Trusting Each Other

The highlight of our day happened at 8:50 this morning.  I was approached by our first grade friend who had a bad day the day before.  She wanted to apologize to the class.  After talking to her, I brought her into our huddle today.  She apologized for interrupting our learning yesterday and told us that she was not going to do that again.  We accepted her apology and welcomed her into our team.  We had students who volunteered to be her buddy if she had another bad day someday to calmly fill out her "think sheet" with her.  I was very proud of my class today.

I hope that they understand that we don't wash anyone out.  No one is perfect and everyone has bad days.  We showed love and compassion for someone who needed it.  This student showed bravery to face the class and apologize and we showed her nothing but support and love.  We all need to work together to be our best and we are learning to trust each other and be there when someone needs to be picked up off the ground.  These are truly the days that reward me as a teacher.  I love watching kids build character and understand the joy of being a great person.

Heart of the Message

Today in writing, we talked about the heart of our message.  I modeled my thinking when it comes to why I am choosing my story.  I also taught about thinking about my audience and making them care about what I write about.  I wrote a story about my sister and I camping and thinking there was a bear outside the tent.  When I rewrite the story, I want to focus on the real reason that it is important to me.  I was as scared of disappointing my mother who trusted me to take a trip with my little sister as I was of a possible bear outside my tent.

I believe in teaching kids to really love their own writing.  We will work to make it better all year, but my greatest priority this year is to teach them to have a passion for their writing and to think about their audience.  They have taken this message to heart and are working passionately on their work.  I have been impressed with their diligence in their work.

I will admit that the end of the day was tough today.  As I reflected tonight on the day and tried to figure out how I can do better next time, I realized that my writing lesson works across the board. Why do I teach?  I teach because I love the energy children have when they are learning.  I am willing to ride out the tough days to have another day tomorrow to teach your children.  I believe in fresh starts and tomorrow we get a chance to have the best day we have had all year.

Educational Detours

Education is an industry that continues to become more streamlined and scripted.  The government pushes schools to be exactly the same.  While standards and oversight is helpful in some cases of failing schools, we also have to be careful to fight for what education is about.  Our job as teachers is to meet a set of standards, but ultimately our mission is to educate our children and prepare them to be high functioning adults in our society.

I often hear the term educational detour used in a negative way to describe a teacher who was easy to take off track.  In fact I remember a high school teacher that you could take down a tangent and it felt like you had won because he was not reciting his boxed curriculum.  It was later that I realized that he had won.  We were interested in what he was saying because we assumed we were controlling the situation.  He was teaching us concepts on civics and government, but he was letting us drive the conversation instead of doing chapter three in the book.  I realized as I reflected that ignoring the interests of your students is often taking them on a detour away from what would be most effective.

While I have times that I focus on certain subjects, I don't pass on the chance to teach other subjects along with the one that I am focusing on.  Students may get a Latin root word lesson in the middle of their math lesson.  When I am open to their interests, I know they are going to be more focused on every lesson even if that subject is not their strength.  I have received positive feedback on my evaluations that Mr. Harper isn't sure what I am teaching because I will weave my social studies, reading, and math instruction together and review concepts across our curriculum.  I am not afraid to take a detour because sometimes we need to enjoy our learning scenery as we are mastering our way from one topic to the next.

Today was one of those days.  I could tell from our morning meeting that the kids were still super excited about the lunar eclipse and "blood moon."  We talked about the fact that white light is made up of all the colors combined and that when the full moon is getting direct light from the sun it reflects as white light.  In a situation like last night the light has to bend around the earth to meet the moon.  I used their schema (prior knowledge) of a rainbow or a prism to ask them what the longest band of light is in a rainbow.  I was proud that they knew that red was the longest wavelength.  When the light has to bend further, only the longest band of color is visible creating the red color.  It has been a while since I have studied the refraction of light, but the kids could relate to this due to their knowledge of rainbows.

I don't have to teach this content, but by being responsive to their interest I earned their trust and encouraged them to ask questions.  When they know that their questions and interests will be taken seriously then students are more willing to be vulnerable when they don't understand something.  We took a twenty minute break from the scheduled curriculum, but gained so much more that will help us accomplish greater things in the future.  I don't do a lot of pretty art projects, take extra recesses, or have Fun Friday.  Despite this, my students never complain because I use that time to chase down their interests and we make learning more fun than an extra recess or an electronics day would ever be.

