Whew - 4 down one to go

We are still laying down the routines and expectation for the Daily Five. Here's how my morning goes: Get up (usually before the alarm), start coffee, sit down with my laptop, check email (and Facebook, okay I admit I'm addicted) and then watch one of the Sister's videos on the Daily Cafe website.Most of my students - with the exception of two who are exceptional in that they have significant developmental delays - are able to sustain 15 minutes of Read to Self  followed by 15 minutes of Writing.  I don't suppose it is that unusual at this point in the year to find my students can sustain stamina for nearly 30 minutes for the first choice session, but the stamina in the second choice session  is about 2/3 of that.There are a few glitches. I can hear my students using Check for Understanding when they Read to Someone. But the voice levels are so loud - or at least I think they are. Coming from a background in constructivist mathematics where the classroom can be a noisy place, I am torn about stopping and restarting the students - they are talking on topic after all.Next week we will add Listen to Reading -- without the benefit of a listening center. (shameless plug: I've written a proposal on Donorschoose.org if you are feeling supportive). We will be using our boombox for that... wish us luck!What I am seeing is a powerful transfer of responsibility to my students. They are starting to feel empowered by choosing what they will work on. And I am delighted that I was able to give a complete Fountas & Pinnell benchmark test without waving off at least one student who didn't know what to do next and who wanted to interrupt me.I think we're getting somewhere.  

Stamina

I've been working - really working - at the conferencing table for the last several session of D5 choice. Up until this point, I have been "fake working" -- monitoring students without their knowledge -- so as to regroup if and when stamina for an activity is broken. We are nearly pros with Read to Self now and becoming much more independent with Writing; just a few missteps in the ""work quietly" department.Word Work is still a work in progress as is Read to Someone. The kids are getting very accustomed to setting their goals for independently working (hurrah!) and are starting to verbalize why we do what we do in the classroom (extra hurrah).When I hear other educators talk about the Daily Five, it is often said that D5 is simply an organizational structure. Well, yes, there is that aspect. However, for me, the beauty, the benefit of working with this structure is the explicit guide for creating independent students - students who become responsible learners.It is not enough for students to comply in school just because teacher "said so." Think about it: when you were a kid, you were probably often told to just do something. When you didn't understand the point of the activity or the routine, did you find it easy to remember and to comply? I didn't.Building stamina for independence has been a painfully slow process. It is natural to want to get the show on the road, to be able to get in the routines of the day - all of them - as quickly as possible.Independent habits of mind take time. We are building our stamina this year and already the payback is becoming obvious.

D5 One Day at a Time

We have been in session with our students for 3 days now. At one point yesterday afternoon I came to the realization that these third graders are funny and likeable and want to learn. Being somewhat superstitious I'm a little nervous about saying that out loud so early, but there you go.We started our journey with the Daily Five on our very first day of school - just like the Sisters advocate.  I picked out one of my favorite read alouds, Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems and began by asking students about the ways they thought this book could be read. That resulted in a blank look that telegraphed, "Lady, if you don't know how to read a book, we've got a big problem here."It took some coaxing, but we finally came up with 2 bullet items to add to our anchor chart. We tried reading the pictures for Knuffle Bunny first and then I modeled reading the words. I have quite a few students for whom reading is a challenge, the permission to read by pictures gave them a sense of accomplishment -- just as the Sisters said it would.We continued building the anchor chart for 3 Ways to Read on the second day of school by adding "Retelling the story".  We've been talking about good fit books and will continue to develop that concept over the next week.Working on developing the I-Chart for "Read to Self" was quite an eye-opening experience for me. It took a bit of coercing to get kids to realize that reading to yourself can be fun -- but it also makes you smarter.  That's a term I use a lot with my students as I am a big proponent of using attribution theory in developing habits of mind for effective effort. So instead of "becoming a better reader", I've tweaked the sense of urgency to get smarter by reading.As teachers, I think we assume that children intuit that we are working hard when they are working hard. my students had absolutely no clue what I might be doing while they were reading to self... really.  Blank stares followed by tentative guesses that I might be walking around the room.  So we stopped and took the opportunity to talk about teachers listening to students read, coaching students to improve their reading, and meeting with a small group.I've paid close attention to the purposeful use of a good model and a  not-good model of nearly every routine we are working on. What a powerful way to get my barometer kids to buy in to successfully participating in focused and meaningful reading activities!I find it is challenging to resist the urge to just dive into a fully developed schedule; I want to get everything rolled out all at once, but I know that doesn't work. This year as I implement the Daily Five more purposefully, I am resisting the urge to rush building stamina and go right to sustaining a block of reading for 15 minutes. I learned from experience last year that even though I felt like the kids could sustain their attention, in reality, they could not. We're up to 5 minutes as of today; five minutes when they are truly independent, when they are truly employing those 3 ways to read a book, 5 minutes when they are totally ignoring me because they are focused on reading. Awesome!So far.... so good.

