Introducing New Class Pets

I don't remember having very many class pets when I was growing up, but I always thought it was a cool idea.  Have you had class pets?  I've had a few, gerbils and hamsters and fish, but there is quite a bit of upkeep.  And when we were on tracks, we had to find a suitable zoo keeper.  Some unfortunate pets did not make it to the next track.  For me, it seemed like a lot of maintenance.

Introduce my sweet friend MaryBeth, who has a "stuffed" class pet named Leo.  Leo is a lion who sets the tone of the classroom.  Leo talks and Leo participates in class activities, and first graders are enthralled.  I loved this idea, and proceeded to introduce my own class pet, Stanley, a stuffed dog.  It didn't take long for the kids to fall in love with him.  He even is in many of our class books.  When we took pictures of each member of our class reading their favorite book, they insisted that Stanley get his own page.   So we took a picture of him reading a dog book. Stanley is part of our class meetings and anything to do with self esteem.

This went so well, I thought I'd introduce another class bear.  In came Benny Bear, and Benny brings us treats for our graphing jar and fun math manipulatives.  I'm not sure why I called him Benny, but I'd like to think an intuitive part of me thought of Benevolent.  :)

And lastly, I fell in love with this beauitful girl doll that a friend gave me for Christmas.  She reminded me of Elf on a shelf, and I named her Ellie.  Ellie came into the classroom when we were having a lot of trouble with our self-control.  She would whisper to me which kids were working so hard on self-control, and they got to write their names in a self control bubble.

The best part about these class pets are they don't require cages or clean ups or any kind of smells!

I hope you enjoy this idea.  If you have your own ideas, I'd love to see how you this in your classroom.  Together, I think we will really have some great tools in the classroom for management.

Realistic fiction for First Graders

Lucy has once again challenged me to push myself further than I thought I could go.  I call her Lucy because I feel add much add I've mentored with get through texts,I feel I know her.
This year I feel that my writing program has become more balanced between fiction and non-fiction as we work to do Lucy Calkin's First grade yearlong curriculum.

This year we decided to try realistic fiction. I was so apprehensive! I wasn't sure how to go about it because this unit isn't as scripted as the others and because I wasn't sure how first graders could transition from small moment writing.  Honestly, it went smoother than expected.  Students were able to easily transition.

I started by reading several realistic fiction texts, including Freckle-faced Strawberry by Julianne Moore.  It is a very relatable story as it talks about a young girl who tries to rid he rself of her freckles through several means.  Eventually, she  learns to love herself for who she is.  The kids loved the story and used it as a springboard to write their success stories of overcoming bullies in their lives. 
 Coupled with the story of Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon kids begin to see how two authors handle the same bully kind of situation.

What I love about this unit the most is that it assists kids in working to create solutions to their own real life problems!  They learn so much from their peers.  I took awhile to post this because I wanted to leave you samples of what they've done, but alas there was some trouble with the camera.  I do hope you will join me later to see what first graders can do!

Two pieces of advice that would most assist you is to make sure you define what realistic ficiton in and remind students that the stories can come from their own lives.  Parents can easily assist in generating topics if you send a letter home prior to the unit.  And the second most important thing is the paper.  Students will write more if there's more paper.  We used four page booklets that had room to draw a picture on top.  We don't use handwriting paper as, that is a different skill, and we want the worry of getting letters perfect to get in the way of content.  That's what revising and editing are for!

I can't wait to try this again next year and share all that I've learned.  For now, I hope you decide to take a chance and see what happens.  I KNOW you will be pleasantly surprised!

Please share your tips and tricks and successes!

:)    

Happiest of New Years

When beginning this New Year,I am reminded that my main focus is caring about and loving these kids. When I was in college,a fellow team mate said that as part of her job, she wasn't required to care about the kids.  My heart broke. While I was going to school, my kids'teachers were seeing them more than I got to see them. I wanted no more from the teacher than to care about my kids during the day when I couldn't be there.  Learning is important, very important to me. But children need to know they are loved and cared for. When they know this, many learning doors open and hearts are so very happy....especially mommy hearts, and I feel great about that...my mantra is life my dear friend Tammy's:"listen to your heart." Happy New Year, with an extra happy.

