Spring Break Re-Creation

Today has been a cloudy, cold day that has turned snowy.  Honestly, not the kind of weather for a stay-cation spring break you might hope for, but I knew this snowstorm was coming because one of our daily math activities is to graph the temperature.  That graphing has turned into looking at more than just the temperature.  My class website, where I post upcoming events and feature student bios, includes a link to the weather website, Weather Underground (wunderground.com).  Reading graphs is one of our math standards in 3rd grade.  The variety of graphs available on this site, especially when you click the link to see a Full Forecast, are a great way to show the commonalities of graphs - time is usually plotted along the X axis, temperature, chance of precip., and speed of wind is plotted along the Y axis.  Love it.

Much of teaching is about finding creative ways to expose students to the material they are to learn.  Quick caveat: I once had a college professor who bristled at that kind of wording.  "Exposing children to..." just sounded wrong to him.  But I digress.  Students need to see relevant uses of these skills they are tasked with learning.  There really is a reason they should learn it, not just because I said so!  Wunderground.com is a legit. website for real people who are really looking to know what to expect in their real weather.  It's not some Kiddie-site where everything is dumbed down. 

Notice that the X axis runs along the top?  The kids got a kick out of that.

Do I have to take them to a real weather website?  Heavens no.  Why do I do it then?  Why should I push students like this?  I think it is incredibly empowering show students who are beginning to grasp what the heck a graph is that they can read a real weather graph, just like adults do!  

Children are immensely creative.  I love seeing student individuality come though in their reading response journals, their writing topics, their requests to change a math coloring page's colors ("instead of pink, green, and yellow, can I use blue, orange, and black?" - Of course!)  Who cares if you wind up with blue tulips!  You love blue? Then, go blue honey!  The point is not to have pink tulips.  The point is to practice your rounding (or multiplication, or subtraction...)!  It is the reason I put sheet protectors on student lockers: to give students a creative outlet.  Their locker windows are their place to display anything they like (though I recommend against placing in flowers - they die and then are hard to remove). 

Students' locker "windows" where they can display whatever they like!

I am slowly introducing blogging to the class.  I feel like the first time I took my chocolate lab for a walk... or was it he who took me for a walk?  I allowed students to choose their topic, but it had to be an informative blog post.  They had to have 3 pictures about their topic, and they had to try to edit it the best they could.  Then I would do a final edit in front of the class, publish it, and then log in as myself and leave a comment.  The kids are gaga over it!  I am able to teach editing in a whole-group setting, I demonstrate how to leave a good comment, and kids see it actually being published!  We use Kidblog, and I love that I can limit the "public" settings.  After Spring Break, I will release responsibility, and offer to students the chance to publish their own blog posts on any of their blogging days (once per week).  Yes, I will allow them to publish their own post (persuasive this time - always matching our writing unit), which might seem scary, but I trust them.

A great resource for teachers!

I think students will really do well with this.  Here's why: students love the chance to show-off their skills, students love the chance to choose their topics, and students love the chance to do the things adults do.  So why not get students into blogging?  I have already seen a lot more writing from those  "too cool for school" kids as well as from the shy kids who have a lot to say.  We will continue our paper-based writing lessons, following the Lucy Calkins writing units, but during their blogging day students can follow a different thesis they believe in strongly.  They can try a writing strategy in their blog that day.  Especially within a persuasive writing unit, I think student comments will become an important part of our writing lessons.  Here is your audience.  Write to convince them!  And, as a reader, tell the writer if they changed your mind! 

Students thrive when completing authentic tasks.  I hope to incorporate creativity and choice as much as possible and use real-life applications to spark life into assignments.  Now you get out there and create too!

SPRING BREAK!!!

It's SPRING BREAK!!!

Yes, I did just use all the possible formatting on that header.  That's how excited I am.  Actually I am EXHAUSTED!  Like many teachers, this last week has been a mad rush to "get it all in" before we take a week off.  The students were appropriately distracted by the upcoming break that the behavior incidents were up, but we expect that.  I took more time to write out "B.O.B.C.A.T" bucks (an incentive program our school uses in its PBIS system... more on that another time), and I did more reviews of expectations,

cruising the room to check that students were on-task, and so on.  Yesterday was a professional development day.  It was one of the "teacher quality" days that are optional, and you are paid per diam.  I was tired, I had a headache, but I attended because I appreciate professional development time.  I am always looking for new ways, new ideas, new perspectives on the same-old.  The speaker was through-the-roof energized and enthusiastic, and I felt like it was a worthwhile day.  By Friday afternoon I was totally pooped, but I made it.  

I know many people think teachers have an easy job.  They are either unfamiliar with what teachers do, or they are willfully blocking themselves from finding out.   The truth is, all the teachers I have ever known are incredibly hard workers.  I have consistently heard reports of "I stayed up until 1:30am on this project," "I spent my Saturday creating this lesson," "we stayed and worked until 5:00 to get our plans together," and so on.  It is different with a job where you work 9-5, a job where you complete all your work during your paid hours at the job site, and then you go home. 

Spring Break pencil sharpening fun!

