Day 133I have 22 students this year. I have two sets of twins. So, I'm working with twenty families. I sent out a Google form about three weeks before our November conferences. I described the conference options in the form. Parents had a choice. I outlined the options in the form. In the end, 86 percent of the students I teach led their own conferences. Interestingly, four of these families originally signed up for traditional conferences. Their own children influenced their decision to move forward with a student-led conference. Even though five families originally signed up for the hybrid option, in the end, only one ended up using hybrid option. Typically, at the end of the student-led portion, I ask if we need to move into the traditional portion of the conference. I'm never surprised when parents say that it isn't necessary. The one that required the traditional portion truly did need that time. The student's iep meeting is coming up and there were a few things, like testing, that needed to be discussed without the student present.
My big take-away is this: student-led conferences, even at the fourth-grade level, can provide families with all the information about student-learning and progress toward the standards if done right. After each of the conferences, I asked students if they were happy with their conference and especially, their conference choice. Students were. In fact, each said that they'll opt for the student-led conference in March. I think that it is truly the preparation that makes the student-led conference work for both families and students. The students, due to their preparation, felt very confident going into their conferences. The preparation that students did in advance ensured that the conference hit upon all areas of student learning and growth. As a result, families received a complete picture of the student's progress. In addition to clearly communicating about student progress, the student-led conference allowed my students to sit in the driver's seat. Having a voice at this table gave students agency and inspired them to set goals and plan for their future learning in ways they'd never done before. One of the most rewarding by-products for me was watching parents look at their students with such pride. I know that many of them are sitting beside their child in awe because in their hearts they know that their kiddo is doing something that they couldn't do at their age. The truth is that the kids in my room are doing something that I couldn't do at their age either. Education has certainly changed since the adults in the room were in fourth-grade. That, in and of itself, is a relief. Curious about the preparation? Here is the Student Preparation Worksheet that we use. Do you use student-led conferences? I'd love to hear about your experiences.
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Day 132I had a conference unlike anything I have ever experienced in my entire career. Families in my class had a choice of student-led conferences, hybrid conferences, or traditional conferences. I was already over-the-moon because so many families had carved out time to meet with me. The conferences are the most meaningful way to share information about student learning. Additionally, I was thrilled by the willingness of so many families to take part in student-led conferences. The students were well-prepared for their conferences. I'm not sure anything could have prepared me for my 3:20 appointment.
I have a student this year who is Brazilian. His family has been in the country for approximately three years...maybe a little more. If I didn't know this, I'd never guess based on this kid's English. His spoken English is really extraordinary when you consider just how long he has been in our schools. He is an effective oral communicator who can manage the nuances of the language. He can convey his great personality and sense of humor through language. He can communicate his understanding of literature and make deep connections through the use of spoken language. Nonetheless, he is still behind his peers, as you might imagine, in some areas like writing and reading. But let me tell you, he isn't far behind. This student also has some very real challenges with attention and hyperactivity. This taken into account, it is astounding to consider how far he has come. When you read his conference preparation, it is easy to see that this kid doesn't feel that great about himself. He is pretty candid is stating that he is not good at reading and writing. My student showed up with his mom on time for the 3:20 appointment and asked who would be translating for his mother. I told him that he would. He smiled and came into the room. Introductions were made and we began the real conversation. We talked about how he had transitioned into fourth grade and he shared a general overview of how he was doing in class. After he finished telling his mother about his progress in reading and writing I just had to interject. I slowly explained how impressed I was with his spoken language. Then I reviewed his progress in reading and specific skills he was working on. We reviewed writing and I noted all the things he was doing well and where we were focusing instruction so that he could take the next steps with his writing. Finally, I asked my student to explain to his mom that his teachers were so impressed with his work. That he was truly SMART and hard-working. That he had made progress in the past year in our school that was nothing short of remarkable and that she should be very proud of her boy. He was glowing and his mom was too. I couldn't hold back tears as this sweet boy explained all this, in Portuguese, to his proud mother. Now, let me share one other tidbit. This child is sweet but he is challenging to manage in the classroom. There are days that his behaviors wipe me out. He is full of energy and harnessing that energy for good (not evil) can be exhausting work. But today I saw him in a whole new light. I saw the whole child. Having this experience was something I will never forget. Never in all my years of conferencing have I been touched like this. Seeing my student in this light was a true gift. I know that the memory of his sweet voice, translating for his mother, will more