Five For Friday 9-25-15

I had the class help me generate ideas for the celebrations this week.  I love that they are generating ideas about the kind of successes we are having.  I am really enjoying working with this class.

5. Rocket Math is starting to really come around.  More students are passing each day as students get into the routine and learn how to get their answers on the paper quicker.  I have talked to the kids about how much better they will do if we transition to our practice more efficiently so that we aren't taking a break for a conversation between our practice and daily test.  It is important to keep working on these facts as they will help students become more precise in their daily work.

4. We started reading groups this week.  This was my best first week of reading groups in Davison when it comes to effort.  Each student finished their assignment and was ready to talk and share about the story I assigned to them.  We then worked on summaries of the story for next week.  I look forward to seeing where our skills are so we can target the skills that we need to improve.

3.  On Friday, I rewarded the students with a ten minute outdoor fun time because I have never had a better first time lock-down drill.  These kids are spoiling me.  In some ways I feel like they are in mid-year form.  I was super pleased that students were able to sit patiently for five minutes until we were done.  I didn't promise them anything if we did a good job.  I believe we are starting to absorb the principle of intrinsic vs. extrinsic rewards.  This effort towards building character and responsibility will pay off academically as we save time on not needing to reteach behavior expectations.

2.  The first celebration idea that came up from the kids was to celebrate our problem solving from Thursday.  We have a morning huddle each day where I call the plays (outline what we will be learning,) make any announcements that need to be made, and we discuss any issues we are having in the class.  I have controlled most of the conversation so far, but Thursday an issue of personal space was brought up by a student and I let them generate a solution and we decided that we will talk about it a week later and see if it improved things.  It is scary for me to take my hands off the wheel, but I am glad they are taking responsibilities on our team.

1.  Writing time has been awesome this year.  On Friday we talked about writing passionately.  This lesson included my best attempt at a cartwheel to catch their attention and to explain the type of excitement we needed to have for our writing time.  We worked this week on generating ideas to write about.  We also practiced many strategies for planning our writing and remembering details before we write.  We will continue to work on a story with strong feelings.  We will hope to work towards a finished piece next week.

Teach Your Children to Wonder

Why is the sky blue? Why is the grass green? I promised myself many years ago that I would stay young by never losing my desire to wonder.  I won't grow up and think that I know everything.  I will approach every day with the hunger to learn that a seven year old has.  

Today I told the class that I had no room in my life for students who knew everything and were always right.  We can't truly begin to learn until we let ourselves me vulnerable and admit to each other that we might be wrong and there is more to learn.  I would be a useless teacher and they would be useless students if we showed up to class thinking we knew everything already.

This applies to everything, but today I was applying it to science.  We talked about inquiry and the power of asking questions and wondering about the world.  We are where we are as a society because great men and women wondered if they could do new things, improve things, or do them faster.  We will start all of our explorations into science with inquiry and hypothesis.  We will work to make ourselves vulnerable enough to learn something new if that is what our data shows us.

I love nurturing wonder.  Encourage your children to ask questions and don't be afraid to help them learn the answer instead of telling them the answer.  One of my most memorable experiences as a child was when we asked my friend's mom how the return tubes worked at the bank.  She pulled through the drive through and took four of us into the bank and the bank manager let us come behind the counter and explained it to us.  There are so many opportunities to take advantage of when you look at the world as a series of questions instead of seeing it as a series of answers.  Allow yourself to be vulnerable and have the curiosity of a child instead of feeling like mature people have to have all of the answers. 

Don't Steal Their Struggle!

Our children are growing up in the most technologically advanced civilization in history.  They will have more opportunities during their lifetime than we are able to even conceptualize.  In many ways we can use this technology to enhance their lives, but tonight I want to write about my greatest fear for this generation.

We are stealing their struggle!

We don't mean to hurt them and in most cases adults have good intentions, but we are stealing one of the most important parts of their lives.  We are robbing them of social struggles, problem solving struggles, and time management struggles.  We are building a generation that is dependent on others. 

