Elementary, My Dear, or Far From It

Educon Session

2012-01-28T13:01:00.001-05:00

Big Day Ahead

2012-01-28T08:22:00.002-05:00

After all the fun yesterday of seeing folks again and the panel discussion at the Franklin Institute making my head hurt by the end, it's hard to believe that today I've got to do an Encienda presentation (sometime around noon) and lead a conversation on the patterns in our thinking (at 1 pm).

The links above will take you to the Educon site if you are interested in joining us virtually. I'll get stuff from these session posted here sometime soon as well.

As always I'm having a tough time deciding where to be today (aside from my own sessions, of course). A good night's sleep helped but I've still got a lot of processing to do from last night and am sure to be compounding that in the next few hours.

Educon 2.4 Here We Come

2012-01-25T22:24:00.000-05:00

In just a couple of days we'll (my husband and I) be in Philadelphia for Educon 2.4. This will be my fourth year attending and his third. It says something significant about Educon that we attend together (and last year even led a session together). We both attend multiple conferences each year but there is no overlap outside of Educon. He is a college professor and I teach first graders. Our professional lives are not that different but our conferences often are. Educon works for us both.

I'll be leading a session at 1:30 on Saturday about the patterns in our thinking. It's similar to the presentation I gave at the National Council on the Social Studies annual conference last month, but tailored for this crowd and this structure.

The folks running Educon (mostly students at SLA and some parents) do a fabulous job of streaming the sessions live. So if you can't be there but are interested, check out the Educon site Saturday afternoon and join us.

During lunch that day I'll be doing an Encienda as well. These are five minute highly structured presentations. You create a twenty slide PowerPoint that auto-advances every 15 seconds. This will be the third year I've done one of these because I've found I love this style of presentation. This year's focus is on giving students meaningful choice in school. More and more I've noticed that most of the choice we offer students is pseudo-choice at best. I have no idea if the Enciendas will be streamed but they have been great fun to watch and give in the past.

If you'll be in Philly I look forward to seeing you. If you can't make it, checking out the streaming this weekend will be well worth your time.

The Flip Side of High Expectations

2012-01-23T22:16:00.001-05:00

I've been mulling something as a parent that was highlighted today as a teacher as well.

We ask more of kids than we do of ourselves.

As a parent, I've noticed that I often tell my children not to use a certain tone in frustration or anger even though I use a certain tone in exactly that manner. I require that they talk with me to work through a problem, even though, when in their shoes I might want some cooling down time before having such a conversation. I tell my daughters they have to answer me when I ask them a question or say something to me to acknowledge me but I don't always respond to them when they speak to me.

I was in a classroom today while one of our astoundingly wonderful counselors was talking to the students about what to do when they are feeling grouchy. As they all talked together I realized that students don't have a lot of options in school when they are upset. A teacher might let them take a break from things but they can't listen to music, take a walk, talk it out with someone, or any of the things we do to help us cope.

My students are six and seven years old. My daughters are eight and five. Why do I expect them to have more control of themselves than I have of myself? Why do I not offer them the same options I want when things are rough?

I don't have an answer to those questions nor a quick response for the future. As seems to so often be true, this is something I'm going to have to keep thinking about.

From the Mouths of (Slightly Older) Babes

2012-01-19T21:48:00.000-05:00

A former student of mine, now a third grader, had a rough day yesterday. Apparently at one point she ran away, out of the building. An instructional assistant followed and the young lady proceeded to roll around on the ground.

The IA asked, "Do I need to take you to talk to the principal?"

The student stopped rolling, whipped her hair back and replied, "The principal can come and talk to me!"

When our principal shared this with me today, I cracked up. As did she. However, it got better. She searched out this student today (having not seen her yesterday) and asked, "I hear you made a comment yesterday that I might be interested in..."

The student looked sheepish, whipped her hair back (of course), and said, "What I MEANT was 'Could you please go get the principal so I can talk to her because I'm having a hard day.'"

I love this girl, as exhausting as she may be, and I love my principal because she loves this little firebrand too.

From the Mouths of Babes

2012-01-18T21:50:00.001-05:00

Comments overheard today, a typical Wednesday:

A girl having a rough day, she was tired and cranky, complaining on the walk back from lunch: "I'm just having a hard day at school. People are being mean to me. Blah, blah, blah."

Several boys having a conversation at dismissal: "I have a collection of skinny jeans. Do you know what color is the only one I don't have?" "What color?" "Red."

My Word for 2012: Listen

2012-01-17T22:03:00.002-05:00

I've seen a number of posts lately identifying one word for focus in 2012. Unfortunately I can't remember who has written these posts because they wrote them right at the start of the year. Unlike those punctual people, I am two weeks into the year before I can figure out what 2012 means to me.

My word, now that I've determined it, is 'listen'. On Friday I had a surprisingly long conversation with a student that required a lot of waiting on my part. (At the end of the conversation my intern looked at me and said, "That is the most patient conversation I have ever heard.") By listening, really listening and not jumping into the silence, I was able to better understand the situation with this student.

This weekend I found myself doing something similar with my daughters. They don't require much silence, unlike my student, but really listening to them is not always easy for me.

Listen, it's a powerful word for me at the moment. I am trying to focus on listening to my students, my intern, my daughters, my husband, my co-workers, my family, my friends. I have a lot to learn from all of them and that requires listening. Listening is also a sign of how important they are to me.

I'm taking this word internally as well. I am halfway through a 28 day cleanse.* I am listening to my body better than I have ever done. Listening to it will help me make healthier choices about food, exercise, how I spend my time, and a whole host of choices I make.

Growing and improving as a person is a challenge and one that requires a lot of focus and reflection. I believe that listening will help me grow and improve emotionally, mentally, and physically.

The 28 day cleanse I am doing is focused on not eating foods that are overly processed or that often cause reactions in people. At the end of the 28 days you gradually add back in those things: dairy, gluten, wheat, alcohol, sugar, to see if your body reacts to them. I don't know if I really believe in that aspect. I did this as an extreme change in eating habits in the hopes that it would help me make healthier choices long term. No way to know that yet, but I have high hopes.

Image from By The Bridge on flickr

My Nerdy Book Club Guest Post

2012-01-13T06:07:00.003-05:00

My guest post, Supporting Pre-Nerdy Readers, is up on Nerdy Book Club. I wrote about a couple of things I do at the start of the year to support my first graders growth into nerdy readers. Interestingly enough the one comment already there is from a high school teacher connecting what she does to what I describe. While, in theory I believe that good teaching is good teaching, it's still always surprising to me to realize how similar my first grade classroom can be to middle, high school and college classrooms. I hope the comments continue and keep pushing my thinking about this.

Great Blog Title: Nerdy Book Club

2012-01-11T22:13:00.000-05:00

I try not to add feeds to my google reader very often. I don't know how many feeds I follow (some no longer post so the number isn't as meaningful as it could be anyway) but it tops 200. The bar to get added has gotten higher and higher over the years. I do delete feeds but not as quickly as I've added them.

The most recent addition to my list is Nerdy Book Club. The site is coordinated by three teachers, people actually in the classroom! One is Donalyn Miller, the author of The Book Whisperer, a book that is still on my to-be-read list but that I have heard raves about for some time now. I need to get it read soon because I'll get the chance to hear her speak at the Language and Learning Conference at GMU in March.

Last week the lovely teachers at Nerdy Book Club put out a google form inviting folks to write guest posts for the blog. I had an idea for a post I thought would be a good fit so I filled out the form. I didn't expect anything to happen too quickly so it didn't feel like a huge investment. Well, within a couple of days I had heard from Colby Sharp, another of the teachers coordinating the blog.

Long story short, my post for their Pay It Forward Friday about how I start the year with pre-readers and help them become independent lovers of books will be up on Friday. I'll link to it then but the site is worth checking out anytime.

Simple Communication

2012-01-11T06:21:00.002-05:00

I'm in my 14th year of teaching. There are a lot of things I have worked hard over those years to hone, reflected on to improve, strived to perfect, but in all that time I have stunk at communicating with parents. I know that part of the reason is concerns about a language barrier. Many of our families do not speak English, or only speak it a bit, so phone conversations can be a challenge.

One thing I've done for several years is send postcards home to my students. Several times a year I will write to each child after they've had a great day, worked really hard at something, or done something extra kind. I will mail the card to them, knowing that their parents will see it. I think that's my greatest success when it comes to communicating with families.

Sadly, that doesn't seem like enough after all these years. I have a daughter in school and I know, firsthand, how important it is to hear from the teacher about what is going on with kids. It has been, for a number of years now, a goal to improve in this area and it has continued to remain stagnate.

Yesterday we were exploring fractions and trying to understand what the top and bottom numbers mean. It started slow but before too long several students were really digging deep, asking great questions, and noticing important things. We're not fully there with fractions yet but we made significant progress yesterday thanks to these kids.

These were not the kids one would have expected this from. I was astounded by their perseverance and their deep thinking. So as soon as they all went home I got on the phone. I left two voice mails (I hope the parents get those messages - phone numbers change so often for our students it's impossible to be sure) and talked with one mom. When I identified myself to her I could immediately hear her resignation and preparation for bad news. I told her what a great job her son had done and she said, "Really?" We continued to talk and the change in her was immense. She is not accustomed to hearing good things about this child.

That's on us as a school. He is a student who struggles with self-control. He has trouble staying focused on just about anything. However, he is smart and funny and has a ton of potential. I hope his mom knows that just because he is her son and she knows him. I hope we haven't colored her picture of him so significantly that she can only see the challenges.

My new goal is to make three positive phone calls home each week.Stating it here will make it just a bit harder to ignore. (Plus, I think it's possible the intern working in our room will read this and then I will have to stick with it!)

I want parents to know that we see the wonderful things about their children. If they already see those things it will simply reinforce them. If they are having trouble seeing those things maybe my words will help them focus.

Zen Snowfall

2012-01-09T22:17:00.000-05:00

After an absolutely beautiful Saturday in which I wore a sleeveless dress and my girls both wore short sleeves, all of us outside without jackets and quite comfortable, today we had some snow. It was one of those practically perfect snows, big fluffy flakes. The snow settled on the trees and bushes, but very little on the ground. It truly was a winter wonderland.

Sadly it started just about the time the students left so we didn't really get to enjoy it together. I'm especially sad that they didn't get to see it through the window on which all of their snowflakes are hanging. I did take a short video as I was unable to capture it in a photograph.

Need to Move

2012-01-08T21:58:00.002-05:00

My husband, our daughters (8 and 5), and I started a family fitness class tonight. Four families were there with kids ranging from four to early teens. We did some activities/games inside and outside (as the weather is decidedly un-January-like). It was not an intense workout but it was certainly good exercise.

We did a couple of things I want to try in my classroom. One was a partner game of sorts. One person is the 'coach' and the other is the 'athlete.' Each person holds out an index finger. The coach moves (watching out for others in the room) and holds out their index finger and the athlete follows and touches their index finger (like ET). This continues with the coach moving slowly and holding out the index finger at various levels and angles. Then the partners switch. (I don't think I'm explaining it well but it was great.)

The second activity was individual. We walked around the space like ninjas, stepping as quietly as possible, toe to heel. At each step we balanced on that foot for a bit before taking the next step.

In my classroom we often spend some time getting our wiggles out with music. I have noticed that those kids who most need to wiggle often don't, they just stand there. I think this week I'll try these two activities and see if it manages to get everyone involved.

A Fresh Start (or so it feels)

2012-01-02T21:16:00.000-05:00

I will be heading back to school tomorrow after a week and a half off. A week and a half during which I thought very little about school. I had a wonderful time with my family, including my parents and sister. It's the most family focused I've been in quite some time and it was totally worth it.

My husband asked tonight what my plans were after our girls went to bed. I shrugged, thinking of my huge to-do list. He chuckled and asked, "What are you teaching tomorrow?" (He, as a college professor, doesn't go back for a couple more weeks although he does have a conference this week.) I realized I had no idea what I will teach tomorrow and that wasn't even on my mental to-do list. Time to get back in the swing of things.

There is an intern who began in my classroom before the holidays. His time there was sporadic and brief so I really think of him starting with us now.

I love working with pre-service teachers for a lot of reasons. The biggest one, I think, is that it pushes me to be at the top of my game. It requires me to reflect on what I am doing, the choices I am making, the language I am using, everything about my practice.

So, for the sake of my students and this wonderful intern I'm pulling myself out of the wondrous bubble in which I've been living and begin to pull my focus back to a job I love.

Keeping the Winter Blues Away

2011-12-20T20:57:00.000-05:00

Unlike many school districts around the country we have school through Thursday (a full day, no less!). I realized on Friday that I wasn't up for holding things together that long. So we had a normal day yesterday (Mondays are short for us always so it was doable) but are doing all kinds of wintertime fun for the rest of the week.

Today we read Snip, Snip...Snow! It's a cute book and introduced the idea of making snowflakes. I had circles ready on construction paper for the kids and I modeled cutting one out, folding it into eights, and snipping out some bits. As I slowly unfolded it I had nineteen first graders holding their breaths or saying, "Ohhhh..." When I opened it out they applauded.

They headed off to make their own.

After that we took the thirty high-frequency words we've studied so far this year and made them into holiday lights. Our word wall looks awesome but isn't very user-friendly. I have to come up with a better way to display these before too long.

Tomorrow we're working on some snowman crafts and hopefully doing some writing about them. Thanks to another teacher on my team we're also going to have some hot chocolate with colorful marshmallows. They'll draw what they have a write the addition problem shown by the marshmallows. We might even write the whole fact family! Hopefully all this fun will get me through the week (the kids seem to be doing just fine).

