Striving for Balance

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's back to school I go...

2010-09-12T16:29:00.002-04:00

I know, I said I would be better at blogging. But the truth of the matter is, I didn't find out what I was teaching until August 20. So while I had intentions of planning and getting things prepared over the summer, I wasn't really able due to some issues within my school. But those are now settled, and I am happily teaching 3rd grade this year. It's a bit of a shift (I spent last year teaching a 1-2, and the two years before that in 2nd grade), but so far I LOVE it. It feels like a lifetime ago, but when I started teaching I taught 5th graders. While I enjoyed the conversations we would have, I found that they had too much drama and emotion, and needed a change. I think 3rd grade might be the perfect middle ground that I've been searching for. These students are old enough to be independent, while still being excited about school and interested in learning.

The school year is off to a fantastic start. I was able to keep the 2nd graders I had last year (7 of them) so about half of the class I was very familiar with and they knew many of the classroom routines that I was planning on using. I feel like we've accomplished so much in such a short amount of time. Perhaps it's the age change, as younger students take so much longer to complete things, but we actually accomplished the things that we needed to this week! For example, we were able to discuss our hopes and dreams, draw quilt squares of our hopes and dreams for a class quilt (and bless their little hearts, a good chunk of them wrote something about loving books or being a better reader as their hope for the year ;-), made our class rules and signed the class constitution, and completed two different "Getting to Know You" activities. We will continue these for the next few weeks to make sure all of them are comfortable with one another, but overall it was a great experience.

The highlight of the week had to be sharing one of my favorite books with the students. To jump start our discussion of hopes and dreams I read the students "An Angel for Solomon Singer" by Cynthia Rylant. If you've never read this book, go out and do so. As all of Cynthia Rylant's books, the words are beautiful, and the illustrations will take your breath away. It's the story of a man who moved from Indiana to NYC, and is living in a hotel for men. He hates his living situation, and eventually discovers a restaurant that helps him discover that "home" can be many different things. So as a class we discussed what Solomon Singer was hoping and dreaming about in the book. The kids were as taken with the story as I was. I later used the same book to launch Daily 5, discussing how one can "Read the Words" and "Read the Pictures" when reading a book. The real magic happened day 2. We were at reading time, and I told the students we would discuss the 3rd way to read a book, which was to "Reread a Book." So then, we reread Solomon Singer, stopping at our favorite words and pictures to reread and look a little closer. When we came to the end of the book, the class spontaneously burst into applause. *sniff sniff* Does it get any better than that??

Accomplishments and Highlights for the week:

Launched Daily 5 Read to Self. Students did this in 2nd grade, and it was much easier to get them focused and settled. By Friday, they read SILENTLY for 15 minutes. Amazing!
Discussing "What is Reading" to the students, and having a one little munchkin say, "It's like watching TV, but in your head."
Teaching 4 math lessons. While I was quite familiar with the 2nd grade curriculum (and the 1st grade curriculum was easy enough to implement), 3rd grade is a little trickier. I need to make sure I stay ahead of the lessons so I know what's coming!
Connecting with my new students and beginning to develop a positive classroom community.

Plans for next week:

Begin Word Study. I've done the Words Their Way assessment with them, and next week we'll begin to do some of the spelling activities that will become homework the following week.
Begin Social Studies. This one is all new for me, as the 3rd grade curriculum is TOTALLY different than the 2nd grade curriculum. Another change -- I'll only be teaching SS this year, and swapping with the other 3rd grade teacher, who will be teaching science. So that will be interesting.

Personally, it's taking a bit longer to settle into a routine around the house. I can't wait to meet this little pumpkin in October, but boy, it's sucking the life out of me, and sticking it straight into my feet! I come home exhausted, with what my husband affectionately refers to as "hobbit feet." *sigh* It makes things like making dinner, laundry, etc. a little more difficult to get to. But I'm recharged now, and looking forward to another week of school.

Happy Monday everyone :-)

Oops...

