Some thing to smile about

Our elementary school, like many others, has a moment at the beginning of the day for school-wide announcements. In our school, the Morning Announcement also includes the Pledge of Allegiance and our school's Learning Pledge.  Each morning, coming together as a school community, we recite both pledges together.As you can imagine, sometimes a student will be in the hallway just as the announcement is starting.  Given the location of my classroom (at the intersection of two hallways), I often get a bird's eye view of how students handle being "caught" in the hallway during the Pledge of Allegiance.To my knowledge, without any adult prompting, students - singularly or in groups - stop at my doorway, face the flag visible from the doorway, put hand over heart and recite the Pledge of Allegiance. No big deal as far as the students are concerned; they are doing what is expected to get our day started. Upon finishing the Pledge, the students continue on their mission without missing a beat.Coming together as a community of 500 or so learners is an important way we get started on our day.  In a time when we are hearing about all the ways schools and students allegedly do not measure up, here is something for which we can be proud. And to think that the kids thought this up themselves. As teachers and parents, we must be doing something right.

The end of a year

We have five days to go. I find it incredible that this journey of an academic year is quickly coming to the finish line - or more accurately, getting ready to crash and burn.It's a time of year when every culminating activity that was ever invented gets scheduled: field trips, tests, report cards, field days, art fairs... you name it and you can find it in the last 2 weeks of school. It's always been that way. The reliable routines that we used all year are constantly being adapted to accommodate one or another special event. After all, it is the end of the year and everyone is looking forward to summer vacation, right?Wrong. Not all my students are looking forward to spending about 10 weeks at home. This is a phenomenon with which I became familiar the first year I moved from a white, middle class school to one where the poverty level was 92% - you read that number correctly. Children of poverty don't always have fun in mind when they anticipate spending a large chunk of time at home where they may be hungry, beaten, spend large amounts of time in front of the electronic babysitter, or verbally abused. These kids aren't looking forward to a summer of fun and relaxation.One might think that, looking at 10 weeks of a less than idyllic summer vacation might cause a student to savor each and every remaining moment of school - a place of safety. Not true. Starting sometime after Memorial Day when the realization hits, these are the very students who act out in school. They hit, they swear, they bolt, they otherwise break every rule that they have learned to live with in our school community. Why? Because they are pissed off, frustrated, and most definitely not looking forward to those lazy days of summer vacation.And those end-of-year activities serve as yet another reminder that we are approaching the danger zone - summer vacation. It is a time when juggling schedules and cajoling good behaviors out of really angry kids is nearly constant. For me, it is a time of exhaustion.

What would be fair?

This week I was asked at a Team Meeting what I thought about particular student's participation in MCAS (this student has serious health issues which limit school participation). Was there an alternate way to assess this student that would enable us to know what had been achieved?And that got me thinking about what I really feel about MCAS, this 4-day brain drain.I get that standardized testing and MCAS is a part of teaching now. I get that teachers need to be help accountable for teaching the state (and now federal) standards. Honestly, watching my student navigate the Mathematics tests this past week made me realize that there are some weaknesses in the curriculum that was delivered. My teaching will be informed by my students' performance on the test -- a test which, by the way, I thought was reasonable.What I don't understand is how one high-stakes test can serve as the ultimate measure of my students' achievement, particularly when more than half of my students are English Language Learners. Six and a quarter hours of correctly spoken and written English each day can only go so far - the vocabulary that English speakers take for granted is daunting for many of my students.And before anyone's shorts are tied in a knot about second languages, let me say that I wish those who disparage people whose first language is not English tried to take that test in another language that they were in the process of learning. My experience in learning a second language, a Romance and therefore related language, was and is one of the biggest challenges I've ever encountered. I think if you attempted an important reading/writing task in a second language, you too might be hanging onto new vocabulary by the tips of your fingernails. I'm not advocating for abandoning the goal of performing in English -- that is the language of business in this country and therefore, the way to economic success -- I'm just saying cut these English speaking/writing "toddlers" a little slack on the high stakes tests.What would be fair? Well for one thing, look at my students' growth over the year. We have data for that - Fountas Pinnell Benchmarks, SRI Reading tests, Writing Portfolios, and district-wide Math assessments. Consider these as well as the MCAS when commenting on my students' achievement. Look at the Massachusetts Growth data -- are we making progress? Is it just at a slower rate than the students in more affluent, parent-involved suburbs?We need to look at a more complete picture of our students before pointing fingers of blame at educators. Nothing in education is black and white - we aren't producing widgets on an assembly line. To know what students know and don't know, we need to dig deeply. Standardized state testing should be just one item to consider.

