Themes

For my personal blog, I have created themed days.  It helps give me focus when I write.  So here we go.  I am going to theme my days:

Math Monday
Teamwork Tuesdays
Writing Wednesdays
Thoughtful Thursday
Freedom Fridays
Science Saturday
Study Sundays

Today is Wednesday, Oct 5.  My first Writing Wednesday.  Recently, a friend of mine asked for some advice on how help her son with handwriting.  I have to admit I came up absolutely  clueless.  I have never really taught handwriting.  Every once in a while I would get a kid who held their pen a funny but their writing was legible and they didn't complain of pain.  It bothered me that I could offer no help to my friend.  Also, now that I have primary students, I feel that maybe I should gain some skill in this area. 

I was in the camp of handwriting being obsolete.  I grew up in the midst of the technology boom.  I hardly ever handwrite anything despite the fact that I love to write.  I mostly type or create stuff digitally.  However, I have read some articles about handwriting.  This one out of the Wall Street Journal discusses how the act of writing stimulates the brain and is tied to fine motor skills.    This article also discusses how some standardized tests are still handwritten, like Florida Writes and the essay portion of the SAT, and your handwriting can effect your score.  The "scorer" may judge the clarity of your ideas by the neatness of your handwriting...however subconscious it is.

It seems to me, also, that more and more parents are asking about handwriting curriculum and practice for their students.  This is a teacher speculating but I have to wonder if that's because handwriting is perceived as easier to deal with than math or science homework? 

In this article, the author discusses how technology has been blamed for the demise of handwriting.  However, she sites a professor who states the truth is that no is forcing our youth to improve their handwriting.  So, perhaps as more of Generation X, Y, and the Milleniums become teachers, administrators, and policyamkers (and the focus on standardized tests that are more often multiple choice) there is less of a push for handwriting curriculum.

I don't have the answers and a quick scoure of Google about how to fix bad handwriting came up with a lot of handwriting products, but also a lot of forum posts from teachers, parents, and adults wanting to improve their or their kids handwriting.  Most of the sites I visited talked about fine-motor skill development for kids as early as possible, correct pen grips, etc. 

If any of my teacher friends have resouces they want to comment with to help my friend out I would greatly appreciate it! 

A new structure

This new job is causing me to pause and think about the structures I live within.  I need structure.  I need it just as much as my students need it.  It's why I was always good at school.  I always knew what to expect from each day.  I always knew what I would be doing.

Now, however, I am learning that flexibility is in my job discription with a new definition.  When I was a general education classroom teacher, flexibility meant extending my math block when my students needed more time in a concept; it meant compacting curriculum for academically talented students; it meant cancelling an activity because of an assembly.

As a gifted teacher and push-in math teacher, flexbility means I might now see my students; it means having several lessons ready in case I get a few spare moments to meet with some kids; it means 15 minute planning sessions with teachers about student needs; it means learning how to put on the student news in the mornings; it means scheduling my own time...

it means I found a gray hair the other day for the first.time.ever!

I love my kids.  I want what is best for them.  Right now, I feel like I am struggling to meet their needs because I am struggling to figure out how to build structure for myself.  This makes me feel guilty and tired and sad. 

I so want to love my job and be passionate about it.  Since starting my master's, I have felt like I was walking on the  beach.  The sand is hot and it's difficult to walk but I'm making progress and I can see the shore and the refreshing waves and the cooler wet packed sand.  So far this year, I fell like I'm in the desert.  The sand is scorching and ever step feels like it's pulling me downward; mirages pop up here and there looking like refuge but disappearing in the blink of an eye.

Will I ever get the hang of all of this paperwork and scheduling?  I will strive to give my students the support they so desperately need and to challenge them and love them.  Lord knows they are the best part of this work we do as educators.

Week 1: A fresh start

9/1/11:
I had my first, second, and third graders today.  I will see the first grader seperately starting a month from now but I'm doing so many screenings and he's by himself so I'm having him work with my second graders. 

The first day was all about fun.  We did a Brainstation (Rasmussen, 1989) called Shape Up!  Students picked one tag board shape and then had to create either a robot, bird, fish, bug, or monkey with their shape.  I tied this activity to flexible Thinking Skills (Lorene & Reid, 1990).  The kids enjoyed creating their pictures and the conversations about how they used their shape or how they might use it differently was very rich. 

