What a year! I moved to a new building, with a completely new team, and a new principal. That's a lot of new, especially within the scope of education.
But it has been a fantastic, amazing learning experience, and I am so thrilled to be where I am today. There is a lot going on in our building, not the least of which is the fact that we are now officially a Leader in Me school! If you are not familiar with Leader in Me, please check out the website: www.theleaderinme.org. I had the privilege of attending a Leadership Day event in March, and was completely astounded by what I saw happening in the elementary school that I was visiting. The Leader in Me is based on the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Dr. Stephen Covey, a book that I am currently re-reading thanks to the magic of audiobooks, of which I am now a fan thanks to a total daily commute of 80 minutes.
This is going to be such an exciting journey, one that I cannot wait to embark on with my coworkers! We begin training in August, and I can honestly say that I have never been this eager for August to arrive!
So my point in all of this is that, in the spirit of Beginning With the End In Mind, and Putting First Things First, that I am going to try very, very hard to keep an online blog/journal of my building's journey, my third grade team's journey, my classroom journey, and my personal journey through the Leader in Me process. So if you are curious as to what all of the hullabaloo is about, want to get your building on board, or are simply a doubting Thomas (bring it), please make sure to follow my blog, and my TpT store, where I will be posting resources that I create as I move along the LIM path throughout the next school year. Here we go!!!!
Sunday, May 11, 2014
Monday, July 22, 2013
7 Habits - Habit 1: Be Proactive
Have you ever felt the need to have a vacation from your
vacation? I love both of my girls with
all my heart, but traveling with a 3 year old and an 8 month old is really a
lot of work. It took a lot of patience,
compassion, caffeine, and a Seagram’s Black Cherry Fizz to come out on the
other side of this trip with my sanity still intact.
But survive we did, and while on vacation I started reading
a book called The 7 Habits of HighlyEffective People, by Stephen Covey.
Lately I’ve seen a lot about The 7 Habits of Happy Kids on Pinterest and
in various blogs, and decided to do a little investigating. After some research, I determined that
this was something worth trying in my classroom. What I like about the concept, is that you
are helping kids establish habits that they can carry with them throughout the
rest of their life, as opposed to arbitrary classroom rules that vary from
teacher to teacher. So, in lieu of a
list of “rules” this year, I am establishing these 7 habits as my expectations
of my students.
On one of the blogs, a teacher suggested reading the
grown-up version of the book first, which was the first title that I
mentioned. Which makes sense, because in
order to effectively teach anything, you need to arm yourself with a deep understanding
of your topic. With that in mind, I
bought the book and dove in headfirst.
It didn’t take me too long to realize that I’d plunged into
not just a set of 7 habits, but also an entire shift in one’s outlook and
attitude towards life. Essentially,
Covey sets out to help you create a paradigm shift in the way you approach
everything that you do. He explains that
it is essential to establish a focus on values, and work on correcting our own
flaws, instead of blaming everything and everyone else for our problems.
Oh snap.
And this was just in the introduction.
So I decided that the best way to approach the reading of
this book would be to focus on two key points: first, how can I apply this to
my own life, because as Covey points out, you have to fix yourself first; and
two, how can I help my students truly understand and commit to these 7 habits.
Habit 1 is entitled “Be Proactive.” Keeping in mind the two key points I’m
focusing on, I am providing a list of what I personally believe are the
highlights of this habit. These are the
pieces that I believe are necessary to complete this first puzzle.
1. Proactivity means taking initiative.
2. We are responsible for our own lives.
3. Our behavior is a function of our decisions, not
our conditions.
4. Proactive people are driven by values. Reactive people are driven by feelings.
5. Responsibility = response ability, the ability
to choose our response to what happens to us.
6. Be part of the solution, not the problem.
7. Language is an indicator of the degree to which
we see ourselves as proactive people.
The language of reactive people absolves them of responsibility. For example, “I have to do that.” “I must.”
“I can’t.” “There’s nothing I can
do.” Proactive language is about
choosing our response. “I choose.” I will.”
