Proud New Member of NCTE

I just decided to join the National Council of Teachers of English. Earlier this spring I had been debating whether to renew my membership to the International Reading Association or to switch over to NCTE. I have been a member of IRA for the last three years, and have really enjoyed their publication, Reading Today. However, I had also been hearing a lot about NCTE. Eventually I would like to have a membership to both, but for this year with tight budgets I decided to choose between the two. Prior to IRA I was a member of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese. There are so many great professional organizations out there that it is hard to decide which to join.

Which organizations are you a member of?

Classroom Pictures

Here are some pictures of what my classroom looked like the morning that I was able to move into it. The last is a picture of what my room looked like on the first day of school. The boxes in the entry way were luckily my desks, so they were set up by the second day of school. I will have to post updated pictures once everything comes in and it is set up for the year. Now I am mainly just waiting for my projector to come in. Then I will put up my Smart Board, white board, and my writing menu. I love the way the layout of my room is working out. Here's the post where I mentioned my plans.

 

 

 

First Days of School - Week 1

Yesterday marked the end of my first full week back with students, and last night I geared up to switch over to Spanish next week. My goal this year is to not be at the school so much on the weekends and to eventually go home a little bit earlier during the week in order to spend more time with my family. With experience I am learning how to plan my curriculum and use my time wiser in order to make sure that I am providing the best instruction possible for my students while also setting up structures and routines that allow me to better utilize my preparation time. Reading The Daily Five last spring inspired me to think of ways that this can be possible.

During the first weeks of school I have not been able to leave any earlier than usual, and while I have been in on the weekends, it has been minimal. It seems like once I am a few more weeks into the school year my goals will be possible. For now I am happy with my progress knowing that I am getting closer to where I want to be ideally.

The first week was filled with celebrations and reflections on how to improve. This post might end up being a little bit long, so I am going to put bold heading to go with each section in case you want to just skim about a certain piece of my week. However, some areas overlap, so information in one may mention an additional category.

WORD STUDY
I have mentioned before that this year I will be organizing my word study a little bit differently. Instead of having all students on the same rotation, I will have groups on different check in days with me. Originally in order to implement this I was trying to think of something independent that I could have the rest of the students doing while pulling back each individual group on different days to familiarize them with the process. I realized that with the 6th graders who are new to my class and Words Their Way it would make more sense to start out with one class sort, and then cycle into the small group sorts on the next English week.

I was so glad that I made that decision. I chose a sort with silent initial letters that I thought would be a good sort for most of the students but also presented it as a practice to get used to the procedures and steps in the process. Doing it this way with the whole class helped cut out a lot of confusion and get all the students on the same page. Stepping back one week from starting small group instruction seems to have saved me a lot of stress sparked by confusion. It was also a good reminder/review for my 7th graders.

Next week I will do my first Spanish word study sort. Last year I never implemented word study consistently with Spanish as it was harder for me to think of ideas of how to group and find words for self-created sorts. My goal this year is to do a whole class word sort every week. Then next year I will focus on being able to do small groups as I do in English. I figured that whole class sorts would be better than holding off until I have developed enough sorts to differentiate from the start.

READ ALOUD
Recently I had posted about using House on Mango Street as my start of the year read aloud. I had not read the full book since college, but I always remembered talking about the book and hearing positive feedback about integrating it into language arts. I read ahead to make sure that I did not go against the concept of reading aloud a book I had not already read. Since it had been so long, it was as if I had not read certain sections at all.

As I moved farther along in the week and continued to read ahead, I realized that the book was not quite like I remembered. While I remembered the majority of the book being about her younger childhood, it jumped to older and more mature issues faster than I had remembered. I had completely forgotten about some of the most pivotal points of the book in her older years, that were not necessarily ideal for a 6th/7th grade read aloud.

I was stuck trying to decide what to do. In the end, I could not justify reading aloud some of the sections as a whole class read aloud. Instead, the next day my 6th graders and I were at the carpet ready for read aloud and I asked them, "Have you ever read a great book that you loved and later read it again, realizing that it was not quite as you remembered?" Students hands shot up and they shared some examples. I used that as a segue way to share with them that although as I continued reading House on Mango Street it was still a great book, it was not exactly as I had remembered and I though it would be better for them to later reading on their own or for book clubs. Then I introduced the novel that we will be reading as a read aloud. The students were fine with the switch.

I planned on doing the same with my 7th graders, but one of my super observant 7th graders beat me to the punch. As we moved to the carpet she saw a different book in my hand and instantly raised her hand to ask, "So we aren't going to read House on Mango Street?" I just gave them the rationale without the question to them.

