Former teacher of the year and author Cindi Rigsbee makes a difference, both in the lives of her students and in the lives of teachers.
After being named the North Carolina Teacher of the Year in 2008, Cindi began a year of reflection on what it means to be a teacher. This led her on a journey to find the teacher that changed her life, Mrs. Warnecke. Cindi wrote Finding Mrs. Warnecke about her favorite teacher and how she found the inspirational, life-changing teacher in herself.
Cindi shares her experiences and insights into teaching with us in this TeachHUB interview.
I had a conversation recently with a colleague of mine who asked one of her AP Biology students why they didn’t seem to care about passing the class. The surprising response is an indictment of what we’re doing to our kids in today’s “high-stakes” public school environment. This student said that he doesn’t care because somebody’s got to flip burgers.
Someone has got to flip burgers. What a sad commentary for a high school student to make. Here’s a student who sees the futility of his schooling. Here’s a student who is so disconnected from the fantasy of public education to the reality of the world. Maybe he’s lucky that he “gets it” in that he knows that public school is never going to give him the tools to meet the challenges facing him after graduation. Maybe he already knows that what you learn in school has no relationship to what you need after graduation. And I know he’s not in the minority.
Too many of our kids find school mind numbing with little connection to their lives. Far too many of our kids are conditioned like Pavlovian dogs to take state mandated tests based on state mandated curricula that have little or no value after graduation. And then we complain that high school graduates have lost the ability to do critical thinking.
Keeping kids motivated and on task at the end of the year is challenging at best, especially after state tests are over. In fact, the more we prep kids for tests, the harder it is to keep kids on task after testing ends. Yet keeping kids motivated at this time of year is actually much easier than you might think. Since kids are more chatty and restless at this time of year, it’s just a matter of funneling that energy into something constructive
Here are 12 effective strategies to turn students’ end-of-the-year energy into instructional success.
Each of the twelve suggestions below is meant to spark your creativity rather than to provide detailed instructions. If you’re not already familiar with the strategy, you may need to do a little more research before you begin. To save you time, I’ve included links to helpful online resources from around the web.
Learning Centers One of the easiest ways to keep kids on task is to create some simple learning centers and allow students to rotate through the activities with a partner. If you haven’t used learning centers before, you might be surprised at how easy they are to implement. Here are some additional ideas and strategies on my learning center page.
Literature Circles If your students are bored by reading a basal text or doing test prep worksheets, they will definitely enjoy Literature Circles. The easiest way to get started is with Classroom Book Clubs, a relaxed and fun method that’s perfect for the end of the year.
Class Scrapbooks Creating a class scrapbook is a terrific way to wrap up the school year. Let each student design his or her own special page. The front of the page can include their name, a photo, illustrations, and other personal touches. Have each student write you a letter about the school year and glue it onto the back of his or her page. Add a student-created cover, laminate all pages, and bind the finished product with plastic comb binding.
At the beginning of the year, you were brimming with pride at the perfection of your bulletin boards, the splendor of your classroom decor and the clean desks lined inneat little rows (or pairs, or a U, whatever your preference).
Now, all that’s left is in shambles. I blame the students. It’s all their fault.
Show us what a hot mess your classroom has become to earn some well-deserved Back to School cash to start the 2011/2012 school year off right.
Often teachers are told, “You need to do a better job with classroom management.” Or “You need to do a good better job of differentiating instruction.” But how do we really “do” classroom management, or how do we really “do” differentiated instruction…better yet, how do we really “do” teaching?
In observing teachers, I’ve collected my list of these “grain-level” (1) classroom management practices that master teachers do every day in their classrooms, whether they’re aware of them or not.
As we approach year’s end, it’s a time to reflect on our actual, tangible, teacher-behavior done (or not done) in the classroom. Review my checklist to see what you’ve mastered and what you need to integrate to truly “do” teaching.
It was a simple question really. “Would I like being a student in my own classroom?” It stopped me in my tracks.
