How's it Going--it's going great! (part 3)

I have to admit, when I first started reading through How’s it Going?, I wasn’t sure how applicable it would be to me and my students.  Although I don’t have a formal Writers Workshop in my classroom, I’ve found that Carl Anderson’s advice on how to confer with students was helpful during informal conferences I had with my students.  One thing I didn’t consider, but have now found important is planning conferences,  “It takes a lot of thoughtful choreography before we confer in order for conferences to go well.  We make several decisions that have major impacts on the quality of the conversations we have with students” (Anderson, 2000, p. 156).  I’ve found this advice to be really helpful with students, because it’s one thing to have a conversation with a student about their writing, but it’s something else all together to intentionally talk with a student with the mindset that you are trying to help them become a better writer. 

In the last 2 chapters, Anderson gives us some tools to take with us as we confer, one thing he mentions right away is how we position ourselves when we are conferring with students, “When I confer, I choose to go to where students sit in the classroom.  While conferences are not conversations between equals, students seem more at ease talking with me when I meet them where they feel most comfortable . . .” (Anderson, 2000, p. 156). I LOVE this, because it reminds me so much of Freirian thinking and how we need to solve the student-teacher contradiction. 

Anderson offers some really good ideas about how to keep track of students and their progress as writers, “I usually take notes on three areas of interest.  First, I write down what I learn about a student as a writer: the work he is doing and insights I gain into who he is as a writer from what he says or from looking at his draft.  Second, I record what I teach him in the conference.  And, third, if I think the class might benefit from hearing what the student and I talked about during the conference, I jot down “share” . . .” (Anderson, 2000, p. 160).  I’m really encouraged by the way he keeps records and his charts in the books.  Honestly, I really struggle with keeping “paper data”—I think I’ve got it all stored in my brain.  However, I love how Anderson was very candid about embarrassing moments when his brain has failed him in keeping track of students.  If I’m really honest, I’m sure I’ve had those moments as well.  I feel like I will really use these kinds of trackers as I implement a Writer’s Workshop method in my new classroom. 

Finally, I love the advice Anderson gives to teachers as we struggle with the day-to-day instruction and feedback we give to our students, “We have to keep in mind that our goal in conferences is to help students become better writers.  If we confer with a first grader about how to find a topic to write about, we’ve helped him become a better writer” (Anderson, 2000, p. 166).  I many teachers, as well as myself, have struggled with feeling pressure to “get things done” and “make every moment count”, but really, every moment does count and we truly are helping students get things done, even if it is a seemingly small thing like helping them learn how to brainstorm or get inspiration from favorite authors and illustrators. It’s funny, because as a teacher you know that all the little things do add up to be big things, but for some reason there’s this external pressure to have big things everyday.  I guess the more I experience the little things becoming big things, the more convinced I am that everything we do with kids—whether it’s in writer’s workshop or on the playground, or morning meeting—really matters. 

The End is Nigh

If I knew anything about basketball, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't use "March Madness" to describe my students, classroom, and teaching practice.  However, I'm not really a fan of basketball, so in my mind, March has been crazy, chaotic, wild, and MAD--but in a good way.

 To be perfectly honest, I struggled a lot with feeling stressed out about various things, namely grad school work and the First Lady of Georgia visiting our classroom as a mystery reader.  My administration put an immense amount of stress on the teachers at my school to perform perfectly for a visit from Sandra Deal and have our classroom and school looking perfect.  This mindset clashed with my beliefs in a number of ways.  For one, I don't generally care about the appearance of things.  I care more about genuine learning and meaningful experiences for my students.  I had a really hard time accommodating the tension I felt to provide purposeful learning opportunities for my students when my administration was emphasizing a spotless classroom, and meeting after meeting to prepare for this visit.



Being on edge with my administration contributed a lot to the ways I reacted to conflict with my students, and working with students to deal with their own frustrations.  To say I had a short fuse was an understatement.  I would go home at the end of the workday and feel immensely guilty about how I handled interactions with students and the lack of meaningful experiences they had that day.  I wondered, how was I supposed to improve my teaching practice and actually affect student learning, if I was under this pressure? Honestly, I don't know how upper elementary teachers do it with all the testing and requirements of student data as well as performing for visitors.  It's ridiculous, and reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from Chip Wood, it is the job of the school to meet the academic needs of the child, not the other way around” (2007, p. 27). So to summarize my lows, it has been a month filled with stress about things that don't actually have anything to do with students learning, enjoying learning, and enjoying one another.  