Thinking About Our Learning

2011-12-15T21:15:00.000-05:00

Last year I moved from having separate reading and writing workshops to one larger literacy workshop. I wanted to hand over more of the responsibility and choice in the learning to my students and to help them see the connections between reading and writing. I was mostly pleased with the results last year and am doing the same thing this year.

We began a bit earlier in the year and, I think, I set things up better beforehand. One big goal for me was having my students make choices that would help them become better readers and writers. So as I introduced various literacy activities we had discussions about how each activity was helping them become better readers and writers. As they worked on various things I would walk around and ask them what they were doing to become a better reader or writer in the hopes that they would begin to recognize the purpose in what they were doing. We created a list of things we could do to help us become better readers and writers and I took pictures of them and we made a list of words that described what we were doing.

When we introduced our L.A.B. (language arts block) I gave each student a checklist. We wanted to ensure they would remember each of the things we expected them to do: guided reading, independent writing, and their work station (listening to a book on the computer, buddy reading big books, practicing high frequency words, etc.). We also wanted to be sure they were thinking about why they were doing each piece of L.A.B., wanting them to internalize things. We used these checklists for a couple of weeks but have phased them out now. (I do have a new, more basic but with more activities checklist for a few students who have limited stamina and need help focusing their time.)

I love what my students wrote about their learning. Glimpses into the minds of six-year-olds never ceases to fascinate me.

(I read a book. I wrote a book. I read a different book.)

(I read and read. I wrote and read all my words.)

(I had fun my work station was fun very.)

(I read my book. I read my story. I read words.)

(I met with Ms. Orr. I writed about my dad. I put the letters.)

I offered them the option of drawing pictures if they writing didn't seem to convey what they wanted and I loved these. The first is a picture of him reading and the second is a picture of him writing.

This time the top picture is him reading his writing and the bottom picture is him working on high frequency words.

Kids in Charge

2011-12-07T16:03:00.002-05:00

We finally did it! It is only the sixty-first day of school but we finally managed to get our routine in shape for the kids to write our class blog posts. I take a lot of pictures throughout our day and week to use in our class blog. So when the kids get the chance to take over I open up the folder of pictures and show them the most recent ones to pick from. The pick one topic (today the choices based on pictures were the book fair, painting in art class, and tumbling in P.E.) and then decide which pictures they want to include. Usually they end up including all of them.

The kids today picked the book fair. They picked all the pictures (each one would have eliminated one or two but the other would want that one so we kept them all). I dump the pictures into a post and the kids decide what they want to write. They dictate to me and I type as they talk. We reread it together, paste it into google translate in order to have it in Spanish as well, and publish the post. Then I show it to them and today we put it up on the projector so the whole class could see it. I'm hoping that will mean lots of kids want to give this a try.

You can't leave comments at the site, sadly, but we'd love to hear your thoughts if you have any about it. Feel free to tweet us @exploreorrs or leave a comment here and I'll share it with the kids.

NCSS Presentation on Thinking

2011-12-05T13:13:00.003-05:00

My VSTE presentation was the second conference presentation I did in the past 3 days. The other was at the National Council on the Social Studies conference in Washington D.C. I shared about the patterns of thinking we've been using (thanks to some fabulous folks from Cornell) for a few years now.

The room intimidated because it held about 150. Luckily enough folks are interested in ways to help students become better thinkers rather than simply better test takers and the room was more than half full. We had some great conversations. I was thrilled with everyone's questions and ideas.

I am especially grateful for this experience as I will be leading a conversation on the same topic next month at Educon.

Technology for Tots at VSTE 2011

2011-12-04T21:41:00.002-05:00

I shared about the technology tools and projects I and my students use and create this afternoon at the Virginia Society for Technology in Education. I had planned to have a page up about the presentation before it began, instead it is finally complete just 8 hours after the session ended. Oh well, better late than never.

Putting this together was a blast for me because it was such fun to see all the things my students have created in the past couple of years. It's a reminder to me that we often underestimate kids. They are incredibly capable, creative, and brilliant.

Surprising Ways to Make 8

2011-11-29T21:30:00.002-05:00

As we work on computation we are getting rolling with just breaking numbers apart. With the goal of keeping things open ended I started today's lesson with just the title here, Ways to Make 8. The students began in unsurprising ways, such as the actual number 8 and using our fingers (that's the odd looking thing right under the title in the picture). They suggested drawing 8 crayons, 8 rocks, 8 legos, 8 flowers, and 8 people. It took a while before we got to the idea of 4 and 4 and then on to other combinations. In the midst of all these ideas a few students suggested using materials, such as blocks, bears, and books. I couldn't understand exactly what they meant as it wasn't clear that they just wanted to get 8 of the item, so off they went to show me. I love what they created!

Butter Making

2011-11-26T09:04:00.000-05:00

Every year during the week of Thanksgiving the first grade team does special rotations. Teachers team up to do a specific activity and classes rotate through. This year we all felt too overwhelmed and too spread out around the school for it.

My rotation since moving to first grade has been making butter. I decided on Monday that I couldn't just skip it, I wanted to have my kids make butter. I invited one other teacher and her class to join us and it was wonderful.

It was crowded with about 40 kids in the room but they were fascinated. We talked about where we get butter when we want it and how that is different from the past. Then I poured the heavy whipping cream into the bottle and asked about how it is different from butter. This led us to a discussion about cream being a liquid and butter being a solid (thus including a social studies standard of past/present and a science standard about states of matter in just a few minutes).

We passed the bottle around so that everyone got a chance to shake it. The whole group counted by 5s to 100 as each kid shook the bottle. Thereby including math in our lesson.

There is simply nothing better than the smiles on all these faces. We also worked together to write the instructions for making butter (writing instructions being a type of writing we do in first grade) and created a VoiceThread about our experience.

The kids all said, "Ewwww" when they saw the butter but loved it when they tasted it. They even said, "Ewww" after tasting it when they saw it. They never cease to amaze and amuse me.

Thanksgiving Fun

2011-11-25T08:46:00.000-05:00

We've tried to cram a bunch of Thanksgiving fun into the day and a half before the holiday. This in addition to attempting to continue some of our normal routines. (I may be completely insane or an idiot.)

On Tuesday we colored coffee filters for our turkeys. We colored them with markers, folded them up, dipped them in water, and let them dry. Then on Wednesday we used them to make fun turkeys.

We also made fall trees. (I couldn't come up with a way to make this work with turkeys no matter how hard I tried.) Each branch of the tree had ten leaves or none at all. Then some leaves could be added to the ground. Once the trees were dry we counted our groups of tens and ones to determine how many leaves we had. It wasn't perfect, but given that it was a new idea it was a good start. I'll improve on it next year I hope.

Things We Are Thankful For

2011-11-24T09:23:00.000-05:00

Many of my students come from another country and their family traditions are tied to that culture. Their understanding of Thanksgiving comes from the media and school. I decided we needed to take at least a bit of time today to focus on the 'thanks' part of Thanksgiving. I modeled my plans, as you can see in the first picture in this movie. The kids created their own with no guidance. I was thrilled with the results.

Next year I'll try to start a little sooner. Somehow the whole idea of thankfulness gets a bit lost when the teacher keeps yelling at kids to hurry up and follow the directions for saving the picture.

Thanks From Around Our School

2011-11-23T20:39:00.003-05:00

In spite of my issues with the historical accuracy of Thanksgiving as it is typically taught in schools, it may be one of my favorite times at school. I love seeing all the displays about the things students are thankful for. Not seeing "I am thankful for my XBox" or some such makes me smile. It's possible teachers didn't allow that, but knowing our students I'm betting these examples are all genuine. These happen to be from kindergarten classrooms that I pass on my way anywhere.

"Jamie"

2011-11-22T21:15:00.002-05:00

I asked to have this kid in my class this year because I've known his 3rd grade brother since he was in kindergarten and this one almost as long. How could anyone not love that smile?

I've held off writing about him because I know him so well I struggled to find a good name for him. After lots of thinking and reviewing favorite books I settled on Jamie from The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Jamie is an awesome little guy in the book, totally on top of things and capable far beyond his age. Quite like my little friend here.

He's one of those kids that will take care of anything. If I ask him to remind me of something, make sure he brings something back to school the next day, or help someone out he will take care of it, guaranteed. Tell him something once and it is set. I know he can keep us going with our routines or make sure things are back where they belong.

Plus, he's a blast to have around. He loves to tell jokes, reads great books, and gets excited about learning, books, and friends. He doesn't like to mess up and takes it seriously when he does something wrong. It happens rarely, fortunately. I'm so glad to get to see him each day.

Use of Our Interactive White Board

2011-11-22T20:33:00.002-05:00

I have an interactive white board in my classroom. Sometimes I do a better job of using it than others. I would not describe the current time as a great one. However, we've done a couple of things lately that I like.

I write our morning message on our interactive white board every day. For one thing, it saves a lot of paper (at least in some ways). The kids sign in on it every morning, answering a simple question. One students, our meeting manager, leads the kids in reading the message and then calls students up to circle something (word, letter, upper case letter, hanging letter [like y or g]). Every two weeks I print out our morning messages and send them home with kids to read and share with their parents. We also keep a copy in our classroom library for them to read. The morning messages are something we've read together and most of the kids can read independently.

The other thing we've been doing lately is using Animationish. We've used it to animate high frequency words as a fun way to practice writing them. The idea of change is important in our study of past, present, and future. Yesterday we talked about pictures of a tree near our playground. I took one picture at the start of the year and one last week so that we could talk about how it has changed. We brainstormed other things that change and then we animated a couple of changes. I did the one of the tree as a model. The kids worked together to do the one of the frog. It starts as an egg, then becomes a tadpole, then grows legs, and then becomes a frog.

Why We Learn

2011-11-21T21:48:00.002-05:00

My 3rd grade daughter was working on her homework tonight. I have to admit that before this year we have not been good about making sure her homework got done. This year we're trying to be better about assisting with this.

She did not get her word study homework done last week (her teacher requires three word study assignments each week from a list of many options). She was working on this tonight while I did dishes. She was illustrating her words and was stuck on one. She asked me for help and I had trouble understanding the word. I told her to spell it for me. She looked down at her paper and I said, "No, YOU spell it for me." She said, "But I already took this test!"

I couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry. How is it that in third grade she is learning something solely for the test? What happened to the joy in learning for the sake of learning? I know she still does plenty of that, at least outside of school. Is it simply (as my husband suggested) that she doesn't understand why learning these words might be important or useful?

Once I finished the dishes we got started on her fractions homework. She had to take mixed numbers and make them improper fractions. For the first few we drew a picture and she could figure it out. That became a bit cumbersome by about the third mixed number because the numbers got too big. She wanted to just use the strategy she learned at school: multiply the whole number by the denominator and add the numerator. I wanted her to be able to figure these out because she understood what she was doing, not because she had memorized an algorithm.

I pushed on this and, I think, by the end she did understand what she was doing and, therefore, how to do it. But, again, I was astounded by how little interest she had in understanding what she was doing. She was working these out to jump through the hoop of homework. She wants to please her teacher, who is an amazingly wonderful, fabulous teacher. That's not a bad thing but I want her to want to understand.

We'll keep doing all the things we do outside of school to learn and grow but I want those things to work hand in hand with school. In previous years I felt like that was happening.

When I taught fourth graders I was often pained to hear the question, "Is this for a grade?" When I moved from the upper grades down to first grade I was thrilled to never hear that question. First graders love learning and doing new things. I wondered where it was that we managed to beat that out of kids. For my daughter at least it appears to be by third grade.

I don't blame her teachers. She has had fantastic teachers. I think this is a much bigger societal issue and goes far beyond our school. The conversations with my daughter tonight simply pushed me down this path.

"Fern"

2011-11-21T21:32:00.002-05:00

Fern is such a sweetheart. She's quiet and thoughtful. I know I can rely on her to help someone else and to do so quite happily.

Thinking about her makes me think that Fern in Charlotte's Web doesn't get enough credit. Nothing else in that book can happen without her. I can see that in this little one's future. She will make big things happen.

Fern works hard and not everything comes easily to her. Watching her struggle and then succeed is pretty awesome. I think her chances for success in the future are actually better because of this. A child who has to struggle on occasion is more likely to be able and willing to do so in the future. I don't think she'll give up when the going gets tough. I hope she stays at our school so I can see what her (near) future holds.

Updates on Some Darlings

2011-11-20T20:46:00.000-05:00

I always enjoy parent-teacher conferences (at least most of them) but one this year really made my day. Nate's mom came in and I thought she looked close to tears. In fact, she looked that way for most of the conference. I came to realize it stemmed from her fear that I was going to tell her how little progress Nate was making. That had been true in kindergarten (at least at first). Instead, I had nothing but wonderful things to say about this boy. Then she seemed close to tears of joy.

Nate's mom doesn't speak much English but I think she understood everything I said. We did have a translator though. She shared that Nate keeps telling her that she lives in America and she needs to learn to speak English. He has even gone so far as to put labels on things around the house in English to help her learn (including a 'moon' label on a window with an arrow). He calls her and reminds her of meetings (like our parent-teacher conference). She babysits a little girl overnight and Nate sends her videos about the books he's reading at home while she's gone. I love this boy.

Another little one, this time one who tends to drive me a bit nutty, is reminding me to keep an open mind. After we wrote our Knuffle Bunny book as a class she came in one morning having written Knuffle Bunny Nine: A Halloween Special. It started with "Not so long ago" and in the middle she included "Trixie realized something" - both phrases Mo Willems uses. It was brilliantly beautiful and completely independent.

