10 Days Until Conferences

It is Friday night. I had Happy Hour with a friend and just finished a pizza and beer dinner. And I plan to just relax all night since I'll be working all weekend!

In my district, we don't have school on Nov 4th and 5th in order to hold parent-teacher conferences. I am planning to invite my 4th graders to their conference so together we can discuss the things we are doing well.

In order to be ready for the end of the quarter and these conferences, I expect to work ALL weekend!! At least I have the weekend, thank goodness.

Today I rearranged all the furniture in our classroom and I like it much better. I have arranged the kids into 6 groups of 4 or 5. I feel we can all focus more and I want to spend more time giving them time to collaborate with each other.

Now off to enjoy a little TV. Then tomorrow, I'll work to be ready for the 1st quarter to end.

Another Meltdown

I had Monday off and then left Thursday at 1:30pm so I could get to NYC for the TCRWP Saturday Reunion. And in between, I struggled to keep my students under control. I kept feeling like they were being SO rude for always talking and not following the rule of ONE VOICE at a time. At one point on Wed, I lost it. I slammed shut my computer lid and almost started to cry. I told them I need a time out and to go sit at their seats until I was ready . They could tell they pushed me too far.

On reflecting, they aren't being rude on purpose. They just are so wired and so distractable. We all are. It is our culture. It is our diet. So much is always coming at us at all times. It is hard to just stop.

My sub came in right after my meltdown (she was subbing in another room). She is a retired teacher. She was SO happy to see the kids. She remembered teaching them last year. She was all smiles and so upbeat. I needed to see that modeled for me. I need to smile MORE!!

Tomorrow, I hope to find a note from the teacher saying things went well while I was gone...

And the best part of teaching, I get another chance tomorrow. I get to try again. So do the kids. We are going to learn self-control and respect. We are going to independently do our work well. We are going grow as readers, writers, mathematicians, scientist, and social scientist.

Tomorrow is another day...2 weeks and we get to start a new quarter!!

October 12th...I'm now 50 and 1 day old

I must admit I had fun celebrating my milestone birthday with my group of 4th graders!! Using Google, I discovered LOTS of things, other than me, that have been around for 50 years. Apparently, Captain Crunch, Chip Ahoy cookies, and Poptarts all came into being in 1963. So as the kids arrived on Friday, they could get a "50 year old treat" and READ. My research showed that The Snowy Day won the 1963 Caldecott and that Peggy Parrish wrote her 1st Amelia Bedelia book that same year. So Thursday night I stopped at the library and checked out 30 Amelia Bedelia books and a dozen Ezra Jack Keats books. I placed a poster up as we could add a TALLY MARK after each book we read and asked the kids to read. "Let's see how long it takes us to read 50 books!!" I was amazed at how the novelty and the snacks got all on task and within 15 minutes, 50 books were collectively read and we were on to the 2nd fifty!

In math, we creatively thought of ALL the ways to make 50. I need to add the photo here of the 50 poster we made.

Then in Reading, we went off in groups of 6 and performed our Readers Theater play of Where the Wild Things Are (another 50 year old story!) On Wednesday, I wasn't sure if this was going to work. During our rehearsals, I had some on a team who couldn't control themselves and acted too wild and then others on a team in tears because their team wasn't doing it right. I called my drama-major daughter at college after school in a panic and asked for some drama team-building games. She suggested a few related to miming to help each "actor" focus and then a clapping circle game to help all work together as a team. I tried these on Thursday and we seemed more settled and focused! After more rehearsals on Thursday, we were ready! And I'm so glad I persevered. It was fun on Friday to see all working in their teams. All of our Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade audiences loved our short play! Mostly, I loved seeing that we CAN hold it together and work as a team!!

Now I get a 3-day weekend to continue celebrating my birthday.

And I need to spend MAJOR time writing up sub plans. I am taking next Friday off to travel to NYC for the TCRWP Reunion Saturday workshops. I am worried about leaving these 27 friends with a sub. I picked a retired teacher who used to work at my school and who I am friends with. I hope after next Friday, we're still friends!!

