Curating and Evernote

I found this exercise very helpful.  It challenged me to try to explore new resources.  I updated my filter on Twitter to pull posts regarding “Reluctant Readers” rather than “Struggling Readers.”  The posts seemed to be more relevant to elementary education.  There also appeared to be fewer advertisement links popping up in the posts.  I have no issue with folks advertising their books, lesson plans, and teaching tools, but I’d rather be referred to the site by a teacher who has used them in their practice.

When I looked back through the links that I had pulled in the previous quarter, I found that I wanted more information up front, so I’d know whether or not the link was something I needed at that moment.  I started writing a small description to accompany each link that I posted to our shared EVERNOTE notebook.  I believe this made the notebook a better reference tool.

I found myself most drawn to booklists. I pored over all the ideas for great stories that would support reading comprehension strategies.  I was excited to have more options beyond the leveled readers.  I found myself flipping back and forth between the lists and my local library link to see if I could add some of them to my own reading list.  Those that weren’t available at my library, I added to my Goodreads account.  I now have a virtual pile of books that must be close to topping over.  I can barely wait to get started.

I have to admit that I did not collaborate with my co-curators as much as I probably should have.  I have followed the links that they posted.  But I haven’t explored them thoroughly.  Neither have I used any of the communication tools to interact with my teammates on what we found while curating.  We were mostly a team of individuals working on the same subject.  I attribute this to the heavy course load and the increased teaching responsibilities, not to any lack of effort by any member of our team.  I can see this being a great tool for collaboration in the future when supplementing a Unit of learning or when simply researching a learning issue.

I’ve included a link to one of my favorite finds.  This link will take you to a playlist of videos.  They are all very short clips, most less than a minute, of educators sharing their ideas.  I loved watching them and hearing suggestions that connected to readings in our coursework.  I loved listening to other teachers share what works for them.  I loved how passionate and enthusiastic they were to help someone else have success with their own students.

http://www.scholastic.com/worldofpossible/

Technology and Teaching

There were two main impressions that were made during my journaling of technology use in the classroom.  First, the access to technology is very inequitable district to district, school to school, and even classroom to classroom.  My CT is something of an expert using Donorschoose.org to purchase technology for use in his classroom.  He has received funding for 8 iPads.  His students use iPads on a daily basis during literacy rotations.  I’m planning to use them to support my Science Unit Plan on Butterfly Lifecycles in the Spring.  Other teachers in our school come to him for support writing proposals for Donorschoose and to borrow his iPads to support the special needs of their students.  In the district that I visited for my dyad placement, there were enough Chromebooks for each student in the classroom to use them to support lessons for up to 2 hours each day, then the cart of Chromebooks would roll out to another classroom.  I had serious technology envy when I watched the teachers at Ben Franklin use their ActiveInspire Whiteboards to support the learning in their classrooms.  This envy was deepened when we went to the training and saw some of the additional capabilities.  It was painful for me to hear that some teachers just use them to as a convenient place to stick post-it notes.  [I'm not judging those teachers, I don't know them or know what kind of training or support they've received.]  I would be happy to trade them a large corkboard for their electronic whiteboard.   I am challenging myself to figure out how to support my lessons with technology the way that I want to no matter what technology is made available in my classroom.  

The second impression was that most of the time the technology is being used to present material in the same way that it was presented before, but with fancier tools.  I think that it is wonderful that there are several apps that making drilling on math facts much more interesting and fun for the students, but I want to go further.  I feel that we are now able to reach out and see the world from our classroom.  I want to share ideas with other teachers across the hall, across the district, across the state, and across the world.  I want my students to be able to do the same things.  We had a great time listening to a legend written by an Australian author, but how much more engaging and informative would that lesson have been if my students could actually talk to students in Australia, see what was outside their classroom door, find out how school and life is the same and different in different parts of the world.  I would like my students to feel that their work is important.  If they are publishing their writing in a BLOG and they know there is an audience, they will really think about what they are trying to communicate.  How amazing if someone was able to ask them questions about what they wrote.  Imagine their joy if they find out they liked the same book as children from Norway, South Africa, and Argentina.  Think about how exciting it would be for them to have a conversation about their favorite characters or about questions they had about why something had happened.  We have the technology to have International Book Clubs.  How awesome!

