Life Lessons I Learned on my Treadmill

I am a thinker.  If you know me, you probably know that I ask a LOT of questions, and that I am always chewing on something.  It’s great to know that if you’re ever in a meeting with me, too, because I will often not have any answers for you on what I think about the topic right then–but if you get back with me the next day, I’ll have a big, long list of things I want to talk to you about!

I’ve shared some of that thinking here before, related to me as a reader and a writer.  I’ve even wrote about things you should know about me as a runner.

And so that brings me to this post here today: Life Lessons I Learned on My Treadmill.  Surprisingly, even when I’m running and sweating on my treadmill at night, my brain is working.  I’m thinking.  And usually I’m thinking about what I’m going to write about next, or what I will write at my next Facebook status (weird, I know. 🙂 ).

Hope you’ll enjoy what I was thinking about during my run tonight:

1. Just do it.  Even if you don’t want to.  There are times in each of our lives when we don’t want to do something, but know it’s good for us, or maybe that we have to do it because someone’s told us to, or is expecting us to.  Tonight was one of those nights when I just wanted to sit on my couch and veg out–to check my email and Facebook, hang out on Twitter and blog.  But what I needed to do was run.  It was a running day (every other day is), and it shouldn’t matter if I’m tired.  And so I had to ignore those voices screaming in my head for me to be lazy and just. Do. It.  And you know what?  Once I got started, I was SO glad I had made that decision.  And just like with running, sometimes you just have to stop thinking about how much you DON’T want to do it (a project, homework, the laundry, whatever) and DO it.  Usually that takes less time than the whining part anyway.

2. Take someone with you.  In this case my “someone” is not a real “someone,” but is instead a music playlist.  Many times when I run, I watch TV–shows that no one else in my house cares about, that I can watch while I’m alone and exercising.  Tonight, though, I took my friends from Pandora with me instead, and it made the time pass much more quickly.  Instead of paying attention to the clock or the time I had left in my workout, I was singing along (yes, at the top of my lungs!) and not even noticing the time.  Many things are like that–having a friend (real or on the radio) there to chat with, laugh with, learn with makes the whole thing much more enjoyable.  You might even learn something new without knowing it.

3. You just feel better when you’re moving. This one might be a personal opinion rather than something I’ve learned, but I can definitely say I feel loads better when I’m moving than when I’m not.  There were some weeks months when I wasn’t doing anything in terms of exercise.  I had started running a year or so ago, and was loving it and what it had done to me and for me physically.  And then school started again.  And I started my Masters program.  And I had a little one start kindergarten.  You get the idea.  Suddenly I looked up and it was JANUARY and I hadn’t run a single step since August.  And I didn’t feel very well.  I was sluggish, run down and just felt plain icky.  And yes, I had gotten a little larger than where I was at the end of the summer.  And so just after the first of the year I started over and relaced my running shoes.  And am feeling so amazing again.  Now it’s hard NOT to run because of the fabulous way it makes me feel when I do it. (I’m not really sure how this one relates to learning specifically, except for I guess that your brain works better when you’re active than when you’re a couch potato.  It’s a muscle, right?)

4. You will make time for what’s important to you. This one is true about whatever it is in your life that you want to do, but for me it’s running and writing.  People often ask me how I find time to keep up with this blog, do what I need to do as a wife, mother and teacher, running, etc. and the short answer is that I make it.  Ok, really I tell them that I don’t sleep.  But that’s not at all true because I love me a good nap!  We all have the same number of hours in the day; it’s about how you use them.  Instead of watching TV or playing a game, I choose to write on my blog or read a book I want to share with my 5th graders.  Instead of watching TV (or WHILE I’m watching TV) I run.  And so I guess another part of the answer is that I am a master at multi-tasking.  I don’t do much sitting.  I do many things all at the same time, because I want to make sure I have time to do them all.  Doing the things that are important to you first is another strategy I choose to employ, too, and then I make sure there’s time for them.  If you want to, you will.