As I was reading the book in more detail it also helped me to better understand where Stacey was coming from. It was easier to see how the vignettes weren't necessarily Slice of Life writing. I switched my angle to telling my students that I wanted them to see an example of how shorter pieces of writing can be powerful when introducing Slice of Life Stories.

READING WORKSHOP
When reading The Daily Five last year I reflected that I thought my students would be able to read for a longer period of time without building stamina starting at three minutes. Our students are used to having silent sustained reading for most of their school career where the room is supposed to be silent and that they need to stay in one place. My initial thought was that building up stamina with independent reading would not be an issue, but rather the challenge would be having students maintain those same behaviors while other activities are happening in the room. As I started out building stamina, my inclinations ended up being right on.

After creating an I-Chart with the students, based on ideas from The Daily Five, in order to set up expectations, they met the expectations with ease. There were a couple instances when we had to debrief as a group and correct a hand full of students' non-reading early on. Once I reminded them that even if they are absolutely quiet, they are not following the expectations if they are looking around the room rather than reading their book, the students started to all read. Toward the end of the week I was able to start some one on one conferences and assessments. The students handled this well. The biggest challenge will still be when I integrate the small group component which will generate a little bit more of a distraction to students.

Overall I am really pleased with different components that I had tried out based on resources that I have read recently.

WRITING WORKSHOP
I started out the year with the oral storytelling concept. First I read Jalapeño Bagels and prompted students to tell stories about times when they have seen two cultures blending. The second day I read aloud Carlos and The Squash Plant and we shared examples of not listening to something we are supposed to do and then suffering the consequences. This yielded more conversation than the day before. On the third day I was ready to get them writing, so I read the first chapter of Samantha Hansen Has Rocks in Her Head, and then had them share with people sitting close to them stories about their siblings (or close cousin, best friend for only children).

As expected, the students were bubbling with stories, so I introduced their writer's notebooks. It was a great feeling to see the pens flying across their pages as they listed out their stories and then did two quick writes from their lists. The room was calm and energized.

The area where I reflected that I need to improve for next week is that once we moved from directed listing and quick writes into independent writing time later in the week, working on Slice of Life Stories, my 6th graders were not writing without talking as I had told them and reminded them over and over again. It did not take long for me to realize that it was because I forgot the key component of creating an I chart of expectations as I had for independent reading. This was not an issue with the 7th graders because they were familiar with the expectations from last year. Nonetheless, next week I will create the chart with both classes. Then I will be typing them up and laminating both to post in the room.

SOCIAL STUDIES
This week I did not do as much in social studies as I had originally planned. On Monday I was reminded of how each new routine can take a significantly longer amount of time to introduce and implement at first. The class time was easily filled with planned reading and writing activities. I decided to layer in components of the class. Toward the end of the week students were familiar with the different parts of the day and it was starting to look like a "normal" day.

Once I layered in social studies, I loved how all of the activities went. I started out with Sarah Cooper's idea of introducing a poem, "A Worker Reads History" in her book Making History Mine. I was able to adapt the steps that she does into an Interactive Notebook format, so it worked perfectly. While I was not sure how well my students would grasp the poem without scaffolding, they understood it more than I had expected. Upon finishing my first read aloud, one of my 6th graders said, "That is powerful." His comments later made it clear that he fully understood the essence of the poem from the start.

The other lesson I did last week was using World History For Us All's video World History in 7 Minutes. I created a lesson where I could also integrate in interactive notebooks focusing on state social studies standards that the video addresses, such as scale and long-lasting impact of early civilizations. We were able to bring in a projector on a cart and project it on one of my walls since it is a light cream color. I took advantage of having the cart in my room to also show the students Barack Obama's interview with student Damon Weaver.

BULLETIN BOARD
Students enjoyed the guess who bulletin board that I made with pictures I took of my 6th graders at the end of last year with one of their favorite books. Yesterday when I was taking the pictures down in order to get ready for our Spanish week, I wanted to use the pictures more. I got an idea to decorate the bookshelves in my classroom library with them. My practicum student found a way to make them fit, and it looks great.

GENERAL
I have still been checking in with and working closely with my partner teacher. My practicum student only has one week left with me. She has been a huge help, and I was lucky to have an extra set of hands to get my room organized and up and running. My assistant has been a great help too. Luckily, she will be with me all year for two days a week.

My Smart Board arrived, and I was so excited I could hardly stand it. I checked in with the tech to tell him it was in and said, "They finished up with the wiring last week, didn't they?" My excitement came to a screeching halt with his response of, "Is your projector in?" Right... In all my excitement, I forgot that while there is wiring, a Smart Board, and the ceiling mount supplies, the actual projector is not in. My oversight still makes me chuckle. My projector should be in anytime now.