How do I get started?  I don’t even have a classroom yet and I am making plans for my kids.  I don’t know what kind of technology I will have.  I don’t know how much flexibility I will have with my curriculum.  I don’t know what kind of professional development will be available.  I need to build a solid network of support.  I feel that we have started that in our Cohort, but what happens after June 5^th?  I need to keep it going.  I work much better when I am able to bounce my ideas off someone else and I am constantly inspired by my cohort’s ideas.  I’ve been wanting all quarter to learn how use Twitter for more than just a one-sided conversation.  Where do I go for that?  I know that I will need to be my own Technology Advocate for a while.  But, I’m hoping at some point to have that network of professionals that can help me improve my teaching practice and just support me when things aren’t working.

I want to learn to expand my thinking and my teaching with technology.

Universal Design for Learning

UDL

Universal Design for Learning - take into account all of the diversities in your classroom: language, culture, special needs, physical accommodations, learning styles, etc. when planning, implementing, and assessing learning.

Provide Multiple Means of Representation - When you present content to students you need to consider how it will be perceived.  What method will work for your diverse student body.  Content should be presented in multiple ways so that it is accessible for everyone.

Provide Multiple Means of Action and Expression - Teachers need to allow students to demonstrate their existing knowledge and their learning in many different ways.  This immediately brought to mind the video we recently watched in our Science course where the student with fine motor skill challenges worked with support to draw his observations.  He described what he wanted to draw and the support personnel guided his drawing with her finger.  The student would not have been able to record his observations in the same manner that the rest of the students had.

Provide Multiple Means of Engagement - Determine what types of activities will initiate and sustain student excitement.  Different activities will motivate different students.

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/learner-diaries

Our focus was on Assessment and Self-Reflection.  There was a section called Learner Diaries.  The site showed how to set up the process (scaffolding) and provide accessibility (voice recordings vs. written diaries) based on varying student needs. The diaries allowed the students to have individual and private conversations with their teacher about their own sense of how well they were learning, their goals, and what support they needed to support their goals. It was a great way to show the kids their progress across the year in their own writing all in a framework where the students were assessing their own learning.  Additionally, it was helpful for students to listen to their own speaking.  This could be valuable for students who are working on specific speech impediments or are language learners.

Coincidence?

Early this morning I was highlighting and making notes in the reading for our Intermediate Math course.  I came across a passage that talked about mindset and immediately wrote two notes:  1) re-read information on Growth Mindset and look at videos from Dweck; 2) Think about how this can help your focus group student who appears to be firmly entrenched in a fixed mindset.  This student is so capable and needs encouragement and confidence building to recognize it for themselves.  Just now I was reviewing the UDL Guidelines Examples and Resources and what do I immediately find, links to both the book Mindset by Carol S. Dweck and a video of an interview.  These were exactly the tools I needed.  Was this planned?  Or is this just the happy "coincidence" of carefully coordinated and planned instruction?  I hope that my students will feel those same connections across disciplines and experience what feels like real learning.

Inservice

I have this idea that when students and parents imagine what teachers do on 1/2 days and teacher inservice days, it goes a little something like this:  The teacher is sitting, no lounging, at their desk.  Their feet are up and there is some lively music playing softly in the background.  A steaming cup of coffee or maybe a venti caramel macchiato is close at hand, probably right next to the plate of scones.  The teacher is engrossed in the charming writing projects that their students recently turned in.  They are smiling and making a checkmark next to each student's name as they finish reading their papers.  The time floats by, the teacher notices it is nearly time to go home and puts away the graded papers and lesson planning books to go home and relax with their family.

This week was the first time that I got to see a good portion of what ACTUALLY happens on a 1/2 day.  I came in at the time that is stated on the contract for teachers at this school.  Everyone was already in their classrooms and it was apparent that they had been there for quite some time.  Decorations were up for the Valentine's party, the day's schedule was on the board, the Morning Message was written, and individual valen-grams for each student had been personalized.  The teachers were consulting with other members of their grade level groups about the three assessments that they hoped to complete before the celebration, lunch, and then early dismissal.  They also reviewed to triumphs and challenges from the previous day's technology training in our 2nd grade classroom.  Parents began arriving about 20 minutes before the starting bell, delivering cookies, juice and valentines.  It seemed like one millisecond later, the bell rang and the students started pouring in the door.  Assessments were completed, short video watched with another class of 2nd graders, valentines were distributed (yes, there were 29 very excited children bouncing around the room delivering valentines to all of their classmates), children read their valentines (who am I kidding, they just counted up the pieces of candy), lunch was eaten, and then the kids packed up all their pink and red loot to take home.  The teachers walked their students out to the buses and stayed out there.  They had been told that parent volunteers would take on bus duty today, but it was barely contained chaos so they stayed until the buses left.  That left about 7 minutes for the teachers to eat lunch and gather up any materials they needed (COFFEE!) for the next series of meetings that would occur over the next 3 hours. 

