#FDOFG2018: Readers Gonna Read

We have been reading ALOT in first grade, and much of it has been reading aloud together. But not all of it. 🙂

We have also been working very hard to learn the habits of good readers, to read both independently and with our partners and also to choose the right books for us. I’ve been so proud with how quickly our Rm. 111 readers have gotten into a groove and begun to build their stamina.

We’ve learned some BAD HABITS to drop and some GOOD HABITS to pick up. Readers thought it was really funny when I acted out the bad habits during our lesson. Ask your reader to show you what those bad habits look and sound like, then to show you what we should do INSTEAD. 🙂

Each week we have a learning partner, with whom we turn-and-talk on the rug, and also partner read. We use these partners in other ways, too, through out the week as they are quick to find. Some of our work time during Readers’ Workshop is read-to-self and some if read-to-someone, so we sit right next to our partners so we can quickly move from one job to the next. Check out some pictures of us being our best reader selves, back-to-back in read-to-self and side-by-side doing read-to-someone. 🙂

Read-to-Self

Lots and lots of read-to-someone! We’ve learned that we need to read ONE book at a time, and also that we can do partner reading in 3 ways: popcorn reading, choral reading or I read, you read. We LOVE this time of day!

#classroombookaday UPDATE: Week of September 17, 2018

We’re moving and grooving with books in first grade! While our wall is not filling up as quickly as last year, it’s still so great to watch the new books appear as our first grade classes read them and they are posted. :). I love to watch the faces and comments as kids walk by (kids from 1st grade and from the rest of the school!) and they make connections with the covers. Reminds me of the many reasons why this is such a great project!

Here’s our wall as of Friday, September 21–we’re up to 72!!

This week we added these books:

We had another great week of books–Dr. Seuss (because we’re working on rhyming!), Peter H. Reynolds (because he’s awesome and also because Dot Day was last week!), and many that are just plain fun!

What suggestions do you have for us to read this week? 🙂

#classroombookaday 2018 begins!

This year we began the 3rd iteration of the #classroombookaday challenge in 1st grade at Robinson! I am ready for this to be the BEST year ever of the challenge! Originally I would have said that it was because we’d read even more books than last year (our final number was 560!), but now I’d say there’s another reason. The first year I participated, my neighbor and friend Ms. Turken did it with me, but hung her own display and read different books than we did in our room. Last year, as we began our official co-teaching journey together, we combined our challenge and our display and read 560 of the same books together (some chosen by her, some chosen by me, some chosen by 1st graders). And since I was a lazy blogger last year and didn’t tell you all about that journey, let me post the pictures of our final wall now. :). It’s pretty great!

As a side note, we got to the end of the school year and were a little uncertain about what we should do with our display. I mean, come on, it was as much an art piece as it was a record of the great books we’d read! My very smart friend, Marcie, suggested that I take it all down and save the pictures to use again this year (which I admit is a VERY smart and practical thing to do but one I had never considered LOL). We didn’t have time to do this before we left for the summer so we did the next best thing: covered it up and crossed our fingers that it would be in tact and ready for us to take apart when we came back in August.

Thankfully it survived the unpredictability of summer cleaning and moving, and we were able to keep most of the books we had hung last year. I guess we even started the year ahead of the game!

So, now we get to this year. This year Ms. Turken and I are again collaborating to choose books for the wall, but we’ve also rallied the rest of our team to join in!! The more the merrier–more teachers and more first grade readers hearing so many great books! It has meant that our pace is a little slower than year’s past (since we have to have more classes read the book before it can be posted), but I’m convinced it’s totally worth it because we are including so many more kiddos in the joy of reading and watching the wall fill up!

As we finished day 17 of school (which is roughly 3 1/2 weeks), we have read and posted 42 books! Many of them are repeats from last year (because some books are TOO GOOD not to read again!), but since we’re including new teachers, we’ve read just as many new ones, too. Win, win, right??

I have to be honest that it feels a little bare, but I have hope because I know what it will quickly become!

And since you can’t see all those little books up there so far away, here’s what we’ve read:

I’m excited to share this journey with you this year. Be sure to stay tuned for what comes next!!

What Do You Do All Day Anyway? : Phonemic Awareness

At the beginning of every year, I have the unrealistic lofty goal of documenting everything that happens inside the walls of Rm. 111 ( and often Rm. 112), and then fail miserably, realizing that there is just not time to do that. There’s just TOO much that happens at the beginning of the school year that I want to tell you about! It’s all new and so it all seems important. :).

