Hello, Noah

I realize that this reference to a classic Bill Cosby routine makes me one big, giant fossil, but I can't resist making a connection after this week.First of all, is should we all be building arks here in New England? Around my house we have 7 foot snowbanks created after the nonstop deluge of snow "events" which began in mid-January.  There seems to be no end in sight. Today, forecasters are calling for rain and possibly a finish of snow.  Once this stuff begins to melt, we'll be floating.I thought of this routine again yesterday when we were having our Morning Meeting.  One of my students, who has pretty much perfect attendance, did not come to school Thursday -- we had snow cancellations on Tuesday and Wednesday. As he is a bus student, when he didn't come to school Thursday, I didn't think it was too remarkable.  The school buses that day were late - some by hours - city streets are clogged with snow and no place to put it.However, this student expressed surprise that we had school on Thursday. He claimed to have gotten the robo call from the school-wide information system canceling school. This led to quite a discussion from my students; some get the calls and others do not, usually because they have no working phone number or because the phone number that was shared earlier has been changed (and changed, and changed).But what really made me laugh was the insistence of one of my students that God called her house to cancel school. In actuality, our Assistant Superintendent for Business initiates the call.And while he does have a deep voice, I'm sure he's located in Lowell not in some more heavenly environ.Right.

Adventures with Flat Stanley

We've read the book, we've done the project with our kids (honest truth: not one of the 25 got a single Flat back!). This week my class has been hosting my niece's Flat Stanley. And we are having a blast. Sorry, can't post pictures of kids, but trust me on this.Working on multiplication riddles? Flat Stanley can help.  Daily 5 Rotations? Stanley watches over us and keeps us on task. Assemblies, Bank presentations, whatever we are doing Flat Stanley is there to share the experience.  We've got one more week's visit with Stanley and then we'll have to say good-bye; however, in the meantime, we're enjoying sharing our school and our experiences.Thanks M for sharing your Flat with us.

How in the heck did this happen?

I've been confronted with my age ta couple of times this weekend. It was not an altogether pleasant trip down memory lane.Woodstock Then and Now was on the History Channel last night. In the summer of 1969, I was a junior, about to be senior, in high school. A couple of my classmates went to Woodstock - they were legends.  Last night's show featured clips of musicians and attendees (half a million of them!)  and some really great music - overlayed shots from 1969 with flash forwards to current times.  Country Joe looks like a middle-aged software engineer (he's not). The couple who were on the cover of the Woodstock soundtrack  album - yes, album - commented throughout. They look like a nice, middle-aged couple. Respectable. Who knew?In an earlier conversation, I was describing the big deal it was for my sister and me to see the Sound of Music when it debuted. My grandmother had to get box office tickets from the movie theater in Buffalo, NY -- we were visiting her.  Can you imagine? At that point my son told me "You are old!" Well, I guess I am, but I don't feel that old.Life is passing by a lightning speed. When I look in the mirror, I want to see the girl who used to wear electric blue eye shadow and long straight hair -- what is looking back at me is a much older model of that face with much more conservative bows to fashion. No more electric blue for me -- no more fringey tops or bell bottoms either. Maybe that's not such a bad thing.I'd better get cracking on that bucket list!

