Do you have a high school student that needs a job?

There is a summer employment opportunity for teens at MoAD but they need to commit year-round. Go to www.moadsf.org and click on jobs@moad at the bottom of the homepage. It's the teen position. Apps deadline extended to June 22 @5PM. Must be 16.

Classroom Management Tips for High School

• Students who understand what you are saying tend to behave better. Make yourself comprehensible. Slow down. A lot. It may seem easy to you but that's because you already know the material. If you convince your kids that you care that they understand, that it's their job to show when they do and don't understand, you'll win over a bunch of students.
• Students behave better if they have roles: ask your students to help by slowing you down when you go to fast, answering frequent checks for meaning.
• Students who believe you are sincerely interested in them will behave better. Talk to them like actual people, especially before/between classes. One, it's a nice thing to do. Two, you can build their lives into examples. One way many teachers accomplish this is by having kids fill out interest surveys at the beginning of the year: our job is then of course to read them and put that knowledge to use, relationship building.
• If you put your students and their learning ahead of an imposed curriculum, they will tend to behave better. If you are obeying a curriculum, make sure you always tie it to the kids' perceived needs somehow. If you are slogging through a text-book chapter by chapter, please reconsider.
• Keep your "rules" simple, and don't set up too many pre-established consequences. Every misbehavior is its own weird animal and deserves its own response. Your response doesn't have to be immediate, and the remedy shouldn't tax your resources or energy. Put the responsibility for the rectification of any misbehavior on the student. If a kid caused the trouble, the kid should fix it, on his/her own time. (Straight out of Fay and Funk's "Teaching With Love and Logic")
  

Need a Ride Home from Work?

The Alameda County Guaranteed Ride Home Program

If you walk, bicycle, carpool, vanpool, or take the ferry, bus or train to work . . . this is a really great resource. It's great for parents that take public transportation. If an emergency comes up, we can get home quickly and efficiently.

You can use it if

• You or an immediate family member suffers from an illness or severe crisis.
• You must work unscheduled overtime (supervisor authorization is required).
• Your ridesharing vehicle breaks down or the driver has to stay late or leave early.

Graphic Organizers and Power Point Lessons

Check out this website which categorizes the graphic organizers by thinking skill.

This website provides PowerPoint templates that you can use in order to create your own review activities in the style of Jeopardy, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? and Hollywood Squares.

Home Visits

On the flteach listserv for language teachers, the subject of home visits came off and I shared my experiences with visiting the homes of my students in West Oakland. Names have been changed.

I just knocked on doors--I started with the "hardest" kids first but I also made sure to visit as many students as possible that represented all of my students. I wanted to let my families know I appreciated them. I went to introduce myself: "Hi, I'm your child's Spanish teacher. I care about your child doing well in my class. Here is my number and email if you need to contact me." I did not go to be a social worker and pass judgment on living conditions. I had no expectations really about what I would see. I did not go to complain about how bad their child was--I would try to be as positive as possible (at least on the first visit). I just wanted to meet my families, introduce myself, and make sure they knew that I wanted the best for their child.

For most of the visits, parents/caregivers would make sure to show me how well taken care of their child was--here is where he can study, here is how much food he has to eat. Parents want teachers to know their child is not just anybody. I got that. Word spread fast "Ms. Payne came to my house!"

Every visit was not joyous. There was Anthony. His mom and I started out having a great conversation. She shared that there had been several deaths of close friends and family lately and that she felt he was taking it very hard. Then Anthony walked in and whatever the look on his face "what the hell is SHE doing here?" his mother started blowing up at him. "I'm tired of this! Get out! Get out before I call the police!" It was crazy. Outside, he yelled at me "it's your fault." I yelled back "wait a minute! don't blame me. we were having a great conversation until you walked in." He calmed down. He said she does that every night when he comes home. Then he just walks the streets until she calms down or gets drunk. The next day (and from then on) he was my biggest ally in class--all 6'4 almost 300 lbs (comes in handy if you're a new teacher).

Then there was Keisha who every day in class glared at me and would repeatedly sneer "you think you're so cute." I went to her house and as soon as I introduced myself her mother got ready to punch her in her face. The house was filthy beyond belief. I quickly let her know that I was just there to introduce myself. There were no dramatic changes. Her looks never became friendly but the open hostility went away. I would sometimes catch her looking at me with a puzzled expression like "who are you?" She dropped out of school not long after and moved from that house (I went back). I don't know what ever happened to her.

Then there was Isaiah. When I knocked on the door, he opened the door and slammed it shut again. I rang the doorbell again. His mom answered. I'll never forget her. She said "Isaiah, I will put my hands and feet on you if you ever do that again." She talked about how she had just gotten out of jail and wanted to do right by her kids. She showed me their computers and talked about how when her kids went to college, their uncle would pay for their education. Peeking from the bedroom, was his little sister. Fast forward a few years: his mom was in and out of jail repeatedly, he was in and out of jail repeatedly (he's now in for a very long time) and his sister was my student. Months went by before she told me who her brother was (they had different last names). She remembered that home visit. After graduating from continuation school, she took a trip to China (graduation present from uncle) and was enrolled in community college.

I truly believe that as teachers we have to humble ourselves enough to serve families and we can't serve families if we don't know them or want to know them without assumptions and biases. I am thankful for the information that I received from every one of those home visits.

Edusoft Training for Teachers: Learn How to Work with Data in Your Class

Target Audience: OUSD Teachers who want to learn how to access free OUSD resources to promote student learning.

Learn How to . . .

• Access Edusoft to create reports based on benchmark exams.
  
• Use online resources to identify student academic needs AND plan targeted intervention based on these needs.
  

Elementary Teachers: March 12 or March 18 4-5 PM at Oakland High School
Contact: Mical Caldwell for information at 510-879-8195 or mical.caldwell@ousd.k12.ca.us
Secondary Teachers: March 10 or March 16 4-5 PM at Skyline High School
Contact: Jonathon Stewart at 510-238-9156 or jonathonb.stewart@ousd.k12.ca..us

TESA Training--I've heard really good things . . .

I've heard incredible things about this TESA training. I'll be there. Hope to see you there also.

New Teacher Support and Development presents:

Teacher Expectations/Student Achievement (TESA)

Grades K-12

Learn Equitable Teaching Strategies
Create a Positive Climate in your Classroom

Presented by: Jennifer Abrams

Saturday, March 28, 2009
Sankofa Elementary
581 61st Street, Oakland, CA 94609
9:00-3:00 PM
Light Breakfast, Lunch on your own.

Participants will learn 15 interactions designed to encourage equitable interaction with all students. TESA interactions improve student academic performance, gender and diversity awareness, attendance, classroom climate, and reduces student discipline problems.


Presenter Jennifer Abrams is a professional developer for Palo Alto Unified School District and an international educational consultant for public and private schools, charter schools, universities, and non-profits. Jennifer now trains and coaches teachers and administrators on successful teaching practices, new teacher support, and effective collaboration skills.

Registration: Email Margaret Dunlap at Margaret.dunlap@ousd.k12.ca.us with your name, school site, and grade level. An email confirmation will be sent to you.

Questions? Call 879-8911.


Credits: Teachers can earn credit for advancing on the salary scale through OUSD professional growth/equivalency units, 15 hours = 1 unit.

OR

Teachers can earn units through UOP; teacher pays for the units based on how many classroom management hours teacher has attended.