This time I am resigning my self to the fact that telling you something, even if it’s not everything is better than nothing! So, I’m going to be ok with not telling you about everything that has gone on in the last 16 days, and will roll on, focusing on what is happening now, and maybe finding time to add in some fun from our first days. 🙂

As we’ve been learning through these first few weeks, I’ve been thinking about how many things we seem to pack into one school day! It’s made me want to write a blog series ( that I’m starting with this post!) to highlight what we really do all day. I mean I can share the schedule, or your kiddo could tell you they had Reading Workshop, but unless you’re there, it’s really hard to fully understand what that looks like for a first grader.

That being said, I’m starting by showing something we do every day (usually right after lunch, at 11:45, just to be precise 🙂 ), where we work on listening to sounds and hearing parts of words and using those parts to make new words. Officially we use a program called Phonemic Awareness: The Skills That They Need to Help Them Succeed! By Michael Heggerty. On our schedule, it’s simply called Heggerty, or more often we refer to this time as “the yellow book,” because I usually hold the ginormous yellow book on my lap while we go through the lesson. :). Regardless of what we call it, at least everyone knows what to expect!

In short, phonemic awareness is the understanding that spoken word is made up of individual sounds, called phonemes. During our lessons–which are done totally through the auditory mode (no words, text or visuals), we practice isolating sounds, manipulating sounds, blending and segmenting them, as well as deleting sounds to figure out what is left. We talk about letters, analyze rhymes and identify how many words are in a sentence. It’s focused, intentional and quick, and they’ve picked up on the routines of these lessons pretty quickly. There are movements that go along with most parts of our lesson, and kids especially love when we use our “choppers” to break apart words into syllables.

With the help of my instructional coach, Amy, we recorded a lesson to help you see what happens. We went back and forth about which angle to use to help you best see what’s going on (as you can hear the whole lesson either way), but eventually thought it would be best for you to see what the KIDS are doing during a lesson, rather than just what I am doing from my teacher chair. Who wants to see the teacher for 10 minutes when you can see the kids doing super smart work with words? 🙂

So, in answer to that question about what we do all day, one thing is we work on Phonemic Awareness, which will help us as both readers and writers. Here’s a peek into this word work time in our classroom!

In case you missed it, in just those 10 short minutes we increased language awareness, worked on rhyming, identified onsets (beginning sounds), blended syllables, identified final phonemes (ending sounds), segmented words, substituted phonemes, added phonemes, deleted phonemes and worked on letter names and sounds. Whew! Action packed for sure!

After we finished, Sam said, “Let’s watch our video!” Without knowing so, he was reading my mind, and that was my plan for our next steps anyway! I asked him why he thought we should, and he just said he wanted to know how it went (and what kid doesn’t like to see themselves on the big screen?!), but I also wanted to have a discussion about what went well and how we could improve for next time. I prepped them to choose to just focus on themselves, to focus on the whole class, or to even choose to watch what I did and think about what went well (which we call pluses), and what we might change for our next try (which we mark as deltas).

As we talked, we recorded our noticings, being sure to share names when we were highlighting pluses and making sure to just say “I saw someone…” when we were mentioning things we could change. When we were finished, our chart looked like this:

This reflective protocol is something that we do often, and it is very helpful in kids’ recognizing their role in making our classroom a safe, kind place to learn, and to make sure they are putting their best foot forward. I’m excited to see what happens when we review our chart before Heggerty on Monday and focus on changing some of those things we listed on the right side of the chart. Using this reflective protocol over the next weeks and months, in various situations is also an idea that is brewing with my teammates as a way to help grow kiddos’ capacity to reflect on their engagement and ultimately take responsibility for their learning. I’m so excited (and will be sure to share more as it comes!!)!

As you think about phonemic awareness in the first grade classroom, what do you wonder? What do you notice? If you’re a parent, ask your kiddo what they like most about doing Heggerty in our classroom. Ask them to tell you about how this helps them in other parts of our day. Ask them to tell you what they would change about learning about letters and sounds. If you’re a teacher, how to you address phonemic awareness in your classroom? How do you see it affecting your students are readers and writers? What is your go-to resource or what other things do you use to support kiddos in this learning?

As I’ve mentioned in other posts, I’d love to hear from you! The conversation makes this whole thing even better! 🙂

What’s a Catch of the Day?

At Robinson, respect is a big deal, and so is being safe, kind and showing that you are a learner. And one way that we can highlight and encourage friends who do this repeatedly is with a Catch of the Day. They can be earned by a whole class (our class has 2 so far!) or by an individual kid. Any adult in our building can give them, and you can earn many in a single day.

I love the way a kid’s face lights up when you tell them you noticed them doing something super and how happy they are to show off their golden ticket! We have all gotten one so far, and many of us have earned more than that already–and we’ve only been in school for 8 days! Here’s to continued expected behaviors and more and more Catches of the Day for Rm. 111 friends! Celebrate with these friends! 🙂

1st Day of 1st Grade 2018!