Readers' Notebooks - Revision 1

Because our school's literacy program is tightly tied to Fountas and Pinnell (and whose isn't?), my students have actively used Readers' Notebooks for quite a number of years. The conveniently packaged sets from Heineman are sold in 5 packs for $28 (web price, regular price $40!). Multiply that $28 by at least 5 for a minimum class size of 25 and add on shipping and nearly half of my classroom supply budget has been expended. The cheapskate in me just couldn't pay that amount of money for convenience. And so, my eternal hunt for the perfect notebook configuration was born.Beth Newingham, a third grade teacher from Troy, Michigan and Scholastic contributor and advisor, has shared her organization of Readers' Notebooks on her school website and on the Scholastic web.  For the past 2 years I've used flexible 1-inch binders, purchased for about $1 each (on summer sale at Staples). Then I've added some of Beth's forms for tracking reading and responses. The binder system works, but I see 2 problems for me: one is that the students are also required to have a Writers' Binder - which makes another bulky item to store - and I would like my students to be able to refer to our conferencing goals more formally.So before this school year ends, I am working on developing a self-assembled Readers' Notebook which will be bound with GBC bindings (those plastic spiral things) and utilize section dividers made from cardstock. The sections of the notebook under consideration are:

• Reading Log (a new page for each month)
• Mini Lesson Materials (How To References)
• Personal Reading Goals and Progress Record for Student
• Response to Reading (once each week - required)
• Readers' Notebook Assessment (one for each marking term)

Will this work? From the reading I've been doing, I think it will - the big question is will it work for the students?Our next school year promises to be one where the draconian budget cuts have a profound impact on classroom support. Whatever is put into place needs to be something I can manage without support as it looks like our Title I Reading program is being picked to the bone. Experience tells me the need is to keep it simple; to leave the grand and complicated plans behind. If it can't be implemented successfully without help, let it go.

Because I Had To

This week concluded our adventures into the world of the  Third Grade  MCAS Reading Test. And yes, our third graders took their last test on April Fools Day - better known as March 32 in Room 207.

I've been administering these tests during each of the four years I've been teaching third grade. Before that, my time with my students was not disrupted by high stakes testing - I taught second grade.

While I was giving my students a pre-test session pep talk - and I can't believe the words "that's what a good test-taker does" came out of my mouth! - for the umpteenth time I felt the ridiculousness of a single test experience determining what my students have or have not learned.  And in mid-stream of our third grade curriculum, no less. Does it make any  sense to test students on their acquisition of reading in third grade 2/3 of the way through the year?

I had to explain to the students that I am bound to read a script to them and that they may hear me say things that just don't make any sense.  And right off the bat, the script instructed me to warm my students against using cellphones or music players during the test. That created a giggle that could almost not be stopped. With all the wisdom that an 8 year old can muster, one little one explained that was so "those teenagers" didn't cheat on their tests. Did that just create a self-fulfilling prophecy?

Well, my little test takers made me quite proud. I have no idea whether or not their answers will get us out of under-performing hell,  (as an test administrator I cannot so much as look at the test contents, it's against the law - really). What I did observe was students who glanced at the questions following a test selection before reading, holding a finger to mark their place in the questions while looking back for the answer, staying in the designated writing boxes when answering open response questions. All things that seem out of whack with the developmental age of these students, but strategies that I spent time teaching so that they could survive the test experience. In other words, they performed their due diligence.

Oh, and no one had a meltdown and threw the test at me - that kind of frustration level was manifested AFTER the testing was finished.

