Off topic- Meals

Have you ever noticed that meal preparation is essential to humanity? The past two years have been dynamic in many ways for those who are influential in my life.
My best friend moved to Africa to join the Peace Corps, I went through a professional crisis, and my Denver family has been dealing with the death of my Grandmother- the matriarch of the family.
Throughout all of these ordeals, food preparation gave a sense of routine, a task that can be completed, a simple accomplishment that provides a sense of purpose.
When families go through a rough time, feeders want to show their love by providing a meal to the grievers. I am a feeder, I totally get this. However. As part of the family going through the grieving, I have noticed how vital those meal preparation times are. My Dad feels helpless for his mom. What he CAN do, is provide meals. He's a decent cook and I can see his relief when lunch or dinner rolls around. So,  I have put together a list of things you can do for families that are going through tough times that support the small roles they can play.

• Send giftcards to local restaurants. Even fast food places that are close by. Being able to just get out of the house for a few minutes is huge when you are giving round the clock care. 
• COFFEE. Whether gift cards to places close-by or bulk, ground coffee, it flows during hard times. 
• Grocery gift cards. Usually there are more people than normal hanging around and a little help in the grocery department could go a long way. 
• Now, my family are not exactly people-persons, but offering to go for a walk, run, or even a yoga class could be really soothing as well. Any sort of physical activity is good when you are not doing much more than sitting around all day. 

End of Day

As I am sure the general teaching population is well-aware, the end of the school day can be rough. For elementary teachers their students are overloaded and ready to go home. For high school teachers their students are ready to have their time back. For all teachers, the day is almost over and there are still 10 things on the never-ending TO-DO list that HAVE to be done today. I have found for me personally and for the students I have worked with as a sub that the end of the day can be incredibly painful. 

One trick I have up my sleeve is the "reset button." Having the whole class take a beat and regroup. I've also seen elementary teachers use yoga videos or exercise videos to re-engage kids, but that isn't really conducive to high school... or is it? Would more learning happen if students were given the opportunity to re-energize?

What else can be done? What are some tips and tricks that other teachers have found useful to combat the end of the day slump?

#Sublife

So I've been consistently subbing for 4 weeks now. I've really enjoyed almost every minute of it. Over the next few days/weeks I will be posting my observations of different schools and different ideas I've picked up from various classrooms. To kick off, I want to talk for a second about the life of a sub.

Subbing at the high school level is incredibly boring. Teachers (myself included when I ran my own high school classroom) leave a worksheet for students to complete independently or a movie they can watch. High schoolers also have this thing where they want to show their independence whenever they can.... having a sub in their class is ripe with opportunities for high-schoolers to show they don't need someone to tell them what to do.

Thank God for the elementary classroom. You walk into the room and most students have instant respect for you simply because I'm over a foot taller than most of them and therefore an adult (#kidlogic). Not only is there a level of respect from the students, but the teachers as well. Teachers at the elementary level leave actual lesson plans for subs. Granted, they may be watered down, but you actually get to do some teaching! My mom and I were talking and she made a good point. She mentioned that fifth-graders do a LOT of learning. Teachers reach them because they are still in elementary school but they are also starting to build the foundation for the rest of their education career... including college. Something to think about.

And then there is middle school. I haven't spent a ton of time in middle school classrooms, but so far I have really enjoyed the awkwardness that is middle school. They still respect adults, they are learning some cool things, and the work is close-ish to high school level.

I've worked in four different districts and two different counties and so thankful for this opportunity to test drive each grade.

Teaching Note-taking

So far, my two main goals of teaching have remained the same. 1) Expose students to a variety of topics in an effort to lead them to what they are passionate about. 2) Give students study tips and life lessons to make post-high-school life easier.

A great tool to give students is note-taking skills.  The following is how I could teach note-taking.

This video. Is awesome.

http://collegeinfogeek.com/lecture-notetaking-systems/

show at the beginning of the year and explain that we will be taking all the different types of notes throughout the year. Plus, it gives students a way to see that I'm cool- I love Streetfighter, especially Blanka!

Use different lessons to outline the strengths of each style of note-taking. At the end of a lesson using  a different style of note taking, have students write an exit ticket on how they would compare the style of notes to other ones they have used before.

Also, a quick note on Cornell notes, the same idea (exit ticket points) could be given for having students complete the Cue and Summary sections of the Cornell notes before leaving class.