My Contribution to ds106 Radio

One of the recent assignments in ds106 was to work with a group to create an hour long show for ds106 radio. This was due shortly after we returned from ISTE12 so I was a bit concerned about getting it done. However, two and a half hours one evening and I had created my five minute segment (is that ratio normal?!?). My group chose to create a show called A Tourist's World. When thinking about being a tourist my mind immediately went to Istanbul, Turkey. (Our show aired tonight. I'll share a link when it's available on archives somewhere. There were some fabulous stories there.)



freesound.org was a huge help on this assignment. I began my piece with some soft waves of the Bosphorus River. As my visit to Istanbul was on the cruise ship when I worked on it, I wanted a ship's horn. Thinking of Istanbul made me think about the song, Istanbul, Not Constantinople which seemed like a fun bit to include here. When I think back to my (brief) time in Istanbul I think of the busy streets, crowded marketplaces, the call to prayer, and the prayers in the mosques. I decided to close with a bit about Turkish baths and the soothing sounds of the Bosphorus again.

I learned about layering the audio tracks, keeping one quiet at times. I didn't get it totally right, but I am learning. It was fun to plan the segment and to search for just the sounds I wanted.

We also had to create a radio bumper to promote our show.



For this I wanted to create something that immediately suggested travel. I began with the sound of an airplane taking off. Then I snagged the dong sound that happens when an announcement is made on an airplane. I followed that with a bit of the announcements about moving about the cabin and finished up with a bit of the announcement about remaining seated upon landing.

Again, fun to plan and fun to search out the sounds.

Post-ISTE Ramblings

I've got a few things, post-ISTE, I feel a need to respond to. None of these have to do with the conference, they are all in response to others' responses to the conference. Sheesh, that's a bit absurd when I type it.

ISTE always brings out strong feelings from people about technology and its use in the classroom. I get that. Most of the time I enjoy all the debate and discussions about tools vs. pedagogy and how to marry the two successfully. Most of the time I enjoy the thoughts about the value of teaching without technology as well.

However, lately I find myself getting irritated by what feels like superiority and smugness when people write about the negative side of technology and the sheer beauty of life without it. These are people I respect and people who use technology well. It seems like a need to prove something or show they are better than those singing the praises of technology. I don't think technology is a panacea. I don't think it should dominate our lives. I think a healthy balance is important. I don't think life without technology is superior to life with it.

During ISTE I was lucky enough to spend some time chatting with Gary Stager. He's an educator who pushes my thinking. I don't always agree with him, but I think he prefers it that way. He wrote about his frustration with cliches, especially ones about how much teachers can learn from their students.

The motivation behind uttering such banalities is likely positive. It acknowledges that children are competent and encourages adults to learn with them.

However, these clichés suggest a power relationship in which all adults (particularly teachers) are resigned to the role of bumbling TV dad while the kids rule the roost. In education, this often serves as a justification for why teachers irrationally fear computers and modernity or appear to have stopped learning.

Here I agree with Gary about 95%. The only place I feel a need to nitpick is that I think children often have a wisdom born from their youth and inexperience from which we adults can learn. They are not yet jaded and cynical in the same ways as adults and, as a result, see things we don't. When I think of all I have to learn from my first graders, I am thinking of seeing the world from their perspective and learning from that.

Gary also shares a short video clip of Branford Marsalis. I have several of his CDs in my classroom in frequent rotation throughout the day. He is a phenomenal musician. In the clip (worth watching just as Gary's post is worth reading) Marsalis talks about his students wanting to be told how fabulous they are without putting in the necessary effort.

How do we get kids to put in the effort if they don't feel some success with it? They need encouragement but they also need to be held to high standards.

Of course, isn't that true for all of us?

More ds106 Visual Fun

A ds106 assignment that intrigued me was Newspaper Blackout Poetry. It's a three star assignment and that seemed excessive to me, at first. Turns out, it is pretty challenging.

I looked at several articles and tried to plan out some possibilities. I actually wanted to avoid this one because it seemed to serious, too raw, too painful. But in the end it was the one that worked best for me.

Here's the original article:

Here's the poem once I blacked out a bunch of words.

rape

weeping

seething

harrowing

not usual

critical pain

And with that emotional end, I wrap up the visual assignments piece (a tad late, but it's done!).

First Graders with Cameras

The 2011-2012 school year has been over for two weeks now and I have a bunch of notes in Evernote beginning my reflections and prep for next year. There is a lot more reflecting to do.

Before that happens however, I wanted to share my latest work with teachinghistory.org. I've written previously about our field trip to the Tidal Basin and the pictures my students took there. The amazing folks at teachinghistory.org went along with us on the field trip and then joined us when we made the video back in our classroom the next week. They then edited this into a series of four videos illustrating the work my students did. 


Watching these videos I am so impressed with my students. They are six and seven year olds using cameras thoughtfully and well. I'm less impressed with myself and have a goal, yet again, to do less of the talking with my students.

Poetry Reading for ds106

The audio assignments for ds106 have intimidated me a bit more than the design or visual assignments. As a result, I started with Poetry Reading because it didn't scare me as much as others. This poem, The Country, by Billy Collins is one of my all time favorites.



If you enjoy the poem, you can also hear Billy Collins read it.

ds106: Wiggle Stereoscopy

I've been a bit MIA at Camp Magic Macguffin for the past week as the family has been in San Diego having a wonderful time. Oddly enough, even on vacation with my family ds106 has not been far from my mind. Walking around Legoland I had many thoughts about assignments, both current ones and possibilities.