I had them take a Gardner Learning Invetory.  They are a mixed bag of learners.  Most of them are visual learners.  I'm not sure how accurate it is to give them only one inventory.  We will have to see.  Most of them scored low in the intrapersonal and bodily/kinesthetic learning styles.

I had them work on a glyph.  This was very challenging.  They thought they were recreating their house.  But they were actual creating a fictional house based on what they have at their real house.  Once I made one for me they got the hang of it. 

We finished the day by having them get into teams to create a community map.  Their fictional community had to have specific items on it.  Most of the teams worked well together.  They are pretty competetive though.

I look forward to working with this group!

9/2/11:
I had my fourth and fifth graders today, we well as three students from Bellaire.  They were very eager to be with me and to figure out how I work differently from the previous teacher.  They struggled with my behavior plan.  I have a couple of kids who are pretty squirrely and we'll have some growing pains together I'm sure.  One male student really has trouble with talking while I am but I explained to him how concerned I was about this behavior.  I told him, in a very caring but firm voice, that in my culture it is considered rude to speak when someone else is speaking.  I explained that I could tell he wasn't trying to interrupt me to be rude but it was important for him to realize that it doesn't excuse the behavior.  He thought about it and apologized.  I think we'll be fine.

We used the same Brainstation activity and they had some great conversations.  They LOVED stories with twists.  We worked on a glyph too.  I created this one.  They also struggled to realize that the answers to the research questions were being incorporated to create a paper model of a space shuttle.  They struggled with keyword searches.  I think they will get better at it as we go. 

I struggled with one student in particular all day.  This student is very immature compared to his classmates.  I will have to keep a tight leash on him. 

So the first week is over and I think I survived just fine.

Quote of the Day



Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort.

-John Ruskin

2011-2012 Classroom setup

My classroom doubles as a computer lab for the school.  I teach in there with kids three days a week.  The other two days I'm out in classrooms as a math teacher so other classes can come into my room and use the computers and Smartboard. 

Our theme this year is Space Community.  We will study space exploration, travel, and colonization.  I'm excited.  Here are some pics of my set up.  I am not completely done yet.  I have to wrap it up on Monday.

View from my teacher resource area toward the south end of my portable.

View from my resource area to the east side of my classroom.

View from my resource area showing the north side.

View from the northeast door shoing my resource area.

View from the northeast door diagonal across my room the the southwest corner.

Showing the south side.

The catch all area for now.  That the huge cart the laptops go into...I have no idea where I'm going to conveniently store that bad boy!

Geometry bulletin board.  My 14 year old neice, Lexi, made this.

Fractions Bulletin Board...again made by Lexi.

Geometric shapes board...by Lexi.

First Day 2011-12

What a strange first day.  This is the start of my fifth year of teaching.  I don't have students all week since bus shuttling doesn't start until next week.  I spent yesterday welcoming families at the front gate and helping them find classrooms.  I hugged lots of familiar faces and some kids who just looked like they needed one. 

My room doubles as a computer lab (pics to come) so I spent a LONG time setting those up.  There are a lot of wires to try to hide safely.  Still need a few more ether net wires and then I'll boot everything up and see where we stand.

I spent some time in the cafeteria helping kids remember the expectations, helping them stay focused in line, and just saying hi.  Most of the little kids don't know me very well since I was an intermediate teacher.  But I love visiting with them because they are so enthusiastic and energetic.

It was a different perspective for me...floating around to various places today and seeing how everyone fits into the day.  I saw lots of people volunteering to do jobs they didn't know how to do just to help another coworker out.  I saw hugging and words of encouragement offered.  I saw teasing and laughing.  I have to say that I work with an amazing group of people who all work hard to do what's best for children.  What more can a teacher ask for?

"Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement, nothing can be done without hope and confidence." -- Helen Keller




One of my favorite educators of all time!

New Path

I'm determined this year to make this a more active blog.  I need a place to think out loud and where I can return to reread what went well. 