What Matters

It is terribly difficult to keep one's focus on the things that are important - the "prime directive" for those of us who grew up on Star Trek - no matter what your profession.For me, the prime directive is to encourage children to be curious, to encourage them to take learning risks, to encourage them to love learning new things, whether or not those things are academic. In current times, education has taken on an air of desperation as policy makers try to jam every child into a one-size-fits all curriculum. What we gain in test scores, we lose in creative possibility.  But I digress.How easy it is to lose sight of what is important! We have been in school (officially) 2 days and here it is, the morning of the 3rd day (4:30 in the morning to be accurate). So far the things that are occupying my mind are schedules, logistics, paper management, and directives. "When your up to your ass in alligator, it is hard to remember your original objective was to drain the swamp." I don't know who said that originally, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was a teacher during the first week of school.Before any magic can take place in my classroom, I need to put aside these distractions. The outside influences that are impeding what I would like to accomplish - my prime directive - need to be shut out.Energize.

The Grand Plan

I broke down today and started to work on a room arrangement.  I am planning on 24 kids - already have 23 on the roster - and have a contingency for a 25th.Here are some "before" shots from last June:Step one was to move shovemy desk out of the way. I have a large, desk with anequally large return; thankfully it is not attached! I have rotated the return around so that that kids have access to the knee hole. On top of this space I've put a 24-slot letter sorter we use for "mailboxes" and the shiny new iMac that actually runs the web-based programs our district subscribes to. I'm kind of happy with this arrangement already. The mailboxes are inside the classroom space now and not at the doorway causing a logjam. They are lower so the kids should be able to access them. And the computer is now easily accessed by students.I have an old(er) Dell laptop that I have replaced with a personal netbook. I willhopefully gain permission from the computer network gatekeepers to access the internet from within our school's firewall - which will allow me to do what I need to do assessment and data-wise, unplug the laptop and bring it home to continue my school tasks.  We'll see how long it takes to get all of that permitted.I've also flipped where the classroom library was located to the front of the room. My classroom is at a junction point for 2hallways - it is often noisy - which means it is distracting to put the reading conferencing space and/or student tables in that vicinity. I placed the shelves to create a kind of barrier which I hope will insulate us a bit from the hallway noise.  This is also where the gathering space is for whole group lessons.Finally, I've decided to group my students in 6's - not because that's such an ideal number for cooperative learning, but because there will be less real estate involved with the desks when we get down to 4 groupings.Now to work on the tossing; after sending out an all-school message, I got a taker for the table I wanted to get rid of. Next up is to get the TV cart moved in to storage and clear off the countertops. Once that is accomplished, I can bring in my plants and lamps -- and some other homey touches. I've even located some fire retardant valances on the web. Things are starting to come together.Yardsale anyone?

Another Look at the Daily Five and Math

How does that saying go? If you're not green and growing, you're rip and rotten. One of the key components of the Daily Five - teaching learners to be independent - is not only appealing, but imperative. After some false starts last year (based on my reading of both the D5 and Cafe books), I attended a Daily Five workshop. And the whole thing is becoming less muddled.Typically, my students don't do well with a million and one different teaching models thrown at them. We already have a Launch-Explore-Summary model in place for our mathematics instruction. There is a great need for small group/individualized math conferencing and intervention, particularly this year when we transition from the Massachusetts 2004/2009 Frameworks to the Massachusetts version of the Common Core Curriculum. There will be gaps, that is certain.To address both the transition to a new curriculum and my students' need for consistency, I have decided to make a go at implementing a Daily Five model during mathematics instruction. What are the five areas going to be? Well, here's what my current thinking is:

• Exploration activities based on the launched mini lesson (a "must" do)
• Strategy Activities. Through the use of games and other constructive activities, students will address computational and conceptual gaps.
• Problem Solving. All of my students, but particularly second language learners need practice in the structure of problem solving situations. This will be a weekly assignment with time built into our schedule for students to discuss how they solved the problem (rigor! perseverance!)
• Basic Fact Games/Practice
• Technology Tool (a chance to use the accompanying programs for our math program OR the interventions found in the Galileo program).

