My Word for the Year-Retirement!

       

Monday night Carra Daniels, @Ledtolead, moderated #Teachlap chat over on Twitter. Her final question was; What will YOUR word be in 2016 to push you out of your comfort zone to try something at your school that may scare you a bit? My quick and perhaps flip response was retirement! However, the more I think about it, I think it's the perfect word.

Yes, I have one more year to teach to reach my 30 years of teaching in New York State, I have three additional years in MN but they don't count towards retirement. So, at the moment my plan is to retire in June 2017. I could go in January but I don't feel that would be best for the kids or even myself.

So why do I think retirement is the perfect word?

Well, first of all, the thought of not teaching after 33 years is a little scary and will put me out of my comfort zone-for a little bit. However, the last thing I want to be is one of those teachers that rest of the staff is hoping will retire as soon as possible because _____________ (fill in the blank with a variety of reasons, none exactly complimentary.) I'm sure everyone that's been around in education for awhile knows that teacher.  I want to go out still learning and trying new things. Well, with retirement just around the corner, my time is running out so I need to begin my bucket list of things I want to do before I leave.

So here is my teaching bucket list for the last year and a half:

1. Skype-it takes me forever to work up the courage to make a phone call so the thought of Skyping with someone is simply terrifying to me!! So, that is number one on the list.
2. Get at least one teacher in my building on Twitter and using chats. This one is not so scary for me but it is for my coworkers.
3. Put in a conference proposal for NYSCATE one more time. I won a grant a few years ago for iPads and never did the payback of presenting. I hate presenting but I do it from time to time to just push myself out of my comfort zone.
4. Contact Kimberly Wright to set up something with students between our two districts.
5. Get a tech club set up. I've been approved but have been dragging my feet on getting it going mainly due to scheduling conflicts with my principal and fear-what will I do? What if the kids don't like it? and on on with the self doubt.
6. A coworker sent me a link to apply to become a PBS LearningMedia Digital Innovator. I dismissed it because.... I'm retiring. But now I'm thinking why not? I'm sure I won't win but why not try?

Ok, the next three are not scary but things I want to continue.

7. Continue to strive to help my students develop a love for reading and improve their comprehension but never by filling in worksheets.
8. Continue to find ways to tie in technology with reading and share with coworkers.
9. Continue to read new books-both kid lit and professional and share with teachers. Ok, some teachers might fill in that blank above with I'm tired of her pushing books, apps, websites to us. :)

And finally-

10. While I want to go out strong I also need to have a plan for what comes next! I know for certain it won't be subbing. But maybe tutoring and for sure I'll be spending more quality time with my camera. Perhaps doing photos of kids, maybe trying the craft show scene and selling things featuring my macro prints... no plans are set yet but certainly something to be rolling around in the back of my mind. Scary-yes. Exciting-you bet!

I've already had coworkers mention they want to have the same enthusiasm and positive attitude towards teaching when they get close to retirement as I do. That's definitely a compliment and a trait I don't want to lose. So I plan on focusing on the word retirement this year and not just as a way of counting the days.

Leatherstocking Conference

Summer Reading via Padlet

Created with Padlet

Finding My Way-Books that Inspire My Teaching

I am about to begin my 6th year as a reading teacher. I was placed in this position because of my strong background in literacy for K-2 which is where I had taught for 20 years. Now I work with students in grades 3rd-5th, not my background! For the past three years I've been trying to figure out the best approach to meet my student's needs. These are the books that have inspired me and are helping me to become a better teacher. I'm beginning my 35th year of teaching and still striving to improve.

I started out by reading Daily Five and CAFE and even had the honor of attending Gail and Joan's workshop in Rochester. The following year I took their online course to get a better understanding and loved the course and the research I did to complete it. It gave me a much better understanding of what works in reading. Since I only see my students for 40 minutes every other day doing the Daily Five was not going to work but I modified it and we did read to self and read with a partner and worked on the CAFE strategies. I had a CAFE board for each group and the children chose their goals and worked toward them each day. I hate to admit I got away from the goals last year but I plan on getting back on board this year.

The following summer I read The Book Whisperer and Reading in the Wild by Donalynn Miller. I loved both these books. Last year my students filled in book logs to track the number of books read and they read books of their choice most of the time. Now instead of having time to roam my whole library I gave students 10 books to choose one or two they'd like to read. The pile of books was selected by using a reading inventory the students filled out the first day of class and what I learned about them as the year progressed. We also discussed TBR piles what we wanted to read over every break from school.

