Building Teamwork with the Home

It is two weeks into school. The questions are burning in parents minds about why we do the things we do and I am sure there at a few that are ready to sit down and find out exactly what we expect. It is Student Education Plan time. One thing my team has bought into is transparency. We want the parents and students to know and see everything what we are doing. No hiding, no surprises, no tricks, just transparency.

Getting to meet parents and see what we can do as a team helps the students do the best they can. We try to give the parents some background on our philosophies to help them understand why we do the things we do. We also invite them into our classrooms to help or to just watch.

Parents are a big part of our year. We want them to be more than someone we send not to every once in a while. Invite them to everything we do. We try to set up days for them to see projects their child has worked on. We have grade level activities each Friday that parents are invited to watch.

By doing these things we hope to instill in our students and parents that everyone is a part of education. Students need to own their education and the information they a receiving. This will help them as they prepare for their journey into the workforce. As they own their education they can find that they can research what they want to do or build something to sell to others. They can take their lives into their hands and make it what they want. They will own their lives and not expect others to hand them homework to do, they will create their own homework by wanting to learn. By inviting parents into our classrooms and meeting with them every few months, we hope to invite them to be part of our plan. By having home and school work together, our students will take the world and make it their own.

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I Think I'm Ready

I spent part of today finishing up the last minute things to get ready fro the start of school on Monday. A few new students arrived on Friday so a few more name tags and sticks for the bucket needed to be made. I ran off the math pretest we have the students take to get a baseline of where they are with specific concepts. I picked up our spiral notebooks for the students to use during language. I think I am ready for Monday.

In years past, I was at my school the first day of August. I was moving tables, putting up posters, planning my lessons, sharpening pencils, deciding what I would do this year, and at times wandering around looking lost. Putting together a new year can be overwhelming at times. This all changed this year. We have been teaming in my grade level for about four years now. We had the honeymoon first year, then came out the ideas. It was the perfect storm. We three new we could do better with a little more work. So we started flexible grouping. Then came the third year with the introduction of Kagan Strategies. That blew it all open and we threw everything into high gear. We planned together. We had planned together in the past, but now we really planned together. Our lessons became one. The force was with us. Our students learned more and were excited about what they we doing, and we were excited about what we were doing.

Now we get to this year. I came to school a week late with the itch to scratch. There'd we things to do and they needed to get done. But there weren't. All three of us talked, set up, planned, and we all took responsibility for what needed to get done. So I came in two days early instead of two weeks early. I had time to relax and have some fun. I was able to simplify my classroom without taking too much time away from my kids. My children saw me more than they usually do when I prepare for school. We have our first week planned with activities that will help us know what they need and want. We will play and we will learn. And best of all, my stress level has gone down. I want to thank my team for giving me another week of fun with my family and the knowledge that everything will be fine. Trust is big in a team that works and we have it. We have set our goals and have set our plans out for the students and we know that each of us will pull our weight.

I am truly ready for this year. We are expecting great things with our new classes. As a team we will see them come to pass.

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Here We Go, Rock 'n' Roll

It's time to put to work the things I have learned over the summer. I have gathered my ideas and articles to go back to school. My room has been cleaned by a hard working janitorial crew. A fresh coat of paint has covered all my small holes and blemishes on the walls. I am starting out with a blank canvas on which to paint a view of learning for my students. That being said, here goes the week of work to get my room ready.

I learned about simplicity this summer. I have gone through my papers, books, old district programs and stuff I have collected over the years. I recycled much of it. Other things I scanned into my computer or gave to other teachers that might use it. I have decided that teachers are hoarders. We have the need to keep everything because we just might be able to use it one day. No more for me. If I don't use it in a year, time to let it go. My room has gotten so much emptier. More room for student work.

I also decided to dump the desk. I have never been a fan of the teacher desk so 10 years ago I moved from. Sk to a table and I have not looked back. No drawers to pile high with stuff and no hidden compartments to lose things in. This year I will be moving my books to a shelf and using the student desks for me to work on. This will keep me closer to the students. It will also keep me from hiding behind my table while they are working. My computer is hooked up to the projector and that will be on the table with the document camera, but my iPad has the Mobile Mouse app to help control the computer.

We moved away from desks years ago to set up a team atmosphere. Students keep their supplies in a small pencil box on the desk and books and papers in a cubby. Students need to get up and move so having the get their supplies gives them a few minutes of free movement between activities. Making the computer a piece of everyday learning helps to free up desk space. No big books and less paper needed as they type their assignments. Simplify.