On to my HIGHS.  And they are HIGH! One of the happiest days came on the Tuesday after Sandra Deal visited our classroom.  This day felt like a dream.  It felt like all the weight on my shoulders was lifted off and I enjoyed so much my students and learning together with them.  It didn't hurt that the weather was amazing and we did all our small groups outside and enjoyed the natural playground.  Furthermore, my students wanted to help me set up small groups for their peers, and so I let a few children help me put the groups together and for the next 3 days they helped set up the groups outside.  It was such a great display of leadership, community, helpfulness, and enjoyment.  

We've also been enjoying a few units based in non-fiction text.  So my students have been engaging in a poster project to teach other readers about space.  They all used their own skills independently, or in collaboration with other students to create a poster on a certain topic on space.  They used mentor texts (nod to Carl Anderson) to draw inspiration for what they wanted other readers to know about space.  Some posters were simply visual with dictation on post it notes for formal readers to read about, and other students used phonemic spelling to write what they wanted others to know about their space topic.  

Another high was venturing into some inquiry based experiments with water.  I expected that students would engage in learning in some way--but I never guessed they would direct their own learning by asking questions, investigating together, and finding ways to solve complex problems.  I simply got to sit back and enjoy their discoveries.  This was such a huge high for me because my heart needed some encouragement.  Watching students learn and enjoy learning together is what makes it all worth it for me.  

I'm also looking ahead to what we have going on in the next few weeks.  I'm brining in so many guest speakers (many of them family members of my students) and we're finalizing our TICC projects--which are going in so many directions (GOOD THING!).  I'm just excited for what we will accomplish in the next months. Finishing grad school and leaving my school (for a new exciting opportunity) is bittersweet.  






 

How's it Going, part 2

Chapter 4: Matchmaker, Matchmaker

I really love this quote from Chapter 4 in How's It Going?, "When we are successful in showing students how to learn from writing mentors, we teacher students how to teach themselves" (Anderson, 2000, p. 110).  I'll be honest--I've never considered writing mentors as a tool for students in their writing  endeavors.  However, as an adult I often read books and think, "this is really good writing" so why wouldn't kids do the same thing?      

I like that throughout this whole book Anderson always emphasizes that the conversations we are having with students should be propelling them into being better writers, "After all, the research questions we ask students are informed by what we know good writers do" (Anderson, 2000, p. 112).

I love how Carl Anderson talks about young writers using writing mentors as guides to helping them with their own writing. Although Carl's vignette that initially resonated with me was of him and Natalie (a second grader), I feel like the same kind of conferring he was doing with her could be applied in my classroom. I'm thinking of one student in particular that writes books often in the classroom.  He often writes Pirates vs. Robots or Mummies vs. Aliens books and I wonder where he gets this idea of "versus" from.  There must be a book series I'm not familiar with.  After reading this chapter on mentor writers I definitely think I should do some investigating with my young writer and find out how he is being inspired.

Chapter 5: Laying the Groundwork for Conferences

Honestly, while reading this chapter, I felt constricted by the requirements of Bright From the Start's idea of what Pre-K should look like.  Instead of focusing on what I can't do in my classroom right now, I'm going to highlight what I liked about this chapter as I think about what my Kindergarten class could look like next year!

I absolutely love Anderson's point in the quote, "We call this part the connection because in this part we let students know how our teaching is connected to their needs as writers" (Anderson, 2000, p. 144)--really isn't that intention in all the content areas of teaching we are doing? We are there to teach them what they need to be successful.  I like how the connection piece is crucial to the beginning of a mini-lesson because it immediately sets the stage for student's to see themselves in the teaching that is being done for them.

"We give mini-lessons because we feel that many of the students in our classes need to learn about a strategy or writing technique in order to become better writers" (Anderson 2000, p. 138)

Caulkin's definition of what and why we do mini-lessons is one of my favorite definitions I've heard, "Although mini-lessons may often look like mixture speeches, like brief lectures, they are entirely different from the lectures that were such a part of my own schooling.  The difference can be summed up in a single word: context" (Caulkins, 2000, p. 139). It seems like Caulkins and Anderson are such student-driven educators, and I think that's why I'm so inspired by their work--it is truly about students becoming and continuing to become great writers. I like how they make the distinction between what traditional education looked like for them as students, and how mini-lessons is different from long, boring lectures, but instead a way to inspire students in their writing.