If You Think You Can "Get Over It" Think Again

For anyone who knows me personally, you know my story. Twenty years ago, I was diagnosed with breast cancer and started my treatment.For 20 years I've tried to be brave, and mostly calm when it comes to my annual foray in to "does she or doesn't she?" However this week's visit for a mammogram sent me over the edge again.  While I have managed to maintain decorum through past surgery, testing, surgery again, and 6 months of chemo, an insensitive radiology policy caused me to melt once more into a puddle of tears and terror.For the last 19 years, whenever I go for mammograms, I am always asked to wait for the radiologist to make a first reading. While this is never a pleasure, it has nearly always resulted in a second - or third - set of films taken on the spot. And a definitive answer to what is going on with the girl. This time I was told that because I'm more than 5 years post-surgery (yeah!) my mammo has somehow morphed into a screening and that I would not need to wait. When I questioned this, I was told it was "policy".And that's where I lost it.A person who has overheard the bad news through a thin wall at a doctor's office - which I did as the radiologist was discussing my initial diagnosis 20 years ago - needs to have some peace of mind on the one day each year that is hell on earth. For me, it doesn't matter that what I'm feeling is illogical, I am feeling vulnerable and scared. My need on that day last week, was to either hear good news and move on or not-so-good news and figure out what to do next. Clearly this "new policy" which was meant to move mammogram patients through quickly, was not going to be much peace of mind for me.So, sitting in the parking lot of the medical center after having been told to go about my business and I'd hear in 3-10 days (!) , so unhinged that I was unable to talk with my dear spouse, I finally regained enough composure to drive home where I was convinced to speak up for my self and call my internist to see if she could get somewhere. Can you believe I had to be talked into it? I'm an adult, not a pushover. Yet that's how conditioned I have become to  just accepting "policy".Lucky me that my doctor and her staff are far more compassionate and a good deal more sensitive. The nurse I spoke to knew immediately that, even after 20 years of living with this disease, I was unnerved and made a call to the head of radiology. The news was good and all ended well, make no mistake I am grateful for that.But this event shows once again, that no matter how far you get from cancer, it still comes back to bite you in the behind at least once a year. No one is a "pro" at this. Especially me.

Genealogy Again

Being school vacation week, I spent some of my down time on genealogical pursuits. Unraveling family mysteries is nothing short of breath-taking when (and if) those mysteries are unraveled. This week, there were no grand discoveries, however, just more questions.This week, I had hoped to pin down my great-great-grandmother, Sophronia's death date and burial. She lived in Indianapolis, Indiana for much of her life, but seems to have moved to Peoria, Illinois in the 1900s.My great-great grandmother Sophronia Lee Wyant was married a second time after her first husband, William Orrin Wyant,  died. Her new spouse, Roswell Beardsley, was a fire insurance agent in Indianapolis. When Sophronia married Roswell Beardsley in 1878 she had been a widow for about 10 years -- and given her actual birth year (not the "corrected" one in the Lee family Bible) she was 42 at the time with a teenage son along for the ride. Family stories are that Roswell was not a very kindly step-father and that my great-grandfather Frederick Wyant went to live with relatives shortly after Roswell and Sophronia married. This is borne out by researching census information.Things seemed to have soured rather quickly for Sophronia and Roswell: according to the Indianapolis City Directory, Roswell was boarding at the Emmett Hotel and Sophronia, who made her living as a music teacher, boarded at 204 N. Illinois Street. As far as I can tell, neither party ever lived together again, although Sophronia kept the name Beardsley for quite a while even after Roswell died in the 1890s.And here is where things get a bit messy. In the late 1890s, Sophronia lived with her younger (and presumably more connected - a physician's wife), sister Julia in Indianapolis. Sometime in the early 1900s, Sophronia left Indianapolis and seems to have lived with my great grandfather Wyant, who by that time was a hotel baker and had a family of his own in Peoria, Illinois. During this time, Sophronia used her first married name - Wyant. I have a scrapbook that she created during this time and the name in the front is indeed Sophronia Wyant. Did she go back to this name when she moved in with my great grandfather? Or is that how an unofficial "divorce" worked in the early 20th century?With all the mystery surrounding Sophronia's last name, it is proving to be quite a challenge to trace her last years. Was she buried in Peoria? Was she buried in Indianapolis? So far the answers are alluding me.

A Reteachable Moment

I've been using Lindamood Bell as an intervention with my struggling 3rd grade readers.  They are getting the labelling and the production - lip poppers, tongue coolers, scrapers and we've been working on the Vowel Circle. After nailing CVC  and CVCe (that's short vowel and magic e words to the unintitated), I was feeling pretty confident that we could do blends -- you know two consonants together and you can hear both sounds.Well, it took some doing, but we we working our way through a word chain full of  beginning blends by touching felt squares to physically segment each sound. Plan to plane, plane to flane, flane to flame -- the "words"  don't have to be real words in case you were thinking I'd gone off my nut.  And then I asked if anyone in the group could think of a word that began with the /pl/ sound.Plan - playground - play - please.... all good stuff, right? Until I came to my last little guy who very proudly and in a clear voice offered  prostitute.Must-keep-a-straight-face! Where in the world did this kid pull up this word? Usually when he responds to anything it's with a monosyllabic mumble!As I said, you can't make this stuff up. We'll be revisiting blends next Monday.

