This is a stand alone post, something that should be viewed and reflected upon at the beginning of the school year. Thank you, Penny Kittle.
Take 5 minutes to sit and listen.
Thoughts?
A couple of years ago, I was validated and inspired by Ms. Donalyn Miller’s The Book Whisperer. If you have not yet read this book, it is a must. Immediately after turning the last page, I went straight to my computer and tried to format and create an effective and explicit way to begin a book challenge. I cannot express enough how this program has not only liberating me, but also my students. See you later points, benching students with a book in hand, read only at your level regardless of your interest, ugh. I’m over all of it. And Ms. Miller’s book allowed me to feel confident to do what I knew was right all along.
Click Here for formatted documents: Book Whisperer: 40 Book Challenge
Let’s teach and treat our students as real life readers, so that there just might be a chance for them to unlock and cherish the joy of reading as we all do.
This post will be a number of pictures to better visualize how this might work in your class, tips and lessons learned over the years.
Tips for the 40 Book Challenge:
Here we go again, people!
It’s time for another school year. (For those that work at a year-round school, you might have long since settled into your classrooms. Hope it’s going well.) As I mentioned before, I have taken on a new role this year as an instructional coach. I’m currently on Day 6 and have attended a total of 5 trainings. I’d say it’s going rather well! (I’ll speak on the trainings at a later date because I got some really juicy tidbits to share.) Anyway, even though I don’t have my own classroom, I will still be posting things I have done in the past. You know, those things that I always said I would blog about…and didn’t.
The most important thing a teacher can do during the first days of school is to build a positive and supportive classroom culture. The students need to feel safe in order to take academic risks throughout the year. If the students are not comfortable, collaborative conversations cannot occur and learning will not reaching its optimum potential. We all know that learning is social. So if the social environment is not there, students will not achieve their full greatness.
One of my brilliant professors taught me a motto which I have since stolen and slapped on a poster. He would say, “Everyone participates, everyone learns. You either do it with us or in front of us.” He would make us repeat that each day. So when students felt like not participating in an activity (I like to incorporate dance moves, songs, cheers, etc.), that would be their choice. But I would remind them that their only other option was to do it ‘in front of us’. I have yet to have a student come to the front.
Below are some pictures that I will briefly explain. The “FAIL” poster was always a hit. Students glanced at it with scary eyes until I explained that failure was welcomed and encouraged in this class. When we fail, we learn and try again. Each day I had a different activity for the students to try to practice this concept (i.e. house of cards, math challenges, domino buildings, any fun thing found on my pinterest board).
Above was my revised book recommendation wall. Originally, I had the books only sorted by fictional and informational text. But because my “40 Book Challenge” required readings of different genres, I needed to categorize the recommendations for the students.
I always took pictures of my kids on the first day of school and made about 6 copies per student. You’ll notice in my classroom that I have their faces on everything. I like that personal touch, more so than name tags. Personal preference. The Raining Compliments was a way to teach the students how to give and receive meaningful compliments. One of my classroom jobs was a compliment coordinator. This person would let me know when each student had at least one compliment in their bag. Only then would students be able to collect their compliments during dismissal.
I know, I know. Multiplication Jail might be considered too negative. It depends on the relationship you have with your students. This is always when I used to give timed math tests (operational drills). I stopped that practice a couple years ago. Strain your Brain was simply a fun, critical thinking challenge (usually math) that students tried to solve each week.
Love this science challenge of the week. Again, it was a student’s job. The less I have to remember, the better for all. The visual for monitoring the writing process really helped me keep track of where everyone was and who needed help.
Pictures on the writing wall too! I wrote out the steps of the writing process depending on text type so the students could reference it as needed.
P.S. Love the “Please excuse our bare board. Our writing is under construction.” sign. I always felt guilty with a bare board, but this sign liberated me.
My apologies to all for the lack of content and update on this blog. I had some minor, ok major, things going on in life and I just couldn’t keep up. I am happy to announce that I will be back in action committed to sharing thoughts, ideas, lessons, content, etc. on this blog. And I can’t wait to connect with other educators and/or just plain thoughtful people that can help me grow.
First, a little “me” update. I AM NO LONGER IN THE CLASSROOM! What??!! I know. It’s like I’m experiencing a sort-of-career-identity-crisis. It’s summertime and I’m not quite sure what to do with myself or where to begin preparing for this new role. (Perhaps, someone out there can offer words of advice.) I have accepted a position as an English Language Arts Instructional Coach for the district. What does that exactly mean, you ask…? Not quite sure yet. Job description is a work in progress as this is a pilot program. But from what I understand, I will basically be a teacher’s support system, a partner to aide in enhancing their greatness! Nothing evaluative about it. I truly hope to be an asset to teachers and relieve some of the constant stress they feel as they work tirelessly in the trenches.
Fingers crossed and I’ll keep you posted. Successes and failures to come, I’m sure.
Moving on from that topic, over the next couple of months my goal is to post lessons and projects from my last couple of school years. You know, the lessons that I learned a ton from that I made a mental note to post right away. And then I never did. Ya! Those ones.
I couldn’t help myself, but share some photos of my final Open House.
Sniff. It was a great ride, and who knows? I may return.
The beginning of the year is full of many things, but the one thing that comes to mind for me is PAPERWORK! All of those emergency cards, contact information for mom/dad/legal guardian, email addresses, phone numbers, allergies, things the teacher should know, students’ likes and dislikes, etc.
