Digging For Meaning

Yesterday morning we talked about the power of our vocabulary.  Each word we learn brings us such much meaning over the course of our lives.  I encouraged students to continue to pull words out of what they read to think about.  Sometimes the act of writing it down makes them think and use their context clues to determine the meaning.  This is going to be a skill that we need to practice all year to be successful on the STAR reading assessment.

It is fun to see the dictionaries flowing off the shelves and see students pouring over the pages.  Many times it is a difficult thing for them to do at first and they get distracted by all the diagrams and the amount of words in the book, but eventually it becomes a versatile learning tool.  This is a place where students can self-identify their needs and help me custom fit their education to what they know.  I truly feel like a student dictionary is one of the best tools a family can have at home.  Online dictionaries are nice, but I find that the definitions can often contain harder words than the ones they are looking up, whereas a student dictionary often simplifies it a bit more.

In other news, we talked about how much our attitudes matter in learning.  We talked about how you can accomplish so much more when you attack your work with a smile on your face and a purpose in your head.  I saw a lot of progress with students yesterday when it comes to making the choice to work hard and try new things.  We will continue to strive to develop these work habits that will turn our work into masterpieces.

Finally, we have some excellent learning opportunities coming up where we will be leaving the building.  On October 10th, we will be going to The Whiting to see a performance.  This is an exciting time to teach students about theater etiquette and give them an experience we haven't been able to do for a few years.  Your support on fundraisers has made this type of trip possible again.  We will also be going to the Fire Hall on October 12th to learn about what our firefighters do.  This is part of our social studies curriculum.  

The experience at the Fire Hall is a quick trip for the students and we are not able to bring any parents with us.  I know you love to enjoy these experiences with your students, but there is a lack of room with how many students are taken through the Fire Hall during that week from all over Davison.  It is a great week to talk about Fire Safety because they will be asking students about their fire escape plan.  On the trip to Whiting, we are going to be taking four chaperones.  I hate being in the position to have to choose who get to accompany us, so I will take the forms that I get in and draw them out of a hat just like I would for the kids.  I anticipate having many people who want to attend and help out, but we have our limits that are dictated by the room we have.  I will be sending home a form tonight with your students.

Thank you for all the things you do for your students.  I look forward to a great day today to end a very good week.

Doing it With Purpose

I ask a lot of my students.  I want them to think about do everything in their life with purpose.  Every task should have a personal reason and goal behind it.  Even in gym, I always join them for their warm up where I encourage them to make sure their warm-up walk is done with purpose.  "We are here to exercise and grow our heart muscle," I cheer them on as I model walking with the purpose of raising my heart rate.  I want them to know I am on their team and that I am there to help model what it looks like to take on each challenge with a purpose.

I know I have used that word a lot today, but it is in response to seeing some students really taking off lately and others still thinking they are fooling me when they are just holding a book.  I suggested students could grab a bookmark and start writing down words that they weren't sure what they meant.  I told them that this was a great way to make sure you were growing as much as you could as a reader.  It was amazing to see the few students who did that right away and we praised them as a class because they were taking ownership of their learning.  I will continue to try to encourage others to join them in finding ways to read with a purpose of improvement.

Within writing, I am asking them to self-identify places that they want to improve as writers.  I want them going into each draft period with a goal in mind that can be measured.  I want them to feel those successes of accomplishing self-identified goals.  It is a lot of work right now teaching them how to look at their writing and come up with those goals, but in the end it will pay huge dividends.  You can begin to talk about what your children are setting as goals to be a better reader and writer.  It is good for them to work on putting that into words.

One of the things that we are working on in reading is identifying character traits in our main characters.  We are also sharing evidence that helps us come up with that idea.  What did the character say or do that made you choose that word to describe them.  I ask them to come up with 2-3 character traits words for each character.  This is something you can practice at home by having them describe themselves, family members, friends, book characters, or even movie/television characters.  I will include a chart I showed the students to get them thinking about a larger collection of words when talking about characters.

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/sites/default/files/posts/u133/images/charactertraits.jpg

Remember that your attitude towards reading and reading growth is one of the greatest factors in your child's growth.  You can help them see that even parents have to really think of good words to describe characters and show them how you find evidence to come up with those words.