We took in Miniland, an area full of cities and creations made of Legos. It's really quite impressive. I took a few pictures of this Lego steamboat with the purpose of creating a wiggle stereoscopy image. I ended up only using two of the images after trying to get one that worked the way I wanted.



I'm finding as I work through ds106 assignments (slowly, but still) that I don't fully understand why I think things work or don't work. Hopefully as I continue with this process I'll hone my eye and begin, to a bit at least, to be able to explain my thinking.

Mid-ISTE

The last few days have been busy. A good busy though. ISTE is off and rolling. I started Saturday with SocialEdCon, one of my favorite events. When things slow down a bit I'll get my thoughts and reflections for that organized. Yesterday was the official kick off for ISTE12. During that event the award winners were announced and I got to be up on the big stage. Pictures were taken but they are on the laptop which won't stay connected to the internet here so they'll come later. Today I've been hanging in the Bloggers's Cafe talking with teachers from around the country. These conversations are thought-provoking and fascinating, but they also frequently serve to remind me that I have a great job in a fabulous school. That's a good reminder to receive. I feel lucky to be here, learning with and from these brilliant folks.

ISTE 2012

For the fourth year I am headed to ISTE just after the end of the school year. This year it will be extra fun because the whole family is headed to San Diego. We've got plans for Legoland and the San Diego Zoo set already. I'm hoping to be at Social Edcon on Saturday and I'll definitely be at the opening stuff for ISTE on Sunday.

On Monday at 4:15 I'm copresenting about teachinghistory.org and we have a poster session about the site at 1:00 on Tuesday.

If there is something I shouldn't miss, let me know! Mostly I expect I'll be in the bloggers' cafe quite a bit.

Draw It: Next Visual Assignment

I'm still struggling with Warhol Something so I was concerned the Draw It assignment might stump me too. Instead, it went swimmingly. This isn't the first picture I tried, but it's the one I'm happiest with how it looks. I was worried about the business of the background but it worked.

The original picture is of our principal talking to one of my students at our writing celebration.

Here it is as a drawing.

Love: In Three Frames for Father's Day

As I attempt to catch up on ds106 I'm trying some visual assignments. For Father's Day (a day that always slips past me as it falls right at the end of the school year*) I gave Love: In Three Frames a try for both my husband and my father.

Here's the collage for my children's father.

And the one for my father.

Neither of these is what I want them to be, but I think that may be because I can't really put into words what I'm trying to say here.

*A recent conversation with a single father friend has me convinced we should have one 'family day' rather than Mother's Day and Father's Day. Children missing a mother or father have a rough time on those days. One day to celebrate parents would be better.

ds106 Design Assignments

My goal with participating in ds106 (in whatever way that played out) was to learn something. I've only scratched the surface but I've learned quite a bit about GIMP and Photoshop today. In addition, without putting in much effort (as I probably should have done) I am looking at design differently, more aware of choices made and how those decisions impact the overall view of an item. Again, lots more to learn but I've gotten started.

I had to make some lame workarounds to create my CC poster because I'm not yet proficient enough in GIMP or Photoshop. That said, I'm fairly pleased with how it turned out. Here's the original picture from Mean and Pinchy on flickr:

Here's my take on Creative Commons:

The next assignment I attempted was If Movie Posters Told the Truth. I'm less pleased with this work because I know if I had more patience I could fix the 'bad script' part to look more a part of the poster. Unfortunately it's late (for me) and I'm not a patient person in general. 

I picked a movie I can't stand because that seemed more fun. It required inventing a new word but it captures my sentiment pretty accurately.

Finally, I tackled Iconic You. As simple as this looks, it took me a while because I kept trying to make it do too much. I could not come up with one thing to illustrate me and I wanted to create something that included a lot of the ways I define myself. This design came pretty quickly but I spent a lot of time trying to add more to it. I thought about using the top of the music note to be waves and add something to symbolize biking and running in order to show my participation in triathlons. I thought about adding some little faces to the apple to symbolize my children and husband. After trying some of these out and not liking anything, I got back to the simple. It may not show everything that matters to me, but I like it.

Getting my ds106 Game On (Maybe)

School's out for the summer.* I've dedicated at least part of today to ds106 work, finally. I'm working on a Creative Commons poster, but I'm stuck trying to put the CC icon on there. I haven't given up yet but I did decide to take a break.

Instead I did the One Story/Four Icons assignment. I've enjoyed seeing the work of others on this assignment and it seemed doable. I may try some other movies soon as well. The Noun Project made this pretty simple.

*The kids are done but I still have three days next week of meetings and packing up.

Daily Creates

It's not much, but I've managed to do the last four Daily Creates for ds106.

On Thursday the assignment was to take a picture of something that you are envious of (physical or metaphorical). I snapped this shot at recess that day. This little girl is not in my class (although I do know her and adore her) but was outside when we were and amazed me on the bar. It may not be clear but she is hanging upside down with her legs away from the bar. The strength and balance were what I envied!

Friday's assignment was to tell a story about your most random job. Mine can be heard at this link or below.

On Saturday I had to download PhotoShop's 30 day trial and test it out in order to take a picture of the oldest building near you; use filters to make your photo look even older. I really don't know what I'm doing with this but it was interesting to try. I took a picture of the, now closed, Lorton Prison. It opened in 1916 so I figured it qualified.

