Book Auctions/Introductions

The value and excitement that a new book brings to a classroom is incredibly addictive!  Today, I introduced about six or seven new books that I recently purchased for our classroom library.  You would have thought that it was Christmas morning in our room... again.  It was even all the chat on our class Twitter account today, winning our official class post for the day.

All this excitement makes me so excited to share the new books I bought today from our school book fair with them (I planned on 4 books, walked away with about 10 instead).

The thing that my kids enjoy about days when we have new books for the library, is that we "auction" them off for students to be the first to read them.  After I introduce all of the books to the class.  I ask who is interested in a particular book.  If more than one student can't wait to read the book, we "auction" it off by picking a number between 1-10.  If there majority of the class can't wait, we go to the sticks and the first person drawn who wants to read the book, gets it!  They LOVE this and can't wait for their peers to finish the new books if they are waiting.  

It warms my heart to see their excitement about new books in our classroom.  They can't wait to hear about the new books when they see a pile on my desk!  

All evening I have been thinking about how to rejuvenate some of this same excitement for current books in our classroom library.  After all, I can't purchase new books every week (even though I so desperately want too)!  I am thinking that I will have a time of book reviews next year, either each week or every other week.  This would be a time when I can share a few books from our library with students (and some weeks this would be a pile of new books).  I am thinking that I can even have my students share books they have been reading from our classroom library as the year progresses.  Not a novel idea, but certainly the next routine and adventure I am looking forward to starting and tackling the remainder of this year and next year!

How do you go about introducing new books and old friends to your students during the school year?

The Challenges of When to Model for Learning

One thing that I am constantly reminded of in my teaching is the importance of modeling, modeling, modeling for my students.  I have found that it is easy to forget and so easy to assume that my students will get the idea and we can move on.  After all they are in fifth grade!  But on the other hand, they are only ten and eleven years old... still kids at heart and mind (and should be).

Why am I finding myself thinking this?  I feel that it is the large amount of content that I feel pressured to cover in a given year.  Having now taught in my own classroom for almost two years, I am amazed at how 180 school days does not seem like enough to get through the pages of standards (which seems so doable before the kids show up at the start of the school year).  That leaves me, at times in a rush, thinking that my kids will get the idea and we can continue on to something more challenging.

When I go to assess their learning progress, I am reminded of how I may not have modeled or modeled enough for them to be successful and feel successful.  I then have to take a step back and model the expectation and learning for my students.  I am finding that some classes need modeling in some areas, but not as much in other areas.  How challenging it is to determine what each class needs from year to year!  There truely isn't a "cookie cutter" school year for a teacher!

One thing that I have recenctly realized is that my current class has trouble with their at home reading.  I don't think they have the motivation on their own, an at home model, or perhapes a real world example of how important reading is in their future adult worlds.  I have decided that I am going to complete a reading log, along with my students, to track my at home reading this week.  I am hopeful that by having this log posted in the front of my room all week, my kids will begin to see the value of reading and how/why adults read daily.

What are some ways you are reminded to model for your students during the school year?

Celebrating Individual Strengths

I had the pleasure of spending all day Saturday listening to and learning from Ruth Ayres (read her blog here: www.ruthayreswrites.com).  I attended a session where she talked about celebrating in the world of writing.  This year, I have really worked hard to celebrate my student's writing, intentionally, not only at the end (product), but also in the process.  On Saturday, Ruth gave us more ideas for how to celebrate our kids work.  I left this professional development session with my head spinning and ideas flowing!

This is a time of year that I remember being more challenging last year as my fifth grade students were excited and focused on their big changes with middle school on the horizon.  This class is showing no different signs of excitement and anticipation.  That being said, their focus, thoughtfulness, and kindness towards one another has not been at their best for a few weeks now.  On Saturday, we were asked to select one student to record all the things I could celebrate about them over a few short minutes of writing.  What I ended up with was a list of five students, lots to celebrate, not enough time to celebrate/write more, and an idea that has turned my student's classroom community around quickly!

I made the decision on Sunday to write each of my students a brief, two sentence note letting them know what I celebrate about them, individually, as a part of our classroom community.  No two students had anything similar on their notes.  Take a look at some of my comments below.