As we push academics earlier and earlier, we are robbing kids of the valuable social struggle that we had when we were allowed to play in kindergarten and had an hour of recess.  We learned to solve problems on the playground and in our neighborhoods.  We struggled through our problems with each other because we wanted to have someone to play with.

I remember growing up with a huge box of Legos that became whatever I imagined.  As I grew up Legos became a collector toy that was closer to buying a model car then a toy to stimulate creativity.  Hurray for parents who still encourage kids to use their imagination with their toys.

Kids are being pushed to do more and more.  I hear stories of kids participating in three sports and two other activities.  I remember having to choose an activity and deal with the economic principal of opportunity cost.  I had to choose between bowling and doing cub scouts and had to weigh the pros and cons between these activities.  Many kids no longer have to make choices because their parents are trying to take them to every single thing that they can.

This post is not a "get off my lawn" or "I walked uphills both ways" post.  I am happy that my students have so many opportunities in their life.  In many ways their potential will be greater then mine ever was if they reach out and take advantage of these opportunities.  I just wanted to share these anecdotes to talk about my observation in the classroom.

I am going to do my best not to steal your child's struggle in school.  As teachers it is really hard to not give a kid an answer as a time saving measure in order to get to more students during the day.  I am going to do my best this year to only answer questions from students who can show me that they have struggled with their question and have used strategies to try to solve their problem.

I will no longer respond to:

• I can't do it.
• I don't know how to do this.
• Do I have to do this problem?

I will respond to:

• I tried this strategy, but I still was not able to solve this problem
• I heard you say this..., but I don't understand this part...
• I asked a classmate and neither of us understand how to do this

Instead of answering questions immediately, I will ask:

• What do you need me to explain to you?
• How have you tried to solve your problem?
• Explain the steps you have used thus far...

This doesn't happen overnight.  I am not doing this in an uncompassionate way, but I am striving to build students who are problem solvers first.  I want them to struggle with the things that don't come easily.  This isn't to say that we let them struggle to defeat, but we have to struggle to build strength.  There is no greater gift that I can give, than to give your child the desire and tools to attempt to solve their questions and problems before going to an adult.  I want to erase the word can't and the "I give up" option in their mind.  If we can accomplish this and teach our kids to embrace the struggle, then their potential is truly limitless in this great age in which we are living.

Wacky Wednesday!

It has been suggested that we treat teachers like rock stars.  I took this to heart on Wacky Wednesday!

Diverse Teammates Make The Best Teams

This word cloud is a combination of all of the adjectives used by parents to discuss their child the parent survey at the beginning of the year.  The larger and brighter words are the ones that were used the most times.  I am super excited that inquisitive, curious, creative, and caring are among the highest occurring words.  This combination of kids is going to help us reach our potential and bring out the best in everyone.

As I look at this, I am reminded that a strong vocabulary is one of the most important tools that leads to success.  We will be working hard this year on expanding our vocabularies and learning to use new and exciting adjectives.  Take time when you are reading to help your child identify strong verbs and creative adjectives as you read with them.  Students will model these words and learn to incorporate stronger vocabulary into their language and writing.

We have been working on writing short pieces in our writing journal and we have been focused on writing about moments that evoke strong feelings.  I had students choose a time they were happy, sad, scared/nervous, and proud.  I was impressed by the amount of students who chose sad or scared as a starting point to write.  It shows a trust is already building among our team.  That makes me a proud teacher.  These topics usually have to be prompted more, but students have jumped right in to explore their feelings.  I am super proud with the work done in writing right now.

My View on Grading

One of my least favorite parts of teaching is the grading process.  I wish education as a whole would be more focused on learning and growth over a series of numbers that make up grades.  I do feel very fortunate to be teaching in Davison.  I believe that the school has made some great strides in fairly assessing students and taking some of the anxiety out of learning and emphasizing mastery of concept.  Let me see if I can break down my view on grading so you understand where I am coming from.

Standard Referenced Grading (SRG)

When you run into the term standard referenced grading it refers to Davison's goal of assessing our kids based on the standards found in the Common Core and the Michigan State Standards.  It simplifies the amount of things that we need to assess and targets the most important items.  Standard referenced grading targets mastery of the final topic instead of looking at an average of scores done on the work while learning.  