I'm starting a new path this school year.  I will be teaching gifted.  This is not a destination I had planned to head toward.  I lumped gifted education in with exceptional education and never thought it was a field I would be in.  The opportunity presented itself and I took it. 

I recently completed a course on teacher leadership.  In the course we had to examine out educational philosophy as it applies to teacher leadership but I learned a lot about myself during the assignment.  I took an inventory and scored very high in the progressivist and constructivist categories.  I am in conflict with this a bit.  In my gut I know that I need to design lessons and learning experiences for my students that are problem and project based.  I act more as a facilitator of their learning rather than the source of their learning.  This prospect exhilerates me and frightens me all at once.  Because despite what I feel is right, I still tend to teach how I was taught and how I learned how to learn.

I did very well in school.  I am a strong verbal/linguistic, auditory learner.  Getting my education through lecture, anchor charts,and reading was not difficult for me.  I very rarely looked that different from my teachers who were mostly white females.  It's interesting though, that as I look back, my favorite learning experiences were NOT with those teachers most like myself. 

Mrs. Perry in fourth grade was black, short, and very professional. The mental picture I have of her is wearing a lavender skirt suit.  She had short salt/pepper hair that was always perfectly styled.  I remember her handwriting was beautiful.  I remember her class because we wrote a lot in there and we created books.  She also let me stay after school to wash the black boards and she would listen to me prattle on and on about anything.  I loved her.

The following year I had Mr. C.  He taught math, science, and social studies.  I entered his class prepared to hate him just for the subjects he taught.  I soon learned that it didn't matter if I struggled because he made learning fun.  We built bird houses for measurement and division, we created budgets, used coupons, and balanced our check books.  He was a great storyteller and I remember sitting on the edge of my seat as he would recite the journeys of explorers like Magellan.  I still struggled but he never made me feel like I couldn't do it.  I loved him.

There have been others.  Mr. Renfroe taught me not to accept mediocrity and to push myself to always improve. Even when I knew I could never be THE best, he showed me I could be MY best.  Dr. Eliason taught me how to organize a thesis paper and to write about topics that were interesting to read about, and to always support with evidence.  He also taught me to fight for what I believed in when he made me argue for my grade.  I hated him, and I loved him. 

Perhaps I remember my male teachers more because I lacked a father figure and found some great ones in my teachers along the way.  These teachers made me ask questions and seek answers.  Isn't that what learning is?

So, as I plan my theme and lessons for this upcoming year. I find myself looking back and asking myself what I remember most, how I best learned, who pushed me and how they pushed me.  My goals are always to create an excitment for learning, and to help my students realize they can do anything when they just try. 

Dr. Seuss Reigns Supreme

Last Thursday I launched a Dr. Seuss Unit.  To launch it I, I had my students do a webquest to explore Dr. Seuss, his writing style, and his life. 

In the quest, students explore websites that tell biographical information about the man himself.  Students then do a book study across a couple of books.  While they read, they use a WebQuest Form to record the plot, characters, and overall message.  They did this work with partners.  The third step is to explore the writing craft of alliteration, which Dr. Seuss employed with grace and generosity!  Students hunt for examples of alliteration from some of Seuss's books.

As a culminating activity, students could choose between two performance tasks.  The first is a Power Point presentation from the webquest website (see above link).  In a triad, each student chooses a role; biographer, reviewer, author.  The biographer digs deeper into Dr. Seuss's life and write a report.  The reviewer reads one of Seuss's books, analyzes it, forms opinions, and supports those opinions to write a review.  The author choses a message and characters and writes a Seuss-like story.  They may assist each other while they work.  Once their research is done, they come together to create a Power Point presentation that encompasses all three of their work, plus pictures, and maybe some video clip.

The other performance task is to take a Seuss book and turn it into a script, design and create sock and/or popsicle stick puppets, design and create a "puppet house", then rehearse and perform the show for another class.  It has been a learning experience.  The kids wanted to jump right into puppet creation.  I slowed them down.  Script first!  Make a plan for puppets and stage.  Create and rehearse!  

The whole school is excited and can't wait to see the shows.  I really hope that the kids can deliver the goods!!!