5. Think before.  I was going to make that title say “Think before you speak,” but then I thought about it (ha!), and really I’d say it’s a great thing to do before you do LOTS of things: think before you speak, think before you write, think before you act, think before you eat, think before (and while!) you read, etc…thinking is just a good thing in general, and there are many people who just don’t do it!  They move and do and go, without really knowing where they’re going or why, what they’ll do when they get there, or the process they’re going to use while they’re there.  I mentioned already that I am always thinking.  The whole time I was running, I was drafting what this blog post would sound like!  See? Multi-tasking.

6. Smile. Smiling just makes everything better, and can even fool you into liking something you didn’t think you would.  Plus it makes your face look nicer. 🙂

7. Don’t listen to Adele Radio.  That Pandora station doesn’t play enough Adele.  Pick the Sara Bareilles station instead.  Much better stuff.

Your turn: what life lessons have you learned lately?  Where or when did you learn them?  Share your ideas with me and my students!  We’d love to learn from you!

 

The Best of Kirkwood

Robinson’s 2013 Art Show, called The Best of Kirkwood was held tonight and was a FABULOUS event.  Many thanks and kudos to Mrs. Maldonado, our most amazing art teacher, for pulling together another showcase of the creativity of the artists of our school!

I wish I had more pictures, and I wish you could have been there, but I had my own fabulous artists (my kindergartener, Riley and my 2YO Allie) in tow and could only visit for short time!  Here are a few highlights:

The whole back wall of the gym was covered in a mural-of-sorts showing all the best places in our town.

The whole back wall of the gym was covered in a mural-of-sorts showing all the best places in our town.

Description of one of the 5th grade displays

Description of one of the 5th grade displays

One of them: food! So realistic!

One of them: food! So realistic!  Yep, those are my little ones looking hungry!

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Yum!

More yum. :)

More yum. 🙂

Some kindergarten art! Kindergarten highlighted community heroes they wanted to be like. See that fabulous police officer?

Some kindergarten art! Kindergarten highlighted community heroes they wanted to be like. See that fabulous police officer?  So excited about his first art show–had to share it here. 🙂

Thanks for reading! Wish you could have been there! We are definitely the BEST OF KIRKWOOD!

Thanks for reading! Wish you could have been there! We are definitely the BEST OF KIRKWOOD!

 

 

 

 

Read Around Revisited

I wrote about the Read Around strategy yesterday, and how it was a great way to get new books into the hands of my kiddos.

This week at our staff meeting, our principal (Jennifer Sisul, @grrprincipal, and a FABULOUS leader) took us through the same activity with our library’s professional library.  Let me tell ya, the great ideas are always flowing around our school!  And what great timing–Spring Break is next week and we’ll all have time to read.

So, just like our kiddos did, we took time to peruse some titles (some new, some old) and I found some great ones.  While I didn’t get a chance to get to everything, here are some interesting reads I’ve added to my list:

Neurodiversity in the Classroom (Armstrong); Guy Write (Fletcher); Underresourced Learners (Payne); Rigor is Not a 4-letter-word (Blackburn); 7 Habits of Happy Kids (Covey); Checking for Understanding (Fisher/Frey)

Neurodiversity in the Classroom (Armstrong); Guy Write (Fletcher); Underresourced Learners (Payne); Rigor is Not a 4-letter-word (Blackburn); 7 Habits of Happy Kids (Covey); Checking for Understanding (Fisher/Frey)

I also have at least a nightstand-full of kid novels I still want to read, too!  Hopefully my children will let me have some time for that next week!

Your turn: What’s on your to-be-read list?  How do you find time to read when you’re a busy, working parent?

 

Read Around

A few months ago, our librarian shared a phenomenal strategy with us for exposing readers to new (and sometimes old!) books–a Read Around.   The directions were pretty basic:

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Mrs. Meihaus’ purpose was to (re)introduce older readers to books they may have missed (or overlooked because they have old covers) and encourage them to try some new things.  In the 40 minutes we spent in the activity, we were able to peruse (which was a word she taught us the meaning of and how to do) over 40 new (or old!) titles that we were previously not on our 5th grade radars!  What a gift!  It was great to hear how many kiddos found some fabulous new try-its–even the ones who only read certain titles or series.  Impressive, really.

