Tuesday

TOLERANCE: How Tolerant are You?

This is a site where you can take a test to determine hidden bias. I'm not sure how accurate they are but they sure are fun. Take a test they are very interesting!!! See if you can take just one.

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/selectatest.html
Click Demonstration.

I'm a little bias towards younger people.

TOLERANCE: Tolerance.org: 10, 10, and 10 (including lesson plans for all age groups and subjects

10 Ways to fight hate on campus:
1.
Examine your school's climate.
a. The vast majority of teachers nationally said their schools were largely free of racial or ethnic tensions.
b.
Students thought differently
2.
Take bias incidents seriously.
3. Provide forums for meaningful discussion for students
4. Provide forums for meaningful discussion for teachers/staff.
5.
Use bias incidents as teachable moments.
6. Bridge divisions in the school.
a.
Mix It Up at Lunch Day (Nov. 13, 2007) and No Name-Calling Week (Jan. 21-25, 2008)
7. Bridge divisions in the community.
8. Have a barbeque or a special event promoting the fight against hate on campus.
9. Make counseling services easily and readily available to students.
10. Include in professor evaluation asking about equality in the classroom.

11. Don't ignore obvious signs of trouble.
Information from
http://www.tolerance.org/teach/activities/activity.jsp?ar=867.


10 Ways to bring tolerance into the classroom:
1. Use our history to relate with today’s issues.
a. Little Rock’s Nine just had their 50th anniversary, have a lesson
b.
http://www.tolerance.org/teach/activities/activity.jsp?ar=861
2. Make it clear to your students that if there is ever a problem, you will be their helping hand.
3. Assign groups instead of letting children pick their own. You get to choose whose ethnic backgrounds get to mix.
4. Weave cultural information into your lessons (even math and science)
5. Once a month have a Friday where two or three students bring food from their culture to share during recess or advisory
6. Assign seats according to diversity as well. If free seating is available, kids tend to sit where it is comfortable, which is usually with their own race/culture, etc. Get the kids out of their comfort zone and it prepares them for the future.
7.
Anti-Bullying Activities
http://www.tolerance.org/teach/activities/activity.jsp?ar=638

8.
Map It Out
http://www.tolerance.org/teach/activities/activity.jsp?ar=740


9.
Mix It Up Surveys (PDF)
http://www.tolerance.org/pdf/mixitup_online_survey_06.pdf

10.
School Climate Questionnaire (PDF)
http://www.tolerance.org/images/teach/activities/tt_school_climate.pdf


10 Tips for Identifying Bias Incidents
http://www.tolerance.org/teach/activities/activity.jsp?p=0&ar=867&pa=3
Seven Steps for Responding to Bias Incidents
http://www.tolerance.org/teach/activities/activity.jsp?p=0&ar=867&pa=3
LESSONS ON LANGUAGE
http://www.tolerance.org/teach/activities/activity.jsp?p=0&ar=867&pa=4

TOLERANCE: 10 strategies to bring cultural tolerance into the classroom

10 Strategies to bring cultural tolerance into the classroom and fight hate

The following strategies have been inspired by





a web project of the southern poverty law center to “fight hate and promote tolerance.”




My multicultural self



Have the students identify 3 facets of their own multicultural selves, such as family values, religious precepts, holydays, beliefs, and cultural customs. Have them share their cultural facets and comment possible reasons that miscommunication could occur among ones’ and others’ cultures.



Communication: The total impact of your message


Students will watch The Center for New American Media’s American Tongues video clips in which people from different regions of the U.S. talk about different versions of the English language. Students will identify the message of verbal spoken communication, including the use of words and intonation of interviewees. Students will also identify the nonverbal communication, the message that interviewees transmit with the use of gestures, postures, eye contact, and facial expressions. The teacher will make a table in the blackboard with the students' observations to compare verbal and non verbal messages of each interviewee and to assess the total of the message delivered by the interviewees.

Nonverbal behaviors and culture

Students will watch a multicultural video with the sound in mute, to observe nonverbal behaviors in different cultures. Then, students will write down their first impressions. Students will watch the video a second time with the normal volume. Then, students will compare and comment their impressions and the “real” cultural meanings.

Identifying stereotypes


Stereotypes represent a belief or assumed knowledge of an entire group based on an experience with or information about a member or members of a given group. Have the students watch The Center for New American Media’s People Like Us: Social Class in America video. Students will identify stereotypes in the video and link them to what they’ve experienced or heard (in TV, from their families, peers, or authority figures). Students will discuss in what ways these stereotypes are not true and come up with ideas to break down the stereotypes.