The room is ~~mostly~~ put together. The pencils are sharpened (well because they came that way!). We’ve met each other and seen our new space. We are all finally here. It’s the 1st day of 1st grade and we’re ready for a great year!!

I want to take a few minutes in this first post to welcome you to my blog (if you’re new) and welcome you back (if you’ve been here before). I want to start our year (or maybe longer!) off with a little bit of rationale for how I hope this conversation will go, as well as for the purpose of this blog. I hope that it will help you as you navigate through our 1st grade journey to better understand why I write what I write here. 🙂 .

I could tell the long story about how I started and how this blog has changed over the last 7 years (and you know, that story is probably already posted here somewhere!), but instead I’ll just jump into the here-and-now and tell you that most of all I am here because I love teaching. I love kids and spending time with them everyday, hearing their thinking, getting to know their hearts, watching them discover new things. I am also here because I love to write. I have found that writing is a very powerful and important way for me to process and reflect upon what happens in our classroom, and helps me to improve my technique and then do better for the next time.

So, as you read posts here, you will notice a couple of things about what I write. First of all, I tend to go deep. Rather than tell you about a whole week’s worth of learning or activities in one post, I’ll dig down and just focus on ONE THING at a time. I like to tell the WHOLE story, usually with a backstory, and often with ideas for where I’ll go next. I like to include pictures and videos so you can see what happened and/or highlight some super smart thing a kid did or said. I will almost always tell you why we did what we did and explain my rationale behind it or my thinking about the purpose. Oh, and I will probably tell you about what DIDN’T work.

Aside from my own process and reflection, I want this blog to be an open-door peek into what happens in Rm. 111 every day, especially for those of you who send your babies to me each morning and wonder what happens all day. I want you to be able to imagine what it would be like to be a first grader at Robinson, and also to get a bigger picture of how and what your kiddos are learning. I hope to give you enough detail that you can ask your learner questions and get a conversation going around your dinner table–so that you hear more than just “it was good” when you ask about school. 🙂 Additionally, I hope that others who read this blog (who don’t have kiddos in Rm. 111) will get a picture of what is happening in our school, in our district, in our state, and maybe using that to inform what happens in your own classroom or learning space. I hope to be an inspiration to other educators, like so many have been to me over the years. How lucky we are that technology is such that we can reach into places so far away and connect with them so easily!

Lastly, I want to emphasize that I want this blog to be a place of CONVERSATION! If you have a question, please ask it! If you have a comment, please write it! If you see a cute picture of your kiddo and you want to say hi to them, wave away! If you have a suggestion for how we could do something better, please leave it! I know that the best years on 20somethingkids have been when parents, teachers, students and even strangers have been connected in conversations about learning–we all got smarter and were so much better for it! Ok, and of course, then, if I’m inviting you to connect with us, I’m also asking that you do it kindly. 🙂

So…that hopefully has gotten us off on a good foot and we are ready for a fabulous first grade year together. But wait–I haven’t shown you anything about this year’s bunch of super smart, super funny, super creative learners in Rm. 111 yet. So, here they are, ready to jump into this new journey. Look how proud they are. 🙂

Hi, Rm. 111 friends! (We are missing one friend in this picture–Will–and will post another version of this soon with ALL of our friends. SORRY!!)

Ok, and then another thing I’ve started doing every year is making sure to get a first day and last day pic to show how amazingly kiddos have grown in just one short year. They always come as babies and leave as such big kids!! Here’s our first day pics from August 15, 2018. 🙂 (And…just as I’m collecting them all I realize there was a different friend who was not here! I’ll add him when I can get back to my book wall tomorrow! My apologies–first graders don’t stay put for very long!! lol)

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Whew! Man…sometimes the first post is the hardest! We’re off and running and here we go into a busy, busy year! I already have like 17 blog posts I want to write–hopefully most of them will show up here. 🙂

And to get our conversation started: please leave your name and tell us from where you are reading our blog. We’ve had readers from as far away as Australia and China in the past and it’s a BLAST to see how far our words and pictures stretch. If you’re a family member of a Rm. 111 friend, leave a note and give them some advice for a great learning year. And no matter who you are, thanks for being here and taking time to peek into our first grade world! 🙂

Welcome to our First Grade Family! (2018-2019 edition)

Welcome to 1st Grade, Friends!

I am so excited you’re here!

The following letter contains 2636 words that will begin to shape your child’s first grade year (I know–it’s a little long. Sorry!). You will want to have your family sit and read this so you can all be excited about first grade together. You should also have dancing shoes on (you’ll learn why later!) and your phone (or other recording device) handy.