I'm definitely circling this quote in my head about demonstrating good writing to students, "Probably the most powerful way we can give students information about how to do a kind of writing work--and persuade them that it's worth their time to try out that work--is for us to demonstrate that work in from of them" (Anderson, 2000, p. 146).  Part of me wants to remain open to letting students choose their own methods for writing, without the "powerful teacher" giving them all the ideas.  However, in most cases, teachers are experts in writing techniques and need to allow students the opportunities to see and learn important writing techniques.

February 2015

This was such a short month! With a week off in the middle, and 2 inclement weather days, I'm surprised we got anything done! However, as I reflect over the few weeks we were all together, there are some really cool things we worked together on as a family.

 The 2 biggest highs I can pull out of the Theory in Practice chart I've filled out are the inquiry projects we are entering into and the community helpers Teacher Inquiry project I've started implementing.

Reading through The Activist Learner has helped me see how students can work together to share knowledge with each other and the larger community through culminating projects.  After doing some informal prep work during out dinosaur unit and introducing non-fiction books--we delved into a unit on the human body.  Traditionally, my students have been super engaged in a Human Body unit and this year was no exception.  We spent three weeks learning about the body and incorporating a myriad of learning opportunities to engage all kinds of learners in this unit.  At the end, we spent time in a small group drawing on inspiration from non-fiction texts in order to create our own non-fiction book on the Human Body.  To be totally honest, I didn't know how this small group was going to shake out.  There are plenty of times as a teacher you plan something you think is amazing and it flops.  However, I have the really brag on my 4 and 5 year olds right now--they ROCKED the non-fiction book.  They were so proud of making it all by themselves! Furthermore, we got to showcase the book to my administration and parents and let them see just how talented we all are! This project showed me the capabilities of my students and how much self confidence they gained from this project.  We already have in the works a poster project about space as well as a mural project about plants and insects.

My 2nd big high of the month was introducing guest speakers into our classroom to help students see themselves as change agents.   It started off a little rough with our animal expert not being as engaging as I would have hoped, however, we're really excited to host hospice nurses, the watershed management, and other community members that will help us think more deeply about our role in the community.  I'm excited to see where the kids will take it and I'm confident that they will come up withs some amazing stuff to help change their community!

My lows have been consistent with some lows that I've had previously.  Time management and organization continue to be a struggle for me.  Sometimes I have amazing stuff planned for the kids, and it works out great, but sometimes I don't have things planned perfectly and those things tend to fall apart a lot faster.  I often feel discouraged about the fact that I'm not as organized as I think I should be.  I wonder if I'll ever become a type A and organized teacher--and I wonder if this is necessary for me to become the best teacher I can be.

I also struggle with some of my students having emotional breakdowns on a daily or almost daily basis.  Although I feel like I do my best in the moment of being able to meet them where they are at--I often feel as if I'm not reaching them properly.  I know that I can't have all the answers and I shouldn't feel guilty for their reactions.  I can't believe this school year will be over in 3 months--we've accomplished so much together and we still have SO much more to do.

How's it going? Chapters 1-3

How's it going? is one of my favorite pieces of writing that I've read in a long time.  Carl Anderson sounds like a writing workshop god.  Because my classroom does not have a "writing workshop" time of the day--I was unsure what I could actually gain from this book.  Although I whole-heartedly believe that my students are writers and authors, I've never been one to "confer" with them on their writing pieces.

As I read through the first few chapters, I realized right away that Anderson takes on an attitude of expecting his students to be writers.  I love how he mentions conferences as conversations, "Although today I see conferences as a means to get to know students and as a powerful way of teaching them to be better writers, I have never stopped considering these one-on-one talks as conversations" (2000, p. 6).  This is something I'm definitely already doing with students.  As most of us know, kids can talk a lot.  And often they want to talk about themselves, and what they are proud of.  My students come to me a lot and talk about the writing or illustrations they are doing.  Up until this point, I have used these conversations as a means to understand their thinking and usually annotate or write dictation for their writing.  Anderson is helping me see how I can use these conversations to teach my students what they can do to be better writers.  I'm extremely inspired by the work he is doing with students, however, I'm left wondering what this looks like in a Pre-K/K setting.  Most of my students are not formally writing sentences, however, they are amazing visual and oral story tellers.  I'm wondering and thinking about ways to adapt his conferencing model to meet the needs of my students.

