0 The School Year Ahead

In order to enjoy the holiday, I have to put school to rest, and in order to put school to rest, I need to chart the course ahead. Having a good map makes a big difference when it comes to doing the job well.

School Community
I've tried many different ways to interact and collaborate with the school community. Some have been successful, and some have not been successful. In many ways, my vision for the community doesn't match the vision of others, and this has been troubling at times. Since my earliest days, I've been impatient for change--when I see something good, I want to act on it. Yet the process of innovation and change in complex systems is often slow, slow that is good due to the scrutiny, assessment and discernment, and slow that is not so good with regard to lost potential, fear, and competition. Therefore for the rest of the year, I'll continue those "greater system" efforts that have worked, efforts such as sharing new learning, helping others when I have what they need, and contributing ideas when asked, and I'll back away from some of the bigger issues with regard to systematic change and effort.

The Grade-Level Team
There has been lots of positive sharing, learning, and growth with the grade level team. The fact that we share newsletters, classroom efforts, questions, materials, and tools makes us stronger. Our engagement in shared study and new curriculum efforts have been positive too. This is a dynamic team, one I'm happy to work with, and will continue to support and learn from in multiple ways.

Students
The students are the center of my work.  I want to look for more ways to respond with care, provide feedback, listen, accentuate their contributions, and develop team in my classroom. At this time the children are happy and engaged with the learning. I want to continue that spirit and also build greater independence, collaboration, contribution, and learning in the weeks ahead. For starters, I have a box of papers and online docs to review. When we get back to school, I'll make plenty of time for one-to-one reading/writing conferences too. There are many student creations to share in our upcoming newsletter, and I'll also make time for class meetings so students may tell me what they need, want, and desire in order to learn well.

Learning Design
The challenge to embed the standards into worthy learning design is a wonderful challenge--one I look forward to each day. I truly enjoy the act of personalizing and differentiating content in ways that teach children well. In the next few months I'll focus on three areas of learning design.

First, I'll continue to build a multimodal, blended math learning environment by utilizing many tools, strategies and processes to teach math well.  I want to study more about the connection between math learning and visual literacy too in this regard. The challenge with math is time as there is never enough time to teach all the concepts required with the kind of depth and repetition necessary. Hence, I'll look for ways to be both efficient and sufficient with regard to developing a sturdy math foundation for students' future learning.

I'll work with my grade level team, a consultant, and the ELA curriculum director to renew our narrative unit with both past and new strategies. I'd also like to build my own ability in writing throughout this unit too so that I am able to model the strategies with strength.

Finally, using the work of Donalyn Miller, Fisher, and Frey, I want to develop our reading workshop, close reading, and read aloud work to build a vibrant community of readers. I set aside the time in the schedule for this work, and will make the time to study, read to and with students, and analyze text together.

Throughout the learning efforts, we'll employ multiple tools including technology to strengthen learning, engagement, and share.

Professional Associations
The professional associations I enjoy feed my work as an educator.  In that regard, I'll complete the NBPTS renewal process, engage in RETELL study, plan for spring presentations at The Wayland Literacy and Math Institutes, attend Educon, chat, read blogs, and participate in a number of edcamps in the months to come.

The course for the second half of the school year is set.  I'll return to this menu after the Thanksgiving holiday celebrations.  As always I welcome your feedback should you see areas I've missed or new information that will nurture the course.

0 The Best Teachers

A number of Thanksgiving Day cards reminded me of what the best teachers do.

The best teachers devote themselves to children in the following ways:

• Thoughtful response.
• Engaging, new learning.
• Developing independence. 
• Listening.
• Kind, targeted feedback.
• Positivity.
• Dignity.
• Care.

The best systems provide teachers with the support they need to do this job well.

To be a "best teacher" is a lifelong journey, a goal that is never fully attained, but one that is nurtured by caring, daily effort and learning.  

0 WE HAVE MOVED!!

This blog has migrated over here.  It joins The EduOptimists new website, which includes a wide variety of our writing and news, and information on consulting services.  Please bookmark the new blog!

0 December Recipe

After Thanksgiving there are three weeks of school and many goals to meet.

The first priority is the Culture Celebration.  Every child will share an informational poster and artifacts of his/her culture or a culture they've chosen to study.  The primary learning goals related to this topic include research/writing and presentation skills as well as knowledge and concepts related to immigration, migration, and culture.

