Who’s in YOUR Village?

I don’t even remember when I first heard that saying “It takes a village…,” but goodness knows I live it and breathe it in so many ways at this point in my life. Whether that means my personal life at home with kids or my professional life at school with my other kids (which is what this post is about), I could definitely not do it all alone.

So when I read someone else’s post a few months ago, it got me asking and answering that question “Who’s in YOUR village?” for myself. And this is my answer. At least for this season of life. 🙂

And so a few words for the few that help make my school life bearable and even fun!

1.) My hubby

Ok, so there’s about a thousand things I could say about why I love this guy and how he helps make my life possible, but two of the biggest reasons are that he gets me and he gets my job. We’ve been together (between dating and being married) for 23 years and it’s been super amazing how we’ve both grown over the years into new and different people, but have grown in the same direction. I love that he gets my weird moods and what that “thinking face” I make means, and how he knows just when I need him to bring me a Diet Dr. Pepper (and he does this without being asked–love it!). Also, he’s a teacher, so while there’s WAY too much shop talk at our house, he can TOTALLY relate to lesson plans, report cards, parent conferences (from both sides now!), how the school week really starts (and the weekend really ends! :() on Sunday about 5 when we have to start getting ready for school again, and that some times I just need to either 1) talk to NO ONE for a while when I get home or 2) talk to an ADULT and have a conversation with someone other than an 8YO. Anyhow, he’s kind of a catch and I’m really lucky that he’s on my team. 🙂 Love you, Grant!

2.) My friends

It’s always to hard when you start to write a list, because two things usually happen: you leave someone/something off because you mean to, or you leave someone/something off inadvertently. I’m not really sure which is worse, because especially when you’re listing friends (which, ok, doesn’t usually happen after high school) it seems harsh. And now I’m going to write a list. And hope that it doesn’t make anybody upset. Oh, and it’s in no specific order. 🙂

IMG_0143 2.JPG Shannon–What can I say except God put her in my life at just the right time and the friendship that has blossomed in the last two years has been nothing short of amazing. Besides being an amazing teacher, she’s kind, loving, understanding, funny and challenges me in a respectful way. Shannon cares about me as a person as much as an educator and takes such interest in my life, regardless of the topic. What’s important to me is important to her, too. She understands that I might do things in a different way than everyone else (and she would sometimes, too!), that I have to think (often for a llloooonnnggg time) before I can answer with my opinion or ideas, and she accepts and love me for those things. She has the most intense belief in her students as learners and works to make them better people when they leave her classroom (and I know this firsthand–she was my son’s teacher and he blossomed in her care!). She inspires me to be a better teacher just by doing what she naturally does. It makes TOTAL sense that her last name is Appelbaum, because she truly does plant seeds and grow children.

Rachael–Yeah, I know that’s a picture of a dog. It’s Rosie, actually, but it’s the only picture Rae would let me post of her. Aside from that silliness, Rachael is a pretty fabulous person. 🙂 She also came into my life at a perfect time; after being an acquaintance for a very long time, our paths finally crossed on a teaching team. We quickly found out we have much in common (and much that we don’t because she’s so much nicer, calmer, and more considerate than me, LOL), and that we get along really well. One of my favorite things about her is how she loves on my kids; Allie and Riley love her bunches and love to spend time with her as much as I do. She asks thoughtful questions, encourages at just the right time in the right way, and has probably the biggest heart of anyone I know. She has a way of seeing such good and potential in people (little people, too!) and inspires me to be a better version of me. It’s true when she says she’s for students.