than carry me through any tough day ahead. This kid has more than earned every drop of hard work I'll dedicate to educating and loving him. Today really was a gift. Day 131Politics can be a little tricky in the classroom. I teach fourth-grade but you'd be surprised at just how politically charged ten-year-olds can be especially in today's political classroom. Some might say that politics don't have a place in the classroom. I strongly disagree. Here is the challenging part. Given the historical voting data from the town where I teach, I can safely infer that my politics, generally, don't align all that well with the citizens in town. I have to assume, although it may not be true, that most parents would not appreciate me sharing my values with their kids. I don't. I never have. I won't. It is tricky business but I'm committed to having political conversations in the classroom when kids are curious. My students are curious. I proudly wore my "I voted" sticker on my sweater today. I had to vote this morning when I dropped my son off at the high school because I had a hair appointment after school. Voting is a priority. Getting the grays colored is too, especially the day before parent-teacher conferences begin! Anyway, when my students noticed my sticker, they immediately wanted to know how I voted. I told them that I don't share that information but that we would talk about the election later in the day. I wanted to give myself a little time to think about the conversation. I wanted to proceed thoughtfully. After lunch we gathered for #classroombookaday. I read, She Persisted by Chelsea Clinton. You might be making some kind of crazy inference right now...infer away! After we finished the book and chatted about it a little, I opened up the floor to discuss the election. These were the major points that were made (in no particular order:
Day 130As I look back at my last few posts it seems to me that I need to lighten up a little. Tonight, the focus is on comedy. Teaching is fun. Crazy events unfold in classrooms every day. There is no anticipating the crazy. Sometimes it comes straight out of the blue and lifts you off your feet. Last year, my colleague and I were both teaching in her room. Yes, there were three teachers actually and about 46 students in one room. We were running lines. Our BIG fourth grade play was coming up. It was crunch time. It was the end of the day. It was spring. It was smelly. The door between our rooms was ajar. Despite the large number of humans crammed into the room I suddenly heard my phone ringing. I was pretty sure that the office was calling to alert me because one of my student's dismissal plans had changed. Not wanting to miss the call I stepped back and then planned to turn and head toward the door so that I could get to the phone. Sometimes, things don't go as planned. I didn't plan for there to be a small chair directly behind me. I didn't plan to propel myself into the air and I didn't plan to hit the ground with such gusto that my full teacher-bladder would explode on impact. Truth. I popped up and ran for the phone. I missed that darn call. Now the office was paging me! That is actually when I realized that I wet my pants. I tied my raincoat around my waist, checked my ego, and somehow made it through the rest of the day (20 minutes or so) with my diminishing dignity as students asked me, "are you okay?" "are you sure?" "you fell kinda hard!" We got LOTS of laughs out of that one. We would still joke about it from time to time except for today I provided some fresh material! Let me set the stage. I was facilitating a number talks routine. I had just put some problems on the board for the students' consideration. There was noise in the hallway. I didn't want to shut my door because it was locked. While the kids were taking some think time to make sense of the problem set, I thought I'd unlock the door. I headed toward my desk looking for my keys while clutching my coffee cup. I tried to negotiate a gigantic inflatable chair (looks like a bean-bag chair) while not stepping on any children. Something went wrong because my boot landed on the edge of the chair. I lost my balance and fell onto the chair. This would have been a bit embarrassing but overall, fine because, how much damage can an inflatable chair do anyway? Turns out, it can do quite a bit of damage. I bounced off the surface of the chair and the left side of my head and my left elbow were propelled into the classroom wall and floor respectively. There was silence. I hit my head really hard. Although I immediately told the students that I was fine, some of them looked at me with eyes that told me that they were terrified. Some were also mildly concerned about my coffee. Despite being in a travel mug, some was spilled on the wall and they knew that the loss of coffee would make me sad. After the impact I sat up and gathered my wits for a moment. As I sat there I couldn't help but think of a Saturday Night Live skit I had seen this past Saturday. The ironic thing is that I seldom watch SNL anymore. I'm too old to stay up that late. Anyway, the irony of seeing this skit and then taking a second digger in my classroom definitely caused me to pause. My sweet colleagues were quick to point out that at least I didn't wet myself this time! They are precious. Need a laugh tonight? Check out this SNL skit. It was the perfect skit for me to have seen this past Saturday. At least I know that I'm not alone! SNL, "Teacher Fell Down" Day 129For the last week I have been struggling to communicate how I feel about special education, pull-out instruction and more inclusive small-group instruction. I've been fairly clear that I don't like pull out but that I can see how some is necessary for a very limited number of kids (counseling, PT, OT, speech). I'm also not a fan of RTI models that have kids working on the perimeter of the room in a group separated from their peers on a regular basis. I'm also not a fan of station teaching where students are placed in leveled groups. I'm actually not a fan of station teaching when it is used on a regular basis even when the groups are not leveled. I believe that it robs kids the opportunity to benefit from a whole class conversation that raises the bar for all learners.
