Thursday, June 14, 2012, at 12:36 pm - the end is near!

The end is near. The last day of school is almost here. I've gotten in the habit of reflecting on what has gone on during the year, so let's start with math.
Math
I've been teaching math for nine years now. The first year I taught math was with this year's senior class, and I stunk. Seriously. I am happy to say I've gotten to be a much better math teacher, and I enjoy teaching the subject. This year's sixth graders have been a pretty good bunch of kids. I also had four seventh graders, who had all been retained, so they should have been eighth graders, all at least two years behind in math. They have shown, with the notable exception of one kid, remarkable progress - I think their brains were ready for math this time around. All of those kids (except L) have been very hard workers, wanting to get it right, and also wanting to please. The sixth graders were on target, and there were at least three kids who have above-and-beyond abilities. Their grades, however, weren't always the highest, because they didn't have to work so hard, and they didn't. What's gone well is the kids understanding of the basics, as well as my ability to explain things, demonstrate procedures, as well as keeping up with the paperwork so grades were current. What I wish I had done better was straying away from the book more, using more real-life scenarios where the kids used the math, and differentiating more for some of the students on either end of the middle. I think I was lazy, because I just used the book, and I could have done better for the class. I also felt the need to teach to the MSP, and that made me a sellout. I am not teaching math next year, and I have mixed feelings about it. I was just getting good at it, had a good understanding of the curriculum, with three years of the same book under my belt, and I will miss the closeness with a class that is developed as you work with kids on a daily basis. What won't I miss? The prep, the amount of paperwork that comes from a class such as math, and feeling the pressure to teach to a test. I may miss not having a real tie to the middle school group next year.
Sociology
I loved teaching this class! I had twelve students, mostly juniors and seniors, with one sophomore thrown in for comic relief. No curriculum, except guidance from Sociology for Dummies and material I found on the Internet from the news and various blogs I follow The class had an interesting flow, and as I told my students, I may have the license, but you guys are driving the bus. This class really went with their interests, and because Sociology is so wide open, they were very ready for new ideas. Several kids said they learned something new every day - that is the power of communication and a willingness to dig a little deeper! What I mostly loved was the honesty in their posts, and I felt as though I had been let into their lives in a big way. Trust had been established early in the year; four of the students had been in my class when I taught fourth grade; one student is one of my advisory kids; three kids had been in either Writing Research or Modern Geography. The others had been library kids. No one came in at the semester, so we didn't have to start from scratch. The things they wrote about and openly shared made tears come to my eyes more than once. What went well? The discussions were interesting, students learned it was okay to show some passion about a topic, different viewpoints were both tolerated and embraced, and the "privilege" of having two days a week designated as tea days was appreciated. The best projects were the 6-Word Memoir/6-Image Memoir using Pinterest, and the cultural food project. They knew I expected them to function fairly independently, and communication and collaboration were the keys. Improvements? Less time between projects, more emphasis on the content, Psychology next year, and faster response time to students on Forum and Journal assignments. I will also use more Fishbowl discussions. I don't know about tea next year; it will definitely depend on the class makeup. Right now, I'm thinking not. I also wonder if students next year will post on my Moodle page while they are in other classes. Time stamps are handy, and I've often wondered aloud if their other teachers know what they are doing. All I get is shrugs and sly smiles, so I'm guessing the answer is no...
Middle School Support aka Title I
This has been my least successful class. I have never pretended to be good at remediation, and honestly, I've never really liked it that much. It had been a pull-out, but for the past two years has been a class. I believe the Greek and Latin root lessons were good, mostly because it increases vocabulary, and it gives kids background in words so they may be able to figure out unknown words if they know what a root means. My MSS classes always got to read, with no test in sight, just plain old read-for-pleasure. That's the librarian in me coming out, because it always bugged me when kids would come up with a book they wanted to read, but if it wasn't in their AR Zone, the book would go back. Yes, I get that kids develop as readers when they read in their zone of proximal development (did I get that right?), but as a librarian, I hate the idea that kids will put away a book they want to read, and might struggle with. We did Reader's Theater from a Scholastic publication I subscribed to, and while that was great, I wish I had not switched magazines to the easier version - just not enough meat for the kids. Anyway...I've had two different groups this year; seventh and eighth graders first semester, and sixth graders second semester. Ying and yang! I've done a better job with the second semester group, but their chattering drives me nuts at the end of the day. Will I be doing this next year? I'm not sure.
Library
Two periods a day. What more can I say?

That's been my year. and the end is in sight!

