Who's the Boss?

We went on a field trip yesterday (my first one with first grade) and it was wonderful. I have more to share but at the moment I just need to tell about one small incident.

We went to see a puppet show. As it began I was chatting quietly with another teacher. My little prince looked at me and shushed me. The shushing was absurd coming from him, since he can never keep his mouth closed. But it was cute.

Then he looked at me, took two fingers to point at his eyes and then pointed at me. HE'S going to keep an eye on ME? I love it!

Our Primary Purpose

We have a very local election today (a district seat on our county board of supervisors) so folks have been in and out of the building all day voting. I've actually been really impressed with the number of people.

I was less impressed, however, with what I just overheard. After dropping off my students in music I saw a man and woman, probably in their thirties, walking towards our parent center to vote. He said to her, "Other than November, obviously, this is used primarily for school rather than for elections."

Long Overdue

I recently read Whatever It Takes by Paul Tough about Geoffrey Canada's work in Harlem. I wrote about it at In Practice, my first post there in a very long time.

Some Random Thoughts

I spend today participating in the process of interviewing applicants for the education program at a local university. We are a PDS (professional development school) working with them. A couple of things struck me.

The professor I was partnered with taught in second and third grades for three years before joining the academic world. She mentioned today that she is thinking about taking a year sabbatical in order to go back to the classroom and do some action research. One thing holding her back so far (other than her own children) is her fear. I was so impressed to hear her say that she was terrified of going back into the classroom. However, I also had to wonder how she prepares new teachers for something that is so scary to her. I think she is wise to be scared and I think she is a wonderful professor. I guess it seems strange to me that professors preparing new teachers have no classroom experience or very little that may have been years ago.

The other thing that struck me may show my own bias. As I introduced my self to each new potential student, I explained that I am a first grade teacher and the site facilitator for my school. After saying it a few times I was struck by the fact that I almost feel ashamed saying I teach first grade. Somehow it seems less respectable than when I taught fourth and fifth grade. Do we, as a society, have less respect for primary teachers? And possibly even less for preschool teachers? Or am I misreading my response and I have an issue?

Happy Birthday - First Grade Style

This card was created by one of my darlings for her mother's birthday. I'm sure her mother loved it!

Awesome Librarian

We have a new librarian, Tree. She has only been in the position since the beginning of January but you would think she's been at it for years. On a recent Monday morning my class headed to the library just as it was beginning to snow. The first thing she did was teach the kids a song about snow and send them to the windows to watch the snow and sing to it. Only after singing a few times did she gather them for the planned lesson.

Serious Reading

I took in a copy of the Educational Leadership issue which listed the article I co-authored. It was sitting on my guided reading table when a little friend found it. He immediately picked it up and began 'reading'. My fabulous co-teacher noticed this and attempted to show him my name in the magazine. He had no interest in that. In his eyes she was trying to make him skip over important pages to get to that information and he was reading!

Thinking about Thinking

I spent my day yesterday out of the classroom. I've tried, in my first year in first grade, to minimize those days because it's harder for me to make meaningful sub plans and I worry about my kids (I do have some high needs kiddos that need as much stability as possible). However, my old principal, now the head of elementary instruction for our district and someone for whom I have immense respect, strongly suggest that I attend this workshop and a team of teachers was already going from my school. So, I jumped on board.

I looked at the website for ThinkBlocks, that product being basically all I knew about the day. Looking at the website I was highly skeptical. It looked to me, at a brief glance, to be a fairly commercial, packaged product. That doesn't appeal to me.

It only took a few minutes of listening to Derek Cabrera to change my mind. He is engaging, funny, and highly intelligent. By the time we stopped for lunch, three hours later, I was exhausted and my brain was still spinning trying to make sense of all he had said and overflowing with ideas for my classroom. I'll be posting more of my thoughts as I try these ideas with my students. For now, it's enough to say that his focus on our thinking processes about the content rather than solely on the content was refreshing, validating, and energizing.

By the way, he also gained great respect from the teachers at my school because he continually said that you don't need the ThinkBlocks to achieve the goals he was discussing. They are one possible tool, but you can do it with just about anything.

Publication Excitement

I've been officially published! A good friend and assistant principal for whom I have great respect and I co-authored an article which is online in ASCD's Educational Leadership. Writing the article was a great experience for me. Seeing it online at ASCD's website is wonderful.

We were both really excited that the article was accepted, but also slightly disappointed that it is only online. Then ASCD sent us both six copies of this issue. The title of the article and our names are in the print issue in two different places, but I don't think I needed six copies for that.

Searching for Shapes

Last week we started studying geometry. We looked at a couple of books with great pictures and found shapes in them. I asked my students if they could find those shapes (circle, rectangle, square, and triangle) in our classroom. I was so impressed with what they found that I wanted to allow them to capture it in some way.

To start we looked at some pictures I had taken on a couple of recent trips. I wasn't looking for shapes when I took the pictures, but the students found a lot. I put them up on the smartboard and the kids outlined a few of the shapes they found. Here are the Brooklyn Bridge and Union Station.


After looking at seven of my pictures and finding shapes in them, I gave the kids digital cameras to go and take pictures themselves. (One of our fabulous art teachers wrote a grant a few years ago and got eight digital cameras.) They worked in groups of two or three sharing the camera and we walked all around the school. They took pictures in the cafeteria, front office, gym, library, and hallways. I've only glanced at their pictures but I'm really impressed. Later this week I'll put their pictures up on the smartboard for them to identify shapes. I'll share some of their pictures in a future post (when I've had a chance to download them). We had such a great time doing this!

Feeling Lost

I have a student who is going through a traumatic experience right now. I probably have multiple students for whom this is true and there are, of course, many, many more students everywhere facing a variety of awful things. However, this child's issue was just shared with me and it is tearing me up inside.

(For simplicity's sake I'm going to use the feminine pronoun here because I have more girls in my class than boys.)

I know about what is going on in her life, I've been in touch with the family, the administration is involved, various outside agencies are helping out, our counselor is getting in the mix. We're on top of this.