3, 2, 1...4?

Under SRG, we have adopted a 3, 2, 1, 4 system.  Students in elementary school earn a three for showing proficiency on an assignment or an assessment.  We might consider this an 80-100% on a traditional grading scale.  A two is earned by understanding the majority of the concept, but falling short of proficiency (60-79%.)  A one would fall short of that and show the need for major reteaching.  

We award fours only in cases where students are working a grade level above where they should be and are still showing proficiency.  I do not award many fours in the CAP program because in many cases we are already working a year ahead of schedule.  In math for example, I rarely award fours because I take any extra time after proficiency to work with students on concepts that aren't under my standards but will help them on the STAR test and in future years.

   

Mastery vs. Repetition

The other major part of our grading philosophy in Davison is our focus on mastery of concepts.  Our daily work is important because it gives us a chance for independent practice and it informs me in my instruction.  I get to see who needs some extra attention and when I need to re-explain something to the whole class.  That being said, our grades are based on the final assessments for each topic and ultimately are dependent on the student being able to demonstrate they can achieve the objective.

In a traditional grading situation a student who scored 50, 50, 50, 50, 100 would average out to a score of 60.  In our system based on summative assessment a student who scored 50, 50, 50, 50, 100 would be credited with a 100 because they took the time to learn the information and demonstrated that by the end of the unit that they understood the objectives.  This system rewards students who strive to understand and doesn't punish students who struggled at the beginning of a topic but ended up understanding everything.

What Does That Mean for Parents?

While daily work is important, I don't stress about the scores on daily work.  For example, in math I keep a sheet for the unit and I just jot down names each day to check in on during the next assignment and help them.  If students bring home a paper with more than two wrong it would be good for them to fix those problems, but I don't need them to turn it back in for a grade.  I also am a big proponent of reteaching and reassessing when students don't achieve a three on a topic.  I work hard to get all of my students to a three on every topic.  

I wrote a lot of words tonight and I still don't know if I captured what I want to say.  I am more concerned with students learning skills then I am that they never make a mistake on a worksheet.  We will all work together to make sure your child is successful and has a great year in a stress free learning environment.

Five For Friday 9-18-15

5. I have had a chance to make several positive parent contacts this week including a nice comment today that someone was enjoying the blog.  I hope you have enjoyed reading about my philosophy and what we are doing.  I am still working through trying to make a positive contact with each parent.  I have plenty of positive things to say, but I just ran out of time this week so look forward to some more e-mails next week.  The compliments and comments about kids loving to come to class have picked me up and helped fuel my drive to be the best.

4. When it comes to responsibility, so far so good.  I have seen a reduction in the amount of things left behind by students and an increase in the amount of parent communication folders that are being brought to class and checked each day.  We worked on keeping our cubby areas neat this week as we seek to cut down the amount of time that it takes to get ready in the morning and take care of things in the afternoon.  Learning organization and responsibility pays dividends down the road.

3.  We made it through the STAR math test and have a baseline data point that we can show growth from.  We also have rocket math up and running and today we finished level A as a class.  Everyone has either passed their first test or they passed the first probes to start on G.  I feel like the kids are starting to get the hang of the testing process and it will only improve from here.  We worked hard on math vocabulary this week and students are grasping the addition algorithm and the process of regrouping.  I plan to try to finish the unit and take an assessment at the end of the week to see if there is anything that I need to reteach before we move on.

2.  Yesterday, we finished our first writing prompt as a baseline of writing skills.  From a quick glance, we have a ways to go, but everyone turned in a piece and has shown enthusiasm for becoming a better writer.  I make sure that every writing lesson that I do is done with enthusiasm because much of writing is believing that you can be a great writer.  We will begin working on how to write a better personal narrative next week.  We will be focusing on zooming in on a small moment of their life that they can tell in a detailed manor.  I am excited to teach them and then show them the growth they made this marking period at the end of the quarter.

1.  It was great to see dads come out for the Watch D.O.G.S. event.  It was exciting to watch our school family come together to support a good program.  I really enjoy getting to interact with parents from this year and check in with parents from previous years.  It is nice when we get a chance to interact outside of a strictly educational platform.  I look forward to seeing how the Watch D.O.G.S. program effects students at Central.