Is it just me, or did life just speed up? Welcome to the end of the school year.

I have no idea what life is like outside of an educational setting, so my idea of time is somewhat shaped by my contract. For me, New Year's Day is really the first day of school; it doesn't matter what the date is, my school life starts then. October means Halloween and scary stories (well, not too scary) for the primary students. Conferences, Thanksgiving, and the build-up to Christmas - that's November and December. The traditional New Year's Day means winter break is almost over, and it's back to business. Bring on the tissues and hand sanitizer - it's cough and cold season as we come get back to learning and share germs like crazy. January and February have a couple of 3-day weekends built in, plus the thrill of a possible snow day or two, and then it's March - the doldrums of the year. March lasts forever, and seems like a couple of months until Spring Break, which always comes as a huge relief. I often wonder if I'm going to make it to the first week of April. School is okay in April, but the BIG TEST begins to loom, and I fear I won't be able to get all of the math in that the kids need to have for the test. You would think that once the test is over, life would settle down, but no, that is not the case. Instead, time simultaneously slows down AND picks up, if that is possible. Life becomes a series of checklists. 5 Interviews as part of the interview team, check. Really long presentation before the school board, check. Retirement parties, check. More Interviews for the vacant positions that just came up, check. Bug kids to return library books, check. Listen to the disbelief and denials of overdue books, check. Literacy Night, check. Dance recital of a graduating senior, check. MAP test, check. Title I Parent Night, check. Start and hopefully finish library inventory, check. Finals, check. Turn in textbooks, check. Attend graduation, check. Complete room inventory after I find the orange folder I might not have turned in last year, check. Grades due, check. Go crazy, check, check, check. Yes, the end of the school seems as though it will never arrive, and when it does finally get close, I always realize I need more time! That's school life, I guess...

18 Days to go, and I'm doing my first post 0f 2012

Where in the world did the year go?! There were days when life was so slow, and now, with 18 days to go, I can't believe it's almost over. I had been thinking about blogging today, mostly because I want my sociology class to take a look at blogs, and think about why blogs have become so popular. It occurred to me that I am a poor example of a blogger because I never take the time to write one. Still, I think this idea of writing and instant publishing is an important idea, and I would like my students to consider it as a creative outlet. I did keep a diary as a kid, the fake leather-bound version with the little key that I stashed somewhere so my sister couldn't find it, not that there was anything earth-shattering in it. I kept a journal as an adult, and it did get me through much of my son's sophomore and junior years. I kept track of everything, including the weather. Some pages are filled with anger, deep lines going down into the paper from the force of my words as I wondered what I had done to deserve such terrible treatment, wondering where I had gone wrong as a parent. I can't really think why I stopped writing, but the habit gradually faded away, and one night I realized that I was just done with journals. Maybe my life improved, and I didn't need the outlet anymore. I still have them. I sleep above them; they are stored in the drawer below my mattress. I started this blog in 2007, after a Reading Team meeting, a now defunct group under the leadership of a teacher I really admired. I'm not sure why I started writing, but I was beginning to think about using technology, and was just beginning to explore the possibilities of using technology with kids. I regularly read half a dozen blogs, mostly education and fabric-related topics, which might seem odd, but it works for me. Will my students be interested in blogs? That remains to be seen. This has been an odd year. I want to retire, I think, but I'm not going to. I won't be teaching math anymore, and while I have mixed feelings about this, I'm pretty sure I won't miss it. My sociology class has been the highlight of the year, and my reward for being so positive about my high school teaching is that I get a second high school class next year. As always, I am looking ahead, past the end of this year. Right now, though, my goal is June 14, and I know that I still have some things to teach, papers to grade, and an inventory to (hopefully) complete. Hmmm, haven't been too success with that lately, but oh, well. And the big question - summer school or not? That, too, remains to be seen. Really, it's not a big question at all, in the grand scheme of things.

Did I miss summer?! 2011-2012 is off and running!