However, I'm left wondering how best to help her. Does she need me to continue on as though things are fine and keep teaching her first grade stuff? Would it be better if I backed off of academics and spent more time just caring about her? Is it possible to do both? How do I know what to do? My fabulous co-teacher told me that we have to follow the girl's lead to know. Too true. I just hope I'm able to recognize where she wants us to go.

Retention - Keeping Children Safe or Holding Them Back?

I finally managed to get my hands on a copy of Chip Wood's Yardsticks. Kirsten blogged about it back in November and Organized Chaos loves the book. I've been meaning to read it for quite some time now and just kept forgetting.

I gave a quick glance to the sections about five year olds (my daughter) and six year olds (my students), but I decided I needed to just start reading it. I headed back to the table of contents to acquaint myself with the book. Wood has broken the book into two sections: Developmental Issues Affecting All Children in the beginning and Major Developmental Considerations Yardsticks in the second half.

One of the issues affecting all children is retention. I've been thinking a lot about retention now that I'm teaching in the primary grades. So, instead of managing to start reading the book straight through I jumped immediately to the pages on retention. The final paragraph in this section says:

The verb "retain" can mean to hold back or to hold safe. Educators and parents should carefully examine the difference when contemplating extra time in school for the individual child.

I've been chewing on that quote for a full day now. I am now continuing in the book and enjoying it greatly. It is giving me a lot to think about.

Leveling the Playing Field

Doyle, at Science teacher, has a fabulous post up today.

Some of these children will never pass the test.
All of these children can learn.

Those are not incompatible statements.

He draws on his years of experience as a doctor to discuss the various factors that impact student performance in schools and on tests. His basic message (as I see it) is that there are meaningful things every student can learn in school but we are only testing a small percentage of those things.

His post really got me thinking about the students I teach. Many of them have a whole host of factors betting against them. That doesn't mean they can't be successful, it just means they need a lot more from me than my daughter needs from her teacher (or most other middle class children need).

I'm lucky to teach in a very wealthy school district. It allows me to teach these students with a wealth of resources backing me up. That's not true in the great majority of schools teaching students living in poverty. Why is that? Why do we believe that all schools (at least within a district) should all have exactly the same resources? Why should all class sizes be the same? Why should funding for field trips be the same?

We know, very clearly, that our students' lives outside of school are not so fairly distributed. Why must their schooling be?

Focus of Attention

As half my class was clamoring for my attention today, I realized why I'm so exhausted at the end of a day teaching first grade. All of them frequently want my attention at the same time. This was rarely, if ever, true of fourth and fifth graders. The only time they all wanted my attention at the same time was if I had some sugary sweetness to give them.

First graders want to tell you everything at all times. They don't even notice that anyone else is in the room, much less talking to you at that moment. Yesterday, Tree mentioned that she had a kindergarten class at the end of the day. She said twenty kindergartners were surrounding her. In fact, the phrase she used was that it was like a hoop skirt of kindergartners. Today I truly understood what she meant.

Wiggling It Out

At the beginning of the year I tried having a 'get the wiggles out' time. I turned on some music and offered them the chance to move, wiggle, and dance. Nothing happened. I tried it a few times before giving up.

Recently we've had day after day of indoor recess. Indoor recess does not cut it with first graders. So, in desperation, I pulled out the music and tried again to get them wiggling. For some reason, it took. They go nuts. It's fabulous.

Today I was trying to have a serious chat with my co-teachers between our reading and writing workshops while they wiggled. All of a sudden I was completely unable to hear a word they were saying. I had noticed my little prince dancing. He was wearing a zip-up sweatshirt open over a t-shirt. He was grasping the open edges of the sweatshirt at chest level. His thumbs were pointing out in front of him. He was moving his hands in a circular motion, boogieing down, and making very macho faces. I could not look away.

(I'm sure this is hard to picture, so please, just take my word for it, it was hilarious.)

Leave No Child Behind?

I'm not going to rant and rave about NCLB. It's been done and everything I might want to say has been said, probably much more eloquently than I could do. The idea of leaving no child behind came to mind tonight as I drove home from a class and listened to NPR. I didn't catch the whole story, but heard President Obama speaking about health care for all children. All I could think was, how is health care not as crucial or even more crucial for children than their schooling? I don't want to suggest that the quality of schools is unimportant, it clearly is. I just don't understand how we accept that so many children are without health care.


If you're looking for something more amusing than this, check out organized chaos's quick note about the reason one of my students was absent yesterday.

My Own Personal Issues

I have one coat closet in my classroom. For the first part of the year that was sufficient. Anytime my students needed to get into their backpacks it became a bit of a nightmare, but worked fairly well. Once winter hit and everyone was wearing heavy coats, it all fell apart. Students tossed backpacks and coats into our one coat closet and they spilled out everywhere. The coat closet is just inside our door so they were always in the way. It drove me insane. I had to do something about it before I starting throwing coats and backpacks into the hallway, immediately followed by their owners.

I got two big tubs and put them on the sides of the classroom for backpack storage. Two tables put their backpacks into one tub and the other two tables put their backpacks into the other. Sometimes these tubs are neater than this, but they at least contain the backpacks.

That left us plenty of room for coats. I'm slowly training the kids to hang their coats up on the back row of hooks if they are the first ones in. So far we've only had a few coats land on the floor throughout the day. There's also a basket hidden in their to hold hats, scarves, mittens, and other random cold weather necessities.

I'm not sure what it says about me that this was so critical to my sanity. Regardless, it has greatly improved my attitude throughout the school day. That's worth a lot.

More on Educon 2.1

Educon is fabulous and I'm sure I will have many more posts about it in the next few days. However, for those who aren't lucky enough to be here, there are ways to feel a part of the fun.

There are a bunch of pictures on flickr and will be more, I'm sure.

You can follow the twitter stream of all tweets involving Educon.