This week we will be getting our activities and lessons ready for the students. We have some new ideas that we need to plan out so we are comfortable with them. Instead of leading students to an answer, which we want to get away from, and getting students to think.

There is so much we want to do, but we need to understand the basic management of our ideas before handing them to the students. We have learned that the students pick up our plans, and run with them. Usually it is farther than we had expected, so we do not need to understand the program or process completely, we just need to be able to mange what're want to start with and how to work with the possibilities as the students start to branch out. It is another year full of possibilities. Summer is gone and school starts Monday. Exciting.

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I Want What Is Cool

I have been preparing for school this week by cleaning up my student computers. I started thinking about how computers have changed my classroom with my students. I also thought about how it has changed my prep at the beginning of the year.

At the end of the school year we asked our district Tech department to image one computer and copy it to all the student computers. It turned out to be a job they thought to time consuming. So here I am cleaning, installing, and updating my classroom computers. I learned that having 1:1 means doing most of my own work on my computers. This helps me with a few things though.
• I get to know the computers and what their limitations are.
• I find out what the students have been up to (pictures, bookmarks, file management or lack thereof)
• I see what needs to be done so I can train my students management of updates, files, and and basic computer usage.

This needs to be lesson to us and we wish for the latest and greatest. We need it if we are going to prepare young minds for the future. But with new technology comes new responsibility also. We need to learn to manage what we get. This is a big deterrent for teachers that do not want more on their plates. What are the trade-offs? To me the trade-off is the numbering of books and papers, putting together packets of papers and running off assignments. Using the computer eliminates most of these things and makes it easier to manage.

Just like learning the new reading or math program the district mandates for use every few years, we need to learn the tools of the trade. Computers have become one of those tools and it is not going away. We need to learn the basics of setting it up for our students. We can have the students set them up at the end of the previous year, but if one students does it wrong, we need to be able to make it right. With the learning and management of the computer comes the big trade-off for me. Less paperwork. More assignments online that do not get lost and can be done if the student is present or absent. That makes it worth the trouble.

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Let's Get This Started Already

It is time get ready for school to start. I need to get all my learning
summarized and focused for our first team meeting. I wrote in a previous post some oft the things I learned this summer.

One big thing I need to do is clean up and clean off our class computers. W will be updating and adding some new software while cleaning off some of the unused and unnecessary software on the computers. We use Open Office for writing. We have decided to go with Google Docs for more collaborative writing between the students. It will also provide a better way for teachers to observe writing as it happens and not after each piece is done. We can watch the writing happen and give suggestions and gear lessons to what we are seeing. We will still have students brainstorm on paper, but they will type everything after that. They will also be using Google Calendar for events and assignment due dates.

We found Scratch for students to play with programing. What a great program. It is great for helping students with sequence.

For idea mapping we will be using XMind. Google earth will help us with landforms and seeing the places we study about. We will also try out Google Chrome as our web browser. Using Google Apps could be easier, or not make a difference. We will see.

Then there is setting up my room. As a team we like to keep our rooms similar to help with the management of our classrooms. We have our personalities, but we like to be similar. It help the students see that we are consistent across the whole grade level.

I am getting antsy and I am ready for school to start. I want to get started on the new things I've learned. I want the students to learn what I have learned. Let's go already.

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What I've Learned?

Summer has always been the time of year when I take time to learn. This is the time I find information that I can use to change my classroom for the better. Anything my team has learned will be discussed the first week are together, possibly sooner. So, what have I learned this year?
• I need to look at my room for my students' point of view. Would I be a student in my own classroom? I will be looking at this as I enter my classroom.
• Screen time for elementary school students needs to be limited. How do we do this in a paperless classroom? An elementary classroom can not be totally paperless. There needs to be writing and it needs to be on paper. we will be discussing this as the year starts also.
• Homework needs to be given for a reason and should be linked to the work done at school. It should be review work and should not take very long to do. Time after school should be given to families to use as they need. Our team has put together a homework schedule for each night and we feel it is not too much, but we need to look at what we require them to do each night to make sure it fits in our schedule.
• I need to work harder to make my lessons more interesting and interactive. Having students engaged keeps problems down and interest high. this will be more work for my team, but the dividends will be payed in the students we teach. Having a teacher talk about how they gave up punishment by doing this made me think that I need to make every lesson more interesting.
• Administrators are a big help to teachers. My principal is always helping and supporting what we do. When an administrator supports their teachers, the teachers flourish and work hard. I know this, but to read other teachers tell about how they a supported, they innovate and lead in the learning revolution. Complaining teachers cannot innovate and do not want to change.
• Failure is a way to find solutions. I need to rethink how failure is looked at in my classroom. W can learn from failure. We can grow from failure. We can succeed while using our failures to move us along.
• Having students worry about their learning and not their grades is the biggest lesson I have learned. I will be working this lesson for years to come. Helping students learn to love learning is the most important lesson I can teach them also.