2010-06-23T21:17:00.001-04:00

Right, so...I guess my attempt to find balance this year didn't quite work out, as I abandoned this blog at the end of September!! This year was truly the busiest I think I've ever been. I spent the year providing professional development for my district a few times a month, plus taking two graduate classes each semester to complete my Reading Specialist license (which is now done, yayy!) All while attempting to have a relationship with my husband and extended family. So I suppose the title is appropriate -- clearly I'm still striving.
And while I think about next year, I realize that something needs to give, and quickly, as my husband and I are expecting our first child this October! So clearly, the focus on school needs to shift more towards things at home. With this in mind, I am not working this summer (it seems crazy to think that I have two months with not a whole lot planned). I have also extracted myself from almost all of my professional obligations outside of daily classroom time. And being done with classes should also help.
While the balance piece of my plan was not so successful, I did manage to have a successful school year. My students became passionate readers (all of them professing their love for reading on the last day of school). I was able to implement Daily 5 successfully. CAFE was not quite as successful, but I think I know what I need to do in order to make things work for me in the future now. And, I was able to teach a multi-age classroom! To me, that was the most amazing part of the experience.
So now, I think about the summer. I haven't quite formulated my goals for next year, because I'm not quite sure what my teaching situation will be next year. But I do plan on using some of my time this summer carefully reading and studying professional literature. I'll keep you posted on what I'm reading and what I'm thinking as the summer progresses. Until then, I'm planning on taking the next two weeks off and just relaxing and letting the stress from the school year disappear...

Happy Summer!!

3 Daily's Down, 2 to go...

2009-09-25T21:05:00.003-04:00

I cannot believe how fast this year has flown by. It seems like I just got these little munchkins, and now they are capable of so much!!

Daily 5 went really well this week. I introduced Read to Someone, and they really loved it. They were so excited to be able to read with a buddy, and they really enjoyed having different ways of reading with a buddy. It was great to see them so excited, and it was also nice to see them be able to pick partners so easily.

My only complaint is time. Oh how I wish I had 20 more minutes in my day!! During this Launching phase I'm really having a hard time fitting in a mini-lesson on anything other than the Daily 5 element that we're learning that week. I have 80 minutes of reading time -- how does it fly by so quickly? We get in two rounds of roughly 20 mins, and the last round is always shorter. I'm guessing our launching mini-lessons are longer than the allotted 10-15 mins. I know we will get there, and soon probably, but it's frustrating because I see so many needs and want to tackle them all. I have been trying to tuck in at least a read aloud with thinking during writing or at another time during the day so it's something, but time flies by.

All my students have their names on post-its. We're working on being able to verbalize our goal. Next week I'm going to give the students choice between Read to Self and Read to Someone. We'll be introducing Write about Reading (instead of Work on Writing). I think the kids will be excited to be able to draw and write about the books they have been reading. I know they are loving using post-its to leave "thinking tracks" in their books!! I know that in a few short weeks I will have introduced all the Daily's and the students will be choosing between then and I won't be doing these management mini-lessons anymore. I'm looking forward to having this amazing structure in place, so that I can really focus on instruction and know that my students are getting so much out of their work time.

The other new piece that I am incorporating this year is Responsive Classroom. I've been really struggling with kids calling out, not getting to the rug on time, etc. Little infractions which cause big time wastes. So we discussed logical consequences this week, and learned about Apologies of Action. My thought process was "well, they're only 6-8 years old -- they can't help that they call out, are slow, whatever." But truthfully, they can. So we discussed taking a break and losing privileges for calling out and not being on the rug on time. I had a handful of students who had to leave the rug because they were calling out. I had a whole group of them who came to the rug late, and so I said "You weren't following directions, so you lose the privilege of being on the rug with the rest of us." And ya know what? The next time, they were all where they needed to be on time! So two light smacks on the hand for underestimating my students! I think we are well on our way to an amazing school year!!

Another week down!

2009-09-20T15:34:00.003-04:00

It's hard to believe I've only been in school for 9 days with all these little ones have accomplished. So far this year, I feel very in control and that what I'm implementing is really working.