3.) My team

1443305819373 I still laugh about the story behind this picture. It literally happened because as we were starting the day one morning someone said, “Hey, this is the first time we’ve all been in the same place together in a long time!” (Guess it had been a busy week!). I said, “Well then grab a camera!” and of course, a selfie followed. No, it’s not the best picture of any of us, but it speaks to a moment in time and for sure shows the joy that’s on our faces each day when we’re at school. No, every day is not perfect, but for sure we work through those rocky parts together. This is my first year on this team, and it was well established before I came into it. In many ways this scared me, as I am probably not what you’d call an “established” person; I tend to fly by the seat of my pants, make plans and change them, respond to the moment and see what happens–well at least at school I do. LOL Instead of being scary, though, the organization, structure and flow of the way our team works has added so much to the way I teach and learn. We each bring something different to the table (including unit plans for each subject that each one of us is responsible for creating and then sharing with everyone else), and there is always laughter when we’re together. We’re different in many ways and that works so well. I love Team Tuesday lunches, even though it took me until January to remember to have lunch there that day so I could join in; I love that someone else sends copies for me to the copy center because I don’t usually think that far ahead; I love that these ladies think so fondly of everyone at our school and send holiday cards to ALL of the support staff (I never knew 2nd grade did this!); I love that they understand and respect how I might not always be the first to follow the crowd. I will get there eventually–usually–but might also put my own twist or spin on something and that is ok. We care about each other, talk about many things other than school, and have each others’ backs. That’s good for the soul. 🙂

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4.) My kiddos (and their families!)

These are the friends I’m here for, after all, right? These kiddos are perhaps some of the best little people I’ve met in a long time! This is my first (well, and second since we’ve been together for 2 years) class of primary students for almost 10 years and they’ve been a breath of fresh air. I had forgotten how eager young minds can be to learn new things, how they come into pretty much everything with zest and anticipation and I love how these learners are willing to try each new and kooky thing I suggest we do. Even better than that, they have some super ideas of their own that I think they know and trust that I will in turn be willing to let them try. We are truly a big, happy family (who sometimes bicker like siblings LOL), and we’re in this together. And I can’t mention these amazing students without of course mentioning their families. The support and love I get from them is unmatchable, and the way they help and support their kiddos is inspiring. I am lucky.

5.) Robinson

As much as I have these few close people on my team to hold me up, I can truly do what I do because of WHERE I do it. My school (because of our principal and the rest of the staff) is truly a magical place to work and play everyday. It’s been my home for the last 16 years, and I can’t imagine being anywhere else. While the teachers have changed over the time I’ve been teaching there, the culture and “feel” of our school remains the same because our mission remains constant: we’re here for our kids and we are willing to do whatever it takes to help each and every one learn. We care about kids–all of them and the whole child–and it shows. There is always mention of how welcoming and warm our building is, and it’s definitely not because of the 1930s era heating system (I kid). You can feel the warmth and love that resonates from all the people who work and learn inside the walls of 803 S. Couch.

So…who’s in YOUR village?

Weak side/Strong side

Much of the first days of school is spent learning routines and procedures for how to make the classroom run smoothly, and learning how to be a good learner is part of that. In second grade, we use the idea of weak side/strong side to illustrate how kids can (and should) make good choices that benefit both themselves and their classmates.

As with many lessons, we began with a book. We read Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon.

I explained the idea of weak side/strong side by talking about how everyone has two voices in their head. You know, that one that encourages you to do your best, think happy thoughts, follow the rules–the shoulder angel. There’s also that other one that whispers and tells you how great of an idea it is to pinch your sister or blow bubbles in your milk or slide down the banister on the stairs–the shoulder devil.

In order to make the concept a little more concrete, and move visual, we created a class chart (which I will later make a little neater and hang on our anchor chart wall) with our ideas of things we could do or say that would fit under each side. Students started with partner thinking–where many of them recorded thoughts using a t-chart–then we put our ideas together. As of today, our chart looks like this (but it is ever-changing–I think we’ve added to it every day!):

It’s definitely sinking in, too, because I am hearing kids use the language of their chart when they speak to each other. 🙂 We’re by no means working perfectly all the time, but we’re on our way!

Pictures of the Day: May 26, 2015 (a little late….)

Yes, I know it is June 22. Just go with me here, ok? 🙂

There was only one (ok, well, two) pictures that we could have chosen to celebrate this day. And they had to involve this handsome fella:

Our dear friend Diego had been gone from us for a while, and this was his first day back. We were over the moon to see him again before summer break started!!

