Elementary, My Dear, or Far From It

Our NECC Presentation

2009-07-02T14:29:00.004-04:00

My first foray into NECC is over and I am exhausted. I have so many thoughts, ideas, and questions flying around in my brain and I need time to reflect before any real posts are ready. However, I presented with two others from my school, Mark Smith, our technology guy, and Jennifer Metcalfe, a fourth grade teacher, on Tuesday. We had a good turnout and a fabulous time. Mark generously posted a summary of the presentation and information about the three of us here. The powerpoint is posted here. Finally, we created a delicious page with a wide range of links showcasing our students' work from the past several years. We also managed to get some pictures during the presentation and I'm hoping to get them up on flickr soon.

NECC Exhibit Hall Rant

2009-06-29T17:24:00.003-04:00

The exhibit hall here at NECC defies description. It's in the basement of the Convention Center and runs under both buildings (essentially two blocks). I've been down there twice and accomplished nothing, partly because I'm just too overwhelmed.

However, the other reason I've accomplished nothing is because the great majority of the exhibits are a huge waste of time. Actually, that's an understatement. As an educator I'm offended by the existence of some of these companies. Their core beliefs are 180 degrees from mine. I spent a good five minutes listening to a young man explain one website to me (without blowing up at him because I don't truly blame him). The things he kept saying are clearly the 'selling points' for this product. Things like, "It's so bright and colorful and fun it keeps the kids from realizing they are learning." and "That's a fun little graphic that will keep them interested." God forbid we should make the actual learning interesting!

In addition to that frustration, I felt like the program was basically electronic worksheets. How is that 21st century learning?

It seems to me that so many of these companies are creating electronic worksheets or they are preparing kids for testing or they are trying to make school 'teacher-proof'. I'm not okay with any of those goals. Many companies have learned the right buzz words, but the reality doesn't match their sales talk.

The worst part is that they are clearly making lots of money this way. It makes me so sad (and angry, obviously).

Last Day Sadness

2009-06-16T22:51:00.002-04:00

Not my sadness, my daughter's. Tomorrow is her last day of kindergarten. Her class has become a community like none I've seen before. Her teacher has been amazed by them. They were the ones that planned an entire wedding for their class bear.

This sadness keeps waking her up tonight. She's devastated by this ending. I want to honor that feeling, but I also want to help her become excited about the new things to come. How do we grieve for the past while simultaneously anticipating the future?

Goodbye Little Prince

2009-06-15T15:25:00.004-04:00

My little prince will be moving this summer. So he will go on to second grade at another school. Today he said to me, "Can I bring you a picture so you'll remember me?"

A picture? I need a picture? Is he kidding?

I told him, "Of course you can bring me a picture. But, don't worry, I'm not going to forget you!"

I have to admit that it makes me unbelievable sad when kids move. I think it's even more true now that I teach first grade. It is so exciting to think of watching them grow for years to come. (I know we have a 30-40% mobility rate, but why does it have to be MY kids?)

Thanks Tweeps!

2009-06-11T21:07:00.002-04:00

First thing this morning I tweeted: "Report cards are nearly finished. Doing them always reminds me of how much I hate assigning grades. I just don't believe in them."

This is a big pet peeve of mine. I have many issues with grades. I think they put the focus in the wrong place for students. I don't think they communicate anything informative to parents. In fact, the more time I spend thinking about them the more frustrated I get.

Fortunately my tweeps were there for me this morning.

This response made me laugh out loud: Give everyone A's you meanie

The next response was one of those reassuring reminders that I'm not alone: I feel the same way.& then parents ask what a 3 is equivalent to...grrr. We have done so much parent ed to get them to understand.

Finally another giggle: To not believe in assigning grades? That concept sounds vaguely un-American. :-)

Those responses made starting my day so much more of a positive experience. Thanks!

More Gardening Goodness

2009-06-10T14:23:00.002-04:00

Last week I wrote about our plans for a garden. The students wrote a fabulous letter and copied it out four times so that I could take it to different places. I wanted it to be in first grade writing because I figured that would be more powerful. I also printed out a few pictures of the kids measuring the garden plot (and I typed a copy of the letter in case folks had trouble reading it).