Our math goal includes the completion of the multiple/factor unit, partial product multiplication, and geometry standards.

In addition, we'll focus on reading response/close reading, reading workshop, read aloud, and a focus on what makes a good story.

Most of all the focus will be to run a thoughtful, steady, fairly low-key classroom which is a nice complement to the busy holiday season that surrounds us.

1 First Green Screen Production: Echo and Narcissus

The students act with a child's 8.5 X 11 drawing serving
as the backdrop

Last year, with a few left over dollars in the year's materials' budget, the principal allowed us to order some new and different supplies including a stand-up table, stools, bean bag chairs, and a green screen. The cutting-edge teacher next door did a lot of the research and identified the tools. Similar to the great tech and teaching strategies she implements, I kept an eye on her efforts last spring and this fall, and now I'm starting to employ some of the new tools, starting with the green screen.

This is the book used. 

During parent conferences I thought a lot about children's needs as parents spoke. In response to the needs, I created a number of reading groups including a project/research book group, a literature group, and a play group.  The play group spent a few weeks reading, discussing, staging, and practicing the Greek myth, Echo and Narcissus. As part of that preparation, I read the whole class a number of versions of the myth so we could discuss the many ways that the story and characters were depicted. Since all of our versions likened beauty to "blond-light-skinned beauty," the readings also led us into a discussion about the cultural relativity of "beauty," and the fact that all cultures have notions of beauty, and that "beauty" is not limited to the way it is described in this myth, a myth that grew out of a light skinned culture. During the year we'll continue to read folk tales and myths from many cultures, and I will continue to revisit that theme among others.

This is the kind of green screen set-up we used. We
did not use the lights this time. 

Once students understood the characters, setting, and story well, they began prepping for the play. Since our room is set up for the upcoming culture presentation, it dawned on me that the neighbor's green screen would provide a good background for the woodsy scene, and better yet if I asked one of the students to draw a background, we could produce a green screen version with the child's beautiful drawing. Hence, yesterday, in front of a few class members, the play group performed in front of the green screen. Then last night I put the pieces together, crafted the film, and sent it out to the play group with a lot of compliments and some further practice tips as they prepare for Wednesday's live performance for a third grade class.

I'm sure this first green screen production won't be our last as we all have more to learn such as where to stand, how to refine the green screen tech and use of the lights, what to wear, voice volume/speed, and staging. Many of the children, not in this group, expressed a desire to do a similar production so I'm sure this play won't be our last. The green screen production was one engaging way to meet many new/old standards, build team, practice fluency, apply comprehension, and create. There are so many ways today to both teach and engage students, and this is one example.


Note: Please know that a production like this in a large class is not a simple affair--it's "messy" learning with lots of noise, movement, redirection, and discussion.  Good learning sometimes looks and acts that way.

0 Visualizing A Busy Pre-Holiday Learning Day

I've used the metaphor of a Broadway show when I talk about the school day, but today seems more like a sports game. It's the holidays and children will be thinking about the fun to come. It's also a time where I want to close a few units before Thanksgiving, hence timing, energy, and focus will have to be good.

We'll start the day with a math vocabulary activity as morning work. The activity is quite easy and a good review so students will likely get right to work. After school assembly and as students snack, we'll review the vocabulary and the multiple/factor card activity. Snack n' Math assures a quiet, thoughtful audience.  Then students will return to completing multiple and factor cards 1-100, together we've completed about 25 so hopefully we can complete another 25 today.  Then it will be quick transition to math RTI where I'll continue to review rounding with my small group.

Lunch will bring a short rest, then a quick 15 minute transition where we'll play "What's My Rule" altogether, then off to gym (while students are at gym, I'll prep the room for the "green screen" filming).  After gym is reading workshop, and that will be a tricky time as I will support the play group's dress rehearsal while finalizing two book groups with a meaningful discussion.  We'll film the "green screen" version of the play with the rest of the class as a quiet audience (and my college son as the helper) after reading workshop then move into a short recess and then a film about animal adaptation to prep for an upcoming field day focused on that topic.

Yes, a busy day with many important transitions and lots of key learning points and experiences. I'll wear clothes I can easily move in as it's important that I'm quick too.  Is this good learning? At this time of the year and this point in each learning experience, yes.