Anderson talks a lot about teaching the writer not the writing.  How can we help our students become better writers and not just help them improve one piece of writing? He points out a student's ability to teach themselves, "When conferences are times when students teach themselves, they not only learn about strategies and techniques they can use the rest of their writing lives, but they also learn about being writers who can teach themselves at any time while they're writing" (2000, p. 9).  WHAT A GIFT!!! I love Anderson's approach of helping create lifelong writers who are always finding ways to be better writers.

Finally, within the first few pages of the book I read a sentence that I felt was challenging and heartbreaking, "we need to remember that we are writing teachers, not therapists" (2000, p. 8).  I found this idea to conflict with my pedagogical model.  I believe that not only are we writing teachers, but we are math teachers, science teachers, meditative teachers, listeners, friends, thought-partners, parent supporters--the list goes on and on.  It's hard to imagine a classroom where a teacher can only be a writing teacher.  And although Anderson goes on to say that writers are most impacted by a teacher that truly cares for them--this sentence is still playing in my mind.  As I consider my conversations with my students over the next few weeks about their writing and their lives--I wonder how I can straddle the line of teacher, not therapist.

Back in the Swing of Things!

Hello all! I could not be more excited that it is finally 2015 for many many reasons! First of all, I always enjoy the Spring semester with my kiddos more than anything else. Maybe it's because we're all more comfortable with each other, maybe it's because I enjoy the units/themes we're covering, maybe it's because I like noticing their development progress to this magical place.  Either way, I'm enjoying 2015 so far and I'm pretty excited about GRADUATING in May!

That being said, I've really been feeling the tension of teacher-by-day and graduate-student-by-night lately.  Ideally, my hierarchy of priorities would look like this:

1. Friend
2. Community member
3. Teacher
4. Student

Unfortunately, it looks more like this:

1. Student
2. Stress
3. Anxiety
4. Pressure
5. Friend
6. Community Member
7. Teacher

One thing I noticed as I looked over my daily highs/lows of this past month was that I was way too focused on creating the perfect lesson so I could get the perfect video so I would have a decent submission for my EdTPA and Key Assessment Video.  For the past 2 weeks I've had my camera and tripod set up in the classroom and I've been recording mini-lessons, large groups, morning meeting and small groups.  However, every time I pushed that record button I would immediately stress out if one of my students did something a little distractive or unkind.  All I could think was, "this is such a poor reflection of me as a teacher".  I noticed myself feeling angry and upset over my students' actions during "recording times". I finally had enough last week and decided to put away the camera for a while.  I wanted to get back to the heart of teaching for me--which is the students.  I'm reminded of a quote from Chip Wood's Yardsticks, paraphrasing, Wood says it is the job of the school to meet the developmental needs of the child--not the other way around.  In other words, I need to be a good teacher to my students, and that might mean that I don't get to film a lesson for my key assessment.  It is not my students' job to look good on camera.  It's their job to have fun, learn about what they are interested in, be loved by their peers and teachers, and grow under a kind leadership.

Because I was so anxious and stressed about grad school related things, it made the highs of this past month even sweeter.  My highs are all related to seeing the beauty of a child learning and operating in their identity.  It always comes back to this idea that Freire talks about in Pedagogy of the Oppressed,

“For apart from inquiry, apart from praxis, individuals cannot be truly human.  Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other” (Freire, 1970, p. 72). 

One of the biggest transformations I'm starting to see in my kiddos is directly correlated to my new "behavior management system". It's in quotes because for me it's not so much a behavior managing method, as it is a tool for me to notice and encourage my students in their learning and growth as young people.  In the past I've used the clip chart to track behavior, however, I found it created more fear controlled behavior than positive reinforcement.  Therefore, this semester I developed a chart that is circular.  You are ALWAYS in a positive characteristic.  Throughout the day when I (or my co-teacher) notice positive behavior in our students we verbally praise the student for their efforts and move their clothespin to that particular characteristic.  We've also been discussing on a daily basis what it means to be kind, or honoring or responsible.  It's not a perfect system, but it helps me notice the kids and find meaningful ways to celebrate what they are doing.

All in all, January has been a challenging month for many reasons.  I'm so thankful to have the opportunity to be in this program at GSU--I've become a better teacher and I'm still becoming a better teacher.  It's not without it's faults, and it is certainly one of the most stressful endeavors I've ever been a part of.  But I guess I wouldn't change it.  As Dr. Lynch says, "ONWARD!".

“Education must begin with the solution of the teacher-student contradiction, by reconciling the poles of the contradiction so that both are simultaneously teachers and students” (1970, p. 72).