Spanish Literacy Instruction in Mexico

The following is a Power Point presentation that I prepared while participating in a summer educator´s exchange in Michoacán. I have always been fascinated by native language literacy instruction, and I enjoyed my brief, limited research during the three week program. I would love to eventually research more about Mexican educational practices. Though the time frame did not allow for as in-depth studies as I would have liked, I still learned a lot.

Spanish Native Language Reading Instruction

The following Word document below are my notes that went along with the Power Point presentation. The notes may fill in some of the gaps from the presentation, but it was created for me. At the time I did not think about how I would be sharing the notes with others. Please let me know if you have questions, and I will do my best to answer them.
Choice Project Presentation Outline

If you are interested in native language literacy or practices in Mexico, I would love to hear your comments and to discuss more with you.

First Days of School - Day 1

Yesterday was my first day of school. My daughter was very excited for her first day of first grade. She was skipping along in the parking lot.

The day for the most part, went smoothly. Most of the day my teaching partner and I had all 51 of our students together doing teambuilders, discussing common expectations, and passing out supplies. Once the students had their supplies and we were organizing them, it got too loud with all of us together because our school has an open feel to it. I ended up taking half the students back to my room. It was nice to have the smaller group of students and start connecting with them. Then we switched classes and I had a chance to be with my students from last year. Overall the day went great, but I am looking forward to Monday where we will get started on a regular routine.

In other big news...
My desks arrived yesterday afternoon. All of us had conveniently forgotten that the desks had to be put together. As soon as we saw the orange caps on the bottoms of the legs, we remembered that leg extensions had to be added on. Luckily, our great custodian knew it was a priority and got right to work. Right before I left, they were set to go and we set them up in the classroom together. Now I feel even more ready for Monday.

Next week's goals:
*Reconnect with my returning students and get to know my new students.
*Focus on making sure that a couple of new students to the school feel welcome and are forming friendships.
*Implement routines/procedures.

Back to School Day 5 (Final Day)

Today was our last work day before students come back tomorrow morning. The rush was on to complete as much as possible in the time available. Today I had my practicum student and assistant there to help me, and they got so much of my to-do list finished. My literacy menus are almost set to hang up, but I decided to put them up at the end of the day tomorrow. I am going to have to get creative in deciding how to make them fit, but by the end of the day I was almost certain that I have a plan. They also completed setting up my bulletin board and various other tasks to prepare for the first day.

We received a delivery estimate for my desks of tomorrow afternoon. It will not be too bad though because my partner teacher and I planned to do some middle school activities as a whole team for the morning and then spend time with each class for a little over an hour in the afternoon. Since that time will fly by, it will be fairly easy to just have students grab a clipboard and sit on the floor, rather than desks. Then for the first full day in my classroom with students, the desks will be all set up.

I will do a post about our first day sometime this weekend.

Back to School Days 3-4

Today all staff was back, and the anticipation continues to build in expectation for the students. The fast approaching date is also bringing on anxiety about our disproportionate to-do lists versus the amount of time left to get ready. Although I never expect that feeling to go away, no matter how long I teach, each year I do feel a little bit more calm, embracing flexibility just a little bit more.

Last night we had a middle school team meeting that left me energized for a new school year. We are blessed with very supportive parents who are loyal and dedicated to the school. After the meeting it was fun to hear them reminise about the early days of the school starting and how it has been exciting for them to see their students experience all of the changes and improvements as the school has become more established. It was also fun to see my students, many of whom I had not seen all summer, and all the changes - new hair cuts, taller...

Aside from the parent meeting, the last two days I have continued to set up my classroom, frequently met with my partner teacher to further coordinate our first day and common procedures and been to meetings. My practicum student and I spent a lot of time getting my literacy menus ready. I was not 100% sure how to make it work, but so far it seems like the final product is going to turn out okay. We created the base posters, and tomorrow we need to finish up getting the individual strategy cards ready. I also need to find space on my walls for them because they ended up being very big. There is plenty of room, but I am hoping that I will be able to put them both at the front of the room so that the students will be able to see them easily and often. However, my projector and Smart Board have not arrived yet. We are waiting for them to arrive before putting up my white board since I want it to go right next to the Smart Board and then I can put the literacy menus on either side.

On the bright side, other components of my classroom have been rolling in. Today out custodian was able to hang up my bulletin board, and the techs came to bring my new computer and the student laptop cart. Still no desks, but hopefully they will come in tomorrow. Luckily, as I mentioned, with each year come more of an openness to the concept that the beginning of the year means flexibility. Whereas even last year I would have been ready to have a nervous breakdown if I did not have desks in my room for the first day, this year I am just thinking out plan B and realizing that it is by far not the worst thing that could happen. Besides, nothing, not even the lack of desks and technology can dampen my excitement for my new classroom and starting my second year at my dream job.