The day in the elementary school classroom is jam packed with multiple initiatives going on at once--it's a joyous, engaging day when orchestrated or strategized well.

Thanks for joining me in this visualization.  Now I'm off to start the "game."

0 Happy Thanksgiving 2013

What will Thanksgiving 2013 bring? As our family grows, the holidays take new shape. I started the celebration today by sending my son a care basket because he won't be able to make it home this year. I am comforted by the fact that he'll spend the holiday with a caring community.

The rest of the family will be home, and we plan to celebrate with many other relatives. I look forward to putting the school books aside to relish the stories, smiles, and friendship family will bring in the days ahead.

With Thanksgiving so late, the holiday will quickly spill into Christmas. College bills and an ever growing extended family will make gifts a low priority this year. However we will focus the gifts we do buy on our summer adventure to visit my oldest son. The gifts will build anticipation for the journey.

The year takes on a more regular pattern as you get older, and the seasons seem to arrive and leave with a bit more speed. Yet while the pattern becomes more predictable, the change within each season seems faster and more unpredictable. Loved ones pass more often as you reach my age, and it's sad that they are gone. Yet we bring their traditions, stories, and favored foods, decorations, and activities to mind and home during the season, and share that history with the little ones who fill our homes with joy.

Though our clothes are different, and our families more diverse than Norman Rockwell's depiction above, the same warmth and love pervades the holiday, and that is what I'm most thankful for. I wish all in my PLN near and far a loving holiday with those you treasure most. Happy Thanksgiving!

0 MTA 2013 Unconference Notes

MTA invited all members to attend their unconference at Microsoft in Cambridge today. I attended with a couple of lifelong friends, teachers from Worcester. Similar to edcamps, the event served to awaken me to many great resources and perspectives related to teaching children well.

Meg Secatore and the MTA's Professional Learning Team organized the event which included a terrific breakfast and lunch, representatives from ed start-ups, wonderful learning spaces, and a well orchestrated schedule of events. Dan Callahan, an edcamp co-founder and  Burlington Tech Integration Specialist, led the event.

Jenny Leung, a seventh grade Language Arts teacher from Groton-Dunstable, shared her experience at the Smithsonian as well as the way she focuses her teaching on theme rather than content. Jenny shared a prezi and her Smithsonian project that demonstrate the way she blends multiple resources to foster literature, composition, and creation related to theme. The conversation grew as Jenny and Laura Beals D'Elia shared their ideas about optimal common core implementation which focuses on compelling questions and themes that appeal to students' developmental levels. For example, the study might focus on themes such as friendship, family, team, journey, freedom, identity, and more. They noted that we underestimate what children are capable of learning and understanding.

Later, I facilitated a conversation that focused on the connection between visual literacy, model making, and math learning. I shared a connected blog post, and the educators in the room shared many strategies and resources including ST Math, a math model making program that children enjoy, and many new ways to use Google apps for making mathematical models such as Google's new equation tool.

At the third session, radio journalist Monica Brady-Myerov shared her start-up, ListenEdition, which is a learning resource with lots of promise for developing students' listening, speaking, comprehension, and multimedia composition skills and understanding.

During the last session, I continued my focus on visual literacy and returned to Jenny's presentation to learn more about the topic. During the discussion, it was noted that Suzy Brooks demonstrated a terrific way to develop and use visual literacy to teach comprehension strategies during her 2012 ED Talk. I was also reminded of Molly Bang's book about images.

At the end of the day there was a smackdown which is a time to share great tools with a series of fast paced two-minute shares by many attendees.

This is a list of many of the wonderful tools shared throughout the day:

30Hands: Free and available on iPads and iPhones. Terrific for taking images of students' work and videotaping their explanations of the work. This is another tool that's great for building effective speaking skills, and it can be used to record students' fluency growth and development too.

Quandary: Literacy/Research Skill Development.

Narrable: Terrific free new tool similar to voice thread used for multimedia composition and share.

iPad App Doink: Great green screen app $3.00

Blendspace: Great resource for multimedia composition, learning design, or building a blended learning environment.

National Archives Experience: Wonderful site for primary source images and text.

All About Explorers: Fictional site that helps children learn about digital research and safety--at first students think the site is factual, and then after close attention realize that much of the text is fiction.

