D5 and guided reading fun

I thought I'd share a couple of ways we practice "Working with Words" in both our Daily 5 routine and during guided reading. I love Scrabble, so naturally I try to fit the tiles into our word work. Here is one of my students making words with them. We were working on the long o sound -oa.

Here is how I store the tiles. This divided container was part of the tool box I use for Guided Reading. I posted about it here.

Wonder how I came by so many tiles? Garage sales, baby.

 This is one of my favorite new ways to work with word families. I went to the hardware store and picked up some paint chips. Watch out, they don't like customers taking a huge stack. I've invested so much in Behr Paint that I don't feel too guilty. I got both the single color cards and the ones with multiple hues and shades of the same color. I punched a nice big round hole on the single color card, and wrote a word family ending on it with Sharpie. Then I added initial and ending sounds to the other card. The firsties slide the card with the punch over the other card, and in doing so, make words. Then they write the word they made in their "Working with Words" notebook. I love these because they are so pretty. Nice reason, huh? Pretty makes everything more fun! The cards are also very sturdy. They last a long time!

This is how I store the paint chips. This large coupon organizer was in the dollar aisle at Target a few years ago.

I'm always looking for new ways to make Working with Words fun and creative! Firstie buy-in is so much greater when it's fun and novel!

Alligreater

I love the analogy between the greater/less than symbol and an alligator. I drew this gator so that I could create a poster in my classroom. Feel free to use and share!

Epic Fail, Epic Success

Epic Fail:

Who knew? It wouldn't lay flat and it was impossible to read. Do not attempt this idea.

Reengineered, it now looks like this:

I'm not even going to bother printing it out. It will be shown on the smartboard. God help me if my smartboard fails. I had to manually rotate the activities, and save 24 files. They say from the ashes rises better ideas, so let's see if this one is a winner.

Epic Success:

This Firsties loved it, and after recess there was a line to put in a tattle. By the end of the day there were 16 in the box. 16 tattles that I didn't have to listen to! I did go through them, and there were no major offenses. So far, so good.

"What can I write about" table tennis balls. Several times kids grabbed one when they were working on "free choice writing". Cool!

The "I Spy" glasses from the Dollar Store worked fabulously! Pictured is a student wearing a pair as he edits his writing. Best 5 bucks I've spent in a long time.

Starting to freak a little...

I was so gung-ho on my D5 facelift yesterday. Then I had a teaching dream last night (why, oh why, do I have to dream about school all during vacation? Even at Disney when I'm on teaching-prohibition??), and it seriously rattled me. You know how you sometimes can't shake the way a dream makes you feel? Like, you're pissed at your husband all day if you have a dream that he leaves you. I so can't shake the feeling the teaching-dream gave me. In my dream, I had accidentally left my classroom window open over Christmas break, and was trying to explain to my principal how it had happened. Then I told him all about my new D5 idea (I'm random, even in dreams apparently), and he looked right at me and said "Do you really think it's a good idea to introduce something new when things are going ok? I'm really worried about the instruction time you'll lose". So now I'm worried about the loss of instruction time, too! Am I being selfish by wanting to spice things up? Are my kids going to be able to handle the change, even if I take it slow and easy?

Sheesh. I'm panicking. I feel the sudden urge to run to school and work manically until Tuesday morning. I want to cry.

Daily 5 gets a face lift

Our family just returned from spending Christmas at Disney. Have you ever been? To say it's magical is an understatement. My sister, brother-in-law, husband and I surprised our 4 girls by giving them t-shirts that said "I'm going Disney World for Christmas". They unwrapped them minutes before we whisked them off to the airport. It was exactly what I needed after a rough fall; I smiled every minute of every day for 6 days. I feel so unbelievably refreshed. Laughter is indeed the best medicine.

While I promised my family (and more importantly, myself) that I wouldn't think about teaching while we were at Disney, I came home inspired. I decided that it was time to make learning magical and fun again.

If you've read my previous posts this fall, you'll know that we've been in learning lock-down. A big part of what finally got us on the learning track was the "no stimulation"  plan I put my firsties on. What had always worked with my other classes simply did not work with this one. On the flight home I began to think seriously about how I could keep the teaching ball rolling, but make my students thrown down their cereal spoons and rush off to school every morning.

