Building Up Your Book Muscle
What are you going to read this summer? Where's your book list? I'm sitting here thinking about what my students are going to read, but I guess I also need to add some more books to my list too! Here are some ideas for building up your book muscle! Click on the link above.
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Launching Summer Reading
Launching Summer Reading
We need to get rid of the summer reading slump and find ways to get our students to read. Click on the link above and Donalyn Miller provides some wonderful ideas to get students to read over the summer by having students make book recommendations, creating a reading list, and holding a book swap. Our school is planning on holding a book swap or two this summer. I'm really excited about that!
I'm also planning to provide students with a summer reading list created by students (book recommendations) and showing students book trailers to get them hyped up about books. See the following link for book trailers provided by Scholastic Kids on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC1B08FBB22B50642. I will also use Edmodo to promote summer reading as much as I can. http://www.edmodo.com
We need to get rid of the summer reading slump and find ways to get our students to read. Click on the link above and Donalyn Miller provides some wonderful ideas to get students to read over the summer by having students make book recommendations, creating a reading list, and holding a book swap. Our school is planning on holding a book swap or two this summer. I'm really excited about that!
I'm also planning to provide students with a summer reading list created by students (book recommendations) and showing students book trailers to get them hyped up about books. See the following link for book trailers provided by Scholastic Kids on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC1B08FBB22B50642. I will also use Edmodo to promote summer reading as much as I can. http://www.edmodo.com
"Going to the Mattresses"
I've always liked the part in You've Got Mail where Tom Hanks quotes the Godfather to Meg Ryan about "going to the mattresses". Meg Ryan decides that she needs to fight for her little independent bookshop. She sits on her bed and puts up her dukes as she tries out the phrase, "going to the mattresses".
I was curious about what this phrase actually meant and so I did a little digging on reliable sources such as wikipedia and Urban Dictionary. ;) Basically "going to the matresses" is when a mafia family is going to war. They might rent an apartment to keep their family safe and there may only be matresses for them to sleep on. Members of the mafia may sleep there until they are called upon. It is a way for family members to stay safe and to protect one another, but it is also a way of organizing for a fight.
Now, in You've Got Mail it doesn't perfectly fit the Urban Dictionary meaning. But nonetheless Meg Ryan has decided to fight for her cause.
I am constantly amazed by how often my coworkers and I "go to the mattresses". On a daily basis we are fighting for our cause, our students. We are fighting to protect them and to give them the best education possible in a system that often seems to work against what is best for them. It is at times exhausting and in most cases frustrating. However, I feel that advocating for our students is one of the most important parts of being an educator in 2013.
So I'd like to encourage all teachers to "go to the mattresses". Our students need us and we can't shirk the responsibility of advocating for them. If we don't, who will?
Go to the mattresses to get that child the dyslexia or special education testing they need.
Go to the mattresses for the resources you need in the classroom for them to be successful.
Go to the mattresses so that they have books to read over the summer.
Go to the mattresses to make sure each child receives the accomodations assigned to them.
Go to the mattresses to ensure that other teachers and colleagues are educated in true research based instruction.
Go to the mattresses to meet the physical and emotional needs of each student.
Go to the mattresses so that each child feels safe and welcome in your school environment.
These are all things worth fighting for. So put up your dukes (and with grace and professionalism) fight for your students.
I was curious about what this phrase actually meant and so I did a little digging on reliable sources such as wikipedia and Urban Dictionary. ;) Basically "going to the matresses" is when a mafia family is going to war. They might rent an apartment to keep their family safe and there may only be matresses for them to sleep on. Members of the mafia may sleep there until they are called upon. It is a way for family members to stay safe and to protect one another, but it is also a way of organizing for a fight.
Now, in You've Got Mail it doesn't perfectly fit the Urban Dictionary meaning. But nonetheless Meg Ryan has decided to fight for her cause.
I am constantly amazed by how often my coworkers and I "go to the mattresses". On a daily basis we are fighting for our cause, our students. We are fighting to protect them and to give them the best education possible in a system that often seems to work against what is best for them. It is at times exhausting and in most cases frustrating. However, I feel that advocating for our students is one of the most important parts of being an educator in 2013.
So I'd like to encourage all teachers to "go to the mattresses". Our students need us and we can't shirk the responsibility of advocating for them. If we don't, who will?
Go to the mattresses to get that child the dyslexia or special education testing they need.
Go to the mattresses for the resources you need in the classroom for them to be successful.
Go to the mattresses so that they have books to read over the summer.
Go to the mattresses to make sure each child receives the accomodations assigned to them.
Go to the mattresses to ensure that other teachers and colleagues are educated in true research based instruction.