Ready? Of course you are! Because you are all about to become…

First Grade and Fabulous!

I am excited for the year ahead – how about you??

Let’s get started! First a little bit about me. 🙂 I am going into my 18th year of teaching and every one of them has been at Robinson! I even did my student-teaching here long ago, so Robinson is definitely my home-away-from-home. In my real home I have a fabulous family that I love dearly. My husband, Grant, is a teacher, too, in Mehlville. He has taught 3rd, 4th and 5th grade. We have a 11YO son, Riley, who is in starting MIDDLE SCHOOL, y’all! (Not sure how this happened but we’re excited for a new chapter. 🙂 ) We also have a daughter named Allison–we call her Allie–who is 7 1/2. She goes to Robinson and you might even know her (if not, I’m sure you’ll meet her soon). We LOVE (yep, love) Disney World, and travel there often. Chicago is another one of our favorite places to travel to together. We also just like to hang out together at home (or anywhere, really) and spend time with each other. So that’s me. What about you? Can’t wait to learn more about YOUR family!

Like I said, this is my 18th year as a teacher, and every year, I begin the school year as a different person. I decide on that first day and then every day thereafter, who I am as a teacher. What is important to me. What I want to accomplish. What I want my students to see when they come to school. I choose that. I don’t let other people tell me who I will be and I don’t just be who I think other people want me to be. I read, I think, I write and then I decide.

Today is your day! Choose how you will use it. 🙂

Parents, I am excited to find out who YOUR CHILD will be!

Another wondering: What is important to you? What is important to your child?

There are lots of things that are important to me: my husband and my kids, sharing ideas, reading, writing, being able to have a conversation, making things, discovering things, sharing what I know, staying healthy and active, sleeping in, staying up late and knowing when to say sorry (and when to say nothing at all!).

As a teacher, there are a few more things that are important to me:

* YOU and YOUR CHILD!: They’re the reason I’m there, after all right? It is important for me to get to know your child (and your family!), and know them well. Not just as a learner, but as a kid, too. I want to know what they like, what they don’t like, what makes them tick. Who they are. That’s ok, right? 🙂

* Respect: At Robinson, it’s pretty much what we’re all about. I expect respect to be a huge thing in our classroom. I will respect your child, and I expect them to respect me, as well as everyone else in our community. This counts when we agree and even when we don’t. I have a saying that I learned from my good friend Mrs. Ford years ago, that is really important with this whole respect thing. It’s this: You are not the sun. In other words, the world does not revolve around you, and there are lots of other people in our classroom that have needs, wants, likes, dislikes, etc., that we need to take into account. I love your child, but I love everyone else, too! Additionally, it is SUPER important to me that we learn to love each other as people, learn to support each other, learn to cheer when our friends do well (and know that that doesn’t mean anything negative about us), learn to encourage each other when they need it, learn to understand and appreciate how we’re different as much as how we’re the same, and learn to learn together. We are in this together and none of us will be as successful alone as we can alongside each other. That’s a life lesson, not just a 1st grade lesson. 🙂

Maybe you saw our #classroombookaday wall in the mail hallway. We made it to 560 books last year! Here’s to another great year of reading in first grade!

*Reading: I know–you’re thinking, “well isn’t every subject important?” And yes, to a point, that’s true. But in my opinion, one of the single most indicators of success in life (and let’s face it, enjoyment as well!) is developing a love of reading. I ask that you join me in the task of helping your child LOVE reading. I am sure they’re probably already on their way, but let’s keep it up together! Read to them as well as with them. Share your own reading with them. Read in front of them. Show them the importance of words and how you can lose yourself in the right text. HAVE FUN and help them do the same! I hope that I will do my part to encourage all of these things as well! (In case you want to see more about how important this is, read about our #classroombookaday challenge from a previous year here).

*Writing: Words are important. They help us to communicate and tell our stories. When you write those words, you can deepen thinking and learning, as well as better process things you heard or are still thinking about (I know this is one of the most important reasons I write!). We will write, write, write in Rm. 111, just like we will read, read, read! (And no, don’t worry about correct spelling or perfect handwriting–everyone is allowed to make mistakes, the message is the most important part!)

* Mistakes: I expect your child to make them. 🙂 I want them (and you!) to learn to work through it when it’s hard and figure out what to do. I want them to feel the joy and success of learning something new because they persevered! Not everything will be easy here. And that’s ok. We’re in it together and I’ll help you all along the way. 🙂 THIS IS A PLACE WHERE WE WILL BE GRITTY!