I cannot remember a day I did not take something home from school.  I know some teachers do stay at school late and/or come in early to do that extra stuff, rather than take it home, but I don't know anybody who teaches who doesn't need extra time to finish all the work.  Typically, teachers have a lunch break and a single 40-minute planning period.  This year I have used most of my lunch breaks to invite students to have "lunch with the teacher," and many of the following recesses going over incomplete work or reviewing behavior expectations.  The 40-minute planning period at this school is dedicated two days a week to PLCs (Professional Learning Community meetings) where test data is reviewed and plans are made to meet the needs of the students who did not pass.  My team spends another of the days planning the following week's lessons.  The two days left I often spend organizing upcoming lesson material, making copies, swapping books in the book room, and checking work.  In my experience, a 10-hour day at the school is followed by a few more hours doing checking / planning / revising / grading / etc. at home.  There is simply not the time in a contract day to do all the work needed to be done. 

The mantra "work smarter, not harder" might come to mind, but I promise you, teachers are constantly reflecting on what is working and what can be done differently.  I am very open with students about why a system might change - what we were doing didn't have the expected results, so I am going to change the way we do X.  The purpose is constantly in focus, the means to get there ever-flexible.

I should be clear that I am not complaining.  I love teaching, and the fact that I care about what I do reflects in the way I am constantly trying to do it better.  If I didn't care, I'd be at work at 8:15, and heading out the door at 3:45 with nothing more than my purse and lunch bag.  A fun fundraiser at school sums up my feelings.  the PTO was selling carnations, a dollar bought you one flower with a note.  I bought one for each student.  As we were going out to an extra recess Thursday afternoon, after our spring party, a student asked me why I bought everyone a flower.  I told her it was because I liked everyone in the class!  Her friend who was nearby said, "I love you too."  It's that kind of relationship building that leads students to do their best.  As students left that day for their spring break, I gave each kid the same message, "Have a great spring break! I'll miss you!"  I hadn't planned to say that, but it was how I felt.  I will miss them this week.  I'll appreciate the break, the chance to sleep in, to read what I want to, to take long lunches, and to go to the bathroom whenever I feel like it, but on the following Monday morning, I'll look forward to seeing them all again.

You've Got to Read These Books! Counting Coup and Under Copp's Hill

Both of these books are historical.  They take in a wide view of life in the early 1900s

Author: Chief Joseph Medicine Crow, et. al

Title: Counting Coup: Becoming a Crow Chief on the Reservation and Beyond
Genre:Memoir
What I like about this book: As I mentioned in a previous post, I stumbled on this book when cleaning out my classroom library one day.  Its name caught me as I was mindlessly sorting books and arranging them neatly in their bins.  The book's name had triggered something I'd been hearing my husband talk about as he explained his latest project on The Battle of The Little Big Horn.  The Crow Indian warriors "counted coup" on their enemies in battles, such as The Battle of The Little Big Horn.  I took the book home and decided to read it.

I took several weeks to finish as I would pick it up for a few minutes' reprieve from grading or watching the news, or whatever.  I always found his stories interesting.  Chief Joseph talked about growing up in a time of change on the reservation; the elders in his tribe remembered the days before the reservation, and he was among the first to attend White, Baptist schools offered on the reservation, and later a boarding school.

The stories made the experiences of American Indians more clear in my mind.  I honestly know more about European settlement, and more about American history from the Midwest-east than to the west.  I knew that what I got from movies was not an accurate portrayal, and there was a lot of room for growth.  That curiosity was part of what made this book so fun to pick up.  It was enjoyable to read his personal recollections and perspectives on things like Indian battles, both with the government and with other Indian tribes; the fighting in World War II; and the relationship between European-American and the American Indians in the early 1900s.

I would recommend this book to anyone 3-6th grade who likes Indian history, stories of honor and courage, and humor.  Boys might get an extra kick from his boyhood antics and what his grandpa did to "toughen" him up in the winter (it has to do with snow an no clothes)!  The reading level would begin in late-3rd grade. 


And a second recommendation:

I read this book today.  It was a sunny Saturday afternoon - it seemed perfect for reading by the window.  On the other hand, a rainy Saturday would have probably seemed perfect too!  It was given to me as a Christmas gift from a student.  I am sorry I waited so long to get to it! 

Author: Katherine Ayres

Title: Under Copp's Hill
Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery
What I like about this book: I am interested in history and American history in particular.  This book follows the lives of an 11-year-old girl who lived with her extended family of immigrants from Italy in Boston, Massachusetts.  The story was based around real events and real places of the time, the early 1900s.  My great grandma was born in the year of the Chelsea fire, which plays an important role in the plot.  I really enjoyed imagining the times when she was young.  So much of what we take for granted was not the norm at the turn of the previous century.

I am also a mystery enthusiast.  This story even invokes ghosts, which I LOVED reading about in elementary school.  The combination of the real history with interesting characters, and a puzzle to solve makes this a great book for girls to read.  I resonated with the girl-empowerment message as well.  I think the main character would make a great hero for any girl.  I also appreciated the multi-cultural awareness message as well.  The main character, from a big Italian family is Catholic, and a friend she makes is Jewish.  The final pages offer more background for readers.  I learned that many families did not want their children making friends with children from other ethnic backgrounds, but the "melting pot" of America often meant friendships were made anyways.


I would recommend this book for girls of 3-6th grade ages.  I can see it read in a small group during reading time, literature-circle-style. Bonus: as of this writing, the book is free on Kindle from Amazon!