What are you doing the rest of your life?

"What are your goals for retirement?" This is a question I dread mostly because I'm in denial that I'm ever going to want to retire. However, moving  across yet another annual milestone and watching as one after another of my colleagues readies to leave teaching, it's a question I no longer have the luxury of ignoring. I do not want to be the clueless old hag in front of a class.I finally got the courage to look into the Masschusetts Teacher's Retirement System website this week to see what my financial future might hold. While not ideal, the future doesn't look too grim.  I've worked since I was 16 years old, so I have plenty of quarter credits in the social security system -- all credits which I believe will not be of benefit to me as I've also worked under the MTRS pension for enough time to get a reasonable monthly nut.  For me, it looks like another 7 years will be needed to get in the 50% pension range (% x average of last 3 years salary), but 8-9 years will make a significant difference in pension checks. So right now, I'm saying I have 8 years 90 days left to go.A financial planner began working with us this week. I am hopeful that the aggressive saving we were able to do while Adrien was working in the corporate world, will be adequate for our old-age future. But one of the planners asked me a question that I had great difficulty with: what are my plans for post-retirement?Plans? Now I have to plan on something to replace the one thing I've lived to do over the past 20 years? Well, of course it's no surprise I couldn't answer it then -- things like knitting and beading are things I already do sporadically already. They are not the things that could occupy me day in and day out. So the question remains: what are my personal goals, post retirement?Forty-eight hours later and I still consider this question without enthusiasm.  I have a couple of book ideas in mind. One that might prove to be a resource for teachers and another that would be a fun joint-photo project with Adrien. I'd like to continue to tutor or teach -- but most definitely not as a substitute teacher. I'd like to do some traveling. I am interested in family history and I am compiling a genealogy. I played tennis (pathetically) at one point, but my shoulder issues make that difficult now. I have always wanted to do a build with Habitat, or go to a cooking school, spend a month at the beach -- but those don't seem to be retirement "vocations" do they?Maybe the problem is that I've never considered what to do with myself outside of education. Or maybe that the possibilities are too wide open - barring physical barriers, there is no limit.Whatever. At least I have another 8 years and 90 days to think about it.

Keeping Your Eyes Peeled

Have you ever stopped to consider how many idiomatic expressions are used in conversation throughout a day?While waiting for one of my walkers to be picked up, I instructed the poor soul to "keep your eyes peeled" for a brother -- her pick up person.  The confused and horrified expression on her face immediately told me I had ventured in to idiom land -- a land strewn with language landmines for my second language learners -- and also for some native speakers.  After I explained to her that keeping your eyes peeled was akin to watching for someone or something, her deep relief was hard to miss.  I think she was fearful her whacky third grade teacher might actually have some extreme measures in mind for children who were late being picked up!Alas, my fondness for idiomatic expressions has also been problematic for my spouse, who I can attest is not a second language learner unless you factor in translating Amy-speak as a second language.  One of my family's favorite idioms is that someone is "burning hard coal".  I can only guess how this expression came into my family dialogue -- even people from my generation didn't burn coal to keep warm!  Did you guess that it means that someone is steaming mad?One can hardly imagine the confusion caused by literal translation of some of my family's gems, gems that seem to find their way into my daily dialogue. "Shoulder to the grindstone", "in deep poop" (does shallow poop make a difference?), and a sentimental favorite courtesy of my Dad - "drier than a popcorn fart".  Just typing that one "cracks me up".