Today's effort doesn't impress me but it does prove that I'm thinking about the Daily Create all the time. The assignment was to take a picture featuring rope or knots. During our weekly family fitness class (an absolute blast) we used ropes with a partner. As soon as the exercise was being modeled I grabbed my camera and got a picture of my husband and younger daughter working together. I cropped it down to focus on the rope.

I'm Not Flipping Over this Idea

Flipping the classroom is an idea being thrown around everywhere. I've had conversations about it with folks both in and out of education and teaching at all levels. No one has convinced me.

I may be hard to convince because it's not something I seriously need to consider. I teach first graders. I don't give them homework much less expect them to do any significant academic work outside the classroom. Plus, many of them lack internet access. So, the idea is shot down on two counts.

That doesn't stop me from having strong opinions on it. Why should it?

Valerie Strauss, at the Washington Post, wrote about the flipped classroom this week. She quotes some folks to explain their support and shares others' concerns about the idea. To my mind, nothing there hits on my really big issues.

First of all, a flipped classroom is not revolutionary. (I do understand that many folks don't feel we need to be revolutionizing education but plenty are throwing this idea out there as groundbreaking.) All it does is take traditional instruction and switch it around. Teachers are still lecturing at students.* Recording those lectures and sending them home allows students to watch them multiple times but doesn't allow any interaction. If something in the video doesn't make sense, there is no way for that to be addressed. How does watching a video, possibly more than once, equate to significant learning?

Secondly, let's imagine this really flies and most folks start doing it. How long will these videos be? How many videos will each student watch at night? Are we talking about half an hour per class? A high school student taking six class will have three hours of video to watch. Is that a good use of time? Is that even remotely reasonable? If teachers are taking their classroom lectures, from each class period of nearly an hour, that may be a conservative estimate. (Of course, I have serious issues with homework in general so these thoughts are tainted by that.)

Finally, this idea is so teacher focused it causes me pain. Students all get the same instruction at home (or possibly a teacher makes multiple videos for the same idea to offer differentiation - that's a lot of work for something that is not really specific to student needs). The message is that a teacher knows exactly what the students need to know and can just impart that knowledge and move on. The student's role is simply to listen and soak it all in.

I'd much rather see us rethinking our use of classroom time, rethinking our instructional models. Not just moving around the deck chairs.

* I do believe there is a place for lecture. My concern is that currently it is the default mode, used most often without any thought or question.

Reflection: Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

I've been sitting on these thoughts for a while, sadly. I'd like to say I've been reflecting on them, but that's been pretty sporadic. Reflection, for both teachers and students, has become one of those big ideas that gets in your head and is then everywhere you look. At least for me it is.


Dean Shareski writes about the importance of modeling reflection for our students. I think most teachers do a lot of reflecting, but I doubt their students see it. I know mine don't typically.

"Imagine if every teacher recorded themselves each day and watched it. Hmmmm. We want our students to be reflective and would love for them to document and describe their learning in detail. Why aren't we actively modeling this? Not just for the sake of modeling but because it makes us better. Imagine if a movie director or actor never watched their work?"

Another post from Dean caught my attention because of his push to help his students (preservice teachers) reflect but also his own reflection on how that is going. In this instance his focus is on having students give themselves a grade and justify it. My favorite bit, not surprisingly, is the idea that even very young students could do this.

"I suppose in some respects, I'm still assessing, assessing their assessments but my goal was to do two things. First to empower them to think deeply about their learning. While I've always advocated for reflection, I tried to emphasize more documentation. I still need to structure this better but that was my intent."

"I'm thinking that even 6 year olds should be able to assess themselves. If we give them the tools and expectations. As far as trust goes, it seems that it speaks to the climate of your classroom to some degree. I will say that since I was the one submitting the grade, if I felt it to be way out of line, I had the authority to adjust it, I just never did."

A brilliant teacher in my school, just down the hall from me, really struck me with her thoughts on how she helps her young students reflect on goals they set. Powerful. Simple, in many ways, but very powerful.

"During morning meeting my goal everyday (and sometimes I just forget...) is to read the reminders together with the students. Then each student decides what they want to work on that day - do they want to try to sit with their hands in their lap, do they want to make a goal of sharing, of listening, or of walking safely? They put a sticky note with their name on their poster. At the end of the day (if I 1. remember and 2. have the time) we talk about how their goals went - did they sit quietly, did they keep their hands in their lap, etc. I like that it lets us focus on just ONE behavior a day. During the reflection time one of my kids may have had a rough day but he can at least say, "my goal was to keep my hands in my lap and I did that." It is a good reminder to me to find the positive even on our most difficult days. Sure you threw your pants in the toilet, but you know what - you did walk safely. Thank you for that. Sometimes I ask them to identify what they did well that day from our posters as a way to get them to reflect on their behaviors. Some of them are not ready to grasp the larger intangible concept of setting a goal and trying to meet it, but the conversations allow us to repeat the language of the expected behaviors over and over again. The more we talk about those expected behaviors the more likely we are to see it."

Another of my favorite folks, Doyle, also wrote about reflection recently (or somewhat recently). I think this statement really covers what I believe about what I want my classroom to be.

"Schools should be places of reflection, learning spaces helping children see the world, to see their role in the world, the whole world.."

