A 19th Century Addition to my Classroom

The first picture is from a one-room schoolhouse near Placerville, California, very close to wear gold was first found. I was so excited to see a piano in the schoolroom. Last spring I discovered a piano in a storage closet at school. I got permission to store it in my classroom instead.

For those last few weeks of school we used it very little. We did sing happy birthday when appropriate and we learned a few songs about worms during our study of those creatures. I really want to use the piano well this year but I have not had any epiphanies about how to do so.

Any thoughts? Advice? Great music? Anything?

CMK - Peter Reynolds

How long after a conference is too long to post reflections? This was in my drafts and I'm disappointed in myself for not posting it before now.

Peter Reynolds spoke to us briefly during a visit to FableVision (total geek excitement for me about that visit!). I've heard him speak before and it is always a wonderful experience. One thing he said this time was that we need to stop making excuses for ourselves as artists. How many teachers draw something when modeling for their students and say, "I'm no artist" or "Pardon my artwork, I know you'll do better." I've said things like that.

Reynolds' point was that saying that suggests to our students that our work is not good. Then when they create similar work they see it as not good enough. This is something I'll be watching in the future.

For me it begs the question. Why don't we allow our students to see us struggle? When I struggle to make a picture look the way I want, why don't I share that? When I struggle with explaining something I don't fully understand my students should see that. Watching me struggle is a good model for them.

Adventure Playground

After having the opportunity to visit Tinkering School I was clearly prepped for taking my daughters to Adventure Playground in Berkeley. We had a fabulous afternoon and I was astounded by this place. It's been around for more than 30 years, nearly my entire life.
I didn't expect a traditional playground but I didn't have any idea what it would be. The space is full of structures kids have created and added to. My daughters found pieces of trash and traded them in for paint. Then they got a saw and we cut a small piece of wood that looked like a flag. They then got a hammer and nails to attach it to one of the structures. They left their mark!

The playground provided these sticks with magnets hanging from them for kids to search the space for loose nails. Brilliant.

At one point in the midst of our exploring, creating, and playing four kids worked together to bring over this jungle gym. I have no idea where it was before they moved it but they brought it to a big open space. The cooperation was impressive to watch.

My younger daughter is 3 1/2. She is pretty independent and immediately began exploring today. Her older sister will be seven in a couple of weeks and she is more hesitant. She wanted to know where I was all the time. However, she climbed over the entire netting, rode the zip wire numerous times and tackled the tire wall again and again. She was much more of a risk taker in this environment than she normally is. I wish we could return next week and the week after. I think it was really good for her.

The question now is how do I take what I saw here and at Tinkering School and incorporate it into my classroom? I'm not sure yet but it feels very important to me, especially after watching my daughter.

Kids Learn, Like It or Not

I have more pet peeves than I would care to admit to having, but this is a significant one. "That Make Learning Fun" suggests that, naturally, learning isn't fun at all. A nationwide child care center had a tag line for a while that read, "Where Everyday Learning Feels Like Fun". Every time I read it I would cringe.

Anyone who has worked with young children knows that learning is amazingly, astoundingly fun for them. Adults love to learn, on their terms. They take art classes, join clubs, meet with friends who share a passion. Human beings need to learn. It's a driving force for us.

I get frustrated at this time every year as back to school commercials show up depicting the return to the school year as a dreaded event (but if you buy their product it will be more bearable!). Often in TV shows and movies, both for adults and children, school is presented as boring and hated. That is probably true for some kids. However, many children, especially elementary aged children, love going to school. Why are we socializing them into believing it is an awful place? Why are we teaching them that learning is dull, hard, not fun at all?

I'm not suggesting that we can't do a lot to make schools better places for kids. I am suggesting we don't need to teach kids our perceptions of school. Let them build their own, many will be positive.

(First) Tinkering School Visit

Due to the fact that my only sister learned to paraglide from Gever Tulley we have had family involvement in Tinkering School for years now. My sister has helped with planning and implementing Tinkering School for several years (you can see her in pictures in Gever's TED talks). Two years ago my parents went out to help with one week. Somehow, however, I had never managed to go. (My daughters and I have been lucky enough to spend time with Gever and his wife, Julie, on a couple of occasions.)

On our first full day in California we headed down to the Tinkering School location. It was the final day for the seniors (the older group) so we got to see the results of all their thinking, tinkering, and work.

They spent the week working toward the structures you see here. They were created with pallets, eucalyptus, and twine. Impressive. You can read a lot more about this on the Tinkering School blog. They slept in these structures the last night.