The response I got, blew me away!  I stood in the hallway greeting my students and watched their reactions as they found their personalized notes.  They looked around the room with smiles and confusion on their faces.  They walked around sharing one another's notes and reading eachother's note.  They talked to one another.  They came to me and told me how they had no idea I had noticed.  They wanted to share more because they were so happy to hear I noticed their behaviors and choices in the classroom.  I even walked to my desk to find notes from my students that left me smiling ear to ear.  

The results I got have turned a frustrating, at times, day into a pleasent day(s).  We have had fun as a classroom community and we have started listening to one another again.  My kids needed to know their value in our classroom and know that they were noticed for their individual strengths.  I will certainly do this again... only sooner!

Giving up the Control

This school year has been such a busy year!  I have grown so much as a teacher and am amazed when I think about all the different things I have tried this year and learned from.

Today was one of those days that I wished I had tried this activity last year, because it went so well and my class would have loved it last year!  I know I never would have tried it because it was much less structured than I would have ever considered a year ago and yet it is just what my class needed this year.

Today was a reminder to me of how much I have grown this year.  I never would have trusted myself to let my class "go."  I had students working in so many different directions today during our Language Arts block, yet they were the most engaged they have been all year!  I had students working on their persuasive essays (both at my table with me and independently at their desks), students were reading, students were planning their persuasive essay commercials, students were taping their commercials, students were editing their commercials, and students were working on non-fiction text feature posters.  Having this many activities happening all at the same time was a lot less structure than I am used to and often comfortable with.

The results of the day were amazing today.  I had students who completed their commercials that far exceeded my expectations!  I had students lost in their books.  I had students tell me that they were proud of themselves for completing their essays and that they were proud of the essay they have spent so much time working on.  I left feeling as though we had a very successful day as a class and can't wait to see if I can continue giving up the control like I have this year to my students and their opportunity to learn through experiences.

Year 1 Complete

The first year has come to an end!  I cannot believe that one year is done.  As I reflect on my first year, there is so much that I have learned.  A lot of things I plan to keep the same, tweak, and change altogether.  It is amazing how much my kids have taught me this year.  I find myself feeling so bad that they did not get the benefit of my first year of experience, but I have spend some time really thinking about what they did get and accomplish.  My kids grew leaps and bounds from where they started.  Are they where I would love to have them and my students for many years to come, not exactly, but they have improved in many ways and I am excited to hear about where life takes them from here!

What I plan to keep the same:  Not much next year.  At this point, I plan to keep my behavior management system the same (marble jar, money system).  That has been great for individual behaviors and the kids have really enjoyed it.  I finally like my classroom set up and I plan to keep that the same.  I love having my kids in groups and still having a space for the kids to meet on the carpet.  After all, fifth graders are still kids. I also plan to keep my math block the same as I finally have a system that I like which allows me to work with the kids in smaller groups and one-on-one settings everyday.

What I plan to tweak: Many things.  I am going to focus on my Language Arts block this coming year.  I tried the Daily 5/CAFE model in my room for part of the year and it wasn't working well.  I am going to sit down with a colleague this summer and brainstorm some new ideas for our classrooms.  I have also been reading some professional books this summer already to help give me some new ideas.  This part of our day is half the day (all afternoon) so it will be a BIG change!  My team is also changing how we teach science.  We will be rotating for science units, so I am excited to really dive into my topic: Earth and Space Sciences.

Overall, I am excited to dive deeper into the content this year and establish better routines from the beginning.  This summer, I will share with you all of the things I learn from my professional reading (hopefully pool side reading :-) ).

Blogging- Who Would Have Thought?

Why don't I let my kids run with things more often? I introduced our classroom blog to my class on Monday and couldn't be more impressed with my kids! They have jumped on board without hesitation! I have been so afraid to bring this into my classroom all year. I was afraid that it would be too much to handle and become too overwhelming for me to teach the kids how to use the site and then properly "blog."

After my last observation, I decided, what could it hurt? I set up the classroom blog last week and realized that it only took 10 minutes to do! I figured that would be the easy part, but it turns out, it isn't the easiest part. On Monday, I pulled up our classroom blog, showed the kids how to log in, and then we jumped right in and wrote a blog together stating our requirements. We did this as a shared writing and then posted it for them to frequently check back to.

My kids couldn't get to the computers, laptops, and iPads in my room fast enough to start "blogging." I had a few students ask if I knew how to write a blog post because they felt that the writing was different than a typical response. I was immediately taken back by the insight my kids had about this type/style of writing. I thought that the only thing I would get out of this experience was to read their reading responses in a more convenient way for me. Who would have thought that would be the smallest thing I would get from this?