I worry about how effective it was to launch this unit at the same time that we are doing our science fair projects.  We are at a place in the year where I am releasing a lot of control and I have to wonder if I've released too much.  Most of my students are rising to the occasion.  I let them have the choice of their groups and some of my groups who are friends, are not effective teammates.  I'm trying to give them some space to solve their own problems but it's very stressful.

I think I am unsuccessful at hiding my stress level.  I hope that it will all pan out.  I pray for patience and the right words to encourage my students to do their best and stay engaged in their projects.  Here are some pictures of my kids working on their projects!



Triad works on planning their Power Point Presentation.



Student is creating a script of The Lorax.



This group is researching images of the Lorax to plan their puppet house and puppets



Puppet House for How the Grinch Stole Christmas

These two are having a blast creating their puppet house for Green Eggs and Ham.

Building Community

I recently started a new Morning Meeting series.  I asked my students to write their personal definition of community.  Their definitions ended up giving us this bulleted list:

• It is a group of people who work together and help one another.
• There are rules to help keep the community safe and clean.
• A place where people live, work, and have fun together.
• There are community buildings like libraries and parks.
• An environment with people, neighborhoods, buildings, cars, leaders, and rules.
• Being nice to one another, maintaining friendships, and working through problems.
• Community is all different people with different religions and cultures, all working together. There are sometimes different rules for while we are in school and out.

 After sharing the list with my classes, I asked them to discuss where they see these happening at our school.  We made a chart and posted it to display what is positive.  Then we discussed areas that needed improvement.  Both classes believed that respect was the area needing the most improvement.

 

In another meeting we decided on a plan of action.  The kids made a list of ways we can show respect to one another.  From that list we picked three areas we felt were going to be effective for us to focus on.  The students chose to work in these areas by doing the follow things:

• Manners: saying Please, Thank You, and Excuse Me, and being the bigger person by walking away to avoid conflict
• Be Friendly: include everyone, smile at eachother, and give 'meaty' compliments
• Be Helpful: share supplies, be a homework buddy, and offer to help when you see someone struggling.

The conversation was pretty amazing.  At first, they wanted to get a police officer on campus to make sure people were being treated fairly.  This lent itself to a conversation about locus of control.  This is something fifth grade students struggle with.  They need to learn that they have full control of themselves and they shouldn't spend so much time worrying about things they can't control.  The resulting list focused on things each student could do.

I encouraged them to pick one area they would focus on.  Our next step as a class is to chart how often we are doing these things.  Here is a "lesson" plan for the discussions.

Becoming Aware of our Community


Day 1:

• Have students reflect on the questions ‘What is a community?’

• Compile those responses into a bulleted list.

Day 2:

• Share the bulleted list with your class.

• Have groups turn and talk about where they see evidence of the definitions of community in their own community at school.

• Variation: Give each partnership, trio, or group one or two of the bullets and use a protocol for a higher level of active engagement ;o)

• Add their ideas to a chart. I used the heading: In our community…

• Hopefully you will have a few bullets the kids say they don’t see at our school or that they think could be improved. If a group grabs onto that hold them off because that’s where you are going the next day.

Day 3:

• Connect to the chart you made the previous meeting.

• Start a discussion about any of the bullets that your class decided weren’t visible at school.

• Create a chart based on student ideas. I used the heading: In our community, we could improve these areas:

• Advise students to think on these overnight, and have an idea for what one your class could focus on.

Day 4:

• Connect to the chart you made the previous meeting.

• Have groups discuss which area they could like to focus on. Get a consensus across the class and choose one area to work on as a class.

• Put your area on a new chart.

• The class brainstorms ways they could improve that area. Once there’s a good list, have the students develop a plan on how they are going to actively make a change in their community. They should also come up with a way to monitor their progress.

Day 5:

• The class should reflect on the processes used to develop their plan. What was the purpose? How did it make them feel to discuss these issues? Do they feel a responsibility to create a positive change at their school? What do they think being part of a positive change will do for their lives? Do they make any connections to this work and work they do at home with their families or at their church? Are they worried about implementing the change? If so, what is the worry and how do they think they can deal with it?