She's also one of the few kids who can already really think and talk about what she is doing during our language arts block to help herself become a better reader and writer. And still I have to remind myself of these powerful examples of her learning and brilliance when she's driving me crazy. I've got to work on that open mind

Internet Safety, Or Not

2011-11-19T09:07:00.000-05:00

Our wonderful tech guy has been spending a lot of time teaching internet safety and introductions to the internet in every classroom in our school. A really great classroom teacher would have talked with him ahead of time to be ready to support and be a part of the lesson. I'm not that teacher. I signed up for my time and just looked forward to half an hour during which someone else would be teaching in my classroom.

I adore our tech guy and think he is a fabulous part of our staff. He has set up structures and supported all of us in endeavors that have changed the world for our students. Plus, he's a friend and I enjoy chatting with him. I say all this because it makes what happened during, or really before, this lesson that much worse.

He came in with his laptop, opened it up and set it on my keyboard. As the kids were getting settled I noticed it was open to Cog Dog Blog. Without thinking I said, "Hey, I had dinner with Cog Dog last weekend." (My husband and I had to be in Fredericksburg on a Saturday evening so we crashed a gathering at the Bava household where Alan, aka Cog Dog, was staying at the time.)

Our tech guy went on to teach a wonderful lesson which included the big idea that one should never meet an internet friend in real life. Oops. I just hope the kids weren't paying attention to our discussion at the start.

Too make the lesson go south in another way, our tech guy made a Venn diagram of online and real life friends. He used me as the example of a real life friend and said that he knows where I live but not where Cog Dog lives. He said that he has been to my house. A students piped up, "I've been to her house too." The other kids immediately jumped in to argue that it couldn't possibly be true. Fortunately our tech guy pulled them back in before I had to say that yes, he has been to my house because his big brother and my daughter are good friends.

"Anna"

2011-11-18T20:56:00.002-05:00

Sweet is the word that comes to mind with this little girl. I can't imagine her being mean in any way.

The name Anna comes from Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan. Anna is the narrator and daughter in the story.

Both girls are quietly strong. They are good to the others around them, helpful, kind, and thoughtful.

Anna doesn't smile all the time but she does so frequently, and it is a wonderful smile. It's genuine and her eyes light up.

She's a hard worker, willing to put in serious effort in just about everything. Watching her write a book or play a math game is a delight. Anna is there, actually in the moment with whatever she is doing. Wonderful.

Thank You Little Prince

2011-11-17T21:22:00.002-05:00

A brilliant, thoughtful, wise colleague of mine has often said that one of the roles of a first grade teacher is to tame the children. The vision in my head of taming is one that makes me somewhat uncomfortable when I think of children. So I've turned to the definition of tame from The Little Prince: "It means to establish ties." - from chapter 21. That makes perfect sense to me as a teacher.

I've got a little friend this year who is making me question this. He was born in the U.S. and lived here until just over a year ago, just before he turned six. For reasons I don't fully understand he (and his brothers) were sent to eastern Africa to live with their grandparents. Their mother relocated to our area and my little one returned to the U.S. Technically, by age, he should be in second grade but he just barely makes the cutoff and he is now in first grade (a more appropriate place for him). This is his first experience with school. He's been in day care before but never in school.

Academically he's actually doing pretty well. He's not yet at grade level in reading and writing but he is making quick progress in both. In math he's really capable. Honestly I'm quite impressed by him academically.

The taming issue comes in because he does not know how (or is unable) to behave the way one is expected to do in school. I don't think I'm overly strict about this but I do expect that he have some control of his body and his voice. I do feel as though I am trying to tame this child.

The struggle I'm facing is how to 'tame' this child without squelching him. He's got so much potential and I don't want to turn him into a compliant dullard (not that I think that's actually possible). Am I worrying over nothing? Am I right to be concerned? If so, how do I help this student without losing my mind?

A Surprising Moment

2011-11-17T11:01:00.000-05:00

These two boys are as different as one can imagine. On this day, during our math workshop, they were working together to fill in one of our big 100 charts and finished it pretty quickly. When kids finish their work stations during math workshop they can go to our math library (just a tub full of math related books) to find something to read. These two boys picked a book together and sat down together. I would never have expected it. It was absolutely wonderful.

"Ramona"

2011-11-16T20:05:00.003-05:00

The look on this little one's face is so perfect. This picture was taken on the second day of school. I had no idea then that it so perfectly captured her personality. She's a great kid.

Ramona loves her friends and being at school. Her attention span and stamina don't last that long, but she's excited to get started on everything.

At only six it's hard to say what her future holds but I fully expect her to be a bit of a prankster. She just has that twinkle in her eye all the time. Not dangerous or cruel pranks, but fun. She's the kind of kid all of the other kids like.

Ramona has actually been absent quite a bit and I'm sad each day she doesn't show up, eager to be with the other kids and excited to start learning.

Animated Words

2011-11-13T17:33:00.002-05:00

Practicing writing high frequency words is an important job in first grade. It also tends to be a pretty boring job. We write them in rainbows using colored pencils, using doodle pros, with dry erase markers on plastic display stands and with light on a glow station.

That's great for a few weeks but it gets dull pretty quick. So, to mix things up and keep them interesting we've added animating words. Using FableVision's Animationish kids take turns during language arts workshop animating the words we are studying that week. It requires writing the word at least two times, most write it three times. Then they watch the animation as well.

I love playing around in Animationish and I know we'll be using it in a lot of other ways throughout the year.

It's Not All About the Tools, but Tools Can Be Fun

2011-11-13T10:00:00.002-05:00

Teachinghistory.org has a wide range of resources for teachers (mostly history teachers, of course but some of these resources are handy across curricular areas).

One piece includes reviews of websites and technology tools. I try not to get caught up in the tools, but I find it handy to have reviews of them to help me determine what would work best for a specific lesson or need. I can't try out every tool and really explore it the way I would like, so this is a pretty nice substitute. In that vein, I recently wrote a review of Primary Wall for this section of teachinghistory.org. It's basically an online wall on which folks can stick post-it notes. My first graders enjoy using it.

"Laura"

2011-11-08T06:01:00.002-05:00

This little darling arrived in the U.S. at the age of 3 1/2. She started kindergarten at our school last year and it was the first time she'd really been away from her mom. I'm sure that was hard for both of them.

She was very quiet last year as she was learning English. She's still a pretty quiet child. But she participates and engages in conversations.

Laura listens to everything around her. She doesn't miss a thing. She's like a sponge, just soaking everything in.

She's very responsible and mature. I know that she will take care of anything I ask: remembering to deal with something at a certain time, taking something home and returning it signed, helping another student with a task, etc. She does not seem six most of the time.

I did not know Laura last year but have had many conversations with her kindergarten teacher. I feel like I am getting the opportunity to watch a flower slowly blossom. Laura opens more each day. It is an amazing process to see.

It has been years since I read any of the Little House on the Prarie books so I do not feel truly confident in this name choice. It is based more on my memory and perception of Laura in the books than it likely is on reality.

Teaching Heroes on teachinghistory.org

2011-11-08T05:53:00.002-05:00

If you teach early elementary grades you probably teach specific famous individuals in your social studies curriculum. Often those people are treated as heroes, or superhuman in some way. It can be a challenge to teach young children about famous people in a meaningful way.

I wrote about these challenges and ways to address them in my latest teachinghistory.org post.

Stress Tests

2011-11-04T20:58:00.003-04:00

My oldest daughter has hit that critical grade, 3rd. This is the year she is required to begin taking standardized tests. That will start next week with our district's practice standardized tests.

As I may have mentioned in the past, this darling daughter struggles with anxiety. She does not, however, struggle with academics. I really thought we had convinced her not to be concerned about these tests, but it seems I was wrong.

Tonight, in a flash of exhaustion and frustration unrelated to school, she said, "It's just my life is so hard."

I managed not to laugh and pulled her close to me and asked what was making things feel so hard. The first thing out of her mouth was about these practice tests next week. Ugh. Really? Sheesh.

My response to this was to tell her that she doesn't have to take these tests. If they are causing her stress and anxiety then I will write a letter saying that we refuse to have her participate. We did talk a bit about what these tests are, why they take them, and what to expect. (I don't really believe in all of the things I said, sadly, but I don't need to add that burden too.) My great hope here is that she will actually take these tests, but without any stress or anxiety, and finds that they are nothing to worry about. That said, if she is still worried and upset about them I will refuse to let her participate.

"Max"

2011-11-04T20:43:00.002-04:00

Meet Max, from Where the Wild Things Are. He's a natural leader (including leading many of the wild things in our classroom) who is not afraid of anything. Fortunately, he tends to lead in mostly positive ways.

Max walks in every morning full of energy, excited about the day. I can always rely on him to be focused on the task at hand (as long as I keep it interesting) and help others do the same.

That said, he is still six (turning seven this month). He loves to play with the Matchbox-like cars or Legos whenever he gets the chance. I often have to ask him to be a bit quieter as his exuberance carries him away. At recess he never stops moving, but is often the first to help out a friend who is hurt or upset.

Picturing him in ten or twenty years is an exciting venture. He's got serious possibilities ahead of him.

Knuffle Bunny Fore! A High Flying Adventure

2011-11-02T09:44:00.001-04:00

We did it! We finally finished writing, illustrating, and reading our Knuffle Bunny book! Not surprisingly the pigeon even managed to sneak onto at least one page in here.

"Dennis"

2011-11-01T21:42:00.002-04:00

I'm not sure this name is a perfect fit, but Dennis the Menace comes to mind with this little guy. He can't sit still to save his life, he drives some adults crazy, and he is always smiling.

The look you see here is pretty constant, no matter what is going on. When he gets in trouble (see above issues with body control) he is never upset. He'll go off to take a short break or go sit somewhere away from certain friends or whatever the consequence is without any complaint, sulking, or the slightest sign of frustration. I find it really fascinating.

He is engaged in everything. Sometimes that means he is an excited, active participant in our class discussions or in small group explorations and sometimes that means he is an excited, active participant in side conversations or small group distractions. He is in the midst of it all.

There are a few adults who work with him in small groups regularly (reading groups and a special pull-out support) and he tends to drive them a little batty, the way Dennis does Mr. Wilson. However, in spite of that it is clear these women adore this guy.

I, somehow, don't work with him in a small group on any sort of regularly scheduled basis. So I can simply adore him. He makes me smile. Sometimes I have to try to hide that smile in order to not reinforce questionable behaviors, but he makes me smile.

I'm more than halfway through writing about the students in my class and this is taking a lot longer than I had anticipated. However, it has been and is a wonderful exercise for me in thinking about the positives of all my darling kiddos.

Lucky Happenstance

2011-11-01T08:03:00.000-04:00

I've become a bit addicted to Groupon, Living Social, and such things. Occasionally I purchase one because it seems like such a great idea and later realize that I really have no idea what to do with it. (In my defense, I do often purchase them with specific, fabulous plans in mind.)

One recent purchase was for five posters. I don't recall what brilliant idea I had in mind when I hit Buy! but I found a great use for them.

My class happened to creat five rules this year through our hopes and dreams for first grade. They are written on a poster in our classroom which we have all signed. But it's not a great reminder for first graders.

So I took each rule and created a poster with pictures of students illustrating that rule. I'm hoping the visual reminders all around our room will keep us focused on what we think is important this year.

By the way, the order of the rules here is the order in which they created them. I love that "Have fun" was their number one rule.

Serious about Mo Willems

2011-10-30T19:50:00.002-04:00

My students are obsessed with Mo Willems and his books, most especially Piggie and Elephant, the Pigeon, and everyone in the Knuffle Bunny books. In fact, my students love the Knuffle Bunny books so much that they have written, as a class, a new one. I will be sharing it in the next day or so when we can record it.

Thanks to our amazing librarian, I have a number of pictures from Mo Willems' books. When the books have been so loved that they are falling apart, she removes them from the library and replaces them with new copies. She has given some to me to cut up. I am using them around my room as encouragement to my students.

Their response has been, not surprisingly, positive. My favorite reaction, however, was to the pigeon. As they always look for him in any other book by Willems they were thrilled to find him in our classroom. Many said something along the lines of, "That sneaky Pigeon snuck into our classroom!"

Now the question will be whether or not I can manage to update what these little friends are saying regularly. I think they will lose their power if I don't change their speech bubbles pretty often.

Losing...time, my mind, who knows what else

2011-10-28T13:30:00.002-04:00

I am not the teacher I want to be, or genuinely believe I can be, right now. I have had either meetings or duty four mornings this week. That means that from the time my contract day begins until lunch three and a half hours later I am either in a meeting or with my first graders. Lunch translates to about fifteen minutes of time for myself most days (once I get the kids mostly through the line and do any other essentials like copying or handling an issue with another teacher or administrator). Of the four days that my students have specials (P.E., music, art) I have had meetings during two of those times and missed that time completely today because P.E. was canceled for upper grade field day.

I don't mean to sound whiny, although I know I do. I just realized this afternoon that one result of this is that I do not give as much to my students as I should. I don't pull small groups or meet individually or check in with them as they work the way I should. I spend some time holding back and just surveying the room rather than digging in. I just don't have the energy to do it.

Something has to give and right now my students are the ones losing out. That's not right and I have to figure out how to fix it.

"Alice"

2011-10-28T08:23:00.000-04:00

I'm never sure what will happen next with this little one, hence the name Alice. Alice in Wonderland is a sweet girl who stumbles through craziness. I think my little Alice may encourage, albeit unconsciously, some of that craziness.

She's very social and genuinely likes everyone. After an assembly today the performers were walking through the crowd slapping high fives. Alice managed to connect with every single performer. She was in the midst of things the entire time, at least until I dragged my class out of there.

In some ways this little one seems much older than six. Her eyes often have a wisdom that is at odds with her little-kid grin. She's one I am enjoying getting to know better and better everyday.