Well…I liked the strategy so much, that I knew I had to do it in my own classroom library.  Just like in Mrs. Meihaus’ library downstairs, I have books that are FABULOUS stories, but may be a few years old, or have a worn cover.  Classics, really, that need a second chance.

So we tried it for ourselves.

Tables started out like this, with two books at each seat.

Tables started out like this, with two books at each seat.

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Learning how to peruse is a useful new skill!

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One part of perusing that many kiddos tried was reading the first few pages.

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I pulled out many unread (old and new) books for readers to try.

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I love how serious and diligent my readers are during things like this–they really dig in deep and learn well. 🙂

Have you ever done a Read Around?  How did it go?  Did you find a new book you didn’t think you’d read?  Tell us about it!

Changing the Norm

We began our year together talking about norms, and about how we would treat each other as learners.   We ended up creating classroom norms and personal standards to live by:

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We come back to these norms all the time, calling each other out (including me when I don’t turn off my cell phone, which is a norm they wanted to put on that list) and reminding us of what we’re supposed to be doing.

Well, we’ve added some new norms to our classroom recently, based on new things we’re doing together.    And just like the last ones, we brainstormed together and then narrowed down our favorites.  And we’re so good at that.  I wish I’d have recorded the conversations around these norms, because they are such great examples of respectful, civil discourse leading to consensus.  LOVE IT!

Ok, here’s what we’ve got:

Before we started our Literature Circles, we brainstormed how we thought we should work together with our groups. All ideas were fair game, and they had some great ones!

Before we started our Literature Circles, we brainstormed how we thought we should work together with our groups. All ideas were fair game, and they had some great ones!

Then we narrowed it down to a more reasonable number of norms to follow. And we do a super job of doing so!

Then we narrowed it down to a more reasonable number of norms to follow. And we do a super job of doing so!

The second group of norms is related to our work on Edmodo (more on exactly what that is sometime soon).  We started out without an specific “rules,” just the basic ones that we follow every day in our room.  But as we got better used to collaborating and working on Edmodo, we started so have some concerns about how it was going.  For me, the best part of this list is that all I had to say was, “I’ve noticed some things about Edmdo lately.  What are you thinking about it?” and they thought of the same things as me!

Edmodo concerns brainstorming list

Edmodo concerns brainstorming list

There was an in-between list where they then proposed norms related to each of these concerns, but I don’t have a picture of it. 😦  Fortunately, I think they all ended up on our final poster:

There are a lot of them, but they were all important and necessary to our learning.

There are a lot of them, but they were all important and necessary to our learning.  My favorite one is “quiet hours.”  I would never have thought of that one, but it’s related to the online aspect of Edmodo and not disturbing each other with notifications while we’re trying to sleep.  SO SMART!

But just like with any expectations, rules or norms, the bid deal is following them.  And we’re doing such an amazing job of that!  I really do have the best bunch of 5th graders around!

How do you use norms in your classroom?  Do you norms look like ours?  If so, how so? Thanks in advance for helping us learn!

Another (Writing) Celebration!

I’ve written before about how we use the Writing Cycle in our classroom, and how important celebrating our work is once we’re all finished.

Recently we had another one–this time with Expository Nonfiction Writing that we had done!

Our nonfiction pieces were all based on the structure of introduction, 3 paragraphs on specific topics, and conclusion. They were written in many different forms, but all followed that same structure.

Our nonfiction pieces were all based on the structure of introduction, 3 paragraphs on specific topics, and conclusion. They were written in many different forms, but all followed that same structure.  Rebekah’s final piece was handwritten on paper.

Many students wrote their essays as feature articles using Pages templates. All they had to do was replace what was there with their info and voila!

