No Follow Through

I'm great at thinking of really fun, engaging, high level projects (although, often at the last minute). I'm not, however, good at finishing them. This is a problem across all aspects of my life and one that my parents are probably nodding their heads about as they read this. It's been true all my life. I'm good at starting things and terrible at bringing them to completion.

This frustrates me in the classroom. It frustrates me at home, but not quite as much. In the classroom I start wonderful projects with students and then I move on to other, new, exciting ideas. There is no way these projects are even beginning to fulfill their potential as learning experiences when done this way.

I hope somehow, I think, that by writing this I will begin to keep my focus long enough to finish at least a few of these projects. We'll see.

(By the way, it is shockingly hard and embarrassing to admit this, even though folks who know me well must already have identified this flaw.)

Reason #723 Why I Love My School

Everytime I walk past offices of non-classroom teachers (you know, folks who have offices, like literacy coaches, math coaches, ESOL teachers, special education teachers, admins, etc.) they aren't there. They are away from their desks, in classrooms, working with kids. If that isn't one major, positive sign of the climate of a school, I don't know what is.

Good for Roaches

We've been working with the kids on thinking about what would make sense in their reading. Rather than just having kids focused on sounding out words we want them to think about the meaning as well. The awesome ESOL/reading teacher I co-teach with did a lesson with a big book last week. She covered up certain words in the book and had the kids list what the word could be. It was a great lesson.

She used the book, One Cold, Wet Night. One of the words she covered was weta, an insect in New Zealand. The kids did not manage to come up with weta, of course. They listed cricket, grasshopper, and such. One child suggested roach. This child is a bit of a talker and as the teacher called on the next student, he continued talking. He was explaining that he thought of roach because they have a lot of roaches at his house. The teacher, in an attempt to keep the lesson moving, responded distractedly with, "Good for you."

It took a second for it to register with me. I don't think it ever sank in for the kid, thankfully.

Watching, Always Watching

Rafe Esquith framed his keynote speech around three things teachers need to remember and think about everyday. I've been thinking about all three of them a lot lately, but I'm going to focus on one for a moment. He said that teachers are role models. Basically he was saying that, like it or not, our students are modeling themselves after us. "If you don't think your kids are watching you constantly you are sadly underestimating their powers of observation."

I figured that out years ago so this didn't come as a surprise. However, it did push me to think about some of the things I do that maybe I shouldn't. I expect my students to be silent (or nearly so) as we walk down the hall out of respect for other classes. Unlike them, I talk to teachers frequently. In my defense I do so because those opportunities to talk to colleagues are few and far between and we tend to grab them when we can. Even given that fact I'm working on curbing this habit. I don't like the message that it sends to my students that they have to be respectful of other classes but I don't.

I also tend to talk to other teachers in my classroom while the students are reading independently. That doesn't happen as often because I'm usually conferencing with students, but it does happen and I don't think it sends the right message either.

I also am often still pulling things together in the morning as the students are coming in and getting ready for morning meeting. I set a timer (as a result of some serious dilly-dallying) and I'm not always ready when it goes off. I'm not sure how I'm going to have things ready better than I do now, but I've decided I must. I have to be on the carpet when the timer rings.

I guess my take away from Esquith's point is more focused on being respectful of my students in my position as a role model. I'm much more thoughtful about what my actions say to them and I'm grateful for that.

Rafe Esquith and KIPP schools

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to hear Rafe Esquith speak. Ever since reading Jay Mathews' book Work Hard Be Nice back in the spring I've been curious about Rafe Esquith. According to Mathews, the founders of KIPP cite Esquith as one of two significant influences and mentors (the other being a teacher in their building in their first years teaching). Esquith is well known for his various awards, books, and his students' Shakespeare performances.

I enjoyed Esquith's talks and found a lot to think about over the next little while. He did, without mentioning KIPP by name, say that those schools are not based on his classroom. He believes that their model is based on fear and bullying. He made these remarks in a smaller, breakout session, not in the main keynote.

I found his remarks on the subject of KIPP to be interesting. I found him to be charismatic, talented, and an engaging speaker. However, I also felt that he completely defines himself through his students. He has had many opportunities to leave the classroom and yet he remains there. That is admirable and I respect him for it. That said, I believe that one reason he is still in the classroom is because he cannot live outside of it.

I've got more thoughts and posts brewing based on his speech. He has many years of experience teaching some of our neediest students and there is much to learn from him.