Highs and Lows of Reading

2011-10-27T19:44:00.003-04:00

My wonderful co-teacher and I were working on progress reports today. As a clear sign of my exhaustion or lack of brain power or etc. I had to ask her a couple of times if she had a kid in a reading group or if I did. Typically she did but there was at least one time I had the child. As soon as she said it I realized and could handle my role in the conversation.

We got to one (of my favorite) kid(s) and I was sure she must have him in a reading group because there is no way I would forget meeting with him. She said no. I looked skeptically at her. She repeated her refusal. I looked questioningly. She pulled out the list of our reading groups.

He was in one of my groups. I have never once met with this student.

I have a student who has never met in a reading group, not once in the month we've been meeting with the kiddos. He has not mentioned to us that he has never been called for a meeting. We have never realized he wasn't getting that instruction time. #majorfail

On the silver lining side of this saga, he is reading above where we expect him to be. I have to admit I would feel a lot worse if he were struggling more as a reader. But still...

Then tonight my daughters gave me a new story to tell (thank goodness). I lost all patience with them - that's not the good part - and told them we would not be reading any Harry Potter tonight. That worked out well when the 3rd grader realized she had some serious word study homework to do. The four-year-old kept bugging her until I sent her off to find a book to look at.

She brought over Dora's Sleepover. It has pictures within some sentences to help an early reader. But I would not describe her as an early reader yet. She started reading it and pointed at words for me to tell her. I gave her the first couple and then there was a picture. Then she kept going on her own for a couple of words. She was getting her mouth ready beautifully at each word and if she thought of a word that made sense that started that way she would say it. This got her pretty darn far. She needed help with about every third or fourth word, on average. But she was reading quite a bit on her own and feeling really, really good about it.

I'm grateful to end the day on a high note.

"Froggy"

2011-10-26T20:56:00.002-04:00

The smile you see here never stops. Between those curls and that smile this child makes my day regularly. In fact, yesterday he totally pulled me out of a funk. One of our assistant principals came in just to hang out with our class for a bit and he walked up to her as soon as she entered the room and asked her, "Are you a spy?"

I have no idea what prompted the question but it was awesome. This AP is lovely but I think she was a bit thrown by the question. She loved it too but seemed unsure how to answer.

My students love the Froggy books. Froggy is excited about everything, often over zealous in his excitement, and often unaware of the challenges and problems he may be causing. That's this friend. And, just like Froggy, it is wonderfully fun for him and everyone around him.

He can be sensitive and feel awful when things don't work or he makes a mistake. I have to watch myself about that. I need to be gentle when working with him in areas that are challenging for him.

My hope for this year with Froggy is to encourage his excitement and not stomp it down in my carelessness.

Meaningful Results are Worth Our Time and Energy

2011-10-25T21:51:00.003-04:00

Our school is in the midst of a transition. We're moving to more structured, rigid PLCs (professional learning communities). It's causing some tension and stress.

After lots of discussion with others and some serious reflection of my own I've identified my biggest concern. Everything about the way a traditional PLC is designed, in many ways, is focused on test results. The wording is about results in a vague way but those results boil down to standardized tests of some sort.

I tweeted my frustration about this yesterday and have continued to think a lot about it. Interestingly enough I just skyped in with a school in Florida to share my thinking about what matters. Andrea invited me to give the Encienda I gave at Educon last year to the staff at her school. They are planning to use this format for future staff meetings.

If you're a fan of Chris Lehmann you'll find the main gist here really familiar. This recording happened before I really got my brain wrapped around my personal frustrations with PLCs and the focus of educational reform in general and as it very specifically pertains to me. Looking at the video now I am pleased with my beliefs.

I care about results. But that doesn't translate to standardized test scores. Results in the lives of children are so much bigger than that.

Jump to 1:50 to watch the actual Encienda talk. The first bit is me chatting with Andrea and others at her school.

"Madeline"

2011-10-24T08:57:00.000-04:00

Madeline may be the smallest child in our class. But her personality and smile far outstretch her size. She comes in every morning with a great grin and gets excited about anything we do.

Other kids love to follow her because she is full of good ideas. Watching her on the playground is a joy. She brings a lot of that into the classroom as well. During discussions or while at work stations her enthusiasm, excitement, and energy spread pretty quickly to those around her.

She may be pint-sized but she fills our classroom.

"David"

2011-10-21T09:14:00.000-04:00

I chose the name David for this little friend because of his love for David Shannon's David books. Plus, he is a lot like David. He is wonderful kid who is always getting himself into trouble. He's never malicious but he can't sit still, talks all the time, and has trouble following directions. In short, he's a six-year-old boy.

I had David's older brother in my class a couple of years ago. These two boys couldn't be more different. The older one is a total rule-follower. He would get so upset when other students weren't doing what they should be doing. It's hard for me to remember that these boys are brothers.

I'm thrilled to have this little guy in my class. I got to know him a bit in kindergarten and was hoping to have him this year. He has a wonderful smile and we get to see it a lot. When he figures something out for the first time, it is exciting beyond words. He wants to share it with me, with other teachers, with anyone who will listen. It's great during our share time!

By the end of the day David usually has me worn out, but all he has to do is smile on his way out the door and I'm on my way again.

Cult of Personality

2011-10-20T21:03:00.004-04:00

One of my favorite people to follow on twitter, Jason Buell, had a series of tweets lately that got me thinking.

Read from the bottom up.

I've had subs twice this week (jury duty on Monday and out for a meeting for a couple of hours today) and it has not gone the way I would have liked.

I've come to the realization that I have a similar problem to Jason. My students are pretty fabulous with me. They mostly work hard, get along, and do what they should. I give them a lot of independence and choice and it works. But when I'm not there, it falls apart.

I'm clearly missing something in the development of our classroom community. I want them to be the way they are with me because it helps them learn and because they are thinking about treating each other well. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong but it's something I'll be thinking about a lot.

"Corduroy"

2011-10-14T21:57:00.002-04:00

This little guy seemed so shy at Open House the week before school began. He practically hid behind his mom and sister. Mom said that he wouldn't be so timid when school started. She was mostly right.

I would not describe him as shy. He loves to be with the other kids, talking, playing, running around. But he's still seems a bit shy when it comes to academics and school conversations.

I picked Corduroy for his name because friends are so important to him and because he often seems to be living in his own little world. It's not rude behavior in any way. It strikes me as being like the behavior I often saw in gifted students in the upper grades. He's in his own head and quite engaged there. He seems totally unaware of all that is going on around him.

My job is to figure out how to make our classroom as engaging for him as whatever he's got in his mind. I think he'll have a lot to offer our discussions once I can manage that.

"Nate"

2011-10-11T21:34:00.004-04:00

Teachers shouldn't have favorites. I deal with that issue by having my favorite munchkin change every day. Lately, this little guy has been topping that list quite frequently though.

Last week he was telling me a story (I don't remember the gist of it). It started with, "My family is from Spanish..." At the end, I asked about this. He repeated that they are from Spanish. I pushed a bit more, asking what country they are from. "Spanish," he said again, with a hint of annoyance and sense that I might not be that smart. So I dropped it.*

His smile is almost constant and he has questions and interest in everything. Nate is unfailingly polite, kind, and generous to everyone.

He's been struggling a bit in his reading group (they're reading far beyond where we expect first graders to be at the moment) so my wonderful co-teacher mentioned this to me. I immediately said that he should join my guided reading group because it will be a better fit for him**. I think it will be but I have to admit that I mostly said it because it will be such fun to meet with him everyday.

Our astoundingly brilliant librarian noted to me the other day that Nate wears skinny jeans everyday. She was wondering where one might find skinny jeans for a six-year-old boy. I have no idea but she's totally right. I hadn't even noticed it. I'm too busy look at this kid's smile and sparkling eyes.

*His family is from Argentina. I learned that from his kindergarten teacher because he will either say Spanish or that he can't remember.

**Nate comes from both the Nate the Great books by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat and the comic strip Big Nate.

Who is Being Cheated?

2011-10-10T10:44:00.004-04:00

I did a short race Sunday morning (300 meter swim, 3.7 mile bike, 1.2 mile run). It was a wonderful race, just a small group of people and pretty nice weather. It was held at my alma mater, a college I love. However, the area is hillier than I had noticed as a student - biking and running will make that pretty clear. As I hit about the halfway mark on the run, knowing that ahead of me I had a pretty steep hill that I had already biked, it occurred to me that I could cut through a part of campus and shorten things. Basically, cheat. It occurred to me, but I had no interest in doing it. I do these races for myself, for the exercise and for the accomplishment. Cheating in a race would only cheat myself.

I thought about that as I rounded the corner and headed up that ridiculous hill for the second time that morning. As a student there, cheating had occurred to me at various points but was always rejected. Back then I rejected cheating because I didn't want to get in trouble and because I felt very strongly about the honor code. Never because it felt like cheating would be cheating myself.

I haven't really figured out what this means. My sense is that somehow learning and the assessment that goes along with it needs to be so meaningful to students that cheating would be cheating themselves. When the only reason not to cheat is fear of getting caught there will be many who cheat.

When the focus is on grades rather than learning, cheating seems like an intriguing option. When students are working for someone else rather than for their own interests and by their own motivation the urge to cheat can be strong. We spend a lot of time thinking of ways to keep students from cheating and not enough time looking at why they cheat.

Math Exchanges by Kassia Omohundro Wedekind

2011-10-06T06:46:00.004-04:00

It has been such fun to talk with Kassia Omohundro Wedekind about, and to read, her new book, Math Exchanges, over the past month or so. The book has clearly been a labor of love and I have such respect for teachers in the classroom who manage to write books. Math workshop is something that has interested me for some time but I have never really been able to wrap my head around. Thanks to Kassia I think this year will be quite different. My students and I are beginning a wonderful exploration of math through math exchanges.

So, here is a brief interview with Kassia to wrap up her blog tour.

You write quite a bit about the importance of the mathematical foundation students are getting in the early grades. Do you have any thoughts on common misconceptions or common areas of weakness in our instruction that need to be addressed?

As a math coach, one of the most interesting parts of my job was the wide perspective I got as a result of working with many more students than I saw in a single class. I really got the chance to delve into why kids were struggling. And the most interesting realization that came out of this unraveling of understandings and misunderstandings was, that in almost all cases, when I really analyzed what students understood, partially understood, and did not understand at all, most of their misconceptions were very similar to each other. The good news of what I learned though is that I think that we can fix, or rather prevent, these misconceptions from occurring—which is really a lot easier to do than trying to fix them after the fact.

One common misconception that I talk a lot about in my book is the long and complicated journey to the understanding of place value. (See Chapter 7: Building Number Sense through an Understanding of Ten) I think we’re not giving kids enough time and opportunities to truly construct an understanding of place value. In some senses we talk a lot about place value—we talk about the tens place and the ones place, we build numbers with base ten blocks, we make groups and regroup). And yet, the time we give to really consider why we group, why ten is so important in our number system and really think about how numbers are composed and decomposed is really very limited.

So, here’s where the good news comes in. I think there are some very simple ways we can prevent misconceptions and build stronger place value. I think we can change some of the tools we use and the kinds of problems we give to students. In the research I did for this book, these small changes had a significant impact on children’s understanding of the number system and their construction of place value concepts.

It is clear throughout your book that you work in a wonderful, supportive, collaborative atmosphere. Do you have any advice for teachers attempting to begin a math workshop on their own, without such support in their building?

That’s a great question. Math workshop is a much newer, less well-established practice than reading and writing workshop. Here are a couple of ideas:

1) Find at least one other person who is interested in teaching math through a workshop model. It’s so important to have a partner (even if it’s someone at another school you’re emailing with) to discuss what is working and what is not.

2) Think about what you value in reading and writing workshop. How can you translate that to a math workshop? Play on your strengths. If you know how to get rich conversation going in your reading workshop, think about how you could establish this in math workshop.

3) Start small. Start simply. Math workshop does not have to be complex or a complete change from what you are already doing. Perhaps you’re just adding one small group math exchange to your structure during the time your kids are playing a game or working on a problem you've taught them from your current math program. Perhaps you’re adding a short counting routine at the beginning of your math time. Use the resources you already have and then add new components.

Creating an environment in which children can and will talk about their thinking, in mathematics and other areas, is an important piece of math workshop. Can you share what you think are the most important things for a teacher to remember in working towards this goal?

Whenever you can make math meaningful and relevant to your community of learners, you’re going to change how your students think about what math is. You help students make a shift from thinking that math is something that is static, to something that is very much alive and evolving. That’s powerful! So, when my class worked on problems about how many potatoes we could grow in a raised bed at our school, how much cat food my mom needs to buy for her six cats, or how many more stops we’d go on the metro to get into Washington, D.C., these problems mattered. It mattered if the answer was six or sixty. They were acting as real mathematicians solving real problems.

No matter what structure you use for your math instruction, you can include these kinds of problems. Here’s one way I have found to be powerful: Have students work in pairs and solve problems on chart paper. Have them use markers to write (for ease in seeing what they wrote and also because then you can see all the steps they took with no erasing.) Talk about the strategies. Compare them. Talk about the strategies and the math. Also talk about how they worked with their partner. How did they negotiate the solving of the problem? What did their partner teach them? What happened when they disagreed?

Just as in reading and writing, a critical shift occurs when students take ownership over their mathematical lives.

Establishing routines in the primary grades is a huge piece of the start of the year. What sort of a timeline did you have for getting math workshop started? What did you introduce first? How did you add pieces? How long did it take to get the full workshop up and rolling?

It is always tempting to move too fast at the beginning of the year! Every year I have to remind myself to slow down and really make sure routines and structures are strong before taking the next step forward. In September I focus on three aspects of the workshop: 1) the warm-up routines, 2) the independent practice part of the workshop, and 3) the reflection at the end of the workshop.