The Daily 5 goes well. Launching Word Work did not go as well as I had hoped. When I had first thought about Word Work, I had planned to launch a few different options each day, and then by Thursday/Friday be able to have students make choices about what to use. I think I forgot the "Correct/Incorrect Model" time, and things really suffered Monday. I went home Monday night and rethought my plan. On Tuesday I have them all 4 choices -- white boards, magnadoodles, stamps, or markers. Then we did the modeling, which worked SO much better. Then I had students make a choice, and we watched them to see if they knew how to get started on Word Work. By Friday, we were able to do about 10 minutes of Word Work. I am concerned that I am not being "strict" enough when it comes to stopping if one student is off task, but the students that are not doing things perfectly are typically the kids who wouldn't be able to sustain any kind of independent work.

I pulled my first strategy group. It was terrifying to step away from just watching them to focusing on the kids in front of me. But the whole class was doing so well, that I think it's well worth it. I'm looking forward to launching Read to Someone -- I can tell they will be super excited to do buddy reading!!

Next week:
Continue launching Writer's Workshop. It's going really well, but I really want to make sure they are writing connected text, and begin the discussion of stretching out their words. They do seem very excited to be "Real Writers" this year!

Launch Word Study. I will be having two Phonics groups, so creating meaningful activities for students to engage in independently was on my list for things to do this weekend.

Continue Math focus. It's going well, but I need to make sure I'm always thinking about independent activities for the students to be doing that will either reinforce or extend their thinking in math. My principal has really helped me out, and has made sure I have an Instructional Assistant in my class every day for math. This makes things SO much smoother.

Reread Daily 5 for Launching of Read to Someone. Reread CAFE for mini-lessons for the week. Excited :-)

As far as balance goes, my personal life is a bit on the non-existent side currently. I'm taking 2 graduate classes in order to finish my Reading Specialist license, so Tuesday and Wednesday I go straight from work to school, and get home around 7. While it's crazy, I will be done at the end of this year, and I do see the immediate affects of my learning in the classroom. I find all the work I'm doing really applicable to helping my little ones learn!! I'm also desperately trying to fit in taking my dog for long walks and actually spending time with my husband beyond just sleeping next to one another. This weekend was lovely -- neither of us had anything going on, so we actually got to hang out at home and veg, and get a lot of those household chores done. Hope everyone has a lovely week!!

Why I led a conga line through my classroom today...

2009-09-16T19:27:00.002-04:00

My kids read for 21 minutes straight! It was AMAZING!! AND it's only been 7 days of school. They are simply amazing. And the ones who can't actually read that whole time, are sitting silently and not bothering people around them (which for some of these kids, is an achievement!). I feel so happy that my students are finally engaging in real, authentic literacy activities and not just BUSY WORK. (Granted, I love not having to create or correct center work anymore!) So I told the kids that I would do a crazy dance around the classroom when they got to 20 minutes -- so we all did the conga! Super fun, super exciting. We are well on our way to building stamina during Word Work. Unfortunately we had to stop early today, and the kids were so bummed! They were so good about getting out and returning their materials neatly and carefully. I can just feel that this is going to be a special group and a special year.

I'm really trying to slow down the Writer's Workshop this year. We only launched it on Monday, so we just finished Day 3. I read Second Grade Writers which talks a lot about how the 1st unit is about setting up the Workshop, not so much improving the writing. I think I have frequently tried to improve writing to quickly, which ends to a less productive workshop later in the year. So this year I'm really trying to slow down and get routines in place so we can have a successful model to work from. First, I told them that my aunt is a real writer who has published book, and when she and her writer friends get together, they call it Writer's Workshop, so the fact that we have one is so special. Then we created this poster that says "Writer's Workshop Looks like, Sounds like, and Feels like" and I asked the students to come up with what the principal would see if he were to walk into the room and we recorded it. Then we recorded what the principal would hear if he walked into the room. We left the 3rd column until after WW. So then the kids went off 2 at a time, with the instructions "lets watch and see if WW will look like its supposed to!" and each time, it did!! I even turned on some classical music, which just set a nice tone in the classroom. At the end of about 15 mins, we stopped and shared our writing. The kids were groaning that it was time to move on to something else! Then we filled in the column on our poster about "What WW feels like" and they all came up with words like "fun, I get a lot of work done, happy" It was just lovely. I hope this energy can continue -- I'm just really enjoying this classes energy!