TGIF

Because I can't bear to spend anymore time thinking about the absurd hoopla around President Obama's speech next week, I'm going to think instead about the amusing things first graders say.

During free choice several kids are building towers to run marbles through (I hope that makes sense, I couldn't think of a better way to describe this toy). Several marbles escape and go rolling across the room. Another child notices and hollers, "They're losing their marbles!"

All I could think was, "No, I'm pretty sure I'm the one doing that."

This morning we went to the library and our old librarian was there subbing for our new librarian. Our old librarian retired last year so the kids remembered her from kindergarten. One of them said to her, "Why are you here? You're retarded."

Thank goodness these kids make me smile everyday.

Desperate for Ideas

A fabulous fourth grade teacher at my school just dropped by briefly to ask me to mull over a challenge in her classroom. She has a new student (just arrived from Central America) who is illiterate. He can not read in Spanish; he can't actually identify all the letters in the Spanish alphabet. According to records he was in school in his country and repeated one or two grades.

She's looking for ways to engage him and help him learn at a level completely different from the rest of her class. Any thoughts?

Update: For more details and/or to get the story from the student's classroom teacher,go here.

She Who Hesitates...

Yesterday evening, at the end of a long school day and afternoon with my girls, I noticed the way I was responding to them. I found that I was hesitating before any question or comment that might have been harsh or chastising. It wasn't a conscious decision by any means, but it meant that I enjoyed a fun evening with my daughters. At points when I would often respond to them in ways that would increase conflict my hesitation meant that I managed to use a different tone, question, or phrase and keep things positive.

I'm not sure how to ensure that I hesitate in responding to my daughters more often. I'm even less certain of how to do this in my classroom. With 20 students, rather than just my 2 girls, I tend to respond to things immediately, if not sooner. As a result, I often regret my actions and wish I had been able to react in a way that did not escalate the situation.

Thinking about this reminded me of a comment from Rafe Esquith when he spoke at an event here recently. He said, "When I learned to shut up and listen I became a better teacher." One goal for this year is to listen more.

There Are No Words

This afternoon I was talking with another teacher about one of my students from the past. This teacher will be working with her now. We were talking so that the new teacher would understand the trauma that had occurred in this student's life the year she was with me.

As I was attempting to recount the story I found myself using vague phrases and unable to state the facts. The fact is that this girl was raped by a family friend on several occasions. Saying those words out loud was shockingly hard. Why is that?

First Grade Meditations

My little Beyonce had a rough morning yesterday. She and I have been talking about having lunch together, but her behavior has meant that I haven't been willing to do it yet. Yesterday morning was so awful that I had her eat lunch in the office (something I rarely resort to). Surprisingly, the afternoon went really well. At least with Beyonce it did.

Near the end of the day, at the start of our free choice time, another little girl was crying. It had been a long day and this was not the first crying incident so I wasn't very patient with it. Beyonce was sitting near the crying one and I asked, "Are you helping the situation?" I was clearly thinking she was the cause of the crying. My wording was confusing, but once she understood she assurred me that she was helping, so I got the rest of the kids going on free choice.

When I returned to talk to the crying child, Beyonce had herself, the crier, and another friend sitting cross-legged in a circle. They were holding their hands up, fingers pinched together, eyes closed, chanting "ohmm."

It was brilliant. Now if I could just get her to give that a try when she starts to lose control.

Responsibility , Respect, and a Recording Artist

Another run-in with one of my little ones today made me think about several things. One is that I need a name for her here because I'm sure I'll be writing/thinking/tearing my hair out over her a lot. I've decided to call her Beyonce. I choose the name because of a couple of experiences with her. On the first day of school I take a picture of every child in my class which I use throughout the year for a variety of purposes. She was the only child to truly 'strike a pose' for the picture and I loved it! The second event was during our free choice time when she was part of a group playing with Lincoln Logs (I found them at a yard sale). One kid was actually building with them but the others had found other uses. This little girl was holding one like a microphone and singing and dancing!

Today she had a fabulous morning and then things fell apart after lunch. It's a long story but I finally sent her to another classroom to calm down and when she returned it got ugly again. We brought in one of our after-school-care teachers who knows her and took her somewhere quiet to settle down. That worked well. I don't think I handled things perfectly, but I'm not sure there is much I could have done to improve the situation.

So, I'm left wondering what to expect of this six-year old. I've wondered this before. If a child's problems stem from parenting or family issues (I'm not sure that is true here or not), what does that mean? Should we cut them some slack? Should we hold even tighter to counteract the other?

