The IDEA Blog
Charting a new path forward in education by sharing positive stories of change, providing perspective on key issues, and giving you the news and analysis you need to take action.
Relevant Education
I had a good turnout at Parent Teacher Conferences this year. As always, the parents of the “A” kids showed up in droves. I had a parent whose students have been to class only three times this semester come see me as well. Students who are earning C’s and D's in my class are rarely represented at conferences; their parents just don't seem to show up.
Most of the kids earning less than seventy five percent in my class don’t want to be in class with me. It could be me, or maybe the subject, that they are not interested in. They make up about thirty five percent of my total student load. They show up, but they are not interested in learning the subject matter. They go...
Posted on Nov 02, 2011 - 11:56 AM by Alison Bagg Brink
In the Interest of Full Disclosure
I am a public school teacher. I teach First Year Spanish. I have been teaching for 15 years. I am a parent. My children are students in a democratic free school.In the interest of full disclosure, I feel the need to divulge a few things to the IDEA audience.
I AM a public school teacher, in a non-democratic school. Students do have a choice in course selection, but often do not receive the classes they ask for in their schedule. Kids can choose to ditch class, and face the repercussions. Students can also choose their level of engagement in each class, and to some extent the grade they will earn for the course. Those are the choices the students can make, and the extent to which...
Posted on Sep 03, 2010 - 07:22 AM by Alison Bagg Brink
Goals met?
The last meeting of the year is just winding down, the walls of the classroom are bare, and there is not a single piece of paper on the floor. It is officially time to start summer, at least for me.My official evaluation was a week ago. I have my copy of it around here somewhere.... Anyway, things went wonderfully according to my vice principal. She was very happy with my performance. That is good, because I need to keep my job. She is happy, and my family has health insurance. My goals for the administration were met.
I do recall that I set different goals for myself, than I turned in for the powers that be. I wrote about my goals in my first post for IDEA. Let's see how I did....
1. ...
Posted on Jun 18, 2010 - 08:42 AM by Alison Bagg Brink
‘Cause It’s Like Democracy….
Students began choosing the delivery method for new information at the beginning of the month. I discussed this in "Maybe Kids Should Have a Say in How They Receive Information?"The experiment is going so well that we have increased the control the kids have in the daily lesson planning. Every day there is bell work, but that is the only set event of the class period. I have the day's activities arranged in three or four different orders. The students vote for the arrangement they believe fits their needs. Each option includes the same work, but the order is different.
So how is it going?
From my perspective, pretty good. I am not seeing as many springtime behavioral issues as I have...
Posted on Apr 29, 2010 - 07:02 PM by Alison Bagg Brink
Maybe Kids Should Have a Say in How They Receive Information?
How much control should students have in a classroom?How much order should be implemented by a teacher?
What does a student-driven classroom look like?
I think that all teachers that are interested in democracy in the classroom ask these questions on a regular basis. I think that the answers are as different as the individuals involved.
I want students to feel ownership of the class and the material I teach. I want them to recognize their participation is needed if they are too learn. I don't want them to feel that learning is something that happens to them, but instead, something that they choose to do.
Currently I am trying to answer my questions by letting the students select the...
Posted on Apr 08, 2010 - 07:46 PM by Alison Bagg Brink
A Village Under Siege… or What I Did During My Spring Break
Spring Break.Ok, it is only Spring Break for me, not for my children. I thought this would mean I would sleep in past seven and then drop them off at school. Hypothetically, I could have six or so hours to do laundry, clean house, work on the taxes, eat popcorn and watch movies.
Things might have gotten done, had I been able to drop the kids off at school. But once we got to school, I couldn't leave.
The basement of our school had been magically transformed to a kingdom during Europe's Dark Ages. The magic was in fact done by wonderful parents, staff members, and older students... angels, not faeries...
The stage at one end of the room was a king's chambers, there was a mountain...
Posted on Mar 25, 2010 - 01:30 PM by Alison Bagg Brink
Want coffee?
Spring has arrived... if not in weather, in attitude.I have had to scrape my windshield in the mornings, but the kids are wearing their summer apparel. Go figure. I am freezing, and the students seem to be in another place entirely. Not just in the shorts and shorter skirts, but in their class work as well. It is as though they are bored with me.
