I teach high school and I am looking for some games, activities, classroom management, and otherwise that just made you love your favorite teacher.

My favorites were Mindy Sopher and Rob Kochersberger. Rob always played a music video before class and that was just so neat...especially the day he played one and there were boobs in the background....haha, his face was so funny.

And Mindy was great because she made us get to know each other and to really learn and use our lessons. She also had these plastic hands that clapped and were so kooky. I loved her class.

Please help me continue to grow as a professional.

11/10/2008 5:59:29 PM

my best teacher loved all of her kids and pretty much doted on each one.

11/10/2008 6:00:35 PM

Encourage creativity. Encourage critical thought. Treat them like adults.

11/10/2008 6:02:08 PM

I try to encourage creativity. My co-teacher is great but she is kinda boring with projects...we do one project for each unit and she's like..Unit 1 - Do a brochure, Unit 2 - Do a poster, Unit 3 - Do a brochure or mini poster....

And my kids are BORED of brochures and posters. I recently had them do a comic book and I also have a plan for them to write a poem, short story, or song for the next unit but I'd still like more ideas.

So far I have:
Skits
Mock Interviews(like a talk show)
Mini Bulletin Boards
Make a game

Any other ideas? I teach Foods and Nutrition and Teen Living.

11/10/2008 6:06:06 PM

^sounds like elementary school. Really high school? My junior/senior highschool courses were just like my college courses. Very professional and lecture oriented.

My AP English teacher in highschool was probably the best teacher i've ever had. Much more engaging and interesting than any teacher i've had here at State. He was simply great at creating engaging discussions and the lit. papers were always fun to write for each book every 2 weeks. I guess it's because the students actually wanted to take the class, as opposed to the English 101 requirement here.

11/10/2008 6:11:12 PM

my favorite teachers were the ones that were intelligent and genuinely interesting.

11/10/2008 6:19:56 PM

Say what you will, but it's proven you learn much less from someone talking at you than creating something to teach others.

It might be elementary if your opinion but I teach a vocational course and have a little room to make it fun. Also, I teach 9-12 so I have a wide range of abilities.

I am not really looking for opposition and more for assistance. Thanks

I do lecture and I use powerpoints to give my lectures. I also do demonstrations and hands on activities.

[Edited on November 10, 2008 at 6:20 PM. Reason : ..]

11/10/2008 6:20:04 PM

i thought this was going to be a thread about having sex with your teacher.

11/10/2008 6:26:04 PM

My favorite teachers were all passionate about their subjects. Go to school and act excited to be there. Try and get them excited about your subject, even if they don't particularly enjoy it. It's not possible to always be happy, but try and make it seem like the only thing you'd like to be doing is teaching them whatever subject you teach.

Some of the worst teachers I've had were the ones who were just plain miserable.

11/10/2008 6:30:31 PM

this sounds like the sort of class where you were lucky if the students even acknowledged the teacher was in the room at the high school i went to. (aka: health)

good luck. my best teachers were the middle school and high school teachers, but that was mainly due to allowing/teaching the students to question things and think for themselves rather than take everything at face value and regurgitate stuff for a test.

11/10/2008 6:30:41 PM

My english teacher at NCSSM (ms moose) was extremely knowledgeable about the material, and also encouraged creativity by centering the class around discussions, where she rarely gave out answers, but guided things well.

However, it kind of helps when you have a classroom full of people with 120+ IQs.

Of my "normal" high school, it was the same format though, focus more on discussions between students that giving assignments from a book, or doing "brochures" that made up my favorite class.

11/10/2008 6:38:32 PM

Incorporate as many of Marzano's Instructional Strategies that work into every lesson as you can...
http://www.tltguide.ccsd.k12.co.us/instructional_tools/Strategies/Strategies.html

These are the 9 strategies that research shows leads to motivated students as well as the methods that help them hold that information...

Also, if you have an LCD projector in your classroom, the internet has great resources...music videos (educational ones, they can be corny but students love it), pictures, news stories, animations, etc....

11/10/2008 6:45:54 PM

Quote :

"However, it kind of helps when you have a classroom full of people with 120+ IQs."

11/10/2008 6:49:56 PM

^yeah sounds like my highschool. 100% arts magnet in Charlotte. So no one was there that didn't want to be.

Quote :

"Say what you will, but it's proven you learn much less from someone talking at your than creating something to teach others."