Balancing Reading Assessment

I've just started reading a professional book by the Sisters (Gail Boushey and Joan Moser) called The Cafe Book. The Sisters wrote The Daily Five which I've been partially using in my own classroom during Reading Workshop to help manage what the "other kids" are doing while I'm conferencing or working with a group.When I began my career, like the Sisters, I was uncomfortable if I met one of my reading groups more often than another. But after being encouraged by my Principal to "get out of the way" of more adept readers and not meet with them so often, I've been a bit more willing to let go of the fairness is equal philosophy. What this means for me as a third grade teacher is that my more advanced readers meet with me as a group just once a week. They read longer, chapter-based texts, and I've taught them (a painful process I have to admit) to work as an independent literacy circle. The time I've carved out is spent on my Safety Net and Below Level students - who need more support in order to become more proficient as readers.So now that I've divided up my time so that the students who need more of me, get more of me, what's next?  Well, if you say Assessment and Conferencing, the kind of assessment that lets you know where your students and and what they need help with, we're in agreement. However, once you've conferenced or assessed a student, a teacher needs to actually do something with that information.Like the Sisters, I've been through a ton of different models and suggestions for keeping track of what my students know and what they need to know next.  Sticky notes seem like a good idea -- but like Joan, I kept having to retrieve them from the floor and try to figure out in retrospect who the note was about. Not exactly efficient. Clipboards, file cards, the whole gamut of record keeping is enough to drive one crazy. Trying to find an effective and efficient way to gather information about my students -- one that I can sustain when the year's pace becomes high pressure and crazy -- is key for me right now.  I know data gathering is a fact of my teaching life that will probably never disappear.And then, once I've got all this fabulous data, what to do next? I'm hopeful that the Sisters, who seem to have a practical and realistic handle on balancing assessment with putting the results of assessment into practice, have a few ideas.

100 Days

Yesterday, we reached the 100th day of school -- triple digits.  From this point on the year will whiz by at the speed of light... 80 school days from now we will be all done. For kids, that seems like an eternity, but for me Day 100 is the point at which panic sets in.In Massachusetts - and in most of northern New England - we have a school vacation week coming up beginning next week. Originally put into the academic calendar to accommodate the ski areas, it morphed into a week of "energy savings" in some districts. No students = low(er) energy costs for buildings. I'm not certain I buy into that one. It seems like teachers and custodial staff both show up for chunks of time during "vacation" weeks to catch up.After the vacation week, my third graders will be subjected to a battery of tests that rival the National Teachers' Exam (remember those?).  First, each ELL will be evaluated for language acquisition using the MELA-O (more of an observation really), then they will take the more formal MEPA test. The District Math benchmarks are opening up on the Monday after vacation and all students will take those tests. Then there will be end-of-term assessments in the classroom, and last - but certainly not the least - we have the MCAS Reading Test, my students' first foray into state-wide testing.  Just thinking about all the testing is making my head explode - imagine what it must be like for a 9 year old.But wait, that's not all. We have another round of testing in May (MCAS for mathematics) and more required assessment.  After we hit the math MCAS, we're on to end-of-year activities - field days, final field trips, report cards, Team Meetings.... yikes!So for me, Day 100, while a milestone in our academic year, is the start of stress season. Heaven help us all!

Rediscovering Read Alouds

Sometimes we, meaning I, get so caught up in teaching the required standards, that we forget.  We forget the simple pleasure of hearing a book read aloud. I'm not talking about picture books here -- those texts are used over and over to illustrate a mini lesson or a book with enjoyable illustrations. I am talking about reading longer chapter books for a sustained period and letting students use the author's words to visualize.I began reading Little House on the Prairie to my third grade students this week.  My class will be attending a Theatreworks production of the same name in about a week and I wanted to give them some idea of who Laura Ingalls Wilder was and why someone might think she would be a good subject for a play. At first, the students seemed puzzled by the lack of pictures on each page. Why wasn't Mrs. Bisson stopping to show the illustrations on each page? There was some restlessness, some wiggles, and I wasn't altogether sure the vocabulary in the story might pose a problem to my mostly-second language learners.  However, we plowed ahead and after reading Chapter 1 took a look at a US map to see where the Ingalls family started (Wisconsin) and where the two rivers were located.This afternoon I continued to read for another 20 minutes that I carved out of the day - right before dismissal got underway. Again, I was concerned that the vocabulary was over the students' heads, but as I glanced up from the text to check, I noticed they had all crept forward from our usual circle and many were lying on tummies, chins resting on hands, to hear the next adventure in the life of the Ingalls family on their journey through the prairie. Calmly and intently they were engaged in the story of a long ago family on the adventure of their lives.For me, this was a moment of realization when I understood in a new way that all the standards based time on task in the world won''t hold a candle to students enraptured as their teacher reads a book aloud. The time we spent today, lost in the adventures of a pioneer family in the mid-19th century calmed the kids down. Several students expressed the thought that, though a long story, they were enjoying hearing each chapter.The kids I teach may not have a parent at home who has the luxury of time to read aloud to a child. Their parents often work multiple jobs, or they are still negotiating learning English, or perhaps their school career was not as positive as mine was and they never developed that love of words and story. Whatever the reason, students in this urban environment need adults to read and share books; sometimes the only person who can do that may be the classroom teacher.Honestly, I don't know why it never occurred to me before today to say the heck with the schedule, let's enjoy a good book; let's read another chapter. Some of my favorite remembrances of elementary school are connected to books and read alouds. Charlotte's Web was read to me as a third grader and I can picture my teacher, Mrs. Harrell, standing before us reading a chapter at a time.I hope that finding a few minutes each day to read a new chapter is something my students will remember with fondness when they grow older.  Meanwhile, back to the book - this is a really exciting part.