Our warm up routines (counting around the circle, dot cards, math read aloud) are a short, but powerful number-sense focused part of our math workshop. (See Jessica Shumway’s new book, Number Sense Routines, which is all about this topic). In September we focus on a different routine each week and we really delve into the expectations for the routine.

I also focus on making sure the structure of the independent practice is in place (be it centers or partner tasks). I teach them how to take care of materials, how to talk to their partners when playing a game, how to switch centers, etc. I want to make sure that there is meaningful talk and play going on during the independent practice portion of the workshop. Only then can I feel comfortable removing myself from this part of the workshop and working with small groups.

I also focus on the reflection at the end of the workshop because this is a place where we share our strategies, discoveries, investigations. I teach children how to talk to each other, agree and disagree respectfully with one another, add on to each other’s thoughts and connect to each other’s ideas. We learn how to look out to the group when we’re talking and not just at the teacher. I teach them to value this part of the workshop as a place where we learn from one another, and not just from me, the teacher.

In mid to late October I start thinking about how I want to work with small groups. I start by working with just one group per day. I get my kids up and going in the independent practice, work with one group, and then return to check in on the independent practice. When this is going well, I’ll start working with two groups per day.

Think about what you most value in your workshop. Take the time to teach the expectations for this. It’s ok to go slow (I’m writing this to remind myself too! This is hard to do!). Start simple. Take on one part of the workshop at a time, if that works for you.

Leave a question for Kassia or for me or just leave a comment and one lucky person will receive a copy of Math Exchanges from Stenhouse. (If you already own Math Exchanges you can choose another title from Stenhouse.)

"Riley"

2011-10-03T21:45:00.002-04:00

This little friend takes his name, Riley, from the character in the Boondocks comic strip. It may not be obvious from this picture, but he's striking a thug pose. He has all the signature moves of a thug. Until, of course, it's recess and he runs around like any other six-year-old boy.

That may be my favorite thing about this kid. For whatever reason, he has taken on the persona of a thug. But he doesn't let that interfere with his fun.

He and I had a bit of a stand-off this morning. During our morning meeting we were doing a lightening share (everybody shares quickly and briefly) and he chose to pass, as did many others. When I got back to him, because I go back so that everyone does share eventually, he still didn't know what he wanted to say. We spent more than five full minutes waiting for him. He did finally share something, thankfully. That's a really long time to expect the rest of the class to just sit and wait! He seemed to be trying to figure out how long I'd hold out.

I want to figure out where this thug stance comes from. I don't mind it but I wish I understood it better. At the moment it feels like a glove he's trying on, checking to see if it's a good fit.

He's very quiet, rarely talking with the class if he doesn't have to. During free choice, recess, or lunch however he's the star. The kids gather around him and follow his lead. He's practically overflowing with leadership potential.

He participates in all our activities, literacy and math work stations, singing songs, reading together. But he does so, typically, in a somewhat isolated manner. My goal is to pull him in and, ideally, right in front. I want him to see how much he can be a leader in the classroom and not just on the playground.

Don't Miss the Blog Tour

2011-10-02T09:35:00.002-04:00

All four of the blogs on Kassia Omohundro Wedekind's blog tour this week will be giving away a copy of Math Exchanges. Stop by each one and leave a comment.

Tomorrow, Monday, October 3rd - Catching Readers Before They Fall

Tuesday, October 4th - Our Camp Read-A-Lot

Wednesday, October 5th - Reflect and Refine

Thursday, October 6th - here

See you there!

Apologies

2011-09-28T18:43:00.002-04:00

About half my class had a really rough time during art yesterday. So for the first part of indoor recess those little munchkins joined me on the carpet to write apology notes to the art teacher.

That amount of writing is a bit much to ask of beginning first graders but I felt it was important for them to do it. So I wrote Dear Ms. H on the easel for them and told them I would write any words they needed for their letters. But I didn't tell them what to write. (I did refuse to write I, for, am, and such high frequency words but talked with them as they listened to the sounds. Spelling wasn't my biggest concern here.)

I was thrilled with the words they asked me to write. There were even more after I took this picture. I felt they had really thought about what to say.

They reached a high bar with this one. It was a quick reminder to keep the bar high.

Blog Tour and Free Book - Next Friday

2011-09-26T14:20:00.002-04:00

As I mentioned previously I will be a stop on an upcoming blog tour. The book, Math Exchanges, was written by Kassia Omohundro Wedekind and published by Stenhouse.

I'm the final stop on the tour. Kassia will be answering questions at Catching Readers Before They Fall with Pat Johnson and Katie Keier on October 3rd. She will be at Our Camp Read-A-Lot with Laura Komos on October 4th. Then on October 5th she'll be with Cathy Mere at Reflect and Refine. Finally, she'll join me on October 6th. I mention these other blogs not only because they are wonderful, although they certainly are, but also because a copy of Math Exchanges will be given away at each stop on the tour. (If you already have a copy of this book Stenhouse will send you any other Stenhouse book.)

I'm greatly enjoying this book and revising my thinking about how I will teach math this year. It's got me really excited about possibilities for meeting students' individual needs and knowing what they each know. I feel there aren't enough thoughtful books about math and that is especially true when thinking of books about math and young children. I'm asking our librarian to order copies of this for our professional library and I will be recommending it or specific pieces of it to colleagues frequently.

If you have any questions for Kassia about the book or about math and young children, leave a comment and I'll pass them on.

"Pippi"

2011-09-22T20:24:00.002-04:00

I haven't read a Pippi Longstocking book in a very long time, but this kid is just like I think of Pippi being. That may be amazingly inaccurate as to the Pippi in the books, but she makes me happy the way I think Pippi would.

I had her older sister a few years ago and adored her. I was thrilled to see this little one on my class list. She's nothing like her big sister! I'm amazed at how different siblings can be. (As I have two daughters who are quite different this shouldn't be so shocking.) That said, I adore her just as much as her sister.

She's full of energy and always on the move. She struggles to sit still but she's eager to learn and be a part of everything. Pippi is almost always smiling or laughing. In fact, in twelve days of school I don't think I've seen her upset once. She gets along with all the kids and is thrilled to see her teachers from last year.

Pippi loves to talk. She wants to share about everything in her life and she loves to hear about others' lives. When she is in a leadership role she is totally on. There is a ton of potential in this little one.

FableVision Fun

2011-09-22T19:37:00.002-04:00

FableVision is Peter H. Reynolds' company (well his and many others, most notably his twin brother Paul). They do a ton of things, including educational software and animation. I had the chance two summers ago to visit their headquarters, above the Boston Children's Museum and right on the water. It was an amazing experience.

FableVision has a program, FableVision Ambassadors, in which I participate. So far I haven't done a very good job with this but I have high hopes and grand plans for this year. I truly love the software FableVision creates, especially Animationish. There is now a site about all of the FableVision ambassadors across the country and in Canada. Check it out to see if there is an ambassador near you or to become an ambassador yourself!

ExploreOrrs' Class Blog

2011-09-21T21:03:00.003-04:00

I'm finally getting rolling on our class blog again. I shared it with parents at Back to School Night last week so I really should be updating it regularly. I've taken plenty of pictures in the first few weeks. I really have no excuse for not being on top of this.

I hope to turn over the writing duties to the students as soon as possible. My plan is to let them pick the pictures and compose the text while I type it. As soon as our free choice routines are well established we can get moving on it.

"Harold"

2011-09-20T21:09:00.003-04:00

This little guy is a constant surprise to me, in the best way possible. He comes out with the most wonderful answers so often. His smile is constant and he is excited about everything we do.

He's classic six-year-old boy in many ways. He goes non-stop at recess and is engaged in free choice play time full on. He gets along with everyone, students and teachers alike.

I've named him Harold after Harold and the Purple Crayon. He seems to have the same unlimited faith in everything and fascination with the world.

I anticipate wanting to remember a lot of quotes from Harold throughout the year. Here's hoping I manage to write them down and hold on tight.

Get the Year Going with History & Social Studies

2011-09-19T20:36:00.003-04:00

I know the year is well under way in most areas, but if you are looking for ways to get your kids rolling with history and social studies, my newest National History Education Clearinghouse post is up on just that topic.

"George"

2011-09-19T20:25:00.002-04:00

This little friend, with the fabulous smile, joined our class a week into the year. His first year of schooling, last year, was done in another country so I'm sure this has been a huge adjustment for him. He was born in the US and lived here for the first few years but lived last year with family in his parents' home country.

I've chosen George as his name here because he reminds me of Curious George. He is always looking around, taking everything in. He opens things, touches things, checks everything out carefully.

He wants to be doing the right thing all the time. He asks me frequently if he is doing well. He doesn't seem worried about it, just wants to confirm that he's on the right track. So far I haven't done a very good job of harnessing his curiosity and eagerness to do well. These are fabulous qualities in a kid.

He has adjusted so well to a new classroom and a bunch of new kids. He seems to like everyone and they enjoy having him around. Given what a difference this must be from what he has known I am utterly impressed with his ability to become a part of the group so quickly.

I expect George to be a natural leader in our wonderings this year. He has much to teach his friends about how to learn and much to teach me.

Dot Day!

2011-09-18T20:25:00.005-04:00

Last Thursday was Dot Day. I'm a bit late in writing about it. We did have a blast.

We used Big Screen Books to read The Dot several times leading up to the day. When the day finally arrived we made dots in several ways.

First, we created faux tie-dye dots. I cut up white t-shirts so that each student could create at least five dots. They attached their dot to a cup with a rubber band and drew dots on it with sharpies. Then they used a dropper to put rubbing alcohol on it. Slowly the rubbing alcohol bleeds the colors on the top. It makes for lovely dots.

In honor of Peter H. Reynolds we also water painted some dots.

In the afternoon we stamped some dots. We used the eraser end of pencils to stamp dots in math. Each student had a paper with four numbers on it (between 3 and 25) and they stamped that many dots. When they finished they were able to stamp pictures with the erasers.

I hope my students continue to make their mark all year!

"Camille"

2011-09-14T05:53:00.003-04:00

If that picture doesn't make you love this little girl you are crazy. I take pictures of everyone in my class in the first week of school and we use them for a variety of purposes throughout the year (matching pictures to names, creating class books, about the author pages). As the kids come over for the picture some are matter-of-fact, some are shyly hesitant, and some, like this darling, strike a pose. There was no hesitation for this one, she strutted over and planted herself just right. I loved it.

This is one of just a few of my kiddos this year that I sort-of knew from last year. She was across the hall from me and was often in the library before school so we had chatted some. Any kid who chooses to spend their mornings in the library is going to sit well with me.

I'm calling this sweetie Camille, a nickname my parents and sister will understand as it was one they used for me quite frequently as a child.

Camille is the child who said, on the first day of school, "Yea, now the fun's going to start!" She has said that more than once since then. Typically she doesn't really know exactly what is coming but she is excited about it. We can build a lot of learning off that kind of enthusiasm.

Yesterday Camille and I sat down together for a reading assessment. She's right at benchmark for the end of kindergarten/start of first grade. She has some great strategies under her belt and, again, she gets excited about the story. I think I'm going to really enjoy having her in guided reading groups.

Another fabulous thing about this kid is how she thinks. She'll request odd things (chances to go outside at random times, opportunities to play with stuff she brought from home) quite matter-of-factly. While I typically have to say no to her I appreciate that she asks. It suggests a child who doesn't feel too stuck in a routine or structure but is willing to consider all options.

Camille has made me smile more than once every day so far. I can't wait to see what the year holds for us together.

September 13, 2001

2011-09-13T09:02:00.001-04:00

The past few days have been full of the memories of September 11, 2001. I, too, vividly remember that day. But this day ten years ago is just as clear to me.

I had just started my fourth year of teaching. September 11th was exactly one week into our new school year. September 12th our school district was closed, due to our proximity to Washington, D.C. and the Pentagon.

So, September 13th was the first time my twenty-two fourth graders and I had been together with us all sharing the knowledge of what had happened. I had thought long and hard about how to address these events. I have a book in my classroom, What the World Needs,

and I had planned for us to create our own version of that book. And we did. We read the

book and then brainstormed together. Each student created a page for our book. Some were simple. Some were profound. It was wonderful.

But what I remember most clearly was the beginning of our

day. We were in a trailer that year and, when I greeted my students as they entered, more than one said to me, "Ms. Orr, you lied to us."

I did. On Tuesday I had not been truthful to them when I explained why we had to leave our trailer and spend the day in a first grade classroom inside the building. I told them nothing of the events that were unfolding just a few miles away at the Pentagon. The fears shared by all the adults in the building were not shared with them. I made excuses for why so many parents were coming to pick up their kids. I lied about why we had indoor recess on a stunning day. They were right, I had lied to them.

We sat down for our morning meeting and I explained to them why I had lied. Both because that is what I had been told to do by our principals and by our superintendent and because I had no words to explain what was happening. I opened up our discussion to them. They talked about what they had seen on TV, what they had overheard, and what their families had told them. The most heartbreaking moment came when one boy, a Sikh, looked me right in the eye and said with great sorrow, "My people did this." I nearly choked and explained to him that I did not believe that to be true. No one like him was involved in this terrible thing.

Those students are nineteen years old now. I will never forget them. They give me hope.

Thoughts on Writing

2011-09-12T22:00:00.000-04:00

During the Northern Virginia Writing Project Summer Institute back in July I, obviously, spent a lot of time thinking about writing. One of my goals at the moment is to look back at my journal from that month and delve more deeply into some of those ideas.

Looking there, I see two things that I wrote separately that seem very connected.