Decorum and Respect

Rain drove us inside today for recess which was met with some cheers. (???)  It is important to get out and get exercise, but it is also important for teachers to remember that sometimes kids just need a mental break to chill out and an organized place to talk and play with their friends is just as good in some ways.  I took the time to teach some new games to kids during recess.  I like staying in and hanging out with the kids during indoor recesses.

Today we began working with our Time for Kids magazine.  This is an important part of our resources.  We get to review current events and work on high level reading strategies.  Today's issue was about the upcoming election.  It is always shocking to me how much kids parrot about what they hear about political candidates.  Their arguments are as nasty as adult arguments about politics if left unchecked.

I will have to cover some stuff about the election this year, but I will be doing it from a completely neutral perspective.  I hope that you will support our growth in this area this year.  We talk about community leaders and how they are there to protect us and serve us.  I understand that some people have strong political opinions, but your seven and eight year old children don't need to have those opinions.  There is a certain decorum for the president that needs to be taught first.  It is sad to me how little we support the office of president if it isn't "our" candidate.  We will be working from the perspective of respect for the office of president and the understanding that the president is trying their best to do what is right for our country.  We will not be talking about individual issues, just that each candidate has ideas that they think will best make our country great.

This photograph is from last Friday when we were planting beans in clear plastic bags so we can see the roots grow and develop.  It appears that at least some of our beans are going to grow this year.  I am excited to see the progress and let the students see what is happening under ground when things are growing.  I hope to share some fully grown plant pictures with you in a few weeks.

Last Friday while we were planting, we got out the Rory's story cubes and did some creative writing.  Creative writing is one of the most important things for the development of children's love for writing and skill at writing, but unfortunately since it isn't tested it has to be done in the time that we can steal when we cover other things more quickly.  I am devoted to using some flex time towards creative writing, but this is something you can continue to reward at home with praise when students want to write creatively.  Buying some of those blank bound books or even stapling some white paper together can have a huge impact on a child's desire to "create" a book.  Your enthusiasm to read what they write is something that we have a huge positive impact on their literacy future.

Reading Attitudes

My reading attitude towards by graduate class text books is not the type of attitude that I want to see in my students.  I grudgingly pick up the books each night.  I did read something that I really loved last night about reading attitudes and literacy growth.  This is from the book Assessment for Reading Instruction Third Edition by Michael C. McKenna and Katherine A. Dougherty Stahl.

Reading attitudes are shaped by:

1. Each and every reading experience.
2. Our beliefs about what will happen when we open a book.
3. Our beliefs about how those we hold in high regard feel about reading.

Students who read are students who have had great experiences reading.  They are easily transported to a world filled with imagination or facts that tickle their curiosity.  Each story they have heard in their life has filled a part of their imagination and created a world in which they want to take part.  They believe that a magical world exists inside each book.  Children who have not been cultured to believe this are just holding bound pieces of paper.  There world is no better than my expectations of a dry text book restating what I have heard ten times.

The most important part of this selection is the third factor.  Our attitudes are shaped by how are parents, teachers, and heroes view reading.  This is easily perceivable in lower elementary classrooms.  You can tell the households where reading is held in high regard by all members of the family.  I know my love of reading and likely my career as a teacher comes from the attitude towards reading of my mother and my grandfather.  They never watched television and would tell about the wonderful stories they had read in conversation with me and with each other when I was around.

Reading is changing in today's world.  I always struggle during March is Reading Month because I rarely pick up books anymore.  I do read constantly, but even I have to think about how much I read because we are conditioned to think reading happens in books.  I prefer to read on the internet where I can quickly follow my interests from topic to topic.  This is a 21st century reading skill that will be applicable to our kids.

If you are like me, it is important to show your students when you are reading online and how it compares to them reading a book.  I am not talking about the times when you are scrolling through Facebook, but even that counts as reading.  Make sure you are sharing your literacy world with your children.  It is such a powerful thing when they know that reading matters as much to you as it should to them.

One of the most powerful things you can do as a parent is to still read stories to your children.  One of my most powerful memories is remembering stories my mom read to my sister and I even up to the point where I was in fifth grade.  I was fully capable of reading the story, but it was nice to give my brain a break and listen to her read.  I remember crying as a family through Where the Red Fern Grows and seeing the power of an amazing book making my mother cry with us.  You can even share a book to discuss as they read more difficult stuff by getting two copies from the library or reading the same chapter after they go to bed.