The Power of our Words

Each year I've required students to write at least weekly about something they have been reading.  At first the students' letters go something like this:

Dear Mrs. Bisson,I read Arthur's Teacher Trouble. It was really funny.Your friend,

No matter how pushed I am for time I generally manage to write back and so our written conversations sometimes morph into writings that are less about reading and more about what is going on in a student's life.  However, as the school year progresses, I do get the students to write a bit more insightfully -- or at least to offer some support to their reading opinions.  When the changeover happens, it is a proud moment for me: my students are arriving as readers and writers.Last week one of my students wrote an outstanding critique of a book she had been reading and she wrote reasons for the character's behavioral changes throughout the book. In my reply, I happened to mention how proud I was of the student's response -- and wrote those exact words to her. It was purely serendipitous that I expressed this idea; the student is quite bright and surely must have heard accolades previously.The student's reply to me today points to the power of our words -- the student circled the words "I am so proud of your thinking" and then highlighted those words with exclamation marks. In her reply, my student revealed that no one had ever told her this before.  She revealed that the words made her feel good about herself.I have no way of knowing how this tiny moment in my student's academic life may influence her, but I am hopeful that she will continue to build her self esteem and positive learning attitude well beyond the 180 days she spends with me in our classroom community.Once again, I am struck by how powerful and influential a teacher's words can be on students.  This time the comments were by chance; in the future I hope to make such powerful words  more intentional.

Hopes and Dreams, Part 2

One of the nicest advantages of teaching is the possibility of multiple "fresh starts" throughout the year. There's the obvious one -- in the Fall, another after one report card period closes and another opens, and tomorrow's: the first day of a new calendar year.Each start brings excitement and butterflies.  Obviously the unknown of meeting students for the first time in the Fall is stressful, but so is a restarted school year after vacation.  Will I be up to the task? What do I need to know about these children to make this a positive experience? How can I adapt and adjust my lessons to stay true to my own pedagogical philosophy yet provide students with what they'll need for the high stakes tests that envelop us in uncertainty and doubt.Tomorrow begins the first school day for 2010. It is a time for restarting learning with even greater intensity, with renewed commitment to our learning mantra:

• This is important,
• You can do,
• I am not giving up on you.

Why Do You Teach?

This afternoon's email brought a solicitation from the AFT: Why do you teach and what do you and your colleagues need to do the best job for your students?  It is the why of something I have been so passionate about for more than 22 years that is difficult to put into words.Why do I teach? At first I went into teaching because my grandmother, for whom I had been named, had been a teacher in the early 1900s. Having never known my grandmother, who died when my Dad was 9, I was of course fascinated albeit enamored by the thought of her. So, from the age of 8 -- I remember it distinctly -- I have wanted to be a teacher.I, in fact, left teaching for a while to pursue other more lucrative jobs in business. One layoff too many, and I found myself rethinking my career choice again. This time with a lot more maturity, I bucked the trend of going from education into corporate jobs, studied and obtained my M.Ed.  I became an elementary school teacher.I taught back then and I continue to teach now because in the end, it is a profession that challenges me each and every day. That's the selfishness in me speaking -- I thrive on the challenge of change. In 22 years, I don't believe I've had any two years alike enough to recycle lesson plans with any regularity. Each year is a new invention.  Just as each student I've encountered over the span of my teaching career is different, so must the delivery of instruction be redesigned.  It is the pursuit of making a positive difference in the learning life of a child, the ability to turn a child on to loving reading -- and mathematics -- that moment when my students "get it", that exhilarating high of seeing students grow and approach their own potential that cannot be replicated in any other profession. It doesn't hurt that every once in a while a student calls me "mom" -- most times I take that as a high compliment.I truly believe that it is our societal responsibility to provide all students with an education -- not just a select few, not those who pass an entrance exam.  This is why I choose to teach in urban public education.  It's hard. It's frustrating. It's not often appreciated. And oftentimes what happens is unbelievable. I don't always mean that in a good way.If you've ever read any of Jonathan Kozol's writing, you know and understand that we -- that's the gigantic and collective "we" -- owe our most vulnerable citizens the best education possible.  We owe them the possibility of a better life.  I teach because I wish to be part of that solution, even if it's for just one child.Teaching is something of a religious experience for me. I believe that I am impacting -- positively most of the time -- my students' lives. I am passionate about doing the best I possibly can. That means keeping up research, talking to other educators when I can't figure out how to reach a student, reaching out to parents who may not want to reach back, covering my behind and filling out paperwork. But most of all, it means putting the possibilities of learning out there for students to see, to feel, to experience and to value for themselves.It's more than I ever imagined.