I don't feel like I can expect the same behavior from a child with a difficult home life than I can from a child with a stable home. These are children. They are going to struggle with emotions, impulse control, focus, and so much more even when things are going well for them. When things are tough of course they will act out or shut down. How do we help them build skills to cope with life, much less teach the prescribed curriculum?

I feel as though I've rambled on a lot here without ever truly managing to get at the point or question that is in my head.

Walk This Way

It hit me today that this year's class is able to walk down the hallway so much more quietly and under control than last year's class could do. That's a big positive for the start of the year.

On the other hand, the big negative is that I've never had so many students who regularly pick their noses and a couple who often touch themselves.

It makes me yearn for the days of struggling to walk down the hallway.

Hard at Work

I wrote last week about offering my students choices about where they work at any given time. One thing that surprised me is that students are working in unexpected places. This first little table was passed on to me by our fabulous librarian because she knew about my tables at different heights and thought the kids might like this as a place to work. She was right.


Working on the carpet is not new. Kids did it last year, but only at fairly specific times. They would stretch out there to read or play a math game. This group almost always has at least one kid on the carpet, no matter what they are doing in the way of work.

The bench here was originally a printer table. It was passed on to me years ago by our retired librarian. My father and sister added the bulletin board to the back and reinforced the bench so that it would hold me or students. It sits in our math nook area and has only really been discovered as a working spot by a few students.


The two desks here are where the students sign in every morning. I put them there as a thinking spot for kids who need a break from class. No one has used it that way yet, but many students have sat there to work.

This table came from a house my sister lived in years ago. She was one of several renters living there when the owner decided to sell. She was the last to move out and ended up with lots of things folks had left behind. My plan for the table was to be part of a writing center (the trays behind this student held various paper options last year). Now I don't think I can put anything on the lower part of the table because the kids expect to be able to work there.

Students have also taken to working at the trapezoid table near my desk that I will use for meeting with reading groups and other small groups and the small desk I set up for my co-teachers to have a home base when they are in the room.

I was surprised by how the students have adopted all these spots for working, but it was a pleasant surprise. I can't wait to see what happens when our library area with the couch opens!

High and Low of the Day

I tried to tackle too much today. It's only the second week of school with first graders, I should know better. I was trying to have several things going on at once and it got a bit out of hand. I stopped the class and sent them back to the carpet to reevaluate. One little girl refused to cooperate. We've run into this more than once in the past week but we've been able to make things work so far. Today, not so much.

I gave her a couple of options, finally told her I would count to 3 and she needed to be doing her job as a first grader or take a break across the hall in a kindergarten classroom. She didn't want to pick either choice. After counting to 3 I took her hand to head across the hall. She wouldn't go. I quickly decided that I couldn't get into this power struggle right then and picked her up and took her across the hall.

It didn't even take the entire walk across the hall for me to recognize that I had not handled this well. Her behavior wasn't really any different from what we'd seen so far, but I was so frazzled by the other things going on that I didn't have the wherewithal to work this out with her.

When I returned to get her after about 2 minutes I sat down with her in the hall. I told her how much I like her and how high my hopes are for her. I don't know if what I said mattered because her teary, hesitant response was, "So you're not going to call my mom." I reassured her that I had no intention of calling her mom, that I wanted the two of us to come up with a plan for a good year. I hope I figure out how to make that happen!

Ugh, I hate when I realize that the issue was me, not the student.

On the positive side, I sewed a skirt for my tall table and I'm so excited by it! You can see the 'before' picture here. This is so much better.

Sweeter Side of Bill O'Reilly

This week's Parade magazine has an article by Bill O'Reilly, What President Obama Can Teach America's Kids. That title by that author was just begging to be read. I'm still wondering what compelled O'Reilly to write it.

To a less cynical person the article might read as a positive take on the president. Clearly, I'm more cynical than I like to think.

O'Reilly lists the various lessons Obama can teach: forgiveness, respect, persistence, hard work, and anything is possible. Good lessons. But O'Reilly can't leave it at that.

He says, "President Obama was just 2 when his father abandoned him and his mother in Hawaii." I've read Dreams from My Father and nothing in it suggests abandonment. However, I was willing to let that one slide.

Then he writes, "Even though his mom and dad apparently put their needs ahead of his, he speaks of them in mostly affectionate terms. He finds a way not to demean them." Mostly affectionate terms? Apparently finding a way not to demean someone is too tough for O'Reilly.