Reminder:  

Next week is spirit week!

Monday - Hat Day

Tuesday - Favorite Sports Team Day

Wednesday - Wacky Wednesday

Thursday - Wear Red (second grade) for Colors Day

Friday - Davison Colors Day

Constitution and Citizenship Day

We talked about a ton of "C's" today (Constitution, cooperation, citizenship, and compromise.)  We have to do a lesson on the Constitution today and so we had some fun exploring history as best we could.  After watching a video, we went outside and I split the kids up into different sized groups and named them by states.  We voted on which kids got to go play in the grass and I let every kid vote.  The largest state won and got to play in the grass (although I had a bunch of students who voted for others and almost broke the simulation.) Nice Kids.  It elicited the intended "Not Fair" cries.  We then gave each group a vote and the smallest state had two much power.

I really hope that they internalized the debate at some level.  We spoke of compromise and cooperation as the leaders of the states built the law of our land.  It is a really tough subject for second graders, but I hope they had fun and at least understood some of the challenges of the Constitutional Convention.  I am still working on the best way to make this day fun for my students.

We have some work to do on cooperation as our team hit some snags today, but we will be meeting tomorrow morning to solve our differences and positively set goals as a class.  I love the support students are showing for their classmates and this extra work will lead to a better year for all of us.  Above all, we will learn to be a team and to care about each other.

The Importance on Male Role Models

It is technically Thursday as I write this post.  In the spirit of "Throwback Thursday," I dug out my portfolio and pulled a paragraph on my personal educational philosophy that I wrote while I was in college.

Motivating Students to reach their potential was one of the major factors that caused me to choose a career in education.  I think that I have the skills to reach some students that may not be able to be reached by other educators.  When I look across the demographics of early elementary teachers, I see a major void in the amount of males in the elementary classroom.  I think it is important to have more male teacher in schools, especially as children are growing up in more one parent families then in the past.  I think that I have something to offer these children as a strong male role model.  There are too many children that have nothing but negative experiences with men and I want to help them realize that they could have positive influences in their life.  I think it is as important for children to see men reading in the classroom and teaching class as it is important for children to see women scientists and mathematicians.  

I remember that I wrote another paper in college about the importance of male role models.  I couldn't find the exact study, but I remember that the study I used stated that 80% of 5th grade students had never heard a man read out loud.  It is hard for us to stress the importance of reading when students are not exposed to multiple people showing them that reading is important.  Take time to read with your kids, it makes some of the most lasting memories.

I am excited to find out more about the WATCH D.O.G.S. program tomorrow.  I haven't investigated what the school will be doing, but I am excited to see over 100 people signed up tomorrow to come find out about how men can play more of a role in the environment of the school.

I feel very fortunate to have parents that are working to provide the best environment for their students.  Your kids show how much they are loved by their ability to shed any bad things that may have happened in the morning and come into class with a smile.  We are going to have a great year because as a class we will not accept anything less.  Join us in holding yourselves to high standards and make sure you are exposing your children to great role models in everything they do!

Yesterday Rockets...Today Among the Stars

Yesterday I wrote about the importance of math fact fluency and today we took our first STAR math assessment.  The STAR assessment is a sliding scale assessment that will challenge kids to continue to achieve higher.  As they do better, the test becomes more difficult.  I look forward to sharing the results with you at parent teacher conferences.  I don't take the data seriously until I have at least three assessments to judge each student with.  After that, the test becomes a major way for me to inform my instruction and push each student to their potential.

I continue to be amazed and impressed by your children.  They were quiet and respectful as they took the test and remained that way until everyone was finished.  We had an ideal test condition where everyone could focus.  The test went well and from what I can tell, I have a great crew of kids to really absorb my passion for math.  This test can be tough, but I prepared them for it and we came away with smiles.  It pushed kids into unfamiliar territory and I tell them if it is getting hard then they are doing great!  They left with smiles satisfied that they had done their best.

If you get a chance before tomorrow, tell your kids that you are proud of them.  Their teacher is super proud of them as a class and I hope they are internalizing that.  I don't lie to my kids.  I build them up and fill them with confidence, but I would never lie to them.  I am truly proud and amazed by everything that we have already done.  I love all of my classes, but this class is really internalizing my expectations and working to impress me.  If I do nothing else, I would love to pass on high character kids who smile, work together, never give up, respect others, and learn to value and cherish their integrity.