* Collaboration: I love to share ideas and get ideas and try new things and even when those things fail, I know I am just one step closer to finding what does work. I love to work with other teachers to figure things out and find new solutions to old problems. But just as much as working with adults, I love to collaborate with students. I love to hear what they’re thinking, how they’re feeling about things, what they think would be the best way to learn something. It’s OUR classroom, and often your kiddos’ ideas are WAY better than mine. I know I’ll share lots of examples with your child (and you!) about how that’s happened to me over the years.

Aside from collaborating with me, though, they’ll be collaborating with each other! Your child will have lots of opportunities to share with their classmates, to give ideas, ask questions, prove reasoning and challenge each other. I expect that we will work together to help EVERYONE in our class be the best they can be. Together we’ll achieve much more than we would if we tried to do it on our own. 🙂 Reminds me of a sign I saw in Disney World at the Animal Kingdom:

I like to say that in our room, everyone is a teacher and a learner.

And as a new level of collaboration and learning, we will be combining with and I will be co-teaching with Ms. Turken for many things this year. Be ready to hear your kiddo talk about a whole other class of kiddos, and their “other” teacher, Ms. Turken. We had such an amazing year last go-round and are excited for another! Can’t wait to share more as we go forward!!

* Curiosity: There is no better way to learn something than to ask a question. It is DEFINITELY how I learn, and so please understand if you find me asking you (or your child) lots of questions as a means of figuring out how best to meet their needs or to connect with your family. In turn, I hope you will feel comfortable to ask me any questions you may have, and the perhaps most importantly, your child will feel comfortable to ask me–and their classmates–questions when they need to. Knowing when to ask for help is an important part of learning. 🙂 Also, WONDER is a natural part of being a kid, as well as a super important part of learning something new. WONDER is something that I will always encourage, and hopefully many things we learn together will start as someone’s wondering about the world.

* Technology : I love technology because it allows me to connect to new ideas. I like to think about what I want to do and look for tools to help me do it. I want to hear your ideas on technology and what works for you–and I ask that you be open to trying new things (that goes for BOTH you and your learner). We will be using technology in many new and exciting ways this year, so get ready! You child may be blogging, using Twitter, Schoology, Seesaw (which is an AMAZING app that allows endless ways for your child to share their learning with me, their peers AND YOU!) and other sites (like Skype to connect with other learners around the world), using iPads, making videos of learning and trying out many new things that we may not even know about yet. Whatever we do, though, the goal is always learning. We will use technology in meaningful ways to better create new knowledge. Excited? I know I am! PLEASE let me know what–if any–apprehensions you have in this area, either for you or your student. This will be an important area for us to explore together. 🙂

* Community: Our class, our families, our school, our neighborhood, our city, our state, our country, our world. There are so many amazing people doing amazing things. I am hoping to integrate your family stories into our classroom this year, taking full advantage of all of the amazing things each one of us has to offer. That might mean I ask you (grown-ups) to come read to us, teach us something, help us make something, send in things, etc. We want EVERYONE to be a part of the Rm. 111 family!! One of our first units this year will be learning about our names and families so stay tuned!

* Taking risks: I like to take risks. I hope you do too. It is scary sometimes and it fails sometimes but sometimes, more often, it is just A-MAZ-ING! Usually when you do something scary you do things you never thought you could. You surprise yourself. And then you want to do more! Someone smart once said “Fear and Excitement are shades of the same color”. Cool, huh? (Parents, this is true for you as much as it is for your kiddo!! 🙂

HANG IN THERE….You’re almost done!

OK…if you made it this far and are still with me, congratulations, you (and your kiddo) are a rock star. Stop reading right now and do some kind of victory dance. No really, go ahead. Dance. I’ll wait. Better yet, have someone video tape your dance and send it to me! I’ll even post it on our blog! (Did you see the posts where I did that with my last class? They didn’t believe that I’d do it, either. 🙂 )

So….what now? How can you best prepare for the extreme awesomeness of first grade?

Have a great summer! Be extraordinary.
Read something. Write something. Wonder something. This will get your learning muscles warmed up. 🙂
If you have any questions you can always email me. Anytime. No question to big or too small.
Think about what I said about who you want your child to be. Most importantly, remember that everyone else in our class is thinking about that too. Be gracious to those who are brave enough to set lofty goals and make the effort to become an even better version of themselves.
Talk with your family about how you would define HOME. I really want to make our classroom a comfortable, warm place were our school family can feel safe to get down and dirty, taking chances and making mistakes and LEARNING TONS! I want this to include pieces of each of our homes. I will send a survey to you later, where you can give share your ideas, but I wanted to get your thinking about it now. 🙂
THIS ONE IS FOR THE KIDDOS!: Look around your house (or your computer, maybe) for a picture of your family. I’d love to be able to decorate our room with us–pictures of all the people who help make us who we are and who encourage us to do our best. I want to be able to fill our room with love, support and smiling faces, so please bring a 3×5, 4×6 or 5X7 picture (framed if possible–but don’t stress over this part!) with you to Open House or on the first day of school. And if you don’t have one, don’t worry! We’ll take your picture!