My kids wrote posts this week that were deeper than any other reading response I have read this year (they used to write a response each week in a notebook that was passed between myself and them). My "lowest" readers/writers became examples for classmates on insight and depth in their thinking and writing about their books. I had students who never turned in a reading response (or rarely did so), posting immediately! Now, mind you, the requirements did not get easier, only harder! They still have to write a post once a week, but now they have to respond to at least three classmates. Plus, this is worth more points than their old responses (now 20 points, was 5 points a week).

Why do I think a huge improvement was shown? Well, I think for one, this was of high interest to my kids because it involved technology. They love the technology we have in our room with this pilot program (which I hope I never have to give up this technology), but now they have a way to interact with one another using this technology.

I think that their responses are more insightful and well thought out, because their peers are reading their posts as well! I would love to think that my kids valued my opinion on their writing, but the reality is, I am the teacher. Their peers have "real" opinions that matter to them much more than mine ever will. If the kids are anything like me and my blog posts, they can't wait to log into the blog, open up their recent posts, and see a comment about THEIR writing from THEIR friends.

If I could go back in time and was allowed to make one change to my classroom and instruction this year, it would be to start this classroom blog from the beginning of the year. I have already learned more about my students as readers (and writers) from this first week "experimenting" with this than I think I have learned from many of our conversations. I have also found that they are more excited to talk to one another about their reading and participate and share in our read aloud discussions. I am so excited about this in my room and can't wait to hear what my kids think after our first week is completed and we re-evaluate as promised.

The Power of Observations

As a teacher, we know that observing our students and what they do in the classroom everyday is critical to understanding what they know and how they learn and are progressing towards the learning targets. I do this often in the classroom trying to make a few observations about at least ten students a week in math and reading. I use a great log that I created that works for me. But, this week I learned that the power of an observation lies with more than just watching our students.

I had the opportunity to observe another teacher within my district teach her reading workshop block, Karen Terlecky. Earlier this year I spoke about how valuable observations are here. I find them to be so helpful to my teaching that I felt the need to reflect about them once again.

While on my observation, I found myself feeling so overwhelmed with questions and thinking about my classroom. I mentioned my feeling of grief about not supporting my students in a way that I felt they deserved from me this year. I wanted to be better for them in my classroom and wanted to start the year over to do that. The time I had to observe gave me a fresh perspective on what I am doing well and what I need to reevaluate in my classroom.

I left with so many reflections and questions for myself to consider as I complete this school year and start next year. I spent this year focusing on math, creating a math workshop that was supporting my students in a way they needed, and learning the content. I invested so much time in this that I found my reading block lacking in many ways. Sure, my kids were still getting instruction and are growing as readers this year, but not as much as I want them to.

The funny thing about my focus on math is that I started the year saying that math was my weaker area while language arts... well I had that one figured out. At the end of the year, I am realizing how very wrong that statement was. I can see that I will never have things "figured out" like I thought.

My observation spurred me on to try some new things. The kids are at the end of the year, state testing is almost here and done with, and I need to keep them focused for one more month. I decided the best way to keep their attention was to through something new and exciting into the mix.

I think it is so important for my kids to see how adults are reflective in their practice and decisions. I often try to model this for my class. I decided that I was going to be honest with my kids. I told them that I had been on an observation of another teacher and that I wanted to change some things for next year. I shared with them all the things I saw and learned. I then asked them, which new ideas sounded the most interesting to them for us to "practice" for my class next year. They decided on two focuses: read aloud notebooks and a bi-weekly blog post.

So, I promptly set me kids up on kidblog.com and we are going to jump in feet first on Monday with this. I don't know how it will go, but I have a lot of confidence that my class will teach me a lot that will make next years class better. Since we are going to do a reading blog as a class, I decided my reading notebooks (letters) were too repetitive. So we turned these into our read aloud notebooks. This has been a bit rocky, but after four days of intensive instruction on their use and long conversations around them, I can already see improvement.

Observing not only another teacher, but my students practice these new ideas is only going to make me a better teacher next year and has already made me better for my kids this year. I am finding that this is the time of year to do this! I am learning so much and I get to try it without worry of the failure it could bring. Happy observing in your own classroom!