Before the 1st meeting started, the teachers had already put in a full day's effort.  They then participated in technology training; a new writing curriculum adoption overview; review of smarter balanced testing resources & lesson plans; discussions about the grading system and grading inconsistencies within the district, within the schools, within grade levels, and within classrooms.  The teachers were eager to work to address these issues.  The principal acknowledged that this was a very important issue that needed attention, then reminded them of a dozen other issues that also needed immediate attention.  Time was up.  The meeting was over.  The contract day had ended.  The teachers were speed-walking back to their classrooms to get some preparation done for their next day in the classroom.  They walked out the door with their arms piled with curriculum books, folders, and papers to be graded (remember those three assessments from earlier today?).  I'm fairly certain that they were not going to be relaxing all weekend.

The teacher will tell us the answer

There was a recurring theme in so many of our readings this week.  I felt inspired a few times to start my BLOG before my brain became a bit too overloaded and mushy.  I wish I had.  Luckily my texts are still strewn about my office floor with messy highlighting and scrawled notes in the margins.  I was able to piece together at least this much.

In Tovani we read about students who did not feel they needed to read the text or even pay much attention to the discussion.  If there was a question that no one answered, the teacher would simply give up and tell everyone what it was.  In the reading regarding Improving the Quality of Discourse in Mathematics Classrooms we read that "teachers are often too quick to answer their own questions when no one chimes in."  We discussed the outdated approach in Science lessons of providing all the details of a concept and then performing an experiment to confirm what you already know.  Recognizing these issues is just the start.  Implementing solutions is hard!  Designing lesson plans that will be engaging takes creativity and depth of knowledge and TIME.  Determining how much wait time is productive and when you are beginning to lose your students take constant attentiveness.  And it's not just one lesson for one student, it is figuring out a way to reach each and every one of them and help them move forward with every bit of content that you teach.

I have spent more than 10 hours today reading, researching, and planning just so that I feel prepared for the lessons that I will be teaching TOMORROW.  And, I'm not done.  I realize that in the future I will not be balancing my own homework and the looming edTPA, but I can't help but think that there will be other challenges that replace them.  As I work to provide engaging instruction for my group of 2nd graders in only 3 of the content areas that we will cover tomorrow, my hat goes off to those teachers who seem so calm, controlled, have classrooms full of excited learners, and seem to float through amazing integrated lessons with ease.  Every day I gain more respect for what truly great teachers do for their students and realize that this is just the beginning of my learning.

Brave Old World

Due to the long commutes to school and back, I have begun listening to audio versions of books that I have on my "Want to Read" or "Want to Read Again" list.  Tonight as I was driving to pick my husband and children up from a Super Bowl Party, I listened to a bit more of Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.  It is early on in the book and one of the characters is telling the story of how they happened upon sleep conditioning.  There was a description of a long list of facts that had been read to a child while they were asleep.  Specifically, they spoke of the length of rivers in the world.  When the child who had received the sleep conditioning was prompted, they could recite the facts that they had heard in their sleep.  However, if they were asked a question about the facts, they had not actually learned anything about the rivers and could not answer any questions.  This was terribly frustrating for the child and brought them to tears.  I could not help but think of drilling students for standardized tests.

The Separation Is In The Preparation!

Yesterday I was so caught up in reading both The Reluctant Disciplinarian and I Read It, But I Don't Get It that I completely forgot it was time to start my Salt Crystal Science Experiment.  I thought, no big deal, I'll just adjust the start and end dates by one day.  I felt I had written out my experiment thoroughly and thought through all of the required materials.  Last week I had a rather lengthy discussion about What We Think We Know About Salt with my fellow scientists (my daughters).  Earlier on Saturday we had talked about predictions and observations.  We'd also talked about the ABC's of scientific drawings A-Accurate, B-Big, C-Colorful.  We discussed how we would try to write down everything we thought and observed, even if we weren't sure if it was important to the actual growing of the salt crystals.