If you feel really into all the excitement, you can go to the wiki to watch the streams of the sessions. (Click on sessions by title and facilitator and you will see the links to the channels.)

Initial Thoughts on EduCon 2.1

I'm lucky enough to be in Philadelphia this weekend for EduCon 2.1 at the Science Leadership Academy. I spent yesterday afternoon wandering around the school, talking to students and teachers, and enjoying myself.

I have no knowledge of high schools, having taught elementary all my career. My last experience with high school was when I was a student. As a result, I'm sure I didn't get as much out of my time yesterday as many high school teachers would have.

That said, I was beyond impressed with SLA and the students here. Two freshmen girls gave me a tour of the school and their excitement and enthusiasm were contagious. They talked about their teachers and classes the way elementary school students do. They clearly adore their teachers, principal, and school. Students in classes stopped to explain to us the work they were doing. They were completely comfortable talking with us as equals. It was highly impressive.

Chris Lehmann has created (I'm sure he would say, with lots of help) an atmosphere of learning that is unparalleled. Students have been as involved in EduCon as many of the teachers. They are clearly very invested in their own education in a way that, I think, most high students are not. It has given me a lot to think about.

Center of a School

I've recently come to the conclusion that the librarian is a significant hub at any school. In our school of about 750 students, the librarian is the only person who sees every single student every week. That alone is daunting, but when one considers all the other responsibilities inherent in running a school library the job seems exceptionally difficult.

My second year at our school we got a new librarian. She had been at other elementary schools and at least one high school. She was fabulous. Her lessons tied into our content and engaged our students. She invited teachers into the library as equals in terms of looking for new books to order or organization or any host of other issues. When I attended meetings around our district and spoke with other librarians they always mentioned her name with respect and awe. We were blessed!

She retired in December. She was planning to retire last June, but remained for an extra six months so that her replacement could be ready. That would be Tree. She needed one more semester to have enough credits to be our librarian. So our previous librarian stayed. Our amazing principal made it possible for them both to be in the library for that period. Talk about blessed.

I think our new librarian will continue to raise the bar. She's already met with my team to talk about her plans for our students. She's not constrained by the need to do things the way they've always been done. Most importantly, her first thought is always, "How will this help our students?" I am amazed at how much I think a school gains from having a strong, brilliant librarian as a leader.

Repeaters

Two of my wonderful students are a year behind their peers. One precious boy repeated kindergarten last year and one darling girl is repeating first grade. The boy has been struggling all year. He started the year below grade level in just about every area and continues to fall farther behind. We have just recently started the (very long) process of assessing for learning disabilities.

It's the girl that I find especially fascinating this year. I observed in her classroom some last year as I was attempting to gain some clue about life in first grade. She stood out in that room in part because she was a loner. She seemed completely isolated and uncomfortable. (It should be noted that she had absolutely fabulous teachers.)

At the start of this year she was a completely different child. She was confident, outgoing, engaged, everything we could have hoped. At the end of the first quarter I met with her father and he was visibly relieved to hear how well she was doing. He felt the right decision had been made in retaining her. We all did.

Now, halfway through the school year, I have my doubts. She seems to be pulling into herself more and more. She is disengaged during lessons, seeming to space out. She still achieves academically at a higher level than the great majority of her classmates, but it doesn't seem to matter to her. She's starting to resemble the student I observed last year.

I don't know what would have happened had she gone on to second grade. Maybe she would have struggled in the same way as last year from day one. Maybe at some point things would have clicked for her however and she would have soared. There's no way for us to know.

In the upper grades I didn't face the issue of retention in the same way as I will in first grade. It was unheard of for us to retain students at that level and I completely agreed. I was shocked last year to learn how many students we were retaining in kindergarten and first grade. However, I assumed I simply didn't have the knowledge to know what we should do.

Watching these two students has me wondering anew. Is anything gained when we retain students? How do we know when/if it will benefit a child and when it will hurt them?

Generosity

Over the years my school has worked with a variety of business partners. They've supported us financially, they've mentored students, and they've volunteered their time to help on special occasions. This year, however, we had the most visible gift from any business partner yet. Capital One put together gift bags for every child at our school, about 750. The bags differed by grade level, but every single one had gloves and a book. The little guys (kindergarten and first) got coloring books, crayons, bouncy balls, candy, and more. I'm not sure what all was in the bags for the upper grades. It was exceptionally generous.

I was looking through our school newsletter the other day and noticed a brief note about these bags. It said that the employees at Capital One had decided to use the money for their holiday party in this way. Exceptionally generous.

Huh?

As I dropped my class of in the gym today I was told that one of my students (Rubber Band) was leaving early. As she and I walked back to the classroom to get her backpack she asked, "Why am I going home?" I said I didn't know why. She said, "Am I sick?"

I said, "I don't know. Are you sick?"
"I guess so."
"Really? And your dad figured it out before you or I did?"
"Yeah."

Amazing talent he has.

First Grade Private Eyes (with the emphasis on eyes)

I taught a week-long, intersession course on Cynthia Rylant's books. Somewhere in my planning I decided to call it The Case of the Intersession Excitement. As a result, we focused a bit on her High-Rise Private Eyes series. I decided I wanted the students to be detectives some during the week. Of course, I decided this at the last minute and had no time to plan really complex, age-appropriate mysteries for them to solve. So, I headed to Amazon. I found You're the Detective. According to Amazon the reading level is for ages 4-8. I think that's fairly absurd, but I did manage to pick out four different mysteries I thought they could solve. (The book seems perfect for the upper grades.)

Each of the mysteries has a black and white drawing of the 'crime scene' on one page and a short story with prodding questions on another page. Each day I would read them the story, then give them each a copy of the picture and read the story again. I used some of the questions and added questions with hints of my own to get them rolling. Then I would walk away and have them talk in small groups to try and solve the mystery.