I agree to a point, but this all depends on the material. For example in an English AP class the best way to understand the material would be to read the novel, then discuss it, then write book reports afterwards. Or for Physics AP, a lecture would probably work best. Sometimes there's just so much material it's hard to be creative and use that many hands on methods.

11/10/2008 6:56:09 PM

i liked the teachers who just let me sleep, take my A, and move on

[Edited on November 10, 2008 at 7:01 PM. Reason : "Foods and Nutrition and Teen Living".....these were jokes at my HS]

11/10/2008 6:58:31 PM

Quote :

"sounds like elementary school. Really high school? My junior/senior highschool courses were just like my college courses. Very professional and lecture oriented."

really? we did some different things in our classes.

AP European History - mock trial of Napolean. get to research topics and then creatively skew them towards your side. my friend justified his invasion of spain (where he murdered countless people) by saying "wars tough, gotta break a few eggs to make an omelet." teacher bought it up, but its hilarious bad way to defend child-murder.

AP Spanish had us creating skits in spanish. we always enjoyed taking our own pop culture references or whatnot and turning them into something fun (singing the spiderman song as best we could in spanish is always good).

other teachers did less inspiring things that still made you like them. one was a cynical bitch who let us watch movies and just treated us like one of the guys (she was probably a lesbo, thus the term). everyone seemed to like her except my sister who she ragged on for being a cheerleader.

11/10/2008 7:20:44 PM

Quote :

"I agree to a point, but this all depends on the material. For example in an English AP class the best way to understand the material would be to read the novel, then discuss it, then write book reports afterwards. Or for Physics AP, a lecture would probably work best. Sometimes there's just so much material it's hard to be creative and use that many hands on methods."

Agreed.

It would probably help us if you would tell us what subject you are teaching.

11/10/2008 7:55:14 PM

Quote :

"I am not really looking for opposition and more for assistance. "

haha,

"I really don't want anyone to disagree with me or give me any criticism about what I currently do."

What great teacher you must be.

11/10/2008 8:27:31 PM

He let me sleep in class.

11/10/2008 8:44:57 PM

Quote :

"Encourage creativity. Encourage critical thought. Treat them like adults."

Couldn't agree more.

neodata686: Stop being a retard. You are comparing your experiences in a 95th percentile course with those of a vocational course. Very few kids are AP level students, and there's nothing worse than talking down to kids.

Quote :

"And my kids are BORED of brochures and posters. I recently had them do a comic book and I also have a plan for them to write a poem, short story, or song for the next unit but I'd still like more ideas. So far I have: Skits Mock Interviews(like a talk show) Mini Bulletin Boards Make a game Any other ideas? I teach Foods and Nutrition and Teen Living."

Here's a suggestion. Open ended assignments. It's their creativity that needs to be exercised, not yours. Get them out of the textbook and into the world as much as possible. Make it cool. Give them a list of topics (but allow them to choose alternate topics if they have something interesting), and let them figure out the best way to tell about what they find. It lets the talkers talk, the drawers draw and the builders build.

Class presentations for the assignments. Nothing helps motivate kids more than knowing OTHER kids are going to see their work. You want to get people to do interesting, creative work? Make it accountable. Let the kids grade each other; it makes them feel a sense of responsibility to one another, and will emphasize that they are helping one another. Not grades in the ABC sense, but surveys of what was good and bad about each presentation and project, what was cool and not, what they needed to do to improve. Do this during each presentation, it'll keep the kids paying attention and actively listening.

Allow as much unmitigated information sharing as you can. Encourage discussions in class to share what each team finds and is working on, so everyone stays in the loop and you can see who is falling behind or not pulling their weight. If kids are bringing down their groups, help arbitrate the problem.

Rewards, rewards, rewards. Everyone turns in their projects? Reward. Reward for asking questions at the end. Reward for the best grading report from a student. Lots of ways to do it. It can be as simple as hershey kisses or as big as movie tickets.

[Edited on November 10, 2008 at 8:48 PM. Reason : . ]

11/10/2008 8:47:06 PM

Quote :

"Also, I teach 9-12 so I have a wide range of abilities."

The teachers I really liked in my high school years were the ones I respected. These were people who were intelligent and willing to have a real discussion despite the fact that high school students have no real understanding of how the world works and are pretty much retarded. They also didn't overreact to the little things or have power trip tantrums. They'd let the small stuff slide and if they sent you to the office it was for a good reason and you knew it.