Our third stop was a success! A nursery near us donated $60 worth of small, plastic, white fencing. It's just perfect for our needs. Today we wrote a thank you note to the woman at the nursery. The kids wrote it almost completely on their own - composing and actually writing. It says, "Thank you for the free fence. Now none of the kids will walk on our garden. You're super duper nice. We like the fence a lot." Perfect.

Today we went out and spent some time just digging in the dirt. I gave each kid a small spade or cultivator. It was amazing! The kids were fascinated by the roots of the different weeds and grasses. We did study plants not too long ago. One boy kept running over to me with weed after weed saying, "You won't believe it! I found another root!"

We just started studying worms this week (nothing like starting a new science unit in the last week and a half). They found a ton of worms and were noticing the way they moved and their different parts. They also found other sorts of critters in the dirt. They found one I didn't recognize, but it looked sort of worm-like. One student noted that it couldn't be a worm because it had little legs. I couldn't have planned a lesson that would have been this fabulous.

Our principal walked by at one point and proved, yet again, why I love her so. She cheered the students on in their work and when one student ran over with a worm she said, "That's my favorite worm! How did you know?"

We won't get much of a garden planted in the few days that are left, but we'll get it started. I'm quite certain that next year's class (and the years' to come) will have a lot of work, learning, and fun in this small corner of our school.

Garden Goodness (I Hope!)

2009-06-05T10:10:00.002-04:00

With only a week and a half left in the school year I've decided to try to plant a garden with my first graders. It's not a brilliant idea by any means, but once I had mentioned it to them there was no going back.

Our principal has given us a plot of land between the cafeteria and the playground. Students often run across it in their haste to get to recess. So we want to plant there and put up a small fence to discourage such behavior.

We went out one day and measured the area so that we would know how much fence we needed. We then wrote letters to local nurseries and hardware stores asking for a donation. I'll be taking the letters (and some pictures) around this weekend. I hope we get a bite!

My New Toy

2009-06-04T21:44:00.002-04:00

We've done it. We've ordered a netbook. I've been mulling this over all year but I haven't had the guts to pull the trigger. My husband finally took that step for me. It should arrive tomorrow.

My goal is to use this netbook for all my anecdotal record keeping. I'd like to keep these records in google docs that could also be used by my amazing co-teacher. Sadly, I'm really bad at being able to plan well for something ahead of time. I tend to have to modify again and again in the midst of everything (hence my classroom being rearranged almost a dozen times this year).

I want these records to be easy to use both as we input information and as we come back to them. I'm pretty good about keeping anecdotal records on my students but I am awful at using them to plan future instruction. I want to solve that problem. My hope is that google docs will make it so that I can sort and search in order to form small groups for enrichment or remediation.

Do you know of anyone who has done something like this? Do you have any advice for how to organize it? Can you think of any pitfalls we should be planning to avoid?

Say Cheese!

2009-06-02T11:05:00.002-04:00

We got our class pictures today. I wrote briefly about the experience of taking the picture a while back. I've been waiting and anticipating since them, wanting to see the results of such an event.

Now that I've seen it I've shown it to everybody I can find. It makes my day.

At first glance it looks like a perfectly normal first grade class picture. The students are mostly smiling and in their spots. But when you take a moment to look more closely you will find a fascinating little boy completely backwards to the camera. All you see is the back of his head.

I have eleven years worth of class pictures. This is, by far, my favorite.

What is use number 3?

2009-06-01T22:29:00.003-04:00

Since I moved to first grade I've had to adjust to a bathroom in my classroom. It's convenient, but takes up a lot of space. (So far I've managed to avoid any horrific experiences with it. I'm sure they'll start tomorrow now that I've said this.) The bathroom is about 2 1/2 feet by 5 feet. This year it has simply been a bathroom. I want it to be more.

Any advice on how I can use that space? Hang things on the wall? If so, what sort of things? Other thoughts? I'm looking for ideas that are totally off the wall!

My Golden Rule

2009-05-21T21:52:00.003-04:00

One of my amazing co-teachers was remarking on my patience this morning. Compared to the other teacher with whom we work closely I am not even on the scale, I am so impatient. However, I think I have become more patient, and more loving, as a teacher in the past few years.