Last year, when the students had left, the chairs had been put up, and the exhaustion hit, I realized that no, this was not the type of classroom I would have wanted to learn in. And so began a quest of soul-searching, revising, and rethinking, in order for myself not to become a statistic; another new teacher who quits.
Creativity is unfortunately lacking from many content standards, and yet I feel engendering creativity from all of our students is one of the only ways we’re going to be able maintain the standard of living that this country has gotten a little too comfortable taking for granted.
Here are some other safe and quick warm-ups to get the kinks out of a students’ creatively stiff neck.
Brendan Kelso is the mastermind behind the Shakespeare for Kids collection, the book series of Shakespeare plays adapted for children that are creating a young fan base for the Bard.
Learn how Brendan’s creative plays are making Shakespeare infectiously fun for you and your students in this exclusive TeachHUB interview.
Where did your passion for Shakespeare stem from? 11th grade – I entered a Shakespeare competition and did a soliloquy from Midsummer – it was Bottom’s speech, “Methought I was…” out of 120 kids, I received honorable mention – there was something about that moment in front of the judges where I just clicked. I felt like I rose to another level. I could see and think about what the audience was doing, while still performing – it was like I was in two places at once. Serious dose of adrenalin there! And my 12th grade year, I went to the Ashland Oregon Shakespeare Festival, best in the country.
How did the Shakespeare for Kids Books come to be? About 7 years ago, I took a year off of work to be with my newborn son. Soon, my wife basically said, “you need to bring in some cash”. She was already in with the Parks & Rec as a after school science program, so she got me to do “Hamlet in a can”. I wrote up my first script. The kids LOVED it.
My first group wanted to do another play and, at the same time, a home school group requested that I teach their kids. At that point, I started doing session after session with kids constantly returning for another dose of the Bard. I got approached by two different theater groups who paid me, so they could use my scripts with their kids. It was clear there was a demand for this, so I found an on-demand publishing house and went to it.
Acharya Sir Prafulla Chandra Ray: Father of Indian Chemistry
Acharya Sir Prafulla Chandra Ray, popularly known as ‘Father of Indian Chemistry’ also known as ‘Father of Indian Chemical Science’ well-known scientist, a great human being, legendry personality and first ‘modern’ Indian chemical researcher, was born on 2 August 1861. From childhood, he was a brilliant student and in 1882, Prafulla Chandra won a scholarship at Edinburgh University, UK and subsequently was awarded Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) in 1887. He discovered the stable compound mercurous nitrite in 1896 and established Bengal Chemical and Pharmaceutical Works Limited in 1901, first pharmaceutical company of India.
prafulla-chandra-ray
From UK, he returned to India in August 1888 and subsequently joined Presidency College, Calcutta as Assistant Professor of Chemistry in 1889 and worked there up to 1916, and subsequently joined Calcutta University College of Science (also known as Rajabazar Science College) as its first “Palit Professor of Chemistry”, a Chair named after Taraknath Palit (Taraknath was born in 1831 in then Calcutta, the only son of a millionaire, who donated money to set up the Chair). Since Dr Roy got a dedicated team so fully involved in research and worked on compounds of gold, platinum, iridium etc. Altogether 107 research papers of all branches of Chemistry were published based on his research works up to 1920. In 1936, at the age of 75, Dr. Ray retired from active service and became Professor Emeritus.
Anyway Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray and the company established by him Bengal Chemical and Pharmaceutical Works Limited in present days is in the news because of the medicine Hydroxychloroquine or HCQ, the anti-malarial drug publicized by some as a potential weapon against COVID-19. It may be mentioned that Bengal Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Limited, the only public sector unit manufactures anti-malarial drug in India started Hydroxychloroquine’s production long ago but was stopped decades ago. Again in view of COVID-19, the Company has obtained licence to produce Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ).
Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray was also a great human being and involved with many humanitarian activities. In 1923, people of Northern Bengal suffered awfully because of flood as sequel millions of people became homeless vis-à-vis hungry. Dr Prafulla Chandra organised Bengal Relief Committee, which collected nearly 2.5 million rupees in cash and kind and distributed in the affected area in an organised manner. Further, he was greatly motivated by his father and influenced by the Brahmo Samaj, a religious sect. It is pertinent to mention that the Brahmo Samaj literally denotes community (‘samaj’) and in reality Brahmo Samaj does not discriminate any one based on caste, creed or religion. Raja Ram Mohan Roy (22 May 1772 – 27 September 1833) was one of the founders of the Brahmo Samaj. In those days because of ‘ugly face’ of Brahmanism in Bengal many were fed up with Hinduism and thus Brahmo Samaj could penetrate among the common persons. Dr Prafulla Chandra used to donate money regularly towards welfare of Sadharan Brahmo Samaj, Brahmo Girls’ School and Indian Chemical Society. In 1922, he donated money to establish Nagarjuna Prize to be awarded for the best work in chemistry. In 1937, another award, named after Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee, to be awarded for the best work in zoology or botany, was established from his donation. Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee was a prolific Bengali educator, jurist, barrister and mathematician. He was often called “Banglar Bagh” (“Tiger of Bengal”) for his high self-esteem, courage, academic integrity and uncompromising attitude towards the British Government.
The Royal Society of Chemistry dedicated its prestigious Chemical Landmark plaque to Dr Ray in 2011, the first non-European selected on his 150th birth anniversary. In addition Dr Ray was awarded many laurels.
Although Dr Ray (remained bachelor) left for heavenly abode on 16 June 1944 at the age of 82 years but he will be remembered not only by Indians but people across the world for his enormous contribution in the field of Chemistry and establishment of Bengal Chemical and Pharmaceutical Works Limited, only public sector undertaking authorised to produce Hydroxychloroquine or HCQ.
Last April, Holy Week and Easter were marred by the fire in the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris and by terrorist attacks upon churches in Sri Lanka. This month, Holy Week and Easter seem overshadowed by the COVIN-19 pandemic. Good stewardship of our own health, and love for our neighbors prompting concern for their health, keeps most Christians from gathering for services during these very special days. Neither violence nor disease can mar or overshadow the meaning of these days. Christ has redeemed us from sin and death. Christ has rescued us from all evil. Christ has risen from the dead; he lives and reigns to all eternity.
Sin resembles a communicable disease. It spreads throughout the world, and none of us are immune from its infection. Sin separates us from one another. Sin builds barriers that keep us from loving each other as we should love. Sin isolates us. Sin even separates us from the God who created us. The wages of sin is death, and this death comes in a variety of forms, each of which is a separation. Separation from God is spiritual death. The soul’s separation from the body is physical death. Combined, they result in eternal death. Every sinful separation is a kind of death. Sin can separate members of families. Sin can sever friendships. Because of sin, each of us is divided internally; none of us is in touch with the holy person God meant us to be.
Jesus, the Son of God, came into this wilderness of sin and death. Like a shepherd, Jesus came to seek and to save what was lost. In the wilderness he battled the devil, overcoming Satan’s temptations. In all his days, Jesus led a sinless life, obeying all his Father’s commands, fulfilling perfect righteousness. Jesus then faced the ugliness of sin and death in their fullness. He was betrayed, denied, accused, convicted, mocked, tortured, and killed. He deserved none of these things. Because evil is unfair, good people suffer in this world. Because evil is unfair, the one perfect Person suffered and died. Because evil is unfair, God himself became unfair, granting us the rewards earned by his Son’s righteousness and placing the burden of our guilt upon Him.
Good stewardship of our health and love for our neighbors will keep us in our homes this Good Friday and this Easter. We still live in a sin-polluted world, a world infected by evil and the separations evil causes. But our isolation is not permanent. Many Christians enjoy the benefit of Internet services, which allow us to join our voices in worship even though we are physically apart. All Christians have access to the Word of God, which proclaims his love and mercy and assures us of our place in his kingdom. All of us are guaranteed the love of God, which we will know in its fullness in the new creation, but which we enjoy already today. We know that nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. J.
To set off a little holiday fireworks of our own, today in TeachHUB.com we introduced some 4th of July jokes, fun facts, and classroom games for all ages!
Here’s a sample:
What would you get if you crossed a patriot with a small curly-haired dog?