I’m human, too


Students will identify offensive beliefs and/or remarks said about “their group” and share positive ways to counter them in order to increase their sensitivity to cultural differences.
Have students decide what types of groupings (by race, ethnicity, gender, religious affiliation, extracurricular activities, musical preferences, etc.) could be used that would divide the class into 4 to 6 groups.
In each group, students will list things that they “never want said again” about their group. After the groups have developed their lists, each is asked to come up before the class and have one member read its findings.
After all groups share their lists, ask students the following questions:
• What are some effective ways you have responded to offensive remarks or biased views?
• What types of responses are not helpful and cause further misunderstanding and/or anger?
Ask students to share personal experiences in which they were offended or when they have offended someone and learned from the experience.
Have a discussion on the importance of standing up for others as well as for oneself.

Conflict resolution & peace


Students will be arranged into a circle. The teacher will give one student a quote about peace and conflict resolution from tolerance.org . The student will read the quote textually to his closest classmate without being heard by the rest of the class. The second student will have to interpret, paraphrase, and write down his own quote. The second student will read his own quote to the next student to continue with the same dynamic until every student has paraphrased the quote. Then, the students will comment their different view points on conflict resolution and peace. This activity not only increases students' skills in listening, but also checks for comprehension as they paraphrase.

American value: freedom


Download "Freedom, Oh Freedom" as an mp3 or notation PDF from . Before playing the song for students, ask what "freedom" means and have the students write their responses in a peace of paper; students will share their responses to the class. After listening to the song, encourage students to describe the song's meaning of "freedom." Ask the students to write a paragraph comparing that meaning with their earlier responses.

A nation of immigrants: Family ties and fabric tales


After exposure to relevant literature in class, students will research their family history by interviewing their parents. They will use this information along with visual props such as pictures, maps, or drawings to tell their story to their classmates.

A nation of immigrants: Global citizenry


During and after Constitution Day observance, students, in small groups, will set classroom explorations with the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, and the Mexican Constitution. Students will pay special attention to passages that relate to values like equality and freedom. Ask small groups to share their findings with the whole class and write them on the board. Finally, ask the students to compare and contrast their findings with the U.S. Constitution. Download the Constitution of African and Mexican Constitutions here.

In-group favoritism


Students will understand and be able to define in-group favoritism.
Definition: according to Social Identity Theory, social groups influence inter-group relations because people strive to maintain or enhance a positive social identity. The desire for positive self-esteem is thought to lead to the tendency to evaluate one's own group favorably in comparison to other groups, or "in-group favoritism."
In-group favoritism at its best offers a positive sense of belonging and affiliation (football players encourage each other's athletic best. At its worst, it can lead to highly destructive and hurtful behaviors: gossiping, bullying, and pressuring group members to do what they individually do not respect or feel comfortable doing.
Students will brainstorm a list of in-groups in their community and will identify ways they participate in in-group favoritism.
Then ask these questions regarding the positive and negative impacts of in-group favoritism and have them share and comment their answers in groups:
o What favors or special privileges do people in the same groups tend to give to each other?
o How do you think it makes them feel to support their own group members over others?
o How do you think it makes others who are outside their group feel?
o If you see in-group favoritism playing out, what might you be able to do to confront or stop it?

TESTS: Why tests are bad

They kill people

TEACHERS: 16 traits of a super teacher


Be honest and find out if you are in the path towards becoming a super teacher, or already are one.

If you got at least five of the sixteen characteristics mentioned by Carole McGraw, you are already in the correct direction. If not, there are 16 suggestions and techniques which, if you practice devotedly, will help you become the super teacher that every child needs.
There's no need to overwhem ourselves with all the different theories and techniques out there at the same time. If we practice one at a time, if we improve ourselves constantly a step a day, we'll see the positive difference we make in our own lives and that of our children.

SCIENCE & DIVERSITY: Intergrating Diversity

"Building Diversity into your Teaching Portfolio"
http://depts.washington.edu/ctp/TADiversityPortfolio.PDF
The University of Washington and the College of Arts & Sciences place special
emphasis on preparing students to live and work in a multicultural society. This
brochure has been developed to help teaching assistants acquire the knowledge and
skills necessary to contribute to this mission. It offers assessment questions and
resources about student diversity, teaching approaches, and multicultural content based
on the experiences of UW faculty who have participated in seminars and institutes
sponsored by the Curriculum Transformation Project over the past decade.