I thank you all for your kind words in e-mail.  I hope this journey has been as satisfying for you as it has for me so far.  Teaching is my life and I am trying to get every drop out of my passion for this career.  Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.  I am still working out some kinks, but I hope to eventually take this blog to an even better place.  

Thank you for continuing to support your kids at home and please encourage them to continue making affirmations each day.  When kids choose something that they like about themselves they will build the inner confidence that will allow them to persevere through their tough times and they will be confidant enough to support their peers when needed. 

Rocketing to Math Fact Fluency

I want to take a moment to talk about Rocket Math.  Rocket Math is a program that is designed to help students reach automatic fluency.  Education went away from timed math programs for a while because it isn't a strength for everyone.  We have found as we went back to this program that students who have automatic recall of math facts are more successful in higher math.  When you get into higher math the more fact fluency you have, the less room there is for errors in multi-step problems.

The program is individualized and custom fit to each student.  Each student has a number writing speed that is determined by copying numbers on a timed test.  Each student has their own goal that is fit to their ability.  The test is then designed to stretch students into knowing their facts so well that they immediately see the answer.  There is a lot of value to having these facts locked into your mind.

Each level of the program only adds two math facts and their reverse facts (3+1 and 1+3.)  Students who pass a level only have to add these 4 facts to their knowledge to pass the next level.  It is designed to push kids so if they get stuck even for a couple seconds it can cause them to miss their goal.  You will see that as most students get the hang of it, their scores will go up considerably.  You may want to get a set or make a set of flash cards and only practice the facts on their page.

I receive requests each year for extra copies to be sent home to practice.  I just don't have those kind of copies as much as I would love to do that.  We figured it out and if every teacher follows this program daily like we are supposed to, it would be over 114,000 copies for the year.  I would suggest flash cards or the math games at www.arcademics.com.  

I would love to have every student pass addition and multiplication this year, but I understand that even some great math students struggle with timed tests.  This is not marked on their report card, but I encourage that you practice daily because in my experience students with good math fact fluency have a high correlation with students who do well on our other math assessments.

In other math news, we will be doing our most exciting math assessment tomorrow.  We will be taking the STAR math assessment which is a sliding scale math assessment.  I can't wait to see where the kids are before we dive into the assessment.  This assessment sends me amazing data to help inform my instruction and make me a better teacher.  Make sure students have a chance to get a good night of sleep and a good lunch tomorrow.

Kids are doing great! I am happy with where we are at right now.

Five For Friday

Five Celebrations on a Friday Night

5. Students have really embraced starting everyday with a smile.  I see a sense of confidence building in them.  This is one of my strengths as a teacher and one of the things that is most important to me.  I need a team that believes in themselves and each other.  We will do amazing things when we get to that point.  It also is impossible to be in a bad mood when you have so many wonderful faces smiling at you each morning.

4. I was really impressed with starting the year with two four point days in gym.  Mr. Rutkowski awards three cardinal code points for everyone doing their job.  To earn a four students have to go above and beyond.  We received other compliments from other staff members this week.  I have extremely high expectations for my kids and we are working hard to be the best in the building.  I set expectations high and fill them with the belief that they can do it.

3. This week we have been working on the issue of our behavior and stamina during work time.  The class brainstormed ideas in our huddle and shared their own thoughts about it.  I already see the benefits of this approach as our afternoon was amazing for a Friday of the first week.  We had a couple work periods where I could have closed my eyes and wondered if they were still in the room.  This attention to peers needs is going to pay dividends down the road in my opinion.  I want us all to have input into our classroom environment.

2. I have used my behavior mountain less then I have ever used it in the first week.  I typically have used it to encourage others to follow the Cardinal Code.  I have been able to do much more whole classroom praise as there hasn't been as many small problems.  With that in mind, I have still been able to award my first few dots for outstanding Cardinal Code behavior.  I see students starting to shoot for those exceptional behaviors and making the Hall of Fame a goal.  If the marking period ended today, I would not be giving out a single one or two in Cardinal Code.  Let's keep it up!