Many students wrote their essays as feature articles using Pages templates. All they had to do was replace what was there with their info and voila! I was impressed with the variety of topics: Sophia wrote about Artemis, Anna C. wrote a piece about tennis player Althea Gibson, ZB202 wrote about poodles and Natalie wrote about the evolution of the telephone.

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Some essays were made with a flier template, and Keelan wrote his as a brochure.

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Here’s a great picture of the different end products: Anna K. used Pages to write about Greek Mythology, Devan made a poster that was SHAPED like his topic of tops, and Sammy made a poster about mythology, too.

Some posters were small, like Jernandra's about lions...

Some posters were small, like Jernandra’s about lions, Don’s about bulldogs,

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and Aiden’s about diamonds…

...and some were big, like Seamus' about Paul Revere,

…and some were big, like Seamus’ about Paul Revere,

Owen's about Gravity Master Isaac Newton,

Owen’s about Gravity Master Isaac Newton,

and Fiona's about Queen Elizabeth II.

and Fiona’s about Queen Elizabeth II.

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And thee were even some Keynotes created about nonfiction topics, like Ames’ slide show about fossils,

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and Peter’s about Ray Lewis. What a great example of how we can all accomplish the same thing in whatever way makes sense to us!

What do you do to celebrate your writing?  How do you “send your writing out into the world?” Tell us what you think!

 

 

 

 

Middle School Visits

Another highlight from our crazy, busy week last week was a visit from some very important people from Nipher Middle School!  Mrs. Johnson (the counselor), Mr. Taylor and some current 6th graders came to share with us about what we should expect for next year.

Nipher friends answered some of our most pressing questions, and also shared information about what classes will be like, what they like best, how much time they have between classes, etc. I was excited to have my old friends Joe and Molly there to share their knowledge. What leaders they've become!

Nipher friends answered some of our most pressing questions, and also shared information about what classes will be like, what they like best, how much time they have between classes, etc. I was excited to have my old friends Joe and Molly there to share their knowledge. What leaders they’ve become!

After the Q & A, they got into groups for the next activity--match your colored strip with the others to find your new group!

After the Q & A, they got into groups for the next activity–match your colored strip with the others to find your new group!

These groups worked together to answer Nipher trivia--with prizes!

These groups worked together to answer Nipher trivia–with prizes!

What a great afternoon!  We’re excited to head to middle school!  This time they came to us, and we get to go there for a visit in May!  🙂

 

World Read Aloud Day!

Last week were AMAZED as Lisa Campbell Ernst came to share her writing life with us.  But on Wednesday we were DOUBLE AMAZED when she agreed to Skype with us to celebrate World Read-Aloud Day 2013.  We’re kind of spoiled around here. 🙂

As I mentioned in my original post, I was trying not to be a groupie, but was forward enough to ask her to help with us with our WRAD plans.  Surprisingly, she said yes, and so I began thinking about what we could do together.

I knew my friends were dying to ask her many more things about her writing life, and specifically to see more of what her writing studio looked like.  And because it was read aloud day, we hoped she would read to us, too!

When she was here, she had told us all about the process of writing The Gingerbread Girl.  She also told us about how she got the idea for the sequel to it: The Gingerbread Girl Goes Animal Crackers.  As I remembered this detail, I knew that was the book I wanted her to read!

So we settled in for our Skype call with her, and has 40 or so kindergarteners join us for the experience!  I invited my son, Riley’s, class to come up and hear the story (partly because I knew they’d love the book, but selfishly because I knew HE would love it–we are always talking about books and authors at home!).  Then Ms. Weidinger shared it with Ms. Heifner and they came along, too!  WOW–what a great bunch of kiddos gathered to share such a great day!

Look at all those kiddos!

Look at all those kiddos!  It’s really cool that little kids and big kids alike can share an experience like this one!

First she read to us.  Here’s a little snippet (although now I’m a little sad I didn’t record the whole story!):

Man, it must be crazy cool (and a little bit weird) to be able to read a REAL book that YOU wrote to other people.  I’m a little jealous.

