Conductors and Insulators

There isn't very much time to teach electricity.  Maybe 2-3 weeks?  So there are only a few points I want my sped kids to master: (1) conductors and insulators, (2) will the circuit work?, and (3) series and parallel circuits.  Today we briefly went over simple examples of which circuits will and won't work. The second half of the class was their experiment.  Excuse the dirty whiteboard.  I clean it, but it's an old board that isn't very good quality, so it doesn't stay clean for long.  The kids were to copy this format on a sheet of paper.  Once they and another person were done, they grouped up and completed the experiment together.  I had a few objects set up for them to choose from, but I wanted them to look around for themselves.

I wrote this up really fast, since I only have this one little whiteboard in my room and I had used it previously for two other things that day.  So the definitions are not perfect, but they work.  

Translation:

Conductors and Insulators Experiment

1. A conductor will allow electricity to flow. 

2. An insulator will not allow electricity to flow.

Find 10 conductors and 10 insulators.

(table numbered 1 - 10)

They did really well.  I was impressed with which things the kids thought to test. I had kids taking random things out of their bags to test, I had kids carrying their set up to the door handle or the sharpener that's bolted to the wall.  It was pretty good. And they had fun with it, too. 

Simple circuit. Light works. 

Simple circuit with metal scissors conducting electricity. 

Simple circuit that doesn't work.  The plastic is an insulator. 

This is the little Electricity kits I had in the classroom.

There were three kits, so I had three groups of 2 or 3 kids.  Some kids also got into it and built more complex circuits and then tried their object to see if it would conduct electricity or not.

Today was mostly an exploring day.  I could have just told the kids that metals are conductors and basically everything else is an insulator.  But sometimes, you just need to explore it for yourself.  It makes it easier to remember, and these will be the classes they remember most.

Disrespect

Disrespect is the hardest behavior I deal with.  It's probably the hardest behavior anyone has to deal with.  In one of my first posts I talked about keeping a positive atmosphere in the classroom.  Well, it's extremely difficult to do when blatant disrespect is on your roster.

It's hard.

It's awful.

It makes me want to walk out and leave it all behind.

But I don't.  I breathe. I act.  I don't react (or at least, I try not to!). And then we move on.

In January this year I had a really bad case of disrespect and bullying in my classroom.  I wrote an email to my family talking about my frustrations with and worries about my students.  My grandma, a retired teacher, emailed back with words that hit me, and that I often rehearse in my mind to help me keep perspective.

"Alicia, you must remember you chose a very challenging and difficult area of teaching when you chose special ed, especially at the middle school level. . . .Perhaps you need to renegotiate your expectations. . . ."

ZOING!  Words of Wisdom I stapled into my brain for immediate reference whenever problems came up again.  I probably think about these words anywhere from 1-3 times a week.

Now, I know it's important to keep expectations high for students.  But you also have to be realistic or you'll continually be disappointed with everyone and everything.

Middle school is tough.  Middle school was tough in my grandmother's day, tough in my mother's day, tough in my day.  Middle school is a perpetually tough phase of life that has crushed every soul ever to step in her doors.  Go ahead and add media's expectations, social media influences, cyber-bullying, instant texting, and it just got a whole lot worse.  Go ahead and shift all this to the poor, uneducated community that this school is a part of.  Yeah.  Middle school's a beast.

Disrespect in the classroom is extremely difficult to deal with.  Sometimes I want to scream and make it all go away as if it were only a bad dream.  I've implemented behavior systems and tried to keep it positive and also consistent in delivering both rewards and punishments.  I try desperately to complement the students during their shining moments.  I try to show them that I care, because I do care.  And maybe that's why it hurts so much.  I give my heart to these kids, so when one of them shoves it back, it hurts.  After all that we've gone through, kid, after all that we've worked on together, this is how you're choosing to act towards me?

But again, it's middle school, and it's special ed.  Maybe their day has been just as hard.

So instead of walking out, I breathe. I act.  I don't react (or at least, I try not to!). And then we move on.

Ecology Unit Test

My seventh graders are finished with their ecology unit.

OH MY GOODNESS TESTING IS IN THREE WEEKS!!

Excuse that little outburst right there.

But really, March just started!  How can you expect the students to have learned one year's worth of science when it's only March?!  And this is sped, too.  We need to review.   We seriously need to review.  What's worse is that they're taking their language arts and math tests this week, so I see only some of them some of the time while they're testing.  So this is basically a wasted week.  I could really be screaming:

OH MY GOODNESS TESTING IS IN TWO WEEKS (ADJUSTED)!!

