schools tried to cram the test taking into one class period. Well, they were warned.
It is the test's creator's professional responsibility to run tests on an instrument's reliability and validity, and publish the results in a test manual. Firms like ETS were doing that, at least the last time I looked (2003) . The process is much too expensive and time consuming for the makers of most internet tests. It's probably a safe bet that any test that somebody hasn't been paid to create is of unknown reliability and validity (probably low). As you suggested, "follow the money." Here is a comment from a review of a very popular test (the other one alluded to above): "The method of evaluating this test's reliability is known only to the test's creator and God, and even God might have some questions."
1) I was not, but you can damn well bet that I will have one within the week if such a thing exists.
2) I get your reference, old man.
3) My heart just dropped into my stomach reading that. Hmm...the game is afoot!
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On 9/22/2018 at 12:17 PM, wvu80 said:
Something that bothers me but I'm not sure what you can do about it: I notice a lot of kids when engaged in conversation will attempt to "prove" things by searching Google ON THEIR CELL PHONE as you are talking to them! I think this is more a boy thing more than a girl thing.
Us boys are "right fighters" very task oriented and we like to be right about everything. Most of you girls are MUCH more social and just want to get along. Boys and girls are different.
Now, now, let's not start talking about how boys and girls are different and have different brains and body parts and stuff or you might offend a little snowflake.
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Already thinking about adding an 'Economics/Marketing' type section to include analytics and affiliate type stuffs.
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Interested in picking your brains again. So, I have been thinking about a social media curriculum lately. I did a quick brainstorm before turning to Brave browser + duckduckgo for a scan of others' ideas on the matter. I didn't find much but...
Here's what I brainstormed:
Here's what Journalism Education Association (JEADigitalMedia.org) had to say:
Comments, concerns, suggestions, complaints?
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6 hours ago, Chris A said:
The students that need the most help always got the best teachers...in my experience. Perhaps they don't tell you that in your particular district.
In Texas, all testing measures the bottom of the scale only (extremely heavily weighted to color of skin)--never the top achievement, i.e.,
Texas Assessment of Academic Skills--TAASSTAAR - State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness. The entire school receives a failing grade if one minority student too many fails to meet standard...and that's one student in some skin-color groups.Chris
Ours is called the LEAP 2025. Louisiana Educational Assessment Program. Haven't discovered who owns the test...as far as I can tell, it's owned by the State. I usually try to follow the money, if for no other reason than to know which products will be introduced next.
4 hours ago, dwilawyer said:Looks good, hard for me to see a couple of the colors, esp. yellow, you might want to just go with black.
Yeah, I know. I was looking at it on my phone and the Google Sheets app doesn't have all the same edit options as the online one. Also, I'm new to Google Sheets, haven't used Excel in over a year, and have to search for how-to's, but I'm practicing. 😊
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2 minutes ago, Chris A said:
The charts that you posted say a lot already.
In my wife's schools, they always handed GATE (gifted and talented) students to teachers that need the bar a little lower. 👎
So what you're saying is, they have more faith in me? It just seems impossible when I look at the data. Guess I should put the data to the back of my mind and rally forward.
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11 minutes ago, dwilawyer said:
The regular bar chart is better, for me, and it would be much better if it listed the percentage in each category, you would see number plus the bar height with percentage lines in background.
Done. Check them out.
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2 minutes ago, dwilawyer said:
The regular bar chart is better, for me, and it would be much better if it listed the percentage in each category, you would see number plus the bar height with percentage lines in background.
How can you possibly get that many kids in red up to grade level and at same time try to have a discussion.
Well, my personal (school evaluation-type) goal is for all of my students to grow by 5 points, so that's actually almost attainable. I guess I should clarify that federally and state-wise the goal is student growth, but there has also always been this (really dumb) thinking that all students should achieve mastery or higher scores. It's impossible. Isn't there some theory or law that states that humans are not all smart and are not all capable of being smart? I mean, in every way I've ever seen humankind scaled, there's always a low, middle, and high...
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Just a little [publicly available] information about the students in my classes...
We want them all to be at mastery level or advanced, of course, but here are some charts and graphs because CHARTS & GRAPHS!!
For those of you who are good at charts and graphs, is there one that would show this data in a more visually appealing way than these? This side of my brain rarely gets used, so it's a little rusty, but I figured since I'm starting grad school soon, I should brush up.
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16 hours ago, jimjimbo said:
Mention anything at all about sex.....that'll do it.
That's how I used to get my high schoolers interested in Shakespeare 😂
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NYT has put out a giant list of argument topics, so I get the idea.
My problem is that the students are supposed to be arguing about "the changes Charlie experiences after surgery" and "How the author’s choices contribute to your understanding of those changes and their impact on Charlie." So I guess my question is really, how do I get students to engage in an argument they don't care about. [emoji849]
I would have no problem teaching argumentative writing if I were able to choose my own curriculum. I was quite good at it when I taught AP Language to juniors. -
5 minutes ago, wvu80 said:
I am a big believer in the effectiveness of small groups especially with adolescents. Peer pressure!