We ask kids to write about their lives. In our first grade classroom we highly encourage students to write stories of things that happened to them. The reasoning is that they have plenty of knowledge about things in their lives and therefore, this is a way into writing. However, our discussions this summer led me to wonder if students, especially as young as mine are, really have the perspective to write well about their own lives and experiences. The ability to write about something that has happened to you requires that you step back and look at it more closely and from a new perspective. Maybe young students aren't really ready to do that.
There are many types of writing. Spending time with middle school and high school English teachers made me realize that we teach only a limited few types of writing. English teachers, not surprisingly, teach the types of writing they do in their field. However people in all fields; science, history, math, medicine, anthropology, are writers. They write, often in ways that differ greatly from those in English classes. We need to be offering students the opportunity to write in a wider range of texts.

This year I will strive to share a wider range of writing with my students and offer them the opportunity to try new types. Last year we talked so much about their 'wonders' but we never truly connected that to their writing and reading. I think doing so will open up new types of writing quite naturally.

I will work to encourage their writing in whatever style, type, genre they are interested in pursuing. That's what I would want as a writer.

International Rock Flipping Day

2011-09-11T16:56:00.009-04:00

I learned from my good friend, Science Goddess, that today is International Rock Flipping Day. She clearly had a good time with it!

Due to the astounding amounts of rain we had here over the last week my girls and I had just been down to the creek that runs right behind our house on Friday. It was gushing then. Now it's back to being a gentle flow already. We did notice there were a bunch of rocks so it seemed like the prefect spot for our adventures today.

I told the girls about the day and that we were going down to the creek to flip some rocks. They were thrilled. Clearly they are as geeky as their parents.

Neither one was a bit bothered by getting wet, muddy, or slimy. The little one is constantly in a dress and I was a bit concerned. But due to her four-year-old lack of coordination she got the wettest and dirtiest and was never bothered a bit. She also attempted to flip many rocks that were bigger than her head. She's determined.

The older one was exceptionally eager. Typical to her, she headed off, flipped rock after rock and plowed on. I'm sure we missed many fun little critters because she doesn't slow down a bit!

We found a few worm-like creatures and a beetle.

Aside from getting an average of three mosquito bites per minute of our adventure it was fabulous. By the way, those bug bites are not spread out among the three of us. Apparently I am the tastiest one in the bunch.

There is a wonderful flickr group for International Rock Flipping Day as well.

New Professional Book: Math Exchanges

2011-09-09T08:40:00.002-04:00

I'm very excited about a new book, written by Kassia Omohundro Wedekind, Math Exchanges: Guiding Your Mathematicians in Small-Group Meetings. I have read countless books in the last ten years on reading and writing, but have not found nearly the breadth and depth when it comes to math. So, I'm thrilled by this book.

Kassia has been a math coach (at a school not too far from me) for the past several years. She taught third and fourth graders and is, this year, teaching kindergartners. I have such respect for full-time teachers who manage to write books at the same time. I also read those books with an intense sense of belief because I know the author has lived what they are writing.

Stenhouse and Kassia have a blog tour planned to share about Math Exchanges. She will be stopping here on Thursday, October 6th. If you have any questions about this book, let me know.

Also, Kassia continues to write about her experiences teaching, and especially teaching math, at her blog.

Self Portraits - Six Year Old Style

2011-09-08T21:31:00.002-04:00

We sure did have some fun today! After exploring with these thinkblocks yesterday we really dug in with them this afternoon. (I learned my lesson about making sure we explore.)

Every year I have my kids draw a picture of their face. We looked at each others' faces to notice the parts and listed what we found: cheeks, eyebrows, chin, neck, nose, mouth, hair, eyes, and ears. Then we added smaller blocks as we noticed parts of those parts; lips and teeth in the mouth for example. Their list became quite extensive.

Students headed off with paper and mirrors. They looked at themselves and drew what they saw. If you look closely at the picture below you can see eyebrows, nostrils, and the bridge of his nose.

Six year olds never cease to amaze me (something I assume I share with most first grade teachers).

Snapshots from the First Day of First Grade

2011-09-06T20:55:00.004-04:00

My shock at what first graders are like at the beginning of the year. It took the first hour for me to get over that and convince myself that these kids will be just as quick, sharp, and independent as last year's group by the end of the year.
"Now the fun's going to start!" said as we got going on indoor recess (which is just a chance to draw and color).
Six year olds staggering in under the immense weight of an absurd amount of school supplies.
Eighteen first graders rushing around sorting said supplies and helping each other out.
Being asked, countless times, "What's that?" about just about anything in the classroom.
Seeing kids choose different places to sit all the time as they tested out the various tables and spaces in our classroom.
The difficulty remembering where we stop as we walk down the hall - we did it on the third try!
A few kids who don't know their last names (made finding them on the lunch number list of all first graders a bit challenging).
Complete and utter, sheer exhaustion at the end of the day. I mean fall down, totally done kind of tired. And we'll do it all again tomorrow!

New (School) Year Resolution

2011-09-05T17:23:00.003-04:00

Inevitably I start every school year with a bunch of resolutions. Very rarely do any of them manage to last past the end of September.

So, this year, I'm starting with just one. For the first few weeks of school I'm going to blog about a different student* everyday. I will be writing, for myself, about all of the positive qualities I'm seeing in each student.

My kids are just six when they come to me and they are full of excitement, energy, and potential. Sadly, as the year goes on I often lose sight of that and get easily frustrated by their sixness. Focusing on all the positives in the first few weeks of school will help me see them all in the right light and be something I can refer back to later in the year when I need a reminder.

At this moment (just fifteen hours before the first day of school begins) I have nineteen students. I plan to write about my students on school days. I want them to be fresh in my mind when I write. So it should take me the first four weeks of school to write about each and every one.

I think it will also be interesting to look back in the last month of the school year and compare my thoughts about these kiddos.

*I will not use their real names, of course. In fact, it will be fascinating, to me at least, to see if the nicknames I choose for them when I have known them for such a brief period of time still seem fitting in a few months.

Image from opopododo's flickr stream:http://www.flickr.com/photos/opopododo/2570501919/

Welcome to My Room - Organization

2011-09-04T10:01:00.000-04:00

First graders don't need a ton of stuff - thankfully. We share all our materials, a fact that is made clear on the supply list that goes home in the hopes that parents will buy the basic folders, glue sticks, scissors, and things rather than the ones with Hannah Montana or Cars 2 on them.

My students write only with pens so I have several cups full of those available. The black buckets here will hold crayons, scissors, and glue. The boxes hold their writing folders, handwriting books, agendas, and homework folders.

All of these things are accessible to them whenever they want them. I do keep the markers and colored pencils in reserve for special occasions. Mostly because I hate sharpening pencils and having a ton of markers with no lids.

I work with several primary teachers who don't have a desk.

I find that amazing and I have immense respect for them. However, I also find it impossible for me. I'm just not organized enough for it. There is an intern working in my room for this fall (and likely in the spring) so I have two desks. At the moment we've got them facing each other (they're behind all this stuff near the orange bulletin board) but I'm not sure I'll leave them that way. My goal is to keep all my junk piled back behind these drawers and to keep that area neat. Hopefully that way the room looks neater in spite of my tendency towards chaos. Of course, right now that's not happening.

I'm lucky to have a projector, interactive white board, and document camera in my classroom. This year we got nifty carts for all that equipment. Behind the cart are the two teacher desks and the tall bookcase full of my professional books and a bunch of kids' books I keep for reading aloud. Everything around my carpet is on wheels this year. That made setting it up pretty darn easy but I'm concerned it may mean it all moves around a lot once the kids get at it.

Welcome to My Room - Grab a Seat

2011-09-03T11:47:00.000-04:00

One of the first things people often notice when they enter my room is that there are no nametags on tables. My students don't have assigned seats as is typically true.

I have three large tables, tables like you might see in any elementary classroom. However, they are at three different heights. One is almost as tall as some of my students. At that table they can stand to work. In the past I've often had students push their chair back from themselves and lean over the table to write or draw. Then the chair is in the way. This makes it more comfortable if they wish to stand and means I'm not tripping over chairs all around the room.

Another table is more traditional. It's at a height that makes it possible for the kids to sit at it in chairs. I keep it in my room partly as one place for a teacher to meet with a guided reading group. Otherwise I might have gotten rid of it by now.

The last large table has part of the legs removed and sits low to the ground on a carpet. Kids sit on the floor at this table. It has been astoundingly popular in past years.

Those three tables would not be enough space for all of my students so I have several little tables. One was given to me by our librarian a couple of years ago when she was getting rid of it. My students loved having a table just for one or two kids at a time. So I began gathering others. One came out of my daughters' playroom when we got a new one. One is from Ikea and one is from woot. One I got off of freecycle. Some have a chair or two at them, one has a couple of stools, and one has nothing. I've found that the kids will move chairs and stools around to fit their needs at any given time.

It'll be interesting to see which spots this year's kids prefer.

Welcome to My Room

2011-09-02T21:35:00.005-04:00

Setting up my classroom each year is one of my favorite things to do. Well, at least the planning is one of my favorite things - actually moving all the furniture around and unpacking the dozens of boxes isn't really that thrilling.

This is the view from my doorway. Somehow this year's setup makes the room feel really big. I also hope it feels comfortable and homey.

This is our classroom library. I've never had quite so open a space for it. I've also never put the couch and the low table together. I hope the table won't make the space too crowded, but we'll see. If kids are sitting all around it, as was quite common last year, that may be a problem.

All of our books are in baskets, facing out towards the kids. I've sorted the books but haven't labeled the baskets. One of the things we'll do in the first few weeks is explore each basket together and decide what all the books in it have in common. They might be books about animals, books by Kevin Henkes, funny books, books about families or friends, or poetry books. Then the kids will determine the exact title for the basket and create an index card we can hang on it.

In the upper grades I had my students sort all our books into baskets and label them. I know there are primary teachers who do so, but I haven't been able to make the leap yet. I'm trying to give my students as much ownership over the library as possible, within my own control issues.

We've also got magazines and Kids Post pages from the newspaper. I try to have as varied and diverse a classroom library as I possibly can.

More pictures and thoughts to come...

Today and Tomorrow

2011-08-29T20:44:00.003-04:00

Today was the first day back for teachers. That's usually one of my favorite days of the year. Everyone is back, chatting about their summer activities, tired maybe but mostly excited about the year. Plus, I've usually already spent a few days getting my room ready so I don't feel really stressed about the year yet.

Today didn't go that way this year. For a variety of reasons today was more stressful than fun. One part was that my oldest daughter was feeling just as stressful as I was.

Today I spent a bunch of time talking to her about focusing on the positives. About how she has more control over her emotional state than she realizes. About how she can make things work or not work depending on how she goes into it.

Today I forgot all that for myself. I got caught up in all my stress, frustration, and anxiety.

Tomorrow I will remember what I told her. Tomorrow will be better.

It Takes a Village...

2011-08-27T18:55:00.000-04:00

We've all heard the saying and I have to admit to buying into it wholeheartedly. I'm sure there are parents out there who can care for, teach, and end up with perfectly wonderful children all on their own. My husband and I are not those people.

Fortunately we have a village to end all villages. Both sets of grandparents live reasonably close (I'm actually jealous of my children because of how much time they get to spend with their grandparents.) My husband's siblings and their kids all live fairly close as well. My sister, while she lives quite a distance from us (the opposite coast in fact) is very connected to our girls including an annual trip the four of us take.

Plus we have friends who have known our girls for all or most of their lives and are wonderful to them. They read to them, truly talk with them, and are just, basically, another villager.

The full-time childcare providers they have been to over the years have been like another parent. They have loved, taught, and played with them. Plus, they've been an immense help to us as we've learned about life with little ones.

The teachers have also been fantastic. I don't even know where to start to sing their praises.

Our neighbors are wonderful. We feel so safe with our girls playing outside knowing that everyone is keeping an eye on all the kids.

We've had a handful of babysitters over the years, all of whom have gone above and beyond for our children.

I've been thinking about this for several days and my thoughts have gone in a few directions. First, how very lucky we are. Many parents don't have half this level of support and I am grateful beyond measure for all of these people. Secondly, our girls are so lucky as well. Having so many adults who love and care for them is a treasure. Finally, I wish all kids and parents had a village like this. What a difference that could make in the lives of so many families.

Peeved

2011-08-24T21:53:00.002-04:00

I spent my day today in a training for team leaders for our cluster (our school district is so large we are broken into eight clusters). On the whole there was a lot of good information and I didn't feel like my time was wasted. To be honest, I had expected to feel that way so I was pleasantly surprised.

By the end, however, I walked away pretty peeved. Today's training included teachers from all the schools in our cluster, elementary, middle, and high schools. In many ways I think we are expected to be doing many of the same things.

When I was last team leader, many years ago now, it was a pretty basic role, mostly a connection between the team and the administration. I don't think that's what it is now. I think team leaders are expected to truly lead their teams, to plan meetings, to collaborate with the administration, reading and math coaches, counselors, parent liaisons, and anyone else who might need to work with the team, and to attend other meetings. In other words I think it is a much more demanding job than it was in the past.

I don't actually think that's a bad thing. I think there is a lot of potential in that.

Middle and high school team leaders, typically called department heads, have extra time and/or money to make the job easier. Elementary team leaders do not. We are expected to do our regular full-time job just like everyone else and the team leader responsibilities on top of that. And that is why I'm peeved.

Recent Boat Trip

2011-08-22T20:50:00.002-04:00

Every year, for six years now, my fabulous, amazing, brilliant sister* and I take my girls on a trip, just the four of us. This year my oldest daughter requested an ocean theme for our trip. We spent a couple of days in Norfolk, VA, taking a boat tour of the Naval base and exploring the Nauticus Museum. We spent one day hiking around Assateague Island and taking an astounding boat tour from Chincoteague Island. The boat tour was the major highlight.