Falling into October

Thank God for Saturdays...I was exhausted on Friday afternoon. One reason was that I had the great idea to have the kids change seats for the month of October. My, oh, my. When I have them do this again, I'll need a better plan. Due to having a laptop on each desk and the desks strapped together to keep all the wires and cords in check, we couldn't just move desks. The kids had to empty out their desk, move to the new desk, move the laptop and in the process, clean out and discover long lost papers and library books. This group of friends seemed to only be able to go this task accompanied with shouts and loud talking. I would have loved to have had a restaurant decibal meter in my room on Friday. I know we would have registered at a very high level. (Especially at the futile moment that I turned off the lights to get their attention and screamed, "Stop Talking".) And then it was 2:40pm and we had birthday cupcakes to still pass out. Really...another birthday and sugar high to enjoy??!! Needless to say, once all my friends departed and I conferred with my lowest reader and his mom (wanted to give her some tips to help her son with reading and retelling at home), I just sat and enjoyed the quiet room with the lights off. I think I scared the custodian when we arrived and turned on the lights to vacuum.

Now after my Friday night pizza/beer and a good night sleep, I feel ready to think about planning for next week. This week we gave the math and social studies Unit 1 test. In WW, we returned to our notebooks to generate more small moment ideas. And I was able to use the TCRWP reading assessment with half of my students. I need to finish this - my goal for next week.

Next week I also celebrate my birthday on Friday. I typed up Where the Wild Things Are as a Readers Theater play and invited my students to perform it in K, 1st, and 2nd grades next Friday afternoon. I picked that book because it is 50 years old and on Friday I'll be 50, too!! I think this will be a fun way to celebrate and still be working on our literacy skills!! I just ordered myself a Wild Thing t-shirt to wear!! (my version of retail therapy!!)

I also plan to read-up on some Responsive Classroom and/or Kagan strategies to help me during the transition times. I got to get better at this! Maybe October will be the month!!

1 month down, 9 to go!

I already am thinking about how next year, my September will be SO much better. But I also am going to pat myself on the back for the job I did do this September. As I reflect today, I'll describe it as being on a rollercoaster ride while juggling many balls. And I know this metaphor will continue and probably will get even more complex with more and more balls to juggle. But I am staying on the ride. WHY? Because I now have 27 new friends who I know I can help. And luckily, I still have 9 months to do all I can to help them reach their 9-10 year-old potential and to learn the life long skills of kindness and respect for others and the importance of reading to know how to live and writing to change the world (Thank you Lucy and the TCRWP for helping me to name WHY I teach!)

As my class filed out on Friday, I said something to each of them...Amr, have a great weekend. Will you be playing soccer? Salma, take care of your dad this weekend (he just had ankle surgery). Richard, good luck at Japanese school tomorrow...I smiled thinking that I know these kids now. I am in their 4th grade life and I need to do all I can to help them reach their full potential at this moment in time.

Then I gathered up all the data files I have so far and packed them up to bring home and study over the weekend. A month is over and I need to be sure that I am teaching them specifically and not just overseeing them follow routines. In reading, they listen to my mini-lesson, they sit and read, then share at the end of workshop with a talk buddy. But NOW, I need to be sure that I have the plan for what I need to do each day to confer or guide during Reading Workshop. I have lots to plan this weekend. Thank goodness teachers get Saturday and Sunday off from being at school!!

Friday afternoon went great. We had our first Writing Workshop Publishing Party. We are now authors of Perosnal Narratives!! Here's a few pictures:

First, I had all their writing folders so I called them over to specific places to sit. This strategic placement helped to keep all focused during our celebration. Then we did a Cicle Greeting (Responsive Classroom move) where after shaking hands, we said: "I am an author who wrote a story about ___." It does take time for 28 in a circle to greet. But this calmed us, got us focused on our writing, and helped us to stop and listen.  Then I asked each to take out their published piece and find one or two lines that they are proudest of writing. "We are not going to share the whole story aloud, just one or two lines we like the most. When you have the line, point to it and I'll know you are ready." Then I walked around, pushing all to get ready. "Just like in a Symphony, the instruments play when they are ready, we are going to SHARE when we are ready. When you feel like sharing your one line, please do in your loud, presenitng voice. Just like during our Grand Conversations, if two voices start at the same time, one wait and then go next. Finally, let me teach you a cheer. After a student shares, this is the cheer we will give them. With your finger, pretend to be pumping the spray nossle of the Fantastic Cleaner three times and say "ch-ch-ch" and then move your hand to look like it is wiping off the cleaner and say "FAN- TAST-IC". This will be the cheer we give each classmate after they read aloud their favorite line from their published piece."

And we began...AND IT WORKED!!! All happily shared a line or two. All listened respectfully. A few shier friends needed encouragement to share and 4 really shy friends allowed me to share their line for them. (This reminded me that sharing our writing is scary). Then I gave them free time to draw, read, or use their computer and I started hanging up their writing in the hallway to make it public.