1.  I got teacher goosebumps today!  I don't know if I have ever gotten them this early.  Teacher goosebumps are when I am so impressed by a whole class performance that I literally get goosebumps.  We were having a blast during math today with our lesson.  (You would have to ask your child about it and the magic trick I did.)  I asked them a question and not only were they able to answer it, but as a class they answered in an organized list which allowed them to get all of the multiple answers.  This is a very mature skill that usually takes a lot of practice.  I really look forward to seeing how far we can go in math because there is no limit if they keep this up.  I was very impressed by their attention, involvement, and interest in my lesson.

Have a Great Weekend!  Hats off to all of the parents out there.  I feel very fortunate that you send me smiling kids every day who show the love and support they receive at home by their behavior in the classroom.  I am a very fortunate man.  Thank you parents!

Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Rewards

Building Character One Day at a Time

Every morning, we will start with a huddle to talk about things we were proud of and things that we can make better in our classroom.  Today that huddle turned into a discussion about intrinsic and extrinsic rewards.  We earned two major compliments yesterday (one at lunch and one at gym.)  One student had the idea that we could track them and earn a reward for this like they had in the past.

I explained to them the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivations.  We talked about how we train puppies by giving them treats.  I could reward students for this kind of thing, but in my opinion that is just making my life easier.  I would rather teach them about the value of intrinsic rewards which will reward them later in life as they build character.  This is what the Cardinal Code should be about in my opinion.

I also talked to them about the pay-it-forward or pass-it-on theories.  If they show respect to other adults in the building then those adults are likely to do kind and respectful things to other people who will pass it on to me and I will pass it on to them.  I reward my class plenty with unique learning opportunities, but I want to teach and train my students to expect compliments from adults and not be surprised by them.  We talked about straightening our spine and holding our chin up and accepting compliments with a sense of pride that we are doing things for the right reasons.  Our goal will be to be the best class in the school and these compliments will be the affirmation that we have been working hard.

Keeping in step with our focus on character this morning, students were assigned the task of making someone in their family smile today.  We have been talking about the book Have You Filled a Bucket Today? I wanted them to practice what we have talked about and do something to fill a family members bucket so that they could share a real world example at tomorrow's huddle.

I find that high character kids who learn to care about their school and their teammates are more likely to reach their potential.  I am taking some extra time this year to build this team mentality so we can really rock out some academics and make these kids soar! 

What Does a Great Author Look Like?

This afternoon we created a picture in our writing journal of what a great writer would look like.  We then brainstormed a list of words that would describe a great author.  The list is good, but the conversation was even more impressive.  I was very pleased with things like great writers ask questions or great writers love to read.  This really is a great class!  I feel like I won the awesome student lottery.

I know this blog post is late, but maybe if you catch it in the morning you can remind your student that I asked them to try to think of a word or quality that describes them that would help them be a great writer.  I have never been the best technical writer, but I overcame it with enthusiasm and creativity.  I teach writing with that same enthusiasm.  My goal is to make writing fun and exciting so that students really like what they write.  If they learn to love their writing, they will naturally want to learn to revise and make it better.

Tomorrow we will be doing our second page which will be titled, "I am a great writer!"  I believe in filling kids with so much self-belief that they don't have an option to fail.  My general philosophy is that you get the best out of kids that feel good about themselves.  I am really pushing self affirmations this year as a way to build confidence.

We had a talk today during our morning huddle that came from a comment by a student that was worried about affirmations in a mirror.  He stated that his family was taught to not think about themselves, but to think about the other members of the family.  I thought that was awesome that he had internalized this selflessness!  I talked to the class that self affirmations where you say "I am a great person" are not meant to make you feel you are better than other people, but they are to fill you with confidence so you can share those positive feelings and love with others.  I love having kids who are so caring and thoughtful.  I also love to see that my students are really listening and thinking about these character building lessons.

No Rules...Just Expectations

Expectations

I announced to the class this morning that there would be no rules in my classroom.  That statement got some confused looks, almost scared looks, and a couple faces that were trying to figure out if they could cheer.  I followed that up with the statement that we wouldn't need any rules because our expectations will be so high that we will push each other to be the best.

