Day 138We're not where we need to be. Not yet. But, we're getting closer every day. I am straining my brain but try as I may, I can't remember dealing with a single disciplinary issue today.
My student who is EXTRAORDINARILY sensitive did not tattle today. Either her feelings were not hurt by any of her classmates today or she is beginning to become a little more tolerant of their missteps. The student who struggles with social learning brought me a tissue today when I was reading the #classroombookaday and couldn't help but tear up. The student who I affectionately refer to (in my head) as dancing bear seemed to be able to control his impulsivity today. He didn't have any unkind words for his peers as far as I know. Little by little, negative behaviors are decreasing and are being replaced by positive behaviors. Or, at least that is how it seemed today. Maybe it is just because we were coming off a long weekend and my outlook is just a bit more positive now that I'm well rested. Maybe. But just as I was celebrating these small successes, I remembered that one of my students was missing today. He was absent again. He has been absent 8 times now. He is often absent on Mondays or on the first day of the school week as was the case today. He is sometimes out on Fridays. No adult called him in sick until the school left a voicemail for the parents. It is concerning. Today was the 50th day of school. This kiddo has missed nearly a sixth of the school year. He is bright. He gets caught up. He is just missing out on so many experiences. His classmates miss him when he is out. I'm not sure what he is up to when he is not at school and that worries me too. Our classroom culture is just about where I need it to be. Students are invested in one another's learning. Our community is one where kids respect one another. Despite the gains we've made, we need to keep working until every child is happy to come to school to learn. The goal is 100% of my 22 students thriving. We are not there YET.
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Day 137This week, in her Curriculum Update, our Assistant Superintendent shared a little background information about Marc Brackett, The Director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. He asserts that educators do not ask students how they are feeling often enough. After some reflection, I'm not so sure I do.
I check in with my students a ton. I ask them open-ended questions when I have them one-on-one. For example, I might ask something as silly sounding as, "How's your life going?" At times, I have to ask students to, "say more about that" but overall, I'm shocked at how much information such a simple question yields. I also ask students to reflect in writing every few weeks. The questions are simple here too. In a recent prompt, I asked, "How is fourth-grade going? Can you give me details to backup your thinking?" Again, this question helped me to understand how my students are doing. What I don't ask is "How are you feeling?" I'm very curious about my students' responses. I'm wondering if I'll get different information given that this question asks them to focus in on their feelings. I will likely ask them to back up their thinking with some reasons. I'm a little worried that many of my students will write about their physical health or whether or not they are warm/cold, tired/alert. I'm concerned that I won't get a ton of insight into their emotional well-being. I won't know until I ask. Tune in in a few days when I'll share what I learned when I asked: "How are you feeling?" In the meantime, check out some of the reflections I received when I asked students to reflect on how fourth-grade was going. Day 136Today is Veterans Day. Despite what many people post on FaceBook, we teachers are actually hard at work teaching civics everyday. For example, even though people don't believe it, we begin EVERY SINGLE DAY with the the Pledge of Allegiance. During this sacred time, our ENTIRE school pauses. Every adult and child stands and places hand over heart while we pledge along with a student who recites the pledge over the intercom system. After the pledge is over, my students and I sing a patriotic song. We change the song every month. Popular choices include: the Star Spangled Banner, My Country Tis of Thee, You're a Grand Ole Flag and America the Beautiful. I set the behavior expectations for this time on the first day of school. While I have a high threshold for chattiness and busy bodies, during the pledge and patriotic song I expect nothing but the best behavior. I'm explicit in explaining that soldiers have been willing to lay down their lives for our freedom and liberties. The least we can do to repay their sacrifices is to hold sacred these few moments each day. Today is Veterans Day and tomorrow, the students will have no school to observe the holiday. It is important to me that students know why they're getting a day off. Each day we pause to read a #classroombookaday. On Friday, we read Patricia Polacco's, Pink and Say. Our Tuesday selection will be The Wall by Eve Bunting. Literature will help my students to learn about the sacrifice that our veterans have made and will teach them the importance of the holiday. Through these shared experiences my students will learn to NEVER FORGET our veterans. Today is Veterans Day and I couldn't be more proud of the little things that my school does to show veterans that we will NEVER FORGET. We line the halls with flags from each division of the service and we line the outside of our school with the American flag. In addition, come Memorial Day, our entire school will pause to recognize members of our community, past and present, who have served in the military. We hold two school-wide concerts where each grade will sing patriotic songs. Each branch of the military will be recognized and members of our school community will be recognized for their service.