Yankee Poodle
Make Room for the Hot Dogs!
More than 150 million hot dogs are consumed on the July 4. That’s roughly 1 dog for every two people in the U.S.
Share you favorite Independence Day jokes, fun facts, games or anything enjoyable for the season!
Post-it notes – those square pieces of paper that stick to many surfaces and remind us of what we need to do next – can also be used as helpful classroom devices that can help us further connect with students!
Today on TeachHUB.com, frequent contributing writer Jordan Catapano,, himself an English teacher in the suburbs of Chicago, takes a look at some alternative ways that sticky notes can enhance your classroom experience. His ideas include:
Annotating books and articles
Brainstorming
And more!
Jordan sums up his ideas with this paragraph: “What I love about sticky-notes is that their size, colors, cost, and you-can-put-me-anywhere qualities provide limitless applications. Whether for myself, colleagues, or students, these sticky-notes offer a multitude of easy opportunities to improve thinking and collaboration.”
Today on TeachHUB.com, we take a look at one of the aspects of teaching that isn’t necessarily emphasized in the collegiate educational curriculum: How to keep kids sanitary and maintain healthy children.
Indeed, by teaching kids about health and hygiene, we are empowering them to remain healthy children and we are teaching them how to prevent the spread of disease.
Janelle Cox, a frequent TeachHUB.com contributing writer with a strong educational background, today looks at some fun-yet-educational ways that teachers can use to emphasize the importance of cleanliness. These methods include a strong focus on hand-washing, which includes and experiment:
Challenge students to wash with only water, what happens? Does it do the job?
Then ask students to wash with only dry soap. Are their hands clean now?
Next instruct students to wet their hands and lather up. How clean are their hands now?
Janelle also notes that clean clothing can also lead to better hygiene, and she lays out a three-point, easily executable experiment that emphasizes the importance of sartorial cleanliness.
She wraps up her article thusly: “However you may feel about the topic, we can all agree that good habits means good health. By asking students to follow good hygiene habits in your classroom, you can keep your room free of infectious diseases and germs, and who wouldn’t want that?”
How do you teach your students the importance of health and hygiene? Do you think it should be taught in school or is it the parent’s job?
Teaching Strategies About Being Positive Research has shown that positive thoughts can be conducive to brining about a positive outcome to many situations.So today on TeachHUB.com, frequent contributing writer Janelle Cox, herself a seasoned educator in upstate New York, outlines some positive teaching strategies that educators can use to demonstrate positivity, and to steer kids away from the myriads of ways that negativity can permeate lives and mindsets.Janelle’s ideas (all of which are classroom activities) include:
Turn the negative into a positive
Write down the name of a person that has a good, positive attitude all the time. After they write a name down ask them what makes them think that and discuss further.
What are a few things that you can do to help you keep a positive outlook on life? Have students name at least three things.
And more!
In summation, Janelle says: “By offering students opportunities to practice positivity, you are helping them develop a positive attitude which can make a world of difference in their lives. Be reshaping their negative attitudes into positive ones, you are giving them the tools that will help contribute to their overall well-being.”
How do you encourage your students to be a positive person? Do you incorporate positivity into your classroom community?
A curriculum map is a catch-all tool (really a process) that collects and records curriculum-related data that spotlights skills taught, content taught, and methodology and assessments used for each subject and grade.
Whew, that’s a mouthful for even the wonkiest of educational enthusiasts! But recently, frequent TeachHUB.com contributor Jacqui Murray, herself a technology teacher on the West Coast, took the time to explain what a curriculum map is, and how to design and use one effectively.
Jacqui noted that a curriculum map generally includes:
• Specific skills
• Assessments
• Essential questions
• Big ideas
• Accommodations
• Materials required
She also laid out the basics of how to create a curriculum map, guidelines which teachers of all ranges of expertise will find extremely helpful.
Jacqui summmed up her guide to curriculum maps thusly: “In a nutshell, curriculum mapping aligns and sequences skills within grade levels and from one grade level to the next. When you’ve finished your first year, you’ll be amazed how much better you understand the part your teaching plays in the school’s mission and the student’s goal of becoming a lifelong learner.”
