Snow=Happy Students

It's snowing outside right now for the first time this December. My first graders are going to be so excited tomorrow. I can guarantee that I hear the words "it snowed last night" at least 15 times before 8:15! I love their excitement for the little things in life. We do calendar each day and discuss the weather. It was getting to the point of a bit boring and needed to be spiced up. So now we are graphing the outside temperature each day during this time. During our calendar time a weather widget pops up and tells us the current temperature, wind speed and some other info. It also tells us if there is a severe weather alert and they love clicking that and learning about what weather is headed our way. Back to the graph, we brainstormed what increments to make the graph knowing that we had only a certain amount of space and finally decided to use increments of 5. Then we shared ideas for a title and came up with one that mixed lots of ideas and got the point across about what the graph showed. Now each day we talk about where to make the line to show the current temperature. At first it was a challenge for them to understand where we would put a number like 52 since we only wrote 50 and 55 but after some discussion and review we have made lots of progress with this. We are then taking turns speaking like meteorologists and stating something true from looking at the graph. They hold the microphone and share their fact. They love it! Also right now in math our focus is on two-digit numbers so what a better time to reinforce this than the temperature (thank goodness it hasn't been below 10 degrees-for many reasons!!) each day. We talk about how many tens and ones are in that number and then if it is greater than or less than another temperature on a different day. I think we could spend 30 minutes just on this section of calendar. Our handwriting time has been cut a bit short on some days because they are just so excited about the weather. The discussion we have during this time just amazes me each day. My goal for January would be for each student to make their own graph-deciding what increment and title, filling it in each day and then we can have discussions about how the graphs might look different but still tell us the same information.
I'll try to keep track of how many "it snowed" comments I hear and let you know. :)

Student Moms-A Must Read

What are your thoughts on supporting student moms? At this point in my life/career I feel that communities should support these student moms. If we can help these students become good parents and valuable members of the community then we have made a positive impact on many levels. I know that all of this takes money and support from schools and communities but the benefits would far out weigh the negatives. The idea of counting a student unexcused for being at a doctors appointment seems crazy to me. If we want them in school then we might have to think outside the box and be flexible with some of the rules and expectations we place on students. We can have our personal feelings about the fact that they are pregnant in the first place but the main focus becomes how do we help them and their baby.

I'm also going to give links to 2 other articles I found interesting. These are not part of the must read by the way but they caught my attention.
The first is a blog about valuing our children and their education and the second is about pre-service teachers cheating on exams.

I hope everyone had a great break and was able to spend time with family and friends. It was so nice to take a step back from everything and just focus on family. I'm thankful that I have family and friends that are supportive of my decision to begin this masters program. I'm also very thankful for my health. Recently, I've had two people very close to me be diagnosed with cancer and it really makes me realize how lucky I am that I am healthy and that my husband and children are healthy.

Vulnerability

I was not looking for this exactly but decided to spend the 20 minutes watching. I typed in to the search bar parent engagement in schools and this video was one that came up (I think the word engagement was in the description). Although it is not education based so much of what she talks about has an effect on what we work through as parents, teachers and students in a new masters program. I really like the comment she made about not thinking we need to have perfect children. What we do as parents obviously has a direct impact on how our children do in school. I want my children to know that mistakes are okay and it is okay to not be sure about something but to try and see what happens and learn from mistakes and make better choices in the future if needed. I also connected with her comment of being okay to do something even when we don't know for sure how it is going to turn out. This masters program is new to all of us but if we engage in it and let ourselves be vulnerable I believe great things will come from it.