After we enjoyed her sharing her story with us (which is a MUST READ in our opinion!), our little friends left and we settled in to chat with our new best author friend!  We had some great questions left over from our time with her last week: Will you ever write an autobiography?  Do you like writing fiction or nonfiction better? Can we see more of your office?

Then Peter asked how she made up the little rhymes she used in her Gingerbread Girl books.  Her answer, which made sense, was that a lot of it was just trial and error.  But she also shared with us a handy-dandy tool that we now know no writer should be without:

What an amazing visit with an amazing lady!  I, for one, was inspired to get myself published, and I know my students were inspired as well!  What a treat!  THANK YOU LISA!

How did you celebrate World Read Aloud Day?  Who is your favorite author?  Have you every Skyped with an author?  If so, who? Tell us about it!

Math Warm-Ups March 4-8, 2013

I’m starting to feel like there’s not really such a thing as a “normal” week; every Friday I say something about how this past week hasn’t been.  So–this week was another “unnormal” week.  Here are our warm-ups:

Monday

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I was out Monday with a sick little girl, and somehow forgot to get a picture of that warm-up. This one is practice with both place value and decimals.

 

Tuesday

After reading the note from my Monday sub, I knew we needed to review what to do with the decimal point in this multiplication problem. Then, as in a stroke of genius, we made a connection to our fraction unit where we used fraction bars to help us visualize what the numbers were doing.

After reading the note from my Monday sub, I knew we needed to review what to do with the decimal point in this multiplication problem. Then, as in a stroke of genius, we made a connection to our fraction unit where we used fraction bars to help us visualize what the numbers were doing.

 

Wednesday

After we stumbled upon fraction bars again Tuesday, I gave them a problem where I had them use that strategy again (on purpose!). For many it was the visual they needed to help it click. But, for some others it just made them more confused! :( We had a great discussion about figuring out which strategy or model works for you and making sure you use that one well.

After we stumbled upon fraction bars again Tuesday, I gave them a problem where I had them use that strategy again (on purpose!). For many it was the visual they needed to help it click. But, for some others it just made them more confused! 😦 We had a great discussion about figuring out which strategy or model works for you and making sure you use that one well.

Close-up of the marking on the fraction bar: we took 1/4 out of each one of the 1/10, which made 6/24. Eventually we were able to simplify our answer all the way back to something that we could turn back into a decimal (1.5/10 or .150).

Close-up of the marking on the fraction bar: we took 1/4 out of each one of the 1/10, which made 6/24. Eventually we were able to simplify our answer all the way back to something that we could turn back into a decimal (1.5/10 or .150).

 

Thursday and Friday

Remember that "unnormal" part of this week? On Thursday we were only at school for about 20 minutes before we left to head to the middle school for the dress rehearsal of their Spring production of Guys and Dolls Jr. (which was FABULOUS, by the way!), so we didn't have math this day. We had the discussion over this warm-up today. Because many people got thrown off by both 1) the exponents in this problem and 2) the "backwards" nature of how I did expanded form, we did another example problem first (the number at the bottom). This problem is a great example of how the warm-up is often a response of something that happens in our math rotations: as we were reading the rubric for reading and writing decimals, we realized that we needed more practice with expanded form and so that group requested we do more with it in our morning work. Great idea, friends!

Remember that “unnormal” part of this week? On Thursday we were only at school for about 20 minutes before we left to head to the middle school for the dress rehearsal of their Spring production of Guys and Dolls Jr. (which was FABULOUS, by the way!), so we didn’t have math this day. We had the discussion over this warm-up today. Because many people got thrown off by both 1) the exponents in this problem and 2) the “backwards” nature of how I did expanded form, we did another example problem first (the number at the bottom). This problem is a great example of how the warm-up is often a response of something that happens in our math rotations–as we were studying the rubric for the standard of Reading and Writing Decimals, we realized that we needed more practice with expanded form.  So that group requested we do more with it in our morning work. Great idea, friends!

What are you thinking about our math warm-ups lately?  Do you have a suggestion for a decimal problem we could do?  Feel free to share it and we’ll try it, then leave you the answer!  We’re always ready to try something new!