the real teacher

I got observed today.

If you knew me in real life, or if you can imagine how year two as a teacher would be for me based on how teacher licensure goes in your state, you might think I meant by an official evaluator. Or someone from administration. Or from the state department. Or whatever.

Nope.

Today, I had a student observing. A student. From our friendly local SEC member university. (Have I outed my location yet?) It kind of blew me away, especially considering they asked me in particular.

Being on my own in a classroom last year as the "real teacher" was weird enough, but it was surreal to be the one being watched. (And not as the "what not to do" example!) The girl that observed was very complimentary and said she couldn't believe it was only my second year.

Yes, I'm bragging. Sorry.

best laid plans

I had these great ideas about how my literacy block would go. Different mini-lessons, many times to pull individuals for extra help, a well-oiled machine of daily-5-ness.

I took one look at our master schedule, which lays out what subject each grade is doing when, and threw that idea out the window. I don't have a literacy block. It's more like . . . literacy slivers. It's all broken up. And, if you recall, I have K-3 this year (because the universe hates me.) This is requiring a ton of juggling.

Still, we are trudging on. We've launched Read to Self and Read to Someone. I had planned to introduce Listen to Reading next week, but some supply chain issues (aka the closest branch of our public library has unexpectedly closed) may make Work on Words our next choice.

We're up to fifteen minutes of Read to Self with my first and second graders, and ten with my third graders. My first and second graders can also do Read to Someone for fifteen minutes. My third graders won't try it, because they refuse to work with each other. (This may be for the best, so I haven't pushed it.)

While we introduced/reviewed Read to Self, I showed off my new library labels. They aren't very fancy, and are kind of in version 1.0 state, but so far they have kept our books organized. Yay!!!

I can't share them with you, because they're from boardmaker, but all I did was use the 1 inch and 2 inch templates. And, yes, I have a whole basket in my room dedicated to following the rules. Welcome to ED resource.

If you look behind my chair in our group area, you can see some of the anchor charts we've done so far. My huge question to you is this: how do you write so neatly on your charts while still keeping up the pace of instruction? I feel like my handwriting is pretty nice, but it goes to crap as I try to keep moving and keep my kids engaged when making charts or doing interactive writing. It's kind of embarrassing. I ended up printing out parts of one chart, which worked alright, but isn't always going to be feasible. I might re-write them later, after we're done introducing Daily 5, but for now I want the originals up.

We're also off and running on CAFE, too. I feel like some of my kids are totally space out during small group, while others are completely on it. We've reviewed listening skills, amd my spaced out kids can look like they're listening, but they are so not with us. I need to keep working on that. Here's our CAFE board, although we've added more strategies now.

 

For my kids who are "with it" during group, they are so much more with it since I've incorporated some Whole Brain teaching tricks into our lessons. So far, we're mostly just using class/yes, gestures, and the occasional scoreboard. I've also tried to be more conscious about giving more frequent opportunities to respond.

One thing I haven't done yet is the WBT rules. I think I am most nervous about those, because we are a PBIS school. While the WBT rules jive with our expectations matrix, I don't want to be a hypocrite because I'm one of those ones who gets annoyed with people who aren't supportive of our transition to PBIS. Even if you don't like it (which I have research on why you should, but anyway,) it's kind of like the Common Core: our district is adopting it, like it or not. So, I have my expectations matrix posted. I may wait on class rules. Maybe.

As far as posting expectations, I've also decided to post our learning objectives in our room where everyone can see. I'm not sure how much this will help my younger/lower students, since I haven't put any pictures with it, but it will help remind me what we're doing (especially once we get farther into the year and I have three sets of group lessons per subject) without referencing my lesson plans and will also let observers (this year is my evaluation year) know what we're doing. Here's how I've done it so far:

Finally, look at this cool piece of construction that's sprung up in our yard:

 

the big reveal

Oh my word, we are off and running. Although mostly not literally. The stench of chlorine offends one of my littles with autism. Some of my small people are . . . not so small anymore. My schedule is erratic, at best; people are constantly in and out. I had a phone thrown at my head. One little came back to school a different child (in a good way.) The lids to Nalgene bottles will shatter. I now need to add birds to the many esoteric subjects I'm supposed to be an expert on. I'm exhausted, but it's been pretty good so far.