Regardless of what you may read in your social media feed, civics instruction IS happening in our public schools. Teachers are doing their part to ensure that the students we teach will become outstanding citizens who will dedicate themselves to creating a nation where everyone can thrive and live as proud citizens while always taking time to honor those whose sacrifice had provided for the freedoms and liberties we are blessed to enjoy today. Day 135#MURSDInspries Nov. 4
Flexible learning places and offering students flexible seating is something that elementary teachers have been accustomed to doing for a long time. I remember back to my own Kindergarten classroom where we had a treehouse! My third grade teacher, Jane Jackson, was even more innovative. She had designed a "bubble' out of a thicker plastic material. It was weighted at the bottom and was hooked up to a fan. When the fan was running, the bubble would inflate and students could climb into the bubble and read or do other school work. I remember having to close that door flap fairly quick or the bubble would start to deflate. It was large and could hold approximately half a dozen third-graders. Thinking back, it was probably a huge suffocation risk but I do remember loving it and being very motivated to read inside that bubble.
My beautiful classroom is well equipped with a desk for each child, a handicapped desk, a table and a bookcase. There is also a HUGE desk for me. This summer, I spent a ton of $$$ refreshing the flexible seating in my classroom (don't tell my husband!). It was time. Some of the cozy bucket seats I had previously had in the room were getting old and tired. I replaced them with 4 Big Joe bean bag chairs, 2 inflatable chairs that look like bean bag chairs and one circular bucket seat. We also have a number of stools and a couple of director's chairs in the classroom. Most students gravitate to the the alternative seating. When they're not camped out in one of these seats, they seek out a little nook. Kids seem to love to crawl into small spaces. They enjoy sitting under tables and against bookcases. Still, some will still choose to sit at traditional desks. I love the new additions to my classroom but when I look at pictures of our space, it doesn't look Pinterest worthy as some of the classrooms I've seen online. I think I know why. I still have a ton of traditional furniture in my classroom. I don't want to part with all of it. I wouldn't mind parting with some of it though. For example, I'd love to get rid of about 8 student desks in favor of a couple of tables. I'd also love to get rid of my desk. It is massive and I NEVER sit at it. More than anything, I would miss the storage. I'm fairly certain that I could find a work-around for that problem though. The problem I can't seem to work around is student storage. Where does all their STUFF go when the desks are removed? I had a classroom eons ago with only tables. The district bought me milk crates to store student belongings. It was a nightmare. Their stuff seemed to be everywhere in plain sight. I hated it. So, I guess I'm feeling a little stuck in the middle. I definitely offer kids a variety of seating choices. They seldom have to work at desks. However, my room does not bubble over with warmth. It doesn't say, "enter, and curl up with a book, you can't help but be happy here." That is my goal. I'm part way there. I'm hesitant to commit 100% because I have a few unanswered questions about storage but also because I'm not ready to permanently commit to parting with my furniture. Our building has NO storage. So, if I was to part with it, there is zero guarantee I'd get it back should I change my mind down the road. I did find the above video inspiring. I love how at home the children seem. The space belongs to them. It is easy to tell that from the video. While I'm sure that the flexible learning spaces do foster greater engagement, and engagement certainly lends itself to achievement, I'm sure there is lots of eye-rolling when teachers from neighboring communities watch the video and see so much of their success (drop out rate, etc.) attributed to flexible seating. Don't get me wrong, because I really do love the idea. I'm willing to say that I'm sure flexible learning spaces are great for student learning. I just think that maybe we shouldn't go quite so overboard with our claims concerning achievement and its direct relationship to flexible learning spaces. It just seems like a big leap. Here is what the flexible learning spaces look like in my room currently.