First of all, they were really into it. I truly enjoyed eavesdropping on the conversations. However, the thing that struck me the most was their impressive observation skills. As they looked at those pictures they saw things I had completely missed. I think part of this is due to their inability or only fledgling ability to read. They aren't as focused on text when they are looking at a book and they really take in the illustrations. As a result, their skills are much better for noticing details in pictures than mine. They may not have the background knowledge to make meaning of everything they notice, but they don't miss anything.

I've noticed this in my own two girls (a kindergartner and a two-year old). It strikes me when they notice certain balloons (Pooh or Dora) in a crowded grocery store or when they see a family member in the background of a photograph. Their eyes are sharper than mine in this way.

My oldest is just beginning to read. I am watching closely to see if her observation skills begin to decline as her reading skills increase.

Who's Being Bugged?

I'm currently teaching first and second graders during our week long intersession (due to our modified calendar we have these short, optional periods three times each year). Not surprisingly it's the first time I've taught this age during intersession and it's eye opening. I give them more slack during this time because it's not as academic. We're studying Cynthia Rylant's books and having a blast.

One little guy in my afternoon class has been driving me a bit crazy. He's unable to sit still or to focus on anything, including the fabulous books I'm reading to them! He's done a pretty good job of not disturbing others so I've let it go so far.

A few minutes ago he came over and told me about all the bugs in their apartment. He said they keep biting them and they have blood all over, "from us," he said. He said that he has trouble sleeping because they bother him and he's itching so much.

No wonder Cynthia Rylant isn't as engaging as I had hoped.

Halfway to What?

I'm halfway through my first year in first grade. I've said before that it was surprisingly challenging to adjust to the move from fifth grade to first. A lot of it is getting better. The credit for that goes, in great part, to the literacy coach and the special education teacher that I work with. They have been willing to problem solve with me and have been great models for me to watch.

There are so many things that are beginning to feel comfortable. I'm getting the hang of making the content accessible for first graders. I'm beginning to understand how they are learning and how I can help that process. The biggest problem I'm still facing in classroom management. It's painful. For the five or six years prior to this one, classroom management required little thought or effort. It felt natural and I had a huge bag of tricks ready for when things got a little more challenging.

Now, I feel like my responses are all wrong. I'm unable to anticipate quickly enough and head off problems. I haven't figured out how to redirect students in order to help them refocus. And, worst of all, I spend way too much time yelling - not helpful. This is my big goal for 2009. I expected classroom management to be a challenge, but I underestimated how big a challenge.

I'm open to any suggestions of good books, websites, and other resources to help me mull this over.

We're Low on His Agenda

Obama has chosen his Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan. In my mind this is a really disappointing choice. He's not Michelle Rhee or Joel Klein, but he isn't that far off either. He's the CEO of the Chicago Public Schools. Schools that, as it has been pointed out, the Obamas did not choose for their children.

This is a choice that means things will not change in education during an Obama administration. I think it shows that education is low on Obama's agenda (something I don't find too surprising given the state of our economy and Iraq and Afghanistan). I don't have to like it however.

I had my reservations about Linda Darling-Hammond because I don't think she would have been revolutionary enough. I would have like to see Deborah Meier in the job, but she's probably smart enough to turn it down if it were offered. At least Darling-Hammond would be walking into the job with some experience in the classroom and in school buildings. As Alfie Kohn said

Imagine--an educator running the Education Department.

That is what I had been hoping to see. Instead, we'll spend the next few years fighting for funding in an economic recession while we spend more and more on tests, test preparation, and 'research-based' remediation methods. How sad for our students.

Cursing

I don't mean me cursing, although that does go through my head sometimes.

We've implemented a reward program due to some classroom chaos (due, I'm certain, to my less than impressive classroom management in first grade). Students have been able to earn stickers when they are doing a fabulous job. They've earned a variety of different things (lunch with us, small toys, extra recess). It's worked pretty well. Last week I noticed that one of the stickers we used was probably less than appropriate for first grade.

Very Special Student

I've written before about a student who fascinates me. On a recent morning I needed to complete a county-wide math assessment on a few students, this one included. I went over to his special spot in the classroom to get him and he was working on this:

I tried to get him to stop, telling him he could return to it later. He got quite agitated and, after pushing it a bit longer, I stopped to really look at what he was doing. Once I did so I noticed the creativity he was using to make the title of one of his favorite books. I backed off (after taking this picture) and began the math assessment with another student. A few minutes later this little one must have managed to complete this because he joined us to work on math.

Reality Check

I'm not completely naive. I've looked at my students for ten years now and wondered which ones would end up in gangs, pregnant, in jail, etc. I have some clue about the realities of their lives. My first group of fourth graders are 19 now. I think of them as sophomores in college, although that's probably true for only a small percentage of them.

In the past month or so I have learned of the pregnancies of two of my former students. One is a sophomore in high school, the other is a senior. Neither is a shock, but it is still painful. The senior was the one I learned about today. When she was in third grade her mother was pregnant and diagnosed with cancer. Due to the pregnancy there was little they could do. After the baby was born the cancer was so far along there was little hope. She died that year. The father was accused of sexual abuse and the kids were placed in foster care (actually with a staff member at our school who is phenomenal). Near the end of fourth grade, I think, they were placed on a permanent basis with an aunt one county south of us. I was deeply sad to see her leave our school, but thrilled she had found a more stable home.

When my colleague came in today and shared the news I asked her if there was any way to get a letter to this girl. She said that if I could get it to her by 1 today she could pass it on to the girl's aunt. While my first graders did their math centers I sat down to write.

Dear S.,
D. just stopped by my room with a beautiful picture of you in fourth grade. I have, sadly, forgotten the names of many students from the past ten years of teaching but your name has not been lost to me. Your beautiful smile in that picture brought back so many wonderful memories.
She says you are 17 now. I'm sure D. would never lie to me, but it is really hard for me to believe. She also told me about the baby. I have two daughters now; they are 5 and almost 2. I love them more than I can believe possible. I wish you and your little one the very best of luck. You both deserve the most wonderful things this world has to offer.
If there is ever anything I can do to help you, please let me know.

