Leading From The Heart

by Tracy Rosen, teaching & consulting since 1996, blogging about it here since 2007. All views are my own and you should take them with a grain of salt, I do.

Category: Podcast

  • Learning from my students as I rise

    Listen to a podcast about this post here [audio: learningfrommystudents.mp3]

     

    image from maniobras de escapismo by Ma Vera on Flickr
    image from maniobras de escapismo by Ma Vera on Flickr

     

    My students inspire me

    “I have learned more math this week than I have so far in all my years of high school.”

    “Today I don’t feel complete. I did not get to the gym yesterday because I was working on homework and I didn’t finish the homework because I didn’t get some of it. So I’m not feeling complete.”

    “I’m weird. I get the math when it is in a word problem, but not when it is written as straight math.”

    “Today I am tired. I had another fight with my mother last night and didn’t get to bed until late. Tonight I am going to party.”

    Why?

    Because I learned that even though the math scares me a bit, I can teach it. And I think that is because I teach my children first and then the math. I also learned that we do such a disservice to students when we stay focused on basic skills rather than going on to learning that requires higher-order thinking skills. If she had not told me that she was ‘weird’ I may have made her do more of that ‘straight math’ instead of letting her think. I wonder how many other ‘weird’ students are out there. I learned where my students are coming from when they put their heads down during study hall, the last 45 minutes of the day, instead of reading a short story or trying to figure out the equivalent resistance of whatever.

    and I learned this:

    To you, 17-year old Cody

    Each morning we check in
    in a circle we sit
    we shoot the shit
    we state where we are at
    so we can clear the path to where we are going
    so we can clear the path to the part of our journey that will take place today.

    “I feel tired”
    “I feel happy”
    “I did not finish my homework”

    On Thursday morning you, 17-year old Cody, said
    Today I do not feel complete.

    and you went on to say why.

    all eloquent and concise.

    And I learn that it is not my job to make
    you feel complete.

    I think to myself of what stops me from feeling complete – of my boundaries, my hard lines, my fears.

    No, it is not my job to make you feel complete. It is my job to learn from you how to rearrange my own boundaries, reorganize my own hard lines into rungs as I rise to my own completeness.

    And that is why I say to you, 17-year old Cody, thank you.
    Tracy, Sept. 13/08

     

    Everyday Real (moment of truth 2008) [audio: http://www.tracyrosen.com/leadingfromtheheart.org/wp-content/uploads/podcasts/everydayrealmomentoftruth2008.mp3]
    From The Pull Forward EP Vol.2 by Scholarman, available for free download here

  • Why I don’t do zeros.

    Listen to these ideas. (Go here to see a mindmap of this podcast and links to resources I refer to in it or just keep reading normally. Whatever turns your crank.)
    [haiku url=”http://www.tracyrosen.com/leadingfromtheheart.org/wp-content/uploads/podcasts/assessmentAug9.mp3″ title=”Why I don’t do zeros”]

     

    report card

    Image: from Not So Good by zephyrbunny, found on flickr and made available through a creative commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike license

    It’s Saturday morning, a little over 2 weeks until the school year starts again for teachers at the New Frontiers School Board, where I work. My mind lately, as it usually does around this time of the summer, has been shifting from summer to practice, and this morning it opened up to assessment. Here’s the flow chart of how it hit this groove:

    Saturday Morning FlowChartMind Map made with Bubbl.us

    And here is that comment I made over on Hugh O’Donnell’s post (which you better go over and read if you want any context):

    That’s right, not radical at all. We do NOT need to give zeros and, I’m sorry, but the excuse that we’ve got so many initiatives thrown at us warrants the practice? (the practice = completely demoralizing children and doing nothing to help improve their learning) Come on. A zero as feedback gives me no hope.

    I really began to learn the art of assessment about 5 years ago, when I met Ken O’Connor at a conference in Ottawa. And then I started to read everything I could about it, which I’m still in the middle of doing ;)

    So I guess I’m one of those teachers who read. And you know what I do when I am reading? I do it publicly – I carry the book around with me, I talk to others about what I am reading and about how, if at all, it is helping to change my practice.