I'll need a minimum of 85 minutes; 90-100 would be better. That means getting back to class and started on our mathematics work right after recess. Hopefully the stamina-building and direct instruction in expectations for independence will give us greater success. On paper it looks do-able, in reality - I am hoping so.

Planning out the block comes next.  Suggestions welcome.

D5 and Barometer Kids

One of the most powerful and admirable things about Gail and Joan - the Sisters - is how they openly share their teaching life.  They don't preach that they have all the answers, and anyone who has spent more than a nanosecond in a classroom knows that absolutely no one can have all the answers. Teaching is organic; it changes from day to day and sometimes from minute to minute. It changes from year to year as well as the culture of the classroom is fluid and dependent on the humans that make up the class.According to The Sisters, one of their most frequent troubleshooting queries is about children who don't seem to develop the stamina required during independent work periods.  Fake reading, avoidance tactics (bathroom visits, taking FOREVER in the bathroom), whatever you call these behaviors, the kids aren't reading and are often sucking away valuable teaching and learning time.Joan and Gail call these kids "barometer" kids -- depending on which way they are going directly impacts the entire atmosphere in the classroom.Last year I think I had quite a few kids who could make or break the learning in the day. Some of this distraction was a cry for attention and some was something deeper. Whatever the cause - attention or organic -- the impact on all of us in the room was immense.  Here's a link to what they have to say about one of their students who had difficulty building stamina.The Daily Five structure demands that children learn to own some of the responsibility for their own learning -- and that includes building the stamina it will take so that I, the teacher, will not always need to be the ring-master.It will take a bit of trust for me to let go, to trust that my students are capable of learning how to do just that -- to be trusted to make good learning choices without me getting in the middle of things.We will all be learning new things this school year.

Outside of the Box

We will have a lot of changes this coming Fall. Some are more global: a new administrator, a new superintendent, new Core Curriculum. On a more local level, my grade level has made a decision to locate the Inclusion classrooms side-by-side, so next year I will be a SPED Inclusion room again.And there some changes in my own teaching that I've been thinking about. I've dabbled in implementing the Daily Five over the last year. It's something that makes sense to me. This summer, a couple of us will be going to the Daily Five workshop offered by "The Sisters" and I'm really psyched about learning more with my teaching colleagues.However the classroom design ideas from The Sisters that have really piqued my curiosity -- along with a suggestion from  Tuesday2's blog -- and that is what is giving me the inspiration to really look at my classroom's traditional layout.  Is the room "mine" or is it "ours"? And if it is ours, everything - seating, access to materials, EVERYthing - needs a re-evaluation as to its purpose and usefulness in a room filled with 9 year olds.Just how much radical change can be made remains to be seen -- the District has requirements (overhead projectors in each room has been a hot topic in the building this week). But there will be change.... this is going to be fun.

Classroom Design

Boy do I ever need to redesign my classroom space.  What I have is workable, but there's much more to be done.  What would my dream space look like? Here are some things I'm mulling over for next school year:1. Removing the big old TV on the gigantic (and wobbly) stand.  Yes, I do use video.... sometimes. Is it worth having this gigantic thing taking up more square footage in the classroom? I'm not sure it is. What would be a reasonable and less space-consuming alternative for those times when a picture is way more effective than words?2. Clearing the decks. Countertops are full, and I mean full, of "stuff".  I know the district has a rule that each room needs an overhead projector, but I don't use the thing since we've received an ELMO and projector.  But I also have too much "stuff" on the countertops -- just how important are those bins with independent math activities?  Time to be brutal.3. Coverup. The windows let in light, but more often than not it is harsh. And several of the windows are cloudy. Sheer curtains?  Hmmmmm, would that  a more welcoming, diffused lighting?4. Seating. Cushions and upholstery in public spaces make me nervous. I don't like to sit on the chairs in my doctor's office.  Whatever we use for alternative seating needs to be welcoming, functional, space saving and movable.5. Student work areas. Since the furniture available seems to be just desks, that's what we have to work with - no student tables (I had trapezoid tables at another school and I loved them!). What would the room be like without so many of them? How would that change the way we work?Lots to think about as this year runs out. Classroom design is a bigger deal than I've previously thought. It will affect the way the room is managed, it may affect the students' concept toward the room, and it can affect their behaviors.  Hoping that over the summer I'll get some inspiration -- and some latitude -- do make changes that will positively impact my students' time in third grade next year.