Go to the mattresses to meet the physical and emotional needs of each student.
Go to the mattresses so that each child feels safe and welcome in your school environment.
These are all things worth fighting for. So put up your dukes (and with grace and professionalism) fight for your students.
Celebrating Our Favorite Books (Part 1)
As the end of the year draws near, students are tired and teachers are tired. We are energizing our reading workshop by celebrating our favorite books! Here is a how we are working towards awarding our favorites in my classroom...
Several weeks ago I had students nominate their favorite books of the year in several categories:
1) Picture Books
2) Chapter Books
3) Nonfiction Books
4) Graphic Novels
5) Poetry
We then created top 10 lists from each category. I revealed the nominated book lists one day at a time and started with picture books and poetry (because I knew the kids were highly anticipating the top ten lists for graphic novels and chapter books). Each day we created a drumroll and then revealed the list from behind the projector screen. It was hilarious and encouraging to watch them cheer, jump up and down, and scream out their favorite titles that made the lists.
Almost all 80 of my students have read quite a few of the books on these lists. If I had required them to read them, they probably wouldn't have, but they pass the most popular titles from hand-to-hand. Some of them are looking a little shabby (more recently a few titles have even gone missing), but I can't complain if they are being read and loved by so many...
The next step was to get the kids reading these books. We decided as a group that it would only be fair if students who voted for the books had read a majority of the books. So for each category we set a goal that needed to be reached in order to vote. I pulled those books out of my library and set them in bins on my back table, one bin for each category. I even had to make a trip to Half Price Books to see if I could find more copies of some of the nominated titles. Students have been reading, reading, reading...
We created this chart to paste in their journals so they can track the books they've read.
Last Friday I told each class period they have 1 more week to read as many of the nominated books as possible. This Friday we will vote! The following week we will celebrate all we have read during the year AND the books that recieve our 4th grade book awards. I will be asking the kids to name the awards and placing a special sticker on the winners for next year's students to enjoy. I will post more information soon from our celebration!
Several weeks ago I had students nominate their favorite books of the year in several categories:
1) Picture Books
2) Chapter Books
3) Nonfiction Books
4) Graphic Novels
5) Poetry
We then created top 10 lists from each category. I revealed the nominated book lists one day at a time and started with picture books and poetry (because I knew the kids were highly anticipating the top ten lists for graphic novels and chapter books). Each day we created a drumroll and then revealed the list from behind the projector screen. It was hilarious and encouraging to watch them cheer, jump up and down, and scream out their favorite titles that made the lists.
Almost all 80 of my students have read quite a few of the books on these lists. If I had required them to read them, they probably wouldn't have, but they pass the most popular titles from hand-to-hand. Some of them are looking a little shabby (more recently a few titles have even gone missing), but I can't complain if they are being read and loved by so many...
The next step was to get the kids reading these books. We decided as a group that it would only be fair if students who voted for the books had read a majority of the books. So for each category we set a goal that needed to be reached in order to vote. I pulled those books out of my library and set them in bins on my back table, one bin for each category. I even had to make a trip to Half Price Books to see if I could find more copies of some of the nominated titles. Students have been reading, reading, reading...
We created this chart to paste in their journals so they can track the books they've read.
Last Friday I told each class period they have 1 more week to read as many of the nominated books as possible. This Friday we will vote! The following week we will celebrate all we have read during the year AND the books that recieve our 4th grade book awards. I will be asking the kids to name the awards and placing a special sticker on the winners for next year's students to enjoy. I will post more information soon from our celebration!
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Effective Collaboration Makes a Difference
Experienced teachers know the importance of collaboration and understand its impact. I recently attended the San Antonio Area Association Bilingual Education conference and a few weeks prior attended the International Reading Association conference. I will admit, I am a bit of an introvert and being around all these people caused nervousness in me. Nevertheless, I learned something about myself and about teachers in general. I learned that one of the most important characteristics of a teacher is to be collaborative. Needless to say, by attending these conferences, I felt that I had many wonderful valuable conversations, discussed different instructional approaches and shared ideas.
Teacher collaboration is important because this allows teachers to share great ideas, resources, data, and discussions. It is also helpful to collaborate instructional approaches about what works and what doesn't. You have to keep in mind that what works in one classroom, may not work in your own and vice versa. Discussing your own practices with other teachers and reflecting is beneficial for both the teacher and the student. What teacher doesn't want to see academic success in the classroom?