Is Letter Writing A Lost Art?

Yesterday's poll on Reading Rockets asks the question "Is letter writing (formal and informal) included in your writing curriculum?" While most respondents said yes, 20% said no. Some comments went on to say that letter writing is important, but in our society today, very few people actually write letters any longer.Our Third Grade Writing Calendar focus in December is letter writing. In my classroom, we refocus and clarify some misunderstandings the students have developed as we write letters all the time.  The students are required to write a Reading Response Letter to me at least once a week, we have penpals in another state, and we write thank you notes as needed.  My own thinking is that functional writing such as Letter Writing is and needs to be.... well, functional. We learn as we use. Yesterday, I demonstrated a few tricks for lining up heading, closing and signature (a partial "pinch" in the half rolled page) and used the vocabulary of letter writing more purposefully, but really, we've been learning by doing since September. Don't take my word for it though, here's more from Reading Rockets Blog.Granted, my most common form of personal communication today is either email or IM/Texting. So why teach letter writing? Well, I for one enjoy the feel of a letter in my hand -- one that comes in the mail with a postmark from some known or unknown locale. I enjoy reading and rereading letters when I receive them; it makes me want to respond and keep the conversations going. I've noticed this same reaction from my students when we correspond to one another through Reading Response letters. Children always flip through their Reading Notebooks to find what I wrote back -- and inevitably, I'll get that child's new response back in my In Box before the end of the day. None of us wants to break the chain.So for me, letter writing is not lost, just somewhat unappreciated in our lightening speed world. There's a place for electronic communications and even if I had the choice, I wouldn't be able to live without it. But there is also a place for a thoughtful, well-written letter. I don't plan to join that 20% not teaching letter writing any time soon.

Love in the time of cholera.....

or is it Teaching in the time of H1N1?  The season of viruses has started.  While a part of me feels empathetic to parents who cannot take time from work to tend to a sick child; the other part of me is irate that the sick child is in the petri dish I call my classroom spreading who-knows-what to all of us.  Is there no solution to this?We teach students to cover their mouths and noses when they sneeze or cough.  We teach them to throw the used tissue in a waste barrel. We teach them to wash their hands with soap and warm water each time they sneeze, cough, or use a tissue.  And yet, we still catch the viruses. Or at least I do.There is nothing so pathetic as a visibly sick child -- one with running eyes and feverish look -- spending the day with the class because no one can be reached at home.... or at work.  Can we not do better for these kids than this?The flu vaccine is no where to be found at the moment.  Flu clinics - seasonal flu clinics - have been cancelled and not rescheduled.  H1N1? Who knows when the students will be vaccinated?  Most teachers and staff are not considered "high risk"  so there's little hope of getting vaccinated.Think about that for a moment.  The adults in charge of the students wellbeing during the day - students who are recognized as high risk - will go through the next months largely unprotected from the virus prebilled as our next great pandemic.Does any of this make sense?

It's the vocabulary, stupid!