“I control my own feelings.” “How
can we fix this?”
8. Focus your time and energy on things you can
influence.
9. The proactive approach to a mistake is to
acknowledge it instantly, correct and learn form it.
10. Make
and keep commitments.
I have to be perfectly honest, I felt very humbled as I read
this first habit, and realized that I am soooo often guilty of blaming others or external forces for the problems that I am facing. The
idea of taking responsibility for my response to what happens to me, by
focusing only on what I can control, and work on solutions instead of wallowing
in self-pity is all very appealing to me.
I am the first to admit that as a teacher, I sometimes get sick of being
told what to do (ironic, isn't it?). After all, I am told what
curriculum to teach. I’m told what
standards third graders are expected to master, I’m told I have to give a state
reading and state math test, I’m told I need a reading endorsement to teach at
risk third grade readers, I’m told I have to write SLO’s, I’m told I have to
move to another building, and on and on and on.
And none of it seems very fair, and some of it even seems insulting. Sometimes I find myself wondering why I spent
so much money getting a bachelor’s and master’s degree to just be told what to
do. But now I understand that these are
things outside of my circle of influence.
It’s within what Covey would call my circle of concern, but these are
circumstances I can’t change. What I can
change is my response to them. I can be
proactive and focus my time and energy on the parts of these circumstances that
I can influence.
Next up, Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind. That sounds like something Yoda would say...
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Summer Lovin'
Be honest. When you read the title of this post, you finished the phrase with "had me a blast." Well, only if you're familiar with Grease.
So you know what they say about the best of intentions. I really intended to keep up with my blog last year, but, well, life happened. I gave birth to my second beautiful daughter in November, finished my Master's Degree in December, built a house in March and April, and packed up my classroom in May. June brought about taking yet another master's class to obtain my reading endorsement, thanks to Ohio's Third Grade Guarantee law. I won't even go into that, my blood pressure raises to a seriously unhealthy level, and I end up with the strong urge to either punch someone or reach for a bag of Oreos.
So now it's July. My family is headed to Williamsburg, Virginia this week on a much needed vacation. It is supposed to be in the low 90's every day, but even if we end up spending every day by the pool, it will still be a break from unpacking cardboard boxes. See, I ended up packing my house and my classroom at the same time. I became the Yoda of packing. I was a Packing Master. In fact, as I pack our suitcases this weekend I have the strong urge to wrap them in packaging tape and label the outside with permanent marker.
So now I'm unpacking all of those boxes - at the same time. If I never see another cardboard box again, it will be too soon. I didn't plan for both of these moves to happen at the same time. You see, the house building went waaaaaaay faster than we planned, so I thought I would move my classroom, then move my house. When my husband called and told me the house would be finished at the end of May (at exactly the same time I would be moving my classroom), I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I ended up laughing hysterically into the phone and then cried after I hung up. But I ran with it, and everything is moved, mostly unpacked, and there were no major catastrophes involved with either move, although I did lose a bookcase from my classroom and somehow a night stand ended up missing. All things considered, not too shabby.
So now that I have finished the reading endorsement internship class, I have been able to shift my focus to the school year ahead. I am in a new building, with a new team, and although I will miss my old team, I couldn't be more excited about this new chapter in my life!
So you know what they say about the best of intentions. I really intended to keep up with my blog last year, but, well, life happened. I gave birth to my second beautiful daughter in November, finished my Master's Degree in December, built a house in March and April, and packed up my classroom in May. June brought about taking yet another master's class to obtain my reading endorsement, thanks to Ohio's Third Grade Guarantee law. I won't even go into that, my blood pressure raises to a seriously unhealthy level, and I end up with the strong urge to either punch someone or reach for a bag of Oreos.
So now it's July. My family is headed to Williamsburg, Virginia this week on a much needed vacation. It is supposed to be in the low 90's every day, but even if we end up spending every day by the pool, it will still be a break from unpacking cardboard boxes. See, I ended up packing my house and my classroom at the same time. I became the Yoda of packing. I was a Packing Master. In fact, as I pack our suitcases this weekend I have the strong urge to wrap them in packaging tape and label the outside with permanent marker.