My big take-away from all of this is the versatility of reflection. It is a critical tool for teachers and students in assessment, growth, personal and classroom management, and curiosity and creativity. If students were supported in becoming reflective learners I believe they would grow in all areas.

Stretching Out of My Comfort Zone

In a burst of insanity I registered for ds106 this summer semester. The theme this time around is Camp Magic Macguffin. I've been following ds106 for a while now but never felt an urge to participate. It seemed out of my realm of competence. We'll see if I was right then or if jumping in was a smart choice.

So far, it's hard to say. With only a few weeks left in the school year and a sprint triathlon tomorrow morning I haven't been able to find the brain space for ds106. Writing this post is the first step in breaking through that wall. I intend to at least try some of the Daily Creates in the next week. That and commenting on others' creations is likely all I can handle right at the moment. I hope before the summer is over I will have achieved much greater things.

Ups and Downs

Thanks to the inspiration of my good friend (and constant inspiration) I have been posting positive learning moments on Facebook recently. She started doing so to counter the feelings all of the standardized testing was causing (she teaches third grade). I loved the idea and started doing so as well. It helps me to start my day thinking of these positive events.

One day last week I wrote this:

Fun learning moment for today: I headed out walking around our school this morning looking for objects which my students might wonder about and ran into a former student. She's now a fourth grader and has a rough time at home. She walked with me looking for objects and had a great eye for ideas and thought about what my first graders would find most interesting. I wanted pinecones and she pointed out the right kind of trees (something I didn't know). She was so thoughtful, it started my day off right!

That was a great up for my day.

The next morning I had to run back out to my car for something I had forgotten. As I walked towards my car I noticed the same girl sitting on the same bench in front of the school. She does so most days. I think she is just looking for a quiet moment to herself. (When it's cold or rainy our principal will open her office window and call to this little one to come keep her company.)

As I watched the girl's mother pulled up, got out of the car, and went over to yell at her daughter. I couldn't hear the words but I could hear the tone. When the girl stood up she smacked her on the bottom, pointed to the car, and kept yelling until her daughter was inside the car. Then she got in and drove away.

As she pulled out of our parking lot she passed our principal walking in and they waved at one another. I walked over and shared what I had seen. My principal was quite surprised, given that the mother had just smiled and waved.

That was a serious down for the day.

Odd Connections - Historical and Technological

Back in March I wrote about how geeky my family is, after we visited Parson Weems' house. For teachinghistory.org I thought more about what it means as a teacher to visit historical location such as this one.

The best part of this story is that I sent off the post along with a few pictures I had taken during our visit. The wonderful folks at teachinghistory.org did a bit of searching for better pictures of Parson Weems' house. They found some fabulous ones on flickr and contacted the photographer. As it turns out, those pictures were taken by my husband. He was quite amused to receive an email explaining who they were and why they wanted the pictures. Fortunately, he gave permission.

More About Thinking

Thinking about thinking has been a mild passion of mine for the past couple of years. It began when I had the opportunity to learn about Derek Cabrera's work with the Patterns of Thinking. I've written about it before and continue to think about it in planning and teaching.

One of the things Derek often talks about is the need to focus on the content we are teaching AND the way students are thinking about that content. It seems he is not alone in this sentiment:

Helping my students learn about their own thinking and reflect on it is one of my greatest goals as a teacher. Helping them think better, whether that means becoming a more critical consumer of information, asking questions as they observe the world, defending their own ideas, or trying different perspectives, is the greatest gift I can give them.


I came across this through Dot Physics, a blog written by physics professor Rhett Alain. I read (or at least skim) every post because of his fascination with the world around him, his willingness to ask any question and try to figure out the answer, and his fabulous writing. The physics goes way over my head.

Retention Pains

One of the pluses of teaching in the upper grades, as I did for ten years, is that retention is not an issue you face. The only time I ever considered retaining a student was a sweet boy who had not had glasses for many years and, we realized in fifth grade, had hearing issues so he had not been able to access most of his schooling. We didn't end up retaining him but did require summer school. (Not a perfect solution but retention would not have been either.)

As a first grade teacher the possibility of retention is something I face more often. This year, however, was the first time I've seriously considered it for a student. He is young, a June birthday, and struggling academically. He is also very mature for his age, a factor that ultimately made me argue against retention and he will be going on to second grade. I hope that is the right decision for him.

At the end of that day, my brilliant colleague wrote about our retention committee. Her thoughts are, as always, well worth reading but this question struck me hard:

Would it give a student confidence and build them up or would it send the message that her hard work was being rewarded by being held back?

 A couple of days later I read a piece by Diane Ravitch on this same topic. Her post is titled, Is School Retention Child Abuse? so you can see her thoughts. Again it is worth reading. She writes about the school psychologists' perspective on retention and it isn't pretty.

My colleague's question and Ravitch's thoughts are driving my stand on retention. I have been against it (not across the board but in general) for years and now I feel more strongly.

Hoping for Success

Brilliant coworkers make my job and life wonderful. Due to testing (not so wonderful) our library will be closed for more than a week. Our amazing librarian, however, will still be teaching. I snagged as much of her time as I could without shame and we met this afternoon to plan.

I've been concerned about how to help my students continue actively learning throughout the summer. I went to our librarian wanting help with this and offering only the idea that I wanted to build off of the book A Place for Wonder. Fortunately our librarian is brilliant and we planned two weeks worth of lessons with an outline for two more.