It never ceases to amaze me.I'll be reading a story and out of the blue will come a question that knocks me back a step or two. "Why did the Pilgrims come from Hollywood, Mrs. Bisson?"  Now you and I know the Pilgrims never set foot in Hollywood -- that word that was lost in translation was Holland.The importance of common academic vocabulary, and sometimes just basic social vocabulary, is a challenge for urban education.  It is easy to slip into complacency once English Language Learning students are able to verbalize responses on the most basic of levels. They are nodding their heads -- wouldn't you if you didn't want to be called on -- and, with one or two word responses able to keep up the appearance of knowing more language than they actually do.However, insisting on the use of nouns in place of demonstrative pronouns and the shortfalls in vocabulary become glaringly apparent.  "This hurts", "What hurts?", "This..." "What is that?" "This" (more insistently).Our Coordinator of Reading, Dr. Phyllis Schlicter, recently shared some statistics with us in a vocabulary and semantics workshop.  Students from different linguistic backgrounds, present challenges but so do Native-speaking children from  backgrounds of little exposure to vocabulary. At the Kindergarten level, a vocabulary gap can easily be in the thousands of words.This citation from , by Scott K. Baker, Deborah C. Simmons, and Edward J. Kameenui of the University of Oregon, points to the urgency of teaching vocabulary to our students:

The enduring effects of the vocabulary limitations of students with diverse learning needs is becoming increasingly apparent. Nothing less that learning itself depends on language. Certainly, as Adams (1990) suggests, most of our formal education is acquired through language. Learning something new does not occur in a vacuum. Rather, new learning always builds on what the learner already knows. Adams suggests that new learning is the process of forming novel combinations of familiar concepts. Learning, as a language-based activity, is fundamentally and profoundly dependent on vocabulary knowledge. Learners must have access to the meaning of words teachers, or their surrogates (e.g., other adults, books, films, etc.), use to guide them into contemplating known concepts in novel ways (i.e., to learn something new). With inadequate vocabulary knowledge, learners are being asked to develop novel combinations of known concepts with insufficient tools.

The implications to my students is profound.

It's the little things

Teachers generally roll with the punches; lots of mid-step changes and revisions to policy, curriculum, means flexibility is one of the most important traits of a teacher. Even the most compulsive of us -- and I include myself in that category -- manages to get through the continual stream. Teachers react and respond to split-second changes in what has been planned in a lesson; reading the room and adapting accordingly is so natural that it almost does not appear to be happening unless, of course, you know how the teacher envisioned the lesson during the planning process. Last minute schedule snafus, newly minted processes to handle paperwork, new mandates from the school department -- those changes never seem to bother teachers too much. They're expected.And then, there are the little things. Last Tuesday the good feeling as a new day started, quickly evaporated in a nanosecond. Why? Because the breakfast milk crate was partly filled with expired milk. Not just old milk, expired as in a week-too-old milk. Given the date on the expired milk (9/12) and the date on the "good" milk (9/22), my guess is that someone at the milk vendor may need a quick lesson on place value.One would not think that such a small event would set a classroom on edge, but it did. Eight-year-olds are awesome kids -- on the verge of becoming quite independent really. But throw in a spoiled milk or two.... in an instant the classroom is in an uproar.We eat a grab-and-go breakfast in our classrooms each morning. As it happened, Tuesday was cereal day. I was moving around the classroom greeting kids, reminding them of our morning routine which has yet to become automatic despite 10 days of "practice" when I noticed a buzz about milk. The buzz gradually, but with alarming speed, turned into a full blown roar -- the milk was not only old, but sour. By this point it had been mixed in with most children's breakfast cereal bowl. Curdled, smelly, disgusting tasting hunks of spoiled milk among the Cheerios. Ugh.The wave of panic that ran through my classroom rivaled that of a wildfire. Code orange, code yellow, code red! Energy level raised. Amazingly, the kids still tried to eat their cereal -- we had to stop them from continuing. In the end, teacher-turned-surrogate-parent and helped the kids to throw away the spoiled breakfast.Of course living by the clock as we do there was no time to ask for replacement food -- nor was any offered. And a quick mini lesson in, "if it tastes spoiled, throw it away" was implemented times the four 3rd grade classrooms in our wing. This seemingly minor event, however, set the tone for the day.  I was annoyed and cranky about the disruption and the kids were upset and hungry. It took several hours for some resemblance to calm, purposeful learning to return.As I've said, it's the little things that either put us over the edge or keep us on track.