"Diversity Cooperative Learning and Peer Tutoring in a First-Semester Chemistry Course"
www.cic.uiuc.edu/CommitteesandGroups.shtml
CIC groups and committees provide a forum for peer networking, group problem solving, and information sharing. Group discussion often provides the springboard for new ideas for cooperative activities. CIC staff support and coordinate peer group discussions and meetings as resources permit, with an emphasis on those groups convened at the request of the Provosts. Many groups are self-organized (meaning that members self-identify, and that the group is responsible for scheduling and paying for meetings), and most of the self-organized groups are not represented on the web page. If you have a question about a group that is not represented on this list, contact the CIC at cic@staff.cic.net.

As I get these I will repost.

SCIENCE: Biology ESL Lesson Plans

Here are lesson plans I found for high school ESL science students.
Hope you find them useful : )

Global Warming: A Cause and Effect Writing Lesson
http://iteslj.org/Lessons/Ogasawara-Warming.html

Exploring Our Solar System #1
http://education.wsu.edu/esl/Planets.html

Teaching the Scientiific Method
http://www.everythingesl.net/lessons/tesol_2006_tampa_fl_60057.php

Extreme Weather: Hurricanes
http://www.everythingesl.net/lessons/extreme_weather_hurricanes_60832.php

Forests, Deserts & Grasslands
http://www.everythingesl.net/lessons/monica_schnee.php

Science Experiments with Eggs
http://www.everythingesl.net/lessons/egg_experiments.php

Nutrition for newcomers
http://www.everythingesl.net/lessons/food_unit.php

How to Use Technology to Teach the Water Cycle
http://www.everythingesl.net/lessons/water_cycle.php

Cooperative learning: making connections in general biology
http://www.goenc.com/records/record_generator.asp?encnum=030722

Understand! Biology: molecules, cells and genes
http://www.goenc.com/records/record_generator.asp?encnum=017921

MATH: Over 10 lesson plans on teaching ESL students math using english. K.Kirchgessner

Helping English Language Learners Tackle Math Word Problems in First and Second Grade
By: Sarah Picard
http://www.teachersnetwork.org/NTNY/nychelp/math/mathword.htm

Dave's ESL Cafe Idea Cookbook

http://www.eslcafe.com/idea/index.cgi?Math

Algebra Relay Race
Berni's Scrumptous Strawberry Cheesecake
Country and Animal Math Game
ESOL Strategy Sheet
Flip for Krypto
Learning math collaboratively on the Internet
Learning Math Topics
math web site
Racing Math Relay
Saying Large Numbers
SHOW ME THE MONEY!!
The Seven Up Game

He also has lesson plans for all sorts of subjects!

MATH: Wrapping Culture around Mathematics (General)

These links may not deal with the English language, but teaching math with culture seemed like a challenge. Here are a few helpful links that I enjoyed reading...

http://www.squelched.com/detail.jsp?num=1032

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1551657

http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/february2/boaler-020205.html

Yall enjoy :-)

Friday

LITERACY: Texas Book Festival 2007


Hey there future and present teachers!


It is time for the Texas Book Festival and there will be famous authors coming from near and far! Plenty of diversity and multi-cultural books and authors too!


Looking for books to "pad" your class room library? Looking for decorations, class room tools and etc?


This festival is for you!


November 3 and 4 of 2007, starting at 10am and located in Austin, Texas...right by the State Capital!
Hope to see you there...I'll be a volunteer worker that Saturday....an author escort!
How about that???


Hugs!


Donna

LITERACY: Texas Book Festival -2007

Wednesday

GAMES: Discovery School's Puzzlemaker




I can't believe I didn't post this earlier. I have used this site for years now and for all occassions...from keeping my kids busy on the road to giving them out as placemats at kids' parties. I first learned about this site from a second grade teacher who incorporated the names of her students as part of the word search. Needless to say, the kids were delighted to search for their names.