[Edited on November 10, 2008 at 9:03 PM. Reason : l]

11/10/2008 9:03:35 PM

Quote :

"It would probably help us if you would tell us what subject you are teaching."

I did state I teach Foods and Nutrition and Teen Living. Sorry I didn't make that clear in the first post but it was too late to go back and edit

Quote :

"Quote : "I am not really looking for opposition and more for assistance. " haha, "I really don't want anyone to disagree with me or give me any criticism about what I currently do." What great teacher you must be."

Actually, I meant that I like what I do now and it WORKS but it is getting mundane. In my first post, I stated for help to grow as a professional. I am asking for more project ideas instead of telling me my current ideas are lame.

So, if you want to change this thread from a helpful one in which I am actively seeking activities in ADDITION to what I already do, then go right ahead. I know I'm an excellent teacher. I love my job....I just want to spice it up some with some INSPIRATIONAL comments...not degrading, opposing ones.

11/10/2008 9:16:24 PM

i think you are on the right track by looking for new ideas. keeping things fresh is a great way to keep yourself and your kids motivated.

11/10/2008 9:28:45 PM

I'm constantly looking for new ideas also so I approve this thread.

11/10/2008 9:33:20 PM

One reward they are having this week is an egg hunt where all the items inside the eggs are review questions and they have to figure out the correct answers in order to get their candy. I got nerds, gum, tootsies, and chocolate. I'm really excited about this.

I do like your idea of open ended assignments. You mean to let them pick their own assignment from a list or more...create their own assignment in general?

One I came up with for Elements of Design/Color Wheel was to pick from the following:
Make an edible color wheel and answer ?'s
Write a short story about a color character that includes all the elements of design.
Write a poem about the tertiary colors that is shown rather than told.
Create a CD playlist of the primary, tertiary, and secondary colors based on the moods of the song, print lyrics and explain how each song exemplifies each color...make cd for extra credit.
Create a color wheel of found objects in nature and answer ?'s

You mean like that?

There were a few others where I was trying to use Marzano's differentiated instruction...kinesthetic vs. verbal vs. etc etc. but I always struggle with finding time for indepth projects when everything is so rushed.

11/10/2008 9:36:05 PM

I make my students publish a newspaper once a month.

But that might have more to do with having a journalism course than with creative lesson planning.

11/10/2008 9:54:42 PM

Quote :

" neodata686: Stop being a retard. You are comparing your experiences in a 95th percentile course with those of a vocational course. Very few kids are AP level students, and there's nothing worse than talking down to kids."

You're completely right and i felt like a douche bag after wards. moron started it!

As far as teaching goes i think creative, open-ended assignments are the best. Try to relate what they're doing in class to something they enjoy, and don't assign massive overloads of boring reading because that will turn them off to the class. Find other ways to teach them simply read/respond, read/respond.

Quote :

"I did state I teach Foods and Nutrition and Teen Living."

With that curriculum you have so many opportunities to relate the material to what the students are actually doing in life, compared to a subject, like chemistry, where that relation is a little harder.

cyrion
In AP US we had a mock Civil War, and we had 2 AP US classes so one was each side. The school was divided up into either Confederate or Union states and if one student caught another student from the other side they were able to stop them and quiz them with certain questions. If they lost they got to take some token, and when you ran out of tokens you died. The cafeteria/gym/parking lot were all neutral and the other teachers simply HATED it, because there would be mad rushes after class to get back into safe territory.

11/10/2008 10:08:38 PM

Quote :

"I do like your idea of open ended assignments. You mean to let them pick their own assignment from a list or more...create their own assignment in general?"

Giving them a list of "ideas" is good, it can stimulate the conversation. But encourage them to actually create their own deliverable(s). Picking from a list inevitably ends up with multiple people/groups doing the same thing, or fighting over who wants #3, or "cheating" by duplicate collaboration.

If you let them choose their own assignments, you can just act as the moderator to make sure no one does the same thing, THEN they can work together unencumbered. Basically the more responsibility you give them to make decisions for themselves that are accountable to the group/class the less "planning" you have to do, and the more exciting the class will stay for your students. Make it a competition where everyone can win.

11/11/2008 12:35:49 AM

Yeah i believe the biggest thing as Noen said is creating a type of educational competition where all the students are competing with each other so they feel the need to excel in what they're doing. Traditionally when students all do the same assignment they don't exactly strive to have the better homework. I guess this would be synonymous with everyone writing English papers on a certain book with different topics and trying to have the best idea for a paper. This can be applied to any subject. Like in my AP History class the way the teacher got us to learn the facts was to have a mock civil war and everyone competed to see who lived the longest, which in turn meant you knew the facts the best.