I included my phone numbers and email address. I don't expect to hear from her, but at least it felt like some sort of action on my part.

I'm left wondering what I could and should have done differently for this child. I don't hold myself responsible by any means. I think I am simply looking for some way to control the situation, some way to keep it from happening again. There is little in life that is as depressing as looking at first graders and wondering which ones will become parents long before they are ready.

I Have a Granny and a Grandmother

I've been working hard to improve my guided reading lessons with first graders. I still feel like they are sub-par, but they are getting better.

Recently one of the books we were reading had a girl and her grandmother in it. The girl called her grandmother Gran. I wanted to be sure the students were able to read that word because I figured it was not one they would immediately recognize. So I asked the kids what they call their grandmothers. I expected to hear things like 'grandmother', 'grandma', 'gram', 'nana' and such.

The first child says, "Eyfly". I said, "No, not how you go to visit her. What do you call her?" He repeated his answer. I tried again to clarify and finally realized that he calls her that.

The next child says, "Flower" or sometimes we call her "Mentenuga".

At that point I realized that I teach in a very diverse school. (I did already know it, just not as clearly as I did at that moment.) These students do not lead lives similar to mine at that age. I love that about my students. I just need to remember it so that I can build their background knowledge appropriately.

Sorrow

This is apropos of nothing on this blog but I just discovered that a former teacher of mine died in July at age 100. Now that I've written the word teacher this line of thinking seems more appropriate here but my interactions with her were far removed from a traditional classroom.

She was Alice Chalifoux. I spent two summers studying with her at the Salzedo Harp Colony in Camden, Maine. By the time I was lucky enough to learn from her she was in her late eighties. The mystique around the harp colony was so great for me before my first trip there that a friend suggested I would be studying with the Yoda of harpists. It was a surprisingly accurate description. She was a tiny woman with an impressive force of personality. I was constantly intimidated by her. In spite of that she pushed me to greater heights as a harpist (which probably helped me reach mediocrity).

This weekend I will play for a Christmas party for the seventh (or so) year. As a result, I've actually been doing some real practicing recently. I think this must be what got me thinking about Alice Chalifoux. The amazing power of the web quickly led me to this video of her on Johnny Carson in 1988.

I can't begin to do her justice in this brief post. She was the principal harpist in Cleveland long before women played in orchestras. She taught at three different schools in Cleveland and ran the harp colony each summer up into her late eighties. She was the grand dame of the harp world, something she probably found amusing. The harp is known as a sedate, elegant, classy instrument. Alice could be all of those things, but none would be her natural state. She was strong, outspoken, witty, and often off-color. The harp world will shine less brightly without her.

Reason 835 Why I Love My School

These signs hang outside our bathrooms. Our fantastic math specialists put these up for teachers to use as their students take bathroom breaks. I've played various games with my students during bathroom breaks for years, but this is much better! They've changed the signs over time so that new ideas and activities are available. To me, this just illustrates the attitude at our school that the students belong to ALL of us. We are all working to provide them every opportunity to succeed.

My Special Friend

One of my most fascinating students this year created this.

He has a special spot in the classroom. It's a secluded area between my teacher cabinet and the back of a bookshelf. I had not intended for it to be used for anything - I was just trying to minimize the space around the teacher cabinet. However, it has been perfect for him. When things begin to overwhelm him he can head to that area. We have left a variety of math manipulatives there for him; pattern blocks, unifix cubes, pentominoes, etc. He has created some astounding patterns and designs with these manipulatives. This flag was one of my favorite of his creations.

Results of Art Class

Presidential Election - First Grade Style

Eight years ago was my first opportunity to teach about a current presidential election. I was psyched! My fourth graders and I did a ton of research about the candidates and the idea of the election in general. We even set up to exit poll voters. Some of my students came in on the teacher workday and stood outside the school to ask voters about their choices. Our plan was to do some graphing with the results and compare to the state and country. However, the students arrived the next day and we still didn't know who the next president would be. We wouldn't know for a few more weeks. It was painful. I really had no idea how to explain the electoral college and the fiasco that was Florida to fourth graders.

Four years ago I taught an intersession class in October about the election. (We're on a modified calendar so we have optional breaks in October, January, and March/April. We offer really fun classes to students who choose to come.) I worked with fourth and fifth graders to learn about the candidates and about how campaigns and elections work. We researched the various positions on important issues, created campaign posters and buttons, and wrote campaign speeches. We then invited other classes to come in, learn from us, and vote. It was a blast.

This year I was nervous. I'm teaching first grade now and I had no idea what to expect when addressing the election. However, I was unwilling to ignore it. So, we read Duck for President and talked about the upcoming election. We used some basic resources for kids online to learn about the candidates. I had students write/draw the most important or interesting things they learned about John McCain and Barack Obama. We created a VoiceThread with what we had learned. The other first grade classes watched our VoiceThread and then all of them voted. The results were overwhelmingly in favor of Barack Obama (but we think the fact that they learned he played basketball was a major factor). It was a really fun experience.

I did learn that first graders latch on to some odd things sometimes. One of the sites we looked at (I think it was Scholastic, but I'm not sure) had fun trivia bits about each candidate. It had their nicknames when they were kids. This is how we learned that Obama had played basketball. The site said that John McCain was called Punk or McNasty as a kid because he fought so much. I didn't spend a lot of time on this fact, but I did share it. It seemed innocent enough to me until one of my students asked me, "What was he called when he farted so much?"

Sadly, she was not the only one who had heard it that way. Many of my students asked similar questions over several days. Come to think of it, maybe that impacted the votes for Obama.

Free Choice

In the upper grades (4th and 5th) I never stressed about how much play time my students had. Now I'm starting to wonder if I should have been more concerned. As a primary teacher now, and a parent of young daughters, I think that play time is critical. I'm amazed at how tight our days are in first grade, but I've managed to find some free time two or three days a week. It's our free choice time and it lasts about 20 to 30 minutes.