I hope I've done a decent job of articulating why I'd prefer to use high-quality whole class instruction paired with whole class workshop time where learners receive "just-in-time" support. When it comes to offering support, I'm stingy. I really do want students to realize that there is a real benefit from learning to struggle though. I want them to be able to analyze a solution that doesn't work and to make an attempt to revise their thinking. When support is offered, I want it to be the kind of support that pushes their thinking versus the kind of support that leads them through a problem step by step. Anyway, I've been thinking deeply about all of these issues lately. Then, all of a sudden...BAM! There is Mark Chubb's blog post titled, "Rushing for Interventions" perfectly summing up what I've been thinking. I can't help but agree with Mark on the following points:
He does an excellent job of defining what Tier 1 and Tier 2 instruction should look like and he has some great links to videos from the likes of John Hattie and Jo Boaler. His post is far more comprehensive and articulate than anything I've said on the topic. It is definitely worth the read! Day 128I recently attended a meeting in my building. It was designed to be a check-in with regular education and special education teachers collaborating in a co-teaching model. The facilitator of this meeting wanted to get a sense for how we were doing with our co-teaching model given that it is our second year of implementation. It was really helpful to pause and reflect. Given the time to think about this question, I'm taken aback by just how much easier this year is. This is not to say that last year was a struggle. It wasn't. I really enjoy working with the teacher who is the special educator in my room. Given that we now have a greater appreciation for each other's style, personalities, idiosyncrasies, etc., we're just firing on all cylinders this year. I appreciate how we've grown together and I know our students will benefit from our ability to effectively collaborate.
At some point, the facilitator started asking us some very focused questions. Questions about lesson delivery, shared responsibilities of assessment and planning, etc. started to make me feel a little judged. For example, the teacher-facilitator does not believe in whole-class instruction. She uses station teaching with leveled groups. When we spoke about a child's difficulty attending during a ten-minute whole-class lesson, she patiently explained that her small group lessons make it easier for students to attend and that our principal and superintendent really do prefer station teaching. My hair started to stand up on the back of my neck. Now, I love small group instruction. It is a treat to be able to work with 2-3 children on a specific skill. However, research points to the fact that when group sizes increase to sizes much larger than 2-3, the benefit decreases. I am not a fan of using station teaching exclusively or even using it quite often. I have a really good reason for this. When kids are stuck in leveled groups they never have an opportunity to stretch. For example, those bright kids. let's call them "eagles" never have to break down their steps or really simplify their process so that it makes sense to a variety of learners. This is an important skill that students will need as they move into higher grades and their careers. Equally concerning is when students are in leveled groups with few peers, they get to hear very few of their classmates' viewpoints. When students are denied access to higher level thinking we begin to have an equity problem in the classroom. Here is what I do believe: Students can learn from short whole-class lessons when the instruction is high quality. When a teacher has good command of both content and pedagogy, whole-class instruction can ensure that all students have access to the same rigorous curriculum. Honestly, when instruction is delivered in manageable chunks (ten minutes) nearly all students can learn and make progress toward proficiency. Parallel teaching, when I take half of the class and my co-teacher takes half, is a nice tool to use when we want to provide instruction and need to monitor closely for understanding. Also, the use of smaller groups may make it easier for some students to actively participate. Getting your voice in the room is sometimes easier when the group is smaller. I wouldn't rely on parallel teaching for all instruction because I really do believe that students benefit from being part of a larger conversation. I LOVE using one-to-one instruction! There is NOTHING more meaningful than sitting beside a child, teaching him or her a concept and then listening to the child to deeply understand where he or she is with the learning. Asking open questions helps me to better understand the depth of a student's understanding. I use this model as often as I possibly can especially for assessment. However, in a class of 22, I won't be able to get to all students often enough to rely on this model to deliver instruction. What I do not believe in is leveled instruction. I just don't. I'm not against pulling a couple of student for some discrete skill instruction because both seem to have the same gap. I'm not at all for putting a kids in a group that will mold their identity. Some students actually go off to college remembering that they were once a "bluebird" and that actually still means something! I hate leveled groups because they limit students' access to the curriculum and to challenge. I don't know what more to say about this. I just hate them! In the end, I felt like this meeting turned into an inquisition versus an offering of support. I did feel a little judged even though the facilitator repeated time and time again that there was no judgement. Still, I feel great about the direction of our co-teaching model. I'm proud of how far we've come. I look forward to the journey ahead. And, I am actively puting this meeting behind me. Day 127An individual education plan assures that students with special needs receive the educations they deserve. Sometimes the plans outline accommodations that have to be made so that a child can access the curriculum. Sometimes, there are modifications needed. More often than not, at