11/11/2008 12:56:10 AM

I know its the lounge and all....but....



blew me.

11/11/2008 1:01:35 AM

i took lots of vocational and dual enrollment classes in high school (liked learning random shit) and in my experience open ended assignments never worked well. many, though not all, of the students in my classes like this were just trying to do the bare minimum and thats why they signed up for that class. anytime we had an open ended assignment it turned into a cluster fuck and an excuse to goof off and talk anytime we were given class time to work on our projects. there were always only a few students who actually put any effort into their projects. if you do something like this make sure you set periodic goals that must be met so you don't have a bunch of random shit people threw together the night before.

i did like open-ended assignments better than having to do a skit or something though.

11/11/2008 1:07:02 AM

It's easy as shit to come up with a "fun" activity that doesn't teach you much. A lot of ideas in this thread are elaborate and require a huge time investment, but they don't get you through the curriculum.

11/11/2008 1:35:42 AM

^ Very true. It's one of the things that drives me crazy about my current teaching job

11/11/2008 2:02:24 AM

^^^Yep, I definitely agree pooljobs. I tried to stress in my posts the need for consistent accountability. This can be in the form of daily checkups at the end of class, and using peer reviews if you have group activities. It's definitely a fine line between group work, and goofing off.

Treat them like adults, but keep the leash short.

neodata686: still with all the AP ____ shit. All the stuff you did in AP courses, won't cut it in a vocational class. Plain and simple.

pawprint: I dont know if you have it at your school, but if they offer wood/metal shop, or carpentry or electrical courses, go talk to those teachers. I took some votech in high school and middle school, and the wood/metal classes were always the best behaved because every kid in there wanted to get on the machinery like it was Christmas morning. Find some similar prize for food and nutrition and BLAMMO, well behaved kids (for the most part).

11/11/2008 3:49:18 AM

Quote :

""Encourage creativity. Encourage critical thought. Treat them like adults.""

FOR THE MOTHERFUCKIN WIN

11/11/2008 3:55:45 AM

i agree with ^ like most everyone does. Creativity is key. Any age wants to feel like an adult so treat them like such. My favorite teachers were the ones who were stern but treated you fairly.

My favorite teacher was 4th grade. He was always doing something outside the box. One day we were doing a lesson and he had everyone stand on top of their desks. Another time I got to crawl out the window into the courtyard for something. Mixing it up helps - mainly if you keep kids from sitting and listening for hours on end they take in much more and remember it.

Think about your past lessons; did you remember the ones where you sat and listened or the ones you moved around and did creative things that were different than normal classes?

11/11/2008 4:53:05 AM

6th grade, Ms. Barnes, favorite teacher hands down.

I'm not sure why I liked her so much, but she was just very engaging when it came to the problems we were working through.

Oh, at the end of class on Fridays, she had something called "Story with holes", and they were basically little puzzles.

"What can you put in a barrel to make it lighter" type puzzles.

She was awesome.

11/11/2008 8:16:21 AM

My favorite teacher lectured bell to bell, with honest-to-goodness intelligent discussion now and then when appropriate.

But that's impossible in a post-NCLB world.

Quote :

"Treat them like adults"

For higher-level classes, sure. I take it you all didn't take many standards classes, though?

[Edited on November 11, 2008 at 8:20 AM. Reason : ]

11/11/2008 8:17:21 AM

my favorite teacher was honors bio-she was hard, but loved us, made sure we knew our crap, and let us off when we had other stuff going on.
I know that this probably is like AP and does not apply.
I went to a private school and we didn't have your class. Could you please explain what the ciriculum is like?