My school has been in session since September 1st, and sometimes it seems as though those lazy days of summer never happened. It's been a busy, somewhat stressful time, but the beginning of school usually is. One thing that was different this year was I upgraded my library circulation system to the Follett Destiny platform. I had some difficulty extracting and sending the data to Follett, mostly because I had no idea what I was doing. With the help of our tech guy, we managed to upload the information required, and it happened. After my technical training, of which I think I forgot most of what I saw, I was a fully functioning Destiny library. I have been checking books in and out, and figuring out how to add patrons, and while I've only been using the new system for four days, I like what I see, and don't think it's going to be a big deal to use it. I love the cataloging - importing MARC records is like a dream come true! Another piece of technology that I'm learning to use is Spelling City. This site seemed pretty easy to set up lists, and I have a vocabulary list for math set up. I liked the flash card game, because a couple of kids could take turns using it, or individuals can use it for practice. I'm not very good at reading directions, or looking at videos, which the site has, but I didn't have very much trouble figuring out how to use the site. Lists are easy to create, but the trick to adding my own definitions and sentences is length - too long, and it doesn't work! Being concise is a good thing. Although I haven't tested this with my math students yet, I think this will be something that will help them develop and improve their vocabulary. I would definitely check Spelling City out, and I will be using this with my Title I students. Lots of teacher resources in the form of lists from math to geography to phonics, student writing practices, spelling practices - I think I am going to really enjoy using Spelling City! My classes are good, and after some shuffling around with the Title I kids, I have a class that's working. Quite a few students qualified for extra support, but the majority of the students, at least in the 7th and 8th grades qualified in math. I'm doing reading, so we'll be working on oral fluency, vocabulary development, and comprehension strategies. We'll also be participating in the Global Read Aloud, using the book Tuck Everlasting. I'll do the reading, but the students will be responding to posts, questions, and responses from students all around the United States and the world. This should be pretty exciting, and I think it's going to be a great experience for my students. My high school class is, as always, a dream class. I have thirteen students, in a 1:1 program, learning about sociology, digital citizenship, and 21st century learning ideas. We use our school Moodle page as the platform, as well as Google products such as gmail and Google Docs. I have been having problems in a couple of areas, however. All of a sudden Firefox is not playing nicely at all. I keep getting certificate things dropping down, indicating my secure connection is gone. Normally, I would use Safari, but I can't do any editing in Moodle unless I'm in Firefox. I have to wait until Monday when our once-a-week tech support is on campus. I moved the Journal assignment over to a Google Doc and shared with the kids, so that small fire was put out. The other issue is my teacher Moodle page. I have the page set up so that each week is visible, but starting yesterday, all I can see is the current week. I can access other weeks, but I want to be able to see my quarter develop. The students aren't having that problem, so that's a good thing. The kids are using the iPads I purchased with my technology grant monies, and I've even had students from my last year's class come visit me. Ok, they were really visiting the iPads, but it was still nice to see them. So, business as usual, and off we go!

It's here! Welcome the new school year, 2011-2012.

After a summer of hanging out, the urgency is upon me, so I'm here at school today attempting to put the finishing touches on my classes for the year. Even after all my time in education, I still become quite nervous at the start. But, I have several great things to be happy about. The first is that our middle school team has a new team member, and life is already less stressful. We had a super middle school meeting, and are off to a great start with a theme that sounds fun: Club Zero - From Frivolous to Fabulous! What is Club Zero? It's a way to raise the academic achievement of our middle school kids by emphasizing three things, No Referrals, No Tardies, No F Grades. Our academic goals for our shared kids are to raise the percentages on reading goals, math facts, and to achieve a 3.0 GPA by the end of the first quarter. We will introduce our theme at our first assembly, September 6, but in the meantime, we will post Club Zero posters up on our section of the campus, and let them wonder! We teachers are excited and well, stoked, to get our year off to a wonderful start! Frankly, after the last couple of years, we can only go up, up, up! The second terribly cool thing happened this morning. One of my team members sent me an email telling me about an offer from the website Spelling City. Here's what Spelling City sent me: I've been given a premium membership to VocabularySpellingCity.com for a candid, personal, online review. VocabularySpellingCity.com helps students study word lists using 25 different learning activities such as MatchIt Sentences, HangMouse, and Word-O-Rama. Parents can create their own spelling lists, find published lists already available on the site, or use any of dozens of free teaching resources on topics such as analogies and compound words. Be sure to come back in three weeks to read about my experience. There might be more free memberships available for bloggers. If you're interested, find out how you can review VocabularySpellingCity.com. I am planning on using this with my 6Math class, to really work on their math vocabulary, and with my Title I/Language Arts Support kids as we work on Greek and Latin roots. I can't believe this great offer! So, look for a future blog post with my VocabularySpellingCity experience. It would be an understatement to say that I am looking forward to a great year, my 34th year in education. You can teach an old dog new tricks!