My students have used composition books as their Wonder Notebooks all year. I decided it would be great to give each student a brand new Wonder Notebook for the summer. In order to make that meaningful we're starting with practicing what we do when we wonder something. We want students to have a plan of action when they begin to wonder during the summer. Then we'll work on how to find things to wonder about throughout the summer (outside, inside, from tv or video games). We want them to be completely independent with noticing their wonders and thinking about them consciously.

I don't feel a need for my students to be practicing flashcards or answering comprehension questions or any other typical school activity during the summer. I just want to know that they are pushing themselves as thinkers and learners. Reading John T. Spencer's recent post hit home on my thinking about this. Many of my students won't be traveling, visiting museums or libraries, playing at parks, or any of the other enriching activities some kids do. I hope they will have some wonderful time with their families, relaxing together, talking, laughing, and just being a family. I also hope they will actively learn and I want to set them up for success in that area.

Guessing

Teaching elementary school means I teach all subject areas. I'm no expert in them although I do try to keep learning.

Science is the area in which I feel the weakest. Reading Doyle helps me with that at least a bit. He's also recommended books that have helped me grow in my understanding.

While I remember very little about science from my courses in high school and my one year in college, I have read Richard Feynman's books over and over again since then. My father owned them and, at some point, I bought my own copies.



I love his comment at the beginning here about guessing (and not laughing because it's true). It took me back to an idea Doyle mentions often, that kids need to observe. We tend to set up science experiments so that they illustrate specific things. Why don't we just let kids observe, wonder, and guess about the world around them? They naturally want to do so.

I think one reason is that doing so would require we know a lot about science - or are willing to say we don't know and learn together.

Toothpicks and Marshmallows

For the last hour of the day on Friday we played with toothpicks and marshmallows. It was a blast and just what we ALL needed.

It was tied into math. We've been studying rectangles, squares, triangles, and circles for the past couple of weeks. I'm really proud of the thinking these kids have done around these shapes.

They figured out that when using these materials the marshmallows were the corners and the toothpicks were the sides. Each of them made a square, a rectangle, and a triangle. And they did it quick!

I offered them a challenge: make one of those shapes that looks different from the ones everyone else has made. They figured out some great ones.

My favorite moment was when one student said, "Ms. Orr, I don't want to do your challenge. I just want to have fun." Then spent the next ten minutes calling across the room, "Ms. Orr! I think I solved your challenge!"

A lot of kids made 3-D shapes as well. This little friend wanted to make a cylinder. I told him I couldn't wait to see how he did it (thinking it was impossible). When he showed me the toothpick filled with marshmallows I was astounded. Brilliant.

Help Wanted - Summer Learning

We're at that point in the year when everything goes crazy. Big kids are taking SOLs (state standardized tests) and little ones are doing DRAs (one-on-one reading assessment) and MRAs (math assessment) and who knows what other acronyms. Our routines are all thrown off.

We haven't had guided reading groups in three weeks. Next week we could get back to that again. I don't want to go back to what we've been doing all year. We've done it. It's been good but they need something different.

I want to use this last month to set my students up for reading success throughout the summer. I want my lessons to prepare them to continue growing outside of school.

I just don't know how to do that.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Ranting

This is a rant. I intend to write some thoughts on ways we could actually improve the situation but for the moment I just need to get this off my chest.

Last night my oldest, a third grader, (who does have issues with anxiety) had quite a melt down about today's SOL* test. This was her first SOL test.

She seemed really tired and I didn't make the connection until she finally said, "Mommy, I think I'm so upset because I'm worried about the SOL test tomorrow." Head slap.

I asked her what she was worried about and she said something about it impacting her grades. This pained me both because it's not true and because I've worked really hard for four years now trying to convince her that her grades don't matter. Clearly I have not been successful. I quickly reassured her that an SOL test has nothing to do with her grades. I also pointed out that this test was a reading test, something she does for hours each day exceptionally well.

She followed that up with, "But mommy, Barack Obama sees this!"**

I lost it then and, probably too strongly, asked who told her that. A teacher did. Again, I reassured her that Barack Obama certainly doesn't see her tests. No one outside of her school sees them. I also told her that if she got every question wrong that would be just fine. (I'm sure not everyone agrees with me here but I firmly believe this.)

At that moment I was so angry that any teacher would say this to third graders. However, when I calmed down my anger shifted. I recognize that teachers feel immense pressure about these tests and they want the kids to take them seriously. Now I'm immensely pissed that we are functioning in an environment in which teachers and students have to cope with so much stress.

A friend (and third grade teacher) responded to my frustration in words that say exactly how I feel.

@jenorr After today, I am convinced that state testing in its current form is state-sponsored violence...not being sarcastic!=(
— Dahlia Constantine (@dahlia_constant) May 17, 2012

It feels like abuse, of students and teachers. It is just wrong.





*The SOLs are the Standards of Learning, our state mandated standardized tests. I'm sure that acronym doesn't mean anything.


**I do recognize that my source is an eight-year-old. It is possible that this was misunderstood. 

Crankiest Teacher

I rarely feel I'm a shoo in for an award, but Crankiest Teacher of the Year is mine by a long shot. 

It's not the kids. It's totally me. It seems like recognizing that is a first step. That's possible. If so, I am completely unable to get past that first step.