The one area that I had reduced down to a simple stock was our Daily 5 routine. We had gone from free choice of a lovely variety to whole-group activities. As I began thinking about how I could change it up, I broke up readers workshop into the 4 main areas we, as a class, focus on: reading, working with words, writing, and listening to reading (you'll notice on the wheel that Read to Self is missing. For now, we do this all together at the end of the day). These 4 areas support the learning areas of fluency, accuracy, writing, and some comprehension. Comprehension is still an activity that we do as whole group/guided release. Each area has many activities that we do; as I just said, up until now we have done nearly all of them together at one time. I decided to add some new activities; they will have to be taught and practiced one at a time until I can release them to be done independently. I will lose some instruction time doing this, but it's important to spice things up for the long stretch between Christmas and spring break.

I have 22 students, and the best way I could divide up the 4 D5 areas was to create 24 activities. I used a wheel configuration, because the activities need to rotate, and I needed it to be as easy to do mechanically as possible. I knew that moving clips or clothespins would be too time-consuming for me, and would have me scrambling when what we really need are smooth transitions. The double-faced wheel has a gromit in the middle that holds that names and activities together, and allows quick and easy changing.

Here is the table I used to organize my thoughts about the order of the activities. (You can download my templates at https://sites.google.com/site/mrsmsstuff/matrix) You can alter as you need to, since it's a word doc. The wheel is a bit more difficult to share, since I created it in Adobe Illustrator. I created a blank PDF so that it can be printed, assembled and personalized with drawing and handwriting. You will need to print 8 of the wheel templates; it is broken into a aingle quarter, and you will need a full circle for the names, and a full circle for the activities (simply cut the outer ring off for the inner circle).

As far as adding a little excitement goes, the time has come to finally implement those darn iTouches as well. I have them all set up identically, with videos of the songs and lyrics that we sing in class (to work on fluency). The one exception has the game "Don't Let the Pigeon Run This App", which will be a real treat for the kids once every full rotation.

Now it's just to print, trim, and laminate. Then I'll be ready to relaunch a new and improved D5 guaranteed to spice up our mid-winter.

Headlights

I was startled out of my post-concert stupor by 5 first graders gathered around the sink shrieking "Headlights! Headlights in the sink! Headlights in the sink!" I know what they think headlights are, so I scrambled over to see what the heck they were talking about. Sure enough, scurrying around the bottom of the sink is a Silverfish.

I had to admit, I could see the resemblance. Five years ago I was teaching guided reading and watched in horror as a giant lice came out for a stroll on one of my student's forehead. Granted, I was a little traumatized, but I do remember thinking the pencil-lead grey bug did look a bit like a Silverfish. Except not so shiny and pretty.

The "headlight" sent them off on into a frenzy, and it took awhile to settle everyone back down.


Veering off onto a completely different topic (but one almost as icky as lice), we received an email about a revision to our "employee handbook". In case you haven't been keeping up with the news, in Wisconsin things are a bit unsettled for teachers and other public employees. We lost our contracts, which the wording of had been built over decades and lots of finessing on the parts of the school board and our negotiators who represented us teachers. With that gone, something had to replace the legal-and-business aspects of our employment. Enter the "employee handbook".

Let's just put politics aside for a moment, as this has less to do with left or right and more about the assumption that we are still waiting for Superman. The issue that has everyone in an uproar is a new way to determine layoff potentials. Instead of the usual tenure-based system of seniority by years in service, it appears now that our employment will be based on a) performance b) credentials and beyond-initial-licensure education and c) years in service - in that order.

At first glance, I was actually a bit psyched about this. I'm a good teacher, I'm getting my masters and thinking about education beyond that, but I have few years in the district. It would seem unwise to keep a more senior, but less talented teacher in the place of a newer but more effective teacher. Cut and dry, right? Not so much, it appears. Should I be sweating it because my students are not making the expected progress in reading this year? I am working hard to teach them and help them learn, but would that be enough in the light of an evaluation that took reading levels into account as a priority?

I can understand the fear of this new system, even though I think it might keep us all on our toes. And we really do need to be on our toes if we are going to teach the kids that we are raising these days. I wouldn't accept mediocre care from a doctor, and if the oil-change guy consistently shorted me half of a quart of oil every change I'd be finding a new place to change my oil. I don't think that we can accept any less than the highest standards for our art and ourselves. If only teaching wasn't such a subjective art.