Summer - almost a thing of the past

Summer is slipping away. July, my self-proclaimed favorite month is gone. The three weeks of Summer School, aka Critter Camp, are over. I always feel when I get to this part of the summer that I haven't accomplished a whole lot, except I've read a lot of books. Let me reflect back on what I did actually do this summer. I did spent quite a bit of time of the computer. My daily routine started, in fact, with checking various social networking sites I belong to, looking at links that I thought might help me in the upcoming school year, checking email, and so on. My favorite teacher site is Plurk which is fabulous! I have gotten so many tips and sites from others on Plurk, and I appreciate all of the expertise I've found there. I save sites of interest on my Diigo page for later reference. I do have a Google+ page, too, but I'm not finding it as useful. I've read a couple of books for my professional health, Brain Rules, and What Great Teachers Do Differently: 14 Things that Matter Most. Brain Rules is fascinating, and I highly recommend it; What Great Teachers Do... was good, but seemed to be more practical, and perhaps geared toward teachers with less experience. I also attended a training session for three days with my colleague Sue. We spent three days at the Empowering Rural Educators training session, put on by the Educational Service District 113 in Tumwater, Washington, just a stone's-throw away from the state capital, and the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. The training was good - don't get me wrong - but the amount of information jammed into the three days was overwhelming, and the tech-not-so-savvy had that deer in headlights look. Lots of sites were shown, but there wasn't always time to play with them. We did get two "gifts", however - a headset & mic, and a smartpen - the Echo, from Livescribe.com. That alone was worth it! We also visited Tumwater Falls Park, in the shadow of the former Olympia Brewing Company.

Not a bad way to spend three days, for certain. Again this year, I somehow got talked into teaching summer school. Under the supervision of my late administrator, it was called Jump Start, and ran for three weeks in August. The goal was to provide students, especially those who qualify for Title I services, a time before school starts to practice some basic literacy skills. When I first started doing summer school about twelve years ago, it seemed it was mostly crafts, and I hated that. Kids could go to summer camp for that! Our current administrator does support the literacy angle, and so this year, with the assistance of a co-teacher, we had Critter Camp. Working with a younger crowd, the emphasis was on research, and after an introduction to habitats, and brainstorming the animals that lived in those places, the kids selected an animal, and did some very basic research. In the middle of the second week, we took a field trip to the Olympic Game Farm, located in Sequim, Washington, where we saw lions and tigers and bears - oh, my! Also peacocks, llamas, yaks, a white rhino, prairie dogs, a couple of varieties of deer, and buffalo that circled our school bus as the kids threw bread out the window at them! It was a very successful field trip, and the kids loved it! The culmination of the research was the creation of paper cubes, each side with a fact family on it, and oral presentations by all. I also introduced the kids to math timings, and they put their best efforts into that, too! I think we had a very successful three weeks. Finally, the three iPads I purchased arrived. I'm a bit frustrated with them, mostly because I don't want to spend my own money on apps, and the free apps look too young for what I have in mind. I'm not devoting much space to them on this blog today, but I will later. I will be curious to see how I use them in my classes, but I know that I will. We start school on September 1, with two days of in-service before that. I am taking off for vacation, but the trusty laptop is going with me, because I have Moodle pages to create, and lessons to plan. Summer is over.

The Power of Professional Learning Networks

I'm a self-proclaimed hermit. I've never minded (too much) being by myself, and during the summer, that is what I become. The last few years, though, I've ventured out into a more virtual world, and have found that I gravitate to a couple of places; Plurk , for a professional learning community, and Facebook, where I find out what's going on with people I know. I also follow bloggers using Google Reader, and get email updates from a group on Diigo, Diigo in Education. The more I read from Plurk and Diigo postings, the more I realize how much I don't know. On the other hand, I certainly appreciate what I've picked up from all of the generous sharing from people I don't even know! It's hard to be a virtual hermit.

What is the power of a professional learning network or community? First, the vast array of resources that are out there, free for the picking, is amazing. I love to see how people are using resources with their students. The creativity of people gets me thinking, "How can I utilize that?" with my teaching. A PLN provides a support group, although it depends how much you want to tap into that. Just getting glimpses into the lives of other people is fun. For example, many of the Plurkies I'm friends with were able to attend ISTE in Philadelphia last week. Their excitement about what they were learning was very cool to read about, and as always, they shared their insights and resources freely with the rest of the community. It used to be in teaching that life was rather isolated - the classroom was the teacher's world, and that world shut down just a little when the door was closed. Now it's the other way around - the world is the classroom, and that door is wide open.

I'm not much of a regular blogger. I need to do it more. Today I'm going to step outside of my hermit-hood, and even share this post. Whew!