Captain Barry runs boat tours from the island and he has a variety of options. He was booked pretty full but had a space for us one evening from 6:30-8:30. He offered to tailor the tour to my daughters rather than his traditional sunset tour.

First of all, he knows just about everything about the island. More importantly, however, he is fantastic with kids. The first big thing we did was to motor over to a shoal (I have no idea if that is the best term but I don't have a better one). It was near high tide so the shoal was quite small and completely covered with shells. He gave each girl a ziploc bag and sent them off to collect shells. Then he pulled up a trap he keeps there, filled up a shallow bucket with water, and dumped a bunch of tiny fish into it. The girls were invited to touch the fish and then to scoop them up in their hands, hold them over the edge of the boat, and say, "Jump, jump, jump!" The fish would wiggle or jump right out of their hands and back into the water. They loved it!

We made a quick stop in the grasses nearby. Captain Barry plucked up grasses and had the girls pass them on to the adults on the boat. He showed us the salt on the grasses and encouraged us to taste it. Then he pulled off some shells and told us about the snails.

Next we headed over to a new island. It's only been there for about four years. At high tide it wasn't too big but it was wonderful. We stood on one small stretch and had the waves breaking over our legs, from the bay on one side and the ocean on the other. Amazing. My girls had a blast running around in the waves, splashing and laughing.

The last major stop was a crab trap Captain Barry keeps. He let my oldest daughter hook the trap and pull it in. He dumped the four crabs into the bucket and let the girls check them out. When they had had enough he let them pick up the bucket and dump them back into the water.

I wrote this for two reasons.

1. To share the news about Captain Barry. If you happen to be near Chincoteague make some time for one of his tours, even if you don't have kids with you. I fully intend to go back next summer and take a half day tour with him.

2. This experience was so wonderful for my daughters. I wish my students had these sorts of experiences. We can take them on field trips, and we do, but that is so limited. My girls learned more from this two hours than they could in two weeks of school. That's not a knock against their teachers by any stretch, simply a limitation on what is possible in school.

*She's the only sister (and sibling) I've got so I can wax as enthusiastic as I want. Plus, she takes several days each year to take a special trip with me and my girls. How many siblings would do that?

Children are Hurting

2011-08-21T21:54:00.003-04:00

The Annie E. Casey Foundation has recently released their 2011 Kids Count Data Book. I was shocked by some of the numbers as I began reading the results of this study.

The poverty level for a family of four is $22,350. I can't imagine that. Double that would be tough to live on in this area.
Across our country, 42% of children are living at 200% of the poverty level or below. So, that number I said would be tough to live at, almost half the kids in our country are there or even worse off.
The differences in financial situations for white and Asian-Americans versus African-Americans and Hispanics is staggering. The differences in unemployment and home ownership alone shocked me.
"At age four, children who live in very low income families are 18 months behind the developmental norm for their age, and by age 10, the gap is still present." I've long known the first few years of children's lives are critical but this still hurt to read.

I will give everything I've got for my students this year as will teachers across the country, but we've got to recognize the reality.

Children deserve better than this. Children should not have to worry about where their next meal is coming from. Children should feel certain that they have a place to live. Children deserve parents who can find jobs and feel secure.

It saddens me to think that our society places so little value on children that we allow this to continue.

I've barely scratched the surface of the study here. Check it out.

Google Docs Presentation

2011-08-20T19:50:00.002-04:00

I presented early this week at a half-day institute my school district puts on each year. My topic was using google docs to ensure assessment drives instruction. I really had two main points to make about my use of google docs:

it allows me to quickly and easily keep track of students' progress and group them for extra support or enrichment
it allows me to share assessment information with co-teachers and them to share with me - we can keep anecdotal records together rather than separately

I presented twice and both went reasonably well. The first group was very small, but very interested and we were able to follow through on individual questions quite well. The second group was larger but, at least some of them, were pretty excited about the possibilities.

I created a page here with the basic information I presented.

He Just Doesn't Understand

2011-08-16T21:23:00.002-04:00

Running errands with my daughters today the Diane Rehm show was on the radio. She was interviewing Steven Brill, the author of Class Warfare: Inside the Fight to Fix America's Schools. My gut impression is that Brill genuinely respects teachers. In spite of that, he drove me crazy during the interview, to the extent that I was slamming my hands on the steering wheel. My oldest daughter actually asked me, "Mommy, why don't you just turn off the radio?"

First of all, I have to admit to not having read the book. I have heard some great things about it and am adding it to my list of books to read. Also, we were making stops so my listening to the interview was briefly interrupted a few times (something that was probably for the best).

One of Brill's major arguments throughout the interview was clearly for merit pay (although I never heard him use those words). He frequently spoke about teachers being frustrated by the fact that no matter how hard they work they would make the same amount of money as anyone else who had been breathing for the same length of time. There are so many problems with that argument. One, the idea that teachers are only motivated by money or that their compensation is a competition. Two, that there is an available solution to this 'problem'. Research on merit pay has shown that it doesn't work. We have no good, meaningful way to judge teachers. Finally, "breathing for the same length of time?" Really? Those were his words.

With breaks for our errands I was surviving with only minimal damage to my steering wheel. As we arrived home Diane Rehm asked a question about why teachers are always blamed, what about the parents. (By the way, Rehm was not exempt from my frustration, her questions were often as irritating as Brill's answers.) Brill responded by saying that successful charters have proven that all kids can be taught. I nearly screamed and did slam my car door when we got out. If kids are in a charter school someone, most likely a parent, has put forth the effort to get them there. That leaves plenty of kids whose parents don't know how to do so or don't bother to. Sheesh.

10 Picture Books I Can't Live Without

2011-08-10T08:03:00.001-04:00

Cathy got me hooked on the idea of sharing picture books I adore. I have to admit to hedging it a bit and sharing some series and authors I love. I don't follow rules well.

First, the Elephant and Piggie series by Mo Willems. I adore Mo and have for many years. When Elephant and Piggie first came out I was highly skeptical. They seemed, to me at least, to be too simple and silly. It didn't take long for me to change my mind. I love reading them and my first graders adore them, win-win! These books are wonderful for reading aloud, emergent readers to read on their own, and for inspiration for writing. You can't go wrong with any of them.

White is for Blueberry by George Shannon and illustrated by Laura Dronzek - I discovered this book when my youngest daughter randomly checked it out from the library. It's a very clever book, turning things on their side a bit. Each color is attributed to something surprising and then explained in a way that makes perfect sense. I love using this book early in the year because it pushes us all to look at things in a completely different way. It goes beautifully with our focus on kids' wonders.

Steve Jenkins' nonfiction books - Finding good nonfiction books is a challenge, in my mind. Many nonfiction books, especially for early readers, are formulaic and pretty dull. Steve Jenkins has created many amazing nonfiction books, mostly about animals. I keep some of these right by my chair throughout the year to pick up when we have a few extra minutes. My students love the books and I learn something new every time I read them.

Emma Kate by Patricia Polacco - Most of Patricia Polacco's books are a bit too challenging for first graders. They are also quite long which often means I don't use them. But, Emma Kate is awesome. It is a story of a girl and an elephant - one is an imaginary friend. One assumes it is the girl with an imaginary elephant friend. However, when you read more closely it is not certain. A friend and I have debated this and changed each others' minds more than once. It's fascinating.

The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds - I love all of this man's books, but I'm singling out The Dot because it's the first one I read each year. September 15th is Dot Day so I have to get started on it quickly each year. Reynolds' message is always about believing in oneself and taking risks - messages kids should hear again and again.

Scaredy Squirrel by Melanie Watt - Watt's book are hilarious. I read these more for me than for the kids. I think they are pretty sophisticated and a lot of it goes right over the kids' heads. But I love them. Scaredy Squirrel is a brilliant character and Watt plays around with the structure of a narrative and the structure of a book. For those reasons these books would be great fun with older kids.

City Dog, Country Frog by Mo Willems, illustrated by Jon Muth - I was trying to avoid multiple books by the same author but I couldn't leave this one of the list. When it first came out I was thrilled. I love both this author and illustrator and couldn't wait to see what they did together. Then I read it and was disappointed. It just seemed a bit boring. Then, I read it to kids. That changed everything. I loved it. It's beautiful - both in text and pictures. Plus, it offers a wonderful way to talk about friendships, grief, and seasons.

South by Patrick McDonnell - I start the year off with wordless picture books. It gives us the chance to explore reading the illustrations which opens up many, many books (even with text) to my students. This year I also want to use these books with writing. South is a wonderful example. Many wordless pictures are actually very complex and sophisticated. This makes them challenging for first graders. South has a lot going on but is accessible to first graders.

When Mama Comes Home Tonight by Eileen Spinelli - Eileen Spinelli is another of my favorite authors. Her books are simply beautiful. This book speaks to me as a working mother. It talks about a child and working mother and how they spend their evening. Her prose flows and makes me smile.

Stephanie's Ponytail by Robert Munsch - Munsch amuses me greatly. He writes for kids in a way that few others do. He is most famous for Love You Forever but it is my least favorite of his books. Stephanie's Ponytail is one of my favorites because it has a clear pattern, in the way that his books typically do, but it also has a really strong ending. Munsch sometimes struggles with endings (which I think are really hard). I also like Stephanie's Ponytail because the main character is a strong girl who does what she wants.

Brief Reflections on the March

2011-08-04T22:00:00.002-04:00

It's been nearly a week now since the Save Our Schools March in Washington, D.C. I've been thinking a lot about it since then, but for a variety of reasons, haven't managed to write anything. I don't think I've sorted out my thoughts clearly enough yet.

That said, fortunately, others have done a fabulous job writing about the march. So, as I continue to mull my thoughts, here are a few others:

Jose Vilson is a math teacher in New York City and one of the speakers and organizers of the march. In fact his poem at the march was one of the highlights for me.

A few other attendees have managed to get their thoughts organized, quite well thankfully. Tom Hoffman and his wife came down from Providence, Rhode Island and I had the lucky opportunity to meet them briefly early in the day. Tom does an astounding job of synthesizing the day and looking toward the future. Apparently he and Michael Doyle spent most of the march together. Michael writes, and writes exceptionally well, about the idea that it's time to turn things over to the younger folks. Reading his post made me realize that the most inspiring speeches to me were not from the folks I had been excited to see but from the youngsters: Jose, John Kuhn, a superintendent from Texas best known for his letter to state politicians, and Matt Damon. Another blogger and friend in attendance on Saturday was Gary Stager. He has managed to post quite a bit about the march. He wrote about his frustration that so few teachers were there (a frustration I share to some extent), he posted Pedro Noguera's speech, quite a good one, and Diane Ravitch's remarks.

Tim pinpoints some valid concerns about the march and what happens next.

Teacher Tom analyzes some of Matt Damon's remarks and takes a look at the big picture, with resulting fear for our future. He is, as always, thoughtful and passionate.

Ira Socol very clearly explores the concerns many have with our current president's attitudes and actions towards education.

Finally Nancy Carlsson-Paige, Matt Damon's mother, wrote a concise letter to the Boston Globe that clearly states the same frustrations I have felt about media coverage of the event.

Shifted Learning Podcast is Up

2011-07-28T22:26:00.002-04:00

Last Friday I was lucky enough to be the guest on John Pederson and Julia Fallon's Shifted Learning. The podcast is now up. If you've got a free hour, enjoy! (I haven't actually had the chance to listen to it yet. Fingers crossed.)

Coming to a Close

2011-07-27T21:29:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow will be the final day of the Northern Virginia Writing Project (NVWP) Summer Institute. Before these few weeks I had only a passing knowledge of the National Writing Project and NVWP. Thanks to Bud the Teacher I was at least familiar with it and interested in learning more.

In these four weeks I have learned much about myself as a writer, myself as a teacher, and just myself in general. The only one of those I had anticipated was the teacher one. I expected to do a lot of writing throughout this institute but I had no idea how much that would mean to me as a writer (or that I would even ever say 'me as a writer'). I have written poetry, narratives and essays this summer. That doesn't sound like a huge range but one of those narratives was from the perspective of a camera. I have tried new things as a writer - something I haven't really ever done independently and of my own initiative.

We are a small group this summer, something I actually think is pretty positive. We have been able to get to know one another well in this relatively short time. I have learned from every other person involved in this institute and I hope to continue to do so. Discussing big ideas in writing, literacy, and education in general with elementary, middle, high, and higher ed teachers has been amazing. They have broadened my thinking simply by sharing their perspectives.

If you are unfamiliar with the National Writing Project, check it out. Chances are good there is a writing project in your area.

More on the March

2011-07-24T06:27:00.002-04:00

With less than a week until the Save Our Schools March I'm excited by how much I'm seeing about it on twitter and in my reader. The energy around it is wonderful and exhilarating. It will be absurdly hot next Saturday but I hope folks will turn out, at least for a bit, to show how important this issue is to so many of us.

Deborah Meier, one of my intellectual heroes, will be there. She has been fighting this fight for decades now both in schools and in the public sphere.

In a recent blog post (on her own blog, not Bridging Differences), she writes about the political and financial situation in our country now. She seems to have had hopes, at one point, that she and Tea Partiers might have been able to see eye to eye on some, few things.

But even when the overlap is there, it’s true ONLY about the immediate future of schooling in America. Have to remind myself that schooling is only one part of the jigsaw puzzle—and I got into it sort of by accident and the fight going on today involves all the other agendas that matter to me. Poverty, after all, is best alleviated with money, jobs, power.

She goes on to write quite a bit about the challenges we are facing because of an 'ideological divide' between the few at the top and the rest of us. At the end she voices concern about what our schools and our society are becoming, how much we are expecting students and fellow citizens to comply in many ways.