Day 81

Today was day number 81.  We had a writing common assessment.  We did some word work.  And I gave both classes about 60 minutes to work on their wiki book reviews.  This was the last chuck of class time I am going to be able to give them for the next week and a half.  I pushed back the research project start date until Friday 1-7-10 (tomorrow) because both classes expressed a need for some refreshers on using wikispaces and Portal to post their reviews since they were going to be required to get them done primary at home.

I am going to talk more about myself in this entry.  It's a difficult thing to look at ones self and try to figure out the areas that need honest improvement. 

1) Small Groups: I do not conduct consistant and pre-planned small group instruction.  This has always been a struggle for me.  Because I get uncomfortable with keeping the time under 20 minutes.  I have recived a lot of small group instruction training through several reading coaches at my school over the past couple of years but have never felt successful implementing it.

2) Conferring with Readers: I LOVED conferring with writers.  I always had something to say or something I wanted to teach.  It was easy for me to spot what needed work and where to go with a writer.  I feel very uncomfortable conferring with readers.  I always walk away feeling like I didn't help at all or very skeptical that the student will use the practiced/demonstrated strategie.  How can I know without demanding some proof? 

3) Hands on Experiments: I have seen great improvement in myself in this area.  My first year teaching, I hardly ever let the kids get their hands on the science.  I demonstrated experiments or we read about them or we watched videos or we did worksheets.  My second year, I dove in a little here and there.  My third year, I did the workshops full out but put the kids in large groups to conduct experiements or build models (4-5 students).  In my fourth year, I am much more confident in letting my students try out the science.  I find their observations more specific and their understanding of the concepts more complete.  I think adding in the choice board homework and technology has only improved my students science scores.

4) Planning farther ahead: In general, I have most of the week planned before Monday morning.  Usually I have all of reading planned because I need to get the ASL prepared in order for the technique to be successful.  I usally have the science planned but I scramble to adjust and prepare my materials the day before or the day of.  Fridays are usually wide open for make ups, reviews, or reteaches, and quizes.

There are more but these are the glaring struggles I feel are most important.  If you read this and you have tips, strategies, or ideas on how to help a young teacher with these areas!!!  Please don't hesitate to comment.

A New Year

Happy New Year!

I have done almost no thinking about work for two whole weeks.  Usually I spend my whole break really working on lessons or grading papers.  My brain really needed a vacation.  This was a rough semester for me as my own coursework was very demanding and adjusting to a new curriculum has been challenging to say the least.

But since I go back in two days, I'm working one my plans a little at a time.  I at least want my community builders, vocabulary, and read aloud to be ready.  I found a great little website with lots of team building and ice breakers.  My kids already know each other but they could be good to loosen everyone up again.  Plus I completely changed the seating arrangement before I left.

I am launching two new units.  We will be digging deeper into using nonfiction texts through a group project about some famous inventors.  Here's the lesson plan I'm using from thinkfinity.com.  I'll put the kids into three groups and give each group a box with a task list, resource books, and websites.  They must develop a poster visual aid and a power point, then make a presentation.  We will start on a Wednesday because I only teach reading on Wednesday and they can have their whole class period to get started.  The beginning of a project is always the hardest.  I will be teaching some lessons on taking notes from resources as well as how to cite sources.

My kids seem to have a good grasp of what nonfiction is so I don't want to waste time going over text features and genres.  I'd prefer they really learn how to analyze and utilize their nonfiction texts since that is mostly what they will read through their lifetime. 

I plan to continue my use of ASL during reading instruction.  I will also start my inquiry this month.  I will be meeting with my four ESOL students (one in my homeroom, and three in Donna's homeroom) in small groups to work on vocabulary using ASL.  I am trying to find out if the use of ASL during word work using the power teaching model will improve an ESOL students use of fifth grade level vocabulary words.  I will be assessing them through tests that have a variety of test items paired with my own observations and interviews with the kids. 

The other unit I'm launching is a short force and motion workshop. It took forever to get through my life science unit because I included technology lessons and a couple of projects.  But I felt it necessary to lay a foundation for project work that will occur during their science fair projects.  They needed to be able to create word documents, power points, and conduct research, along with citing their sources.  I'm keeping the physical science less about studying and product creation and more about inquiry and experiments.  Hence the roller coasters.

So, here's to a busy new year!