Monthly Archives: September 2013

Everybody Loves Reading!

Or at least they will when I’m done with ’em! HA!

One of the most important goals of the beginning of 5th grade–or any grade–is to help kids get to the place where they love school.  Really love it.  This is the case with the beginning days of my Reader’s Workshop as well.  Unfortunately, I have students that come to me and can honestly say that they don’t read because they want to.  They read because they have to, or they don’t read at all.  Boo. 😦

So in addition to conversations about how our Reader’s Workshop will function (like we had as we filled in this chart the other day):

Kids worked in pairs first and then we discussed together our thoughts about what Reader's Workshop looks and sound like, and how that helps us as readers.

Kids worked in pairs first and then we discussed together our thoughts about what Reader’s Workshop looks and sound like, and how that helps us as readers.

we also have lessons that give kids chances to see themselves as readers, and to see what is possible for them–no matter where they are starting.

Today we started with a conversation about mindset (growth vs. fixed) and tied it to this quote:

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We talked about how every reader is on a journey, and those journeys look different for every person.  We talked about how having a growth mindset–believing that we are capable of achieving great things if we keep trying, changing and making mistakes–helps us on our journey.    Then I described one reader’s journey from short, picture books with few words to reading Harry Potter using this pile of books:

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While the scenario was hypothetical (I know…sometimes stories I tell at school are made up.  Don’t sue me. 🙂 ), it is very much like what real readers do, and I wanted my readers to see that there are steps that they can plan to help them get from where they are to where they want to be (which in this case was the desire to read a Harry Potter book–a very real goal for many readers!).

After I told the story of how this reader traveled through their journey and after I piled these books high in Brittany’s arms (who so kindly volunteered to play the role of the reader in my story), I had everyone think about whether they saw themselves somewhere in this pile of books.  Maybe they were already on a similar journey to this one.  Or maybe they were starting in a different place.  Regardless of the answer, their next step was to consider their own personal reading journey and write about it.
I want readers in my room to understand and appreciate that we need to think past the book we’re reading and onto the next book and the next book and so on (I’m working through Reading Ladders to help me help them with this right now).  Everywhere has somewhere they can go!  Here’s to a remarkable reading year in Rm. 202!

Ever Wondered….

…what teachers do on their plan time? If you’re a teacher then probably not (unless you wondered what other teachers do on their plan times), but if you’re a student or a parent–I’m about to let you in on a little secret.  Ready?  We plan things.  Ok, that’s not fair (and it’s a little snarky.  Sorry. 🙂 ).  But really, we do.  And often (as with my fabulous team this year!) we do it together.

Sometimes we get the luxury of double plan-times (which is really just a fancy way of saying we have a big 2-hour chunk to work with instead of just 50 minutes), and it’s during those that BIG things happen.  Like just last week when we were doing this together:

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See the work there?  Can you figure out what we were doing?  Those pictures, my friends, are our notes from time spent chewing on a volume pre-assessment.  We were trying to create something that was engaging, real-life and challenging all in one.  We even had the idea of creating two separate scenarios to interest different kiddos (one was Legos and the other was related to cupcakes).  I LOVED how well we worked together in this session, how we each brought something different to the table (and to the whiteboard!), and how we ended up with a great pre-assessment to use that is equal parts us and equal part awesome.

Have I mentioned before that MY TEAM ROCKS?  If you haven’t been to their blogs lately to see what’s going on in Rm. 201 and Rm. 203, do it! Now. 🙂 Please? 🙂

Did You Hear?

We got our iPads today!  I have to share this picture first because it pretty much sums up how excited we all were for this day to come:

IMG_1234I had to finally stop and take a picture of my dear friend Landry, because it said more to explain the feelings than my words could.  🙂

I was SO IMPRESSED by how well everyone did today.  We had LOTS of directions to listen to during the setup process for our iPads, and the class followed every one of them.  They helped each other, worked efficiently and got the job done.  They definitely brought the GRIT and self-control I told them they’d need today!

Check out some pics of us during setup:

Thank you Mr. Strecker for your tech support today!

Thank you Mr. Strecker for your tech support today!

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Mr. Shelton lending an iPad hand today!

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Mrs. Jeon was a big help, too, as she answered questions and gave directions

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Rollouts like these are only possible because of all of the district people who show up to help! Mr. Strecker, Mrs. Covert, and Ms. Rima--who was such a busy bee she didn't end up in any of my photos!--made this process painless, even with 23 5th graders!

Rollouts like these are only possible because of all of the district people who show up to help! Mr. Strecker, Mrs. Covert, and Ms. Rima–who was such a busy bee she didn’t end up in any of my photos!–made this process painless, even with 23 5th graders!

We ended up having a mostly iPad-filled day, but were able to set up our Gmail accounts, setup and verify Apple IDs and iCloud accounts, and log in to the App Store (including account verification and security questions–that was time consuming!).  After lunch we downloaded Cut the Rope (it’s the FREE APP of the week!), as well as Pic Collage.  Our first iPad project was to use Pic Collage to create home and lock screens to personalize our iPads and help us tell them apart from others.  We’ll use this app (along with many others) in creative ways throughout the year to show what we’ve learned and demonstrate our understanding.  The last part of the day was a hoot!  I wish I had video of all of the funny pictures people were taking of each other to add to their collages.  WHAT FUN!

I mentioned it before, but I have to say again–ROBINSON 5TH GRADE ROCKED IPAD DAY TODAY!  I am so impressed with all that was achieved today, with little to no hiccups.  Here’s to a great year of learning and growing with a fabulous tech tool in our hands!  Oh, and of course, THANK YOU TO THE KIRKWOOD SCHOOL BOARD FOR MAKING IT HAPPEN!  As a teacher I appreciate all that you do to help me help my kiddos achieve great things and work to their highest potential.