 

Veteran's Day Thoughts

The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.  A moment of silent, quiet reflection.E. Puglisi Jr.Today, Veteran's Day 2009, I am remembering.  My Dad's generation was the generation that fought World War II.  We don't know much if any of my Dad's whole military service. Like many of his generation, it was not something to be shared or talked about.  Yet, over time a few vignettes were revealed to us. Glimpses into the past both funny and frightening.I look at the photograph of Dad when he was in the Army.  I am not sure whether this photograph was before or after he was shipped to the European Theater, but I do know it was taken in Buffalo.  In the fading photograph I can see a much younger version of the man I recall -- and if my mathematical calculations are correct, this photograph was taken when my Dad was 27 or 28.  I have a son who is older than that and the poignancy of this thought puts tears in my eyes.The events this week at Fort Hood once again remind me again of the human toll of service to country.  No matter what the politics of war, no matter how much or how little I have in common with service men and women, today is a day of remembrance.So at the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, I stand among the trees in my wooded yard. And to the toll of the churchbell on the Common at precisely 11:00, I stop to remember.  Happy Veteran's Day.

Thus endeth another year....

This morning, I finished my duties for 2008-2009 by taking a qualifying exam for MELA-O administrators.  I have to wonder why I bothered..... the MELA-O qualifying test requires that I determine where a LEP student's language acquisition lands when compared to Native English speakers of the same grade level.  Here's the catch: I am certified to teach grade 1-6, but 60 percent of the QMA exam was an assessment of 7th grade and up!  As a teacher in a multi-lingual school district, I truly believe in the process of language acquisition and determining a student's language leve is part of the process. However, it seems the process  to become a QMA is destined to ensure that I will fail.  I am expecting to have to take a retest in order to qualify, but it seems unfair that the original qualifying test is so skewed to grade levels that I am not certified to teach and never will teach.The local school committee recently finished what can only be described a draconian cuts.  At one point in the budget process, there was a need to cut over $9 million dollars.  An entire middle school will close this year. Teachers and students ended their year with trepidation about the future.  But not just the teachers in the school which has closed -- the "bumping" process has impacted nearly every school in Lowell as teachers who had not yet received professional status found themselves at risk for displacement.  Add to job insecurity from a closed school the ritual of pink slips that must go out by June 15 when the budget is uncertain,  the agenda of the local daily newspaper in portraying any spending on schools or teachers as a waste of money, makes for morale in the hopper.The energy has been sucked dry.

Trauma and the classroom

Like many teachers in urban districts, many of my students come from backgrounds that are less than idyllic.  This year has been no exception and in many ways, it has been worse. Is it the economic upheaval? Is it the learned selfishness of our society? A social scientist may have answers - all I know is that a good percentage of my students are in crisis most of the day.We come to teaching with the optimism that we can change things, we can make a difference.  While I still feel that passion, I also feel the exhaustion from waves of crisis each day, all day long.  Can I really make a difference? Does what I say or do matter at all?Getting ready for a summer self-study on the ways violence in its many forms and trauma effect students, I've come across a term I had not considered before - compassion fatigue or secondary trauma.  Do we get so wrapped up in our drive to change the unchangeable that we become dysfunctional adults? What can be done to avoid burnouts?Lots of questions, not many viable answers. And making matters more intense is the current economic crisis and the impact on my beloved profession.  As of today, any teacher with less than professional (tenured) status -- that's less than 4 years experience -- is receiving a pink slip.  Now we worry about job security, overloaded classrooms, no materials, while we attempt to teach children who may come to us from unfathomable home situations.Teaching is hard. Trying to support students who have experienced trauma in its many forms is hard.  Summer vacation will be a welcome respite and perhaps a time to figure out a way to manage my own secondary traumas so that, come September, I am better able to help my students.

Testing....testing.....

In the last week I've administered three district-mandated tests to my third grade students.  Everyone is collecting data!  There have been 2 benchmarks - one each in reading and math -- and a newly mandated math unit test.  We've administered our individualized reading assessments from Fountas/Pinnell. Having completed the MCAS barely 2 weeks earlier, my students are burnt out with testing.  In fact, going out on a limb here, they are burnt out on school.  It's over. As far as the kids are concerned, third grade is visible only in the rear view mirror.I like data, but I have so many issues with the testing being distributed by administrators who don't know test writing.  Number one at the top is the quality of the district made math tests.  It seems that every time we administer them, there is at least one major flaw in the question.  Sometimes one of the multiple choice possibilities is on the next page, sometimes the question posed has more than one correct answer.  Listen up people!  Test and measurement is not for amateurs.This time of year is pretty tense with all the wrapping up and testing.  This year is particularly intense as budgets are being set (or not) and money is disappearing.  The LPSD is facing a 9 million dollar shortfall.  Obviously that means cuts in staffing, cuts in program funding, larger class sizes.... and makes for a very sad ending to the year.  Our future is hazy at the very least.Ten days.... and then what?