On my team, collaboration is one of our strengths. We all have the same set of beliefs and share the same goals: striving for student academic achievement and growing professionally. Teachers on my team provide a sense of strong professional culture that goes unnoticed. They are experts. Nonetheless, they are dedicated individuals who will advocate for their most struggling students or most vulnerable teachers. These teachers are comfortable with sharing and building off individual ideas, analyzing data and sharing resources with each other for the purpose of overall improvement of our campus. We participate in book clubs, create professional developments for teachers at our campus to attend and cross-collaborate with other grade levels.
Recent research from the National Center for Literacy Association demonstrates that educators really are eager to collaborate and learn to deepen literacy learning. Their results were that 77% of educators, principals, and librarians across all fields were committed to improving teaching practices. However, respondents on that study reported the following:
· Only 32% have a chance to frequently co-create or reflect with colleagues about how a lesson has worked.
· Only 21% are given time to frequently examine student work with colleagues.
· Only 14% frequently receive feedback from colleagues.
· And only 10% frequently have the opportunity to observe the teaching practice of a colleague.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/04/11/what-teachers-need-and-reformers-ignore-time-to-collaborate/
The truth is that true collaboration is difficult, but not impossible. Teachers, you must make an effort to attend trainings, workshops or conferences to become equipped with the tools that you need to grow professionally. A professional learning community gives opportunities to learn and think together about how to improve our practices. It is understandable that not everyone can make it to all those available conferences that are offered. My advice is to collaborate with a knowledgeable colleague at your campus. Create a campus-wide book study on a research-based authored book. Make frequent attempts to meet with your grade level team or other colleagues on your campus to collaborate, reflect, receive feedback and if possible, observe each other.
Effective collaboration is focused on improved student learning, data to analyze areas of concern and provide evidence of academic achievement. You will find that through collaboration, you will build professional respect and trust among colleagues. A combination of all of this is a perfect recipe for teacher success and student achievement. Whether you collaborate with your grade-level team, other teachers on your campus or meet new people to collaborate with at a conference, the power of collaboration will be the most useful tool a teacher can experience.
Teacher collaboration is important because this allows teachers to share great ideas, resources, data, and discussions. It is also helpful to collaborate instructional approaches about what works and what doesn't. You have to keep in mind that what works in one classroom, may not work in your own and vice versa. Discussing your own practices with other teachers and reflecting is beneficial for both the teacher and the student. What teacher doesn't want to see academic success in the classroom?
On my team, collaboration is one of our strengths. We all have the same set of beliefs and share the same goals: striving for student academic achievement and growing professionally. Teachers on my team provide a sense of strong professional culture that goes unnoticed. They are experts. Nonetheless, they are dedicated individuals who will advocate for their most struggling students or most vulnerable teachers. These teachers are comfortable with sharing and building off individual ideas, analyzing data and sharing resources with each other for the purpose of overall improvement of our campus. We participate in book clubs, create professional developments for teachers at our campus to attend and cross-collaborate with other grade levels.
Recent research from the National Center for Literacy Association demonstrates that educators really are eager to collaborate and learn to deepen literacy learning. Their results were that 77% of educators, principals, and librarians across all fields were committed to improving teaching practices. However, respondents on that study reported the following:
· Only 32% have a chance to frequently co-create or reflect with colleagues about how a lesson has worked.
· Only 21% are given time to frequently examine student work with colleagues.
· Only 14% frequently receive feedback from colleagues.
· And only 10% frequently have the opportunity to observe the teaching practice of a colleague.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/04/11/what-teachers-need-and-reformers-ignore-time-to-collaborate/
The truth is that true collaboration is difficult, but not impossible. Teachers, you must make an effort to attend trainings, workshops or conferences to become equipped with the tools that you need to grow professionally. A professional learning community gives opportunities to learn and think together about how to improve our practices. It is understandable that not everyone can make it to all those available conferences that are offered. My advice is to collaborate with a knowledgeable colleague at your campus. Create a campus-wide book study on a research-based authored book. Make frequent attempts to meet with your grade level team or other colleagues on your campus to collaborate, reflect, receive feedback and if possible, observe each other.
Effective collaboration is focused on improved student learning, data to analyze areas of concern and provide evidence of academic achievement. You will find that through collaboration, you will build professional respect and trust among colleagues. A combination of all of this is a perfect recipe for teacher success and student achievement. Whether you collaborate with your grade-level team, other teachers on your campus or meet new people to collaborate with at a conference, the power of collaboration will be the most useful tool a teacher can experience.
Monday, May 6, 2013
Hope in the Hopeless
I have been thinking a lot lately about hope. Lucy Calkins told a story about hope at IRA. She is a genius in my book, and so maybe that started all of this hope thinking. She spoke of a commencement address given by the mayor of Newark. Having been to Newark in March, I had some schema to go with the story. Here is a piece of Cory Booker's Stanford graduation speech:
I find the words of the tenant leader to be a fitting analogy used by Lucy Calkins to describe what we must do today in education...
