Friday Five: "Ohmigosh! You just said 'Christmas'!"

Or, Five Pointers Regarding Religion in Public Schools

The holidays are coming up. Halloween's already right around the corner, then Thanksgiving, and then the winter holidays. For many public schools these are tense times, with teachers and administrators carefully monitoring newsletters and bulletin boards to make sure the word Christmas isn't used. You may feel as if you're pretending the holiday doesn't exist. With all of the caution and hullabaloo, you may wonder: What exactly is permissible under the U.S. Constitution?

Here are 5 quick points about what you can and can't do with regard to religion in the public schools, including some guidelines about religious holidays. This information was gleaned from a document called "A Teacher's Guide to Religion in the Public Schools" which I found on the Freedom Forum website. A big "thank you" goes out to Greg Koukl of Stand to Reason for recommending the booklet.

1. You CAN teach about religion if it is "presented objectively as part of a secular program of education," according to Associate Justice Tom Clark in the Abington v. Schempp ruling. There are several contrasting phrases describing what religious education should be in a public school setting. It should be characterized by the following terms: academic, awareness, study, expose, educate, and inform. It should not be characterized by these terms: devotional, acceptance, practice, impose, promote, denigrate, or conform.
 

2. You CAN teach about religious holidays such as Christmas and Hanukkah, though you may not celebrate them. You CAN use religious symbols, art, drama, music, and literature for instruction regarding religious holidays if they are used as academic examples and there is a genuine instructional purpose. You CANNOT assign students to create artwork that requires students to incorporate religious symbols, though students CAN decide on their own to include them.
 

3. You CAN meet with other faculty during free time to pray; you CAN pray silently at any time; you CAN pray when you are not with students.
 

4. You CAN wear "non-obtrusive jewelry, such as a cross or Star of David," but you CANNOT wear clothing that bear "a proselytizing message," such as a shirt that says "Jesus Saves."
 

5. You CAN answer a student's question about what you believe as long as your answer is short and to the point and does not include a proselytizing message. You are encouraged to consider the age of your students, since very young students may confuse even the most direct answer as a recommendation or statement of the school's official belief.

Have you encountered the overly cautious attitude that says you don't utter the words Hanukkah or Christmas? Does your school have a staff prayer group? How do you recognize and incorporate various holidays into your classroom instruction?

Related Products from My Store at Teachers Pay Teachers:

Fall / Halloween / Thanksgiving

• Thanksgiving Cornucopia Coordinate Graphing Activity, $2.75 
• Bat Ordered Pairs Practice, $2.75
• Trick or Treat Safety Tips PowerPoint, $1.50

Winter / Christmas / Hanukkah / Kwanzaa

• Christmas Adjectives Writing Activity and Bulletin Board, $3.00
• Hands-On Holiday Fact and Opinion Sort, $2.00
• Snowman Ordered Pairs Practice, $2.75
• A Very Merry Set of Directions, $1.25
• 6 Winter Activities to Keep Students Engaged, $5.00

Fall and Winter Combo Packs

• Fall and Winter Ordered Pairs Bundle (5 Activities), $10.00 
• Every Holiday and Season BINGO Boards, $3.00

Web 2.0 Wednesday: What? You don't want to weed through 50 million search results?

Knowing effective search techniques is an essential skill in the digital age, for both students and adults! If your students or staff members need help in this area (or maybe it's not your strong suit), this week's Web 2.0 tool will help. Try Sort Fix this week to get help with improving a search. This is a great jumping-off point for a lesson with students or professional development with staff about how to search effectively.

Type your search into Sort Fix and then choose what website you want to run your search on: Google, Bing, Twitter, images, or YouTube. When I tried it the Google part wasn't working, so I used Bing. As your results pop up, so do words in "bins" at the top of the page: Power Words, Add to Search, Remove, and Dictionary. The Power Words bin will show keywords that the search engine has picked out from your results. Drag the words to Add to Search or Remove to narrow your search and see the results instantly at the bottom of the page. Keep going until you get the kind of results you are looking for. Helpfully, the search bar at the top of the page will modify your original search with advanced search operators like - and + so you can see how to search without the training wheels.

Be sure to watch the Demo using the button on the front page; it's super cute. :o)

Friday Five: 5 Purposeful Turns of Phrase

"I suggest you sit down and listen, missy!"