The thing that impresses me most about Gever, and seeing him at Tinkering School just reinforced this, is that none of this is about him. I'm not saying that as well as I would hope, but I can't figure out a better way. Gever almost fades to the background. He's there and aware of everything going on, available to help anyone who needs it, but never forcing himself on anything or into anyone's work.

There's a lesson in that for teachers.

No Words

For the past eight years we've been on a modified calendar. This week should have been our first week with the kids. Instead, it's been a roller coaster of a week.

On Monday morning, at 10:01, two teachers at our school gave birth (yes, two teachers on the same day at the same time - we are a close staff :).

Yesterday another staff member, a parent liaison with our school for as long as I can remember, died of cancer. She's been ill for two years and those have been hard years.

As I mourn today I keep trying to remember those two new babies. The promise of their lives, the potential for all they will do in the world, the wonder of newborns. It doesn't take away the pain, but it helps.

This woman gave more to our school than any one person could be expected to do. She knew everything about our students, everything. She translated for conferences and often was able to make points, emphasize concerns, and say things we didn't feel we could say. I had a student, years ago, who lived with her after this girl's mother had died and her father could not safely care for the kids. In fact, she updated me on this previous student just last year.

When she first became ill we were all sure she would recover quickly. She was the strongest, most determined woman we knew. However, our principal was concerned about the time she would have to be away from the school. Her concern stemmed from the fact that she knew who really ran things at our school.

She will be sorely missed. Her influence, however, will live on at our school, in our students, and beyond for years to come. In my mind, she will now be our school's guardian angel.

Classroom Makeover

I should wait to share pictures of my recent work in the classroom for when I've got it all set up and looking good, but I can't. After eight hours of painting over the past three days I am so excited by my new, blue wall that I have to show it off!

That's the view (cluttered by lots of junk) when you first walk in my classroom. I've wanted to paint one wall of my room for some time now. My administrators had no problem with the idea. I was just lazy.

I love this time before school starts. Everything is possible.

Great Gooney Bird Book Club

We did it! We had a kids' book club meeting tonight!

It was small, only three kids. But it was great fun. Before our meeting each of the kids (and their folks) read Gooney Bird Greene by Lois Lowry. They seemed to all enjoy the book, thankfully.

We talked a bit about the main character and then I gave each child an outline of a paper doll so that they could create an outfit for her. They had identified Gooney Bird's clothing as one of the things that was especially distinctive about her. We also had a bunch of necklaces, ribbons, rings, bracelets, and such so that the kids could dress up like Gooney Bird. As the kids worked on their drawings and dressed up they were laughing about different parts of the book. It was fun to listen to their thoughts.

After eating dinner we discussed the other students in Gooney Bird's class. After listing as many as we could (their list was much longer than I expected!) each talked about who they were most like and why. Listening to each others' thoughts, of course, made them change their mind frequently. We also talked about Gooney Bird's favorite word (at least in our opinion): Suddenly... She uses this word in all of her stories at least once. We thought about things we might say following 'suddenly...' At the very end we looked at a list of all the stories Gooney Bird told and talked about the order they happened in her life and our favorites.

As a school we are talking about hosting kids' book club evenings two or three times this year for first and second graders. (I think family book club would be a better term.) I'm very excited about the possibilities, especially after tonight. One thing I did decide based on tonight is that we won't use this book. It was wonderful for these kids. But we want books that we can use in translations for many of our families and this one has so much fun with language that I'm not sure it will work as well in translation.

Our first book will be a wordless picture book in the hopes that everyone will find it accessible and will draw people in. No final decisions have been made for the one or two other titles for this year. I'd like to use beginning chapter books because first and second graders think chapter books are special. But I also want books that have a lot of meat to them. There is still a lot to iron out but the possibilities are exciting.

CMK - Still More Deborah Meier and Alfie Kohn

As a first grade teacher (and the mother of a six year old) I am well aware of how strong the need to be first is in children of that age. Others have noticed it as well.

I think six year olds are not the only ones with this urge however. As a country we are constantly trying to be first in any positive comparison.

At CMK Alfie Kohn pointed out that anytime we want to be first we are hoping that others will do poorly. Hearing him say it felt like a slap in the face. As with many things Kohn says it seems so obvious now.

We are connected in so many ways to our allies, enemies, and everyone else that hoping they do poorly not only reflects badly on us but may also hurt us in the long run.

I spend a lot of time every year working toward a community of learners who work together, support each other, and learn alongside each other. It seems a worthy goal for everyone, not just first graders.