Despite having now used more than two thousand words, there are no words to describe how excited I am about working with you next year!

Here’s To Being First Grade and Fabulous!

♥ Mrs. Bearden

PS. If you didn’t get up and dance before and are now wishing you did, there is still time to do it. Anytime. Send me that video with your best moves (we’ll check these out together once we’re all in school together. Fun, right?).

When you have had a chance to relax, digest this letter (maybe talk about it with your family or friends) and get your first grade brain tuned up, I would love for your child to write to me to introduce yourself, ask questions, maybe respond to something you read in this letter that made you think. An email, postcard or a good ‘ole letter via snail mail is great! Don’t worry–there’s still loads of time before school starts! You can send your letter to Robinson, c/o of Mrs. Bearden at 803 S. Couch Ave., Kirkwood, MO 63122.

I look forward meeting you!

Mrs. Bearden: Email–jennifer.bearden@kirkwoodschools.org; Phone–314-213-6100 x4211 (after August 9)

Twitter: @jbeardensclass (This is our class feed, and we will tweet here together with my supervision and instruction. It’s a great way to stay on top of what’s going on in our classroom since you don’t get to be there every day! Follow us!)

Blog: http://www.20somethingkidsand1kookyteacher.com Feel free to leave me a comment here to let me know what you thought, what you wonder, how your summer has been, etc….this is always a great place to talk to me! 🙂 Also–if you have a minute while you’re here, go ahead and subscribe to the blog feed. That way you’ll never miss anything that happens here. I add things often and you’ll want to read it all!! Just click on the button on the right side of the page and add your email address. 🙂

**Thanks to @terSonya for help with writing this post! Like I said, I love to share ideas!**

I’ve Got Some Questions…

I have been navigating this cyberspace for 7 years now. I’ve had many great experiences, learned and shared many things, and met many great people. I’ve changed my view along the way and rethought my audience, but have always tried to write things that were engaging to my readers. Often I could gauge that engagement by how many people commented on my posts, and/or how often readers connected with me on Twitter or Facebook regarding my writing.

So…while I honestly write as a means of reflection, I also strive to make this blog a conversation around teaching and learning. And I’ve found that recently I seem to be writing to myself…I figure there are many reasons that might be happening, but am hoping that maybe you’ll help me more specifically with figuring out some of them by answering some questions. I’d LOVE to learn more about what you, my blog reader, is thinking!

What kinds of blogs do you read and revisit often?
What kinds of blogs do you comment on, and what makes you want to do that?
Do you find yourself reading blogs/posts that are more word-focused, video-focused, photo-focused, or some combination of all of those?
If you write a blog, what do you do to help invite conversations and interactions?
What other suggestions do you have?

PLEASE, please, please take a few minutes to let me know what you’re thinking! I’m a learner at heart, and this is an important place for that to happen! Can’t wait to hear from you, friends! 🙂

It’s Summer–What Are You Reading? 2018 edition

If you’ve been around the block on EduTwitter, or even if you’ve been around for a while on this blog (when I used to post regularly!), you probably know about #IMWAYR–It’s Monday, What Are You Reading? I have written about with highlights from my classroom , and also many times with my own reading. This usually happens during the summer (which seems to be the only time I have time to both read and write!). So here we are again, and I have a big ‘ole list of good ones to share. 🙂

It’s summer, and here’s what I’ve been reading!

Sprinkle Sundays, Mia’s Boiling Point and Smart Cookie: I think I’ve written before on this blog about how I have a strange love of the intersection of cupcakes and books, and I started by summer reading headed down that road. These all focus on middle-school girls and the first two also include their “tribes,” as well as at least one “mean girl.” That whole structure is predictable, and as a 40-year-old mom/teacher it was a little silly (although I’m sure I acted exactly the same way when I was 12!), but I enjoyed them nonetheless. I loved the way the girls were empowered to do their own thing, to become entrepreneurs, and also how they showed how cooking/baking can provide a powerful avenue for stress-relief and creativity. Each of these stories has a strong family element, and show complicated relationships and problem-solving. Maybe I’m just a sucker for a sweet book, but these did not disappoint. 🙂

Masterminds Trilogy by Gordon Korman: Without giving too much away (in case you haven’t read these yet but want to!), this trilogy tells the story about a special group of teenagers who discover just how special they are and then work (against most of the adults in their lives) to find answers to the questions that arise. These books are all page-turners and I breezed through them! They are the first that I have read by Korman, but I am interested in the countless others he’s written now. 🙂 . Thanks, Rachael, for the recommendation!