There are many lessons I learned this year. Thank you to all the teachers, administrators, and bloggers for teaching me. We are all learners and when we take the time, we can find so much more. An do.

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Do You Hear What I'm Saying?

I have been reading blogs, tweets, and taking classes to get myself ready for the up coming year. The biggest lesson I am learning is the need to listen. I have a problem with that at home. I need to listen more to hear what my children and spouse are saying. My children like to talk constantly, so using my teacher experience I know I must have taught them this. Students are usually a mirror of the parents.

Knowing this is going to help me at school. Once in a while I find myself talking over students and not hearing what they are saying. I depend on my years of experience to know what I think they are saying. Mistake. This coming year I will be listening more to find put what the students are saying to help me understand their needs. This will help my class, my lessons, and build respect for them and me.

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Do I Want to Be A Kid In My Class?

I have been taking a class this summer and the teacher had my partner and I work out a problem that we got wrong. She pushed us and pushed us and I did not like it. I was not happy, but I fought through it. It reminded me about a blog post I read about how it be to be a student in my classroom. So how would it be? How would I like to learn? What would I like to do? How would I like the room set up so I can learn? What would I like my rules to be? How would I want to be treated in any given situation? Do I hear the answers my students are asking? These are important questions that I feel I need to answer this year.

Going back to the summer class I took, The feeling I had was one that I am not sure I want them to feel. I push my students to do well. I need to pay more attention to how I far I push. Where does the learning end and the frustration begin. I did not learn a that day and I was so much less attentive the rest of the class. I do not want that to happen to my fifth graders. I want them to push themselves without the frustration that drives them away, but with the drive to have them go further. This is going to require more attention and listening on my part.

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Controlling Our Kids

I saw a letter to the editor in my local newspaper that interested me. The writer told about how her family were eating in a local restaurant. Her kids started to get a little loud (they were not yet school age) and another customer turned and told her to control her kids or take them out and do not bring them back until they knew how to act in a restaurant. She was upset and could not believe that another adult would yell at them.

How do we teach children? We take them places to help them understand and learn how to act. We take them to restaurants to help them learn how to act. The will not be perfection while they grow, but they will learn.

This is what we do in school. We show them what they need to learn and help them to know what to they can do when they become a part of society as a worker and consumer. The roles have changed over the years so we need to find out what we need to do also. If students need to learn what is happening in society so they can be prepared, we should do the same. Society and jobs are changing and so should we. Teaching styles, lessons, how we use language, how we use math, how we prepare for the coming times in social studies. We, as teachers, need to learn how to teach this new generation with their tools. We are learning just as the students are. In some situations, the students will be helping us. I just hope they do not kick me out, because I do not know something. Being the teacher, doubt that would happen, but instead of kicking me out, they may not paying attention.

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Teamwork Equals Success

I sat down with an administrator this week to talk about a few things that are happening at my school and with my team. He caught me before school and my teammates were not at school yet, so I sat with him. We talked about some great things that were happening at our school and then talked to me about out team. He asked me if one of the members of my team were to leave, move to another grade, or retire, would our team stay the same so we can replicate our successes, or would it fall apart? Interesting question.

We were unfortunate to have one of our great teachers take a leave of absence for a medical reason and we watched that team succeed by replicating and moving forward with a new member. We talked about what would be different with what we do? There will be differences and new ideas with a new team member, but can we replicate the success? I think what we do as a team is much better than what did as individual teachers. What works will go on. We will improve and change as needed. But the success will go on. I think this is true with any team.

In each team there are strengths and weaknesses in each person and as a team. Once a team starts preparing and planning those things are apparent. Each person takes over what they are great at and we all look at what we need to work on and we work. If someone leaves, we start it at the beginning, but we put our strengths in and see what we need to work at and we work. The key to the team is not just the strengths each brings, but their attitude. If someone comes to the team that is not willing to put forth effort to learn or improve, that becomes a problem. That can be a bump in the road, but it will not stop a good team. They will persist, train, work, encourage, praise, and help.

We do not want to see someone leave the team, but if they do, we will keep on donning what we do. Helping students and learners succeed and prepare them for whatever future they will be seeing.
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