"Six Trait Writing" workshops for teachers? Is it worth taking?
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I have never heard of the instructor, but a "Six Trait Writing" workshop is probably worth the money depending on the grade you teach.  I think that it's valuable K-8, but high school writing is a whole other thing.
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This essay is about a teacher who used the special interests and backgrounds and experiences of the students to get them learning.  He taught them the value of the things that happened in their own lives and thier own environment.  He was able to step outside the usual concept of what a teacher was supposed to do and he dared to be different.  As a result students responded and learned.  What the teahcer did could be considered, in a sense, using "multiple intelligences" theory in the classroom.
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You mean you want to write one?\n\nTry looking for examples from people who are in a field similar to yours, and imitate the format and style.  You can ask your professors, for example.
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Decide what you want to teach.\nDecide how you are going to evaluate the learning. (Assessment drives planning)\nDecide how you are going to present the concept.\nDecide what kind of guided practice you are going to use to see if your students get the concept.\nDecide what independent practice you are going to use.\nMake sure you are:\nmeeting state and local curriculur standards\nmeeting the developmental needs of your learning group\nmeeting the learning styles of your learning group\nproviding differentiated instruction for your group\nmeeting the IEP of all the special needs students in your class\nincluding your districts character values\ntaking into account Gardner's seven intelligences\nmake sure you reach higher level thinking skills on Bloom's taxonomy\nNow you can start to plan period two...
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As I don't know that subject you teach or how far you've got on your course with them, I can only tell you what I do with my students, using my 1st lesson with them as an example.\n\n1. I started with an initial assessment-in my case, a health questionnaire, learning styles questionaire (VAK) and an individual learning plan (this plan contains the course outcomes/aims, room for teacher and student feedback and career/course progression advice and a questionnaire-what they know about Psychology, what they want to get out of the course etc). By the way, this is an individual, student centred activity.\n\n2. We then had a class discussion about the results of the questionnaire and I talked them through the structure and content of the course. These are whole class, teacher centred activities. At the end of the lesson, I also speak privately to students who have identified particular issues. E.g. One of my students is visually impaired, so I photocopy my worksheets etc onto yellow paper for her, so that she can read them more easily.\n\n3. We then had an icebreaker task-my favourite one is a variation on the child's game, I went to the shop and bought some....? I.e. Each student has to give his/her name and something that they want to do (it doesn't have to be real), the person next to them then has to say who the person is, what they want to do and then give their name & what they want to do, this carries on until I have to remember everyone's names and ambitions (the students are allowed to write the info down). This is a whole class teacher centred activity.\n\n4. To introduce a new topic (e.g. definition of Psychology), I ask  students to get into pairs and spend a couple of minutes coming up with ideas which they will feed back to the whole class. This is a student centred learning Activity (pair discussion). While this is happening, I draw a spidergram on the whiteboard.\n\n5. I ask each pair to give me their ideas which I then write on the board and the rest of the class writes all this down. This is a teacher centred whole class activity (class discussion).\n\n6. I then spend 15/20 minutes explaing what the students need to know about the topic (e.g. areas and applications of Psychology). This is a teacher-cented activity (teacher talk).\n\n7. I then give students a worksheet (e.g. gap fill) and ask them to complete it in groups. While the students complete this activity, I go round the class and offer individual student support, if necessary or offer an extension task (e.g. strengths and weaknesses of different areas of Psychology). This is a student centred learning activity (group discussion).\n\n8. We discuss the answers to the activities as a class. After that, the lesson is finished. This is a teacher centred, whole class activity.\n\nThis is only a rough outline of how I structure my lesson plans (in table format also including my aims, objectives, students' current knowledge, resources I will need and how I will meet each student's needs as previously described, as well as I how I will assess the students, e.g. through written homework), but I hope that it answers your question. By the way, you can also make sure that you've catered for evryone by putting everything the students need to know on a handout. Also, wherever possible get the more able students to explain things to the rest of the class and if possible get them to work with less able/less confident students. I've found that these approaches can work wonders. Finally, always structure your handouts etc at all levels. i.e. start simply (e.g. what does...mean?) and finish with an extension task, even if you don't discuss it as a group. This allows the keener or more able students to take things a bit further without putting pressure on the other students to keep up with them.\n\nFor further ideas, you could also read the following textbook:\n\nTeaching Today-Geoff Petty\n\nGood luck!
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Your district should have prevocational and vocational skill task analyzed assessments and questionnaires available, if you are a SPED teacher.\n\nIf you are a pre-service (student) teacher, a parent, etc., try looking over these sites:\n\nhttp://www.nichcy.org/pubs/outprint/ts6.pdf\nhttp://www.khake.com/page3.html\nhttp://www.tsbvi.edu/publications/bs.htm\nhttp://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=K5HVEsK9V-wC&oi=fnd&pg=PP7&sig=yjS1CgL5X2lsQ9Q3pVkgn2Hdb1U&dq=%22Jonassen%22+%22Task+Analysis+Methods+for+Instructional+Design%22+&prev=http://scholar.google.com/scholar%3Fq%3Dauthor:%2522Jonassen%2522%2Bintitle:%2522Task%2BAnalysis%2BMethods%2Bfor%2BInstructional%2BDesign%2522%2B%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D
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There are several ... here's a link to scope out some of them:  http://www.shopping.com/xGS-Writing_Courses~NS-1~linkin_id-3058181~
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go to a website where you can create a rubric....they have great suggestions which may work for you...your assessment should depend on what you actually taught and worked on....I'm thinking of edHelper or rubistar.....