IMG_4274-min Epidemic by Reid Wilson: So far this is the only non-fiction book I’ve read this summer. I am a big fan of the NPR show The 1A, hosted by Joshua Johnson, and recently heard Reid Wilson, the author of this book, talking about the Ebola outbreak of 2014. Unlike when I was a hypochondriac child (and would have been surely convinced I HAD ebola), I was interested in this topic and grabbed the book recently at the library. It’s definitely science-heavy and also filled with way too many acronyms (which he thankfully explains), but was both interestingly written and informative.

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Who Stole New Year’s Eve? by Martha Freeman: I have read many other of the mysterious adventures of Alex Parakeet and Yasmeen Popp on Chickadee Ct, and Who’s Stealing the 12 Days of Christmas? is one of my favorites. I have read it so many times on my own, and also to my students. This one followed the same structure and involves most of the same familiar characters. Loved it, too!

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Rosetown by Cynthia Rylant: This one represents an old, favorite author I haven’t read in a long time, and who I really know mostly as a picture book author. I have long been a fan of Cynthia Rylant, and so when I saw this on in the NEW section at the library, I snagged it. Might add it to my class read aloud list for this year.

IMG_4269-min Moo by Sharon Creech: I had to admit my hesitation of this book to Sharon Creech when I started reading it. For some (dumb) reason, the fact that it was written in verse scared me.

I know–that makes NO SENSE, but it did. Can’t explain it. But, as I told her, I should have trusted that EVERYTHING by Sharon Creech is amazing, and that since some of my favorite books were written by her, this would be a quick favorite, too. And indeed it was. Who knew I liked cows so much?

Um…I hate to admit that even though I ❤️@ciaobellacreech ‘s writing, I was scared of the poetry in this one. Can’t explain why. But goodness was this book AMAZING!! I should have trusted my old friend to share a warm, thoughtful story full of interesting characters pic.twitter.com/7swFUQFvjV

— Jen Bearden (@JenBearden) May 31, 2018

IMG_4709-min One Hundred Spaghetti Strings by Jen Nails: See how I mentioned that I love books about food? This one was definitely a “judge-a-book-by-its-cover” moment and I picked it just because it looked like it would be a story about a girl who cooks. And it was. I loved the way the character used food to figure out problems in her real life; this reminds me of how my husband uses cooking as his outlet, and also how I sometimes bake when I am in need of some “me” time to think things through. I liked how all the recipes she made in the story were included in the back of the book. Didn’t try any of them, but they looked tasty and like they might actually work!

The last four I’m going to mention were not the ones I read last, but I am mentioning them last because of the impact they had on me. They are from authors I already love–Kate Messner and Katherine Applegate–but were titles that were new to me and that were about topics that were timely and hit on “big” ideas. It’s one of the things I love about middle-grade fiction–helping kids work through important ideas and hard topics in the midst of a good story. I am excited to try at least of these with my class this year; even first graders can handle deep conversations about big things.

IMG_4273-min Wishtree by Katherine Applegate: I know Katherine Applegate because of Ivan, and had heard the buzz about this book a few years ago but hadn’t yet read it. And in full disclosure I didn’t actually “read” this book either–it was an audio book in my car on our recent family vacation. (On a side note, this is one of our favorite things about traveling–sharing great stores together as a family. Last summer it was Roald Dahl themed, previous years we devoured all of Christopher Paul Curtis’ books (we are HUGE Mighty Miss Malone fans), some years its just a mishmash of different ones none of us have heard. Regardless of the author or the book, everyone loves this routine!). So…the first big surprise was that the book is told by the tree. Ha!! I would NEVER have thought of that as a storyteller, but of course it makes perfect sense. This one had some important things to say about being different, accepting others (specifically refugees/immigrants) and standing up for what’s right. It’s a new favorite for sure!