The next book I read was Notice and Note by Kylene Beers. Improving my student's comprehension is a big goal and this seemed like it would fill that need while still giving students choice in their reading materials. I focused on this mainly with my fourth graders this past year because a few of the classroom teachers were reading the book as well and wanted to try it out. We all found it worked well to get the students talking about their books and developing a better understanding. This coming year the fifth grade teachers are going to give it a try and the fourth grade team will begin introducing the signposts at the beginning of the year.

This summer I read Learn Like a Pirate by Paul Soalarz. Again, seeing my students for a limited time limits how many of his strategies I can use but I plan on trying to implement some things. I try not to talk for a longer amount of time than my student's age but I don't give them much time to talk. And last year I got away from partner reading. So, to begin with I plan on introducing Give Me 5 for the students to share: signposts they find, when they finish a book, when they read a book of a new genre, ask for a definition of a word, two minute warning for end of class... other suggestions? I think it will be disruptive at first but I hope they'll grow used to it and be able to go right back to work. I'm also going to let students do partner reading this year as well as let them listen to books on tape. Another goal is to do some reader's theatres and book talks. I also plan on some partner writing and in the back of my mind I'm toying with the idea of a passion project, just not sure how that will work with our schedule.

So, there you have my role models for trying to put together a relevant and engaging reading classroom for my students. When my students leave me my biggest wish is that they see themselves as readers.

New Room! How to Organize??

My New Room

Last year our district switched from two PreK-5 schools to a PreK-2 and a 3-5 school. This was a big switch for everyone. In the process I lost my classroom and had to share with another reading teacher. I've been teaching for over 30 years and I'm always looking for ways to improve my instruction so I'm not a teacher that's stuck in her ways but I will admit the idea of room sharing did not go over well with me.

This summer I read Learn Like a Pirate and I really want to try some of the ideas with my reading students. However, that is going to be very difficult in a shared room because it's going to be noisier than ever at times. I discussed this with my principal and he promised to give the idea of a room change some consideration. Yesterday I got the wonderful news that another teacher was willing to switch places with me! I don't think I stopped smiling all day yesterday. :)

I headed up to school and the custodians had already moved all of our stuff. I just had to pack up my desk and closet stuff. Easy! My first year as a reading teacher I was in a refurbished closet, really! Then I moved to a slightly bigger room. Last year I had half a classroom which was my biggest space so far and now I have a full size classroom! That means all my holiday and extra books I've stored in the computer lab can come back to my room and I'll be able to take other stuff stored in the hall closets and get it back in my room or toss it since I haven't used it in years. It's a great feeling.

So, here is my room:

Lots of bulletin board space!

Yucky white boards and they aren't magnetic, next to the Smartboard.

The one drawback to this room is afternoon sun on the hot days.

The kidney table will be leaving and be replaced with a rectangular one

My only open plug is back by the sink!

My teaching style is a mix of CAFE/Donalyn Miller's Books/Notice and Note/Learn Like a Pirate-I'll try to explain this in an upcoming post.

I have some comfy reading seats

• rocking chair
• beanbag
• wagon with two pillows
• a crate with a pillow
• an extra teacher chair

I also have:

• thousands of books in bins sorted by author/series/topic/genre
• 3 computers 
• 7 iPads with headphones
• a rolling chart stand
• 2 rectangular tables
• 12 desks-not sure if I have to keep those or not
• a teacher desk which holds the 4th computer and document camera hooked to the Smartboard

Things I plan on adding/doing this year:

• a listening station-another teacher wanted to get rid of books on tape and I found a working tape player in the lockers so I took them. 
• reader's theatre-
• partner reading
• giving students more voice and choice
• more collaboration

I'll be making a trip to JoAnn's this weekend to buy fabric for all my bulletin boards, I'm definitely out of touch with having to fill in all that space. I think I'm going to do a pirate theme and I'll be using the Notice and Note signposts so I'm thinking about using that as a springboard for the big bulletin board but I'm open to other ideas.

I'll be spending next week getting the room arranged. I'd love to hear some suggestions from you on what to do for bulletin boards and arranging areas for my reading room for 3rd-5th graders before I get up there and begin working!

EdcampNEPA

I enjoy going to conferences. It's great to connect with Facebook and Twitter friends and learn something new or be reminded of something you've forgotten about. In the past I've attended NYSCATE, ISTE and Podstock. I enjoyed them all! But now that I'm not teaching in the classroom or the computer lab I find it harder to justify the expense of attending a conference. Last year I heard about EdcampNEPA but it was the same weekend as The Ride for Missing Children so no conference. This year Edcamp was held a month earlier so I signed up and tried to get a few coworkers to attend with me. None of them were able to go so I went alone. EdcampNEPA was perfect, just a three hour drive from home, it ran from 8:30-1:00, it's free and they even had food for breakfast and lunch. With the help of Hotwire it only cost me gas, dinner, and a cheap hotel rate. I can afford that.