Here's what I want to add. I have a couple of friends who think they won't be a good fit for our fourth-grade classroom. Anyone use these? I can see adding three or four to my classroom. They're on sale for 10 @ $189. Anyone think they might be worth it.
I know that the learning spaces in my classroom have become a lot more inviting but I also know that there are still small things that I can do to meet the needs of all kids. I'm definitely open to trying new options.
Day 134My students are really good writers. So, let me qualify this statement. This year, I have a room full of writers who do not struggle to generate ideas and to then move those ideas from their heads to paper. There is, however, lots of work to do. The greatest opportunity seems to be in helping my students grow in their craft. While my students are fairly fluent when it comes to writing, they are not particularly thoughtful writers. They don't take time to consider word choice or author's purpose.
Currently, my students are working on an open response question related to Charlotte's Web. The question is; Consider Fern's character in E.B. White's novel, Charlotte's Web. How does her character change over the course of the novel? Use evidence from the text to support your thinking. We began this writing lesson by looking closely at the prompt. After asking the students to read the prompt to themselves and then reading it aloud, I asked them to tell me what the prompt was asking them to write about. Just as I feared, some students were not comprehending the prompt or, at the very least, were taking the time to thoughtfully consider what the prompt was asking. One student offered that the prompt asked them to write about what happened in the story while another thought that he should write about the novel's setting. EEEKKK! This is not at all unusual for fourth graders. All too often, given an open-response prompt like this, fourth graders tend to read the prompt and then write about whatever they want to write about connected to the novel. The first part of my lesson had to focus on attending to the prompt. There will be many other lessons that will address the need to comprehend the prompt and attend to it thoughtfully as they write. The next part of our lesson addressed constructing a solid topic sentence and then supplying convincing evidence from the text to support the reader's thinking. Finally, the lesson addressed closings. Once the lesson objectives were outlined, writers had an opportunity to draft a response. I reviewed the prompt and asked the students to be sure that they had addressed all aspects of the prompt. When most students had taken adequate time to craft a first draft, I asked the students to consider sharing their writing for class critique. Many students were willing to share. Selecting the right student-writing for the first share was important. I wanted the first share to be rough so that the students can see that a draft can be developed into a high quality piece of writing. The piece of student writing that I selected was projected at the SmartBoard. This particular piece had a simple but effective topic sentence. What it lacked was any real text evidence to back up the readers thinking. It also lacked a concluding sentence. Writers in our room suggested different pieces of evidence that this writer could include in his piece. We thanked the writer and the classroom got back to work. The second share was important too! The writer I'd select for class critique next would have to be a writer who had already made changes to his or her piece based on the feedback that the first writer had received. This piece would be more polished but would also require a fair amount of revision in order to meet the standards. The first thing I did was praise the writer for the revision that he or she had already done. I pointed out how the changes made were possible because our first student was willing to share his or her work. Then, we read this new piece aloud. I followed up the reading by asking the students to give feedback. This piece had some pretty convincing evidence however, the topic sentence was lacking. The class ended up guiding this writer toward more thoughtful word choice in the topic sentence and because this writer hadn't included a concluding sentence, we helped with that too. I want my students to be motivated by their peers. I don't want my students to be motivated to earn grades that measure up to their peers' grades. Instead, I want to share examples of student work so that my students can see how writing is developed. I want my writers to aspire to produce writing that measures up to the best writing produced by their peers. Finally, after the share, I make sure to pull the writers aside who were willing to share their work. I thank each for being brave. I remind them that many writers in our room will improve because of their willingness to take a risk and share their developing writing. It is about building a culture in the room where students invest in one another. It is about sharing feedback with one another and it is about stepping out of the comfort zone so that we can all improve. This lesson was another step toward building this culture and improving student writing. 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. 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! |
Marie McManus BrighamA public school teacher who gets to wonder alongside fourth-graders. Archives
December 2018
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