4 days down, 176 to go...

2009-09-11T23:42:00.002-04:00

So today was the official close to week one. All in all, it was definitely pretty good (albeit crazy schedule-wise).

As I said before, I have a very small class this year. Which means a lot of things that use to take much longer now take much less time! I am so impressed by what this group of little ones was able to accomplish in 4 short days. This is an incredibly nice feeling to have, as last year I was already pulling my hair out about my students!! I ran into one of the 3rd grade teachers today, and when I asked how she was doing, she told me, "terrible -- I hate these kids!" I'll admit, there was part of me that enjoyed that response. Not because I think anyone should hate kids, but just that they are terrible for her as well -- I think as teachers we tend to put the blame on ourselves when in actuality there are many other contributing factors!! So that was my guilty pleasure for the day.

I too frequently don't take the time to acknowledge the positive things that happen in my room each day. I think it will really help me to be more honest with myself to become aware of the things that go well, and what goals I can set to help me fix the things that didn't go well.

Positives for Week 1:

My students read silently for 15 minutes straight. Now, this doesn't include a special ed. student who may or may not have been napping for some of the time, and a few little ones who needed reminders to get themselves to work quickly and quietly. But for the most part, all the kids were reading. At the very least, everyone was quiet, which I feel is half the battle when trying to create space to confer and have small group meetings. So big kudos on that!
My students got through mini-lessons on Cross-Checkcing, Check for Understanding, Good Fit Books (IPICK), and were able to pick spots around the room successfully. This seemed pretty good for week 1 -- I hope its not a fluke!!
I was able to teach 2 math lessons a day for 2 days -- so 4 total math lessons! I need to work on exactly what the students are doing while I'm working with each grade, but I was able to get through the lessons and get some quality instruction in.
We discussed our hopes and dreams, drafted classroom rules, and drew pictures about what these rules would look like in action. Our rules are "Be kind to everyone; Listen to everyone; Be safe; Always try your best."
We completed many getting to know you/community building activities. We drew self-portraits, interviewed 3 students of the day and created readable stories about them, the "Face It, We're Cute" glyph, New Friend Bingo, and a classroom scavenger hunt. We also learned a few songs and were able to have Morning Meeting each day.
The students are getting pretty successful with attention signals. We'll continue to practice next week, but they did an awesome job of stopping their work and looking at me when these signals are given.

So all in all, that's a pretty great week! I have a few kids I need to work with on their behavior and becoming more independent. I have one little girl who needs to learn the difference between a big deal and a small deal, as her reaction to ANYTHING is major tears. But in general, we're in a pretty good space.

So my goals for next week/planning for the weekend:

Launch Writer's Workshop. I really want to focus on the launching part, and not so much the written content yet. I feel that if we have a successful Writer's Workshop launched at the beginning, we will be able to give more attention to content later in the year, thus making instruction more effective.
Begin our Science curriculum.
Begin using the Harvey "Primary Comprehension Toolkit" mini-lessons with the students. It begins with "Monitoring Comprehension" which ties in nicely with the "Check for Understanding" lesson that I taught this week.
Tie in read alouds with the science curriculum.
Plan purposeful math activities for the students to engage in when they are not doing direct instruction. In November we will be able to begin Fastt Math (a fact program on the computer) for my 2nd graders, so while I am working with the 1st graders they will do this. This won't get launched too soon, so we need some meaningful activities to take up the time!

I hope other people's first days/weeks are going well!

Choo Choo!!

2009-09-08T15:53:00.002-04:00

I have been fortunate enough to work with some brilliant teachers in the past five years. One of them likened the school year to a train, and that once the year begins you can't get off until the end. And even though you might like to get out, stretch your legs and take a little break, there just isn't the opportunity. So the summer becomes our "leg stretching time" while the year leaves us with a slight pain in our lower backs!

