End of Year Reflection

As the end of the year approaches it gets you thinking about how your students did this year. I was listening to NPR this morning (as I do every morning and I highly recommend doing so) and they were talking about all these education issues coming up such as holding teachers for accountable for student success. This got me thinking about how my students have grown and how I would be judged professionally. As I look at my students and where they started at with reading in math everyone made substantial growth. Then it made me think well what is substantial growth. What is expected growth for a student who came in a year behind. I can't even imagine how third grade teachers do it with some students coming to them at a 1st grade reading level. So my question to all of you is how do we reflect on student growth in a data driven way in this new philosophy of teachers being solely responsible for student academic success? Do we look at growth? Is there an expectation to get all students at grade level even when several start a year behind? And if we do reflect on ourselves professionally....what is appropriate growth for a student starting so far behind?

Grade Level Meetings, Curriculum, and Sped

A barrier we, as a special education team, have been struggling with is how to best collaborate with teachers/allign with curriculum content in our small group settings. This year we have been attempting to attend every 2nd and 4th grade level meeting to discuss curriculum and data. However, scheduling has proven to be a big issue (i.e., IEPs, evaulations, and feedback meetings). The sneek peek has been VERY useful for where exactly classrooms are for the given week of instruction. One struggle we are having is being able to identify when one of our students are low within a content area that we do not provide service. For example, we may see them for math instruction. But, their reading begins to dip in relationship to standards and reading is not on their IEP. Any brain storm ideas for communicating these areas of weakness when it may not be clearly identified on the IEP.

I know that communicating the area of struggle is the straightforward answer. But, frequently we do not hear about it....until the problem becomes significant.

Consequences

It is getting that time of year when students know what consequences will come if they choose to be off task. I have been doing my best to be patient and continue my love and logic strategies. At this time of year I find myself trying to get through all the testing and often choosing the consequence for them. I need to keep remembering that consequence won't have as much impact or meaning if they don't come up with it. I am going to try my best to stay patient. Anyone else have trouble with this at this time of year? Any ideas?

3D Shapes

One of our math expectations in Kindergarten is identification of shapes.  These include 6 of the basic 2D shapes as well as 4 of the 3D shapes: cylinder, cone, cube, and sphere.  I'm finding that many of my students who were not exposed to these in preschool or at home are struggling to remember the vocab.  If I say a shape name aloud, they can identify the correct shape, but if I hold up a shape and ask for the name, I get blank stares.  Most of them have got "cone" down (thank goodness for ice cream), but I would love any tricks that you have for remembering the other 3.  Any ideas?

Team Collaboration

Over the past two months, Sarah and I have been working with some of our teammates to create units, math stations, and creative writing projects for next school year.  As a team, we sat down and looked at our standards and objectives in each content area.  We each took a few units/projects to create and enhance meaningful lessons/activities that meet the standards of first grade. 
We have been meeting weekly to plan out next year, month-by-month.  Although, this process has been time consuming and at times overwhelming, we have accomplished more in the last two months than we have in the last two years.  We have found that collaboration is key to success in many ways.  As professionals, we are able to bounce ideas off of each other.  We are also working on accomplishing our goals that we set on our professional development plan at the beginning of the year.  We made a goal to use technology in our classrooms, and we feel that we have exceeded that goal.  Collaboration has helped us become a stronger team and better teachers.  All this collaborating with benefit our future students!
~Heather and Sarah

Literacy in PE Continued...

I had posted earlier about working on incorporating literacy into PE. I had my 5th, 4th and 3rd grade students complete a fitness work scramble. For my 1st and 2nd grade students, I gave them a worksheet in which they had to read a list of PE words and circle the words that were verbs. I found that the 1st and 2nd graders had a much more difficult time. Not all of them, but there was a handful of them that couldn't read the two sentences I had written for directions.  I noticed the reading aspect was difficult for some. I thought my directions were simple, but maybe I will have to look at simplifying the wording more. I met with our Literacy coordinator to discuss some strategies for incorporating literacy into PE. I was told by our LC that 1st and 2nd graders should know what a "verb" is. I worked with them on how to eliminate a word, or to ask themselves, "can I do that?"  I also had the polar opposite, and there were students that flew through the worksheet, so I am trying to think of a way to make it more challenging for them.

The word scramble was a little difficult for 3rd grade. I modified on the fly and made a little word bank poster and posted it on the wall. If they needed a clue, they could lift the flap to see the word bank. I found that this made it too easy for them and they were looking under the flap for help before they had even attempted to figure out any of the words. I need to find a balance between the two.

Overall, I liked doing the literacy worksheets. I also liked the fact that PE has several verbs or activities that we "do" so it made it fun!