Taking a Breather

Having finally completed leveling, documenting, and labeling the classroom library, this week finds me in between projects.  What would life be like without a project?  I don't know because it's never been tested!The students are on their way now using their reading bag bookmarks as a guideline for finding just right books in the library.  It will be interesting to see what happens in the next few weeks as the book exchanges are more independent.One of the LoomsOne of our activities this week was a trip to the Tsongas Industrial History Center in the Boott Mills.  We are so fortunate to have this terrific resource in our community!  The docents and Park Rangers are both knowlegeable and entertaining and students learn much about the Industrial Revolution as well as the history of Lowell. The Boott Mill is also open to the public as park of the Lowell National Historic Parks.This trip was as outstanding as the others I've been on with myThe Weave Room at the Boott MillThird Graders.  The program we participated in - Change in the Making - enabled students to learn about how this area of Massachusetts changed from farmlands to factories over a period of about 100 years.  The black and white photograph is an image of one of the looms outside of the weave room.  Only a few looms inside the room were running on the day we visited, but the clatter was nearly unbearable.   Imagine having to work in such an environment for 10 to 12 hours each day.One of the most (un)popular parts of the tour was the climb to the fifth floor activity rooms using the spiraling staircase that the Mill Girls would use.  As our guide pointed out, the Mill Girls made several trips up and down the stairs throughout the day.

Lots more fun going down than walking up!

In addition to the climbing, students used a cotton gin to remove seeds from the cotton -- and also attempted to invent a tool that would do the same.  They observed the living conditions at the Boarding Houses, and learned how Mill workers were recruited to leave farm and family to come to Lowell.It is always amazing how much the students learn on this trip.  It's a perfect blend of information sharing and hands-on learning and generally ends up being the event students write about when they reflect on the school year.No matter if you travel to Lowell with students in tow or on your own, visiting the Mills and learning about the history of Lowell is highly recommended.Boott Mill stair tread

Thoughts on Nearing the Finish Line

This week is April School Vacation Week here in Massachusetts -- we celebrate Paul Revere's ride, the Battle of Lexington and Concord, the Marathon, and a Red Sox Home Day Game all on one day. We also have a school vacation.Why is it that whenever I am on school vacation, I spend about 20% of my time in school catching up? Well, I suppose that's a discussion for another time.Today, I used my "20% day" to work on two projects -- one is a joint math curriculum project with our Lincoln School Math Resource and Coach, Colleen Turco and the other is the seemingly never-ending classroom library project. Guess which one ate up most of my day -- yup, the library project!I have about 20-25 more biography books left to level and add to the database. Of that 20-25 I am considering adding all but 5 or 6 to the crates of books I am discarding from the library. Not because I dislike the subject of the biography (although some seem a bit uninteresting to me -- I know, I know, withhold my own judgements), but because in a perfect world, the biographies and historical fiction and nonfiction books would be a bit more supportive of our Massachusetts History and Social Studies Curriculum. Something to think about before we return to work on Monday, isn't it?I've also been pretty aggressively recycling the books at the upper end of the leveled library -- S, T, U and beyond. Unless the book seems to be a "classic", or an extraordinary read, it is just going to gather dust. Lucky for those books, they will find a new home I hope as we have some newer teachers in the upper classrooms who probably will appreciate having these levels added to their own classroom library.This project has been an incredible amount of work, but the books that remain in the library have purpose, are in good condition, and once the children have been taught to do so, should be easily returned to their proper homes.Next write, there will be pictures! Promise!

Week 4 - Getting Warmer.....