I love the idea of group work, I just can't figure out how to implement it effectively and efficiently (and without creating a bunch of extra work for me). Every time my kids work in groups, it seems like they waste a lot of time, or only certain kids are working.
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43 minutes ago, Chris A said:
Any input would be anecdotal from me and definitely not expert.
By their 13th-14th year of age, adolescents have the cognitive capacity to do most of what adults are capable of doing, but self-regulation and judgment are still developing. This is a pretty critical set of capabilities for student-led learning, one would think.
I was just having an internal conversation about this. "Are we asking these kids to do something that they aren't developmentally capable of?" Methinks the answer is yes. So I think maybe I should bring my focus back down a bit to be more about the building blocks for them to get to that point in a few years (personally, I don't think it happens until that prefrontal cortex wakes up at around 22-25, or at least that was my experience). Being self directed is one thing, but having the cognitive ability to create your own argument is quite another. Thanks for validating my thoughts.
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10 hours ago, Dave1290 said:
Good writers write from their heart and soul expressing themselves, which I'm sure you know already. Once they can do that it becomes easier. They have to "feel comfy in their own skin." Having seen you here, I know you'll handle it well.
I try, I try. But when I'm stifled by pre-formulated curriculum, things get dicey. I would love to teach a creative writing class! The thing that middles schoolers should be focused on is finding their voice. This curriculum does not allow for much student choice, and my hands are tied right now. 🤷
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On 9/21/2018 at 5:55 AM, Chris A said:
On this forum (K-forum) the participants come and discuss topics because of their enjoyment of the subject matter
You could use a champion that others will follow or will want to compete with. Starting a group of kids from scratch is difficult.
2) Anonymity tends to stimulate unwanted behavior by those scoring high on narcissism and histrionics, etc.
Yes, it would be a much easier task if my content weren't chosen for me. But for now, I have no way to get around that. I have however created a Steven Crowder-esque "Change My Mind" poster for all 8th grade ELA students to participate on. I choose a stance that I'm certain most students will want to argue against. This week I did "Listening to music while doing assignments is distracting. Change my mind." This has gotten them more engaged in the idea of argument, so I be plan on continuing it. The idea is that they just add their reasoning to a sticky note and add it to the poster in the hallway.
The kids are not starting from scratch, but sometimes it feels that way. I'm having a hard time figuring out what background knowledge is actually in those little hormone filled brains.
We will definitely not be doing anonymous online discussion with 8th graders. They must be held accountable for their own content. There are ways for them to be anonymous with the teacher having access to whodunit I'm sure, but Google classroom is not set up that way.
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Sitting here grinning about an 8th grade grammar Nazi who always brings her A game to class and has piles of papers sitting around the house!
I definitely never bring papers home. I tried that when I first started teaching and they never got graded, so now I leave them at school. It helps me to keep that work versus professional line drawn, although I'm constantly finding teaching moments in life, so there's no real line, but a girl can pretend.
Thanks for all of your ideas and comments. I tried a test run yesterday. Part of my curriculum calls for students to participate in Socratic seminar over specific questions on our content (currently "Flowers for Algernon'), so I thought I would try that online first, because in theory they should be more comfortable with that versus face to face. As expected, one class was a complete disaster, one class did very well, and one was in between. And I'm sure it would've gone the same way if we had done a classic Socratic seminar.
I hear the comments about teaching everything in smaller chunks, and of course that is how our curriculum is set up, but I'm also expected to get these students to lead the classroom, so there's a catch 22 here with how much I should "give" them versus letting them discover things on their own.
I would love to hear your suggestions for student led discussions with no input from the teacher. Does anyone have a magic wand? -
We are doing a close reading unit on the short story "Flowers for Algernon."
What books are kids required to read in 8th grade these days?-
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So I want to get my 8th grade English and Language Arts kiddos familiar with and (crossing my fingers and toes) interested in discussion of any type. I use Google Classroom in class, which now provides a "stream" tab in addition to the "classwork" one. Apparently you can use it as a sort of discussion board. But many of my kids are unsure of everything they do, so my test runs haven't gone so well.
I think with a bit more structure, it would be an excellent tool to teach them conversation skills as well as civilized debate. I read this suggestion for some ground rules and I like it, but I wanted to get some more input...from real forum participants. Looking forward to some useful (and I'm sure a few hilarious) suggestions.
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I had my 8th grade English students write down directions on how to make a PB&J, with instructions to be detailed. Had the ingredients ready to go when they were done. If student wrote "Get bread. Put peanut butter on bread" I would take out the bag of bread then put the jar of PB on top. They quickly got the idea. Everyone got a quarter sandwich at the end.
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Cables, Coffee, Cycles, and Cocktails
in Lounge
Posted
No wonder she won an Oscar for this! That was quite a monologue.