I figured it would take us about an hour to set up the experiment and write down our observations, even if they were fairly thorough.  Really, we just needed to experience the two kinds of salt again and then put water, salt, and a string in jar.  How hard could that be?

I was very excited to try this experiment without knowing much about what would happen.  It would be fun to have this new experience alongside my students/fellow scientists.  I now firmly believe that you should try every experiment on your own, before you try to teach it in a classroom!

I did not anticipate the time it would take to just figure out how to use the microscope and how important it would be to set behavior expectations for the handling of the microscope, the slides, and anything within a 5 foot or so proximity to the microscope.  I also hadn't set up a schedule for who would use the microscope first and for how long.  After several minutes of frustrated waiting by two of my scientists, I realized that they could not draw and look in the microscope at the same time.  Aha! they could take turns looking into the microscope and spend the majority of the time trying to capture their observations with pencil and paper.  I did remember to have them write descriptions as well as draw what they saw.  That was important.  Although we all looked at exactly the same grains of salt, we had very different illustrations.

I did not know (in fact I still don't) whether or not it is important to have the salt crystals completely dissolve in the jar of water.  I'm not even certain it is possible to completely dissolve them, unless the water is heated.  The experiment did not mention heating the water, so I didn't.  I was impressed with my daugthers' perseverance.  They held out longer than I did.  I finally said, "Okay, Stop Stirring and Start Writing."  We made sure we included the observation that it seemed like it would take forever to make the salt dissolve.

I did not anticipate how difficult it would be for me to tie tiny knots onto the toothpicks.  I also should have pre-measured the lengths of string.  Luckily only one of my guesses was so far off that it had to be re-done.

At 9:12pm, my fellow scientists were asking if they could please just go to bed.  They didn't really think they would write anything very good now anyway because they were so tired.

I did really like the fact that I didn't have all of the answers and could honestly say "I guess we'll just have to wait and find out."  But, since you never really know what will happen in a classroom situation, you would be honest saying that even if you'd performed the same experiment for the last 8 years.  My children were very forgiving and it is very important to them that I succeed in learning how to be a teacher, so they made this first evening full of missteps very easy on me.  I can't imagine that my regular class of 29 second graders would have been as patient and helpful.  Maybe I am underestimating them, but I wouldn't want to test it out.

"Science is about investigating and explaining how the world works."

This week, in my primary placement, I was so excited to see a familiar Science lesson.  I had a Science rotation the year before in my children's co-op school and remembered leading a small group through exactly the same activity.  When my CT asked if I wanted to lead Science today, I hesitated a bit and then decided to just jump in.  I remembered all of the fun of the inquiry and exploration but forgot all about the actual instruction.  The kids had a great time trying to figure out how to make their shapes balance on their popsicle sticks by placing the clothespins in just the right place.  I knew that they had performed similar experiments the day before using the tagboard crawfish, but I neglected to call upon their prior knowledge and what they had recently discovered.  I was so excited about getting the students to the part where they started to explore on their own that I didn't do any modeling or really set any expectations for behavior or noise level.  I just wanted them to get to it.
I followed the instructions from the science kit (mostly) and had them perform all of the different experiments.  I was quite pleased with myself for not telling the students how to balance their arches and triangles and letting them figure it out on their own.  However, I'm not sure how much of it will be retained.  I missed a big part.  At the end of the lesson (I knew it was almost the end because we were running out of school day) I did notice there were words pertaining to the previous science lesson written in their word bank.  I called their attention to the words and asked the students if they could tell me what "stable" and "balance point" meant.  As I collected the materials and the students got ready for dismissal, I felt like I'd robbed the students of a great educational opportunity.  They had made a number of observations and many had figured out that their counterweights needed to be below the balance point.  Some even figured out that they could balance with one counterweight if it was directly below the balance point.  I was wishing that I had asked if they had Science Journals.  I was sad to find out that they did and I hadn't taken advantage of the opportunity for them to record their observations and realize/reinforce what they had learned.  It would have been great to have them not only figure out how to make the shapes balance, but to also have a discussion about why.  If the students had a chance to sketch examples of what balanced and what didn't, maybe they would have seen the relationships between the counterweights and the balance point.

