Do you email, text, call or Facebook your parents?

I came across an interesting blog on communications with parents in the digital age. The writer was amazed "how DIFFERENT parent-teacher communications seemed to be for each teacher [...] You’d think that with so many new communications tools available to us in the digital age (from cell phones, to e-mail, to Facebook) it’d be EASIER now for teachers to talk to parents. But it seems like it’s getting HARDER. One parent might prefer the phone. Another might just find e-mail easier. One parent might check their e-mail 10 times a day; another might check it twice a week." (Tyler, 2011). 

Technology doesn't always make life easier for us, and this is true in the case of parent-teacher communication. Some parents are extremely busy that they prefer that teachers communicate via email and have only-call-when-it's-emergency policy. While other parents don't have an access to email 24/7 and prefer that we call them (although they don't always pick up or check their voicemail, so teachers have to continue pressing redial). And surprisingly, some parents want to "friend" teachers on Facebook so there's a more "open" communication! Complicated, isn't it? 

When I grew up, the only way that my teachers could communicate with my parents was via "student diary." It's basically a book where both parents and teachers write comments and notes to each other about homework, upcoming school events, and reminders. Because there were about 40-something kids in my class and there's only 24 hours in a day, my teachers wrote a simple note on the board and asked all of us to manually 'copy-paste' the note onto our student diary. Of course, they reminded us a thousand times to show it to our parents at home! Still complicated, isn't it?

As a homeroom teacher, I asked my parents to identify which mode of communication that worked best for them during parent orientation day. It turned out that the majority favored phone calls to their cellphones and text messages, and only a few mentioned emails. I ended up only calling my parents in the case of emergency because I had to share the only phone available in the teachers room with 15something teachers. Plus we had to go through the school operator to get connected to the outside world. So I learned that sending SMS worked best! My parents were very responsive and replied to 90% of my text messages. On top of that, I had a record of our communication for further purpose. Worked out well, didn't it?

On  the down side, I had to pay all of the expenses of the text messages!

Kids love games! - Part 2: Bingo is B-I-N-G-O

A reader asked me about a game that she/he can play in their English class with 4th and 5th grade students, and I immediately thought of a game called BINGO...

Who doesn't like playing BINGO? I think it's one of those games that never gets old and boring because of that one moment when someone calls out, "BINGO!" and everybody cheers! :) It's a game that can be played across age groups with as little as 2 people, and incorporate any topics.

I usually play BINGO at the end of a unit to review materials, although sometimes I do it at the beginning to assess my students' prior knowledge and to start a discussion about the connection between the words. You can play BINGO using any kinds of topics, and it's very easy to prepare.

How you can play BINGO in class (click to see samples): 

1. English : review topic-specific vocabulary e.g. occupations, body parts, kitchen items; grammar-related vocabulary e.g. homonyms, prepositions
2. Math: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, shapes, and many more... Your students won't realize that they're learning their times table! 

Do you mind substituting for Mr. XYZ today? Oooohhh...

How many times has somebody come up to you in the morning and asked you this question, "Excuse me, Ms. ABC... Could you substitute for Mr. XYZ today after recess?" Hopefully not too often...
Now, how many times have you said, "No?" Hhmm...

As much as we'd like to stay on schedule and be with our students, some things are just out of our control--bad cough, sudden fever, sick child, unpaid water bills, car wreck, and many more (hopefully not because of plain laziness to get up and drive to school, hehehhe...). When this happens to a colleague, somebody has to step up and still make things happen in class. That's where a substitute teacher comes in...

In some schools, they have designated substitute teachers on call, but in other places, they have to rely on each other. Every now and then, I get asked to substitute for a teacher. Now, I generally don't have a problem with being a substitute teacher, if and only if, I know the students and the materials. But often you get asked to substitute in a class that is known for its oddly annoying behaviors and is insanely rowdy, right? And to top that off, the absent teacher leaves no materials for the kids. So, what to do now?

I often hear that students don't respect a substitute teacher and it can be a nightmare for teacher. So the first thing I'd do is to get the students' respect first and foremost!

• I always carry these items with me to the class I substitute: a marker, something to write with, and a quiet chime!

Who to blame when students say "I don't like studying!"?

I've been telling many people that I'd like to go back to school one day. There's something about being in school that I miss... But I'm not going to lie, the moment I realize how much work I'd have to do when I start wearing my "student" hat, laziness kicks in--I don't like studying that much... :p

As an adult who has had a taste of school both as a student and as a teacher, I cant agree more with my students when they say that studying is hard! Whenever I said to my parents that things were getting too hard and confusing at school, they always said "Well, if studying is easy, what's there to challenge you? It'll be boring! Life isn't easy, you know... So toughen up!" Ok, just like many wisdom words said by my parents, I agree... Life is hard, and being in school was like being a boot camp to prepare me to face the hardship of life.

What bothers me the most is when I hear students say that they don't like studying! Why do students say this to us?

Student: We're like passengers here...

I couldn't stop thinking what my student said this morning, that she thought that they're (students) like passengers of a bus--"We don't stay here for long because someday we get off and move on..."
Is that so?

For the past couple of meetings, my students and I have been talking about the tentative times of when they would return to their country. I might have mentioned this in my previous note, at the moment I am teaching a group of spouses of graduate students of UPitt and CMU as well as wives of employees of multi-national companies in Pittsburgh. One of them has decided her departure date and I can tell that she has mixed emotions about leaving.

These spouses, including myself, know that living in Pittsburgh has never been a permanent thing, at least not for now. And we all know that someday, we all have to pack and say goodbye to Pittsburgh, a place where we all learned how to survive away from our family and close friends.

Where's Superman?

What do you do when you feel helpless?
Cry?
Yell at... the person next to you or the innocent TV?
Sleep till you don't hear the sound of the rooster?
Secretly waiting for Superman to come for a rescue?
Well, when I feel helpless I stare at the ceiling wishing that I had a superpower to teleport--to transport across space and distance instantly (said a dictionary)

This morning I woke up just to see a message from a former student of mine crying out for help because she failed one of her exams which happened to be of the subject that I taught. Had this message been from students I don't know, I probably would care less, but this is from a student who is smart, responsible and cares for her academic performance. I immediately sense that something was wrong...

And everything went downhill from there...

A present from students

I bet you teachers have a box at home or a designated corner at your desk to display presents you receive from students. I used to dedicate a wall to put up cards and pictures I got from my little friends. I still have a card from a little girl whom I taught in my first year of teaching--a picture of a woman wearing a crown and a girl rope-jumping with the huge colorful writing that says "Ms. Wulansari and Skye." :)

Well, having moved around so much, I couldn't always bring those treasures with me. When I was packing my stuff to bring to the States, I seriously wish I could compress the gifts in one of those vacuum traveled plastic bags :p

Due to the stupid immigration law of the States, I am not allowed to work. So here I am, school-less since I moved to Pittsburgh. I was pretty upset at the beginning, but I got over it as soon as I discovered different opportunities where I don't have to be student-less.

Since several weeks ago, I started tutoring at a night adult class where adults learn math, english and some other subjects to get their high school diploma. This organization that I work for is open to any adult who is interested in pursuing further education. They come at night to do self-study on topics that they have to work on for that week and a tutor is there to help--that's me! Some people come everyday, while others show up depending on their work schedule and family stuff. So far, I really enjoy this particular tutoring experience because I am required to know "everything"--one minute I might be studying fraction with a student, the next minute I would be helping a student with her reading comprehension, and at the end of the class time, I would end up with a student trying to polish her creative writing piece.

Ok back to the present topic...