Tim Childers’ Blog

OK, I only have a couple more blogs to do to help recap the incredible session with Alan November at NMSA in Houston, TX last week. This one has to do with Skype.

Since so few people in the crowd were using Skype (a few more had heard of it), Alan decided a quick show-and-tell was in order. However, since his Mac wasn’t working on the wifi (PCs worked great BTW), he had his assistant from McDougal-Littel set her computer up. But then, he didn’t have access to any of his Skype accounts. So….

Alan asked for volunteers from the audience who knew a teacher with a Skype account. He took the first 2 (I was the 3rd hand raised - sorry Teryl and Karla!) and within 2 minutes had 2 classes join us at NMSA. One class had a video camera in the room so we got to see the kids as well. Cool!

Now, I know DEN teachers who are using Skype to put their kids into webinars hosted by Discovery. It is a little harder to do that in middle school because you are limited to just a few of the kids on your team. But, Alan shared a best practice idea geared toward elementary that would work across the spectrum.

He told us of a class with a high percentage of ESL students. Many had not been in the country long and they missed their family overseas. One girl from India came to her teacher crying because she missed her grandmother. She got the grandmother’s email address and was in touch with her immediately with instructions on how to install and use Skype. The next day, she put the little girl on the computer for a free phone call to India! After that, every kid in the class wanted to talk to their grandmothers!

In another class, they were reading a short story set in Ireland. One grandmother who lived in another state was from Ireland and spoke with an Irish brogue. The teacher mailed her a copy of the story, got her to read the story on Skype with the record button on, and then played the grandmother reading the story to the class.

Because that worked so well, the teacher mailed out stories to all the grandmothers she could contact and mailed them each different stories. She recorded them all so the kids could have their grandmothers read to the class.

How do you use Skype in your classroom? Leave a comment to tell us your best practice ideas. You can find me on Skype at tim.den.

This NMSA session is being led by Sharon Faber, Ed.D.  She began by stating what my teachers and I have been talking about for months: secondary teachers are not trained in literacy.  I had one class that dealt with reading in the content areas.  That’s it.

According to Faber, NCLB has given us more kids coming out of 3rd grade that have learned to read than ever before.  The problem is that beginning in the fourth grade we shift to reading to learn.  The kids that haven’t mastered learning to read, will be left behind at that point.  Elementary teachers blame parents, middle school blames elementary teachers, high school blames middle schools. I’ve heard it all before (okay, I’ve said it before!).  53% of college students have to take at least 3 classes before they can take college credit classes.  That’s huge!  Of course, there wasn’t a citation, so take it with a grain of salt.

If kids come in without a seating chart, they fall out in three groups.  The kids who sit at front are those that are academically read and eager to learn.  These kids are reading ready.  The middle group is there everyday, but they will do the bare minimum to keep you off their back.  They are almost reading ready.  The kids in the back don’t want to be there at all.  The further toward the back of the room, the more at-risk they become.  They assume since they can’t do the work that they must be dumb. If they think they are dumb, they will do whatever they can to not participate.

The kids in the back of the room are not dumb.  Some of them may be the smartest in the room.  But they can’t read.  They know all the words on their favorite CDs.  They can play all the coolest video games.  They can use all the electronic gadgets.  But they don’t have to read to do those things.

OK, this blog is long enough, and the session has only been going for 10 minutes!  Look for a follow-up later.

Bags packed?  Check.  Batteries charged? Check.  Toothbrush?  Check.  Laptop? Well…not quite.  Still writing this blog.

Nine teachers and administrators from Lake Forest Middle School in Cleveland, TN will board a Continental flight in Chattanooga today and arrive this evening in Houston, TX for the National Middle Schools Association national conference.  We are pumped!

As middle school teachers, it doesn’t get any better than this.  Nearly 10,000 attendees make this quite a show.  Hundreds of workshops covering nearly the entire spectrum of instruction.  I took a peek at the sessions on technology, and the DEN will be proud of some of the things being presented.  Photo Story is there.  Digital Storytelling is represented.  “Lights, Camera, Action” has a session.  Pretty cool stuff.

I found out too late that Discovery is looking for worker bees for their booth.  I plan to help some, but I can’t help as much as I’d like.  However (and get this!), when I mentioned it to my principal he told me that next year he would encourage all our attendees to sign up and work the Discovery booth!  Talk about pumped!  That made my day.

I will be blogging from the conference, as well as updating my friends on twitter (user name tchilders).  It should be an exciting time.  Check back often this week.

Okay, about to check laptop.