One of my goals for this time in our day was to have it as open ended as possible. My exposure to Gever Tulley and his Tinkering School has been a big factor in this thinking. Puzzles are one of the first stations I offered the students. It's not as free thinking as I'd like it to be, but I think students gain a lot from working puzzles.

I also pulled out a small magnet kit I had bought for the upper grades and never used. I dumped the few pieces into a basket and offered it to the kids. They loved it. While I was in San Francisco in October I picked up a couple of other sets to add to this station. I've been amazed at what the kids have discovered with this. They held magnets below their chairs and used them to move magnets sitting on the chair. They've used magnets to move balls inside small strategy games to get the balls into the right location. They love this station.

Somewhere along the line in my years of teaching I had picked up this set of letters. Again, it had never really been used in my upper grade classroom. It's also not nearly the challenge to their thinking that I would like it to be, but it was an option I had handy.

I also had these fun cards from some consignment sale or something. I am fascinated by the different ways the students build with them. Some of them work collaboratively and others work independently. I've taken numerous pictures of their creations because of the variety.

Recently I picked up a couple of new options. I can remember as a child visiting my great-grandmother and playing with marble runs. So when I found some cheap I grabbed them. The kids have identified this as another favorite choice and they have built some elaborate creations.

On that same trip to SF my girls and I played with foam blocks at two different museums. I loved them. On a rare trip to Toys R Us a few weeks later (a treat after surviving flu shots) I found a large container of these blocks. The kids seem to love them as much as I do.


I've also offered them stations using puppets and one using dominoes. I'm still trying to think of other challenging choices. I need ideas that are reasonably priced and not too large. I'm open to any thoughts!

Book Character Day, AKA Halloween

Another way out of date post. Due to the various politically correct and religious issues surrounding Halloween, my school celebrates it as an SCA spirit day: Book Character Day. The kids can dress up as book characters which leaves them a lot of options. These days any movie or TV show worth its salt has books to go with it. As a result, we mostly see kids in store-bought costumes, which is just fine. Teachers however, have a great time with this day. I think the majority of these are very obvious, but just in case...
Ms. Frizzle

Mrs. Wishy-Washy


















Amelia Bedelia



Aesop










Miss Alaineus




Waldo

Halloween (Way Overdue)

On Halloween, instead of doing our regular writing workshop, we wrote a book in the style of Eric Carle's Panda Bear, Panda Bear and other books. I had read about the idea somewhere, most likely on someone's blog, and thought it was brilliant. However, as usual, I didn't have it planned out carefully enough. We had read several of Carle's books over the past few weeks. We brainstormed a list of things one might see on Halloween. Then we let students choose the one they wanted to illustrate and told them what item they would be seeing. So, if they picked witch, they drew that and we told them the witch would see a scarecrow. Thank goodness there were three of us in the room! I could never have accomplished this alone (at least not with the lack of planning).

It was fun to see the pages they created. Some of them stuck with the basic bit, "Witch, witch what do you see? I see a scarecrow looking at me." Others got more creative and added things, such as 'flying goblin' or 'whining at me'.

(I'm sure if I had written this post closer to this lesson, I would have had much more profound thoughts to share. Sadly, I've forgotten them all.)

Seesaw

Another student has been weighing on my mind recently. I’ll call her Seesaw because she shifts up and down so frequently and so quickly. She does not really seem to have a middle ground. Sometimes she is on, really on. She is engaged, thoughtful, verbose, willing to take risks, and smiling. Other times she is withdrawn, sulky, defiant, and completely unwilling to participate.As an outside observer I think it would be fascinating to observe. As her teacher I find it painful.

For another student we’ve been doing a Functional Behavior Analysis (at least that’s what I think FBA stands for) and a Behavioral Intervention Plan (again, I think that’s a BIP). This is an in depth process by a committee (teachers, counselor, administrator, school psychologist, and school social worker for our committee). It has taken us about six hours to finish the process. We look at the child’s behaviors, the consequences of them, and what preceded the behaviors. This is done in the hopes of determining causes and/or results which could be modified or manipulated by the teachers in order to change the behavior. We’ve had a couple of outside observers come in to watch this student as well as our own thoughts and notes.

I’d love to have this happen for Seesaw. Maybe if we could pinpoint the consequences and antecedents of her change to the downside, we could find ways to help her remain on the upside more often. However, academically she’s doing just fine. There’s not really any way to justify the time and energy for so many people for this student. Instead, I’ll continue to feel frustrated and helpless regarding her.

Venting

During parent conferences several weeks ago we talked with a parent about one child's frequent absences and tardies. This girl might be working harder than anyone else in my classroom, but she is almost never on time and often absent. The parent did not seem at all impressed by our concerns. In fact it was shared that due to surgery for this parent the children would miss all of last week. We made it clear that this was not a acceptable reason for absences but it didn't matter. This girl was out all of last week. The parent even called on Monday to say that the children would be out all week for this reason. My principal immediately contacted the attendance officer. He went by their home several times last week. It's not clear to me if he ever actually spoke with the parent. The girl was late to school today. When the parent dropped the children off there was anger. This parent was upset that we had sent the attendance officer. Then went on to say that the girls would be out on Thursday for a follow up doctor's appointment for the parent. I'm beyond angry about this because of how unfair it is to a child who is working as hard as this little one. She may end up repeating first grade, not because she isn't giving it her best shot, but because she has missed so much instruction.

I have no idea what happens next. Obviously I give all I can to this child. I know the situation is not her fault. I just wish there were more we could do to get the message across.

Thoughts on being Back in First Grade

I took off during our intersession*, something I rarely do. So, this week I've been readjusting to first grade. It's been a bit of a challenge because the kids are readjusting to 'regular' school at the same time.

Not being truly in the groove has allowed me to notice some things that might normally slip right past me. One is a pet peeve of mine. I'm bothered when teachers use the phrases, "I like" or "I love" to affirm for kids when they are doing something well. It suggests that the child should be listening, sitting still, working hard, whatever simply to make the teacher happy. I'd prefer that students are doing these things because they know it helps them and their classmates learn. I know this is a really difficult concept for first graders, but I don't think we do them any favors if we set up expectations that they are doing these things for us.