Uplifting the Soul

This time of year, the weeks before "real" spring arrives, challenges me.  The winter debris, the salt and sand, litter, the ugliness of a still brown landscape make me anxious for a spring that arrives according to its own timetable.So yesterday, in an attempt to shake out of the depression that has been enveloping me, I took a personal day to visit the Museum of Fine Arts. For some weeks now, I have been anticipating Dale Chihuly's "Through the Looking Glass" exhibit. The beauty of glass - blown glass especially - has been a fascination of mine since I saw a glassblower work on a fifth grade field trip to Greenfield Village in Michigan. I have always found the molten mix of sand that begins as a bubble at the end of a tube and ends in shapes and colors wondrous.The exhibit, which will stay at the MFA through August 7, takes your breath away. The camera does not even come close to capturing the beauty of not only shape, but color. Here are some photographs from the exhibit. There are no words to describe the wonderment that "Through the Looking Glass" instills.

Let the testing games begin

I have a new definition for "March Madness" and it has nothing to do with playing a sport.This March, we have the following on our docket: MELA-O (ELL assessment), MEPA (ELL written assessment), District Math Benchmark, MCAS Reading, and report cards. And of course there are always assessments for RTI/TAT tracking and reading progress conferences/running records.My poor ELLs -- they are going to have to endure two rounds of high-stress standardized testing as devised by the state over the next two weeks. I really question the wisdom of testing kids on a whole year of learning in March -- for goodness sake it is only 7 months (6 1/2 really) into the school year. I guess those other two months count for nothing? And let's not mention that all of the procedures and disrupted teaching time to administer a test will take -- 4 days out of the month of March alone.I do believe that data helps us to drive instruction, to move our students forward. But for goodness sake do we need to gather it all in one month?

The Elephant in the Classroom

Things are not always dire or bleak, but looking for a positive after yesterday's Parent Teacher conferences is fairly challenging. I have 22 students. Ten parents made appointments for a conference period yesterday; the conferences were held between 3 and 5 pm as an alternative to the 6 to 8 pm conferences held in the Fall.Of those 10 parents, one canceled her appointment the day before. Of the other nine, 4 kept the appointment and 5 choose not to attend without the courtesy of a cancellation message. One parent was confused by the sign up method and came without an appointment -- which as it turns out, was not a problem. Another parent was having day surgery during the day -- we conferenced on the telephone Sunday afternoon.I know that times have changed. People are busy. But common courtesy has not taken a header has it? I cannot imagine myself just not showing up when I had a conference appointment with my own child's teacher. Both my husband and I have had recent reminiscences about our own elementary days -- and our parents who would together attend conferences. Different times for certain. Since when do people just not show up to keep an appointment they made with a teaching professional? Notices on bright-colored paper, reminders in class, phone calls. Wouldn't that have triggered something?The parents I did see -- the ones who made appointments and kept them -- they are the positives in all of this. They are the ones who take a sincere interest in what their student is learning, how they can help. They came with questions, with requests, and I am gladly finding answers and responding to them.But for those who just blew me off I want to ask, what was that about? Clearly, parents are disconnected here. So what can be done to engage them? It is a conversation that needs to take place - now.Harlem Children's Zone's Promise Academy touts their success as a charter school amid the turmoil and needs of an inner city school system. I've read that their success is certainly influenced by the involvement of these students' parents in the educational process. So how do they get parents to the table?  How do they get parents to participate in the monthly workshops, the parent nights? How do they deal with the elephant that is in our classrooms? Is it the extraordinary funding that the school uses to provide incentives? Or is there some other school culture that is engaging parents?I would dearly love to know the answer.

The Office - Mini style

Maybe it's been around for a while and I'm just catching up on my reading, but I just learned about a new "tool" for students. Lucky for my budget it won't cost anything more than some manila file folders, tape, and time.The new tool is called the Mini-office. I was intrigued by the term when I went Googling for literacy stations after reading Debbie Miller's Practice with Purpose. I like the thinking behind a mini office: the most often used or referenced tips - in my case for Writing - are posted strategically on the manila file folders. The folders are arranged to form a three-sided display keeping those tips right within eyesight of a student. What I like about this tool is that, depending upon the writing project, the references posted on the mini-office can be customized to fit the writing or generalized for any writing.Mini offices are on my shortlist of ideas to try out this Fall. Now to think about what essential information will help my students.Links for Mini Offices:Busy Teacher CafeABC TeachTeaching Heart