CMK - More Deborah Meier and Alfie Kohn

Rereading my notes from Constructing Modern Knowledge (something I should do more often) I am struck by the connections I see between various conversations and presentations. Those connections did not jump out at me during the conference. I'm glad to have the time to review and notice.

In an earlier post I wrote about Gary Stager's remark that if we want kids to be good at learning they should spend time with good learners.

Now I notice that Deborah Meier said, "I want kids to keep company with strong and powerful adults so that they grow up to be strong and powerful adults."

Teachers (and educators of all sorts) are role models for students. They spend a significant amount of time with us. It certainly makes good sense for teachers to be good at learning and strong and powerful. As is often true, what makes good sense to me doesn't seem to be the popular opinion.

Legos, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Education

Thanks to all the Lego fun at CMK a couple of weeks ago we've become a family obsessed. We've collected a ridiculous number of Lego pieces of all shapes and sizes from ebay, craig's list, and the Lego store. We've already built a robot with our Pico cricket set (from craig's list).

Today we decided to head into Washington, D.C. to the National Building Museum for their Lego Architecture exhibit. We'd never been to this museum and it was a wonderful experience.

The Lego exhibit was small but astounding. It was a collection of buildings made from Legos, including the World Trade Center, Fallingwater, and the Empire State Building. Adjacent to these creations was a space full of Legos and room to build. Folks of all ages were hard at work creating and a city had been growing on the tables all day.

There were quotes and fun facts all around the space. (Our six year old had more fun reading these than she did with any other aspect of this exhibit.)

This Frank Lloyd Wright quote struck me. I've long admired his work and this quote did not surprise me at all.

Today, however, it struck me in relation to education. We are constantly trying to design curriculum, schools, lessons, etc. before we've met the people who will be using them. How foolish of us.

Book Club Practice Run

Last month I wrote about wanting to start a book club for first and second graders. I then proceeded to completely drop the ball for weeks. So, we are on to meet next week for a practice run, just my daughter and a few of her friends. We're reading Gooney Bird Greene, thanks to suggestions on that previous post.

Now I'm back with a new request. I want to structure this book club meeting with some talk about the book but also with some activities. Any brilliant ideas for activities we can do with Gooney Bird Greene? Thanks!

CMK - Deborah Meier and Alfie Kohn

As I review my notes from our time with Deborah Meier and Alfie Kohn I expect I will have a few more posts coming.

After my last post about our time with James Loewen, this quote from Meier (or Debbie as she was called at CMK) hit home: "If democracy is what we are training children for we can't tell them ahead of time that there are right and wrong answers."

It's amazing to me how even first graders have already got this figured out. From a very early age children have determined that the adults in their lives want the right answer to things. (I know Dan had a post about how his facial expressions sent the message to students and his attempt to create a poker face, but I can't find it now.)

One of my big goals all year, every year is to ask students to explain their answers - right or wrong. It's something I try to remember with my daughters as well. However, quite often I realize I have reinforced a 'correct' answer or cringed at a 'wrong' one.

I recognize that we (my students and myself) learn more from a wrong answer than we do from a right one. I know that focusing on right answers reduces the risk taking my students will attempt.

In spite of that knowledge I default to looking for right answers. I appreciate Meier's idea of why this focus is detrimental to our students. Hopefully it will serve as a reminder for me this year.

CMK - Jim Loewen

The first day of Constructing Modern Knowledge was spent with Jim Loewen. He is the author of Lies My History Teacher Told Me and several other books. He was a delightful gentleman to spend time with (we had dinner with him Sunday and lunch on Monday) and interesting to hear.

Early on in his talk to us he said something that struck me and stuck with me: our job as citizens is to bring into being the America of the future.

Think on that for a moment. It's a powerful concept. It's a big responsibility for all of us. Especially for teachers. We have that job both as citizens and as those teaching the next generation of citizens.

How differently would we lead our daily lives if this were a guiding thought? Would it change how we teach and interact with children? It seems to me that bringing into being the America of the future requires a bigger vision and more long-term thinking and planning than we see happening in education today.

Loewen's point about this included the idea that history is intensely relevant to this purpose. I think he is right. Sadly, history is getting pushed to the edges of our schools as reading, writing, math, and science dominate, solely because they will be tested.

Summer Book Club (for work!)

A bunch of teachers from my school are reading A Place for Wonder by Georgia Heard and Jennifer McDonough. We are meeting three times throughout the summer to talk about it. Of course, not everyone can make it to every meeting, so we set up a wiki to share our thoughts. The added bonus to the wiki is that anyone can join us. So, if you have read or want to read A Place for Wonder please share your thinking! I added all our notes from our first meeting and I will do so again after we meet tonight.