I certainly don't think the time was completely wasted.  Because this was one in a series of lessons on Balance and Motion, I think that some of their ideas from their discoveries will stick with them.  They likely learned something.  I know I did.  The discovery and exploration seems to come very naturally, however it is important to also guide the students toward asking questions, making predictions, explaining why they've made a particular prediction, recording and analyzing their observations, comparing their observations to those made by other students, and revisiting their initial question(s) and prediction.  When I read in the Zembal-Saul chapter about Scientific Explanation "the predominant approach has become hands-on activities, which can minimize the importance of big ideas and meaning making" I was quite sure it was a description of my lesson from this week.  It was definitely a strong reinforcement for thorough planning of a lesson and deep knowledge of the subject matter.

I'm revisiting this post after finishing the two chapters in Ready, Set, SCIENCE.  This sentence at the end of chapter 3 seems to make the point that I was trying to articulate above, "While children may have amazing skills and capabilities to learn science, people do not spontaneously generate scientific understanding."  (Michaels et al, 2007 p. 57).

Don't tell me what I know, let me show you

While I was reading "Ready, Set, Science!" this past week, I found myself writing a little note in the margin to remember to BLOG about an experience with one of my students.  The idea of setting our expectations high and not imposing limits on our students' capabilities seems to be a recurring and incredibly important theme.  On one of my last days in one of the classrooms where I was a Teacher Candidate, I had the opportunity to just sit and read with one of the students with whom I worked closely on both math and reading skills.  This was the first time that I'd sat down with her one-on-one.  I took a quick look at the text she had chosen and felt a little pang of concern that she had picked something well beyond her reading level.  However, if this book had piqued her interest, I was perfectly willing to read it with her.  We sat down and decided that we would take turns reading.  She would read until she wanted me to take over, then I would read until a new page started.  The book was wonderful.  It had great descriptions and illustrations and a wonderful story.  We were both very engaged.  I found myself quickly "helping" the student each time she paused on a word.  A few pages in, another student asked if she could come read with us.  My reading partner said it was fine with her.  Soon, she had two people jumping in to "help" with words that seemed difficult.  A page or two later, the student who had joined us asked me a question.  While I was thinking through my answer and quietly responding to her, my reading partner continued reading.  I didn't jump in quite as quickly since I was conversing with the other student.  She was struggling with a word and I found myself thinking back to a recent reading where I learned that students sometimes guess at words based on their beginning sound and the shape of the rest of the letters.  She seemed to be doing just that.  I also noticed that she was saying her "guesses" aloud to check for meaning.  She went back to the beginning of the sentence and read it again a few times, trying out a couple word choices.  I am so glad that I had been distracted, because she came up with the correct word on her own.  I had seen many looks on this student's face before, but never this one.  She felt successful.  I'm sure she was feeling smart!  This is exactly what I wanted her to feel.  I had just seen her confidence grow in an experience with one word.  Had I been reading along with her, I might not have allowed her the time to figure it out on her own.  I would have assumed that she simply didn't know the word and should tell her what it was.  What a loss that would have been.  We immediately changed our strategy and only offered to help with words when asked.  She was very happy to struggle with some of them and asked for help on others.  By "helping" her, I'm rather certain I was getting in the way of her learning.  I do not wish to see students struggle and become frustrated to the point that they lose confidence and give up. But, I am so grateful that I had this experience and hope it will serve as a reminder to me that students often know more, are capable of much more than I expect.  I will try to remember that they need the chance to show me what they know.

Blogging . . .

When we first began blogging for this program, I was quite intimidated.  I was fairly certain that even within the cohort there would be only a few who would read my musings.  Likely, each person would read and respond to only the required number of blogs and then move on to their next reading, reflection, lesson plan or assignment.  Admittedly, I was tempted to use this approach.  I was certainly interested in what my classmates had to say, but like everyone else in the cohort, I felt pressed for time and needed to quickly move on to my next priority.

During the Fall Quarter, I found myself starting to think of how I would compose my Blog when I would have an experience in a classroom that I really wanted to share with the cohort.  This was quite a change from the initial, "hmmm, what should I write about this week?"  Those blogs where I felt truly inspired seemed to draw the most comments.  Coincidence?

I read several of my cohorts posts and did not simply post a response to the first two I read.  I kept reading and waited until I felt that I had something worthwhile to add to the conversation.  Throughout this process I have realized that despite the fact that we are a somewhat diverse group of people, we all have one very strong common interest.  We all have different perspectives that are worth exploring.  Every comment posted to my blogs has made me think a bit more about what I posted.  That seems like success.