Thirds

Teaching third grade is just about as good as it gets in my humble opinion.  Over the span of my teaching career I've taught every level from pre-school through 12th grade. There are inherent challenges at each level - and rewards as well.Last Friday, my students begged and begged and we finally convinced my husband Adrien, who had been their community reader, to visit us. Friday was a special occasion in Room 207; our school has a large Southeast Asian population and we celebrate Cambodian/Lao/Viet Namese New Year every April with a Whole School Meeting. Students bring in tons of delicious homecooked Southeast Asian foods to share and we have a troupe of dancers who perform a traditional dance. Adrien was invited to taste some of the food my students brought to share.This week was a big one for Adrien as he was one of several artists from Western Avenue Studios interviewed for Chronicle. I shared this with the kids and about half of them actually watched the broadcast!  It was not assigned as homework - honest! Without prompting on my part, some of them mentioned the art they had seen and talked about seeing "their" Mr. Bisson on television. Rock Star status was conferred.One of the best things about teaching third graders is their unabashed enthusiasm for everything. Some days I even get a "thank you" when I give them a test. And usually there's quite a bit of cheering when we change things up and go "off  task". So when the office called the room to tell us Adrien was coming to visit, the excitement was electric. Students were practically airborne when he entered the door -- and quite a few ran up to him with paper and pencil for his autograph.  I have to tell you I've never seen THAT before.So when you're feeling under-appreciated, here's my prescription: Get yourself to your local elementary school and find a group of third graders.  You'll feel much better in no time.

Taking chances

Last night, WCVB TV in Boston, featured three artists' communities in Massachusetts. The one that I am most familiar with is Western Avenue Studios where my husband Adrien has studio space.  Western Avenue Studios is a unique and wonderfully diverse collection of over 250 artists who work in almost any medium you can imagine.  So much talent! And even more impressive, so much collegiality. It is truly a unique community.The video, features several of the talented artisans, including Adrien, and it was broadcast last night, April 14th on the locally produced show, Chronicle. Here is the video segment featuring Western Avenue from that broadcast.As Adrien and I watched the video for the first time last night so many things ran through my mind. First of all, when Adrien first started to talk seriously about working as a photographer, I wondered about his sanity in quitting his software job -- partially two years ago and completely last August.  When he purchased his first pro equipment, I actually thought he was in the middle of a mid-life crisis -- how wrong I was! Over the next months, with determination and purpose, he updated his skills as a photographer, invested in the time to explore what kinds of subjects he found fascinating, and worked at refining a portfolio of work that today blows my mind. As he says in his interview, he tries to capture the subject through the eyes -- and oftentimes it is as if he has looked deep into a person's soul and captured the person's very essence.Taking a chance on leaving a sure money-maker that allowed us to live quite comfortably over 25 years was a giant leap of faith. Building a service business is not easy and doing so in the wake of one of the worst economic crises in our recent history is even more difficult.But I don't think either of us would have traded one minute of uncertainty for the reward of following your heart into an art that you not only enjoy but you love. Last night's Chronicle segment completed and affirmed this transformation.To do what you love and to do it well is awesome. The eloquence of the talented artists at Western Avenue and on this broadcast simply takes one's breath away.

A Tuesday Smile

There are days when teaching energetic 8- and 9-year old students is a challenge; there are times when it is most definitely enjoyable.On Tuesdays, our Morning Meeting is somewhat abbreviated. The students begin the day with a 10-minute grab and go breakfast followed by Art Class while I am meeting with my grade level team. We facilitate the need to start our day with a welcome by doing a "one minute" greeting - a chance to walk around the meeting area and shake a classmate's hand. I noticed today how wonderfully the students looked each other - and me - in the eye and said "Good Morning!". Definitely a great way to start the day! How awesome it was to notice the students who for a variety of reasons previously had been unable to look a classmate or me in the eye. To be able to do so  now, along with a firm handshake, well that's growth that no test will ever measure.A bit later in the Morning Meeting, I allow 2-3 students to share something with their peers. Today, one of my quiet kids signed up. When it was his turn, he reached behind his back for a cardboard box liner - pink velveteen if I recall correctly - with about a one-inch hole right in the middle."What now," I wondered silently.Presto! To our delight, he inserted his finger through the hole in the box liner and with a sly smile said "I found this box in my sister's car so I faked my Mom out. I told her I found this finger in a box." Believe me when I tell you this is primo third grade humor - the kids could hardly contain themselves and the thought that a Mom had been fooled. Well, that was the the BEST!I imagine that as we speak, there are 17 children scouring their homes for a box just like the one that was shared today. And probably there's a rash of finger-in-the-box fake-outs as well.