One last quote, "That man had no fatherly guidance, is of mixed race, and had no family connections to guide him into the world of national politics." I'm guessing Obama's grandfather was a pretty good guide. Also, let's not forget the wisdom of the women in his life.

There are other backhanded compliments throughout, but I think I've ranted enough to feel better. Thanks for indulging me.

Books in the First Four Days

This year I decided to try something new to start off independent reading. I've been collecting multiple copies of various books and attempting to have many from various series as well. In this first week I've read as many books as possible and then put them out for the kids during independent reading. It's been highly successful! The kids are very engaged in reading these books.

We also read two wordless picture books to model for the kids how to read books without words. The goal was to help them read books with text that is too difficult for them. Until we really get into guided reading they won't likely have books they are truly able to read yet. So we wanted to set them up for successful independent reading. Again, it's worked pretty well.

The video above shows all the books we've read together by lunchtime on the fourth day of school. We're copying the covers of the books and hanging them up to help the kids remember them. I'm really good at starting things like this, less good at following through.

(I wish I could remember where I read about having multiple copies of books the teacher reads for the kids. I have no idea.)

I Wonder What His Mom Would Think

I'm clearing out pages from a few notepads and I came across a quote I wrote down last year:

When our mothers don't have babies, they ask strangers to be in their family.

I don't remember the context of the quote, but I couldn't throw the page away without sharing it.

Choices, Choices, Choices

I firmly believe in the power of choice for kids. I will admit that I'm not nearly as good about making sure choice is built into our day as I would like to be.

I recently heard another first grade teacher talk about ways she incorporated choice in her classroom. One thing she did that really struck me was not assigning seats and setting her tables at different heights. Not assigning seats is new to me. I've always assigned seats, although I have let kids make requests.

I was really excited about this possibility. So, this year I have one tall table where students can stand to work, two typical tables with chairs, and one table on the ground for students to sit on the floor and work.

So far, I'm thrilled with it. The kids haven't seemed fazed by it at all and just find a spot at different times throughout the day.

One interesting unexpected result is that the kids have adopted other areas of the classroom for themselves. I have one desk set up as a home base for the other teachers who come to work in my room and the kids have sat there to work. One certain kid has totally grabbed it as his place. I also have a desk sitting alone for students who need a moment on their own before rejoining the group. Kids have also decided to work there. It seems that no spot is off limits to them. It seems that the classroom is ours rather than mine already. I couldn't ask for more than that on the third day.

(Just as an aside, I'm sewing a skirt for the tall table. It is driving me crazy that it looks so messy with all the stuff underneath it. I want it for storage, but I want it to look nicer. We'll see how the sewing goes, I'm not much of a seamstress.)

Rookie Mistake

Today was our first day of school. We crammed a lot into the few hours we had together. One of the things we did was sketch quick pictures of ourselves. Before sending the first graders off to sketch we talked briefly about the different parts they might have in their picture. I used thinkblocks to help with this idea. After a bit I asked the kids to return to the carpet with their pictures. A couple of kids shared some parts of their picture and we used the thinkblocks again. Then I sent them off in pairs to use the thinkblocks to discuss the different parts of each of their pictures.

As I walked around the room I kept gently reminding kids of the directions because so many were playing around with the blocks. After a few minutes I realized this was my own fault.

Tomorrow we will spend some time just exploring with the thinkblocks. Then we'll dig back in with them in more structured ways. I really do know better than to hand 19 first graders a new manipulative/tool/toy and not give them time to play around. I'd want time to play around!

New Year, New Kids

We had our open house this afternoon so that kids and parents could come to meet their new teacher. It's the real kick off for the new year. I love meeting the kids for the first time (or seeing them again if I knew them in kindergarten) and seeing them with their families.

Last year was my first year in first grade and meeting the kids was a whole new experience. The two years before that I was teaching our gifted fifth grade class and I knew most of the class long before they arrived in my room. The year before that I had looped up to fifth grade with my class. So, it has been a long time since I have gotten a bunch of new kids just like the previous year.

I really enjoyed meeting them this afternoon, but as I watched them wander around checking out the room and each other, I felt a tinge of disappointment. I don't have an attachment to them (yet). For all the challenges of last year, I adored those kids. I want them back.

I know that in a few days I will love these little ones just as much. I know that I will be carrying their joys, successes, frustrations, and issues with me all day everyday. But right now they seem like outsiders in my classroom.

It's time to think about the best ways to make it our classroom and make it quick.