In order to shake things up a little I have decided that April will be the month of Guest Speakers. I would like to have real people, doing real jobs, come and talk to my juniors. My eleventh graders are in a class that helps prepare them for college. I am hoping that guest speakers will give the kids the extra energy they need to finish the...
Posted on Mar 10, 2010 - 08:06 PM by Alison Bagg Brink
Help?
It has been a strange week at the Brink house. It all culminated yesterday morning, when my husband drove to a job site early, to pick up some tools. Yesterday was crystal clear. He was on a stretch of road with a 35 mile an hour speed limit. The car in front of my husband's van struck a man walking across the street. The walker was tossed into the air, hit the pavement, and rolled multiple times. The driver of the car barely slowed down, and then fled the scene. My husband stopped, helped the injured man to the side of the road, began basic first aid, and called EMS.The ambulance, police, and fire trucks soon arrived. My husband was thanked, and then he went on his way... with a full day...
Posted on Feb 23, 2010 - 08:40 PM by Alison Bagg Brink
From Fine to Free
I had my juniors fill out a worksheet this last Monday. The worksheet directed them to list the qualities that make them unique, interesting, and worthy of acceptance into the four year-colleges in our nation. The goal of this page was to create a list of attributes they could draw from when it is time to write their college and scholarship applications.My mature and composed class turned into a fidgety, giggly, rambunctious bunch of goobers. It is hard to write about yourself, and your experiences... to air your dirty laundry.
But, this time it is what I am going to do.
Growing up in Oregon means that I went to public school. Public schools are the norm for kids here, although I...
Posted on Feb 03, 2010 - 08:52 PM by Alison Bagg Brink
Test Stress
EEEK! Finals!
Finals…I type ‘em, they take ‘em. They stress, I correct.
No, it is much more than that. I sit down and try to create a test that is fair and relevant. I pull from the most important Spanish grammar concepts, the most used (or useful) vocabulary I have taught, and the most interesting stories we have read, and create questions that get to the heart of the matter.
I am required by my school to provide a culminating task that is relevant to the class. I am required by my department to provide a written test. I have nearly two hundred students. To maintain any sanity at all, I give a multiple guess final. Oh, make that multiple choice…
Supposedly, if students do well on...
Posted on Jan 20, 2010 - 07:05 PM by Alison Bagg Brink
WWMD? (What Would MacGyver Do?)
It isn't easy to get up at 5:00 am. It is even harder when you have had two wonderful weeks to wake-up at your leisure, wander around the house in slippers with a cup of coffee in your hand, and snuggle your own children all day long.But... we are back. There is stuff to do, and we are the ones to do it.
I look at things differently coming back from Winter Break. I am somewhat renewed, a little less harried, more focused, and more realistic about what the school year will become. I know the kids and the different personalities that make up each class, and am finding ways to tailor my lessons to meet the needs of the individuals as well as the many. I am able to improvise when...
Posted on Jan 05, 2010 - 07:19 PM by Alison Bagg Brink
Do The Wiggles Do High School Gigs?
December drives me crazy.There is simply too much to do.
Too much to do at home, and too much to do at school.
December is a curriculum crunch time for me. I am always a few lessons behind where I have planned to be. I am always playing catch-up. I try to add just that much more into each lesson, and just when the kids have a bad case of the "I don't wanna."
The worst thing about December is the lack of focus. Mine, theirs, ours.
Despite my best intentions, and my jam packed lessons, we all get distracted. Unfortunately, when I get distracted, unfocused, hazy, and vague, the kids get wiggly. Is that a good way to say it? Yeah, wiggly. They wiggle in their seats, they wiggle out of...
Posted on Dec 16, 2009 - 09:51 AM by Alison Bagg Brink
Got goals?
This is my thirteenth fall as a teacher. This year has been wonderful so far. I have great students, colleagues that I respect, and a curriculum for the majority of my classes that I agree with philosophically.But then ... (think the soundtrack to Jaws) it is time to set professional goals. There is nothing in the year that brings more discomfort than the goal-related meetings, and we have at least three each year. These meetings make me sweat and give me a horrible pain between my right shoulder and my neck, in fact, I am trying to stretch it out as I type.
Here is the issue: my goal needs to be in alignment with the school and district goals. In a nutshell, that means that my goal...
Posted on Nov 18, 2009 - 07:57 AM by Alison Bagg Brink
Posts by Alison Bagg Brink