I credit this to being a parent. There are many times that I think about how I would want my daughter's teacher to respond to an issue. I want to believe that I treat my students the way that I want my child to be treated. That is the bar I set for myself. (I know my daughter's teacher, however, and I don't even come close to her. She is not only exceedingly patient, she is astoundingly happy at the same time.)

Paul Bogush's recent post reminded me of these thoughts. It's not quite the same idea, but it triggered my thinking. As always, his thoughts are well worth reading.

By the way, I don't believe that only parents make good teachers. I taught for five years before my first daughter was born and I think I did a pretty good job. My daughter's teacher is not a parent. I just think, that for me, becoming a parent strongly impacted the way I respond to my students.

That? Then? They?

2009-05-18T09:59:00.000-04:00

A while back I wrote about a student who was dealing with a horrifically traumatic event in her life. It tears me up to even think about her life outside of school. She's been in a reading group with the absolutely amazing special ed teacher with whom I co-teach. When we reorganized our reading groups recently I took her on. We've had numerous discussions about this student, both because of the outside issues and academic concerns. However, I underestimated her challenges in reading.

The book we were reading recently had the word 'that' on almost every page. She was reading words I thought were more difficult so I decided we should tackle this one. She read the 'at' chunk in it just fine and knew the 'th' sound for the start. But she couldn't put the parts together to save her life. So I pulled out the little white board and we looked at lots of 'at' words. Interestingly enough she could read almost all of them. She never could get 'pat' right, she said 'put' or 'pan' each time. She also never read 'bat' correctly. She read 'but' always. And, of course, she never did get 'that'. I finally just told her the word, had her reread the sentence and move on. However, she came upon 'that' on subsequent pages and could never read it. I have no idea where we go next!

Investigating Investigations

2009-05-17T20:42:00.003-04:00

Several bloggers I have discovered through posts about parenting (although they blog about many other things as well) and greatly respect have had a lot to say lately about the Investigations math series. Their comments have not been positive.

This has got me thinking about my evolution as a teacher of math. When I began teaching eleven years ago my school had a very traditional math textbook (I don't remember which one) and I used it for a year or two. But I quickly became frustrated with it. I began pulling together any and all resources I could find and taught based on my state and county standards rather than working our way straight through a textbook. After about a year my teammates were doing the same thing and it became a lot easier as we all collaborated to create lessons and assessments that were appropriate and effective.

After a few years of this my school adopted Everyday Mathematics. It took some time to adjust to having a textbook and to how different this series was from the traditional textbooks. I was so impressed with Everyday Mathematics. It helped me gain a much deeper understanding of math. However, a few years later I participated in some professional development in math with a fabulous consultant who continually referred to the Investigations series. I started doing some research into it and got really excited. One of our math coaches was familiar with it and ordered me a set.

I've used Investigations with a general education fifth grade, a gifted and talented fifth grade, and with my first graders this year. I don't believe it is a perfect series, but I don't think such a thing exists. I do believe that Investigations assists students in building deeper understandings of the math they are studying. Having worked with three different math series I believe that Investigations is the most challenging for students and teachers.

I know there is a lot of passion about the teaching of math, more than just about any other subject matter, but I'm still surprised by how strongly people feel against this specific series. I'd love to hear more about the reasons for this.

Making Change

2009-05-12T11:20:00.001-04:00

I'm stuck. The calendar program we use (which I love!) has the kids making change from a quarter based on each day's date. So, today on the 12th, we had to pretend to pay for something costing 12 cents with a quarter. They had to figure out the change. Most of them don't get it. That doesn't shock me because I can't figure out how to help them understand it. It's such a tough concept. Any thoughts?

Forever Recorded on Film

2009-05-06T20:15:00.003-04:00

Today was my first class picture day with first graders. As an upper grade teacher I always felt I was forcing a smile and trying super hard not to look to my left to make sure the kids were truly picture ready. That's a piece of cake compared to today.

I wanted to write about it, but honestly, I was too exhausted from the experience to actually do so. Fortunately, organized chaos is a better woman than I and has done so. My class is the second one she describes. (That's one of the reasons she's a better woman, she had to go through the nightmare with two classes.)

For those of you unfamiliar with elementary school class picture procedures, you should know that they take a quick shot of the class to print out so that the teacher can write down the names of all the folks in it in the correct order for each row. This picture had to be taken more than once for my class today. When the photographer handed me the picture and form to fill out, he said, "This isn't the final picture. But that one's not much better."