Did I mention I LOVE MY JOB?!

Ropes Course (or “Getting Gritty With It”)

Remember how we’ve been talking about grit? Well shortly after we first talked about it, 5th grade had a perfect situation where they had to dig down deep and find some: the Ropes Course!

Every year, 5th graders spend some time in the Westchester Woods working together on team building exercises.  And this year we did it in 100 degree weather!  YAY!  Just that is gritty in itself, right?

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There were many stations, but I was in charge of the most fabulous station: the swinging log. Wanna guess why they call it that?

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The goal of the swinging log was to get the team from one end of the log to the other (one at a time) in whatever way makes sense, without touching the log, the person on the log, or the ground.  Go, team!

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And then, on the way home, I was wondering what a teacher looks like after they’ve been standing out in the heat cheering on 5th graders at the Swinging Log.  Here’s the answer:

IMG736Not horrible, right? HA!  Just had to throw this one at ya to make you laugh. 🙂

WAY TO GO 5TH GRADERS FOR BEING GRITTY AND WORKING TOGETHER, EVEN WHEN IT WAS HARD! 🙂

 

How GRITTY Are You?

We’ve been working on a new word around our school lately:

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Grit can be defined as courage and resolve; strength of character.  It’s the “stuff” deep down that keeps you going when things get tough.  It’s what you hold on to when you have to push through something hard and not give up.  Here’s a video that we watched recently that does a better job of explaining it:

 

 

We have been talking about it as a staff, but we’ve been talking about it in our classroom, too. Here were our first thoughts on the subject:

The blue words are what we think grit is, and the green is how we think we can "get" it, or where we find it when we need it

The blue words are what we think grit is, and the green are how we think we can “get” it, or where we find it when we need it.

This is a new concept for friends in our class, and honestly, we are not very gritty yet.  But we’re working on it.  We even have a question we end our day with every day to help us reflect on our day:

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And even better, we’ve been doing lots of things lately (every day, really!) where we have to be gritty, and push through–even when it’s hard.  I’m excited to share our journey this year as we learn to dig down deep and learn to push through no matter what!

How gritty are you?  🙂

 

Our First Class Meeting!

If you don’t know about how we do Class Meetings around here, be sure to check out the previous posts Lessons in Democracy and Class Pet Petitions for a little background first….go ahead.  I’ll wait for you. 🙂

We had our first real class meeting this past Friday and it went really well!  I say “real” because the week before (our first Friday) I walked them through the process of 5th grade class meetings, to either remind or inform them of how we’d be doing them this year.

Here’s our chart after dots were added: Screen Shot 2013-09-03 at 7.28.13 PM

We had a busy week, huh?  The lists at the beginning of the year always seem to be a lot longer because we do many more short activities as we’re getting to know the classroom and each other, as opposed to longer projects as we move further into the year.  And for some reference, SRI is the Scholastic Reading Inventory and helps assess readers.  Students get their Lexile level from this assessment, which helps them as they choose books (which I guess is why so many kiddos gave this a blue dot–signifying that they learned alot from that activity).

I found it really interesting (and surprising, honestly) that so many kiddos chose Appletters as the topic to discuss and problem solve around.  And with that many red dots I was dying to find out their thinking about how we could fix it for next time.

After they shared their concerns, these were the things they mentioned that we could work on:

  • kiddos using really loud voices during the game
  • some just sitting (not participating or waiting for others to come to them)
  • not allowing others to join their words
  • leaving others out on purpose, or replacing their letters with other letters
  • only trying to make words with friends, instead of trying lots of options
  • people stepping on each other, running into each other or shoving as we move around the room

Then we were on to problem solving (we actually had a lunch break in between to do some thinking), and came up with some ideas on how we could improve our game the next time we played it:

  • aim at using a Level 1 or 2 voice (which at our school means whispers or soft voices), so even if we get a little louder we’ll still be at a reasonable volume
  • give kiddos time to think independently before we move together to build words
  • make a rule that you could add letters or rearrange them to make new words, but NOT remove letters once they are there
  • play in another part of our room, or try to use more space instead of clumping together
  • have a place for “odd” letters (like Z, X, Q, etc.) to go if you can’t build a word, then those letters try to build something.
  • I also suggested that I would add some other guidelines for what kinds of words they could build.

These were pretty good, and we were excited for the next time we played!

Little did they know that their next opportunity would come that afternoon!  The “rules” this time was that their words had to be at least 4 letters long, and could not be names (remember GIBY from last time?). We all agreed that the next time we were much improved.  Check out our words the second time around!

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Someone said this word was inspired by a book cover they were looking at just before we played our game–funny that they were actually able to find the letters to build it!

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Check out the way CAR turned into CRATES--a longer word with more friends involved! Success!

Check out the way CAR turned into CRATES–a longer word with more friends involved! Success!

 

All of the "odd" letters met at Table 4 to see what they could come up with...

All of the “odd” letters met at Table 4 to see what they could come up with…

 

...and many hands made for light work.

…and many hands made for light work.

 

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Definitely not an Appletters “fail” here–that’s a good word!

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Check this one out! Another one where someone (Owen!) was just looking at the letters and this came to him! Genius!

What a FABULOUS example about how a group of people with great ideas can change things for the better!  What a great start to the year, and an exciting precedent for class meetings to come. WAY TO GO, RM. 202!! YOU ROCK!