I'm also really beginning to realize how difficult it is for first graders to tell the difference between reality and what they wish were true. This first started becoming clear to me when we were teaching the kids about schema. We asked them about a time they had lost something important to them and how they felt. The discussion went quite well. Then we read Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems. It was amazing to me to see how many students then talked about a time they left their stuffed bunny at the laundromat. Today a child wrote a story about meeting Barack Obama and getting his autograph. (It's still unclear to us what really happened. He was in our general geographic vicinity yesterday.) After she read her story another student shared what had happened to her. She told the same story almost word for word. The kids are so genuine as they tell these tales that are so obviously untrue - at least obvious to the adults. It's really fascinating to me.


*My school is on a modified calendar. We start in late July and go through mid-June. We take 1-2 week breaks after each quarter, in October, January, and April. We offer students optional classes for a nominal fee during those periods, which I typically teach.

Reading Workshop Amusements

I do have to admit that first graders make me laugh quite frequently. Yesterday it was my little prince who forced me to turn away so he wouldn't see me cracking up. He's an extremely bright little guy who seems to be treated as a prince at home (from what we can tell). He has great things to say in class, but is completely unwilling to stop or to refrain from sharing at inappropriate times. He craves constant attention from his teachers and peers. He is willing to argue just about anything and has impressive perseverance in an argument. As a result, he drives me bonkers quite frequently. However, I also adore him.

Yesterday the amazing reading teacher who works with the prince's guided reading group was collecting some of their guided reading books from earlier in the year. She was asking the prince for his copy of a certain book and he was insisting that he had already given it to her. As he searched through his book box he continued to vociferously state that he did not have the book. Mid-claim he found his copy of the book. As he handed it to her he said, "Oh, yeah, you're right." She and I looked at each other in shock, wishing we had the statement on tape.

The week before our intersession break I was working with one of my reading groups. Two of these little ones have been driving me crazy because they aren't putting into practice the reading strategies we've been learning. They just look at me, quite patiently, when they come across a difficult word. They're also really good at listening to each other so that if someone else in the group can read the word they'll hear it (not a sustainable strategy obviously). One thing I've really been focusing on with them is looking at the beginning of the word and getting their mouths ready. They have not done it consistently without reminders from me. It's going to make my head explode soon. On this particular day we were reading a book about different animals. One of the animals was a wombat. My kids have no background knowledge on wombats and would not recognize one if it bit them on the butt. So, getting their mouths ready and looking at the picture weren't going to be hugely helpful, unfortunately. In the midst of our guided reading group chaos broke out in another area of the room. Another teacher dealt with it but I got distracted by it and lost my focus for a minute or two. When I managed to look back at the kids they were all on the wombat page, getting their mouths ready. All I could hear was, "Wah, wah, wah, wah..." It's not clear how long they'd been at it. I was proud of their effort but I'm sure that wasn't obvious as I struggled to keep from laughing out loud.

Echo

I have a very special friend this year. He makes me smile constantly. If the phenomenal special education teacher I work with and I stand on opposite sides of him he pulls us in a hug bear hug and talks about how he loves us. Every morning he greets me with, "Good see you this morning." (That's not a typo, that's how he says it.) Today he prefaced that with, "That's a nice dress that." He's also the one that will look at me sometimes and say, "You're doing a good job." It's surprisingly reassuring and validating.

This afternoon I read Mo Willems' Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late to the class. If you've never read it, go grab a copy ASAP. It's brilliant. As I read, he repeated everything. He was sitting on the other side of the room on his own, but he repeated the words quite clearly. I would read, "I have a great idea! We could count the stars." About halfway through that bit you would hear, "I have a great idea! We could count the stars." with the exact same inflection and everything. I had a lot of trouble continuing reading to the class. It is a testament to Mo Willems that the rest of my class did not seem distracted by it at all.

We Can't Contain Ourselves

I have no experience with first grade before this year. So, I have nothing with which to compare things. However, I am constantly amazed at how excited these students are about writing. When we say it is time for writing workshop there is cheering. They can't stay in their seats during writing workshop because they want to show us what they are doing. I credit Katie Wood Ray's book, Already Ready for this energy. These kids see themselves as writers. Amazing!

We've been doing a study of Mo Willem's books. Today the astoundingly phenomenal special education teacher I work with (she was a first grade classroom teacher before) started an interactive writing with the kids of Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Truck. If you've read Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus you might remember that, at the end, the Pigeon sees a truck and starts thinking... My kids have been chomping at the bit to write about it for a few days. Now, about half the class is writing about the Pigeon in some form or another. I love writing workshop!