Involvement vs. Engagement and other stuff

This post is a piggy back on what Megan posted. This blog tries to explain the difference between parent involvement and engagement. I think their definitions are appropriate. I have more parent involvement happening in my classroom than engagement. Some parents are able to help lead themed centers for an hour but many can not because of work schedules or other children at home. We also invite parents in for a poetry reading but again it just depends on their schedule. One idea I want to try is sending home a survey for parents to fill out that asks if they have any areas of interest that they would be willing to come in and share/explain to the students. It could be something that matches what we are discussing or something different. I would also ask if they would like to come in and listen to students read or play a game with a small group of students. I'm excited to find out more ways to engage parents in what is happening in our school day. I would also open all of these activities up to grandparents as well. I'd love to hear of ways you involve/engage parents in your classroom.
I've also found a lot of great articles about the benefits of early childhood education. Many of the articles are very long so I have not used these as my weekly articles. I'm really excited to find out more about what we offer in our town and how to get more opportunities available for families.
Tomorrow I'm going to a Dr. Jean workshop. I can't wait to get more science and social studies songs to help with our curriculum and more hands on activities for reading and math. I use a lot of Dr. Jean songs already but I've never been to one of her workshops so I am really looking forward to that. The sub for my classroom is new to our school building so that is always a concern for me when I am gone. I'm hoping that my plans are understandable and that he will do well with my students. Obviously flexibility is going to be needed tomorrow in my classroom. Let's hope the students and sub are able to do that!

Teacher Leadership

I enjoyed this article because I feel like stepping into this masters program has put us in a leadership position. We are going to be researching and working on issues in our school that need leadership. The author of the blog makes many great points about when to and when not to take on leadership roles and finding a balance between our classroom duties and our additional responsibilities. I know that for myself balance is sometimes pretty hard. It feels as though there are not enough hours in the day sometimes. Saying this though reminds me of something a Super Camp (Quantum) leader said to me when I told her that I didn't have enough time-she said-it's not that you don't have enough time, it's that you need to use the time you have better-those were not her exact words but you get the idea. As we take on this leadership role we are also taking on the added responsibility and time commitment. How are you doing with the balance of work and this masters program?

Life Chances and The Pygmalion Effect

1. Do you think that the ways these concepts are applied to society and education are accurate or inaccurate (or somewhere in between)?  If the answer is different depending on the venue, explain that too.  Be sure to provide examples in your answer.
I do think that these two concepts are applied to society and education accurately. I know that for my own personal life my life chances would have been drastically different if I had been raised by my other parent. My parents divorced when I was in first grade and my brother and I lived with one parent while the other moved back to a smaller town where we had first lived. If I would have moved with that parent my life, I am almost 100% sure, would not be the same today. Even though both parents loved me one was able to provide for me a more stable life with not as many challenges. I still had to work hard at school and had a job from the time I could start working but everyday life was just easier. I had less obstacles with this parent than I would have had with my other parent. I think that my physical and mental health would have not been as strong if I had moved. I think that the expectations for me would have been less if I had been with the other parent. I was able to see from a pretty young age that education was important and if I wanted to have a career and a family I needed to focus on my education and making the best decisions possible. 
I think that when we look at the elementary schools in our town that there are some pretty clear examples of these two concepts at work. The life chances kids have at one school are not exactly the same ones that kids have at others.
 2. In what ways, if any, can the two ideas be linked or can they affect each other?
When thinking about the definition from Wikipedia for The Pygmalion Effect, The Pygmalion effect is a form of self-fulfilling prophecy, and, in this respect, people will internalize their negative label, and those with positive labels succeed accordingly. Within sociology, the effect is often cited with regard to education and social class, I think that the idea of life chances is linked directly to it. It seems that it would be appropriate to say that if a child feels that their chances in life are limited because of what has happened in their education up to this point and their social class that they would then not expect for many great things to happen to them. We know that this doesn't always have to be the case but many times it is. 
3. In what ways, if any, do these phenomena manifest themselves in your classroom or among the students you work most closely with?
I try to set high expectations for all of my students. I know that some might need modifications or accommodations to meet these expectations. In first grade it can be as simple as not helping them open their snack after they have tried it once. I keep telling them try again, try again and most of the time they can get it. It seems many times they are so used to someone else doing everything for them that they don't ever give it any effort. As an educator I believe that we are responsible for the whole child, so I want them to know that they can do something even when it might be hard at first. I don't want them to think that's it's okay to give up after the first try-even on getting their snack open as silly as that may sound. I want them to learn grit from being in my classroom. When it comes to academics I try to instill that same effort. I keep telling them they can do and when it seems like they have tried the best they can and are still having difficulty I will step in and provide some guidance. We do a lot of celebrating then when the next time they do it on their own or with less support from me. I want to be their to push them to do their very best when maybe no one else is.
At the school I teach at we are at around 65% free/reduced lunch. After reading the research about life chances it is clear that many of my students will face challenges when it comes to completing their education, obtaining employment and sustaining positive physical and mental health. I'm hopeful that the C3 initiative has components in place to help students work through some of the challenges they are facing even as young adults. I came across a paper that discussed the the term disconnected as it relates to young adults in their economic and social perspectives. The paper titled, Connected by 25: Improving the Life Chances of the Country's Most Vulnerable 14-24 Year Olds gave a lot of information about helping these young people form connections that would help them work through some of the obstacles they might face.
At the same time we know that what we do in the early years is so important for a child's academic and social success. This is where my passion is. I want families, all families, to have many enriching opportunities for their young children. There are great programs available in our town but many of them cost and others may just not be something that all families can get to or be part of for various reasons. I would like to help change that in our community. I think with the combination of more parenting classes available along with enriching opportunities for children, we can start to have a positive impact on life chances.
4. What, if anything, does this mean for you? 
All of this information means a lot to me. It makes me feel a bit overwhelmed at what is expected of me as a teacher but at the same time excited to help in any possible way. I like the fact that I am more aware of these two phenomena and how they impact my daily job and my own personal life. The research on life chances I read was just amazing and I'm excited to really dig into it to help with finding ways to guide parents to provide the very best for their child from the moment they know they are going to have a child to the time when that child sets foot in a classroom. 