11/11/2008 8:27:10 AM

two favorites--Mrs. Hearn was a disciplinarian, and she made sure we knew our material (taught jr/sr and AP English). we had to take grammar tests over and over until we made a 90 on it. she could also put the fear of God in you just looking at her. towards the end of the year everyone saw the side of her that was nothing but love for her students. i can't think of a single person that didn't leave her classroom having anything but respect and admiration for her.

second favorite--Cardelli. Art teacher--amazing man that could get the most troubled student to come around while in his room. most was just his personality, but a lot of it had to do with his perserverance and patience. he gave everyone a chance, and encouraged creativity in all of his students. we'd go on short field trips to the public library's art section--which is a decent size for Kinston. he'd also take us to the community arts center so we could learn more about current local artists.

neither used games, but they both did something that made their class fun. Mrs. Hearn was a big fan of King Arthur, so for an extra credit paper we could write about the satire of Monty Python's Holy Grail. Another topic was comparing the Clueless to Emma. There were many more, but these were two that I wrote so that's why I remember it. Cardelli was just amazing all around. He's one of those teachers that the students really loved. It was a shame when he left (and had to b/c of his mother became very ill) because I hear his new school never embraced him like we did. He quit teaching shortly after that.

Two things they both had in common were getting us to bring out and relate our current world to the lessons they were trying to teach, and of course the love for their students.

[Edited on November 11, 2008 at 8:49 AM. Reason : ]

[Edited on November 11, 2008 at 8:51 AM. Reason : ]

11/11/2008 8:49:45 AM

HS German teacher
She was a hardass, but her expectations weren't too high, even though to listen to the other students, they were impossible.

Every week, she made us write ~1/2 page in German, and to strive for flawless grammar and usage. They were due on Wednesday, graded by friday, and corrections were due monday. Her goal was to make sure we could use the grammar and vocab she was teaching us. And it did work. In FLG 201 and 202, I had a MUCH easier time with all of the assignments than most of my classmates I talked with about them, and it stemmed from being so familiar with the rules, sentence structure, and cases. My biggest problem with German now is that my vocabulary is tiny, and I never get any practice.

And now she's an adopted gramma, but that's not really something that applies here.

11/11/2008 8:50:22 AM

4th grade.
she was pretty and sweet to us.
see if you can work on that!

11/11/2008 8:55:09 AM

Would you tell us what you teach? It might make it easier for us to come up with ideas.

Also, seriously, a lot of your ideas are things that would be better suited for middle school. This is highschool we're talking about, so you're teaching kids that are 14 to 18 years old. Half of them are going to be driving to school to be in your class. They don't need to be doing "skits" and "easter hunts" and whatnot.

11/11/2008 8:58:18 AM

Quote :

"It's easy as shit to come up with a "fun" activity that doesn't teach you much. A lot of ideas in this thread are elaborate and require a huge time investment, but they don't get you through the curriculum."

These two teachers seems to actually be good. Don't confuse fun with effective. I can see how a young teacher might do so

Quote :

"neither used games, but they both did something that made their class fun"

Quote :

"HS German teacher She was a hardass, but her expectations weren't too high, even though to listen to the other students, they were impossible. "

Quote :

"I hear his new school never embraced him like we did."

11/11/2008 9:01:33 AM

Actually...there may have been more to it than just the students, so that's bad form on my part. It's just a shame that New Bern in general didn't embrace him like Kinston.

[Edited on November 11, 2008 at 10:53 AM. Reason : ]

11/11/2008 10:46:42 AM

My drafting 1 and 2 teacher let us play around on the internet and play the incredible machine when we got our work finished (and it was right). Them mad autocad skillz (fast and accurate) landed me an internship my freshman year of college (the only thing I learned at state was solidworks).

My photography teacher (art kind not journalism kind) got us free passes to go anywhere (on or off campus) for pics.

My english teacher made us have a week long trial where the jury, defense attornies, prosecution, and characters from Hamlet were all played by students and she was the judge in a mock trial.

11/11/2008 10:58:09 AM

She was the funniest, smartest lady i have ever met and didn't make me do homework cause she realized i didn't have to.

11/11/2008 11:03:48 AM

Quote :

"She was a hardass, but her expectations weren't too high, even though to listen to the other students, they were impossible. "

All the teachers like this. They're in HIGH school, don't make them do posters or collages or elementary school stuff. Set high expectations and help them actually LEARN something.

I never wanted to play games and bullshit around, I wanted to dramatically increase my knowledge of real-world applications and the principles involved in both science and history.

11/11/2008 11:51:06 AM

I think this really all depends on what she teaches.

Art?

Social studies?

What's a "vocational" area of teaching anyway?

11/11/2008 12:34:29 PM

Quote :

"I teach Foods and Nutrition and Teen Living."

Also a list of NC vocational courses:

http://www.dpi.state.nc.us/cte/vocats/blueprints/2008.status-of-curriculum.pdf

11/11/2008 12:42:27 PM