The worst part is that this is a vicious cycle. I'm cranky with the students when they don't deserve it (I'm not sure first graders ever deserve it) so the kids act up in response which results in me getting crankier.

I've got lots of excuses but not one that makes my behavior okay. 

I think I might need a behavior modification plan for myself. Something that tracks my crankiness and rewards me for doing what's right. Maybe one of my fabulous colleagues will help me design and implement something. At this point it seems clear that I can't shake this off on my own.

Field Trip Movie

We finally did it! We made a movie using what we learned on and about our field trip. Our movie talks about the four men whose monuments and memorials we saw. The first three, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, and Martin Luther King, Jr. are in the order in which we visited their memorials. George Washington was added to our movie because the students took a lot of great pictures of the Washington Monument, although we didn't get to visit it.

Every picture in this movie was taken by a first grader. They organized all the pictures so that they made sense and matched up to the order of our trip. They also planned the narration (with a bit of support).

The best moment in the process was in our discussion of FDR. He is not someone students study in first grade typically and his contributions are a bit challenging for them to understand. When planning the narration, one student suggested, "He helped other Americans because they didn't have food." I pushed a bit and asked why they didn't have food. We had talked about people not having jobs so I was hoping we could get to that.

The girl looked at me a bit blankly and then said, "Because food hadn't been invented yet."

Another Nerdy Book Club Guest Post

I wrote another guest post for the Nerdy Book Club blog. It went live Friday and life has been so crazy for the past couple of days that I completely forgot about it.

This post is about the joy of sharing books with my daughters and the various ways we do so.

When I was pregnant with our oldest, my brother-in-law asked us, "What will you do if the kid isn't a reader?" My husband and I just looked at him, completely perplexed. The idea was so foreign to us.

So far it hasn't been an issue. Our oldest devours books and rereads them again and again. The youngest, who will start kindergarten in the fall, is beginning to read but would much prefer listening to one of us read to her. She and her sister play many games involving the characters of the books we are reading. They are nerdy book club members for sure.

More On Our Field Trip

On our recent field trip to the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C. my students carried a bunch of digital cameras and flip video cameras. Usually during the school day I carry one of each around in the pocket of my lab coat, just in case a moment happens when I want one of them. For the field trip I gave out every camera I have, including those two. I had intended to charge my personal camera (the one I carry around in my purse at all times - I'm starting to think I have a problem) but I completely forgot to do so. As a result, I took pictures during the trip with my iPad. (I'm not proud of any of this but it is what it is.)

Here you can see a few of the kids with cameras. This is inside the Jefferson Memorial.

We had lunch outside the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial. It was a stunning day.

 This was our view during lunch. That's the Jefferson Memorial across the Tidal Basin.

 I think I have a lot to learn about taking pictures with the iPad, but I'm glad I had something!

First Grade Photographers

Last week we took all 150 first graders to the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C. We walked the nearly two miles around it stopping at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial. My students had digital cameras and flip video cameras (about one per every two kids). I hope to share a lot more about this because it was an awesome field trip for so many reasons, but for the moment, here are a few of the shots the students took. I have done nothing to these pictures. I am so impressed with what these kids captured.

Reflecting as Peers

This afternoon thirty educators gathered in my classroom to support our preservice teachers and think about our work as educators. We do this twice a year.

We are a Professional Development School so we work closely with the university. A professor visits our school twice a week to observe and work with our interns (preservice teachers). Our staff is highly supportive of these budding teachers, not only those teachers who host them in their classrooms but their special education and ESOL coteachers, our literacy and math coaches, our librarian, everyone supports their learning.

At the end of each semester every intern shares a 'critical incident' from their teaching experience. We invite our entire staff to be there for the share. This is after school and is no way required for anyone beyond the interns.

Today there were thirty of us. Seven were the interns themselves and one was the professor. The rest were those of us who had hosted one of the interns at some point in the year, new teachers who had been interns last year, and others who came as support and to reflect and learn (including our librarian, a literacy coach, a special education teacher and an instructional assistant - none of whom can host these interns in their current roles).

I headed out of school at 5:30 this evening, having been there for nearly ten hours, feeling rejuvenated and walking on air. Times like this, when we come together to encourage one another and to grow ourselves, remind me why our school is so strong and remind me of what education can be. I'm immensely grateful for that.

Too Targeted

My kids, both my daughter and my first graders, complain about P.E. This has surprised me for a while because I remember enjoying P.E. in elementary school and felt like it was typically a favorite activity. But it's been pretty consistently whined about for a few years now. The kids like the P.E. teachers but not P.E.

When I've dug a bit deeper with my daughter I've learned that what she hates are the push-ups and curl-ups at the beginning of P.E. class. Often she loves the rest of P.E. but all she can think about is that beginning. The same seems to be true for my students. They focus on this one small piece of P.E. class and forget about all the parts they enjoyed.

I asked one of our P.E. teachers about this phenomenon recently. She wasn't at all surprised to hear how the kids felt. She told me that at the end of the year the kids would all be tested on their push-ups and curl-ups (state requirement, I think). So they practice them at the beginning of each period to prepare them.

When I heard this I nodded my head and thought, "Well, that makes sense."

As I've thought more about it, I don't think it does.

Doing push-ups and curl-ups doesn't make a child healthy or fit. Those two exercises aren't the greatest ones ever created, ones that will work all the muscle groups or anything. They are simply the two exercises someone far removed from the kids has decided they need to be able to do.