Sweating the Swine Flu

2009-05-04T22:47:00.003-04:00

I finally addressed the swine flu with my first graders this morning. I didn't go into any real details (I don't feel that knowledgeable myself) but I'm sure that many of them are hearing things and I don't want them to be worried. So we talked about smart hygiene decisions and how we can work to not spread germs. Later we stopped at the bathrooms on the way to lunch to wash hands (something I really should have been doing anyway).

As we were walking into the lunchroom my little prince asked if we were going to have school tomorrow. I started to sweat thinking about what an awful teacher I must be that I've instilled panic in six year olds over the swine flu. I was wracking my brain about how to address this at such an inopportune time as the beginning of lunch. So, to buy time, I asked him why would we not have school tomorrow.

"Because it's the fifth of May."

Nearly laughing with relief I explained to him that we would be having school on Cinco de Mayo.

Kindergarten Wedding

2009-05-02T15:18:00.002-04:00

My kindergarten daughter attends the school at which I teach. Some days, like yesterday, that is the greatest thing in the world. In the morning her class performed a song for the volunteer breakfast and I was able to go and see them (my class has art on Friday mornings). That afternoon her class had a wedding I was able to attend (my class has music on Friday afternoons). This wedding was the idea of the students and their fabulous teacher just let them run with it. I think it started as a fun discussion and then became something they truly wanted to do and she let them.

She has a bear named Nicey that goes home with a student each evening. They journal, writing or drawing, about what they did with the bear. Throughout the year the various extras that go with the bear have grown as children have added little blankets and toys for her. After reading Lily's Big Day the class decided that Nicey should get married. So one little boy offered his Mr. Bear as the groom, another little girl took both bears home on different evenings and her mother made their wedding clothes.

My daughter volunteered her bear to be the ring bearer. They used little plastic toy rings (which went over the bears' entire paw). Several students were ushers who gave each guest (students, teachers, and parents) a corsage (a paper flower taped to the guests' shirt) and seated them, girls on one side and boys on the other. Two little girls served as flower girls dropping more paper flowers as they headed up the aisle. A couple of students were in charge of the music as the bride walked down the aisle.
The teacher officiated the wedding in a simple, but formal manner. It ended with the bears hugging and the kids getting ready for the reception. There was a wedding cake with teddy graham crackers as the ornamental bride and groom on top. The whole wedding and reception probably lasted 30 minutes on a Friday afternoon. These students will be writing about the experience until the end of the year!

More Fun Than Should Be Allowed

2009-04-30T22:05:00.003-04:00

I took a step back today and let my kids explore with the thinkblocks. I've demonstrated with them a couple of times but I hadn't put them in their hands yet. So, today we just spent about 15 minutes playing around with them. Responsive Classroom describes this as 'guided discovery' (pdf). The students couldn't wait to get their hands on the blocks. They manipulated them in as many ways as they could imagine, attaching them to one another, putting them inside one another, lining them up, etc.

When we put them away I asked the students what they noticed about the blocks. They had so many thoughts it took a bit to get things under control enough to make our list of ideas. I expected some of the things on this list but I was surprised by others they mentioned.

I have to note that one of our free choice options is a basket of magnets and various small metal items and things. This has been a favorite station all year and they have noticed a lot of things about magnets. Then, earlier this week we read a big book, How Magnets Work, because we are studying explanation texts. The kids are now utterly fascinated by magnets. So they noticed that some sides of the thinkblocks push other thinkblocks away and other sides attract them. They realized and were able to explain that it was because the two poles are the same.

In second grade we have a state science standard about magnets:

The student will investigate and understand that natural and artificial magnets have certain characteristics and attract specific types of metals. Key concepts include
a) magnetism, iron, magnetic/nonmagnetic, poles, attract/repel; and
b) important applications of magnetism including the magnetic compass.

I think my kids are in good shape!

We've Come A Long Way, Baby

2009-04-25T10:45:00.000-04:00

It is hard for me to believe that these kids are the same ones that were in my class way back in August. They have come so far.