Early Literacy

I watched the video from the Educational Summit about early literacy. I can't say that I learned anything extra special but it reminded me of some key things. I was reminded that if a student is not reading at grade level by 3rd grade they face an uphill battle with learning. I didn't write down the percentage that do not graduate based on their 3rd grade level but I do remember that it was high. This is so important to what I do at first grade. I want students leaving me at the end of the year being able to read at grade level and having a love of learning and reading. One of the ladies that was on the panel talked about the importance of being connected with parents as much as possible. Even though I know this and I want to be very connected with the parents this doesn't always happen like I wish. As we come closer to conference time I want to remember that some parents do not have good memories of school and I want to do everything I can to make sure their child does have a good memory of school and a love of learning. Another topic that was discussed was universal pre-k and all day kindergarten. Knowing that so many families have other issues in their lives that take away from the focus of education it is important that these programs can be available to all families to help prepare students for kindergarten and their educational career. Helping families learn how to help their children be successful is something that I have a lot of interest in. I wish we had more programs in our town to really help families once they know they are going to have a child. This might be something I pursue in this class. One person on the panel mentioned the Campaign for Grade Level Reading. I have not looked into this but I plan on checking it out to see what it is all about.

Teacher Town Hall

This was a great video to watch. I thought that the first part about evaluations was very relevant because our district is trying something new in relation to evals. It's my year to be evaluated so Mrs. Koehn comes into the classroom periodically and makes notes on her iPad. One time she came in during the AIMSweb math comp test. It felt a little funny that she was in during that time but then as I thought about it more it's a part of my day 3 times a year so it's okay that she came in during that time. At the beginning of the year I was a little nervous about the walk-ins but now I am much more comfortable with them. I like the idea that she is going to see what she sees and some days it might be better than others or different than others but it's real world teaching and learning that she sees.
The topic of tenure is a big one and I have somewhat of mixed feelings on this. I think that if a teacher has a track record of not helping students make progress in their academic areas that they can be fired or put on a probation period. I think that they should be given a mentor teacher-even if it is someone younger with less experience. I think we are getting to the point where some teachers have lost the drive to be learners themselves and then this causes them not to be up to date on the latest research and best practices.
The poverty section was very interesting. I love the idea of a community learning center where we bring in what the students need to the school. I feel like our district tries to help the best we can when we know the parents can not get the child to an appointment or whatever it may be. I know last year on of our teachers took students to the doctor because the parents had no transportation. Our teachers do so much for our students but it would be nice if some of these basic needs could be handled in the school building. I want to check out the donors chose website also.
As for the common core I feel like the new standards are appropriate. I really appreciate the fact that we can go deeper instead of just skimming the surface. Again, we have to be learners and know that it will take some learning on our part to do something different.