RAK-Random Acts of Kindness

Merry Christmas! on this blessed day,I thought I would share some things my class has been doing for Random Acts of Kindness.
My friend Tammy, Forever in First, introduced this concept to me. I've done similar projects with notes and things, but I especially enjoy it at Christmas when sometimes our focus is more on getting than giving.
In the past, I've even asked them to write letters to Santa for children of the world. I will write about that later.
It's amazing what the children came up with on their own. Some things they thought of were ideas they got from Ordinary Mary's Extraordinary Deed, about how one small deed can change the world! Here's a partial list of things they came up with: picking up trash around the school; write cards, letters and notes;
leave treats; smile and give hugs!; give compliments;  and offer to help with things at home without asking and without looking for praise. Some of them got in trouble with siblings by writing the sibling's name while trying to be anonymous. We decided we should just pretend we were elves, and not sign anyone's name.
We decided that everyone at our school was much happier and more positive because of these small acts. one person commented that or school was"healthier" without the trash.
I know the main thing we learned was how something as simple as a smile and a positive attitude could have a chain reaction!
merry merry Christmas!\

Gratitude of a Teacher

I have been blessed to do this thing called teaching.  Families have entrusted their most precious ones with me to help them learn and grow into successful, loving, kind beings, who contribute much to our world.

Since I was a little girl, I remember wanting to be a teacher.  I loved learning so much. I couldn't imagine my life without it.  To this day, I enjoy this thing called learning.  It intrigues me, it inspires me, it sustains me.

I am grateful

Paid for Performance Check

In Idaho we had these silly little laws called "Luna Laws."  These laws were sold to the public under the guise that they benefitted teachers.  They pushed them past lawmakers and didn't get the voice of the people. Fortunately, this past election they were voted down.  But I worry about them being resurrected in another form.

The premise of one of these laws was that we would get "pay for performance."  Even the choice of words are funny.  Performance?  As if we are a circus or some kind of show, that an audience can clap their hands and say, yeah, that was good.  Or that we could somehow stir up competition to get our teachers to invest more of their time into our students because they weren't doing enough already. It also implies that we are failing our children miserably, which I have confidence saying we are not.

All these things seemed ludicrous, and proved that the people creating these laws just didn't understand the magic going on in the classroom.  How do you measure magic?  How do you put a price on it.  Because truly, there is not just one tool in our tool box that works for everyone; there's not one size fits all lesson. It's a careful blending and mastery of knowledge of the curriculum, of the student and of oneself, and tons of exploring until just the right touch. Are there best practices? Yes!  Are there ways we can do our job better?  Yes?   But there is so much that we do that can't be measured.

I don't mind being evaluated.  I encourage people to come in all the time and see what I do, to see both the challenges and all the joys I face...and then put a price tag on it.  There are some of these kids who will always be a 1 on our Reading Indicator, for various reasons... maybe they move schools too much, maybe their brain works at a slower pace (because our silly tests are all timed, ugh), maybe they aren't yet ready for this thing called reading.  But upon closer look, did that child now understand things about story that they never understood before?  Did somehow they come in not knowing how to spell their own name and leave writing stories about themselves?  Did they not know what a number was and suddenly knew them and could add them and understand their place value?  Did somehow they just become a better member of society by contributing and learning to be a friend?

Most of us teachers strive every day to become better teachers by reading constantly and learning from their peers.  Even teachers whom have taught over 30 years still feel the need to improve, that's one reason we teach.  We want to become better people...usually that's through the service of others.

Furthermore, competition in schools does not work as well as collaboration.  When teachers collaborate, they spread the wealth of knowledge and best practices. We hone and streamline our craft.  We take out the frills and get to the knitty gritty. Competition forces teachers to hold what they know in tight so no one can "steal" it.  You can't see the cool stuff I'm doing to help kids learn because, hey, frankly, I need the money more than you do.  The only thing competition breeds in these situations is resentment and a lot of stinginess.

In one small town near us, the teachers all got ranked from a 1 to about 48.  And weirdly, most everyone knew everyone's number.  How would you like to be a veteran teacher and be ranked #48?  Where is the thanks in that?  This number came from how much that person was "seen" in the public eye and seen by her principal as compared to others in her school.  Well, if I've been teaching for over 25 years, I might just go in my room and do my thing.  I may not need to have as much "spotlight" as I used to; maybe I've been on a thousand committees and it's time for new blood, or it could just be someone else's turn.  Maybe I go in my room and do my thing because I do it well already.  The best part, the kids know I'm not a 48.  They know me, like I KNOW them.

What if I'm number 1?  Does that really make me feel better?  I don't want my teacher friends to think I think they aren't as good as I am.  Each of these teachers has so much to offer. I have just as much to learn from them, as I do from my students.  If I'm considered number 1, maybe I would be deemed not to need to know more.  We'd benefit more if we put that money into collaboration, or better yet, professional development.

I've rambled on long enough.  There is so much more to say on this topic.  Mostly, I wish the people who made the laws had taught before, or at the very least, come into our rooms, the toughest of rooms, not just the charter schools, and sit down and really talk with us about the problems we face.  Be warned, it might take more than one sitting to really understand.  Watch me, learn from me, be along side me.

By the way, Dear Idaho, I received my paid for performance check today.   I get the checks in the mail on a most regular basis, and it's better than money; it's even better than gold.  It's wonderful words of thanks from parents and students gone by.  Honestly, that's all the bonus I need.

nteresting about these laws was there was a clause where we could get paid for our "performance" as measured on standardized tests.  I don't mind being evaluated.  Please come into my room any time.  What I don't like is measuring me by a one minute personality test...

What a blessed day.

Writing for Readers

Lucy Calkins' writing program has  greatly supported teachers in the teaching of writing, even given them a vote of confidence with everything from a yearlong plan down to dialog you "could" use when working with these young writers.  She has carefully thought out the steps and questions everyday writers like you and I have.

Writing for Readers has been in our year long plan for a few years, but due to time constraints and the want of teaching other writing units, many parts of  it have been carefully put aside.  In the recent weeks, I got to delve into it deeply. Before, I had used the personal word walls and spacing lessons.  But what a hidden treasure I found that I had missed when I discovered the lesson on Writing for Partners.  I must admit, the last few days (almost a week) , I have been dragging my feet about this lesson, even skipped it for worry about the outcome.

Could a six year old actually give good advice and carefully think of the feelings of these writers? 

I know what happens to a crushed writer...they never write again.  And certainly, I didn't want this to happen to these wonderful writers.  But something kept nagging me to try it, at least once.

I decided to brave it and presented it to the class, allowing them to give me advice on what I could do as a writer to make MY writing more readable.  They were fabulous!   AND, they took such good care of my feelings. I cautioned them to use the same caring way they used on me for each other to help us all become better writers.

As you can see by the picture, kids were everywhere, on top of desks and on the floor, eagerly reading each other's writing.  They didn't even know I had a camera.  They were so engaged!  As I eavesdropped, I heard conversations like, "I really like this part..." "You have great details in your pictures..."  "I really want to read your story, but I'm having trouble reading it.  Could you put spaces in between your words?"

I had had that mini conferences several times with this one student, and it didn't click until his classmate said that.  I saw the lightbulb glowing out loud!!!

So, it is with great gratitude to not only Lucy for her passion, dedication and team of wonderful teacher researchers, but I am also thankful to my friend Chelsey, who helped me first see what it could look like in the classroom.   And lastly, I'm thankful for my dear friend Tammy, who jumped on board with me for her vision and our writerly conversations. 

What a blessing to know these little ones and their lives.

I urge you. Take the plunge!

~ Marie