I am ready to think about changing the education of children beyond my four walls. What caused this change? Take a listen.

This is the first year I started all 100 kids on blogs and wiki's at the same time during the first week of school...how did it go? Take a listen.

I had a meeting during the first week of school to introduce the parents on our team to blogs, wikis, and podcasts. How did it go? Take a listen.

The first day of school is a special day for teachers and students. It sets the tone for the year. How do you set the tone on the first day of school? Do you smile and go out of your way to make the kids comfortable? or do you go out of your way to let them know who is in charge and focus on the class rules? After the first day are you kids excited about coming back for another day? or are they just thinking this is going to be another class like all the others. What do you do that is special on the first day of school? If your answer is nothing, then maybe this podcast will give you an idea or two. Come on, if you love your kids, make sure they love your class. Go out of your way to wow them and capture their imagination when their minds are wide open. Keep them open by filling it with wide open thoughts, not boring classroom rituals and overbearing rules. If you kick butt the first day, the kids won't spend the rest of the year kicking yours : )

Today I had tears in my eyes. Wallingford, CT's teacher of the year, Karen Ripa, gave a short presentation to all of the teachers on the eve of the 2007-08 school year. Just when I thought I could not listen to another opening day speaker Karen walked up. She gave a short presentation that include a summary of a story that she reads to her kids based on the story "Three Questions" by Leo Tolstoy, and showed a brief slide show with the song "The Children are Our Future" playing in the background. It caught me off guard. My spirit was moved. I was truly touched and inspired today, and indirectly, so too will be the life of each of my students this year.

This podcast is nothing more that a big rambling thank you to Karen.

How do you get a lesson to stick?

I recently read Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. It was the last in the perfect trilogy of books I read this summer which also included The World Is Flat and A Whole New Mind. It is a book on why some ideas die, and others thrive. They explain how to make an idea “stick.” I wrote many notes as I read the book changing the context of their writing to be more in line with helping me plan a lesson rather than a marketing campaign. All of the ideas in the podcast and PowerPoint are from the book. I decided to type them onto a file so that I would not misplace them and that turned into a PowerPoint document. I am going to post the PowerPoint on teachertube.com under the title “How do you get a lesson to stick?” http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=ebc05d66a0568a333196 This podcast is simply me reading the PowerPoint presentation. While I don’t consider the PowerPoint done, I know with school starting it is probably as finished as it ever will be and decided to post it as is. Hope it helps make your lessons “stick” this year.

My brain froze last week while reading a book. I needed a break. I just could not read anymore. I had been researching and reading about the same topic for weeks and I just could not absorb or learn any more new information. It made me stop and reflect on whether or not I sometimes tend to overwork my kids. This year I’m going to make it a point to work “breaks” into our schedule allowing time for the kids to decompress and recharge.

My fingers are not touching keyboard. I am writing this using the voice recognition software that came with my laptop. I have absolutely no idea how I can use this in my classroom, but I’m sure I will find a way because I think it is pretty darn cool. If you have any ideas, or have used this with your students, please let me know. [email protected]

(INTRO FIXED)

What is the most underrated tool in a teacher's repertoire? Humor! It might be the most underused, disrespected, most misunderstood tool a teacher possesses. It might also be one of the most effective and easily taught tools. This podcast takes a serious look at humor and is my attempt to convince someone out there to use humor with kids more often this year.

Tell me a joke! If you are reading this I want you to go to the comment section and leave a joke that makes you laugh no matter how many times you hear it.

Also, I am very interested in how other people purposely use humor in their classroom. This podcast went a little long so I left out how I implement the humor tool in my room, but please share how you use it!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Paul

I gave my recorder to two teachers who carpool together and had them answer one question. What I learned from their response had nothing to do with their answer to the question...because, and I might have to listen again, they did not really answer it. The question was "What was the most important lesson you have ever learned from your students?" While they stayed on the question for the first minute or two, they quickly went off into another realm. They made connection after connection until they were no longer on the origional topic. Points off? That's what I would do for my kids. Wouldn't you?

The next time I get an off topic response from a student I am going to pause and ask them how they got there. Their answer might be a lot deeper, meaningful, and important than the answer that I was expecting. On a piece of paper or during a class conversation you might not get the entire stream of consciousness that led to their answer. You hear the last thought, which doesn't answer the question, but maybe they already answered the question and moved on to the next more important logical thing.

Music by Runaway Hudson...check em' out!