Summer Programs offered by Mr. Coleman

Please read and pass along to anyone you feel might be interested.

Mr. Coleman, 2nd grade teacher at Prairie Elementary, will be offering two valuable learning opportunities during the 2013 summer. One-on-One Tutoring and my Coleman’s Camp Enrichment Program will both begin Monday, June 3rd, and run through Saturday, August 3rd. We meet at Corinth Library (81st and Mission Road). More detailed information is below.

One-on-One Tutoring:

I meet with student in Individualized one-hour sessions to maintain present skills during the summer and to prepare for the upcoming school year by addressing current academic and motivational/self-esteem struggles.  Shawnee Mission curriculum and materials are used, along with district and research-based intervention materials, all correlating to content students will see in the upcoming school year.  Frequently we work through the daily (or distributive) work from the first quarter.  This strategy ensures student comprehension, confidence, and skills are bolstered as concepts introduced to the class during the start of the year are already well practiced by the tutored student.  With parent permission, I can also meet with each student's teacher to collect test data, information on strengths and struggles, and learning goals.  Some of the specific skills I can focus on include:

·         Reading (phonics, decoding, comprehension, accuracy, motivation)

·         Math (computation, problem solving, accuracy)

·         Study skills and organization

·         Test preparation (classroom tests, basic skills, state assessments)

·         Writing skills (handwriting, sentence, paragraph and paper writing)

Summer 2013 Schedule for One-on-One Tutoring (1 hour sessions):

Tuesdays 11:00-3:00

Thursdays 11:00-3:00

Saturdays 1:00-3:00

Coleman’s Camp Enrichment Program:

Small groups of students meet as a specialized class to study, explore, and interact with their own learning process in highly individualized and personal ways.  The two-hour sessions aim toward mastery of grade-level curriculum taught in Shawnee Mission classrooms but also provide a pervasive environment and cross-pollination of wisdom, art, humor, music, and high quality endeavors.

Coleman’s Camp is an innovative tutoring and enrichment program utilizing a decade of classroom experience at nearly every grade level as well as training in administration, special education, and research-based practices to create a weekly enrichment and support camp for elementary-aged children.

Each session of Coleman's Camp has age guidelines to help facilitate age-appropriate focus and maximized benefit of learning experiences.  The Tuesday and Thursday sessions have similar themes, activities, and curriculum.  As such, students should only attend either the Tuesday sessions or the Thursday sessions, but not both.  In some cases, special arrangements can be made with Mr. Coleman for older students to be Peer-Leaders (example: an older student who attends the Tuesday session returns Thursday to help lead groups, provide examples, or teach parts of the lessons).  Such special arrangements should be reserved for highly motivated students wanting to take on leadership roles and increased responsibility.

Additionally, the Saturday session will be different in form and scope from the Tuesday and Thursday sessions.  These Saturday sessions are called Coleman's Camp Studio and will be an experience where kids work for a number of consecutive weeks to complete one in-depth project at a time.  These studio projects will be built around the passions of the students enrolled, and will push their natural skills, problem solving ability, and creative efforts to produce unique artifacts of significance and quality.  Coleman's Camp Studio will be limited to 10 students.  Projects might include multimedia presentations, artwork, service projects, inventions, engineering studies, plays, et cetera.  There is no specific age guidelines for Saturdays, but an adventurous attitude and willingness to make mistakes, grow, and experiment are important.

Summer 2013 Schedule for Coleman's Camp (2 hour sessions):

            Tuesdays 4:00-6:00 (for kids going into 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th grade)

            Thursdays 4:00-6:00 (for kids going into Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade)

            Saturdays 10:00-12:00 (Coleman's Camp Studio)

More Information:

• http://www4.smsd.org/timcoleman/html32214.htm - Credentials, experience, and other district information
• http://www4.smsd.org/timcoleman/html22172.htm - all about Mr. Coleman

PLEASE E-MAIL for cost and availability.

Perspective on feeling as though you voluntarily offered your child's mind to The Matrix

Is the iPad bad for children?

http://theweek.com/article/index/242107/is-the-ipad-bad-for-children

Also, I (again) recommend reading The Week.

The right type of glass helps our vision

The technology that become ubiquitous and inexpensive enough to reach the classroom has been remarkable to witness; I remember the first PCs in my middle school in the late 1980s and learning to insert large floppy discs to play Oregon Trail.  In college I was doing rudimentary on-line research and naively perceiving AOL chat rooms as "the internet."  However, by the time I reentered classrooms as a teacher in late 2001, there were trends developing that might surprise today's technology consumer accustomed to ever advancing models and functionality.  My student teaching placement was at a school that, only a few years beforehand, had been designed and opened as a technology themed building with at least a dozen computers in every classroom, motion-sensor classroom lights to shut down usage when rooms were unoccupied, and closed-circuit TV's for school produced programs.

The year I arrived the district was no longer replacing computers as they died off; by the end of the year even the remaining functioning computers would be removed, leaving only two dedicated student computers in each classroom along with the teacher computer.  The heady experimental years of "technology everywhere, for everyone" seemed to have met the fiscal reality of maintaining hundreds of computers subject to heavy use/abuse by nearly 500 students.  Additionally, as the district increased class sizes in response to perpetually dwindling budgets, classrooms became cluttered with an average of 20 students, a desk for each, and a comically thick perimeter of gray computer tables lining every available classroom wall, effectively shrinking the usable area of the room by a significant number of square feet.  Teachers, alone in their classrooms while the students were at specials, grading papers or otherwise sitting still for some time found they were suddenly plunged into darkness, the motion-sensors dutifully calculating no movement above an arbitrary and imperfect threshold.

