Quote of the Week -- September 1, 2013

 

"A teacher who can arouse a feeling for one single good action, for one single good poem, accomplishes more than he who fills our memory with rows and rows of natural objects, classified with name and form." -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Finding a Focus: Leader in Me

To download my Seven Habits Posters click here.



Next Wednesday, I open my twenty-third full time classroom.  Last year was a great year, but four of the previous five years were difficult to say the least.  I want to continue to be a positive person at my school.

This year, I have decided to pick a professional focus just for me.  This goal isn't a part of Common Core.  It will influence my classroom culture so it may become part of my evaluation goals.  I know there are other teachers who will be working on this, but I'm doing this simply because I want to.

A few years ago a group of us read The Leader in Me: How Schools and Parents Around the World Are Inspiring Greatness, One Child at a Time ; about how one school incorporated Dr. Stephen Covey's Seven Habits into daily school life.  Last year another group of teachers conducted a book group.  This year we are investigating getting the grant for next year.

I have decided I'm not going to wait.  I want to begin discussing these habits with my students and collecting materials to support them.  I would love to hear from other teachers and schools who have started the process.

More or Less by Jeff Shinabarger

I got a copy of this audiobook for free earlier this summer.  I "read" this book while I gardened and walked around the neighborhood and it challenged me to think about "What is enough?" and "What do I do with my excess?"

I appreciated Shinabarger's lack of preachiness or self-righteousness.  He shares his and others' experience wrestling with these questions, but he encourages readers to answer the questions for themselves.

This isn't a book I would share in my classroom.  It does help me think about my values and that in turn impacts my teaching.

Common Core So Far

Last week I had two days of in-service training getting us ready for Common Core.  In Washington State, we will be tested on CCSS in 2015.  There was a little too much reading from the PowerPoint if you ask me.  (Shoot me now.)

We also watched a couple of videos where the people who worked on Common Core told us how wonderful the new standards are. (Good lighting + Smiles = Credibility.)

I sat in the back for two days wondering when I became so cynical.  I'm usually a positive person, but here are some questions I have:

1.  Is setting higher standards the same as ensuring all students will reach them?  Will this really make a difference?
2.  Don't we have to address the obstacles students have between them and education first?  I'm thinking poverty, violence, and lack of access to books and technology.
3.  Why do administrators get us all together, read us a script and think they have "taught" us?  Children don't learn this way. Adults don't either.
4. Why do curriculum specialists murder the English language by adding suffixes to perfectly harmless root words and interchanging nouns and verbs?  (Last year I sat and edited an evaluation form when I was supposed to be filling it out.  It asked if I had any noticings or wonderings.  I wrote what I "noticed and wondered."  I don't thing they are hiring me for an instructional coaching position any time soon.)
5. Has anyone else noticed how much J. K. Rowling criticizes education reform in the fifth book of the Harry Potter series?  I kept reading passages aloud to my husband and laughing.

At least someone gets it.

Quote of the Week -- August 25, 2013

 

"Learning is finding out what we already know. Doing is demonstrating that you know it. Teaching is reminding others that they know just as well as you. You are all learners, doers, and teachers." -- Richard Bach

Ticket out the Door Freebie

To download the tickets as a Google Doc, click here.

 

I found this great post by Teach-A-Roo about a formative assessment plan and I had to adapt it for my own classroom.  If you click here you can see how she uses this board in her classroom and it has a link to her free sign.

I decided to make my squares in the shape of tickets.  Here is my board ready to be laminated:

The idea is students answer a question on a sticky note and put it on their student number.  I plan to ask a question each day and have them post as part of their end of the day routine.  I can quickly see who gets it and who doesn't.  

 

 

A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park

I remember hearing stories of the Lost Boys of Sudan in the 1990s.  A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park is based on one young man's journey from his village destroyed by war, to the refuge camps, and finally to New York where the author interviewed him.  In between the chapters of Salva's experiences, Park writes about Nya and her daily eight hour walk to get water for her family.

I am considering this as a read aloud this year with my fourth graders -- especially if we do a related service project.  This book motivated me to consider something that I take for granted: water on tap.

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