When I have read commercial blogs for our curating assignment and just for my own personal interest, I have noticed that sometimes the most interesting, although not necessarily the most educational parts, are the comments.  I am fairly conservative.  I am not trying to spark a debate or write a provocative piece that will have everyone chiming in with their experiences.  However, I do feel some level of validation when I see a comment "awaiting moderation."

I certainly hope that I continue to grow in my Blogging experience.  I find that writing is so helpful for helping me to think about what I think.  Putting the words down "on paper" and reading them aloud, as if I am reading them to my classmates, makes me think more carefully about what I want to say.  Often, while editing, I realize that there was much more to the experience than I had originally thought.  The process of determining how I want to convey it to my audience gives me the chance to, dare I say it, reflect.

CURATING

EVERNOTE NOTEBOOK - Struggling Readers (k-3)

The information in this notebook was curated by Nikka, Molly, and Alicia.  If you should peruse it and find anything interesting, please let us know.  Also, please feel free to suggest additional links to ideas to help Struggling Readers in Primary Grades.

Thank you.

Treasure!!!

Earlier this week I was doing some procrastination cleaning at about 5:47 am.  This is the time that I typically reserve for myself.  My brain works best right after I've had adequate sleep (not good, I'm in a graduate teaching program, I don't foresee good sleep until mid-June).  I can have a quiet cafe au lait and catch up on textbook reading before my three darling girls drag themselves out of bed and start placing their breakfast orders (and suddenly remembering another piece of homework they need help with right now because it is due today). 

I justify my procrastination cleaning by telling myself that it will actually help me to get my homework done.  I will have less to think about.  I get distracted by clutter.  I like everything to have a place, and for the most part I want everything in that place.  I've relaxed a bit.  I now enjoy having the LEGOS out and on display.  If the books and games are always put away, that means no one is using them. 

I was busy straightening up children's literary magazines, coloring books, art supplies, and many partially completed art projects.  The book/art shelf was beginning to look fairly tidy.  I reached for one of the books that had a torn cover not sure why I was pulling it off the shelf.  It was a collection of children's stories.  Stories that my mom used to read to me when I was a child.  There next to where the battered book had just been was Harriet the Spy.  It suddenly dawned on me.  I was staring at all of the books that I didn't remember.  Well, I remember some of the stories, but I don't have a clear recollection of how they got into my head.  I wrote my literacy vignette last week on how my mom had developed my love for reading with her great expression and amazing character voices.  I had very specific memories of certain books, big, important books.  Some so important that I don't feel that I can read them aloud, because I will never be able to read them quite the way my mom did/does.  But here, right in front of me, was a treasure trove of books that I am certain mom read when I was little.  I have a whole long shelf of beat up, well-loved books that are full of stories that my girls and I can enjoy together (and then probably not remember).

word by word

I had something of a revelation today.  I was reading Anne Lamott's bird by bird and absolutely loving what a fabulously entertaining book it was.  I took comfort in the idea that I was not alone.  I experience this gripping terror whenever I need to begin a writing assignment.  I can never understand why.  I love it once I get started, even if no one else will ever read it.  The practice of simply putting my thoughts down on "paper" helps me to clarify exactly what I am thinking.  So, why do I find everything else that I can possibly do before I sit down to begin?  I don't actually have a particular affinity for folding 11-15 loads of laundry at once or spending hours with shampoos, sheers, and scissors grooming my dog.  But, I'll busy myself doing these things, justifying to myself that they are really important and need to be done, RIGHT NOW.  I wait until the very last hour, when the deadline for my assignment is looming and I am starting to panic.  Then I sit down at my computer.  The first thing I do is open Facebook and go to my Secret Group.  My sisters and my two adult nieces are then bombarded with words.  Lots and lots of them.  I recently recognized this procrastination and have just realized that it is part of my routine.  Somehow, after writing a ridiculously long paragraph and posting it to my audience of 4, I am able to start working on my assignment.  The revelation?  That Facebook post is my warm-up.  It is that exercise of simply getting some words down.  I write, read, revise, re-read, revise, write more, revise and then post.  I feel sorry for these kind ladies, so I try to write with a bit of humor and amidst my complaining and procrastinating, I try to point out some bright spots.  And that is how it starts. 