In recent years I have watched waves of new technology come into the classroom, some becoming extremely valuable.  The sobering reality is that these visions of what will come next are still often created by marketing departments; but even a cynical mind might marvel at the possibilities portrayed in the Corning: A Day Made of Glass 2.  The first Day Made of Glass video came off, in my eyes, as rather vapid, consumer-oriented, and celebratory of a future in which sterile living environments allow for full focus upon fashion, shopping, entertainment, and advertisements.  Not the stuff of hope, imagination, creativity, and passion we want for our children.  The second video, below, captured my eye in that so many of the advances are education based and would be of both practical and inspiring use in the classroom.  Watch, and wonder if teachers will still be able to justify a worksheet component to every single lesson of the day.  

Monday Surprise!

During my second year of teaching 4th grade, now nearly a decade ago, I was walking the long main hallway to my classroom just at the start of the school day.  As with many elementary schools, the early arriving students waited in the gymnasium for the first bell, then had 10 minutes to walk to their classrooms before the official start of the day.  This morning routine had the unintended effect of creating a human wave of students flowing down the hall, which I became inadvertently immersed within.  At some point I noticed two girls from my class converging within the stream just ahead of me and overheard their greetings.  From my place in the mass of humanity, I knew they did not see I was so near them.  One remarked to the other, in enthusiastic and earnest tones, "I can't wait to see what we will do today!"

I was quietly astounded.  That morning in my classroom, and afterword, I would feel a duty to live up to such expectations.  These kids were excited for school and, years later in a university, I reviewed research showing the steady decline in student excitement for school as they grew older.  I wanted them to always have the feeling and desire this girl expressed that morning, coming to class to learn and wanting to stay.  Overtime I learned ways to help the mornings begin with anticipation, and especially exciting Mondays.

Some of the strategies I find invaluable to begin school days primed for learning:

• Students check in with me in the morning, sharing relevant or important information from the night before, including ailments, play dates, sports' practice, movies, or family dynamics.  Knowing a little brother kept everyone up with vomiting can be an invaluable piece of information.  As can knowing a student overheard parents arguing, the power went out for part of the night, they had no sleep because of a nightmare, or car problems stressed everyone out.  This empathy time, the authentic human bonding can prevent dozens of struggles and misunderstanding throughout the day.  "They will not care what you know until they know that you care,"
• Some students have permission to come to the classroom before any of the bells (while others, without such permission, have perfected ways to sneak back to the classroom), often to avoid the human flood down the hallway, which they find understandably stressful.  These kids are receptive to one-on-one time, being the first to check in on our class pet, reading, taking reading quizzes, or just chatting about the day.  They need this! 
• The entire morning is the time for students to own up to mistakes, forgotten work, or problems that will need to be problem solved.  If students are honest, come to me instead of making me "discover" the issue later in the day, and own the problem instead of blaming parents or siblings, there is no contrived, traditional punishment.  Instead, students have natural consequences, but otherwise we move on with the day and kids are able to move past the issue with grace, the issue fully something separate from them; we problem solve the objectified issue together.
• Generally, worksheets during the mornings are moderately helpful, setting a focused, paper-based skills practice opportunity so long as it is relatively short, does not rely upon emerging skills or concepts, and is not a significant portion of their grade.  Confidence is the goal, but on Mondays I do not use seat work or busy work.  We begin the week with socialization, reading, or often some new item on the classroom table to spark interest.


..............................smooth segue...............................

MONDAY SURPRISE!

Copied in below is a rather thrilling example of starting the week with something to grab students' imagination and passion.  Though my class does not yet know, I purchased two baby water turtles (about the size of a half-dollar) for our classroom.  We have discussed having such classroom pets in the past, but had no definitive timeline or expectations for such quick arrival.  I had tracked down these baby water turtles at The Great Mall of The Great Plains (of The Great State, of The Great Country, of The Great Continent, of The Gre... I habitually think whenever hearing the unwieldy name of the place).  I will have them in class Monday and I hope for the weekend to fly so I can see the kids' reactions!  Feel free to share this blog entry with kids in my class as I believe they would want to know as soon as possible.  Monday morning I will be anxious to get to school early!

Let them fall and bloody their knees, don't make the pain stop, but feel empathy for the pain

http://theweek.com/article/index/242542/want-to-raise-winners-give-your-kids-a-chance-to-lose

Interesting article about allowing children to lose, a lot, and learn how to deal with it.  I disagree with a few of the conclusions and consequences, that kids will need to know how to make excuses when faced with mistakes (a bizarre line-of-thought that seems out of place in the overall context of the article).

When did you learn to speak disparagingly about mathematics?

A video mash-up created by teacher and blogger Dan Meyer, showing how movies, TV, and cartoons have an on-going narrative about math being a bad thing, regardless of context.  The message sent to our children's mind is rather clear, explicit, and negative.  Read his thoughtful blog post here: http://blog.mrmeyer.com/?p=16222.  I thought the comments section was also interesting.  

(Contains adult language)

Up Late, Out Early, Look at the Journey

Living approximately 30 minutes from work provides long drives to gain momentum for the day and for the kids.  Occasionally I will take photographs of the journey to work.  Here are a few: