A Post to Remember

Dear After Spring Break Me,

     As you begin to lose your sanity and gain one more year of teaching experience, remember this post.  

Keep hope, take care of yourself, and "treat yo'self."

    Yesterday was the first day back after winter break.  Although I was not mentally prepared, I went about the normal day just fine.  Right after our help! I'm trapped inside my classroom with hyper eight year olds inside recess, we lost all control.

By lost all control, I mean we could no longer keep our mouths from talking or keep our hands from playing with our shoelaces, dirt/hair on the floor, or whatever else we could get our hands on.

At the end of the day, I was thinking: "Well, I had two weeks of rest.  If it weren't for those two weeks of sleeping in, I would be SPENT today!"

and also, 

"How will I ever make it to the end of the school year?"

and lastly, 

"Why can't we have a two week spring break?"

After talking with my partner teacher, I went home yesterday and put my thinking cap on.

I didn't look on pinterest.

I didn't surf the teacher blogs.

I didn't search on TPT.

I didn't read a teacher's textbook.

I used my noggin. 

I thought to myself, "How can I make it through tomorrow and give my students what they need from their teacher?"

and here's what I came up with:

Get into it and expect things to get crazy.

~

I woke up with that in mind and had a fantastic day.

Throughout the day, I was consciously "getting into it" as far as management goes.  

I caught ALL of my students doing something good.

I am happy to say that all of my students ended the day above green on our color chart.

And when they weren't doing good things, I didn't freak out.  

I just went with it and provided them with consequences.  

After all, they are children learning how to make mistakes.  

Sometimes I just need to hear those words and deal with it.  Yes, they are going to be mean, ugly, and downright disrespectful.  

They are human.  

They are a product of their environment and this world is broken.

My job as their teacher is not to make them perfect human beings.

Repeat.  Do not try to make them act perfectly!

My job is to help them grow and learn.

Treat them as children, not mini adults.

Remember:

Stay calm and pretend it's on the lesson plans.

Yours truly,

The Frizz

PS What you turn into a big deal, your students will turn into a big deal.  

So pick your battles and praise their victories. 

PSS If this teaching thing doesn't pan out, you can always make it big as an animal balloonist.

  

THE Best Online Resource For Teachers...aside from TPT....

I'm linking up with some lovely ladies for helpful hints today!

Click the picture to link up.

Have you heard?

planbook.com

During professional development at the beginning of the school year, I went to a technology training and was introduced to planbook.

This was after I had spend ooddles and boodles of dollars on my Erin Condren lesson plan book.

You know the name. 

It's popular in the teacher/pinterest/blogger world. 

We see one and begin to instantly salivate like a dog hearing the dinner bell.

You're drooling now.

Go ahead.  Get a kleenex to wipe it up and return to this post.

We'll be right here waiting....

Don't get me wrong.  I love my paper plan book.  When it came in the mail, I took tons of pictures as I opened it up from the purty little box. I have labeled, and planned, and graded in the Condren.

But let me tell you why I will not be purchasing a paper lesson plan book next year.

(All opinions are my own.)

I signed up for the one month free trail for the month of August.

It's nice that they give you a trail before paying or giving any kind of credit card information.  

They are not as sneaky as netflix, where you sign up for a free month but also give them your payment information, then conveniently forget which day you need to cancel before the payment......two years later you are still using netflix......sneaky I tell you.....sneaky....

Once you log in, you will need to create your classes.  

Click on classes and enter the subject areas you teach.

It's easy to adjust this based on elementary or secondary teachers.

Mine looks something like this:

Notice it is color coded?

Just as cute as Erin.

Once you add classes, you can edit the times.

For instance, we go to the computer lab on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, so I can adjust that setting accordingly on the planbook.

On my paper plan book, I cannot get this specific.  

There is just not enough room to hand write all of the lesson plans.

Once you have your book set up, you can share and link it to other teachers, administrators, or parents.

This feature is too cool!

I can also add standards to my lesson plans easily!

Check it out:

At any time, I can see how many times I have taught the standard over in the right.

(Don't judge....I have not been good about labeling standards with my lessons.  At my school we are not required to put them into the lesson plans.  Inputting standards lasted through the second week.)

Here is what a typical week looks like on planbook.com

I can include homework, links, pdf files, notes to myself, small group information.  

You name it, there's a spot to input it into this website!  

It's amazing!

Notice at the bottom you can attach files?

And the best part?

Next year, I will input my first day of school in the calendar and it transfer all of my lesson plans accordingly.

What a waste of time to rewrite everything by hand!

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Now, what if I don't want to teach the same lesson next year?  OR what if my students work at a different pace and I need to extend or bump a lesson back a day?

Don't worry!  They've thought of that too!

When I am ready to print my lesson plans for the week, all I have to do is print to PDF.

Planbook has made my life as a teacher much easier.

It truly is worth it.

Next year, I will not be buying a paper lesson plan book.

Are you willing to take the leap of faith and go online?

Come on.  Everybody's doing it.

A Blessing and a Curse

My poor students.

I have been trying to be a super-hero teacher.

My thought for the past four years has been: Let's do Daily Five and Literacy Workstations and expect miracles to happen.

You see, at the charter school I work at, I have the freedom to structure my day however I would like.

They give me choice and free will to do whatever my student's need in order to succeed.

I am required to teach the TEKS and Standards, but HOW I teach the standards is up to me.

Some of you may be thinking, Woah! What a blessing to be able to decide for yourself.

And yes, it is an amazing blessing to be able to decide how I want to teach my students.

But with the power of choice comes great responsibility.

It is a blessing and a curse.

That is a lot of responsibility.

Up to this point, I have been too scared (or wise...I'll leave that up to you to determine) to dump the resources in my classroom (Imagine It! Teaching Resource aka Basal Readers) and do what's best for my students.

For four years, I have taught with Imagine It! as my guide, and for four years I have KNOWN there is a better way to teach reading.

One story, whole group, reading at the same pace.

Did someone say Boring?!

Did someone just start picking their nose?
Un-Tying their shoes just to tie them again?
Seriously, you are asking to go to the bathroom when we just had a bathroom break?
Please stop talking to your neighbor.
Do not put your shoe lace up your nose.....

You see, when I teach whole group (Someone told me this my first year of teaching and I believe it with my whole heart) I am only teaching to 1/3 of the class- if that!

1/3 of the students are bored because the material is too easy.
1/3 of the the students have checked out because it is too hard.
1/3 of the class (on a GOOD day!) are with me.

I would love to STOP reading from the basals.....


But I'm too scared.

So instead of doing what is best for my students, I have continued to teach from Imagine It!, all the while combining Debbie Diller's Literacy Workstations, Reader's and Writer's Workshop, Conferring, Guided Reading, AND the Daily Five/CAFE.

Talk about a headache for planning.

Most teachers do not have enough time in their day, but I TRULY do not have enough time.

A good friend recently told me: All of those things were not meant to go together.

And then I had an Aha moment:  My students need CONSISTENCY!  They need their teacher to pick ONE way to teach reading and stick with it!

And that is where I am left today.

Which one do I pick?

Daily Five and Conferring?
Reader's and Writer's Workshop?
Literacy Workstations and Guided Reading?

Yikes.....Wouldn't it be so much easier if someone said, "This is what you are doing.  Here's the research behind it.  Make it work for your students."

A blessing and a curse.

On another...more up beat note:

I'm linking up with Denise from Sunny Days in Second Grade to tell you about my current celebrity crush.

Running Records

Happy weekend!

To all of those teachers who have already started to get the weekend blues (GUILTY!) take a deep breath and relax.

Thanksgiving break is on its way, with Christmas right behind it.

I had a three day weekend because I took off Friday for a mental health day just because.
Mr. Weekend Blues always comes knocking on my door early Saturday night when I have a long weekend.


On Thursday I went to a 1st and 2nd Grade Conference.  So it's kind of like I had a four day weekend, if you consider not being with my students.
Oh how I miss them.
I just can't wait to get back in the classroom.
My ears have really enjoyed the peace and quiet.

At my conference on Thursday, the Keynote speaker was the one and only Melissa Leach.

To give you a little background knowledge, my very first year of teaching I went to one of Melissa's Writer's Workshop trainings.
It was a very basic "this is what writer's workshop is" session, but it rocked my world as a teeny weeny first year teacher.
At the time, I was struggling to teach writing my first year according to the teacher manuals that were found in my classroom.

On Monday, everybody was expected to brainstorm, by Tuesday students were writing and by Friday we were all suppose to have a nice, neat final draft.

It just wasn't working- to say the least.

Her session came at the perfect time.
She gave me the courage I needed to jump in and try something different.

My second year of teaching, I was able to attend her Writer's Workshop Institute which met five times over the course of the school year.

UH-MAZING!

Let me tell you:  This was my saving grace as a teacher.

Every time I met with Melissa, I was inspired.

Just when my teaching juices had all run dry, I would attend another session and get fired up.

I truly believe I made it through that tough second year of teaching because of the inspiration that came from Writer's Workshop.

Every time I attend a Leach Teach Training, I walk away with the inspiration to help my kiddos.

Melissa has been in DC this past year, but I have been lucky enough to see her when she visits Texas.

Y'all, this girl's good.

She can make an old, tired sloth get excited about teaching writing!

But enough about Melissa.  She is probably rolling her eyes at all my hype (I promise it's ALL true!)

I'm here to tell you about what she has TAUGHT me yet again!

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The day began with her Keynote.

Taking big lessons from small students.

Aside from all of the cute, humorous stories she told us about her former students (which we could all relate to) she reminded me to ENJOY our students.

Her advice:  If you ever come to the place of frustration or feel overwhelmed, get your students settled in with an independent activity (I'm thinking Writer's Workshop!), turn on Louis Armstrong's What a Wonderful World song, stand at the front of your classroom and WATCH.

These kids we are teaching are precious.

They are unique.

They are wonderful.

Sometimes as teachers, we can become caught up in the standards or to-do lists that we forget who we are teaching.

We teach children, not mini adults.

We teach children, not perfect angels.

We teach children, and they are wonderfully made.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next session I attended was Running Records.

I am going to be honest with you and tell you I thought I knew what a running record was before attending the session, but now I can honestly say I KNOW what a running record was (and boy was I wrong the first time!)

The purpose of taking a running record is to better plan for the next guided reading lesson.

Formative assessment= Where are you in the learning of this? (Assess as it is being learned)
Summative assessment=What did you learn?

I had a lot of misconceptions between benchmark assessments and running records.

Yes, I have asked my students to read a passage for me as I tried to figure out their reading level.  I made notes on a copy of the text.  Yes, I called that a running record.  (Don't judge.)

Here are the differences:

Benchmark Assessments are usually used three times a year: Beginning, Middle, and End.
Benchmark Assessments are considered FORMAL assessment (summative).
Benchmark Assessments typically have comprehension questions included and it is the first time students read the text.
Benchmark Assessments assess student reading level.
Benchmark Assessments could include ITBS, TPRI, DIBELS, and using Reading A-Z reading passages to find student's independent or instructional reading level.

Running Records use the same symbols as benchmark assessments; however, they are considered informal assessment (formative).
Running Records are usually completed on a blank piece of paper and do not include comprehension questions.
Running Records are given in order to see how the student is applying strategies and is conducted on the student's SECOND reading (WOAH!  Aha moment!)

We were given the symbols and markings for running records and then we all practiced taking running records.

I have to tell you, I was VERY uncomfortable with taking a running record on a blank piece of paper.

The thought of a blank piece of paper and a student reading in front of me is terrifying.

What if the student goes too fast?

What if I forget the symbol for repeat?

What if I get off track or WAY behind the reader?

What if my student makes a the kind of mistake where there's not a symbol for that?

Never fear, just tell the student, "Hold on.  I'm a little slow today."

Duh.

Ask the reader to wait.

What a genius idea.

After practice at the conference, I am anxious to get back in the classroom and try it out with my readers.

I wish I would have learned about this last year in first grade.
My firsties would have helped me become comfortable with running records at a slower fluency rate.
These second graders read f.a.s.t!

I know that my running records will not be perfect by any means.  I will probably mess up the symbols, get off track, and simply not be able to keep up with some readers.

That is not the point.

That is not the point Mrs. Perfectionist.

Repeat: That is not the point.

The point is to assess students as they apply (or don't apply) the strategies you have taught them.

A running record gives you the information you need as a teacher to guide your instruction on a DAY to Day basis.

With that in mind, I think I am up for the challenge of Running Records.

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The last session with Melissa was the ABC's of Managing the Instructional Environment.

I wasn't sure how we would have time for all of the letters of the alphabet, but we did.

I walked away from that training with a few key points that are worth sharing!
If you've made it this far in the blog post, stick with it!
We're almost finished :)

*Anchor Charts should be the student's words.  We use anchor charts in order to link lesson together.

*Problems arise when student's feel hurried or rushed.  Take time to create a daily schedule and stick to it. (How many times have I rushed students along, only to find one throwing a fit five minutes later?)

*If you are not modeling what you are teaching, chances are you are probably teaching something different.  MODEL MODEL MODEL.  And when you have finished modeling, model again.  Repeat.

* Fair is not the same.  Fair is what you need to be successful in learning.

*Teach students what to expect with centers.  Create a "Looks like/Sounds like" chart for students to refer to.

*Two new things make a negative!  How many times have I changed FIVE things in my classroom only to find my students in a confused panic.  Duh.  This is common sense.  If I am going to change something about my centers, pick one thing at a time.  First change the activity.  Wait a week.  Then change the location.  Wait a week.  Then change the center grouping.  Wait a week.  My poor kiddos.

* Teacher Voice:  What do you want your voice to be saying all day long?  What do you want your students to hear all day long?

This last one was the kicker.

This year, with this group of kids, more often than not, I am correcting a behavior.

I don't WANT to be the teacher that responds to misbehavior.

I want to be the teacher that acknowledges responsible behavior.

I need more Conscious Discipline in my life.

This week, I will be praying this prayer:

In my classroom, God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

The courage to change the things I can,

And wisdom to know the difference.


What do you want your student's to hear all day long?

I would love to know your thoughts!


Special thanks to this girl for inspiring and motivating me to write this post.



Thank you for blessing me and my classroom!

Goodbye Teacher Desk…Hello Clutter!

Whew!  After blog stalking most of the afternoon, it seems like we are ALL exhausted from our first week back.  I hope you are enjoying a latte and your long-lost couch.  You did it!  

When I moved into my *new* classroom this year, I didn't get a teacher's desk.  I had been thinking about getting rid of it for about a year, after I read this book.

I thought it would be a great use of space to just use a bookshelf and my small group table as shared space for my students and myself. 

Little did I know (Debbie Diller did NOT tell me!) that after a mere 4 months, the clutter would PILE UP!   I guess I was used to just shoving things in drawers or behind closed cabinets.  (My last classroom lent itself to all kinds of "Junk Drawers" of sorts.)  This new classroom is all open, not a single cabinet or shelf came with it.  

Here is a photo essay of the work that I accomplished this winter break.  

It is by no means perfectly organized, but hopefully by sharing my stack of clutter it might inspire a few to organize a shelf or two.  

Get out there and organize! Even if it is the space behind your desk!  You will feel 100 times better about yourself and your classroom.

A great way to organize your iPods or classroom technology.

Before: A view from the door when you walk in.

Before: A view from the other classroom looking at the teacher desk area. Yikes! 

Before "teacher desk" So messy!
I am (almost) embarrassed to post this.

Before: Weekly supplies and mess I even try to hide.

Before: Behind my small group table.
A mess of sorts.
I didn't even have a place to put my bags!

Before: Another View.

After "Teacher Desk"
Whew. Now I feel better.
Although I just noticed that blue cord...

After: Another view.  Clean and neat.

After: A view from the carpet.
Notice the yellow and green tubs.  Those will hold all of my reading and math small group supplies!

The first picture is a close up of where I used to keep my teacher binders and files.
The second picture shows my "safe place" and junky filing system.
The third shows the finished product.

After: A view looking at the door.
Here's where I keep all of my teacher files and shared materials for my team teacher.

Well, what do you think?  I know it's not much but it is definitely better than the before pictures RIGHT?

I would love your feedback or any other ideas that would help my classroom look better!

I hope you enjoy your weekend.  I'm not planning on going to the school at all! (An unusual first)

 Hip Hip Horray!

P.S. I have been learning all about how to add a signature, fronts, and blog button.  Do you like them?

P.S.S.   You may think it's common sense but this girl had to read tutorials to figure it out!  I am VERY proud of myself.

Sunday Night Blues

Are you one of those teachers who frequently suffers from the Sunday night blues?

Do you find it hard to fall asleep, hang out with friends, or generally not act like a grump when Sunday night rolls around?

You are not alone!

I too find it difficult to function in society the night before going back to school.  Whether it be a two day weekend break, a three day luxurious holiday, a week or two extended stay on the couch, or a summer long get away- it is all the same in my book!  It's darn-tootin hard.

Don't get me wrong.  I AM excited to have parent conferences, work until it's dark outside, not go to the bathroom whenever I want, make 10,000 decisions every hour hug my students and get back into a routine of teaching, but I can't help feel sad about leaving my couch friends and family to go back to work, work, work.


The Sunday Night Blues.



I'm sure other professions might suffer from this as well…I need to ask my doctor if this is normal for all working adults….

My first year of teaching it got progressively worse. The only thing that seemed to help- atleast by my husbands standards- was running and going to zumba on Sunday nights. I think it just got my complaints off of the couch and out of the house!

I, like many of you, go back to school along with my students, tomorrow.
My Sunday night blues have started.

To be comletely honest, they began on Wednesday morning. I woke up realizing I had a series of "school dreams" I think you know what I mean. Not exactly nightmare material, but just enough to scare you out of your vacation-mush-brain.

I think I have finally realized how to slightly cure my SNB (Sunday night blues, if you will).

You see, when I take a break from doing something that I love, I forget how much I love it.

This is the true for sewing, playing soccer, running, reading for fun, and socializing with other humans.

I must remember to think positively.  I enjoy my job, even if when, at times, it gets stressful.  This is what I was created to do.

To teach.  To inspire.  To comfort.  To enjoy.  

I hope you can remember why you chose to become a teacher as you battle those blues tonight.

Good luck tomorrow, although you won't need luck because you've got passion.

-The Frizz

What's ahead in 2013?

Howdy Ya'll!  I am linking up with Michelle from Making It as a Middle School Teacher for a look at what's to come.  

If you would like to join, check out the rules and info here.  It's super easy.  It was a fun way for me to think about the upcoming year.

The only thing I needed help with was the personal reading section!

Leave me a comment with your best recommendations!

Happy Blogging.

The Frizz

A Dare.

This week I am really trying to focus on letting my words encourage instead of wound in the classroom- and especially in the teacher workroom.

It is too easy to complain.  I am always quick to point out the negative in everyone.

But we, as teachers, are called to find the good in our students and co-workers.  

Take the road less traveled by.

Inspire someone tomorrow.

I dare you :)

Sappy Monday

Today I am having a sappy Monday.  I am totally okay with it.  Some days you need a good cry over a long day of work.  

Being a teacher is so much more than a job- it's an all-consuming love. 

I saw this on a friends Facebook page and was inspired.  I hope you can find some truth to this (especially if you've been reading Conscious Discipline by Dr. Becky Bailey)

Keep doing what you are doing. 

It is worth it to the students in your classroom.