And the majority of it exists simply so we know the best way to contact the parents throughout the year. Really, that’s all we’re looking for. Can we text you? Email you? Call you? Or should we just send a note home? Which do you prefer? Help us out, parents! Can you please write your email address and/or phone numbers a little more clearly so that I do not enter it incorrectly in my contacts (like I inevitably do every year)? It’s all so overwhelming….,but if done correctly, saves so much time throughout the year.
Well, because I work at a year round school, my “beginning of the year” is now two months behind me–thank goodness! I thought I might share some of the beginning of the year forms that I use in hopes of lessening the burden for some of you out there just beginning your school year.
These two forms are copied back to back and given to the students on the first day of school. Parents complete only the student information sheet, as the parent contact log is used as needed throughout the year. I hole-punch these forms and keep them in one small binder. This way I can easily access a parent’s contact information and quickly turn over the paper to document the date, time, and reason for the contact. Not only is it handy, but I feel it’s important to document everything as an educator. You never know when you might need it.
This sheet was created to move myself and colleagues into the 21st century. Parents are asked if it is ok to text them and to provide the best number to do so. It’s been amazing! You would not believe the power you hold when a student knows that you can text their parent(s) right before their eyes. And now that I have a google voice number— (I’ll discuss that at in future post), the possibilities are endless. I have had such positive feedback from the parents and I feel that my parent/teacher communication has become more effective.
And finally, this form was created for all the email addresses that I CANNOT READ! It never fails. Every year, I take the time to input all my parents’ email addresses into one group contact. (This way I can send out email blasts to everyone at one time.) Well, every year I enter addresses incorrectly because I cannot read certain email addresses. Is that the letter “i” or the number one…? I mean, really, no matter how many time you write, “Print neatly please.”
Anyway, after I send out my test email. The parents’ email addresses that come back “failed to deliver” receive one of these notices. It’s the first year that I was able to correct all my mistakes! Whoooohoooo!
After being in school for a month, the time has come.
Mrs. Cortez’s Book Club will officially begin next week. If you have ever thought of starting a book club with your students, just do it. Don’t hesitate. You will not be sorry.
I have been running a book club for the past 5 years with my 5th graders. Now that I have two periods, it might get a little crazy, but that’s ok. The pay off is too rewarding. I have the kids meet once a week before school. I select the first book which in the past has been Matilda, but since 4th graders read it last year, I changed it to Firegirl (an amazing book). The students then nominate and vote on the rest of the books we read for the year. *If a movie is made of the book, we usually schedule a time after school to watch it and compare it with the book. It’s awesome to hear the students say that the book is better than the movie, because that’s usually the case.
The students bring a mug for hot chocolate and we make a treat rotation schedule for doughnuts. I used to provide the hot chocolate, but that became too costly so now I ask the parents for donations. I pick up the slack when needed. And then…we just talk about the book. No assignments, no tests, no stress. Just a good book shared with good people. Amazing.
Until next time…
Click below to see the letter I send home to parents. Hope it helps so you don’t have to start from scratch.
Welcome back to a new school year! I know many of you are just now getting into “school mode”, but those of us that teach at year round schools have been at it since the beginning of June.
This year I am still teaching 5th grade, but a HUGE change has occurred. I am now team teaching with an amazing colleague so that I can focus my instruction on my great loves: social studies and language arts. Whoohoo for me! We are five weeks in and so far, I’m loving it. I already can’t imagine going back to planning lessons for ALL subjects. No thank you.
Anyway, my first post is just going to share a couple of fun “intro” activities I did with my students this year. (I’ll share more in my next post.)
The first activity of the 1st day was our “Welcome to 5th grade” Survival Guides. My previous class made a survival guide for each incoming student. I placed on guide on each student’s desk and we did a Round Robin read. I let each student read a guide for 2 minutes (they weren’t that long) and then yelled “Pass!” so they passed the guide to the person on their left. Another 2 minutes, then “pass”….until everyone had read multiple survival guides. I then had the groups share their thoughts about 5th grade with their team. As they discussed, I placed a small piece of chart paper on each teams’ desks. They had to come up with one prediction statement about their 5th grade year. Some needed sentence frames so I posted them. For example, “I predict 5th grade will be _____ because ______.” Or “After reading these survival guides, I predict 5th grade ________.”
I prefer to do activities like this as opposed to handing out a packet of rules/routines and reading through it. This way, the students can actually get a feel of how the class will operate and my rules/routines are demonstrated in action. No need for long lectures.
Click on this link to see the survival guide– End of Year Project
Next, the students were to create “Hands and Feet Art”. This activity is done for two reasons: it’s an ice breaker for students to work closely with a partner and it the results are always hilarious. I love being able to post the final products for Parent Information Night. (I’ll post photos soon.)
The last activity was the “House of Cards Challenge”. I have a poster in my classroom that says….”It’s okay to F.A.I.L. First Attempt in Learning”. I like to give the kids a challenge that I know they will not be able to figure out or succeed in their first try. I use this as a way to let my students know that it is OKAY TO FAIL!! What is most important in any task is our attitude, our plan of attack, and our perseverance.
So the first challenge of the year was to use a deck of cards to build the tallest structure. That was it. No other rules except they had to work with their partner. The results are always entertaining. We did this the first day and again on day 2 and 3. The kids, of course, got better and better. I even assigned a follow up for homework: they had to find a strategy of how to build a house of cards, whether that was online or asking a family member. They loved it! And they got better!
Happy beginning of the year everyone— Until next time…