This week I watched one little girl playing with some magnetic letters during free choice time. She wasn't just messing around with them, she was creating a long list of words. She created my full name first. Then she continued with words like frame, outside, and myself. She just made any and all words that she could and all were spelled correctly. I loved that she spent her free choice time making words.

Later the same day another girl pulled out her library book, Egg to Chick. She has been reading it obsessively for days now. I have to note that it does not look like an exceptionally engaging book; the illustrations are quite basic, the layout is dull. That does not stop her however, from grabbing me frequently to share something new she has learned. "Ms. Orr, did you know that people come from eggs, too? Look!"

It IS About Me

2009-04-24T13:42:00.002-04:00

Wednesday morning my students were especially squirrely. (As it turns out the problem was school-wide come Thursday.) By the time we were half an hour in the day I had sent three students back to their seats because they couldn't appropriately participate in our lessons.

At one point, as they were all sitting at their tables, I realized that those three were three of the brightest students in my classroom. At that moment it hit me that it is much more likely that the problem was me, not the kids.

I have a lot of thinking to do about my classroom management, structure of our daily schedule, and engaging my students in the lessons.

Groundbreaking Progress Report

2009-04-20T22:03:00.003-04:00

I spent last Saturday with the 5th and 2nd grade teams from my school and one other in our district learning about a new progress report they will be beta testing. (I was there because my former principal is heading up this project and she knows my very strong feelings about grades. She invited me to join them and give my feedback.)

This progress report is being created by our district and the folks at Thinkworks. They created the thinkblocks that many of us have blogged about recently. I've got a couple of pages of notes and thoughts from the day and other random ideas swirling around in my head. It may take a while for it all to settle and truly make sense to me, much less anyone else!

However, the gist of the new progress report is that it will include traditional content areas (math, reading, art, etc), social/citizenship skills (uses time wisely, works well with others, etc) and the patterns of thinking from the Thinkworks folks. This much I understood before Saturday.

The progress report will not have any letter grades. That's worth repeating in case it didn't really sink in, there will be no letter grades. Everything will be scored on a scale of 1 to 3. 1 means 'needs more time to approach standard.' 2 means 'approaches standard.' 3 means 'meets standard.' There is also what is being called a 3E, 'extends standard.'

Those scores will be used for the patterns of thinking in the same way as the traditional content areas. This will be the progress report for grades 1-6 in our district in a few years (if all goes well). I can't begin to describe how exciting I think this is.

I'm impressed with the elimination of letter grades. For years now I've felt that letter grades do little or nothing to communicate with parents about their children's learning. If that's the goal of a progress report I think it comes up short. I'm also very, very impressed with the idea of communicating progress on the patterns of thinking.

We talked a little on Saturday about students who would be successful in the patterns of thinking but not in the traditional content areas. I immediately thought of a student of mine from 5 years ago. He had a learning disability and was almost completely unable to decode text. As a result, he was convinced he was stupid. However, when I read a book aloud his comments and questions were the most insightful in our class. I'm not sure if it was his learning disability or his lack of confidence that made school so difficult for him, but I am sure that he deserved better. I think if he had been able to see his strengths on a progress report like this one it would have made a world of difference for him.

(I don't think this post makes nearly as much sense as I would like it to. For that, I apologize. I'll try to be more coherent in the future.)

A Crystal Ball

2009-04-17T15:47:00.002-04:00

Having taught fifth and fourth grades for years and now teaching first grade, I look at these kids and wonder what they will be when they reach the end of their elementary years. I have many predictions and some concerns.

One little girl in particular concerns and fascinates me. Even in kindergarten she was 'too cool for school.' She has problems with friendships because she can be bossy and mean. At other times she can be kind and helpful. She is bright, excited about learning, and, in many ways, a joy to have in class.

I have to wonder, though, if she will be a 'mean girl' when she is a bit older. She seems to show the signs for it. And, if so, what could I be doing now to keep that from happening?

Is it possible for us to control that in a child? Is that outcome set already? I don't like the idea that I can't 'fix' this and make sure that my students grow up to be kind, generous people. At the same time, I find it overwhelming to think I might have control over such things.

We Need to Look Closely

2009-04-15T21:43:00.002-04:00

I know I'm lucky to teach at a fabulous school with a dedicated staff and darling children. I also know (although I do tend to forget sometimes) that my school is not the norm. I've worked for two amazing principals who have helped form an outstanding school.