We need to counter this trend every place we can; we need to praise ornery, feisty resistance—which will sometimes be wrongheaded. We need to arouse anger when its alternative is passivity and withdrawal. We need to look for hope, for alternative paradigms, and for allies—even when it seems utopian to do so.

She gives me hope. If you haven't yet, go and read her words. And, if you can, join us in Washington, D.C. on Saturday!

Why I Am Marching

2011-07-22T14:05:00.001-04:00

We say we want students to be life-long learners but our actions often contradict that. I could do a much better job of allowing and supporting my students in following their interests, curiosities, and passions. Especially since, as a first grade teacher, I am not directly preparing them for any test.

I wrote the above paragraph more than two weeks ago on the second day of the Northern Virginia Writing Project Summer Institute. It was in response to discussions amongst us all about testing and how that has impacted our teaching. Many people find themselves teaching in ways that are very rigidly structured in order to prepare kids to pass a standardized test.

The next day I wrote the following: Balance - that seems to be the key to this conversation. We have to prepare kids for the realities of their future.* We also need to actually teach kids to write - not just to complete a writing task.

If students are going to truly be writers and learners as they grow and move on from formal schooling we have to prepare them for that. We are at a point at which we are only teaching our students what they need to move on from us, not what they need to move on in life.

I know the response is often that students have to pass these tests, both for their sake and for ours. I don't care.

I have two daughters. If I had to choose between them passing a state standardized test (or all of the state standardized tests, for that matter) and them being curious about the world and having the skills to continue learning and searching out the answers to their own questions, I pick the latter without any hesitation.

I firmly believe a person can pass a standardized test without much in the way of knowledge or skills. I don't believe they can truly succeed in growing as a learner and make a meaningful difference in the world without curiosity and the drive to seek out answers. I want my daughters and my students to be curious and driven. Standardized tests don't help with that.

When I began writing this my basic thoughts seemed organized to me. I was reflecting on thoughts from the past couple of weeks at the writing institute.

However, as I hit the end, I feel as though I've inadvertently stated pretty clearly why I'm marching next Saturday. Educators, parents, students, citizens are joining together in Washington, D.C. next Saturday, July 30th, for the Save Our Schools March. This event was initiated and organized by teachers. Some amazing and inspirational individuals will be speaking: Diane Ravitch, Jonathon Kozol, Jose Vilson, and Deborah Meier are ones I can't wait to hear. If you are in the D.C. area, please come out and join us! Send me an email and let me know you'll be there - I'd love to meet folks. If you aren't in the D.C. area, there are events happening to support this march across the country. Those of us in the schools everyday must speak up as we are the true experts. This is a fabulous opportunity to do so!

*I was thinking of future standardized testing such as the SAT or GRE in addition to the K-12 tests.

Shifted Learning Podcast

2011-07-21T08:33:00.003-04:00

So I'll be on my first podcast tomorrow afternoon (or morning if you are west of me). I'll be chatting with Julia Fallon and John Pederson on Shifted Learning about elementary education stuff. That's vague I know. But I think that's the basic gist.

If you haven't listened to any Shifted Learning podcasts before I highly recommend checking out a few of them. Jon Becker talks about higher ed, technology, and ed policy. Chris Lehmann and Diana Laufenberg talked about The Great America Teach In (a bit dated, but phenomenal). Bud Hunt is just generally brilliant. There are many others worth listening to. I am honored to join this list and chat with these two educators I greatly admire.

10 People Who Inspire Me

2011-07-20T21:56:00.003-04:00

There is so much flying around in my head from the Northern Virginia Writing Project Summer Institute. However, until it is over next week, I probably won't manage to get it all out and organized in any meaningful way.

Yesterday we talked about changemakers. Again, there is a lot of amazing thoughts around this, but I'm just going to share one piece of what we did. We made a list of ten people who inspire us. The lists were wonderful - parents, teachers, heroes. I found that my list was all people I actually know (although I haven't met one of them). I didn't have Ghandi or Martin Luther King, Jr or Mother Teresa or Jaime Escalante such on my list. It's not that those people don't inspire me because they do, it's that they didn't come to mind immediately.

Here's my list in the order in which I wrote it:

Mary Ann Ryan (the principal who originally hired me and an amazing educator)
Our School Librarian (a good friend, fabulous classroom teacher, and library goddess)
Organized Chaos
My Husband
Science Teacher
d/y dan
Chris Lehmann
A student from my class last year
Unlimited
Glennon Doyle

Most of the above are educators, apparently I can't get away from that. They are all brilliant and push me in a variety of ways - all of which I appreciate.

Hitting Pause

2011-07-16T21:14:00.000-04:00

As a parent I'm pretty good, but far from perfect, at pausing with my daughters. By this I mean waiting rather than gut responding to them, be it to their questions, comments, or actions. This allows me to quickly reflect on my response options and the effects of them. If one girl is bugging the other, I try to step back and fully assess the situation and weigh the possible responses. When one makes a comment that sounds rude to me, I attempt to take their perspective to determine if the comment is rude given their knowledge and experiences. Then I can better address the issue.

I'm not very good at this as a teacher. Is it because I don't trust my students as much as I trust my daughters? Is it because I feel the push of time in the classroom more than I do as a parent?

Many of the mistakes I believe I make in the classroom stem from this problem. If I were better able to pause with my students I would be able to respond to them in ways that would be respectful and would encourage the behaviors I want to see.

This will be one of my goals for this coming school year. I'm not yet sure how to go about it, but this seems like step one.

I Believe

2011-07-13T21:49:00.002-04:00

I believe we underestimate children. By we I mean teachers, parents, and our society.

I believe there are two main things we can do to change this. One, we can say yes to children. For the majority of adults the quick, gut response to any request from a child is no. If we would take just a brief moment to consider why we are saying no we might, quite frequently, realize there is no good reason not to say yes. The second thing we can do is to give kids control. The normal relationship between a child and an adult is one of power (at least that is a piece of the relationship). The adult has all of it. Giving the child some control goes against the standard and is, therefore, difficult. It's worth it.

I believe saying yes and giving kids control benefits all of us. Imagine a job at which your every request is turned down and you have no power over how your time or energies are spent. Would you put forth a lot of effort? Would you try your best? I doubt it. Now, imagine the opposite, your ideas and suggestions are respected and encouraged, you are trusted to try new things and spend your time well. That is an environment that encourages people to give it their all.

I believe that these small steps encourage students to be responsible and creative, and fosters leadership skills. Students with these qualities can succeed beyond our wildest expectations and grow into adults who will fly.

Be Back Soon

2011-07-12T21:14:00.003-04:00

I've got so much flying around in my head these days (thanks to the Northern Virginia Writing Project Summer Institute, various readings, and tweets from Constructing Modern Knowledge) but no ability to get any of it out coherently.

Our fridge stopped working a couple of days ago and my back problems have come back with a vengeance in the past few days. So, I hope to have both those things under control soon and be able to refocus.

Initial Reflections on the Northern Virginia Writing Project

2011-07-09T14:55:00.000-04:00

I’m participating in the Northern Virginia Writing Project Summer Institute at the moment. It runs for four weeks, full days four days a week. So far I’ve been through three days and I’m exhausted. It is a good exhaustion.

Our days are pretty structured. We begin each morning with 30 minutes of ‘morning pages,’ writing time. Everyone just writes. I’ve never dedicated that kind of time in my daily life for writing before.

After that we have two presentations. Every participant does a presentation on something about teaching writing. We chose our topics, which allowed us to focus on things about which we are passionate. The presentations are scheduled to last just over an hour. They involve a lot of writing, participation and discussion. We’ve had five so far and they’ve all been fairly different. Wonderfully so.

After that we take an hour break for lunch. I’ve noticed, after just three days, that it isn’t really an hour. First of all, we’ve often run over from the morning presentations. Secondly, we all tend to talk to one another and discuss our thinking from the morning before remembering we need to eat.

Twice a week, after lunch, we meet in reading and writing groups. These are groups of five people who all bring their own writing to share and discuss. We spend time reading each others’ work and discussing it. We might share how we felt as readers during it, lines or phrases that really struck us, or ways to improve the writing. This is about two and a half hours of our time. So far we’ve only done it twice and it was powerful.

In my reading and writing group I’ve taken some poetry. I don’t tend to write a lot of poetry and I certainly don’t share it often, but I started a project years ago that I’d like to work on and hopefully finish. So far my group has not only significantly helped me begin revising two poems but they’ve helped me look at my poetry differently and I’ve begun revising others.

Other afternoons, when we aren’t meeting with our groups, we have outside presenters or group discussion time. We’re a small group this year, there are only about twelve of us. That’s about half the size of the group in past years. I’m grateful for this. I’m looking forward to really getting to know everyone in this institute and being a smaller group makes that easier.

There are teachers here from all levels. I think, as a first grade teacher, that I teach the youngest students. There are third and fifth grade teachers, middle school and high school teachers, and a couple of teachers from our local community college. It is so amazing to have all of those perspectives. I believe it is easy for teachers to do a lot of learning while staying within their comfort zone. I could read and talk only with elementary educators and not even begin to exhaust the resources available to me. However, I would be missing some important ideas and perspectives if I limit myself in that way. So it is a goal of mine to spend a lot of time talking to those teachers not working in elementary schools.

ISTE 2011 Reflections

2011-07-08T21:47:00.001-04:00

I’ve read reflections on ISTE 2011 from a good number of people and I’ve begun to conflate their thinking in my mind. That’s unfortunate because it means I can’t give credit to individuals who pushed my thinking here.

Someone wrote about a sense from some participants of smugness or superiority. That hit home for me because I could easily have come across that way (may even have been feeling that way and be unwilling to admit it to myself).

I spent a good amount of ISTE with a colleague who was there for the first time. We heard Peter Reynolds speak first thing Monday morning and that was an excellent way to start off the conference. Energetic and inspirational.

However, our next session was a bit disappointing. While we walked away with a few small nuggets, we felt most of what was discussed and shared was old hat to us. My takeaway and comment to my colleague was that many of the sessions would be that way.

Believe it or not, I didn’t mean that in a sense of feeling superior or smug. I realize that conference attendees all arrive at different points and are looking for different things. My colleague and I spend plenty of time keeping up with the edtech world throughout the year so many of the “next big things” were not new to us.

Plus, we aren’t too interested in the tools. I’m glad there are people who are interested in the tools and who spend time exploring and experimenting with them. I gain immeasurably from their efforts.

But I want to talk about the teaching most of the time. What does this all mean? How does it impact my students? How can I help my students more? I want to have those conversations at ISTE.

Fortunately ISTE set up many opportunities for those conversations. We spent time in the bloggers’ café talking with many different people about education and technology in education. We had wonderful discussions with people during poster sessions.

I walked away with a sense of excitement about teaching – always a good thing just after the year has wound down and I’m mostly exhausted. I also walked away hopeful. There are so many fabulous things happening in schools and classrooms around the world and we’re working hard to build on those. At a time when education, at least in this country, seems to be at a low point, it was wonderful to sit on the train coming home feeling good about it.

Ironic

2011-07-02T21:44:00.003-04:00

I have the great luck this summer to participate in the Northern Virginia Writing Project Summer Institute (a piece of the National Writing Project). It's something I've wanted to do for years but it either hasn't worked in my schedule (during our years of being on a modified calendar) or I haven't been able to make the finances work. But this summer we made the scheduling work (with many thanks to my mom for help with the kids) and my principal found funding. I'm thrilled.

I still don't feel like I fully know what I'm getting into, but I know it will be fabulous. It will be four weeks of full days of writing and talking about writing and teaching. In all the ways I define myself, writer has never been on the list. It will be interesting to see if that changes in the next few weeks.

One piece of the Summer Institute is preparing and presenting on a topic of our choice. I've decided to focus on the power of audience - looking at how audiences beyond the teacher can motivate and support kids in their writing and learning about writing.

Somehow it appears I'll be presenting first, just half an hour into our first day together. So, if you have any tips or thoughts for me, please share!

*I've been meaning to write this post for several weeks now and haven't managed to do so for a wide variety of reasons. It seems like it should be easier to write about writing. Hence the title.

Conversations about Kids at ISTE

2011-06-28T10:50:00.004-04:00

If you're at ISTE and feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the people, tools, and vendors and want a break to see what kids are really doing as learners, then come see us this afternoon. We'll be presenting about our online newspaper for K-5 kids in a presentation. The beauty of this one is that we can talk in detail about what is happening, answer questions, and delve in as much as we want.

I'm greatly enjoying the conversations here at ISTE and hope to have some fabulous ones about our students and their work.

Much Needed Boost

2011-06-22T21:15:00.010-04:00

I spent more than eight hours packing up my classroom today. That's after a couple of hours on Monday and about four hours yesterday. By the end I was throwing things into boxes willy-nilly. That'll be fun in September.

By the time I got home I was wiped out. Got through dinner (made by my fabulous husband, thankfully) and daughters' long bedtime routine and was ready for some down time. Sitting at my desk in our bedroom I noticed a book written by a student who moved away a few months ago. It was sitting here from when I was scoring my students' writing samples for the year. Hers did not need to be scored since she moved so I set it aside.

I picked it up out of curiosity. It was written back in the fall and the change in first graders' writing in that time is dramatic so a quick glance seemed worthwhile.

I'm so glad I did. This made my day.

I love that she wrote about our wondering. I love that she already had our class name, ExploreOrrs, down so well. I love the details in her pictures. I love that she included the two other teachers who worked in our room this year. I love that when she remembered to include periods they are huge. I love the spelling of the end. The whole book just made me smile.

I love what I do. I love my students. I feel so lucky.