You can customize your puzzles however you want. Check them out, they are free.



http://puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com/WordSearchSetupForm.html


Here, go try it with all your names:

ALEJANDRA
ALEXANDRA
ALISON
AMY
ANGELICA
ARLENE
ASHLEY
BLAS
BRIDGET
BRUCE
CANDICE
CHAYO
CHELSEA
CHEN-HUI
CHRISTIANA
CRYSTAL
DALE
DEBORAH
DESIRAE
DIANA
DONNA
EDUARDO
ELIZABETH
ERVIN
FRAUKE
GWENOLA
HILARY
ISAIAH
JACKELINE
JAMES
JANNELL
JENNIFER
JESSICA
JESUS
JITRAPA
JOSE
JULIA
KATHLEEN
KATHRYN
KLAUDINE
KRISTEN
LANDY
LAURA
LAUREN
LINDSAY
LINDSEY
LISA
LUCY
MARGARITA
MARINA
MARISOL
MATEUSZ
MATHEW
MATTHEW
MEGAN
MICHAELLA
MICHELLE
MONIQUE
NICOLE
OLGA
OREN
PATRICIA
PRICILLA
RACHEL
RAFAEL
ROBERT
SANTIAGO
SCOTT
SESUNG
SONNY
STARLA
STEPHANIE
SUZIE
TAMARIA
TANIA
TRACEY
VERONICA
YVONNE
ZACHARY


Monday

ESL: Works with any ESL learner with consonant sounds.

This website contains different sounds in the English Language, has songs and FREE worksheets.

Sunday

ESL: Vocabulary

This website allows students of any language learning English to use translations. It has vocabulary in any language!

Friday

GENERAL QUESTIONS FOR CLASSMATES: BBL English Lesson plans?


Has anyone come across any BBL lesson plans, in links or hard copies? Please email me and let me know! Thanks!

Donna

Wednesday

GENERAL: Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS)

Here is the direct link to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS):

http://www.tea.state.tx.us/teks/

Once you open the site, you can search for the TEKS you need by clicking on the individual chapters, and/or the different grade levels offered. My suggestion is that rather than starting off with the pdf formatted files, you start off with the html formatted files. These latter ones include less verbiage and are easier (ha!) to scroll through. Later, when you have obtained specific chapters and subsections you can go to the pdf files to obtain the full descriptions of each entry.


Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills by Chapter
Chapter 110. English Language Arts and Reading
Chapter 111. Mathematics
Chapter 112. Science
Chapter 113. Social Studies
Chapter 114. Languages Other Than English
Chapter 115. Health Education
Chapter 116. Physical Education
Chapter 117. Fine Arts
Chapter 118. Economics with Emphasis on the Free Enterprise System and Its Benefits
Chapter 119. Agricultural Science and Technology Education
Chapter 120. Business Education
Chapter 121. Health Science Technology Education
Chapter 122. Home Economics Education
Chapter 123. Technology Education/Industrial Technology Education
Chapter 124. Marketing Education
Chapter 125. Trade and Industrial Education
Chapter 126. Technology Applications
Chapter 127. Career Orientation
Chapter 128. Spanish Language Arts and English as a Second Language



Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills by Grade Level (Elementary)
Please visit the TEKS by Chapter to view all Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills.

Kindergarten (PDF)
Grade 1 (PDF)
Grade 2 (PDF)
Grade 3 (PDF)
Grade 4 (PDF)
Grade 5 (PDF)
NOTE: Many documents used in this web site are in PDF format. To successfully view and print these documents, you will need the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader.

This product can be obtained for free at: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

Adobe offers free PDF to HTML conversion for vision-impaired users at: http://access.adobe.com/simple_form.html

Tuesday

GENERAL: APA Writing Format

While the APAstyle.org may direct you to purchase their latest edition, the following web sites offer the same information free of charge. I have used many of them at one point or another, and below I share some of the most helpful.




The OWL at Purdue: Free writing help 24/7

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
--This site is exhaustive, which is very good if you have some weird reference that cannot fit into the major categories. Scroll to the lower part of the site to view the index.

Monday

GENERAL: Complete San Antonio Events Calendar

This website lists all of the local events around San Antonio year round. If you nose around a little bit, you will find a detailed event calendar where you can enter the dates you are looking for. (The title of the blog is hyperlinked to the main page)

I used the end of October to find events (for my cultural event). You can click on this link and modify the dates if you'd like.

http://www.sanantoniocvb.com/visitors/EventCalendar.asp?fShowPage=1&fPageSize=&fLogic=All&fSortBy=Date&fTheme=2&fStartDate=10%2F22%2F2007&fEndDate=10%2F30%2F2007&fKeywords=&fCategory=

Hope this helps a few people out..

ARE YOU LOST?

.




DEPENDING ON HOW YOU WERE DIRECTED TO THIS BLOG (IF YOU GOOGLED IT OR JUST TYPED IN THE DOMAIN NAME), YOU MAY ENTER THROUGH THE FIRST, THE LAST, OR ANY ENTRY OR PAGE IN BETWEEN.