least in my opinion, the instruction outlined in an IEP is simply best practice. It is what all kids deserve. All kids deserve frequent check-ins, models, tasks chunked from time to time, preferential seating, and untimed assessments. Sometimes, students require specialized instruction that takes them out of the classroom. Providing the least restrictive environment possible is always the mission at the outset. It just doesn't always happen that a child's needs can be met in an inclusive setting. Once it is determined that a child has special needs, the plan is developed with a team of educators including special and regular educators as well as the child's parents. Goals are developed so that we can measure the effectiveness of the plan we've developed. If I'm being honest, sometimes the goals developed limit a child. Sometimes the goals are so specific and the benchmarks so foreign from what the child's peer group typically experiences in the classroom that the child who is on an iep has an experience that is quite different from his or her peers. Sometimes, an overemphasis on procedures in math and easy to measure skills in language arts has students focusing on low-level skills for a disproportionate number of minutes each days. When educators are collecting data on benchmarks related to these basic goals, they're apt to design instruction that is low level too. What is worse, in order to demonstrate proficiency in meeting these goals, students are sometimes deprived the opportunity to participate in the higher level learning experiences enjoyed by their peers. While I completely understand the need for instruction that fills gaps in student learning and provides for the acquisition of basic skills, our students who have IEPs deserve access to the higher-level instruction that their peers have access to. I don't think there are easy solutions to the problem of devaluing higher level learning experiences in favor of bridging gaps for our most vulnerable students. I don't have it all figured out. I do know the very IEPs that are designed to provide equity and level the playing field sometimes cause students to fall further behind. This is a problem. The larger problem is how kids end up feeling about themselves. Kids know. They 100% realize when they are being treated differently. They can tell when we don't believe in them and their abilities. I don't know exactly how to fix this problem but the idea of just-in-time remediation versus instruction on the perimeter of the classroom or in a separate setting seems like a good place to start. I just don't buy that kids on with an IEP aren't capable. Instead, I'm often wonder if they just haven't had the same rick learning experiences their peers have had. And, if they have, I wonder if they were ready for those experiences. I want the kids in my room to have top notch, rich learning experiences. I'm wondering how this can happen given the current limitations due to IEPs. At the very least, our students deserve for us to be thinking long and hard about what we can do to solve this problem. Day 12618 Times a week someone shows up at my classroom looking to take a student or students out for pull out instruction. The counselor, an occupational therapist, and adaptive PE teacher, a Wilson reading instructor, a physical therapist, and two special educators. There isn't a single day or even half day when a child isn't being pulled out. This is difficult for so many different reasons.
First, the most important thing I do at the beginning of a school year is build classroom culture. This is really hard to do with you seldom have all of your students in class. It is hard to build teams of students when everytime students practice teamwork members of each team are missing. It is also extraordinarily challenging for students to learn classroom routines when their routine is changing every day do to their pull out schedule. So while I'm teaching most students to take their lunch and jackets to specials class, I'm teaching others to grab those things as they head out for OT because they'll go directly to special from there. One of the most challenging things is scheduling the truly special events that unfold in the classroom. These events obviously include holiday parties and cultural arts events as well a special guest visits. However, their are a plethora of other events that kids don't want to miss. They never want to miss #classroombookaday. I swear, when they return from a session, they come into the room and immediately check out the bulletin board to see if they've missed it. When they see that a new book jacket has been added to the bulletin board, their face falls. I try to lesson the blow by putting the day's picture book into his or her book box so that it can be enjoyed during Daily Cafe. There are special lessons in math too. Sometimes it is a Math in 3 Acts lesson or a favorite routine that is missed. It isn't avoidable but that doesn't mean that it feels okay either. It feels crappy. The other very real challenge is keeping kids caught up. There is no down time during the school day so how exactly am I supposed to get a kids caught up who misses critical whole-class instruction during math class. How do I ensure that the kid who missed the chapters we read in reading class has an opportunity to read those chapters before we move on tomorrow. Assigning missed work is not an option. I won't punish kids with homework for being pulled out of class. We figure it out, we make it work. But let's be clear, these kids are missing out. They are missing out when they're pulled out and they're missing out when we catch them up. They don't get choice during Daily Cafe. They have to get caught up on missed reading or writing. They don't get choices during math practice time either. There are seldom fun games to build fluency and provide practice for them, when kids get to make choices during math class these kids get caught up . At times, when there is no other option, I have the kids pulled out AGAIN during "less important" instructional moments. It is just crap. I just don't know how to fix it. |
Marie McManus BrighamA public school teacher who gets to wonder alongside fourth-graders. Archives
December 2018
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