Testing Rewards

I have really been working hard with my kids to get ready for their MAP test the next couple weeks. We have been working on reviewing how take a test and some strategies that we might use on the test. I will continue working with the students until testing is finished. I will be meeting with them over the next couple days to go over their test scores and their goal that they need to meet. I feel that they should be reminded and be aware of their goals on their tests. In past schools that I have worked at, testing and reaching their goal has been a bigger deal. I had kindergartners pledging at the beginning of the year to try to get a certain score on their NWEA test during the year. Each time they took the test, which was three times a year, they were able to win a reward if they passed the score or meet their goal. This reward was worked into the grade level for each time we took the test. The students could win things from happy meals to a picnic at the park depending on what the teachers chose for the year. I am not sure where this money came from for the students to receive this reward, but the principal always made it happen. I am planning on giving my students who make their goals in reading and math a reward. I have not come up with one yet, but might have the students come up with ideas and then have a vote. I do understand that all of my students are working towards their goal, but I feel there should be a reward for those who made their individual goals. Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions on this topic?

Literacy in PE

Today I've incorporated some literacy activities within our fitness stations. The 3rd, 4th and 5th graders will be doing a fitness word scramble. As the day has progressed, I've noticed that the third graders would have had more success if I would have provided a word bank. That will be a change for next time. For the 1st and 2nd graders they will be given a list of physical education words, in which they have to circle the verbs. I was informed that both grades should know how to do this. We'll see how it goes!

THANK YOU

Since my student teacher left, as I've been "taking back the reins", I have really found myself falling back on a lot of the classroom management tips we have been trading here.  My student teacher had a very different tolerance level in regards to chaos - especially squirmy little bodies and blurted comments.  Now that I am back at the front of the classroom, I find myself frustrated and asking myself WWED (which usually means "What would Emily do?" or "What would Erin do?" depending on the situation).  Rather than getting upset with the students for blurting out or losing control, I have learned to calmly say, "I only respond to raised hands," or "I will begin when your bodies are still."  It helps me stay controlled, which in turn helps the students stay controlled.  Thank you for being such great Love & Logic role models, both on here and in the hallways at school!

Testing Blues

Do your kiddos have the testing blues?
I often find myself feeling guilty after our first graders sit for 45 minutes on their test. I find myself finding creative ways to make the day more active to compensate for all that sitting during testing. My test scores and motivation to do well has been much better this year. One new idea I implemented is to make sure our morning is very active. We did lots of exercises and review games that involve our body. This year I also did a much better job of expressing why we take these MAP tests. What I explained to them is I know that they are smart but this test it a way for them to show their family and second grade teacher how smart they are. They seemed a lot more motivated to take the test. I also explained that I want them to ask questions when taking the test because sometimes the question is confusing or they heard it wrong. We discussed how great test takers check their answers twice. All these things really helped. We also did a lot of slow breathing in through our nose and out our mouth on the way to the test which got them focused and ready to go.

Earth Day

Earth Day is fast approaching again this year. I have started teaching my students about what Earth Day is and why we celebrate it and why it is important. We are also building a "Trashosaurus" (dinosaur made out of recyclable items) and writing a story about how they taught them about recycling, reusing, and reducing. I have done this the last 2 years. The kids really enjoy this project. My question to everyone else is, does anyone else have any good projects or lessons that focuses on Earth Day or the 3 R's? Thanks for thinking about it!

Sped. Instruction and Testing

A large barrier that we, as a special education team, have been dealing with is the difficulty of meeting both testing needs (ie., small group testing) and maintaining consistant special education instruction. Inevitably, students need to miss their small group Sped. instruction because another student requires small group testing. This is a big barrier, as (by law) we are required to meet the minutes allocated on student IEPs. The same barrier arises in my room (EBD Resource) when I am scheduled to meet with a social skills group while another student is acting-out or requires my full attention. Scheduling becomes very difficult to make up "missed" minutes. This is more of a stating the problem out loud thing :), I am not sure what the answer is. I konw that rescheduling missed time is probably involved. However, we can't take students out of their core content areas to make up this instruction.

Expectations

This is my first year teaching Kindergarten, and I was a bit surprised to find out that we teach inferring.  This is a skill that my third graders struggled to understand, so I was dreading the first few lessons with five-year-olds.  They have far exceeded my expectations, though.  Sure, I'm using simpler texts and focusing more on basic inferring skills, but they are doing great.  It was a good reminder to avoid underestimating my students' capacity to learn and demonstrate deep thinking.

Does anyone have any good recommendations for primary level books to practice inferring?  We've used Knuffle Bunny books, Llama Llama books, and Bear is Scared so far.  I'd love some fresh ideas!

Motivation

I have been working with a little kiddo all year on working efficiently and staying focused. I have tried to use different techniques to keep him on task to get his work done. I have become very frustrated! It gets to the point that if I don't sit right next to him and "hold" his hands he will not get the work done. I am trying to back away at the this point in the year, to get him ready for next year. There are several times that I have given him the time to finish and extra time also I have told him the time that he needs to be finished and then if he is not done then he will get a grade done or not. This may or may not be the right thing to do, but I have gotten to the point many days that I have to let him fail. I do worry that in third grade he will have a very hard time and will not make it. Does anyone have suggestions on how to help get these types of kids for the rest of this year and to help get ready for next year?