Sharing a love of reading is one of the greatest gifts you could provide your child.

Math Fact Fluency

You will probably hear me talk about this a few more times this year.  I think that fact fluency is one of the most important parts of math success and confidence.  When children are learning to read, they work on sight words to help them read more fluently and parents understand that they need to practice until they have these words memorized if they are going to be successful as a reader.

At this level, I expect my students to be reading fluently because I am going to ask them to slowly divert more of their brain energy to thinking about what they read.  This metacognition (thinking while you read) is one of the most important steps to reading growth.  As adults, we forget about the time when we began to be able to think deeply while we read.  Your students are entering this phase and are going to be asked to respond more to their reading then prove they can read out loud to me.

In the same vein, math fact fluency is just as important as reading fluency.  Students need to know their addition and later multiplication facts in order to devote more of their brain towards harder math processes.  When students are still counting on their fingers, the complexity of problem they can handle is greatly diminished.

I know many people don't like timed tests and say that some kids know the answers, but they can't do it under time pressure.  That may be true for some students, but many students it was the fact that they just didn't truly know those facts automatically.  When I look forward in life, there aren't going to be timed tests, but when they get assigned 40 difficult math problems as homework that will feel like a timed test if they don't work now to automatize that information.

How do students improve this skill?  I don't know.  If I had the easy answer, I would be an educational revolutionary.  It seems to educators that it is becoming harder and harder to get kids to "know" their facts.  I learned mine by just rote determination and practice.  You have to find what works for your family, but I will tell you that students who know their addition and multiplication facts later in the year are far more likely to be successful on more challenging math concepts.

I would like parents to treat these math facts just like you treated the ABC's when you child was younger.  You worked hard with them until they could do it quickly and correctly and then you were proud of them and showed them off to your parents.  This kind of knowledge is so important to pushing the limit of what students can do and how they feel about themselves as math students.  They may understand the hardest concepts, but they will have less self-confidence if it takes them three times longer to calculate the answer.  I try to keep that confidence high, but I know it will be even higher when they have that ability.

I like a mix of flash cards, oral practice, written practice, creative projects, and use of digital tools.  If you have something unique that has been successful in your home, please share in the comments below.  I also think that the website www.arcademics.com is a great place to practice math facts.  It can be found in a link on my sidebar.  There is a difference between being able to answer a math fact and knowing it without thinking.  We are aiming for student to know them without having to calculate it.  I would especially like them to start with their doubles (2+2=4) and their tens (6+4=10).

Thanks for the support and practice at home!

STAR Testing

I get so excited about STAR days.  It really is so rewarding to have that tangible evidence that we are all doing our jobs everyday.  I love being able to look my students in the eyes and tell them how well they are doing.  I do that everyday, but there is something about STAR days.  We worry so much about assessments and I love being able to be an early teacher that instills in them an excitement to prove what they know instead of a fear.  Today I heard the first cheer that it was STAR day!

I have the unique opportunity to work with some of the brightest math minds in Davison.  I love my job and I love taking kids to new heights.  Last year my class began the year with a class average in the 68th percentile for students their age.  We ended the year in the 96th percentile.  

Beyond challenging my highest kids, that really showed how much the "lower end" of the class grew.  21 of my 26 students achieved a 99th percentile in standard growth percentile.  This score is tabulated by taking every student in the country who started at the same score and then measuring them against each other.  This means that 21 of 26 students achieved at the 99th percentile compared to their peers based on their own starting score.  My lowest standard growth percentile was the 82nd percentile.

There are things that are difficult for me, but I pride myself in being one of the best math teachers your student will have before they reach the levels of school where teachers are just math teachers.  Math has always made sense to me and I feared teaching it at first, but I seem to have a knack of getting through to students in a way that brings out the best in them.

In contrast to last year, this class who has many students who were pushed a bit harder in first grade starts the year in the 90th percentile overall for a class average.  After three weeks we tested in the 94th percentile.  I really look forward to seeing what these students can do.  When we get everyone on the same page, we are really going to soar.