3 Down, 177 To Go.....

I have a love-hate relationship with the first week of school.I love it because it is a time for a fresh start, a do-over; everything about the start of the year is new and exciting.  And to be honest, after 10 weeks away from teaching, I miss it.... even the most annoying of personalities has made the changeover to endearing in my most human of memory banks.  Honestly, what other profession allows one to have a "new year" in September (and then another in January)?Meeting students for the first time and building that community of learners out of so many differing personalities is challenging and fun.  As a Responsive Classroom, we often start our year with a Human Treasure Hunt (see page 2 of this link).  We learn much about our sameness, and our differences and begin to build a tolerant classroom together.  Will we falter? Most likely, but then we will regroup, rethink and begin again.This year I have finally taken my principal's advice to move slowly and not give in to the pressure to get the show on the road.  We have spent 3 days learning and practicing routines that will become part of my students' mental "muscle memory".  We practiced the quiet chime signal until students can stop and listen without reminders, we have learned important emergency routines and other essentials. And, using ideas from The Daily Five, students learn what is expected during Independent Reading -- this is the routine I am most excited about.  By slowing building my students' "stamina" for reading independently, I hope for once and for all (well, it's a hope), that my students will be able to work independently thoughout the 60-minute Reading Workshop Block so that my focus can be more on instructing and conferencing -- and not so much on behavior managements.  We are well behind diving into academics this year.  I am trusting that the time and effort spent in setting routines and expectations will pay off in the long term.So, what don't I love? Well, for one thing I don't love the paperwork that comes with the start of school. Yes, I realize it is part of the territory, but starting, updating, and creating lists in cumulative folders, record cards, gradebooks, and so on is tedious.  Did everyone change phone numbers this past summer -- I'm beginning to think they did! And, it does not seem to matter how much I've anticipated returning to my school hours and routines, I am one disorganized mess during that first week.  I'm still not sure if we have food in the house.However, this weekend I am determined to enjoy the beautiful end-of-summer weather with which we've been gifted.  And next week we'll begin again to build our community of learners.

3 Days and Counting.....

Hours put in since the last post:  6+Yesterday I met with our Team's new Special Education Teacher, Melissa.  I don't know about Melissa, but I am definitely feeling the overwhelming panic that encompasses the start of a new year.  The weird dreams have already begun.  It will be good to get back to school and find out the students are NOT throwing spit balls around the room while I chase after them in my nighty :-)I wrote a sketch of what I hope to accomplish over the first 3 days of school.  Trying to find a balance between the procedures and routines I feel are necessary to creating a classroom community and some fun stuff so the kids don't feel overwhelmed is always a tightrope walk.  I like order; accepting that "things" won't be perfected (or as close as they'll get) until a good six weeks into the school year always gives me an uncomfortable feeling.I did change the desk arrangements around, partly to accomodate a student in a wheelchair and with a wheelchair accessible desk and partly because I just don't want to give up on cooperative groupings of 3 or 4 students.  I like grouping my students heterogeneously so that they can talk to each other when they are stuck, need help, don't remember what to do. As you can see from this shot, a large meeting area takes a good part of the classroom.  It's important to me to get down on the floor on the same level with the students and this is one way I achieve that.At this time, there are minimal supplies on the students' desks.  The empty red writing binder and 5 tab dividers, a word study test book, a spiral notebook used as a math journal, crayons and a bookmark.  Once my class list is fairly final -- on Monday during Staff Orientation -- I'll add a personalized materials.  Working in urban schools for the last 20+ years has taught me to be cautious about personalizing materials until the students actually arrive in the classroom.  Over the last week my class roster has fluctuated from 18 to 20 to 19 as students move around the district to another elementary school.  Students will continue to enroll in the District through the week after Labor Day as not all parents will be familiar with the early start date.Melissa and I read through the cumlative folders and IEPs of the incoming students.  It is good to think and plan ahead for these students: How can we adapt and change materials so that everyone feels successful? There are so many questions that need answers.As of today, the physical space is prepared. The first 3 days of plans have been sketched out, and I am as ready as I can be at the moment. Waiting for the first bell on Tuesday with lots of First Day Jitters.