Now, if I could figure out how it ends.  My dog just came by my office and informed me with her insistent whining that she needed to be let out.  I get up, she begins to run for the stairs, she quickly comes running back to make sure that I'm still with her.  I am.  She bounds up 12 of the 14 stairs and then stops, frozen.  She is crouched down and absolutely certain that she will fall to her doom if she attempts those last two steps.  There is nothing different about them.  They are just the last two that she needs to climb before she can make her way to freedom.  But, she is stuck.  I cajole her, tell her she's a good dog, I try to entice her up the last steps with a bribe, but, nothing.  I give in, pick her up and place her gently at the top of the stairs.  She then scampers off toward the door as if the terrifying event had never happened.  I think the end of my writing assignments are those last two stairs for me.  I haven't figured out yet what is going to come along and effortlessly carry me those last couple steps to my destination.

Speedwalking and Speedtalking

There are regularly scheduled grade level meetings where the teachers look at long and short term plans for how they would like to move forward with each of the different lessons.  They do not plan to teach every lesson at exactly the same time or in exactly the same way.  But, they do try to stay within at least one day of each other, particularly in math.  They do, after all, move all 105 of their students into appropriate math groups to provide additional support or enrichment based on scores from the previous math unit's test.  If the teachers don't keep up with one another, the students will be left behind. 

The scheduled meetings aren't where the real actions takes place.  Once a plan is in place, there are dozens upon dozens of quick meetings in the hallway, in someone's classroom, in the lunchroom, in the copy room, or wherever the teachers can find two minutes to have a very quick, no nonsense conversation.  They are frequently touching base to talk about which lessons have been finished, what worked, what didn't, what questions arose, and what suggestions they have to share. 

None of the teachers are working solely as individuals behind closed doors in their classroom.  They are all one big team, looking out for each other, trying to ensure each others success and the success of the students.  Time is precious and everyone knows it.  There are constantly teachers popping into another classroom offering to run something to the office "because I'm headed there anyway" or checking to see if someone needs copies of a literacy packet, math test, or newsletter.  It is a smooth running machine and everyone is supporting everyone else.  I'm trying to keep my eyes and ears wide open to figure out what exactly is making it work and hoping to take some of that magic with me.

The other side of the table

This week I had the opportunity to sit in on several parent-teacher conferences.  I started the week with my own children's conferences and then the next day moved to the other side of the table.  As a parent, I am still conscious of the effect that sitting across from the teacher has on me.  I have always needed their acceptance, both as a student and as a parent.  I have to imagine that I am not the only one who is under this powerful spell.

It was so valuable to have conversations with my mentors about how vital these parent conversations are to them.  It is apparent that they want to be as prepared as possible for these important meetings.  I had not considered the number of extra hours the teachers put in at home and in the classroom to prepare for each conference.  They do not just grab whatever evidence is convenient.  They have been collecting it since the first day.  They are careful about what they choose as an example of the progress that each student has made. One of my mentors sends home a weekly report of the students work in class, their behavior in class, and the homework that has been returned.  This weekly report is meant to be delivered to the parent, signed, and returned to the classroom.  It is a powerful tool.  The parents are not taken by surprise when they come to their conference, they've seen the reports every week since the beginning of school.  The teacher shows them examples of the type of work that is completed in class each week and gives them an example of the daily and weekly schedule so that they have no questions about what is expected of their child during the school day.  This weekly report also gives the teacher a great starting point for a discussion on schoolwork routines at home.  4th grade is a pivotal year for homework.  The students are now exploring new ideas at home and performing research.  They are no longer simply reviewing concepts that were already covered in class.  They are extending their knowledge.  The teacher emphasizes how important it is to develop strong study habits THIS year as the homework will only continue to be more challenging as they move closer to middle school.  The teacher is working hard to set the student and their family on a course for success.

The teacher thinks so carefully about the conversation they will have with each family.  Some topics that they need to talk about are very sensitive.  They take a careful approach.  They emphasize to the parents that this is a relationship where we are all working together.  And they really mean it.  They are doing their best to be a really strong part of the team. The teachers also take this opportunity to listen to the families.  The more they know about their student, the better they will understand how to approach their education. 

After having this experience, I wonder how I will feel next year when I am on the parent side of the table again.  I will have a better understanding of how much the teacher has invested in the conversation.  I will know that they are incredibly interested in the future of my children and they are feeling just a bit nervous about the impression that they will make on me.