Regardless, my train has left the station for the year. And truthfully, it was a pretty nice start. Although I look forward to a few weeks down the road when routines are in place and are beginning to be internalized, students have a decent understanding of what our day looks like, and we're well into the school year. The beauty of today? I only had 14 students. Granted one is still in Syria and will be returning in the next few weeks, but still. Nothing can beat a small class size.

We did a lot of getting to know you activities. We had Morning Meeting (tomorrow we will discuss the expectations and create a "rules" list for those). We began Daily 5. This was by far the most exciting, as my students were able to read for 6 minutes straight on their second try! AMAZING!!! If this is a sign for things to come, then I look forward to wonderful things from this group.

I hopelessly over-planned, which was lovely to still have so many things I want to do. I've decided to postpone launching Writer's Workshop until next week, and use that time to do a few more getting to know you/responsive classroom/community building activities. With this being a group of 1st and 2nd graders, I want to make sure that routines are solidly in place, and I don't want to rush things.

So currently, I'm a pretty happy camper. I look forward to seeing what this group can do!!

My classroom is complete!

2009-09-03T21:00:00.011-04:00

The best change I made this summer -- THIS is my teacher desk. I got rid of the desk, and put all of my resources and books on the shelf behind the red table. The small pink and purple bins on the shelf are for guided reading/strategy group books and lessons. I feel like everything is right at my finger tips!!

Organized math materials (there are more on the other side). Behind here are two desks, which is my "Rest Stop" area, so this also serves to divide up the space a little and create a quiet place for kids to calm down.

Writing center. The cubbies have all different paper for the kids to use, and the red pocket chart is a place to keep track of where they are in the Writing Process. I'm planning on creating lots of anchor charts and using this space to house them so the students always know where to look.

I wanted the Word Wall to be lower and more accessible to students, so I turned one of my blackboards into one! These are the restickable words from Carson Dellosa.

Book Boxes (soon to be filled with books!) for the kids. Beneath and to the right are our library books, all organized into numbered bins. Each book has a sticker with the bin number on it, so even 1st and 2nd graders can put them back in the right place!!

CAFE and Daily 5 -- Ready to go!! (Behavior Bingo is in the bottom right corner too, as this is our meeting area).

View from the back of the room.

View from the door, facing into the room.

The Joy of Cleaning?

2009-07-27T17:24:00.002-04:00

I spent a few hours in my classroom this morning, cleaning, reorganizing, and just generally getting things in order. The custodian's always make a point of saying, "If I had the summer off, I would certainly wouldn't want to be spending it in the classroom!" but I truly enjoy spending some time in my room over the summer. There is something about the quiet, putting things away in the right, that I find quite relaxing.
I focused mainly on getting my library organized. We have a teacher who is coming down from 5th to join our 2nd grade team this year, so I put together a big box of books for her from my library. Keeping the library organized is always an irritation for me. I can't find books that I want, my students can't find books recommended to one another, whatever! Keeping books in the right place is a difficult task, especially for 1st and 2nd graders. But I think I will be in better shape this year. I have a helper coming in later in the summer, and his job is going to be to label each book with the number the corresponds with the book box the books are kept in. That way, all the students have to do is look at the number to figure out where the book should go.
The best part of today was going through some of the teacher books that I have used in the past in order to create centers and activities for students during Guided Reading time. I got rid of 80% of them!! The beauty of Daily 5 and deciding not to waste precious reading time with anything other than work that will actually support students learning to read!! I saved a couple so I have resources for when I'm going to be absent and need to create sub busy work, but in general I cleaned out quite a bit. Spending less time at the copier sounds like an excellent change for next year :)
Unfortunately I forgot my camera, otherwise I would post pictures. I have a few more days worth of work before I'm satisfied, but I feel much better about leaving for my trip with things in a slightly more organized state!! Speaking of which, we leave Wednesday for our trip to Europe. I'm looking forward to spending quality time with my husband without work or stress or anything else for 2 and a half weeks!! And, I'm not bringing any "work" books with me (I have been reading Growing Readers). Just a few mindless "beach" books to read before bed. Otherwise, I am putting school out of my head until I return August 15! Enjoy your summers!!