Then, last Sunday, I finished the book The Book Thief. If you haven't read it, you should. It is a historical fiction story set during World War 2, and you can't help but fall in love with the characters. Without including any spoilers you should know the book is depressing at points. (It is a World War 2 story after all.) Horrible things happened. It is fiction, yes, but horrible things really did happen. I found myself asking, "Where is the light in this story? Where is the hope?"
After some pondering, I found my answer. The hope is in the characters. People who were good, truly good, despite their quirks and their humanness. Yes, they are made up characters, but the book made them very real to me. Mama sticks with her convictions. Ruby sees good in a world that is dark. Papa reacts with kindness-as an impulse. The neighbors love one another and stick together. They form friendships and they support one another, meeting others needs when they cannot meet their own. The hope in the story is the people.
The other place Leisel (the main character) finds hope is in the books she reads. She also shares the stories, her love of reading, and hope with those around her. How can a teacher not like that? I see children find hope in their reading all the time.
I then think of our school, which is like so many schools around the country. There are times when it is tough to see hope in the circumstances. Now a disclaimer, I will not venture to say that events at schools are as horrific as events in the book. It is not a perfect analogy. However, sometimes being a teacher does feel like an uphill battle. There are so many circumstances working against the things you know to be good and true. When it all seems a bit too much, I do find hope. The hope I see in my school can be found in the people. People who work tirelessly to improve student's lives. People who love and support one another when the chips are down. We have teachers who are committed to learning more, and who are eager to learn more. Teachers who, just like Papa in The Book Thief, commit acts of kindness as if it were a reflex. They put in more time then their students will ever know. The people are my source of hope. If anyone can change our school or education for the better -it is the people.
When I first arrived in Newark, I decided to answer that call from that great American philosopher, Chris Rock, who said "Why is the most violent street in every city is named for the man that stood for non-violence?"
Newark had so many strong neighborhoods but I sought out one that was in struggle and found it on Martin Luther King Boulevard. It looked spectacularly troublesome to me. My eyes saw abandoned homes being used for drugs. My eyes saw violence. My eyes saw graffiti. But the first person I met, the tenant leader in high-rise projects that I would eventually move into, Miss Jones, she said to me, "Tell me again what you see. Describe what you see around you." And I described what I saw.
And she looked at me and she said, "Boy, if that's all you see, you can never help me." And I go, "What do you mean?" And she goes, "You need to understand something, that the world you see outside of you is a reflection of what you have inside of you. And, if you see only problems and darkness and despair, that's all there's ever gonna be. But, if you're one of those stubborn people who every time you open your eyes, you see hope, opportunity, possibility, love – even the face of God – then you can help me make a change." And I remember, after she said that, looking at her, scratching my head, and thinking to myself – OK, grasshopper, thus endeth the lesson.
I find the words of the tenant leader to be a fitting analogy used by Lucy Calkins to describe what we must do today in education...
Then, last Sunday, I finished the book The Book Thief. If you haven't read it, you should. It is a historical fiction story set during World War 2, and you can't help but fall in love with the characters. Without including any spoilers you should know the book is depressing at points. (It is a World War 2 story after all.) Horrible things happened. It is fiction, yes, but horrible things really did happen. I found myself asking, "Where is the light in this story? Where is the hope?"
After some pondering, I found my answer. The hope is in the characters. People who were good, truly good, despite their quirks and their humanness. Yes, they are made up characters, but the book made them very real to me. Mama sticks with her convictions. Ruby sees good in a world that is dark. Papa reacts with kindness-as an impulse. The neighbors love one another and stick together. They form friendships and they support one another, meeting others needs when they cannot meet their own. The hope in the story is the people.
The other place Leisel (the main character) finds hope is in the books she reads. She also shares the stories, her love of reading, and hope with those around her. How can a teacher not like that? I see children find hope in their reading all the time.
I then think of our school, which is like so many schools around the country. There are times when it is tough to see hope in the circumstances. Now a disclaimer, I will not venture to say that events at schools are as horrific as events in the book. It is not a perfect analogy. However, sometimes being a teacher does feel like an uphill battle. There are so many circumstances working against the things you know to be good and true. When it all seems a bit too much, I do find hope. The hope I see in my school can be found in the people. People who work tirelessly to improve student's lives. People who love and support one another when the chips are down. We have teachers who are committed to learning more, and who are eager to learn more. Teachers who, just like Papa in The Book Thief, commit acts of kindness as if it were a reflex. They put in more time then their students will ever know. The people are my source of hope. If anyone can change our school or education for the better -it is the people.
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