Happy National Handwriting Day!

After spending no small number of hours grading hand-written work the past few days, I have never been more convinced that handwriting is an essential part of one's education.  

We're in a transitional period between the Palmer Method and the Qwerty Method of writing, at least in education, and it's tough on both teachers and students.  Students struggle to write stuff down, edit their work, and the process of re-writing is tedious.  Teachers have to check this work, and decoding handwriting adds time to grading marathons.  Until students have access to netbooks, or the culture changes so that students can bring their own note-taking devices, we'll be stuck in this cycle of tedious writing, rewriting, and deciphering.

There are great ways to improve handwriting.  I have enjoyed the book Write Now by Barbara Getty, an easy to follow method of learning cursive italic.  Those who really want to spruce up their writing can check out the IAMPETH website.  This is -really- cool.  Beautiful script everywhere!

So, join me, Mr. Spencer, and tens of other stylophiles today as we celebrate National Handwriting Day!

Week 1 Review

Here's a shot-gun post about my thoughts over the past week of Student Teaching.

1. There's a great opportunity to leverage technology.  This one sounds trite and overblown, but the specific win I see is this: Teachers can, and should, post homework, worksheets, notes, lectures, rubrics, and almost anything else to a place where students can access it online.  I see the biggest opportunity with students who need to make up homework.  This type of system also benefits a classroom's transparency. I believe that if the content is posted behind a student login there won't be issues with copyright.
2. Students need to be taught how to take notes.  During the PowerPoint notes, the students wrote every word on every slide.  Not knowing what to write down takes up a lot of class time; quick scribes are left idle while slower scribes take their time.  Teaching note-taking must be added to my literacy planning in the future.
3. Pick Battles. Between activities, I noticed students checking their cell phones.  I don't mind it.  It doesn't distract from anything during class, and cell phones will eventually have a prominent place in education.  For the time being, I'll follow the lead of my master teacher, but in the future I don't think I'll make it an issue.  If handled strategically, the students can begin to use their phones as a tool for in-class learning (spelling, fact checking, quick research, etc.) and should be held to that standard. There are other issues that I have noticed teachers come down hard on that don't seem to be that important.
4. Modeling is Vital - It took about 10 minutes to model how we wanted a particular assignment done.  The students were able to complete the assignment.  Only one student asked "What do you want us to do again?"  10 minutes saved answering questions unrelated to content.
5. Prep Period is Gold - Thou shalt not squander thy prep period.

That's only five things, but there are more I'll write up in more detail later.  I'm having fun, I'm teaching the standards (and then some), and students are making connections.  I am looking forward to getting paid to do this!