IMG_4268-min The Seventh Wish by Kate Messner: Here’s another title that I was SUPER late to the game on. Sometimes teaching primary means I don’t always get to novels I want to read because I live in picture book world for much of the school year. Sorry to have waited so long, but this one was TOTALLY WORTH THE WAIT! I knew that this book dealt with the topic of addiction, and it did not disappoint with the reality of the story. I have not personally been affected by drugs, but I can see how easily and quickly it can happen–even in “good” families with “good” kids raised by parents who did everything right. No one is immune and I liked how through a sweet family story I got a peek into that world. At first I wasn’t sure about the magic fish part, but now I’ve convinced that somehow that fantasy element balanced out the depth of the “hard” parts of the text. I am SO glad I got to this one, and would recommend it to anyone. Ok, everyone, really! 🙂

Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate: Oh my goodness. Kek may be my new favorite character. And remember how I was afraid of Moo written in poetry? This one was too, and was also had cows. I LOVED the insights into immigrant life we got in this one, too, and how the story was told in such a real way. Being able to see Kek’s bravery and spunk in the story was heartwarming and I love the way the story really dug into the definition of what home is, and where you find it when it seems so far away from where you are.

Exact Location of Home by Kate Messner: I found this book (which I had never heard about previously) after I read The Seventh Wish and decided I needed to check out all the rest of her books. I loved the geocaching element of this story, as it’s an activity I learned about a couple of years ago in an after-school club I lead with a friend (plus there just aren’t many geocaching stories around I’d say!). The “big” topic is in this book is homelessness, and the reality of how 1) quickly it can happen to those who least expect it, 2) it can happen to anyone, and that we probably know someone who is homeless (or as in this story living in a shelter) and might not even know it, and 3) homeless people are not crazy, weird, wrong, dangerous–often it happens because of things out of their control and they deserve the same respect as EVERYONE else. People are people. As I read this one, and connected it with the “home” theme in Home of the Brave, it got me thinking about a possible theme for my classroom this year….I’m excited to explore that topic with my students: what does it mean to them, how can we create stronger connections between home-school, and how can I make our classroom an extension of home. I might try this as a read aloud this year, too, because like I mentioned in the last one, even little kids can tackle big topics.

And…right now I’m reading two more. I feel a little funny putting them together in a picture here because of how completely opposite they are (one about Hurricane Katrina and the other about middle school girls who take a cooking class–ha!), but hey–variety is the spice of life, right?

I’ll share more when I finish. 🙂 . Come back to check it out, will you?

So I’m wondering a couple of things…

What are you reading or have you read this summer (or whenever!) that I should check out?
What topics/themes do you like to read about?

PLEASE leave a comment and let’s chat about books!! There’s still a lot of summer left and I can’t wait to hear about what you’re reading!

What Do You Do With a Problem?

I am sure you’ve seen this book:

It’s not a new one, but I just recently read it for the first time to my class. Ms. Turken, my co-teacher, and I had decided to start our year back after Winter Break with some reminders and reteaching about problem-solving. We started with this book, as well with a structure for what to do when they encounter a problem.

I was so excited with how much my kiddos loved this book, and as usual, they had SUPER ideas about it and how they could apply the story to themselves. The LOVED the way the problem got bigger (with the big black swirls) as he put off solving it, and they all agreed the best thing to do with a problem is just to figure out how to tackle it, not ignore it. 🙂

Once we finished the story, Nicholas had a great idea of how we should share what we had learned with others. Then, as is so commonplace (and so great!) with our class, kids kept adding their own thoughts to his original idea and they had birthed a plan where we’d have a whole display/presentation about problems they’d found (and problems they’d had) as well as possible solutions to those problems (which was part of our protocol we’d been learning about). I told them that I would chew on the idea and talk to Ms. Turken about it over the weekend and get back to them.

As we talked about where we’d go with their grand plans, and it was a PERFECT fit with where we were going in Social Studies–don’t you love it when that happens?? 🙂 We were getting ready to start a history unit, and we decided to go with their excitement about problems/solutions and frame the thinking about how solutions to past problems can help us today. We’d done that in a past year as we highlighted important people and it seemed like a great continuation and honoring of what kids were already interested in! Again, love it when that happens–student voice is honored and our goals/standards are met at the same time!

So…our plan was to start with read alouds that show how people from the past (which was a word we had to spend a couple of days investigating because we couldn’t agree on the definition!) solved problems, having kiddos chew on this question as they listen and learn:

We chose to read the same books to each of our classes, building on what one group of thinkers came up with and sharing it with the other group. We have chosen books about smart and creative people, both men and women, some black and some white. The focus has been the same, and kiddos are getting pretty good at finding the themes. So far we’ve read these books:

I was tickled today, too, as our friend Addy heard someone say, “Take a picture of me!” and she said, “James VanDerZee!”, remembering one of the first books Ms. Turken read to us last week. She reminded me of what the book was about and told me all about how it’s been one of her favorites. 🙂

Hear the rest (of this part) of the story here:

I’d love you to leave your comments below, and suggest some books you’d read in a history unit about problem solving! We’re SO open to hearing about great new books!

20somethingkids and 1kookyteacher

Starting a 3rd Grade Journey

Category Archives: Classroom