Here's my classroom. It's mostly done now, considering we're already in session. Sorry about the quality, I haven't taken my good camera to school in a while.

The view from the door.

Our counter with writing supplies, word wall, clip chart, cabinets, and CAFE board. I'm putting seasonal boxes on top of our cabinets, but I'm still working on it.

A close-up of our CAFE signs.

One of our group areas. This area is mostly for reading/writing "whole group," as we do math "whole group" on the SMARTboard. (I feel a little weird that my whole group is usually 4 or less, hence the quotation marks.)

 

Magnet center, post office, and clip boards.

View of one of the work spaces. The kidney table will also be used for individual or pair reading instruction. You can also see our listening center, cubbies, and my wingman's desk.

My awesome new document camera!

My lovely schedule. . .

I'm pretty happy with the way my room turned out, and I think it's very functional and not just cutesy. I know there are some other changes I would like to make, but that aren't practical with my particular class.

I hope everyone is having a great start to their year!

 

must have . . . sleep?

Kicking off Teacher Week today is Must Have Monday. I've been kind of busy and slack with the blog lately, but I'd figured I'd pop in. Mostly because tomorrow is day 1 and I am terrified. Only not as much as last year. And I'm more prepared this year, but not as well as I'd like. Ho hum.

So, a quick list of my must-haves.

(a very quick list, because I was awake for masters swimming at 4:45 this morning and I'm about to crash.)

1. Starbucks. Or maybe a iced vanilla coffee K Cup, if I'm feeling broke. But, I need coffee. I am absolutely positive I wouldn't have graduated without it. And I probably wouldn't have a job without it. Cofffffffeeeeee. A coworker called me Friday morning before school to ask me what she should order at Starbucks. Yes.

 

 

2. Books. Lots of books for the littles and for me. I need more informational texts in my classroom library. For reals. I got my supply allotment money, and I'm considering getting the D-I leveled math/social studies/science readers. Also, my nook needs more books, but that has nothing to do with my supply allotment.

 

3. Paper. Oh goodness, they finally started limiting copies at my school. I'm not usually prone to such hyperbole, but I actually remarked to a coworker today that I felt like I was in hell. The temperature didn't help, though, so it might not have just been the paper limits. I made 45 copies total of behavior sheets for 3/4's of my babies before I ran out. Sheesh.

4. My blackbook. It is lovely. It is greatly superior to my work computer, too. Sorry, windows.

5. A wingman to back me up. This is not essential, as I've proven this can be done sans assistant, but it's a must-have for my sanity. For reals.


Yeah, so the littles arrive tomorrow and my room looks like a wreck. It's a little better/worse than the pictures I'm going to show below, but I'm coming early tomorrow to give it some extra TLC.

 

unpacking

When I left my classroom at the end of May, everything was packed up and it all looked very empty and lonely. I went back this week to start unpacking and organizing my room. We don't have to go back to work for a while yet, but I know I have a lot of planning to do this year before we get started. I want to do all the decorating and stuff before we have to be back at work. I'll do my planning then, because I will get my teacher manuals checked back out to me. Also, I think our general education classes are getting a new reading series this year (or next year, they already picked out Literacy by Design.) I really want to see the materials for that when I'm planning out everything, so hopefully there are a few extra copies of things.

Anyway, I lugged a bunch of stuff down with me. I think I have a school supply problem. This is not all of what I purchased for my room so far. Nor is it even all of the glue sticks.

Sorry for the bad quality on the second one. I bought a ton of Dots on Turquoise stuff. I really want my room to look nice and neat, but I'm also super opposed to commercially-made bulletin board sets and posters. I thought that maybe I could put the anchor charts that the littles complete onto the posters, and I have a few other ideas. Anyway. Lots of stuff. I think all of my money from my second job went back into my first one. Oh well.

And here's what I amused myself with as I worked on my classroom:

Yes, I watched Tuesday morning prelims on my SmartBoard. Then watched women's gymnastics live. I would have watched finals live, too, but my sister was with me and we had to leave before 2:30.

This is my new word wall. It is super-messy. I do not understand how all of you ladies are so good at cutting straight lines and aligning things. It is obviously not a talent of mine. Or a talent of my sisters. I'm kind of worried about how this turned out, and having enough room for all the words. And applying words without tearing up the paper. I'm going to change the sign out, too; it looks way too small.