TLabeled and sortedhis week I spent most of a "day off" in school sorting through the books that had been labeled and logged and organizing them into color coded baskets - red for fiction, green for nonfiction, blue for poetry and yellow for special collections.  Using both the small nesting baskets from Really Good Stuff and the stackable medium bins has been a good thing.  And the shelves are beginning to look like something other than the mishmash that had been.  At this point, I have finished the most tedious leveling - those 500+ books that had not been leveled at all - and I am sorting through the baskets in of previously leveld books.  Will need to weed out used and otherwise unattractive books.I hate the feel of books that have been sitting on the shelf - in the warm sun and near the blowers for the heating system in the classroom.  They feel dusty, the paper pages feel rough and uncomfortable and often the covers are worn or brittle.  These are the books that I've been recycling rather aggressively.  Those that belong to the school and were purchased with school funds (Title I, building budget, etc.) are shared with colleagues who need to bulk up their own classroom library or with the Lincoln Lenders.  The later is a collection of books for our students to swap - something that happens about once each month.  Bring a book to trade and get one in return.  It works quite well and more and more children are able to have a book of their own.A side-activity to the classroom library sorting is that I have been classifying my own teacher collection of trade Author collectionbooks - you know, the books that drive a minilesson or those that are used to jump start a writing lesson.  By freeing up all those cardboard magazine files, I've been able to sort my "special" collection by writing topic (narratives, letter writing) and by mini lesson.  I've also organized the author collections that have accumulated over the last ten years of my teaching.The room is starting to feel organized -- and I feel as if I've got a handle on what books are available to my students.  It is tedious and hard work, but I believe it will be worth it in the end.  If there is an end!

Progress midpoint

Two disasters - or near disasters - this week: First, I've been updating the Excel database file that I copied onto my school computer (a MAC).  That seems like a reasonable thing to do when adding books that got missed on the first pass through a book box.  I also have been bolding the titles of books as the labels are attached so that I can tell which books have been fully labeled and accounted for and which books might be squirreled away in a student's desk.  Seems like it should work, right?Well, wrong.  I am admittedly a PC person - outside of dealing with Macs in the schools in which I work, I don't use Apple hardware or software.  I don't remember when I first used Excel, but I'm guessing I've been using it since about the first version of it and definitely know my way around the PC version.  What happened to me in using the MAC version is that the save button in the tool tray didn't actually save the file -- you'd think that might be a requirement, but I guess not.  The only way this file was getting actually saved on the MAC was through the dropdown menu. By the time I figured out why  changes and inserted cells/rows were all messed up (my technical term), the entire file was a disaster (sigh).  I believe it's now been righted -- had to compare the PC Excel file on my laptop to a printed hardcopy of the MAC version.  Lesson learned: don't get too cute by having multiple files going back and forth between operating systems and software versions.First sort of Fiction Books.The second glitch this week was in the color coded baskets.  There are WAY too many books -- can you believe it -- for the baskets I have.  And the small stacking baskets, while just the right size for paperback chapter books, are too small for the picture books unless I turn the basket on the long side.  This means I lose some shelf space and will probably mean the goal of getting books off of the counters in not reasonable.  I've noticed that Really Good Stuff has recently begun selling sets of 12 medium-sized baskets all in the same color so there is a solution, but not a cheap one.I've started a preliminary sort of some of the labeled books as you can see from the image at the left.  The decision of which books are in the baskets hasn't been carved into stone of course, but it seemed like progress was being made when some of the new baskets finally appeared on the bookshelves.  I still need to make labels for the baskets so the students will be able to replace books when making trades.  That will take some planning.The old cardboard magazine boxes are cluttering up every available surface!Now, what to do with those cardboard magazine boxes?  They're too good to throw away (and if you are or live with a teacher you know throwing things away just isn't something we do).  I'll need to come to a decision soon as they are starting to take over the table and desk space!So on the To-Do list for the coming week is to finish labeling the rest of the newly categorized library, solve the basket issue, and, oh yes.... get rid of the clutter before it drives everyone crazy.add to del.icio.us :: Add to Blinkslist:: add to furl :: Digg it :: add to ma.gnolia:: Stumble It! :: add to simpy :: seed the vine :: :: :: TailRank :: post to facebook