My Principal Rocks

My principal made my day last week. I have to say that I do know how lucky I am to work for her. When the principal who hired me left (for a fantastic promotion) I was devastated. When they promoted our assistant principal I was relieved. Over time I’ve become even more impressed with her. Today she became a rock star to me.
I have a little friend this year who is really struggling. We'll call this child RB (rubber band for all the stretching and tension this little one faces and struggles with). Teachers spend a lot of time with RB in the classroom, in the hallway, in other classrooms, wherever we can help. RB spends some time screaming about hating things. At other times RB is totally engaged. Still other times RB is off alone in a corner of the room. None of us have been able to figure out how best to meet the needs we are seeing (and believe me, we’ve got a lot of folks involved in this).
Last weekI was alone with my students when RB had some serious problems. I finally broke down and called the office for help. Both my principal and assistant principal came to my room. They were amazing. They wandered the room talking with all of my kids and eventually spoke with the child in question. The principal had a long conversation that was both kind and caring and authoritative and firm. She began by asking what was going on in the classroom and just talking about the math centers we were doing. She told RB that screaming at school was not acceptable and that dad would be called to come and remove RB if it happened. In the end she got RB to join the group for our share at the end of math workshop, at least to the extent that RB ever joins the group which is sitting somewhat behind others in the circle. At least RB was with us and not screaming.
My principal then waited in the hallway outside of my classroom for the next fifteen minutes while we had share and got ready for lunch. She waited in case she was needed and she walked with us to the cafeteria. I stopped in her office after depositing my students at lunch to discuss what she had noticed and what she was thinking. One thing we talked about was how much RB dislikes PE right now. Yesterday RB spoke with my amazing co-teacher about PE rather than going to the gym. RB was able to explain what made PE so awful and why going was such a torment. My principal said, “If it’s that terrible for RB, let’s stop forcing it. Have RB come here to the office with something to do while the rest of the class goes to PE. Make sure it’s clear that it isn’t a punishment.” What a wonderful solution for the moment. There are so many issues for RB; PE doesn’t need to be one of them.
Just before it was time for us to go to PE the principal came by my room again to check and see if she was needed. She wanted to be sure things were in hand for RB. I was thrilled to see her. We didn’t need her, but her presence was so reassuring.
RB was excited by the idea of going to the office once it was clearly understood. We gathered up the writing work and book and went to the office after taking the rest of the class to the gym. RB stayed there for half an hour having a lovely time. My principal came out and chatted with my little one near the end and shared how proud she was that RB was able to make such a great choice.
I left that afternoon thinking that my principal had handled this situation beautifully. She made RB feel comfortable while setting clear boundaries. She made me and my co-teachers feel supported as professionals and feel that RB’s issues are being addressed. For all of the frustrations in the day, this made it possible for me to end the day feeling great.

Talk Like a Pirate Day - First Grade Style

My class celebrated International Talk Like a Pirate Day last week. It was something of a last minute decision on my part and therefore not as well planned as it should have been. It was still great fun. We shared a few pirate jokes on our way to art first thing in the morning. Then we came back to our room to read this book:

We did some pirate math. We've been working on a basic understanding of place value; the idea of the tens place and the ones place. So we used pirate chests and gold pieces rather than more standard manipulatives for tens and ones. (It's not ideal because the chest does not clearly equal ten gold pieces the way the other manipulatives can, but it worked for the day.)


We pretended to be pirates searching for treasure on our way to the cafeteria for lunch. We were trying to be sneaky so we had to be really quiet. This worked well for most of the kids, but one of my precious friends was so excited he spent the whole walk saying, "We're sneaking pirates!" quite loudly. He was never convinced that talking was antithetical to our goal.

In the afternoon we read more pirate books:

First Grade Funnies

First graders are amazing. Our phenomenal speech teacher pulled a small group of them this week and played bingo with them. Apparently they would burst into giggles at any little thing (or at nothing as it appeared to her). At one point they looked at an apple tree and erupted into uncontrollable laughter. She asked them about their giggles and they said, "Apples! On a tree!" It seems they couldn't fathom the idea of apples on a trees. They learn things we never expect.

During writing workshop I sat down with a little boy so that he could share his book with me. It was really quite a good book about seeing a comet and chasing it. At the end he makes a wish on it and then flies. Until the flying part it had seemed like a story that might have happened to him. So I asked him when it happened. He looked at me in utter disbelief and said, "It's a fahliction book."

My 5 for Policy Makers

I've put this meme off for weeks now because I wanted to really take the time to think about what I would want policy makers to understand about education. However, that time may not materialize until next summer so I decided to simply take the plunge. Organized chaos set me this task, but I was also fascinated by splatypus, kiri8, and Michaele's takes on it.

As for my thoughts:

1.In a well taught classroom class size does matter. I'm aware of the studies that have shown mixed results. However, if we expect teachers to truly meet individual needs of students, conference with each of them in reading and writing, differentiate for the varied needs, and communicate regularly with parents then they can't have thirty students in a class.

2. Money matters. This is true when we consider state level, school districts, individual schools, and students' families. That money needs to be spent well, there is no question, but money makes a difference.

3. Test scores only tell us a small bit about students, teachers, and schools. No test, no matter how well designed, is going to really paint a picture of a school or of a student. There's no simple, on the cheap, way to measure the learning of individuals. There is a reason why special education testing is very time consuming. That's how we really learn about a child.

4. Kids' educational opportunities are hugely impacted by their early years. There is a lot of brain research that has shown how critical the first three years of a child's life are to their future. We should be doing something to help families and children during those critical years.

5. Public schools are doing an amazing job. They deserve more respect and accolades than they have seen in recent years. Visit one. Visit often. Get to know the amazing teachers and support staff. Ask them questions. Recognize the challenges they face and the efforts they put forth. It's worth your time.

Toilet Paper?

I've made a lot of fascinating new friends since I made the switch to first grade. One of them is especially fascinating to me. He has ups and downs each day. Today, during one down, he took off out of the room. The wonderful instructional assistant followed him. I'm not sure what happened out in the hallway, but eventually the instructional assistant, the student, and a special ed teacher came in. The student brought over a stack of papers and handed them to me. The special ed teacher gave me a look and said, "These are what you needed." I got it. I took the papers, looked at the student, and said, "Thank you."

This was right in the middle of a lesson so it was a few minutes before I was able to look at the papers. When I did, I was surprised to find I was holding a stack of about fifteen pages, each with a picture of a toilet on it.

I was left wondering where this stack of papers came from. Was it just some scratch paper someone found and used for this task? Did another teacher actually need these pages?

If you're interested in knowing what I learned about the pictures of toilets, splatypus over at Kindergarten Chaos has the details.

My Mentors

I just watched a seasoned first grade teacher walking her class to lunch (yes, it is only 10:45, that's when we have lunch). She had one little friend who was not staying in line and kept touching the walls. She said to him, very kindly, "I'm going to walk with you, friend, because I see that you're having trouble keeping your hands off the walls."

I have this same problem with several students regularly. I make them hold my hand (it's a terrible punishment in the eyes of one, at least). However, I've never put it so gently to them. Listening to her was such a small thing and yet gave me so much to think about. It's amazing what I learn from the other teachers around me.