Capturing Kids' Hearts Day 1 / 3

Today I attended the Capturing Kids' Hearts workshop (aka The Flippen Group) and had a fun time and learned some better ways in which I can teach. Since I plan on implementing some of these strategies in my classroom in the upcoming school year, I figured it might be a good idea to jot a few ideas down.

One thing about this training that is cool is that the participants are from all over the USA. There are teachers from Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Colorado. With only one short day, I feel comfortable with a majority of the class. One thing that helped me to achieve this level of comfort was an activity in which we brought in something that was valuable/important to us and used it for a show and tell session.

Since the upcoming school year we will be implementing an advisor/advisee program I think the idea of a weekly show and/or tell session would be a great way to bring the students together. Not only are you able to learn a lot about one another, but students are able to share that which is important to them.

The reason I put the and/or is because I don't think an object is as valuable as the story told about the object. Obviously, when someone brings in an object it adds to the story, but it should not be mandatory to have in one's possession. I feel that stories can be told about good deeds or other accomplishments that don't provide tangible results.

Another thing that I will be trying to incorporate in my classes is a better sense of caring, compassion, and praise for students in my classes. Too often I can be sarcastic, and forget to include the praise for accomplishments. Since I am not the emotional type of guy, this should be a real challenge for me.

Notebook Template Using Word

I got to thinking the other day that on homework assignments I tell the kids to use the lines on their paper to help keep their work organized, then like an idiot I've been giving them tests on computer paper without any lines. How can I expect students to go from one format to the other, while still maintaining the organization that I've worked with them to achieve?

Since my handwriting is not very good and I prefer to type my tests, I got to wondering if there was a way to use a template of some kind on Microsoft Word that would allow students organize their work similarly to that of notebook paper. After a quick search, I came across the solution to my answer thanks to Yahoo Answers.

New Approach...The Math Side of Things

I've decided to approach this blog from a different angle. Rather than just blog about my encounters concerning my height, I am going to look at it from a high school math teacher's perspective as well. With the summer here, I am going to use this space as a place where I can organize and list my goals and plans for the upcoming school year.

I will continue to update my gadget containing how many times I've had my height commented on, because as a math enthusiast and vertically gifted individual, I do enjoy tracking and seeing these statistics; but I hope that this blog becomes something more and relevant to who I am and not just to my outward appearance,which is commonly all people see about me.

I will also leave the map and visitor count on the page, for even though I am doing this for myself, I do find it interesting and fun to see if anybody ever does visit my site.