This week's Friday Five focuses on 5 purposeful ways to use language when speaking with children. I'm a big believer in speaking to children thoughtfully, with regard for the larger ramifications of our words. It's a very easy thing to do, and I think it can yield very positive results. Here are some of my favorite examples.

1. Instead of saying "O.K.?" to solicit an affirmation for directions, say, "Understand?" Example: "Get your homework done as soon as we get home, so we won't be late for soccer practice. Understand?" You'd be surprised how often that "O.K." slips out of an adult's mouth. Using the alternative gets you the affirmation you want (yes, the child heard you and understands the instructions) without sounding like you're seeking the child's approval, or asking if the child wants to comply.

2. Don't ask a child "Do you want to...?" if there is no choice. Example: "Do you want to go to Grandma's this weekend?" What if the child says no? It's unfair to ask whether a child wants to do something if you're going to be doing it either way.

3. When you want to recognize something positive a child has done, consider saying "You did it!" rather than "That's great," or "I like how you..." Notice how "You did it" focuses on what the child has accomplished, while the other two phrases focus more on your feelings about what the child did. I learned this from Conscious Discipline (which my school uses). I'm still getting used to it, and my "That's great" addiction has been hard to break, but I'm practicing!

4. This is something our whole family has learned to do, and I found it very helpful in the classroom as well. When it's time for someone to apologize, instead of just saying, "I'm sorry," try saying "I'm sorry for ___. Will you forgive me?" Then wait for the other person to answer. Notice that "I'm sorry" by itself focuses on me, the one who did something wrong, rather than on the other person who was wronged. You can say "I'm sorry" in a snotty way (as any parent or teacher can attest) or add a silent postscript in your mind of "Yeah, I'm sorry you're a jerk." Asking for forgiveness is a different matter. It makes you vulnerable to the other person. It acknowledges the wrong you did and your need for forgiveness in a way that a "sorry" doesn't do. It provides an opening for the other person to speak about the wrong that was done to them. We also think that "I forgive you" is more powerful than the usual response of "It's okay." It may not be okay, but we can still forgive. In our household the adults practice this as well. This is great for anyone (there's that word great again), but as Christians, we especially find this use of language in line with what we want our children to understand about the way we view the world.

5. It's tempting when I'm reaching the end of my proverbial rope to sarcastically say, "I suggest that you ___ right now!" Don't suggest. Just tell the child what you are expecting. It's a stronger statement, less wishy-washy, and less inviting of the child's defiance. This isn't to say the child won't defy you; I find when the sarcasm's welling up in me, my daughter or son is also escalating the behavior that's got me tweaked. Still, the false "suggestion" doesn't help to de-escalate the situation, and we certainly shouldn't be modeling sarcasm. That could come back to bite us!

 

What are your favorite phrases or most helpful ways to modify your language when speaking to children?

Web 2.0 Wednesday: Got Milk?

Can nutrition be cool? Could you possibly get a fourth grader excited about the health benefits of drinking milk? Check out Get the Glass and see what you think! Get the Glass is a free web-based game with great graphics and ambience that teaches about the health benefits of dairy. Think A Series of Unfortunate Events meets your health teacher.

Pros: The graphics and feel of the game are immersive and very cool while also being fun. There are lots of facts about the nutritional benefits of drinking milk embedded in the game.

Cons: Commercialization: They’re definitely trying to sell milk.

This Month in the Preschool Computer Lab: Farms and Autumn

It's the last week of September! Hooray! I am tired of teaching the 5 Senses, so this week I'm jumping ahead to our themes for October: farms and autumn. It's also Fire Safety Month, and Grandparents' Day and Halloween both fall this month. The problem is, I'm having trouble deciding which activities to have our students work on. Luckily I have an all-day training today, so that gives me an extra day to decide. Here are some activities I'm considering using this month. I have a great pumpkin carving website to share too, but I'll post about that later in the month.