Summer is a time for reflection

2009-07-21T21:50:00.000-04:00

Greetings! I am a classroom teacher by day, and a housewife by night. While we currently have no children, my husband and I do have a sweet and wonderful dog who I adore. I have been a teacher for 5 years. I began my career teaching 5th for two years, then moved and taught 3rd for one year, and 2nd for two years. This year I am entering my newest (and possibly most difficult) challenge: teaching a 1-2 multi-age classroom.

As is usually the case, it takes me about 2 weeks to turn my brain off from obsessively thinking about the school year. This year it took a little longer as I am teaching summer school (which thankfully will be done Friday!!). But I can't help but reflect on the year I just got through and set goals for myself for the year ahead.

This past year was a particularly challenging one. I had students with a wide variety of academic needs, a handful of students with significant emotional and behavioral needs, and an instructional assistant (or para, depending on where you are) who had no idea how to do her job. Now don't get me wrong -- I value and appreciate IAs, and have never had a problem working with one in the past. This woman didn't have an educational bone in her body (think writing her grocery list while I was teaching a mini-lesson, and then asking the kids what she was supposed to work on). Anyways, last year was tough. But I can't help but think that it's partly because the routines and structures I put into place weren't quite what the group needed.

So thinking about this, I focus on the future. While reflecting has a place and time, there isn't much I can do about last year at this point. What I can do is focus on the future and figure out what I need to do next year so that I will not repeat my mistakes.

With that in mind, I created a list of goals for 2009-2010, and what I can do this summer to support this work. I'm hoping this will focus me on what I want to get done this summer, and also help me keep my eyes on what is most important. Here they are:

Goals for 2009 – 2010	Summer Work to Support
Writing Workshop: Implement and carry out full units of study. Plan purposeful lessons, and less “seat of my pants” teaching based on student need and mastery outcomes. Implement Portfolio Assessment	· Organize writing materials by unit of study (Binder? Bin?) · Create student “Mini-Offices” to support independent work · Create portfolio space within the classroom · Begin to create rubrics that reflect the reason for the writing assignment – while students should always have work in their folders, they should “publish” a piece at least once a month · Set up conferring notebook
Reading: Implement Daily 5 and CAFÉ reading. Read to Self Read to Someone Listen to Reading Working with Words Writing About Reading Plan more purposeful read-alouds Take more organized and structured anecdotal notes Keep track of read-alouds and purpose of each	· Reorganize and label classroom library · Create bulletin board space for necessary visuals · Organize Working with Words center, and create laminated guidelines for students to follow · Organize Writing about Reading and create laminated guidelines for students to follow · Create a list of books in my classroom to use with various reading strategies · Set up conferring notebook
Math: Get through two curriculum	· Plan activities for each grade to do independently · Create more “shoe box” games for students to use
Content Areas: Integrate reading strategies into the content areas.	· Go through RAZ kids and organize book titles that would go with each unit of study
Responsive Classroom: Create a classroom community that works together and respects one another.	· Read through Morning Meeting, The First Six Weeks, and Rules in School · Plan for first few Morning Meetings
Home-School Connection: Recruit parent volunteers to come into the classroom. Create weekly newsletter to go home on Fridays. More actively use website.

I'm planning on working in my classroom tomorrow afternoon for a few hours. After summer school is done on Friday, I hope to spend all Monday or Tuesday in school getting things in shape. The reason I'm trying to get things done early? My husband and I are actually leaving on our honeymoon on Wednesday 7-29! We got married in Sept. 07, and planned to go on a trip the following summer, but we ended up buying a house and moving, so we had to reschedule. Well this trip is paid for and I am ready for 17 days of fun under the Tuscan sun on a cruise around Italy. Thus the need to balance my professional life and personal one!!

Anyway, thank you for joining me on this journey of self-reflection. I hope the learning I go through this year will be of value to someone else!!