SPARK-MIND BODY CONNECTION, CONT.

I was reading the book SPARK and come across this interesting tid-bit. "Exercise also boosts dopamine, which improves mood and feelings of wellness and jump-starts the attention system. Dopamine is all about motivation and attention. "

When I think about this in our classrooms, how beneficial would it be if teacher infused physical activity within their typical classroom day? That extra boost to engage kids, get their bodies moving all while increasing their attention! I'm sure when we think of our own classrooms, we could all probably name a few students who struggle with being able to pay attention. In a technological world that is full of constant stimulation; when not using technology some students struggle to sit still. Why not use their own energy to bring them back and get them focused?

My challenge for the week for classroom teachers is to infuse some sort of physical activity into your daily routine. Let me know if you get your students' attention!

CLICKER TESTS

In PE we've been using the clickers for student cognitive assessments. Just recently we've had some major problems with the software (or maybe user induced-not sure). My colleague and I were administering our quarter 3 assessments this final week of the quarter. We had each class one time before spring break. My colleague attempted to load the test in Turning Point, but it wouldn't allow him to pull up that classes participant list. The next test he administered, the computer froze half-way through the test. Just yesterday, I was on the final question of the clicker test in a different classroom, and the computer froze. All data and test responses were lost. Being that the end of the quarter is near, and we only see each class 4 times out of a ten day cycle, we're stuck with figuring out what to do for the test. For the classes that had the opportunity to complete almost the whole test, I used correct answer indicators after each question; therefore, I didn't think administering the test again would be valid because they were basically handed the answers.

My question is, how should we handle these technology glitches when they occur? Do we need to print a paper copy of the test each time or choose to not use the correct answer indicators? I like that my students receive instant feedback after they answer the question, so not telling them the correct answer isn't something I personally want to get rid of.

Consistency

As the year progressing I often find myself struggling with consistency. I especially notice it around the time that grades are due because we need to get through so much testing. I try to make it a point to by honest and tell the students that I made a mistake and I would appreciate it if they help me with my goal as a teacher to only answer raised hands. So far it is going pretty well, but I still slip up sometimes and answer a question of someone who walked up to me or didn't raise their hand. We discussed as a class why I only accept raised hands: only one of me, hard to teach if there is a crowd around me, equal amount of turns to share ideas, etc.

Do you have any good tricks to stay consistent?

Tattle Bug

It seems like this time of year the tattle bug is out in full force. With 120 some days together they start to get frustrated with the small things that bug them about their classmates. I sat my tattle kids down last week and we had a very straight forward conversation about what tattling does to the person who is being tattled on and the person who is tattling. We discussed how when you tattle on someone they often hear you tattling. Then I asked if they think the person is more or less likely to be willing to solve the problem calmly. Then we discussed how I listen to tattling at recess and after school and would be more than happy to discuss it then (Love and Logic idea). We decided as a group that we would do our best to solve them problem calmly on our own or let it go and solve it at another time. We of course discussed appropriate times to let the teacher know; when someone is in danger or getting hurt. We will see how it goes.

What is your tattling remedy?

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

I'm not sure what is going on with our students lately, but it seems like they're really struggling with respecting each other as well as teachers. The trend is not only in PE, but is occurring in other specials and within the classroom. Generally there is the assumption that they're all itching for spring break, but I feel like that vibe is present much earlier this year. It seems that no matter how many reminders or how many times we ask them and explain to them why respect is so important, it still seems to be an issue.

My question is, what are some strategies you use when dealing with these of issues in your classroom?

How do we find balance?

At the end of the day yesterday, I felt like I was rushing to get my students out the door.  Many hadn't finished the art project we were working on and needed to bring the pieces home in a bag.  Very few had the chance to get to center time.  I've spent much of the last 12 hours thinking about the fact that I'm always pushing my students to hurry to get things done.  I keep asking what I could have done differently yesterday, but as I think about my plans and the work that we did, I just don't see anything to get rid of.  In fact, I didn't even get to everything that I had originally planned.  A half day just never seems like enough time!

I've had this conversation with a few other teachers recently, and the interesting thing that came up was the connection between our tendency to rush kids through things and our frustration when kids rush through testing.  All day long, many of us push kids to work efficiently, walk places quickly, transition quickly, etc.  We have a lot that we want to teach them, and we want to get to as much content as possible.  But, when we ask kids to take a test, we want them to slow down.  I remember getting incredibly frustrated when a student would finish the whole MAP test in 30 minutes (or less) because I felt like she wasn't doing her best work.  How confusing for students!  Go, go, go, go, go, slow down! 

What do you do to allow students to delve deeply into topics and do their best work while still balancing the amount of content that we are expected to teach?