It seems to me that this is what school has become, a focus on the specific content and skills required for a test rather than offering students opportunities to follow their interests or to develop themselves broadly. I just didn't realize it had hit P.E. as well.

Just a Little Poetry Joy

Today is Poem in Your Pocket Day. As I am not in my classroom at the moment I am relieved of the guilt I would be feeling about not doing anything with my students for today. Especially since another first grade teacher had her kids make darling little pockets out of felt to pin to their clothes and place a poem therein. I'll be stealing that idea for next year.

For the moment I've just been sharing the poetry joy with other teachers. I took my favorite Billy Collins poem and made copies which I have carried with me all day. (I don't have a pocket in my clothing today - a common problem for women and the reason I wear a lab coat when teaching - so I pinned a copy of this poem to the top of my skirt.) I have passed this poem on to anyone who wants a copy. Only one person chose not to take one. Others may have taken a copy because they didn't feel they could say no. However many have been excited by the idea. One person even emailed me a couple of other poems, ones he keeps in his memory pocket all the time. Awesome.

Here's the poem I've shared and carried with me today:

What I Learned from Grapefruit

Last Christmas I felt like an adult. For years my grandparents have sent my parents a large box of grapefruit around Christmas. This past year I received my own box.

I was so excited (apparently late 30s is a great time to feel like an adult) I mentioned my box of grapefruit to my mom. She immediately offered to cut them up for me. In fact, she even offered to have my sister help; the sister who would be arriving soon from California. I graciously (I hope) declined. My theory was that if I was enough of a grown-up to receive my own box of grapefruit I was sure I was enough of a grown-up to cut them up myself.

With further thought I  began to suspect that my mom was a bit worried that I didn't have time to cut up the grapefruit. I believe she thinks I may be a bit overextended.

My sister (the one coming from California who was volunteered) agrees with mom that I'm a bit overextended. She's takes a pretty pragmatic view on it, however. She believes that I make my own choices and if I'm busy it's because I've chosen to be.

She's right. Both that I'm a bit overextended and that it is my own choice to be that way.

I did manage to cut up the grapefruit on my own and it was delicious. Maybe I truly am an adult.

Hate to Wait

I came to a conclusion tonight, which led to a decision. The conclusion: I'm not a patient person. The decision: I will try to be a patient person.

First, the conclusion. This isn't really a shock to me. I've never considered myself patient. It's been an issue all my life. I was born three weeks early. I don't like to wait. That said, I teach first graders. People assume you must have a lot of patience to do that. I do think I'm more patient in that setting than many people would be. But that doesn't make me patient by any means.

So, the decision. I have another week and a half out of my classroom. My group of kids this year is challenging and a number of them are struggling with the transition to another teacher for this period. From my vantage point the intern is working exceptionally hard to use an appropriate tone and volume and language but some students are not responding. I've felt an urge to take a really hard line and set them straight.

I'm rethinking it as I watch other teachers. Teachers who are patient. Teachers who are what I want to be when it comes to interacting with their young students and building community. When I return to my classroom I may bite countless holes in my tongue but I'm going to respond with patience. I am going to make a concerted effort to view my students as their parents view them, as I view my daughters.

Most importantly, I'm going to make this my most significant focus. I can only do so much well at any given time and I'm going to focus on building habits of patience and gentleness. If that means my instruction is not as strong as it could be I'm going to accept that as a worthwhile trade off.

Image from Brett Jordan's flickr

The Sad Disappointment of Portfolios

While I am out of my classroom for a few weeks I've been tapped to help with the collection of evidence for our state alternative assessment. We have the option to create portfolios for students with IEPs or who are LEP (limited English proficient).

In theory I love this. I would much prefer to create portfolios to show my students' progress than to have them take multiple choice, standardized tests. The work they are doing on a daily basis throughout the year is more meaningful, in my eyes, than the snapshot a test provides.

That said, what we are doing isn't working that way, unfortunately. One of the problems is with the way the portfolios have been designed by the state. We have to document every piece of every standard in the portfolio. That's not true of a standardized test. Fifty questions can not encompass every bit of every standard for a given grade level. For example, one standard is about students finding information and includes using encyclopedias, thesauri, dictionaries, glossaries, and online resources. A standardized test might address two of those five but a portfolio must show evidence of all five.

The second issue, while frustrating to me, is one I do understand. We end up collecting most of this evidence in inauthentic ways. I'm pulling students out of class to complete a worksheet with me, a teacher they don't know. I am attempting to complete as much of this work using books they are reading at the moment and writing they are doing. But their writing may not currently include examples of contractions or abbreviations. In which case I'm giving them a worksheet.

We can use interviews as evidence. In an ideal world we'd document these conversations during guided reading groups, reading conferences, and writing conferences. That would require every teacher working with these students to know these standards better than they know themselves. That is a lot to ask, especially for teachers in their first couple of years teaching. (We do have a lot of this type of evidence in our portfolios.)

More on Failure

Ever since the opening panel at Educon 2.4 back in January I've been thinking a lot about failure. Some of that thinking is contained in my newest blog post for teachinghistory.org.