    So it DOESN’T need to be top down. If we sit around waiting for someone else to do something, well…wouldn’t it be lovely for there to be the perfect piece of grading policy to fall from above that all teachers would embrace and follow. (where’s the smiley guy for sarcasm?) Un-unh. I’m not waiting for policy to inform my practice. I prefer to focus on my practice and allow it to inform policy.

    I googled Ken O’Connor and found this. An administrator’s notes from one of his sessions from last year. I particularly like the list at the end – repair kit for grading.
    http://carnets.opossum.ca/roberto/2007/10/ken_oconnor_excellentevidemmen.html

    he he – first comment of the weekend. Guess the coffee is kicking in ;)

    (and that’s the edited version…)

    Assessment informs learning. I assess before, during, and after units of study so that my students and I know where they stand with the learning that is going on. If a student is NOT meeting the expectations for ANY reason – be it ability, interest, learning style, or socio/emotional issue – it us up to me to address it and assessment is data that shows me if how I am addressing it works. Evaluation is when I look critically at all of the data that I’ve culled from assessment, and reporting is how I share that with parents.

    So…I don’t do zeros because of my professional ethics, which are closely tied to my core values:

    • always hold on to hope for the future –> a zero in no way informs a learner of anything to do with potential for learning and change and can completely destroy any possible hope that was there.
    • always teach with integrity –> giving a zero undermines my integrity as a teacher.
    • always maintain the utmost respect for my students and their families –> a zero indicates to me that no communication has been made between me and my students/families about progress and how to fix things.

    Very often a zero is tied to behaviour. It is a punishment for skipping class, not studying, acting jerky or disrespectful, whatever. When these things happen to me (and they do) I focus on why this is happening instead of trying to punish it. It makes more sense for me.

     

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    Podcast Map, made with Labyrinth.

    Podcast Links

    Scroll back up to keep reading or stay here to look at the map and play with the links to anchor you while you listen.
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  • …a new dawn, a new morning, a new chance… (podcast included)

    Listen to this post[haiku url= “http://www.tracyrosen.com/leadingfromtheheart.org/wp-content/uploads/podcasts/NewDawnAug7.mp3” title= “a new dawn, a new morning, a new chance”] **today’s post houses my first podcast. Read here for notes on the process.**

    mindmap for today's post, made with labyrinth mind-mapping software: http://www.gnome.org/~dscorgie/labyrinth.html

    mindmap for today’s post, made with labyrinth mind-mapping software

    Resources to help me prepare for the new year:

    (Instead of sending you off to tracyrosen.com (which you still could do you know, there’s some fun stuff there) I decided to bring the pertinent links here. Economy of click and all ;) )

    There are some more, but this here’s a good starting point.
    (don’t forget to read the comments – a lot of the learning happens after the post is written. At least for me.)

    Know of any others? Hook me up and I’ll add them to the list!

    Voicethread on classroom management – add your voice! Just click on the ‘comment’ button and go for it.

    Book Lifeline

    Mackenzie, R.J. (2003). Setting Limits in the Classroom (Revised): How to move beyond the dance of discipline in today’s classrooms
    http://www.settinglimits.com/b-book2.htm

    Listen to Omar Offendum’s New Day (RIP Nina Simone) by going to the Cosherink.com page and scrolling through the player. Heck, while you’re at it listen to all the tracks.

    They’re hot.CosherInk player <– Clicky Clicky

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    Today I’m testing out podcasting.

    • Discovery 1 – it’s easy-peasy with the tools (labyrinth and gnome sound-recorder) that came bundled in my Ubuntu 8.04 OS :) and an audio plugin that I already had installed on my blog.
    • Discovery 2 – planning is a good thing when it comes to podcasting. And, for those who like to see/read. I’ve included the plan in this post.
    • Discovery 3 – I’ll do it again. But
      • a) I’d like to teach myself how to use audacity so I can integrate more music and other sound-bytes into the audio. Maybe. I did like the simplicity of the gnome sound-recorder :)
      • I’d like to use ogg vorbis instead of mp3 so I’ll have to find another way to integrate the audio into each post. Though again, I do like the simplicity of the plugin I use already – only thing is, it only recognizes mp3.

    rewind