Better Lesson: Multiple common core lesson resources.

Edtrips: Nice resource for organizing all field trip info/payments (Betsy, you might like this).

Greg Tang Math: Good reminder about a great math resource.

Notability: Great site for organizing and working with notes.

Teacher Summer Institute at The Smithsonian Institute: A chance to learn about visual literacy with processes such as see-think-wonder and claim-question-support using art to reach common core standards of making a point, supporting that point with evidence, and sharing/questioning. The Smithsonian Institute has a great website with lots of art for classroom share. They will also set up a docent led videoconference with your class to learn about a painting if interested.

In summary, the MTA unconference was a full day of learning in a great space with friends and colleagues.

Note: Follow this edcamp link If you're interested in attending a similar learning experience in the months ahead.

0 Content Focus: MTA's Unconference

Today I'll attend our union's unconference. Using an edcamp style, the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA)  is sponsoring this event at the wonderful Microsoft building in Cambridge. Before attending an edcamp, conference, or professional event, I like to think about my focus areas.

I'll remain somewhat open minded today as I choose or offer conversations, but two areas I want to develop in the next few months include the use/creation of math models in math education and composition (online and off) related to all content areas.

As I learn and plan these content area approaches, I will utilize the five M's of successful teaching which I learned about yesterday during Jeffrey Wilhelm's presentation at NCTE. The M's lend a good structure to content teaching and learning:

• motivation: compelling (to students) essential questions and learning that is connected.
• teacher modeling: making learning visible in many ways.
• mentoring w/gradual release of responsibility.
• monitoring: a time for coaching students’ independent work.
• multiple modalities: the more modalities children learn in, the better they will learn.
• multiple measures: multiple ways to demonstrate progress and achievement

The math model work will include the many engaging ways that students can create, apply, discuss, and memorize math models as a way to build visual literacy and math understanding. I will explore the ways that we can make models that clearly depict math processes in child-friendly ways--models we can apply to both simple and sophisticated math work.

As for composition, I will begin this focus with a look at my own writing--where can I improve, grow, and do better? As I improve my own craft, I will keep track of the processes and efforts that will also serve my students well across all genre.

The one last area I am interested in today is learning about the ways that teachers are navigating union structure and support as well as the ways teachers are dealing with the multiple initiatives on the teaching table--a giant list this year in Massachusetts.

I'm looking forward to another day of collegial share and learning, one I'll share with two lifelong friends who are also teachers and many others in the teaching field, those I know and those I'm about to get to know.

What's interesting about setting your agenda prior to an event is that after the event you realize that you achieved some of your focus and also discovered new areas that you didn't anticipate or realize would come your way. Stay tuned.

0 NCTE Conference: Today's Focus and Agenda

Today at the NCTE Conference I'll have my eye on the future with regard to teaching children well.

I'll first focus on digital literacy and multimedia composition as I lead round table discussions and share a poster. I look forward to the discussions I'll have related to the use of digital tools and composition in the literacy studio to foster students' development of reading, writing, speaking, presentation, and 21st century skills: communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity.

I also look forward to reading and learning about ways to continue to develop students' reading and writing engagement, comprehension, and routines.  Similarly I will focus on my own professional and recreational writing and reading efforts as I know that we teach better if we are also engaged in the many curriculum areas we promote each day.

Finally I'll look for examples of interdisciplinary, project/problem base work that relates to literacy development, student engagement, and knowledge building.

Today's Agenda:

7:00 a.m. Registration, coffee, and a chance to get my bearings.

A. 9:30-10:45: My Round Table Conversation

B. 11:00-12:15 In order to build my knowledge and understanding of high level digital story writing and share, I'll attend this workshop.

C. 12:30-1:45: At this time I'll present my poster related to multimedia composition.  I look forward to discussions with others who are interested in this topic. 

12:30-2:15 I'll grab a bite to eat and look over the many books available to purchase.


D. 2:30-3:45 As I continue to work to build my support of all readers, I'll attend these
elementary sessions to learn and engage in the conversations below.

 E. 4:00 - 5:15 I am interested in strategies to engage our most challenged students, and this workshop will provide that information.

If I'm still energized, I'll attend this event. I look forward to the vibrant presentations that 

are included in this celebration.