That said, I still struggle with the idea that our educational system is as bad as it is rumored to be. I'm aware that there are many awful schools, especially those serving our most disadvantaged students. I do believe that there are many things we can and should do better in our schools. I'm just not fully convinced that it means our schools are failing our students, at least not across the board.

I was struck by Mark Pullen's recent post after Secretary Duncan called for longer school days, weeks, and years.

Is it really more accurate to say that some of our schools are failing some of our students? Or is it really a societal failure? Or a parental failure? Or even a prenatal failure, in some cases?

In addition to carefully pondering each policy idea coming from Mr. Duncan, I urge teachers everywhere to reconsider their tacit acceptance of the notion that our schools are a complete failure.

I think we need to be willing to carefully analyze everything about our educational system, but as we separate the wheat from the chaff, let's not throw them both out.

Earworm

2009-04-14T22:16:00.003-04:00

I had never heard this song before (I only listen to NPR on the radio) but my special little friend sings it all the time. So as you listen, you have to picture a six year old boy who is socially awkward singing "I want to move it move it. I want to move it move it." again and again and again, at appropriate and inappropriate times.

Work Hard Be Nice (Final Thoughts, Hopefully)

2009-04-11T13:14:00.003-04:00

I've finished Jay Mathews's Work Hard Be Nice. (previous posts) I'm really glad I read the book, something that will please Mathews, I'm sure. I genuinely enjoyed the book. I'm exceptionally impressed with Levin and Feinberg and all they have done. They are two of the hardest working individuals of whom I'm aware. They deserve a lot of credit.

That said, I still have some issues with KIPP and the view of KIPP.

1. It's all about the test scores. I had this same issue with Geoffrey Canada's work in Harlem when I read Whatever It Takes. In some ways I don't blame Levin, Feinberg, or Canada. They are playing the game as it stands in our country today. I do hold the media somewhat responsible, however. In the chapter near the end of Work Hard Be Nice in which Mathews address the critiques of KIPP he focuses almost exclusively on test scores. There is a bit about drop-out rates and demographics, but not much. If what we present to the public is all about test scores, that is all that will matter. There are so many other important things to consider.

2. When KIPP is discussed in the media (main stream, blogs, everywhere) the focus is on the wrong things, in my opinion. The focus is always on the longer day, week, and year and on the skill and drill part of the instruction. If Mathews has made an accurate presentation of KIPP, beyond the schools Levin and Feinberg started originally, then there is much more that is critical here. The cultural events to which they took students as well as the huge trips each year are rarely discussed. I would consider those aspects a huge part of what made KIPP work for students.

3. The skill and drill part of the instruction. I don't believe that all the instruction is this way, but it is a part. It seems to me that KIPP teachers are working so hard to bring their students up to grade level and able to pass the tests that they sacrifice deeper understanding for broader skills. It is unfortunate that students reach middle school and that choice has to be made because they are behind, but I still don't believe in memorization without understanding (such as rolling their numbers for multiplication).

4. I don't believe that KIPP is the savior for our inner cities. KIPP administrators get rid of teachers quickly if they don't cut it. That's not a bad thing. However, if enough good teachers were out there already we wouldn't be in this position. Not every inner city child will be able to have a teacher of the caliber of KIPP teachers, there just aren't enough fabulous teachers out there. That's an issue that needs to be addressed in some way and it is a critically important one.

5. I don't believe most middle class parents would want their kids to attend KIPP. I don't believe they would want the discipline level that KIPP employs, at least in the beginning. I don't believe they would want the skill and drill part of the instruction. That makes me wonder why we believe that disadvantaged kids should have things that we wouldn't want for our own children.

I have two close friends who taught at a KIPP school in Houston. In addition, I chatted with a bunch of teachers and students on the metro many years ago from a Houston KIPP school. They were here on their annual trip to DC and we just happened to be on the same train. I noticed the shirts and heard the chants and took the opportunity to talk with them.

I don't want to get rid of KIPP. I just want to know that we are looking at it closely, considering the positives and negatives, and moving forward from there. I'm bothered by the presentation of KIPP as THE answer. That's how Mathews presents it here. The book is worth reading, but not unless one is willing to go beyond it to learn about KIPP.