GREAT to read these 'testimonials'!!!

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Home : 2008 : April : 27

GREAT to read these 'testimonials'!!!
By Risa

I was excited when I looked at the youtube videos too! (I also found them on teachertube.com and doing a search for "Power Teaching" Our district network filter has youtube.com blocked, but I was able to show some parts of
the videos to my students when I found them on teachertube.com.)

I say we should thank fischerk who originally left a link to the video on the Substitute Board! Up until I read that message I hadn't heard of Power Teaching. I'm sooooo glad :D I read that post!

I posted what I had found to that point, on this thread
http://www.proteacher.net/discussions/showthread.php?t=77702

Then

I did a bit more exploring and started this thread where I left an attachment for a poster I made after I read about the "Yada Yada Noise Control Scale."
http://www.proteacher.net/discussions/showthread.php?t=78178

(NOTE: All of the links I'll list below are found in the threads above, as well.)
I've been having great success with it, too! For my class, it was more about having them use various learning modalities more often to allow opportunities for interaction with each other. As I said in a previous post, what I like about the Classroom (Yada Yada) Noise Control is that even tho' my class is pretty good about controlling their noise level, now I can tell them specifically that we need to be using, for example, "Spy Talk" (Level 1) and WE ALL know that means they may whisper to each other. When we are using collaborative strategies I can say "Let's remember to stay at Level 2" and they know that means they should be loud enough only for their parters or their teams to hear them. Their favorite part of PowerTeaching is "Teach/OK"! and the "It's cool" whenever someone makes a mistake... (with that 'someone' often being ME! I'm forever confusing the levels since I keep forgetting that the Noise Levels start with 'Level 0'-Quiet of the Tomb... I keep calling it level 1.)

Another thing my student love to do: In one of the videos (I think it's the one of the third grade -first year teacher.) the students were all eager to give an answer. She told them to say the answer into their hands and then hold it up. This way, they could all give the answer, but not shout it out until the whole class was ready to answer. I found my students love to do this, too! They say the answer into their hands. Then hold their hands in the air as if holding onto a ball. Then, when I see most have their hands up, I say something like, "Let it fly free!" or " Throw it at me!" and they all make the gesture of throwing and say the answer at the same time.

Which reminds me, the idea from the "Crazy Reading Professor Game" video. It's also a big hit! They love reading aloud with exaggerated dramatic expression! The more fluent readers also love reading aloud with dramatic gestures. It's a bit more difficult for my struggling readers, since they tend to focus on just pronouncing the words correctly before even trying to figure out what voice or gestures they should use.

All of these strategies keep the class involved, motivated, AND they are LEARNING, sometimes in spite of themselves because they are so busy being involved, they can't help it! :D

I found some great downloadables on the PowerTeaching Home page.
Power Teaching-Home Page
http://homepage.mac.com/chrisbiffle/Menu38.html

What really sold me, in addition to the videos, were the following:
Classroom Power Blog-Getting Started
http://classroompower.com/power-teac...tting-started/

and this download from the PowerTeaching Downloadables:
PDF File-Power Teaching Case Studies (Teacher/Administrator Testimonials, Case Studies) (164 pages- easy to read, with lots of information about the strategies)
http://homepage.mac.com/chrisbiffle/...%20Studies.pdf