Summer Reading, Part 2

About a week ago, I finally finished reading Ellin Keene's new book, To Understand.  Originally intending to blog about the book as soon as it was finished was in reality impossible to do.  Things that Ellin has to say about teaching, about thinking, about maintaining a balance in education have been turning around and around in my mind for the past week.  One of the hardest ideas for me is to let go of the idea that, full-throttle teaching to the exclusion of any other interests is neither helpful or healthful. It is one of many themes emerging from reading this book.The frenzy that has been in my classroom for the last two years needs to change.  One of the most powerful ideas that Ellin Keene proposes is developing a culture of calm and quiet.  Giving students the opportunity to practice thinking -- the wait time, the expectation that students will take time to form their ideas before sharing them -- seems like an idea that my students (and I) need to develop.  So often the pace of the classroom, the frenzy, the multi-tasking, the divided attention, detracts from all of us providing thoughtful commentary. And in listening to others' commentary and questioning, growth.Using the Making Meaning materials mandated in this district, our students have begun to learn how manage appropriate discussion behaviors.  Stopping at set points in a text, students learn to share ideas with a partner and report out to a large group.  It has been helpful in guiding students who have little confidence in their discussion abilities nor practice in socially acceptable discussion norms. However, this program has unfortunately taken the choice or what to discuss, the teachable moment away from the professional.  How frequently we teachers find this happening -- instead of allowing a teacher to exercise professional judgment, the scripted materials box us into a set of skills that our students may or may not be ready for.  In the climate of high stakes testing and accountability, teachers and administrators often dare not deviate from the prescription for "success" lest their students not meet the predetermined benchmark.Why I relay this anecdote is to illustrate the overarching theme I believe runs through To Understand.  While we know we must be accountable for certain achievements, skills, standards of education, we need to trust our professional compass. We need to stop at points in a text that will engage our students thinking and that point may or may not coincide with the prescribed prepackaged curriculum.  We need to have the courage to trust what we know about teaching and learning, about curriculum, and about our students to teach with rigor. We need to teach our students to develop their Renaissance thinking.

Summer Reading #1: To Understand

To Understand is author and teacher, Ellin Oliver Keene's new book; and it has been on my list to read for several months.  I began reading this book earlier in the school year and adapted Ellin's idea for Literacy Studio (crafting, composing, individual activities and reflection time) to encompass the teaching day. Defining each of these according to student and teacher/leader responsibilities worked across the curriculum in my class last year. I am anxious to use this model again next school year.When school demands became overwhelming, I had to put aside reading To Understand and have only recently picked it up to read again.  Keene asserts that we, as educators, need to advocate for what is essential to our curriculum and teach that in depth.  There is so much pressure today to try to "cover" topics that this is hard to imagine.  I find myself easily lured into teaching to a checklist of what someone else has deemed third grade curriculum which leaves little time for developing the fun stuff -- topics that the students want to explore, discovery through student inquiry, developing thinking.  It worries me that I am contributing to a culture of fact regurgitation -- my students need to develop thinking and discernment skills.  Will my students be part of a "can-do" or "can't-do" culture?So as I've picked up Ellin Keene's book again, I'm particularly struck by her words in the chapter about creating "renaissance learners". We have long been exposing our students to a catechism of learning: ideas and facts that must be committed to memory and then tested and retested to ensure "quality control" of our "product".  There is no need for creative thinking here -- we need to turn out students who can pass standardized tests.  Sadly, not many of the students who are learning under such contraints become "passionately interested" in topics .  To quote Keene:

But in schools, are we set up to create Renaissance kids? I worry that with schedules driven by different subject areas, curriculum created around tests, and a society that demands perfect completion of everything kids attempt, we are unwittingly contributing to the demise of the Renaissance person -- creating our own medieval age.

Frightening? Indeed it is.  And Keene continues:

If we live in a society that values Renaissance thinking, but in schools that work against it, is it possible to help young children sustain and older kids rediscover the Renaissance person in themselves? Do all young children come to us with those qualities? Is it possible to devote time to the pursuit of pressing questions on a wide range of topics? Can we encourage kids to wonder, to pursue new ideas through their own discovery and research? And, if we decide that it is important to promote the notion of Renaissance learners, where do we begin, given the constraints of our professional and personal lives?

Many questions, much to think about.

For summer consideration

I find that the longer I am a teacher, the more I am blown away by the intelligence and thoughtfulness of colleagues across the US.  Here is a blog I recently came upon Two Writing Teachers.  Even though the two bloggers teach grade levels higher than my current teaching assignment, the process and their craft as literacy teachers is thoughtful and practical.  Check out the section on mentor texts -- I was amazed to find some of the very same texts I use with my third graders mentioned as exemplars for narratives and other genre of writing.Also within the same blog is an interview with Stenhouse author Mark Overmyer.  Check out Mark's response to a question about assessment.  God help me if Two Writing Teachers move these links!Lots to think about and catch up on and summer has just started!