North Korea

Really interesting about North Korean defectors living in South Korea.  It's amazing to hear the stories of what many North Koreans have experienced.  

Coaching

One of the best parts of my job is that I get to be the girl's basketball coach.  Our season starts next week and the excitement is building with the girls.  Check out this great email I got from of my players:


Mrs Meyer~~~

BBall season is coming up pretty soon!
i've been waiting for so long

although there is tryout and I'm not 100% sure ill get in but I'll do my best, more then last year!!
you know how much i want this :)

I hope you had a great weekend and see you at school

p.s. ill be working out in fit room for this week. i want to become the best hehe :)


It's so great to see kids buying into the program and being excited to be a part of what we're doing.

thought provoking video

Inquiry Based Learning

This week we have two professional development days where we are focusing on Inquiry Based Learning.  One of the activities during the workshop was to make a video showing the importance of inquiry in our subject area.   Here is the video my humanities group came up with.  I'm actually not in the video because I was in charge of the filming and editing process.  It was a really fun activity to do with my colleagues.

parent teacher conferences

Today marks my 5th set of parent teacher conferences.  It's amazing to think how much I have changed in my approach to talking with parents and students since my first parent teacher conference two years ago.  My first year I was very upbeat and scared to say anything that would upset a parent or make them disappointed in their child.  Fast forward to the present day and now that all-smiles, naive, approval seeking teacher has been replaced.  The new me is much more blunt (and probably a much better politician).   I've come to realize that parents value honesty and openness.  Thus, giving specific and constructive feedback is much more helpful than just sugarcoating what their child is like.  I have also found that even when being transparent it's important to choose your words carefully.  For example,  instead of saying, "Your student is incredibly apathetic about life." I try to say, "Your child needs to work on being engaged in the classroom."

I think the thing that breaks my heart the most at conferences is the "delusional parent."  You know, it's that parent that thinks their child should be a straight "A" student, but the student is just not at that caliber.   It's always so hard to convince parents that it's not about the grade; it's about the learning process and the student achieving the level of work they are capable of.  Unrealistic expectations on kids just seem so unfair and usually leave the student feeling not valued for who they are.  (Disclaimer: I am not a parent.  So I have no idea what parents go through at conferences. )

On a happier note, an overwhelming majority of the parents I met with were very supportive of their child and our school.  Despite the tiredness factor, I found this round of parent teacher conferences to be enjoyable and constructive.  

Text to Speech

Text to Speech from Jonathan Tam on Vimeo.

A colleague of mine, Jon Tam, made this really great video tutorial of how to use Text to Speech, which is a Mac feature.  This is something that can be incredibly helpful for ELL (English Language Learner) students.  Check out the video for how to set it up on your Mac.  Also, check out some of Jon's other video tutorials.  He has some great stuff on is Vimeo account.

funny moments

My favorite part of teaching is building relationships with high school kids.    Today I had a great student moment...

In my 9th grade World History class I am beginning to teach the Industrial Revolution.  As we go through the unit we're going to look at how technology shapes society, both back in the 1700-1800's and in the present day.  As a warm up for class I asked the question, "What is the most revolutionary invention of the 21st Century?"  See some of things the came up with below:

Notice the one with the arrows pointing to it...ELECTRONIC BIDET??!?!!!!!!  (I thought Segway was pretty funny too.)   So here's how it went down:

Me: What are some other ideas about great inventions? 

Student: Electronic bidet (said kind of mumbled)

Me: I'm sorry...say it again?

Student: Electronic bidet 

Me: (am I hearing this right? I get a funny look in my face)

Student: (spells it out loudly) B-I-D-E-T

Other student in the back of the room: wind and water hit you

Me: Oh...umm.....why is this am important invention for the 21st Century? (Why did I even ask this question????  I think I just didn't know what else to say.)

Student:  (completely serious)  It's very important.   I need it.  I can't go to the bathroom without it.  I get dry....

Me: OHHHHHH OKay....great. Thanks so much for sharing.....

Students are so funny.  

What Motivates People?

I just listened to a really interesting TED talk called, "The Surprising Science of Motivation" by Dan Pink (former Al Gore speech writer).  It's well worth checking out here. 

Here were some of the big ideas I took from the video.

• There is a mismatch between what science knows and what business does
• Rewards and incentives do not work for complex tasks. 
• Rewards narrow your focus and destroy creativity (this is scientifically proven)
• For complex situations rewards actually become an hindrance
• Rewards/incentives work for very simple tasks, but that is it. 
• People work better if they have self-direction rather than management 
• "20 Percent Time"--some companies are allowing their employees to work on whatever they want for 20% of their time.
• One such company is Google and it works so well that about half of Google's new products each year get birthed out this autonomous time people have to work (Gmail being one such product). 

This makes me wonder....What would it be like if I allowed my students to have more autonomy over their learning?  What if I was able to use 20% of my time to work on whatever I would like?  I think being an educator I do have quite a bit of autonomy but at the same time my ever growing "to-do" list keeps me from being able to explore new ideas and creative pursuits.  

Is there a mismatch between science and modern education?