I appreciate the folks at teachinghistory.org because they help me take my ideas and make them coherent. I also love seeing which quotes they pull out:

Tomorrow Will Be Here Soon

Today was not a fabulous day. There are a host of reasons for that - none of them major. It got me thinking about something Eric Jensen said at ASCD. Saturday morning there was a Coffee and Conversations with ASCD Authors session. I spent a bit of time at Jensen's table as I have been interested in his work on brain-based learning for some time and his newest book is about students living in poverty.

He was interesting to hear as he responded to folks' questions. The thing that stuck with me, or at least that came back to me today, was a bit off his typical topic. He said, "You're only as happy as your most miserable child." He was speaking about parents and I'm feeling it that way today.

I do have to wonder how much it applies to us as teachers. Many teachers, I believe, focus on the difficulties, the things that didn't work, in any given day and struggle to see all the achievements and successes. We do so because we want to improve and make things even better the next lesson, the next day, or the next year. Are we only as successful (in our minds) as our least successful student? And if so, is that a good thing or something we should reevaluate?

More on Preflection and Pausing

The other night my husband and I had a long conversation about parenting, specifically about reacting in anger (something I do with my daughters much more often than I would like to admit). My big takeway from our discussion was to continue to think about why we react in anger (we being all adults) and what we hope to gain from it.

The more I think about it the more I believe that when we react in anger people don't hear us. I think that is true whether we are talking to children or to adults. Think about it, when someone is yelling at you, are you truly able to hear what they are saying or do you just respond to the emotions involved?

There may be short term reasons for reacting in anger, such as if a child is doing something dangerous and needs to be stopped quickly. However, if we are hoping for long term learning and changes in behavior or thinking then we are more likely to be successful if we respond more gently and thoughtfully.

The challenge, for me at least, is to remember this and employ the preflection in which I so strongly believe. Responding in anger when I am frustrated is natural. Pausing, thinking, and then responding is harder, but the only way I can focus on the long term.

Our Books in Our Library

This is one section of our classroom library. The books across the top shelf are in baskets by the author. There is a basket for Dr. Seuss, one for Mo Willems, one for Kevin Henkes, and one for Laura Numeroff. The shelves below have baskets for funny books, alphabet books, counting books, family books, friend books, and more. The last basket on the top row, next to Kevin Henkes' basket, is the one pictured here. These are books by us, we are the authors.

Early in the year the books going into this basket are the ones we write together. I take pictures of our interactive writings, the big books we create, and give each student a copy and put a copy in our classroom library.

 As the year moves on, we begin adding books the kids have written. They get placed in our classroom library after conferencing with a teacher and sharing their book (or other writing) using our document camera. I have students who are begging for conferences and the chance to share now in order to put another book in our classroom library. Some of these are kids who didn't have the stamina to write for more than a few minutes earlier in the year. They are incredibly motivated by the idea of having their book in our library near books by Mo Willems and Laura Numeroff.

I do have one fabulous little friend who insists that I make a copy of his books after he shares so that I can put one in our library and he can keep one to share at home. I've never had a student request that before and I love it.

Ten Years Can Be A Long Time

I spent some time this evening at a nearby library watching videos of myself teaching and taking notes for my National Board Certification renewal. At one point it struck me how different this process is from my initial certification ten years ago.

I recorded these lessons using a flip video camera. It's not fabulous cinematography but it's clear and understandable. It's also simple. Ten years ago I recorded on a camcorder. Again, not fabulous cinematography but clear and understandable. A lot more expensive however.

This evening I sat at the library, headphones on, watching myself teach and taking notes in Evernote on my iPad. I went to the library because I needed a space away from home (and my darling daughters) to focus and get some serious work done. Ten years ago that would have been impossible. I couldn't have watched my VHS tapes at the library. (Of course, ten years ago I didn't have my darling daughters so working at home was more feasible.)

One take-away from this is that teachers should be recording themselves teaching and watch it, reflect, learn, and grow. The hard part of that now is the emotional piece, not the mechanics.

Meaningful Professional Development

As I am in the midst of my National Board Certification renewal (how has it been 10 years already?!?) and fairly involved in the Northern Virginia Writing Project I've been thinking quite a bit about what made those two events (for lack of a better word) so powerful in my personal, professional development.

Many people I've spoken to about the National Writing Project, and all of its local entities, have mentioned how much more meaningful it was than their master's degree program. The same is often true in discussions about National Boards. I did a master's degree through the Curry School at the University of Virginia. It was a fabulous program, greatly enjoyed, and an amazing learning experience.

That said, it pales in comparison with the National Board process or the National Writing Project. My master's program offered me an amazing amount of flexibility. In spite of that it mostly involved someone else telling me what to learn and how to do so. I believe there are purposes to that and there were wonderful things I gained from it. In the long run however, I don't gain as much from those experiences as I do ones that are more driven by my own needs and interests.

The National Boards and the National Writing Project offer me that opportunity. I am grateful for it.

Pretty Obvious

A while back someone linked to this information about a study out of UVA. I've had it open in a tab ever since. Every once in a while I would look at it and it's been a good reminder to me.

The basic gist of the study is that students are more engaged when they have some autonomy. I know at first glance that is not shocking and is the sort of thing any teacher of any grade level could tell you. It certainly came as no surprise to me.

In spite of that fact, I'm grateful for the study. Autonomy is sadly lacking in many classrooms (including mine more often than I would like to admit) so having the evidence from this study is important. I am a strong believer in offering students choice (including in their spaces) and I appreciate anything that backs me up when trying to convince others.