Cooperation and working together are such a big part of this process.  Having an environment where you are allowed to fail and fix it promotes students taking more risks and promotes an attitude where they don't give up when the test gets tough.  As we go, I expect students to take more control of their education and identify their weaknesses so they can talk to me about them and I can help them overcome them.  This is a very mature approach to education, but we will get there by the end of the year.  I want to make life-long learners who take ownership of their education.

Thanks for all the support.  If you would like to know how your student is doing, I can give you a report by e-mail.  I personally like to collect three testing points and present that to you at conferences so we can talk about the report and how the data in these kinds of tests can fluctuate as the test evolves.  After three tests, the reports give a line of best fit that helps us understand the data and I will send home reports after each testing period.

Warrior

I am a pacifist, but I love the analogy of being a warrior.  A warrior in an experienced soldier or fighter.  Education often feels like a battle.  Some days things are tougher than other days.  I want to raise up a group of warriors that take on every battle and never give up.  I want to see them fight through the tough days and learn to enjoy the feeling that they are overcoming the things that may have seemed scary at first.

Today, we saw a physical example of that attitude.  We ran the quarter mile in gym on a concrete track.  Two of the boys tripped and fell down.  Neither boy gave up.  They popped up and ended up first and fifth in that group of kids.  I was very proud of them overcoming a situation that could have gotten them down and caused them to give up.  I didn't see anyone give up today on the quarter mile.  Each student ran their hardest and should be proud of their effort.

Today was a great day.  We are getting closer to being our best everyday.  We all have days where things feel tough, but I am getting more students who are willing to put themselves out there and ask wonderful questions.  This means that we are close to being warriors that can overcome all of our tough times.  Teaching kids to never give up on themselves is one of my most important jobs.

We must have fun, but we must respect our journey as learners.  We are working everyday to respect each other, give our best effort, work as a team, live with integrity, and do it everyday with a smile.  When we meet those expectations, we will be warriors who will be unstoppable as learners.  We will stand together and overcome all of our challenges.

GO TEAM 106!

Using Technology to Your Advantage

It is important for us to learn in a traditional way with pens and pencils and notebooks, but it is also very important for us to be learning with technology.  My job as a teacher is to prepare your children to be successful next year, in high school, in college, and beyond.  With that in mind, I am constantly looking for ways to incorporate technology into the classroom.  I remember being taught how to use the newspaper in grade school.  I will be taking that same thought and teaching students to use the internet in a safe and productive way.

The beginnings of that instruction is done by preparing students to be successful on computer based assessments.  This is a reality that we are dealing with in the elementary school, but even if that changes it is going to be an important skill for their futures.  Yesterday we took the STAR reading assessment for the first time.  Students did great and really set a high bar for us to shoot for.  Our class averages fell in the 90th percentile in math and the 92nd percentile in reading.

As we go through the year, I will be teaching students to use Google drive with my one to one tablet lab in my classroom.  I enjoy teaching students to use tablets for word processing.  Every year there is at least one student who technology opens a new avenue to being a much better writer.  Many times writing delays can actually be caused by fine motor development.  Most young children have wonderful stories in their heads, it is just a process to teach them to get it out onto the paper.

One of my favorite websites to point parents to is www.arcademics.com.  This website is a great place to practice math facts in a quick fun way.  I think they have a paid app, but they also have a free website.  The small games help students practice addition and subtraction facts.  The side benefit is that they get good practice using a mouse or selecting options within an application.

Above all, it is important for us to promote safe internet use and make students feel comfortable online.  It is never to early to help them learn to use a keyboard and begin to use the internet to answer their questions.  If nothing else, I want to teach your children the skills to answer their questions more than I want to provide them the answers.

Choosing to be Successful

On Friday we took a moment to take our work outside and enjoy the sunshine.  We were doing some creative writing and I thought that some fresh air might get the creative juices flowing.  It is very important for me to give some choice writing time within the curriculum.  Students who become successful students do so not only because they can read and write, but because they choose to read and write.

I am taking a college class in literacy instruction right now.  In that class the book's author mentioned that students make a transition where they choose to read and write because they understand the importance of communicating ideas.  One of my goals this year is to take these students down the path of understanding.  I want to give them time to explore the writing voice inside them and give them meaningful work that makes them want to improve their oral and written communication skills.