My Expectations:

1. SMILE - We talked about the most important thing that you can do everyday is to wipe all the bad energy and negativity off your body and dump it in the garbage at the door.  Start your day with a smile and we will all feel better.  I am going to be huge on positive affirmations this year.  I asked every student to look in a mirror tomorrow morning and start their day with "I am the best student at Central Elementary!"  I am going to start my day with Ali's "I am the greatest."

2. Respect - Everything in the Cardinal Code and every rule that exists at school is based on respect.  When students learn my expectations about respect, they won't need rules because they will think of others before themselves.  I have high expectations and I will push us to have the quietest lines in the hallway, the cleanest classroom, and the most well thought of students in the school.  Respect is a life long journey and lesson.

3. Integrity - We talked about the trust tower today and how it can take months to build someone's trust and yet it only takes one huge mistake to ruin that trust that you have built.  I also talked about how we can start the trust tower again if we make a mistake, but it is better to never knock it down.  I talk about integrity often and how you sometimes only get one chance at integrity and you want to protect it as best you can.  It is important to me to help develop honest and trustworthy young people.

4. Effort - We will continue to talk about trying our best everyday.  I want to encourage students to take academic risks and to never give up.  I want to teach perseverance in problem solving.  I also talked about setting goals and not comparing yourself to others but working towards your own goals.  I run a stress free environment where students should never worry about an assessment, because we will re-teach it if they don't do well.  I want them to feel comfortable taking chances and they will learn to do their best everyday.

5. The TEAM, The TEAM, The TEAM - Teamwork is everything.  I like to use mountain climbing as an example for our work at school.  I talked to them about how a good climbing team supports their teammates that slip and helps pull them up to their feet.  We are a team, a community, and a family this year in our classroom and I hope to teach life-long lessons and develop life-long relationships.

Overall, You should be very proud.  It was a rocking first day.  I won the lottery this year.  These kids are great and I can't wait to continue to share our successes on this blog.  Please feel free to comment and share as we grow and learn from each other.  Be proud of your kids and give them a high five.  I can't wait to spend another day with them.

New School Year's Eve

Inspiration

I hope you took five minutes to watch the above video.  This is why I teach.  I have watched this video five times and it gives me chills and goosebumps every time.  While our students don't have the obstacles that Patrick has overcome, they may have had the experience of people not knowing how to communicate with them in a way they can hear it.

I love watching the smile come across Patrick's face as the teacher is finally reaching him in a way that he can understand.  I live for that smile.  I live for that glint in the eye when a young person is understanding something new for the first time.  I love to watch their eyes light up when everything clicks and the knowledge becomes theirs.

Every year, I set the goal that I will reach every student in a new way.  I promise myself that I will strive to make sure each student will be intellectually stimulated and challenged to reach their potential.  I will try new things and improve at others to make sure I accomplish this task.

I can barely sit still.  I am so excited to get to class and start molding this clay into another awesome class to work with for the next year.  I hope everyone gets a good night's sleep and a good breakfast tomorrow.  I will meet your children in the hallway with a goofy grin on my face because I know that they can't even comprehend how great a year we will have this year.

7 Days Until Our Expedition Begins

Behavior Charts

Every year I have had someone come into my class and the first thing they look for is the "clip-down" chart.  I hope when you visit at Open House tonight that that isn't your experience.  I do use a chart to track behavior, but I call it "The Mountain."  Expedition climbers tie themselves together when they are mountain climbing in order to support each other.  Ninety-Five percent of the time, I use the mountain to reward behavior that exceeds my expectations and show the class who is out front leading us up the mountain that day.

Everyday we start the day at Base Camp.  There is nothing you can do to start your day lower than that.  I focus a lot on teamwork in my class and I believe that if the same student has ended the day clipped down on multiple days in a row then that is a failure on my part as a teacher and our part as a team to not properly support our teammate.

When students reach the summit of the mountain they earn a dot on their clip to commemorate their achievement.  They also earn a parent contact for great behavior.  If students earn their sixth dot, they get to retire their clip to my Hall of Fame.  Then they earn a silver clip to show they have consistently shown leadership in class.

My philosophy is to use my behavior management system to support and build students up.  This should not be something to fear or be worried about.