Decision 2012 Parts 1 and 2

I really enjoyed watching both videos. I think both of them made some great points about education. Wouldn't it be nice if we could just find someone who would mix all the great parts together and then maybe we would have what we need. I don't know that any of this will be in an organized manner but here are my thoughts.
I like two comments that President Obama made. The first was about how we should not base teacher pay just on test scores. He mentioned that the standardized tests shrink creativity which is something we've been talking about a lot. It's nice to know he wants good teachers but he knows that merit pay based on test scores is not the best way to judge this. I also like his ending comments about kids-"learn how to learn, learn how to think and be equipped on how to compete and be good citizens." This covers many of my ideas about why I am a teachers. He did also comment that parents have to parent but he did not focus on this as much as Governor Romney. I agree that parents have to parent but for many of our students this will just not happen like we hope it would.
I also liked a few comments that Governor Romney made. I agree with his notion that we should be focused on the best and brightest teachers. I feel like our district does a good job with this but I'm guessing we could do better with higher salaries and other incentives for beginning teachers. I also feel the same about how it doesn't work just to send more money to bad schools/teachers and have them continue to do the exact same thing as they were doing. His view on parents being the number one provider of early education is obviously very strong. He mentioned it more times than I could count. I agree with this and wish this could be the case for all of our families but it is just not. So I feel like there does need to be more options available for 3 year olds to receive an enriched early start so that when they come to kindergarten and first grade they are able to focus on learning, thinking and being good citizens.

Conferencing

I do not have an exact issue picked for my project but I know that I want it to be in the area of reading and possibly technology combined with that. I found this article about reading/writing conferences and a few things stuck out to me. In the pictures you will notice that the teacher and students look very relaxed. Some are on a couch, some on the floor and it just looks like a cozy place to be. I like all of that. The next thing that stuck out to me was that this teacher has found a manageable way to meet with her students weekly to discuss their reading and writing. This is an area that I would like to work on improving in my classroom. I'm not sure my classroom would look quite the same but I think that I can take some of the aspects of her plan and apply it to first grade students. How often do you conference with students about their reading or writing? Is this something teachers should do more or less? What are your thoughts?

Should we teach social issues?

What are your thoughts on teaching social issues? This article made me think a lot about what Barbara Coloroso spoke to us about on the 19th. If you believe in educating the whole child then you would probably say teachers should teach social issues. What are your thoughts?

Unlocked and Happy

Finally my blog has been unlocked. Since they realized it was not a spam blog I am back and ready to post. It actually felt strange not being able to blog and I've always been one to shy away from this sort of thing. I would be happy to bring food next week to class if anyone wants to help out. I don't know what I will bring so if anyone has ideas or requests send them this way. Have a great week.

Comparing Reading to the Kardashians??!!??

I know that when you read the title you are thinking what in the world, why is she posting something that has to do with the Kardashians. Well I wondered why I was so intrigued to open this article which then just leads to why the article makes so much sense. I love the idea of using caution tape to close off a section of the classroom library-all the while the kids are seeing just enough to be interested and wanting so badly to see what is in there. Brilliant! Obviously, if Kris Jenner, who in my opinion has done absolutely nothing worthy of being a celebrity can get the whole world to want to know her every move we should be able to get kids to want to read. I'm going to see if I can "brand" myself a bit differently so that my students want to know about everything they can about reading.
I am a bit bothered by the fact that I found this blog now, knowing what happened yesterday on the Today show but setting those feelings aside I think that this just shows how turned around our country is right now. Why is it that people feel they need to follow the "reality" of others and forget they have their own life happening right in front of them?
Love to hear your comments.