BlogCatalog

CHOICES Character Education

In my school, we have been grappling with student behaviors, choices and what to do about them.  Our Green Team - the staff guiding us to a cohesive K-4 plan - is incorporating and blending ideas from Ruth Payne's outstanding book, A Framework for Understanding Poverty, Linda Albert's book Cooperative Discipline, and Responsive Classroom. As a staff, we are exploring this further in a graduate level course offered after school hours.The deeper I delve into the topic, the more complicated things seem. A majority of our student come from trauma: financial, emotional, social, even academic. I am beginning to understand the role this plays in driving less-than-acceptable behaviors that appear in the classroom. Explicit and direct teaching and talking to children seems to be a key to helping students be and achieve their best. What does effort look like? What does it mean to work hard? What is a good choice?This morning, I came across this resource. The CHOICES program itself may not necessarily fit with our school's plan, but the literature lists for introducing and teaching character -- making choices, honesty, integrity, caring, etc. seem to offer  some great ideas for creating a literacy link to classroom discussion.For more information, click on CHOICES Character Education.

Life in the Crazy Aisle

It doesn't matter what I intend to do, once the school year starts, all my good intentions for moderation and actually having a life are very soon forgotten.  Case in point: the last post was September 18th.  That was 6 weeks ago for crying out loud.  School start ups are always stressful, jam packed, and tiring: Resistance is futile.For the last 6 weeks I've put in 12 plus hour days to try to manage -- and isn't that an ironic word choice -- life in school.  It takes at least 8 hours to plan for a week's instruction. Add to that the assessments that need to be evaluated, logged in, and meetings to attend to and before you know it, you have no life.  The inevitability of this scenario is based on 22 plus years in the classroom.  There is no way around it.Needless to say, all this attention to work means there is little attention to other things.  For me, one of those "other things" was the traffic light at the intersection of Boston Road and 495 on Tuesday morning at (holy crap) 6:30 am.  According to the state police officer who stopped me, I blasted right through the light and it was red.  I sort of remember a different color as I started through the intersection (hence the stepping on the gas). However, the fact that another car in the lane next to me did stop made it pretty definitive that I at least was attempting to forgo a delay in my urgent appointment with planning.  License and registration please.  This  episode,  an attempt to put in my 12 hours, cost me 100 bucks.  And now I have to endure my husband's continual reminder that I have embarked on a life of crime.  Can this woman be saved?So, having spent quite a chunk of what I may have made money-wise on Tuesday, I have embarked on a new regime of moderation.  I will not arrive at school before 7:00, I will leave school at 4:00, and I will pay attention to the traffic lights on Boston Road.Oh, and I will post to this blog more than every 6 weeks.

A New Old Project

Tonight, my colleague Colleen Turco and I shared our new and improved third grade mathematics curriculum with our peers as part of our course final. The more I work on curriculum -- and I've been at it since 1987 -- the more I realize that nothing is every really "finished". Curriculum is a fluid as the students who populate our classrooms from year to year. Can we ever consider something done? I doubt it.This project was started nearly a year ago when Colleen and I realized that following the Investigations in Number, Data and Space curriculum strictly left us little time to develop number sense or conversation about mathematics. We also came to the realization that the timing of the units left our students with little time to learn the math facts, multiplication and division, expected in computation. With these things in mind, we spent the summer pulling apart the curriculum and reordering units in a way that seems to make sense for our student population.Additionally, Colleen, who is our school's Math Resource Teacher and who knows the big picture like no one else can, made sure we had addressed all the third grade standards in the Massachusetts framework. Working together, we've pulled in lessons and resources from many different places (Math Solutions - THANK YOU!) which we felt supported the philosophy of mathematics teaching, yet improved upon, supported, or revisited the curriculum framework.Now that we've developed this document, or plan if you will, and implemented it on a pilot basis in my classroom, Colleen and I are ready to roll it out to the rest of my grade level team -- and adjust it. Already I have a list of things that need tweaking.Our first attempt at making sense out of the mathematics curriculum feels pretty good; although I do have an eye on the standardized testing which I hope will show some improvement over prior years.We hope any readers of this blog -- if you are out there -- will offer up suggestions for materials or lessons that will enhance our work in progress.