This week we will begin our semester long focus on personal narrative writing.  We will be writing small moment stories.  These will be highly detailed accounts of a small amount of time.  You can help by having students practice telling stories about their life.  When they tell the story, encourage them to focus on a small period of time.  Ask them questions that enrich the details of the story.

We will be especially focused on the details hand which is a diagram reminded them of five different details that they can write about.  These are setting, physical description, dialogue, internal thinking, and character action.  I am going to talk about one of these details each day this week.  Great writing includes most if not all of these aspects.  We will be working to understand these concepts and find creative ways to add them to our writing about ourselves.

The Magical Writing Elixir

Pacer test was a great success.  I saw no quit in these kids.  I think everyone truly gave their best on the floor and I look forward to their growth in physical education.  It was nice to see smiles even after we ran our hearts out.  My new diet and exercise program is paying big dividends as I ran my best pacer test at Davison and had energy to spare when I cut it off so the next group could go.  A couple students even gave me a run for my money for a while.

Wanted: Magical elixir that can inspire six, seven, and eight year old children to be filled with writing ideas and a bubbly personality about writing.  If you have any information about where to acquire this magic, I am up for a journey.

I will be completely honest with you.  We push young kids too far and too fast in writing.  The state demands that kids are writing narratives and expository texts from a younger and younger age.  When I was in school, all I wanted to do was write about riding bikes with dinosaurs under a volcano.  Unfortunately we are stuck with the expectations that are set forward and we have to do our best with what we are expected to get done.

I deviate whenever I can to give students an opportunity to do creative writing, but I also need them to grow as writer during the year.  We are experiencing a huge road block in the class with students saying they have "nothing to write about."  I really want you to participate in helping kids tell stories and remember the fascinating things that they have done.  

 On Monday, we will begin to write personal narrative stories.  I will teach them the craft of writing and I will make it fun for them, but I need them to have an idea and be excited about the story inside them.  If a kid can talk about an experience that is important to them, I can help them to write it down.  I can't do much for students who tell me that nothing special has ever happened to them.  Next week we will be focusing on using our five senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch) to describe an experience that we have had.

Thanks for supporting their learning and I look forward to either finding the magical elixir or filling them with so much love for their writing that they can't wait to write it down!

Jumping Into the Deep End

I see academic risk taking as one of the most important aspects of true student growth.  I would be holding your children back if I only ever expected them to regurgitate what I gave them in knowledge.  I see myself as a teacher of skills more than a provider of knowledge.  These kids have the abilities to do amazing things when you give them the tools to take chances and fill them with belief in themselves.  This sounds great, but what does it look like in the classroom?

I take students into the deep end where it is uncomfortable for them and they don't know all of the answers.  I want them to feel the feeling of not knowing how to do something so it doesn't make them feel as uncomfortable the next time.  I want to teach them to ask questions and to wonder more than trying to get everything "right."  I want them to depend on others and learn to ask questions that help them understand rather than just get correct answers.  I value input into discussion over sheets of correct work.  

I provide a ton of time to practice in class.  We often will just grab scrap paper and work through some problems together.  I want students to get good at explaining themselves with words and numbers, but I also want that to be practice and so I don't grade that work.  I walk around and take notes and fix things when I can, but remember that you have to miss many shots in practice before you are ready to hit the game winner at the buzzer.  We can't have our kids afraid to take chances academically or they will never perform when we really want them to perform.  There is a time for accuracy and there is a time for understanding that every practice problem doesn't have to be perfect as long as you are on your way to success.

Today we talked about education being a journey up a mountain and some days are harder climbing than others.  We always look up to our goals and we support each other so that we don't get frustrated.  I have to fight back sometimes from bailing kids out on a tough problem, but I know they will get more out of working through it themselves the first time and then being showed where things went wrong. 

I don't ever want a child to feel frustrated and defeated!  I do want them to struggle and sometimes have a day that felt hard because that stretches us and makes us grow.  We will eventually come to love being stretched because we will understand that our brain is a muscle and the classroom is a great gym workout.  If you ever see a sign of defeat, please send me an e-mail or call and I will spend some extra time building up that skill and self-belief.

Kids are amazing and a basic approach to curriculum limits their ability to grow.  When we learn to take risks and be comfortable with it, there is no limit to what we can do!