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Well we studied the use of PODS in my secondary reading class for credentialing. And basically it is when students are grouped in either teacher designated or student led groups with their tables facing one another, yet still have the accessibility to facing the front. \n\nThe benefits of this method are with group work, each pod can work on in class activities together in a cooperative way, and each member of the group can be assigned a role, such as group leader  who can monitor and keep track of the group discussions and activities, and the roles can be switched per week. It allows students to be accountable to each other for learning the material, since the teacher can assign points to each pod for good behavior and finishing the activities on time, and getting their homework done on time too. It fosters reliance on the other students to be accountable for their work so they can receive these incentives from the teacher. \n\nThe teacher then opens up opportunities for social and cognitive development for the students because student interaction is encouraged. The teacher benefits from this method because not only is she/he able to deliver the instruction to the students in teacher centered lecture activities, but also the students can clarify the concepts and instructions of the teacher amongst their own groups. Dependence on the other students creates a sort of community within the classroom and allows students to be respectful of the learning that goes on with the other members in their class.
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I had dreadful handwriting as a child (poor fine motor control) and later became a teacher who had passive to better-than-average handwriting (it never became great).  The first thing is, no one was able to help me with my handwriting, and nagging me about it would have made me not even bother trying.  Second, it gets a lot better naturally around middle school when teachers don't force you to write a particular way (cursive vs. printing) so long as it is neat and you develop your own "handwriting" which will be likely a mix of both.  Having said that, what I did around her age was made myself extra credit out of it.  I made up a "cursive castle" game I did by merely practicing letters on a castle I drew out.  If she's into something, maybe she wouldn't mind decorating it with isolated letters so as to practice formation.  Next, I would recommend trying something like knitting (to start...it's easier to learn than most needlecraft), latchhook, or ideally counted or stamped cross-stitch to develop fine motor control.  This helped me a lot and as my motor control improved, so did my handwriting.  In the end, remember, she has to have motivation to learn to write more neatly and since, in this day and age, computers are honestly the most viable option, she will probably be harder to self-motivate than I was.  Good luck with this.
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Well, it depends on what you mean.  If you are teaching some sort of English class, you could encourage students by giving them choices of genres to write in (let them write any kind of thing  ex: I have seen English teachers do a "Picture Response" project.  You have each child choose their own picture, then they write a short story or poem based on the picture.  This way, they can write the way they like, as it can be any genre).  Also, if your students dislike using computers, you could always lower grades for not using them, or take off points for spelling; then inform them of spell-checks in word processors.  Now, if you are a computers teacher, you could try the new game-like typing programs.  In my experience, they help the students have fum while typing, which I believe helps them learn quicker, and enjoy typing.  I hope that helps you...
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I believe it really depends on the individual student.  I also liked the 'hands on' reply.  Whether you are teaching one or many students, don't get stuck on one routine.  Vary them to keep the students interested and challenged!
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If your main concern is trying to control children in a classroom setting - what about in a tutoring environment? Or perhaps you can go into developing curriculum?\n\nNot really an answer - just throwing out new ideas.
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Hi! \nHere are some Internet resources that would help you out:\n\nhttp://tep.uoregon.edu/workshops/teachertraining/largeclasses/faq/faquo/classroom/classroom.html\n\nLarge Classes: Limiting the Chaos:\nhttp://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infotrac/tips/largeclasses_limitingthechaos.pdf\n\nClassroom Management Techniques and Tips: Workshop Handout from GMU Faculty Development Center:\nhttp://www.gmu.edu/cte/classroomanagement.doc\n\nClass Size and Writing:\nhttp://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4116/is_200504/ai_n13502917\n\nMeeting the Challenges of Larger Classes:\nhttp://www.utoronto.ca/ota/LargerClasses.pdf\n\nThere have also been a couple of books put out on this topic recently. Go to amazon.com and do a book search with "teaching large classes."\n\nHope this is helpful to you!! Happy New Year!!\n\nHope this helps.
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HI--I've also written a book about dyslexia and reading disabilities.  I'll be glad to read your work and comment and edit, but can't put in the same amount of time that I put into my own book! And I don't want any money for it, either...\n\nI'm definitely interested in what you did and how you did it and how and what you researched in terms of teaching methods. \n\nI also want to know about your experiences with your school--that's actually the main point of my book--it's intended to help parents negotiate, argue and advocate successfully with their child's school.\n\nTell me more about your book--is it word processed? How long is it? Can you share it as a pdf or in Word? Have you talked to a publisher?  My co-author and I ended up self publishing--it's relatively easy and inexpensive! Marketing is the challenge! I can tell you more about this later!\n\nP.S. You're probalby right, there won't be a lot of money in this project--but it's worth pursuing for your own personal growth and for the message you have to share with other parents.
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Role playing is a good technique.\n\nYou can use informal writing at the beginning of class to determine preconceptions students hold about a topic and then have them share their opinions.\n\nCrossword puzzles can be devised and used to help your students learn the vocabulary of the subject.\n\nStrive to create a warm and open atmosphere and mix in a little humor.
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I would be cautious.  If your teacher only wanted 1000 words, they could take off points for going over the limit.    Since its a guidance, you could go over a little, but 5x over is quite a bit.  I think you should try to give the main idea, without going in to too many details.  They probably just want to check to make sure that you understand what you're doing, without having to read 10 pages.