Reliably Enforced Consequences

I did my blog post today already, but I just felt I needed to write this down somewhere.  I should probably be adding it to my calendar as a monthly reminder that never ends.  In Chapter 9 of Cooperative Discipline, there is a section on setting consequences.  I thought it went hand in hand with the Linsin reading, Holding Students Accountable.  I could see myself being swayed by all 5 tactics that were mentioned in the Reliably Enforced Consequences section.  I want my students to be happy.  I want them to be learning.  I want them to feel safe and capable.  I will have to remind myself that part of that is not letting myself be manipulated into forgoing the stated consequences for their behavior.  I just know that I have fallen for the the "I'm Sorry" and "Invoking Guilty" tactics before.  I have to remember that part of what the students need to learn is responsibility for their own actions.  If I fail to follow through, I am doing a disservice to them.

SCRATCH!

a Topsy Turvy Scratch project

For what it's worth, I tried to stay true to the assignment and only spent the 20-30 minutes that Carrie recommended.  I could see getting carried away with this and playing on it for hours.  I will be introducing my children to Scratch this evening.  They will have ample opportunity to make their own programs during this upcoming conference week.

Seeing success . . . in real life

We have been reading about and discussing how detrimental a deficit approach is in teaching.  I've been inspired by all of the readings and have felt as though I have really been invested in seeing my student's strengths.  I was really struck by Linsin's words "Whenever you let negative thoughts about students take root in your mind, you'll subconsciously act differently toward them, and they'll know it."  I  took those words to heart and have made it (one of my many) mission(s) to see behavior as a form of communication, to look deeper and find out what is really going on with my students.  But, it seems that the idea of seeing their strengths has not completely sunk in yet.

This past week when were performing the math assessment with our first graders, I was carefully documenting what I was seeing.  I was trying to capture all of the good math thinking and strategies that my math buddy was using.  I took lots of notes and looked forward to reviewing the video of the interaction to be sure that I gave my buddy full credit for all of his great ideas.  When we returned to the classroom, Allison reminded us how important it was for us to document what the student could do, not what the student couldn't do.  At that moment, I realized that when we got to a portion of the assessment where my buddy did not come up with the "right" answer, I had seen what he couldn't do.  I looked again at his work, and ran through our conversations in my head and realized that I had missed some really important successes in my notes.  Had I not been reminded to look at what my buddy could do, I simply would have written "does not understand multiplication."  He may not have shown me three groups of 5 and answered "15."  But, he did show me another example of repeated addition.  He used 3 blocks to show me the tables.  He pulled over 5 more blocks to show me the children and said that there were 8 block altogether.  He then said "If you turn the tables into children, there would be 8 children.  If 4 more joined, there would be 12."  I know that as soon as he began the problem with the 5 crackers, I thought "he doesn't understand how to do division."  I did not stop paying attention.  I watched and listened as he grouped the unifix cubes, but I know that as it was happening, I was not grasping the importance of what he WAS DOING.  I was only seeing what he wasn't doing.  He had displayed important concepts that I think I would have completely missed if Allison hadn't said those words so soon after the experience.

What a powerful tool to be able to see those building blocks and be equipped with good questions.  If you acknowledge all the great things the students are doing and ask them about their thinking, I'll bet they will lead themselves right to the next step.

Your thoughts are showing

If the readings hadn't been assigned weeks in advance, I would have thought that Dr. Eisele gave us "See The Best in Your Students" this week due to some of the conversations that we were just having in class.  We are all fresh and new and inspired by all of the learning we are doing in the UW classrooms and in our placements.  We want the best for every single student.  We are appalled and hurt when we hear negative comments about any student.  We reassure each other and we remind one another that "every behavior is an attempt to communicate."  We don't assume that a child is acting out just for the sake of acting out.  We truly do want to see the best in our students.

We struggle when we hear a student described as low.  We've been taught that there are multiple intelligences.  If a student struggles in one area, that doesn't mean they will struggle in all of them.  We must recognize their strengths and build on them.  It will be much easier to build on these strengths if we walk into our classrooms energized and happy to see every single one of the students there.  This chapter reminded me that I used to ask my colleagues to smile before they answered the phone.  It sounds a bit corny, but it works.  The customer can hear that smile (or frown) in your voice.  Our students are right there in front of us, there is no hiding our feelings from them.  And, somehow when they are young, the seem to have a heightened sense of our feelings (ESF?)

If we can't always completely escape negativity, we can take a deep breath, smile, and be the positive impact in our students lives.