So now I'm unpacking all of those boxes - at the same time. If I never see another cardboard box again, it will be too soon. I didn't plan for both of these moves to happen at the same time. You see, the house building went waaaaaaay faster than we planned, so I thought I would move my classroom, then move my house. When my husband called and told me the house would be finished at the end of May (at exactly the same time I would be moving my classroom), I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I ended up laughing hysterically into the phone and then cried after I hung up. But I ran with it, and everything is moved, mostly unpacked, and there were no major catastrophes involved with either move, although I did lose a bookcase from my classroom and somehow a night stand ended up missing. All things considered, not too shabby.
So now that I have finished the reading endorsement internship class, I have been able to shift my focus to the school year ahead. I am in a new building, with a new team, and although I will miss my old team, I couldn't be more excited about this new chapter in my life!
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Becoming Real Readers
This year my building is doing a book study of Comprehension Connections: Bridges to Strategic Reading by Tanny McGregor.
Thus far I have only implemented the first set of lessons on metacognition, but I am pleased with the results at this point. Let me preface this with the fact that the past 12 days of school I would swear I was teaching in the middle of the Sahara Desert instead of just northwest Ohio. It has been hard to get my kids, or myself for that matter, to think deeply about anything other than how much we are sweating. I think it is this very fact that has made me so impressed with the way the students have been able to connect to the lessons, despite the overwhelming heat and humidity. I am following McGregor's plans as faithfully as possible, with only a few tweaks or deviations here or there. For those unfamiliar with the text, the author crafts lessons that begin with very concrete, kinesthetic experiences, and progresses to more abstract ways of understanding the particular reading strategy. For example, in the first lesson on metacognition, you explain the process of thinking about text by making a mock reading salad with construction paper and salad bowls. The students really enjoyed the lesson and have referred to it since then. One of the last lessons involved using paint chips to help students think about their level of understanding when interacting with text. Hence the progression from concrete to abstract. I think though, that the class's favorite lesson was the day we used the cartoon thought bubble to demonstrate thinking while reading. One of our reading intervention teachers helped me with this, and it was the perfect way to model what real reading is, and what real reading isn't. We then gave the students the chance to be the models. They really had fun taking turns being the "reader" or the "thinker." There were a lot of excellent points about real reading that emerged that day, points that I have then been able to use in my individual reading conferences with students.
Again, if you are not familiar with these lessons, or McGregor's text, I encourage you to pick up a copy at a local or online bookstore, through your Kindle, Nook, iPad, etc., at the library, from a colleague, or wherever and however else you can get your hands on one.
Thus far I have only implemented the first set of lessons on metacognition, but I am pleased with the results at this point. Let me preface this with the fact that the past 12 days of school I would swear I was teaching in the middle of the Sahara Desert instead of just northwest Ohio. It has been hard to get my kids, or myself for that matter, to think deeply about anything other than how much we are sweating. I think it is this very fact that has made me so impressed with the way the students have been able to connect to the lessons, despite the overwhelming heat and humidity. I am following McGregor's plans as faithfully as possible, with only a few tweaks or deviations here or there. For those unfamiliar with the text, the author crafts lessons that begin with very concrete, kinesthetic experiences, and progresses to more abstract ways of understanding the particular reading strategy. For example, in the first lesson on metacognition, you explain the process of thinking about text by making a mock reading salad with construction paper and salad bowls. The students really enjoyed the lesson and have referred to it since then. One of the last lessons involved using paint chips to help students think about their level of understanding when interacting with text. Hence the progression from concrete to abstract. I think though, that the class's favorite lesson was the day we used the cartoon thought bubble to demonstrate thinking while reading. One of our reading intervention teachers helped me with this, and it was the perfect way to model what real reading is, and what real reading isn't. We then gave the students the chance to be the models. They really had fun taking turns being the "reader" or the "thinker." There were a lot of excellent points about real reading that emerged that day, points that I have then been able to use in my individual reading conferences with students.