"...because it was full of peanuts!" and other Big Thoughts for the day

Today was our first grade singing concert. If you've read my prior posts, you know that nearly everything we do this year is an uphill battle. I know what my kids are capable of, in all their glory for good or bad. But know this, I believe in them so strongly that I wasn't as worried as I could have been.

It's so funny, the way I worry about them. I find myself being rigid and hard, demanding perfection knowing that any small infraction will escalate into uncontrolled chaos that I won't be able to call them back from. I laid down the law like a witchy schoolmarm, and as I paced the front of the rug my children were staring at me from, I felt like I was delivering a fire and brimstone sermon about the evils of temptation. The temptation to talk. The temptation to jiggle. The temptation to pinch a neighbor or stick hands down the front of pants. While the kids were rehearsing on stage I kept narrow-eyed watch over every one of them as I strode back and forth. "Hands at your sides." "Eyes on the teacher." "Face forward, please." "Honey, put your shirt down."

During lunch, I began to worry if the kids rose to the expectations or if I had beaten them emotionally into submission. Then I remembered the smiles, the small hidden waves I got as I walked by, the thumbs up with raised eyebrows. "Am I doing good, Mrs. M?" They accepted the challenge and rose to meet it. Goodness knows it wasn't because they were afraid of me. There is no healthy fear of anything at school anymore, except maybe the peach cup at snack time.

I am so proud of my kiddos. I mean, I'm always proud of them, but today I am tears-in-the-eyes proud of them. Chest-squeezing, heart-pinching proud.

It should be noted that concerts are occasions for big events and memorable escapades. Three years ago today, five of my first graders found a "candy bar" in the boy's toilet. Unwrapped. Chocolate. How did they know it was a candy bar? Why Mrs. M, it was "the kind that is full of peanuts." And if that doesn't make you want to eat a Baby Ruth, well then, you obviously aren't cut out for first grade.

Score!

So we're meandering through Home Depot, trying to get our Christmas shopping done. I get waylaid in the paint aisle collecting paint cards so I can do this, and on my way back to find my husband I spy this...

Call me crazy, but while my husband is checking off who this would be a good gift for, I'm thinking "Literacy Center!" It has all those pockets for sparkle pens, E.Z.Readers, Paint-chip word makers, stamp sets, crayons, markers, glue sticks, scissors, and whatever you fancy for teaching Guided Reading. Inside there are 4 divider boxes with room for magnetic letters, letter tiles, scrabble letters, etc. It is made for hauling tools, so it should be heavy duty enough for using with my Firsties. AND it has  carrying handles and a clip on strap. 

Best part? On sale for $19.00!! This will only seem like a deal if you've ever tried to put something like this together from School Discounts or Really Good Stuff. 

I can't wait to set it up.

Next, we went to Michaels (which is usually an extended but creatively inspiring trip). Tearing myself away from the Martha Stewart glitter and heading to the check out aisle, I spy small sets of alphabet stamps and ink for $1.00!! Holy guacamole! I found cheap little take-out boxes, and voila! cheap and simple stamping sets for Word Work. 

Don't you just love Christmas shopping?

Headphone Dilemma

I'm getting ready to introduce the iTouches to the kids. The only thing holding me back now is having enough head phones for the kids to wear. Here are my thoughts on having individual sets or class sets:

Expense:

The cheapest I can find headphones are 4.99 a pair. We can't use the ear buds because they are too large to fit into the firstie's ears. I would have to purchase 18 pairs. The kids could all use the same ones, as I've done for the Shuffles. Then I would only need 4 additional pairs.

Asking so much already:

I've already asked for class money to help pay for class parties, but then the small amount I got I used towards ball chairs (that I can no longer use). Should I ask for parents to pitch in for a pair if they don't want their kid to share with others, and then pick up the tab for those who don't? Gotta keep it equitable.

Parent Choice?:

Do I let the parents send in their own, or have a set price and purchase them so they are all the same?

Licing on the Cake:
Um, would you want to share headphones with the Class Lice? I think I would pass.

Just thinking out loud. Would love to hear ideas and suggestions.

Thinking ahead to the short week...I hope it is free of parasites and dog poo. I don't think I can take on much more. I can't imagine what could be next....well, I could, but I won't in case there is some suggestive power of thought.

