Mail merge...

Sometimes the curriculum in the business education realm can be a bit dry if you let it be. Teaching students how to complete a mail merge using Microsoft Excel and Word can be a little boring. So, I decided to have my students use the letterhead that they previously created in my class and write a letter about their community. They had to include what there is to do in the community, local events, recommend the events or activities they like, and overall invite people to come visit Joseph. Then, I had the students create a brochure about their community. When it comes time for the mail merge (I had them create a list of 20 people with names and addresses), we will pretend that they work for the local Chamber of Commerce and are sending letters to people inviting them to visit Wallowa County. So, we'll have letters to insert addresses into, and we'll format address labels for the brochures. So far, the students are responding well to the project, and they are enjoying learning more about where they live. Of course, they really like talking about what they like to do as well! But, the bottom line is that they will learn how to complete a mail merge....learning can be fun!

More Wiki Ideas....

After thinking more about wiki opportunitites...I had one hit me today. I decided that I would have the students in my Computer Applications class design a wiki about what they learned in class this year. So, they would have a page for each software program that we have worked with, as well as a page about what they learned about careers (since I incorporated a careers unit into the curriculum). The students will have to have at least five different tools listed for each software program (Word, Excel, and Publisher). I was also thinking that it would be a group project, similar to that of our own wiki project. My cooerating teacher was all for it, so I'll be designing this assignment over my upcoming spring break. Yay!

I think I'll use the wiki...

After completing my wiki project this term, I definitely feel like it would fit in perfectly with the business education curriculum. I think I am going to design a project where the students create their own wiki. I think it would be a fun project for them because most of my students love the internet, and it would give them ownership of something on the web (besides MySpace!).

I have been approached by a teacher at my placement school about such a project. The students will be learning about the history of Wallowa County, and then I will teach them how to use a wiki to publish their information to the web. I am excited about it! It will take a lot of cooperation and communication between myself and the other teacher, but I think it will be worth it for the students. Is anybody else going to use the wiki or blogging in their curriculum?

Discipline models???

I just finished having coffee with one of the teachers at my placement school. She is about my age, and also went through the EOU MTE program. We often get together to chat about school, and she mentioned that next year my placement school may be trying out a new discipline model. As it stands now, it feels like the students are not held accountable for their actions.

Because I don't feel like the students will be truly punished, or held accountable for their actions if I do send them to the office, I never send students there. Instead, I deal with most interruptions on my own. I usually simply have students stay after class, and I haven't had a lot of major conflicts thus far. But, I was wondering, what are some ways that other schools deal with students who are unruly? What happens if they are sent to the office? Am I the only one who deals with problems this way? I would be interested to hear about some other successful or not so successful discipline models in schools....

Questioning...

Questions, questions, questions...I have questions about questioning...

In my classes, I typically start the class with a series of questions related to the topic. Sometimes I will simply have the students recall what we talked about last class, while other times I will give the students a scenario and they have to answer how they would react in a given situation. During my lectures, the most common questions I use are, "Are you getting this? Does this make sense?" Most often, the students nod their heads and I simply keep going. What are some other ways that I can gauge student comprehension, besides an obvious look of confusion? Or, what are some other ways I can ask the students if they are really "getting" the material? Help!

Simulations....

While doing the teaching strategies matrix, the simulation example I came up with was having the students play the stock market game for a grading period. This would show them why and how the stock market works, and give them a fun activity. What are some other simulations that you may have tried in your classroom?

Prize drawings for good behavior...a PBS strategy.

Near the beginning of this school year, my placement school had an inservice workshop about Positive Behavior Systems (PBS). In the workshop we learned about what PBS is and isn't, as well as what it takes to implement PBS. They showed us some great examples of what other schools have done, and different activities to improve overall student behavior.

After listening to it all, I thought that I could implement at least one of the strategies that they mentioned. The strategy involved giving more attention to those students who exhibit positive and acceptable behavior in the classroom. In doing so, you can emphasize recognizing the students who do act appropriately, and minimize the attention that you may normally give the students who act inappropriately. I know that I was definitely giving too much attention and spending too much time on those students who did not follow the rules. So, what I decided to do was reward the students who did act appropriately each day. In one particular class, we give daily points for being on time to class, prepared, on task, and respectful of the teacher and other students. If the students earned their full amount of daily points each day, I put their name in to a drawing. At the end of the unit, I decided to hold a drawing and the students could win a variety of prizes. So, the incentive was to earn the full amount of points each day to get more chances at winning, and anyone who got their full daily points everyday would automatically win a prize.

I let the students know the parameters, and had a nicely decorated jar for all of the names to go in to. At first, some of the students that that it was stupid (did I mention that these students are freshman), but quite a few were very excited about winning a prize. This class is very competitive, so I figured that they would like doing something like this. It did end up helping their behavior in this class, and they enjoyed the activity. It was something different and gave some of the students something to look forward to. Anyone else tried something like this?