Again, if you are not familiar with these lessons, or McGregor's text, I encourage you to pick up a copy at a local or online bookstore, through your Kindle, Nook, iPad, etc., at the library, from a colleague, or wherever and however else you can get your hands on one.
Friday, August 17, 2012
Back to School - May the Force Be With You
5 days until I get to meet my brand new batch of learners for the school year! For some reason it never truly seems real until I find the new class list in my mailbox and see the names of all the kiddos I will have the privilege of working with this year. Up to that point I'm just decorating my classroom for me, but once I have names to put on supplies and post around the room, I transition from "What would I like to see in my room?" to "What do I think my kids would like to see in their new classroom?" It always helps me put the hours and hours and hours and hours (and hours and hours and hours) of preparation into perspective: this isn't about me, it's about them. This year, them is twenty third graders, and I can honestly say that I am so excited to meet my new learners.
There is one special project though, that really is just for my enjoyment. Two years ago the theme is our building was movies, and I decided to use Star Wars for the inspiration in my classroom that year (besides Mary Poppins, I am also a Star Wars fan). I made a Yoda for my door, and love him so much that last year he sported a pirate's hat when we had an ocean/pirate building theme. This year our building theme is sports. So to continue the tradition, this year Yoda is "sporting" an Ohio State hat. I am so excited with how it turned out. I love Yoda, and I love the Buckeyes, and combining the two created something that will put a smile on my face every morning I open my door. I also added a quote above Yoda that says "Learners you are. Champions you will be!" Here's a picture of the finished product, minus the quote.
Students then tackle 100 facts, and after mastering 100 facts in three minutes, they become a Jedi Master, and get their picture taken in a Jedi robe, holding a lightsaber.
There is one special project though, that really is just for my enjoyment. Two years ago the theme is our building was movies, and I decided to use Star Wars for the inspiration in my classroom that year (besides Mary Poppins, I am also a Star Wars fan). I made a Yoda for my door, and love him so much that last year he sported a pirate's hat when we had an ocean/pirate building theme. This year our building theme is sports. So to continue the tradition, this year Yoda is "sporting" an Ohio State hat. I am so excited with how it turned out. I love Yoda, and I love the Buckeyes, and combining the two created something that will put a smile on my face every morning I open my door. I also added a quote above Yoda that says "Learners you are. Champions you will be!" Here's a picture of the finished product, minus the quote.
I also incorporate Star Wars into my math facts program. Students take a three minute facts test every Friday, beginning with addition, and working our way through subtraction and ending with multiplication. They begin with 50 facts, and once they have mastered 50 facts in three minutes, they become a Jedi Knight, and get their picture taken in a Jedi robe.
Students then tackle 100 facts, and after mastering 100 facts in three minutes, they become a Jedi Master, and get their picture taken in a Jedi robe, holding a lightsaber.
I found that even those students who were generally unfamiliar with Star Wars were proud and excited to have their pictures taken. The bonus was that this was an inexpensive reward for improving fact fluency, as all that was required was the initial purchase of the robe, lightsaber and table cover for a background, in addition to the cost of getting the photos printed. The students then get to take the photos home at the end of the year as a memento of their hard work in third grade.
Friday, August 10, 2012
Rescuing Tired Words
Phew, what a week! Between the weather changes and some major travel time in the car back and forth to Detroit airport, I'm glad it's the weekend!
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Writing Traits
I have started every school year with the intention of finally incorporating the six traits of writing system, created by Ruth Culham, into my writing workshop. And every year this good intention ends up placed on the back burner, and I console myself with the thought, "Next year. I'll do it next year." Well, this summer I decided to commit an entire section of bulletin board space just to the six traits, and made original posters to go with it. I'm hoping that by committing actual space in my classroom, and having committed time to creating the posters, that this year I will actually follow through! The posters are shown below, but due to recent changes in TpT policy, these will not be available in my store. However, I've included links below each picture to Google Docs versions of the posters.
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