National Dialogue about Working Class

It's difficult to explain how it feels to have your state government undermine your profession and passion. Those who teach in Ohio, and us in Wisconsin, can hardly put into words how unsupported, demoralized and attacked our Governors have made us feel. Ohio pulled together and overruled; our eyes are now turned to our state government here in Wisconsin.

I'm pretty sure that no one anticipated the 2010-11 school year evolving like it did. In Hudson, a border town that gets all it's news from the Twin Cities, Madison was barely on our radar. Shame on us for not paying closer attention to state and local politics. It took a nightmare to wake us up. Now our eyes are turned towards Madison, and we are fearful of turning our backs on what has become the worst predator of public education.

Governor Walker has been pummeled with name-calling; he's a moron, an idiot, imbecile. I have to disagree. Even though it is highly satisfying to think of him as a stupid man, I think his plan was smart marketing. He had an agenda he wanted to push through, and he needed an enemy. Polarize communities and get results. Bring the fight into homes and towns and you can sit back and watch the dominoes topple. Of course, you need to have a scapegoat - one that folks love to vilify.

Bring in the public workers.

Isn't it true that they have it better than everybody else? Unbeatable benefits, lengthy vacations, unbelievable retirements. They work half as much as everyone else, but get four times the perks. And those teachers...lazy, whiny, ungrateful.

I think Walker knew exactly what he was doing when he launched his insidious attack. He had the smarts to do something that Ohio didn't; he exempted our fire fighters, our police officers, and our emergency workers. You can't slant a congregation against our bravest in a post-9/11 nation. But leave them out of the fight, and you take away the greatest emotional outrage. What's left are the people that the people love to hate - state workers and the teachers.

My heart broke last year as I was told, in our papers, on blogs, and in the right media, that I was greedy, unbending, and self-serving. If I defend myself, I'm defending my lazy and egocentric livelihood.

Here's an invitation: come and spend a day with me and my students. Let me show you what it means to be a teacher. I can't say anything that won't be construed as hiding the truth of my cushy lifestyle. So let me show you.

iTouch, step 2 - Apps

Here's what I have so far:

Glow Draw! and Glow Draw!! ~
This is a free app for finger drawing. Glow Draw! is very very simple, which I like for the age of the kids I teach. But who am I kidding? They can already run my smartboard. Glow Draw!! is more complex, but way cooler with the FX's.

My thinking is that it would be an excellent app for writing sight words and word-family words

Don't Let the Pigeon Run This App ~

NOT free. But for Mo Willems I though I would spring the $6.99. Seriously a splurge, considering my intent was to outfit these suckers for free. It's pretty, graphics are great, and the story telling feature is repetitive but fun. I'm a bit disappointed in the lack of things you can do, but my 12 and 9 yr old have been at it for a half an hour. Great for creating audio stories with a video that is supplied.

VLC Streamer Free~

for playing WMA's. I also downloaded Good Player, which was 99 cents. Both do the same thing so you do the math on which is a better (free) buy.

And now the 12 year old is filling in the Pigeon story with inappropriate words. I would be disgusted if I wasn't trying so hard to stifle my giggles.

iTouch, a step-by-step adventure

As I wrote over the weekend, I came home with 5 shiny new iTouches last Friday. I had been waiting for them since the end of August, and when a fellow teacher walked in with the bag I did a little happy dance. I think I might have actually moon-walked.

They actually scare me a little, though. I ended up calling in the big guns, my friend Brian who is a bonafide Mac fiend. Now I know how to get apps, organize the apps, get videos I made onto the iTouches, and get them them all synced identically.

So far, I have Glow Draw and a MVA player on them.What's next? We'll see.

Of Peacocks and Penguins

When I was beginning my second year of teaching, our principal showed us a video that (as silly as it sounds) changed my teaching. It was during a staff meeting, a few days into professional development, tucked in right before the first day of school. The video was Perry the Peacock.

Perry gets it; he feels the dilemma all peacocks face at one point or another. The truth is that most educators are Penguins. They may like your work, but your style makes them uncomfortable.

This blog is dedicated to any teacher who shrugs off the penguin suit so that they can teach to the best of their abilities. It is not always easy, and at times your footprints may be the only ones you can see on your path. But if you stop and listen, you can hear feather rustling. If you look closely, you can find bright feathers sprinkled along the way.

~ Heather