Preschool Educators

Since I am a first grade teacher I have a lot of appreciation for the preschool teacher. As I was looking for articles about reading I came across this one that discusses many issues surrounding the preschool educator. It is a long article but is basically stating that preschool educators do need to hold a BA degree from a program that was well developed to meet the needs of preschool teachers. I'm going to keep looking for my 'reading' article but I just thought this was interesting. This site actually had a lot of titles that looked like good reading, some of them were from the late 90's so I know that we are trying to find more recent info but still could be good reading.
article
Once you are on this page scroll down until you reach the title

Degrees in Context: Asking the Right Questions about Preparing Skilled and Effective Teachers of Young Children

 

MTSS Symposium

I had the opportunity to go to the conference last Thursday and Friday. Wow. The sessions that I attended were very informative and refreshing. Sometimes it's nice to hear the experts talk and realize, ok I am doing something right (and then also realize, oh I was so far off!). I went to a session with Anita Archer on explicit instruction and it just helped cement the idea that we have to model, model, model what we are wanting from the kids. She is not only an expert in her content but she is a great presenter as well. I only attended one session that was a little difficult to attend to because we had to sit for the entire 1.5 hours without any breaks or time to talk to a neighbor about how we would use the information given in our classroom. That just reminded me that if it is hard for an adult to sit and listen it is even more difficult for our students to sit and stay focused without having any brain breaks or time to talk about what they are learning. I especially enjoyed the session with Randy Sprick. His focus is on behavior and he had some great tips on how to collect data on behaviors that we are hoping to help change for the better. Just wanted to share my thoughts on this great conference and to let educators know that if they have the chance to go that it would be very beneficial.

Article #2 Technology

This article is about schools in the Kansas City area and what is happening with all the technology and apps that are available. I really liked the one comment from an adult about letting some of the power go and having students help us learn about the technology.

Article #1-Collaborating

This article made me think about the comments that Sir Ken Robinson made in his lecture called Changing Education Paradigms. I enjoyed watching that animated video of his lecture and really wanted to be able to come to school today with no lesson plan and just decide the day as we go. That didn't happen but maybe I will get closer to that as this journey continues.
I find it interesting that these Harvard students were very confused about what was expected of them on these tests. It will be interesting to see how all of that ends and if anyone has a degree revoked or is suspended from school.

Philosophy of Education

I took the quiz last night and found that my top 2 (tied for first place) philosophies of education are progressivism  and social reconstructionism. I'm not really surprised about this although a lot of what I think about or hope for in education I can't quite seem to make actually happen in my classroom (as much as I would hope for). I love trying to help students become better people in our community. That's one reason why I like teaching the 8 Keys of Excellence. I want to do more projects in my classroom but I'm finding a challenge in how to make it all work. I have a lot of reasons in my head that it might not work but I'm thinking if I saw more of this in action some of those reasons might go away. I'm hoping that through this class and the sharing of teacher information I will find more ways to bring project based learning into my classroom. Thinking about each student as an individual is something I try to do in the classroom as much as possible. We have an overall system set up in the classroom but modifications are made constantly so that individuals can be successful.

Interesting Blog

Our tech guy sent out his newsletter and included a blog that I found very interesting. The post was about allowing students to use their cell phones and other personal devices in the classroom. Many of his other posts are very interesting also. Just sharing.
http://teacherslifeforme.blogspot.com/2011/10/fridays-five-allow-students-to-use-cell.html

Are we too comfortable?

I teach first grade and so I used this as I named the blog. I was also thinking that as I go through this journey I will be stumbling, crashing, whatever it may be into many firsts and many changes. I'm excited about the journey but also really scared. I like to be comfortable so change is something that is out of my comfort zone. During the summer I tried really hard to be committed to stay in shape. In one of the classes I took the instructor made the comment "get comfortable being uncomfortable" many times. I'm going to try and remember that as I work through this journey. I'm excited to get to think and act on how to best support students and make sure they are successful but at the same time I worry that maybe change can't happen. It seems like there are so many road blocks that come our way that sometimes it's just easier to be "comfortable." I know that there are going to be a lot of people supporting me in this journey of change so I do know that somehow change will occur. I might need to be reminded-get comfortable being uncomfortable.

So just to let you know I did not spell my name incorrectly. It should just be Wiens' but for some reason Google doesn't know this.