I have a lot more work to do, but this is what my classroom looks like now:

Yes. A wreck. It's a process. Hopefully it will start coming together soon. I'm not going back until next week, so in the meantime I'm going to work on making some things for my class on the computer. I thought that my computer was on it's way out, as the trackpad was not working consistently and the replacement cost was going to be enormous. Considering that my macbook is old enough that I can't upgrade to OSX mountain lion, I was planning to buy a new one during tax-free weekend. I was conflicted, though. I love my computer. Also, I am not made of money.

Then, I noticed my computer no longer was sitting very flat on the table. I turned it over, and the battery was bulging out of the computer. Yikes! Since the battery is under the trackpad, I was wondering if maybe this was the source of my problems.

So now I have a new battery and my computer is working much better. (Yes, I have a blackbook. It's amazing.) So, no new computer this August. I'm okay with that.

daily five ((all the chapters i've slacked on))

I am so slack.  I could say I've been busy with work (true,) practice (*gulp* I entered in the Masters Zone Championship,) the conference I went to (that sucked but was at the beach so it evened out,) watching the Olympics (my minor claim to fame is that Michael Phelps once pushed me into a pool,) or making stuff for my classroom (which will be more accurate now that my macbook is fixed,) but I don't really have a good excuse.

Except for naps. And shopping for school supplies. I think I've purchased sixty glue sticks. I might have a problem.

Anyway, no excuse.

I have a problem with not finishing things so, even though I'm not sure I have anything meaningful to contribute, I'm going to toss in my two cents on the rest of the book. I'll make it quick.

Chapter Four

Read to Self. My class was pretty good at this last year. We talked about the Three Ways to Read a Book, built stamina, made an anchor chart, and such. One of the things I think we need to improve upon are checking in after practicing. Also, I want to help kids make connections between the reading strategies they learn with me to the books they read. This is more difficult for my littles who are in Reading Mastery Kindergarten (different orthography) than my first grade and up Reading Mastery littles or the ones who just do reading conferences/guided reading. Finally, I want to make sure to emphasize that this is independent reading to the other adults in the room. Sometimes, adults have trouble leaving the kids alone to read. I want to make sure that we all know that Read to Self and Read to Someone are both important, but are separate things.

Chapter Five

Read to Someone is harder to implement in my room because there can be so few children. This was mostly accomplished last year by littles reading to my wingman paraprofessional or to other adults who visited. I want to try to encourage them to read to each other more this year and set my schedule up in a way this will be feasible.

Listen to Reading is something that we kind of tapered off with throughout the year. I cringe at this, but it was mostly because the littles that were in my reading block by the end of the year were not there at the beginning when we went over how to use the materials. I want to also expand past our CD player to using the iPod nano I don't use anymore and Tumblebooks.

Chapter Six

Work on Writing might have to be a once-every-day thing in my room. Because of our schedule (I essentially teach an extra subject) and some other external factors, I'm not sure I can do a separate writing time. I think one of the mini-lessons during D5 is going to be a writing one, then they can choose when during D5 to work on writing. During my post after reading No More I'm Done I went more into depth about some things I wanted to change about my writing instruction.

I've given some thought to Work on Words this summer, because I want to make sure I have engaging options for the littles to practice with. I've purchased some stamp pads and letter stamps, unifix letter cubes, cheap stickers, letter beads, and play doh with stampers. I also have some of the standards: white boards, magnetic letters, markers, etc.

Chapter Seven

This is kind of a non sequitur, but I'm having this nightmarish anticipation that, when making an I chart, one of the littles will say that the teacher will be on the computer or at a meeting. Urgh. I don't have a planning period (or a bathroom break) all day, so sometimes I'm doing non-instructional things out of necessity when I wish I didn't have to.

Instead of me taking the notes on who's doing what during check in, I think I'm going to have them keep track on a sheet on their own. I also think I'm going to make a little clip chart with the choices for them to show what they're working on.

I'm really excited about getting started with using this format for our literacy block. Everyone who participated in the book study had such great ideas, I'm glad I could learn from everyone. :)

daily five ((chapter three))

I'm linking up with Mrs. Freshwater's Class and Thinking Out Loud for Chapter 3 of the Daily Five book study.