Okay so we're finishing off ecology.  There's a test.  We have one week on the important parts of evolution, one week of INTENSE REVIEW, then it's testing time.  After that we'll go back and teach everything about evolution that we didn't get to teach, plus the other two units that are scheduled for April and May (Oh, and there will probably be a couple of questions on the test pertaining to the material you were never able to get to).  Sigh.

And now, getting back on track:

HERE'S THE TEST!

To download it, scroll to the bottom of the page.  

(Since they're already taking PARCC testing for LA and math, I thought I would be nice and give them multiple easy bonus questions, just to make them feel better about tests and their life in general. That was exceedingly thoughtful of me, I know.)

Electric Circuits!

Once you teach the kid about electric charge (positive and negative charges), and after they understand that opposites attract, then you can introduce the circuit.

Basically,

the electrons (-) are racing through the circuit trying to reach the positive (+). This creates electricity. 

I discovered this great online tool that I'm going to use in class tomorrow.  I wish I could introduce the subject and have them all work and discover this on their own computers.  However, that is not possible.  I have one computer in my classroom open for student use.  So far I have found no reason to have one student on the computer while all of the others are doing something else.  So I'll have this up on the screen, we'll do it together, and they'll fill out their guided notes. 

Here's the AWESOME online tool!

Guided Notes Page 1

Guided Notes Page 2

Guided Notes Page 3

The Quiz:

Quiz Page 1

Quiz Page 2

Being the Substitute

I would never want to be a substitute.

Let me repeat.

I would never ever want to be a substitute.

Substitutes have

the hardest jobs ever.

The kids don't care about you because they know they'll never see you again.  Therefore they think they can do whatever they want. It's the psychology of anonymity. 

I had to sub before during ACCESS testing (testing English language abilities on ELLs). 

Define: ELL

English Language Learners

It was awful.  I'm a teacher, and I know classroom management.  But this was not my classroom, and I had no management.  Coincidentally, no one had fun.  I had to continually be on guard, reminding them to do their work, quieting them down, and telling them 'no, you can't throw paper airplanes across the room.'

David Sipress Cartoon

We are currently in PARCC testing for language arts and math.  This week is seventh grade.  Next week is eighth grade.  Because some of the teachers are pulled out of their classes to administer and proctor the test, the rest of us teachers help cover their classes during our prep periods.

Monday morning I had prep.  

Monday morning I was assigned to an 8th grade language arts class.  

Monday morning I had a plan. 

Before the students walked in, I told them in my teacher voice that they were to walk in quietly, take a seat, and get out a piece of paper and a pencil while I got their assignment from the desk.  

Define: Teacher Voice

A voice of power!!  I feel so grown up when I use it. 

(Use with caution-- never use to demean or criticize a student)

They walked in, I picked up the assignment, and walked straight up to the front of the room.

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    Students chatting to one another as they sit down. 

"Alright.  Mr. C isn't going to be teaching you today.  

    Slowly registering that someone is talking and slowly starting to finish conversation. 

"I'm your substitute.

"I know that it's not typical to respect substitutes, but today you're going to respect me.

    Quiet and listening. Who is this lady?

"So this is how it's going to go:

"This is going to be elementary.  You're going to do your work, as assigned to you.  There will be points given if you are paying attention to your assignment.

    Students looking at me with interest. 

"These points will be tallied up.  At the end of the class period, the three people with the highest points . . . "

    Students lean in for answer

"will receive a piece of candy."

    Students lean back. Smirks on 90% of the faces.  'She thinks she can buy us with candy??'

    No, dear children.  I think I can buy you with marks on a piece of paper called 'points'.  And I will. 

"Students who are not paying attention to their work will have their names written down with details on their behavior for Mr. C to review after he returns.  I will also be using the points to let Mr. C know which students were working hard and doing a good job. 

"[Calls on a student], would you please pass these out?"

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I could have lost them at this point.   If I hadn't continued and showed the students that I meant business, it could have been a disaster and I would have lost more respect than if I hadn't said anything to begin with.  The key is consistency.  If you're consistent, the students will respect your system.

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    [Student] is currently handing out assignment.

"I'm placing a post-it note on your desk.  Write your name on this as soon as you receive it."

    Student: our full name?

    Me: Yes. 

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As soon as I finish handing out post-its, I return to the first student and immediately give out a point (in my special purple marker that I'm pretty sure no student has a replica of in their backpack) to those who have followed directions and written their name down.  This is the key.  You start immediately with an easy direction for an easy point, so they can clearly see how it works.  I had a few students who had not followed this direction right away and missed this first point.  They tried to quickly scribble their name down, but it was too late at this point.  If a student complained, I simply explained in my teacher voice that the point was for those who had quickly followed my direction the first time.  There was no complaining after that.