Already in the hallway are paper-people we made to hold an I AM poem for back to School Night. One student, Lotta, suggested that now the paper-person could hold our story! Great idea...so the personal narrative is on t he paper-person, an illustration drawn by our talk buddy is hanging next to it (since our writing is so descriptive, it made a movie in our talk buddy's mind and THEY could draw the illustration!) and a reflection - I worked on _____ when writing this first personal narrative in 4th grade.

As I reflected on the way home, I realized that these kids are only 9 going on 10. The school they are in has not been running Writing Workshop with them since Kindergarten. As 4th graders, this was their FIRST publishing party. Happlily I celebrate!! I can't wait to do an on-demand on Tuesday and start teaching Personal Narrative one more time in October. I know we can write even better. I know they are proud now of thier work and ALL will be amazed at how much better they can write with more practice and guidance in October.

Now I need to get busy. I need to TEACH not just routines in October!!

It sounded like how a Workshop should yesterday!!

Tuesday, I had a great afternoon!!

First, I did a RW lesson on how we need to read wide-awake and be ready to revise our thinking as we read. Then ALL were sitting and reading and it was QUIET!! I could go from student to student to have them share what they were working on. I conferred with a few to remember to not just read for plot but to stop and jot at times to record their thinking. I MUST get better at having something to take notes on as I didn't record any notes yesterday...oops! But I think I was just too excited that FINALLY, it was quiet during independent reading time!! About half-way into the RW, a teacher from DCPS who I had met at the TCRWP Reading Coach Institute came to visit. I loved having her there to see what we were doing and get feedback from her at the end of the day.

Then for WW, the Reading Teacher brought in the four 2nd grade teachers. I shared how the reader of our story will be reading it and making a movie in their mind. So as we get ready to publish on Friday, we need to reread and revise to ensure the clearest picture is being told with our words. I gave them my writing piece - the moment I realized I needed glasses. And we thought about how this story could be illustrated. Then I reminded the class that as part of their Friday publishing party, they would be illustrating their writing partner's story for them! I am hoping this added exercise will help them to understand how words make a mental movie in our mind, one that an illustrator can then draw. Then off everyone went to work on their writing and again, it sounded like workshop should sound during independent time - QUIET! We even had birthday cupcakes at 2:30pm (the 4th since school has started!!!) but we kept working while enjoying the treat.

I think I am turning a small corner with this group. I think they "worked" because I finally have enough high-interest books in the room for them to read during RW and they are very motivated to be ready for the WW Publishing Party!

I also get energy from having adults come into my lab class and participate with us. Knowing people are coming in pushes me to really have strong, well planned lessons and to work hard on classroom management.

At this moment, life is good!

MUCH better day but still LOTS of room for improvement

I ditch the plan to do a science experiment first thing today and decided we needed to GET ORGANIZED!
I asked the class to suggest JOBS for our room and let me know who would like to do these jobs. Now I need to get the job chart up and running. I think we are ALL (myself included) realizing that ALL 28 of us need to help keep our space in order and help each other to learn.

Then I asked for feedback on WHO they felt comfortable being a reading and writing partner with. I can tell that turn and talks haven't been strong because they aren't feeling connected to this person. It needs to be someone they feel comfortable sharing with. I hope this helps.

Finally we cleaned desks. It has taken me until now to figure out what I need them to have for supplies as a team of teachers requested supplies last spring and I'm inheriting their list.

I also rearrange desks and rugs spaces and table spaces. I like the feel of the room so much more. I'll take a picture tomorrow to post.

Honest comment: I am putting so much effort into creating a strong minilesson and anchor charts that after I did the minilesson today, I sisn't have lots of energy to jump into conferring. I know this is bad. To do better, I need to plan exactly who I am conferring with and need to make a plan to get to all 27. I am collecting their drafts tomorrow to read this weekend and as I do, I want to make the confer plan. Who can I see in a group? Who needs one-on-one triage? And who is in the middle? I think that will help.

I am also teaching the FICTION unit using TCRWP Following Characters into Meaning. As my read-aloud, I am using My Name is Maria Isabel. So far so good. This weekend, I want to read it so closely, make lots of jots and then grow some theories based on my thinking.

I went to the library again tonight and got more books...I now have 132 books checked out!! I want to match students to a series and push them to read multiple books in a series and grow theories about the main character.

Exciting work ahead. Glad my meltdown is over!!