How do you create a curriculum map for your class?
Any elementary educator knows that teaching multiplication is vnever easy. And recent research shows that even rote memorization, long since regarded as the holy grail of teaching multiplication tables, doesn’t always work for all students.
So today on TeachHUB.com, frequent contributing writer Janelle Cox, herself a seasoned educator on the East Coast, looks at some classroom activities that are designed to think outside the proverbial math box and make learning multiplication perhaps a little easier.
Janelle’s ideas include:
Multiplying by zero
Doubling facts
Seeing patterns
And more!
In summation, Janelle says: “Unfortunately, not all numbers fit into a pattern, or have a simple trick. These numbers will have to be memorized. The good news is that there are only about 10 of them, so all of the rest of the numbers will be quite easy for students to understand and remember using the tips and tricks from above.”
Do you have any multiplication tips or tricks that you teach your students?
5 Summer Activities to Keep Students Learning Students and teachers alike are anticipating the end of the school year, and the two-month break that then commences, giving all a chance to rest and recharge before theback-to-schoolprocess begins anew.
Spelling tests are almost universally despised by students, and there are doubts about the educational longevity of what students retain after the test is administered — many teachers contend that students forget how to spell the words soon after the test is over.
But with a little creativity – in the form of classroom games – educators can overcome the mundane nature of the time-honored spelling test.
Today, TeachHUB.com frequent contributor Janelle Cox introduces some classroom games involving spelling that are designed to engage as well as educate your students, including:
Spelling Word Relay
Sink and Spell
Spelling Boom!
And more!
Remember, classroom games are fun, beneficial for students and give them something to look forward to. Employ them as often as you can!
What spelling games do you play in your classroom? Do you have fun ideas that you would like to share?
Did you know that the K12 Teachers Alliance, the parent company of TeachHUB.com and TeachHUB magazine, can be the solution for your next in-service session?
We sure can! And our team of experts can address a variety of topics, from gifted education to Singapore math to bully prevention!
Our solutions are tailor-made, designed to fit any budget, and are 100 percent guaranteed!
Teaching Strategies for Facilitating Collaboration, Change
The constant state of change is indeed one of the constants in education. It’s no accident that one of these days, you’ll find yourself in a grouop setting with your esteemed colleagues, trying to conduct a productive and actionable discussion around change.
Today on TeachHUB.com, veteran writer and contributor Jordan Catapano, himself an English teacher in the Chicago suburbs, offers up ways to assist your teaching team to facilitate a productive, actionable discussion, using some discussion tools and teaching strategies that help teams visualize the elements they’re working with.
Jordan’s ideas include:
Force-field analysis
Go for the green
Decision matrix
And more!
Jordan sums up his article with the following paragraph: “So when it comes to collaborating with fellow professionals, consider how you might use any of these seven tools for visually depicting your conversation. Education is a complex topic with an often-overwhelming array of problems, consequences, root issues, objectives, techniques, and resources. Sometimes using one of these tools may help your team work together and better understand the multiple facets of your conversation.”
What are your favorite tools listed in this article? What others have you used that you could share with us, too!
It’s not just about reading, writing and arithmetic these days. Now, educators are expected to instruct students on topics like how to interact with their peers, how to listen, and how to resolve conflicts, among other things.
Indeed, it can be a challenge to teach kids concepts such as encouraging others, following directions, and listening actively.
In today’s TeachHUB.com centerpiece article, author Janelle Cox outlines some teaching strategies that educators can use to alter their curriculum to address these fundamental skills.
Three key foundational elements Janelle lays out include teaching the social skill, practicing it, and reviewing it. She also gives distinct classroom examples on how to carry out each of those elements.
By following the teaching strategies mentioned, 21st-century educators will be better equipped to instruct their classes on the social skills they’ll need to succeed not just in the classroom, but in the workplace following graduation.
Former teacher of the year and author Cindi Rigsbee makes a difference, both in the lives of her students and in the lives of teachers.
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