Big Ideas from CMK10

After four full days in Manchester, NH I am still overwhelmed. I have so many notes from James Loewen, Deborah Meier, and Alfie Kohn's sessions that they will need posts of their own for me to process them properly.

Gary Stager began our time together and one of the first things I wrote down has stuck with me, even after four days of amazing, thought-provoking work. He said, "If we want kids to be good at learning it's not a bad idea to have them hang out with great learners."

As teachers we are often (in fact almost always) so focused on our teaching and what we do in front of the class, whether that is the class as a whole, a small group, or an individual student, that we have lost sight of ourselves as learners. How can we truly help students to learn if we don't learn as well.

In addition to the amazing thinkers and learners with whom we spent time, we also had time to work on projects. Brian Silverman took a bit of time to talk to us about computers and their history (he has been involved in aspects of computer programming and educational computing for decades). At one point he was asked, "How do you respond to people who say technology is just a tool?" Brian seemed genuinely perplexed by this question. He responded by saying that technology is a tool, so is writing. He continued, "I'm not sure I understand the use of the word 'just' in that sentence."

That's by far the best response I've ever heard.

Others have written more thoughtful, clear reflections on this experience than I have managed so far. See Chris Lehmann and Brian C. Smith's posts. Also, if you have a ton of free time you can check out the pictures and videos on flickr from the event. There are some great ones!

Constructing Modern Knowledge 2101

Genius. Passion. Kindness. Humility.

Those are the four words that have flown through my brain again and again for three days now. I will write more about this conference. It's the only way I will manage to even begin to process everything I have heard, discussed, and talked about.

I am grateful for the time I had with all of these people.

ISTE Sessions

I discovered at last year's ISTE (or NECC) that the sessions were not the best part for me. I did attend some but was ofter disappointed. So this year I left myself plenty of time for conversations and other fun.

The best session I attended, by far, was Let's Do It: Planning for Technology in the Primary Classroom by Kathy Cassidy, Maria Knee, and Amanda Marinnan. These three educators have been guides for me since I moved to first grade. (They have also been wonderfully kind and generous.) They talked about what they do in their classrooms and why. You can get the basic idea from their wiki.

There were some good poster sessions for K-2 or K-5 but there were not a lot of options. I don't know if there are not too many proposals for sessions at these levels or if ISTE is not accepting them. However, the demand is there. Every session I attended was packed.

Two sessions were fine but very focused on tools/websites. I would guess that 95% of the audience was thrilled with this. Teachers, especially in elementary schools, are desperate for ways to get their students involved with technology. I was a bit disappointed because I was hoping for more depth. There were plenty of tools/websites shared that I will use. However, I would like more information on why to use certain things and what it will do for my students.

I hope to get some of my thoughts from the best parts of the conference, the conversations, together soon.

(For those interested, this wiki has an extensive list of websites for use with primary kids.)

ISTE 2010 Presentation

We (myself and two other fabulous teachers from my school) are presenting at ISTE in about 8 hours. We are discussing the real world application of web 2.0 tools in K-5 classrooms. We have a delicious site with links to the examples we are sharing.

I'm really excited about it, but it also signals the end of the fun. We're heading home early tomorrow afternoon.

I miss my daughters and my husband greatly. Still, I'll be sad to leave. Not sad to go home, but sad to leave ISTE. That may not sound like it makes sense, but it is perfectly clear to me.

This has been five days of jam packed fun, thinking, and some chaos. Hopefully I will manage to make some time to seriously reflect and post some thoughts.

Book Clubs for All

Every Mother's Day our music teachers do a tea for the mothers of all the first graders. The kids learn lots of songs about mothers and each class writes a poem to read. It's a fabulous event that was made more special for me this year as my oldest daughter is in first grade.

Her class's poem consisted of a series of lines that began with 'Some mothers' followed by various things the kids came up with. The line submitted by my daughter was obvious: "Some mothers go to book club and do work at dinner time."

I do go to book club, once a month. I don't work at dinner time and have no idea where that came from. It's been over a month and this line is still haunting me a bit.

This same daughter has requested a book club of her own. Initially I dismissed the idea but as I thought about it I came around. This would be a great event for our school. So, my daughter, a few friends, and I are trying it out this summer.

I'd like to use some chapter books that are appropriate for first and second graders. I want them to be meaty books with some depth. Cynthia Rylant's Van Gogh Cafe is one I have been considering. But I'm not coming up with much else. Advice please!