Doctor, Doctor, Give Me The News

I am heading into more school soon, hopefully. I have decided to work on my Doctorate in Education. A teacher once told me that I could teach 30 elementary students or 30 college students that will teach 30 elementary students each. I have thought about that for 12 years. The reason I did not do it earlier was the fun I had each day working with my students and my team. I still have fun teaching. I love what I do, but I can see that I am getting to the point where I want that next step, that next challenge, the next opportunity.

When I started teaching I decided that every ten years I would reevaluate what I was doing and make sure I was where I wanted to be. 10 years after I started teaching I was at a crossroads. Should I keep teaching or look into becoming a principal. I decided to keep teaching. I still wanted that wonderful opportunity to teach and to learn. To help children love learning. I sat with my principal and looked at all she did and what she had to work with. Politics is in everything, but the politics in teaching is as far as I wanted to go at that point. I know wherever I go and whatever I do there will be things I will not enjoy, but at that time I wanted to work with students. I am glad I did. The next few ideas that came to our district and school helped me tremendously. Professional Learning Communities changed the way I taught, planned, and learned. It also changed the way my students learned and planned. The whole team structure has changed my classroom culture. Now comes the time when I am getting closer to the next ten years. I still love teaching and I will for a long time. But I am now seeing the next teaching opportunity in college. The idea of teaching college students that will teach elementary students gives me an opportunity to share what I have learned with others. To help them have a passion for teaching as I have.

I do have to say that this is a bit scary for my family and I. Starting four more years of schooling is going to be interesting. Two classes a week with homework on the off days. Summers will be short while I head to the University for summer classes. Time with my family will be short, but meaningful. Spending more quality time with them doing activities will be great. Money will always be a factor with school, but we will work it out. I am excited about the learning. I love to learn. The single greatest thing I have enjoyed has been my google reader and twitter accounts. Reading about other teachers and their ideas. Finding ideas from around the world to use in my classroom has helped me be a better teacher and my students better learners. Getting back into school to meet with other teachers and learn more about my craft is exciting.

It will be an exciting and crazy ride. My family and I are looking forward to it and dreading it. But in the end we know that it will help us down the road when my time has come to move into the next stage of my career.

This Ain't Your Momma's Homework

I had a parent ask about homework this week. They asked what is the purpose and then told me horror stories of when they were a child. I understand and even lived through a few of those homework horror years. When I started teaching I vowed I would not give homework unless I had to. I hated homework when I was a child. Do all the odd problems 1-75. It was terrible. Busy work. Tradition? Everyone was doing it? I am not sure the reason.

My team has put together a homework plan for the students to follow each night. We have decided that it should not be frivolous or busy work. After reading "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell, we decided to add a little practice each night to help students build their learning. the 10,000 hour rule Gladwell talks about in his book was very interesting. Read the book, get the information, understand our thinking.

So we ask that each student works on vocabulary words 10 minutes a night for two nights, spelling word sorts for 10 minutes for three nights, math practice for 15 minutes for four, possibly five, nights, and reading to fill up the rest of the hour.

• Vocabulary includes looking up word meanings and writing an example of how to use the work in a sentence. It also includes answering a question the teacher gives the students. We review these words weekly for five weeks and on the sixth week we review all five sets of words to see what they remember about the words.

• Spelling has always intrigued me. Giving a set of words on Monday to memorize and spell on Friday only to spell them incorrectly when using one of the words in a story. Where is the learning in that? So we use Words Thier Way spelling to work on patterns in words. Building spelling patterns can help students recognize the patterns they hear to help them spell better. We have students do word sorts each night. They sort words into patterns and write them. This helps them recognize and find spelling patterns. There are different sorts we have students do for different learning. We have a test on Thursday to see how they are doing on their weekly words. Every six weeks we test the students to see if they learned their patterns and what new patterns they need help with.

• Math homework goes for fifteen minutes each night. Most nights we have students take 4-10 problems home to practice what we worked on that day. They are a review of the lesson and helps parents and teachers to know if the student is understanding the concept taught in class. We do not want parents teaching a concept at home. We ask for support from parents if the student needs it, but parents shouldn't have to teach the lessons. In the case of the student that does not understand something, instead of fighting and arguing with parents and causing grief at home we ask parents to sign the page and write that they tried. This keeps peace at home and let's us know the student needs a review of the information. There is no penalty for having a signature on the page. If a student does not complete homework assignment they will complete it at school. The ultimate goal of homework is to help us understand whether a students understands the concept they are taught. Having the student do a few problems themselves without a partner or teacher can give us that information.

• Reading for 25-30 minutes each night gives students information, helps comprehension, and speeds their reading fluency. Students can read anything they wish at home. We just want them to read. One thing we ask students to do is to read to someone each night for 5-10 minutes. Reading out loud helps with fluency. Fluency is speed, smooth, and expressive reading. Reading a pictures book to a sibling or a magazine or newspaper article to a parent helps give purpose to reading.

Homework should not be a time of arguing or fighting for parents or students. My team wants students to have a sense of motivation to want to do their homework. We want them to understand that a little extra work in fifth grade will go a long way to help them build their skills they learn to help them go far in their lives. Adults have homework each night. We just do not think of it as homework. We work on our homes and families. Bills and hobbies. Learning and understanding the world around us. We do not want students to think they are doing homework, we want them to think they are learning and helping themselves grow. This ain't the homework I remember. Thank goodness.

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Failure in the Classroom

Should we teach our students to embrace failure? Not that we want them to fail, but with every failure comes the chance to learn and grow. They can learn what not to do and to try something else. We want them to succeed at failure so they can use it to their benefit. If students get frustrated and shut down at each wrong answer they become failures and not learners. We can teach students that wrong answers are not bad but chances to learn that can help them improve. As we teach them to learn they can use that skill to help them in all situations. Reading "8 to be Great", Richard St. John tells example after example of successful people that have made that their catalyst. Michael Jordan talks about all the shots he's missed and the games he's lost to tell why he has been successful. Students need to not be afraid of getting answers wrong. Teachers need to not punish wrong answers. We need to embrace and teach. This gets them to the place they need, persistence.

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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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