• Highlights Build a Scarecrow
• Mr. Rogers Neighborhood Build a Farm
• Sheppard Farm Animal Activities
• Starfall Grandparents Day letter
• Highlights Leaf Creatures
• Harcourt School Animal Match
• Little People Animal Sounds Game
• Sparky the Fire Dog (probably the safety search game)
• Highlights Firehouse Fun Coloring
• Decorate a tree for each of the four seasons using KidPix
• Write about what you like to do in autumn using PixWriter

What interactive activities do you use for a farm or autumn theme, or for October?

This Week in the Preschool Computer Lab: My 5 Senses

Themes/Topics:
My 5 Senses

ISTE NETS:
Make It! Complete a graphic organizer showing what you can see, hear, taste, touch, and smell.
Share It! Bring home printed copies of your creations to share with parents.
Solve It! Is this something I can see? smell? hear? taste? touch? Can I use more than one sense with this item?
Use It! Double-click to open the file; drag and drop to use “stickers”; click to use stamps; use the text tool and keyboard to type your name with help.

Once again this week we begin our lesson on the carpet with a review of computer lab rules and the parts of the computer. Students participate in an interactive whiteboard activity where they identify pictures of various printers among a group of computer parts and drag the printers into a separate section. This is a bit harder than our previous sorts of display and mouse pictures, since the pictures of printers look less similar to each other. I then model the activity for the students before dismissing them to their computers.

At the computers, we are using Kid Pix with a template I created to make a graphic organizer about the 5 senses. Students use the sticker tool and the rubber stamp tool to find pictures of items that they can see, hear, taste, touch, and smell. Stickers require drag-and-drop while stamps just require a click to select the design and then a click to place it on the page. I encourage students to find items for each section and to think about whether an item can be placed in more than one category. At the end, adults help students to type their names using the text tool, and to print in color.

Pitfalls:

• Because I am using the image as a background, students can color over or “blow up” (erase) the background, obliterating the graphic organizer altogether. If time permits, we re-open the file and begin again when this occurs.
• For some reason the names sometimes do not show up when printed. I’m not sure why, but it’s frustrating!

Differentiation:
Three-year-olds, self-contained, and other students who need an organizer with fewer distractions will complete a similar graphic organizer with just 3 senses shown to simplify the activity. Teachers could repeat this activity with the remaining 2 senses in the classroom. Students with severe/profound intellectual disabilities could use capability switches and/or microphones to participate in cause-effect activities with color and sound. Adults may prompt the students to respond to what they see and hear. Examples: Balloon Bang! and Bouncy Balls.


What are you doing in the lab this week? How do you use technology to help teach the 5 senses?

Web 2.0 Wednesday: ABCmouse.com

I am so excited to share with you the new website we are using in the computer lab this week: ABCmouse.com! A teacher at my school brought this site to my attention, and after only a few days, I already love it! Finally, there's a polished, well-executed, content-rich website aimed at preschoolers, with an inviting interface. If you're familiar with Education City, Study Island, and SuccessMaker, you will recognize ABCmouse as a similar tool, but exclusively designed for toddlers, preschoolers, pre-k, and kindergarten. The main area of the site is the classroom, with games, eBooks, puzzles, coloring pages, and songs. There is also a zoo area, a farm area, and an aquarium.

Pros: The activities are fun and age appropriate. There's lots of variety and a huge amount of content to keep kids interested for the long-term. You can easily individualize lessons for students and track their progress. Students login using an avatar rather than a name, and all text is read aloud, so it's easy for non-readers. There are many options to make the activities easier or more challenging, so you can easily adapt it to your students' needs and skills. It includes activities for science and social studies, which are focus areas in our school and harder to find for preschoolers. Adults can record their own voices reading one of the books. The help section has helpful videos that walk you through setting up the site for your students. There are themed printables available to accompany the online activities. It's FREE for public schools.

Cons: There is a LOT going on in this website, and students have access to all of it. I have only used it with a few classes, but from what I can see, there is no way to keep them on the designated activities that you want them to do. They can easily "wander" off into another area of the site to play something else. It's not easy for students to switch between logins. When you go to a section of the site that shows a choice of activities, for instance, the screen that shows all of the games, the default options are to have the preschool choices showing and not the pre-k or toddler choices. I didn't see a place I could configure this for different logins so that my pre-k students will see the pre-k games first. I don't think there's a way for students to play at home using a teacher's account (and the individualized lessons she's configured), although parents can purchase a separate membership.

Check it out and let me know what you think!