Gathering Place

I have a rug right in front of the SmartBoard in my classroom that we use as our gathering place. I believe I under-utilized it this year. Because I have such a small number of students in my room at once, I sometimes was tempted to do our gathering at the kidney table. Since a lot of our work is done at the table (even when other locations around the room are offered,) this didn't become a Brain and Body Break. I want to make sure we do our whole-group lessons on the rug this year.

Picking Appropriate Books

At the beginning of the year last year, I did some lessons on Good Fit books. As a new teacher I didn't have very many books in my classroom, and those I had were not at an appropriate independent level for my students. (I later was introduced to our literacy library with the leveled books, a month or two into the year.) We mostly focused on "reading the pictures," "retelling the story," and finding books we were interested in. I am planning on using the "I PICK" method and the shoes lessons that were detailed in the book this year.

We were lucky to receive a large leveled library from DonorsChoose this year in January. I want to continue adding to it this year and focus on using those levels as a guide for where to start looking for books that they will "know the words" in. I also want to add more options to each of the levels in our library.

Setting Up Book Boxes

We have these book bins from Really Good Stuff in our room. You can see the neon ones above in ou leveled library. The children each have a blue one for their notebooks, and they have a second one for their book boxes (if they come to me during literacy block.) I am. . . not crazy about them. Really Good Stuff has been great about customer service, but several have broken in my room even with normal use (ex. no one threw or kicked them.) The second set I ordered even arrived with many broken in the box during transport. They've sent replacements and a gift certificate; the RGS people have been super-nice but I wouldn't get that particular product. I've heard the ones without the wings are more sturdy.

As far as the actual books in the boxes, I'm lucky to already know my children's reading levels and have some idea of what they may be interested in reading. I want to get to know the interests of my littles this year, and have them discover interests of their own. I used the public library a lot at the beginning of the year to bring cool, new books into our room, but slacked off after I built up our classroom library. I want to make sure I continue bringing in library books throughout the year this year.

Anchor Charts

This is something that I want to start making with the class again. At the beginning of the year when we did more whole-group work, we made anchor charts to display our learning. As we did more individual academic work and less whole-group, we made fewer anchor charts. I've said that I want to do more whole-group mini-lessons this year in addition to our individual instruction, so we will return to making these.

Short Intervals of Repeated Practice

I already do this a lot in my room. I totally agree that practicing the wrong way will not help students learn the target behavior. 

Signals

Alright, I am incredibly bad about transition signals. I got  a chime last year as a new-teacher gift . . . and promptly put it out of reach, swearing to take it back out in a few weeks when things were more calm. I know, I know . . . that sounds ridiculous (but you were also not in my class on day 1, so don't judge.) I am considering using the chime from Day 1 this year (because I know it will be much better this year.) Or. . . . I'm also thinking about Whole Brain Teaching's Class/Okay. ((I may just use this part of WBT, but I do have some questions about using WBT in a resource class and how to mesh it with PBIS.)) 

I like the check-in signals suggested in the book. I think I want to use more visual signals and gestures this year, both as signals/responses and in my instruction in general. 

Correct Model/Incorrect Model

Okay, this is one area where my behavior instruction education conflicted with the book. I always use the correct model side, with students and myself demonstrating the correct behavior for the class. I've also used nonexamples, or the incorrect model. I've never let a student do the incorrect model, because I've always felt it is like letting them practice the wrong way. My professors would cringe. Following this up with demonstrating the correct behavior, though . . . I'm still considering this.

Final Thoughts 

This chapter talks about needing to "move slow so we can eventually move fast." I think that, similar to other classroom procedures, more time at the beginning of the year will save time in the end. 

My one concern is new littles that miss this time. I had five students in my literacy block at the beginning of the year and six at the end with many in between . . . and only one of the first five was in the last six. Because my students are young, they are usually being initially identified for services. Some respond quickly to intervention and need to reduce service minutes. . . or add when there's insufficient response. Some need to switch their service time as tolerance for different activities becomes apparent. Some need to be served in a more intensive environment and are transferred to me from their home-school. Some need even more intensive services and go on to another program. Others are found to actually need services from a different type of program, like academic resource. While keeping students in the Least Restrictive Environment is the best thing for them, it can mean some changes while the most appropriate setting is determined.

If you have a class that has a lot of student changes (maybe a transient population?) how do you handle this? I've been thinking of many ideas on my own, but I'd love to hear from someone who has experienced this and has any tricks.