Edcamps are not the typical conference. It's about conversations and taking ownership for your own learning. The day starts with breakfast goodies, reconnecting with old friends and making new friendships while the conference schedule board begins to fill up. We were constantly reminded that there were still openings on the board, you don't have to be an expert, and you need to make sure you get what you came for. I wandered over to see what the sessions were going to be about and totally surprised myself when I went ahead and signed up to lead a discussion on "Using Tech to Support Reading and Writing for 3rd-5th Grades."

Oops, it's four months later and I never finished this post! Sorry...let me just add a few more notes...

My session was during the first of three time slots. There were just a handful of participants and that made for a good easy going group discussion. In the end I was glad that I stepped out of my comfort zone.

The next session was on Making writing authentic we waited a bit for the person that signed up for the topic but s/he never showed so participants just began sharing.
A few notes from that discussion:

• Use Kidblog-everything is approved by the teacher first
• The Book Writing in Science was mentioned as a good read
• Voki and Blabberize were mentioned as online tools for writing
• Powerwriting: Give a word-students write for 1 minute. Repeat 2 more times. Each time count and circle number of words. As the year progress they see the growth. No punctuation, spelling etc. just get ideas down. Good for any area.
• After watching a video write one word for each: adjective, emotion, interesting, oh?, Um

The third session was on global learning and led by Lisa Parisi and Michael Soskil, both experts on the subject.

• A few notes from this presentation:
• Use Twitter and Skype in the Classroom
• Mystery Skype is the gateway drug to Skype
• Need a map
• Post questions and kids jot answers, have maps and computers available
• Someone takes pictures, videos, researches, crosses impossibles off the map
• Once finished have a Q&A session
• Takes 20-25 minutes
• Look up location on Google Earth when it's finished
• It helps dispel stereotypes
• Need to think about why you want to connect, what are you doing, how can you connect
• Share the good stories

The day ended with a Smackdown, I'll share what I wrote down but not much detail:

Audionote

Remind-communicate without giving out personal info can have office hours so parents can respond

YouTube Aurasma-demo people make book trailers with it

Geoboard

Feel Clock

Edpuzzle-take YouTUbe video, you can shorten it, and add questions. Students can rewind and relisten to parts.

Plickers.com formative assessment with one device

It was a great day and I was very glad that I made the trip. I hope to return next year with some teacher friends. 

Picture Book 10 for 10

This is my first year doing the Picture Book 10 for 10. I really wish I could have gotten into my classroom before doing this post. I feel like I really needed to browse through my baskets of books in my classroom and the shelves of books I don't have room for, so I keep them in my old room, the computer lab. But since we're getting a new roof we're not allowed in the school so I'll do my best...

Hmmm, what 10 picture books couldn't I live without???

1. Brown Bear Brown Bear-I taught kindergarten and first grade for many many years. This book helped many students become "readers" over the years. Someday when I have grandchildren it will be a book I'll share with them.

2. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom-another fun book for the young readers. Eric Carle is one of my very favorite authors too.

3. Quiltmaker's Gift/Journey-I fell in love with these two books last year although I've always enjoyed the gift. Our 4th graders read the journey in class and then I had my students read the gift with me. It was one of the few books that I had my class read together. They loved the story, the illustrations, making predictions, the language, everything. This year I will be introducing the Notice and Note signposts to my 4th graders early in the year. I'm looking forward to seeing how that changes their interactions with the story.

4. What Do You Do With an Idea? This was a new book for me last year. My 5th graders did not seem to enjoy it. I'm thinking it had to be my presentation. I'll do better this year.

5. Hmmmm, which Patricia Polacco book to pick? Thunder Cake, Thank You Mr. Falker, Aunt Chip and the Great Triple Creek Dam Affair..... it's too hard to choose, she has so many great ones! Our third grades do Mr. Falker in class and I follow up with the Triple Creek book, it's perfect for a reading teacher!

6. Janell Cannon is another favorite author. I used her books to introduce the Notice and Note sign posts to my third graders at the end of the year-Pinduli, Crickwing, Verdi but I've always loved Stellaluna and it still holds my top stop.

7. The Gardener by Sarah Stewart-I love how this book is told through letters and how the little girl makes the best of a difficult situation. I also happen to love gardening.

8. The Raft. I just realized I didn't use this with any of my classes last year! I will have to remedy that this year. It's such a great book about change with beautiful illustrations.

9. The Best Part of Me. Being a photographer and a teacher this book really speaks to me. My fourth graders loved making their own version last year.

10. If You Plant a Seed-I just read this book this month and immediately ordered a copy. I'm thinking about using it as my first day of class book to help set the tone for the year.





Well, there's today's top 10. Who knows, a week from now I might pick 10 different titles!