IF YOU ARE NOT AUTOMATICALLY TAKEN TO THE INSTRUCTION PAGE OF THIS BLOG, BUT WOULD LIKE TO JOIN US AS BLOGGERS, PLEASE REFER TO THE BLOGGING INSTRUCTIONS PAGE BY CLICKING EITHER ON THE VERY FIRST ENTRY (TITLED TEACHERS, BLOGGERS, AGENTS OF CHANGE) OR THE VERY LAST ENTRY OF THE BLOG INDEX (THE ONE UNDER THE YEAR 2010).


I sincerely hope you explore blogging as another tool available to you on multiple levels.


Have fun!

Malena

TEACHERS, BLOGGERS, AGENTS OF CHANGE: Blogging instructions page

.


Becoming a Blogger

With this Web log we are creating a public space, a public sphere of sorts, where we can come together to share ideas, new and repurposed, with our peers. Thus, this site is to serve as a living archive, one continuously expanding, where we can deposit and borrow ideas that may enhance our ability to learn, to connect, to empathize, to understand one another through new and varied perspectives, and hopefully, to take away into our future classrooms in order to be more effective and involved agents of change. We need to be more efficacious as teachers, we need to be better researchers, and we most certainly need to learn to convert the information that surrounds us into resources for our students. Why? Because we want to be better teachers to our students, and consequently because we want to make our lives easier within our chosen fields.


I invite all of you to share in this living archive. I recognize that it may be perused at times, with some infrequency, however know that it will be here for you should you ever want to refer to it at some future date. For your extended convenience, some of your peers have agreed to maintain this blog long after the course is over.


You are the new teachers, bloggers, and agents of change.


How to Post


STEP 1

Create you own Gmail account
(Go to Google and look for the Gmail account link; follow instructions for e-mail)


STEP 2

To contribute to this blog, visit:
http://www.blogger.com/i.g?inviteID=3360388158885832291&blogID=5670893212484296872
(which is the link provided in the invitation, or just click above once you have a Gmail account)

It will take you to a page that requests the following:

Email address Your username, not mine @gmail.com
Your name Your name
Display name The name that will be displayed, your display name

Acceptance of Terms
Accept the Terms of Service
Indicate that you have read and understand Blogger's Terms of Service

Click on continue….make sure you check acceptance of terms


STEP 3

Click on View Blog

This will take you to the Blog from where you are free to navigate and make yourself acquainted with how it functions.

Click on the table of content on the right hand side (it could move to the left later if somebody wants to have a different design template). Initially the Blog had a blue theme, but somebody requested a change and now it is a bright green (now it's white).

On that initial page, you will see on the top, right hand corner, your username followed by two tabs: NEW POST and LOG OUT.

To post, follow NEW POST.

Once on the edit page (or posting page), you will be able to create your title and your content by either typing them in or by cutting and pasting from a Word document. I’m sure you can also copy/paste material from anywhere on line.

-keep in mind your hyperlinks will be preserved automatically

-you also have the option of POSTing it immediately or saving your entry until you edit it, in that case click on SAVE. You can re-edit as often as you wish-to edit your work, simply go to edit posts and make your changes (by clicking on the choices available)

-to verify your post, click on VIEW POST-LOG OUT, and you are done.


Let me know if you have any trouble or if you need for me to post your links.I would strongly suggest that you look at other blogs out there.

Like everything else on the Web, the content varies from blog to blog. Here are some that I have visited lately. Perhaps you will be inspired to follow suit and become a full time blogger.


This one belongs to my friend Miguel who was in Yemen last year teaching ESL. This year he will be in Argelia, a few years back he was in Mauritania. I met him when we were both working on our Master’s degree here at UTSA. The things you could do with blogs in your classroom are limited only by your imagination. If nothing else, check out his amazing pictures, you might even know the guy.
http://miguelinyemen.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2007-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&updated-max=2008-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=2


Here’s another one replete with Chicano authors’ information and links to their home pages. My kids approve of it because it links directly to Gary Soto’s Webpage, whom they met recently at a UTSA reading and book signing.
http://labloga.blogspot.com/


This blog cites many things going on locally. I like to refer to it to find out what’s going on in San Antonio. It has some nice hyperlinks.
http://slhwnotes.blogspot.com/


Here's another one that is just interesting somehow...you be "the judge."http://quotation-marks.blogspot.com/