Two minutes after this, I went around and again gave an easy point to those who had started reading their assignment.  Other students noticed and quietly started their work.  I did this again, 2-3 minutes after the first time. 

I then started lengthening out my point giving sessions.  If I were to give out a point every 2-3 minutes for the entire class, the whole system would come crashing down.  Not only would I become tired and weary from this tediousness, but students would see that if they missed one point round, then who cares, because they could do it in the next point round.  They can't know when you're going to come around.  

Can I tell you something?  This was a great class.  They quickly became mine and I became theirs.  We had a system, and it worked, and all the kids knew what was expected and knew how I would respond to them. I was able to use some of the time when they were reading to grade a few assignments.  I was later able to freely move about the classroom and help kids having problems with the follow-up questions, without worrying about what the other students were doing behind my back.  We had some great discussions.  There were some students who had some side conversations with their neighbors, but they knew to come back to their assignment on their own, without me reminder them to verbally (but maybe with the nonverbal reminder that I was giving another kid next to them a point for focusing on his work).  I was able to have a side conversation with them when one student asked what the schedule was going to be like this week during testing; and then they were able to return to work. Throughout this whole time, I would stop and give out points.  Sometimes one point at a time, sometimes two or three. 

     You see, children?  I won you with just marks on a piece of paper.  

I probably didn't even need to say that I had candy.  Maybe tomorrow in the class I'll be substituting for I won't mention it until the end.  Because you could tell it wasn't the candy they were working for.  It was your silent approval of them. 

The best part was that it was a positive experience.  I started out no-nonsense, but I communicated a system to them with the mutual understanding that they could achieve it.

There was one student who fell asleep.  I poked him a couple of times and told him he needed to wake up and start his work.  After that, I just let him be.  He didn't get any points, but I also wrote his full name down and wrote a little note for Mr. C. (This is another reason why you have the kids write their full names on the post-it note.  It makes it easier to identify them.)  Everyone else was responding well to the system.  Some kids took a while to warm up, but everyone was working at the end. 

At the end of class, I told them to count up their points and then hand it to me.  I had kids that were jesting "I have 34!"  "Well, I have 42!" when really the highest number of points achieved was 29.  But they cared about the points.  The top three were announced, and those three were able to choose a piece of candy (which I had gotten from a piñata at a 1-year-old's birthday party last week!).  The students who didn't win were still happy, because they knew they had performed well, and they knew that I knew about it, too.  I wrote a good note about that class to the teacher, with the exception of the note about the sleeping child. 

So maybe substituting isn't that bad after all. 

Well, I'd still rather be a teacher. 

Static Electricity!

Eighth graders are starting electricity this week.  To begin, we need to talk about electric charges.

Like Charges REPEL

Unlike Charges ATTRACT

This is a dating show, people.  Would you want to date someone you're related to?  NO!  Continuing down that route leads to inbreeding and all sorts of preventable diseases.  You want to date someone who you're not related to. 

Here was our experiment.  I changed one thing when I got to school that morning and tested it out.  I don't know if it was because it's really dry right now, but that balloon stuck to that wall for a long time! So this experiment as it was wasn't going to work out.  Instead, I found that you could stick it onto your hand (hand on top, balloon statically attracted to your hand underneath), but since you're grounded, it doesn't last as long.  I had one group get fabulous results that really showed that the longer you rubbed the balloon on your shirt/in your hair/etc. the longer it stayed attracted to your hand.  The other kids had some warbling results.  Overall, the kids liked the experiment and understood that an electric charges creates a force (push or pull) without touching something.

Supporting the Kid

Sometimes it's not about teaching.  Sometimes it's about showing interest.

Teacher Tip:

To get your kids to want to do well, you have to first show interest in their interests––and it counts more if your show it outside of the classroom.

Little picture taken with my little phone.

This week I went to a basketball game.  It's fun to go and sit with the other teachers. I only teach a small handful of kids, but I still had a couple of students on the team, and they had kept asking me if I was coming to their game.

Our 7th graders won their game with no sweat.  Our 8th graders started out strong, but in the last minute of the game, the other team caught up and we were tied.  Everyone was going crazy!  They fouled us in the last ten seconds and we were awarded 2 free throws––we missed the first!  (Suspense!)  We made the second!  With only a few seconds left to go, our team kept control of the ball and we won the game. Go CUBS!

I don't know if my students even saw me in the stands, but the best part was talking about the game with them the next day at school.  Even my "I'm too cool for all of this" student smiled a bit and talked with me about what he liked and how he wanted to improve next time.