See? Us over the moon that our friend came home. 🙂 (And ok, maybe we were a little excited that there were only 3 days left until summer break…)

Picture of the Day: April 29, 2015

If you are a friend in Rm. 202, this picture needs no explanation. But, since most of you have not been spending your weekdays from 8:30-3:40 with a room full of 1st graders, I’ll let you know what this pic is so wonderful. But first I’ll show it to you. 🙂

Our brave friend, Diego, broke his arm on Monday. 😦 He was gone recovering yesterday and WE MISSED HIM SO MUCH!! It was so special when he returned today and the class was so happy to see him. Then it got even better when this afternoon we were talking about our roses, buds and thorns for the day, and most everyone’s rose (their favorite thing from the day) was that their friend was back and that they knew he was ok. 🙂 I was also super impressed when, after receiving a big ‘ole pile of get-well-soon cards from us, Diego asked for everyone’s attention so he could say thank you to them all for being so kind to him (used the microphone and the official attention-getting signal and everything!). I am not kidding when I tell you I have the BEST CLASS IN THE WHOLE, WIDE WORLD!! 🙂

In Rm. 202, Everyone’s in the Geek Squad!

One thing I love about learning how to use iPads–or anything that is new to most kids in the room– is that we figure things out together! Sometimes this happens when I teach a new skill, and sometimes it happens when even I don’t know what to do and I simply say, “Let’s figure out how to do….” Either way, someone becomes the expert and then shares that knowledge with a friend. Then we all become experts!

It goes right along with the saying we have in Rm. 202–that we are all teachers and we are all learners–and it makes my teacher-heart happy!

I think my favorite story yet came the other day when I had to step back, get out of teh way and let my firsties do what they know how to do. Here’s what happened: we were learning to use Popplet and Diego wanted to put a picture into one of the popples (the circle parts of the web) he was making, but every time he tried, the screen on his camera came up black. As I walked by and he was trying to figure out what ot do about it, I saw him get into the settings on his iPad and start to tinker. Now, mostly because I’ve been working with 10-11 YOs for so many years and I know the havoc that can be wreaked when kids are in the settings on their devices, I had red flags coming up when I saw this. I asked him what he was doing, he said, “Well I remember one time this happened with another app and it was because the app didn’t have permission to use the camera. I wonder if that’s the problem this time.” Then he proceeded to find the settings for Popplet and indeed, the app did not have the right settings to use the camera!

WOW–talk about transferring knowledge!! I had to apologize for my jumping to conclusions, and congratulate him for knowing what to do. And of course, when 4 more people had that same problem during our work time, he was the expert I sent them to! WAY TO GO, DIEGO!! And the best part of this all? The stories I could tell like this one keep happening every day! We’re learning many things that we will use for many, many years to come. 🙂

Happy Valentines’ Day!

This special day brought another special reason to celebrate in Rm. 202! Thanks to Ms. Ross (Millie’s mom) for coordinating and for the others who came to help us have so much fun! We even got to meet Evan’s grandparents! Check out some pictures from our party!

Looks like fun, huh?

I saved a couple more to highlight on their own….

Ms. Ross came prepared with some Valentine stories to share at the end while we were waiting for dismissal. Amelia Bedelia is a great choice for Valentines’ Day!

Ok, technically these pics have nothing to do with Rm. 202, but they were cute and fun to share. Plus I kinda like the kid in the Heartbreaker shirt….

Marshall the Miracle Dog

Wow–at Robinson we cram lots of fabulous things into short periods of time. I already told you about how our first 1/2 day was Read With Your Roadruner, and our Olweus Kick-Off Day. Well…it started with a great visit from Marshall the Miracle Dog!

Cindy, Marshall’s mom, came to read the book she wrote about his story:

We learned about how Marshall’s story included people (and dogs) who mistreated him–he even lost a leg because of how neglected he was–but he overcame and learned to love again because of special people like Cindy in his life who showed him love. We talked about how we can do the same thing! Cindy took questions from the audience, and then everybody got to give Marshall a quick pet on the way out. They were moving so fast, though, that it was hard to catch….

I think one of the best parts of Marshall’s story is how far it has spread. They even made a movie about his life! To learn more about Marshall, check out his website here.

What an inspiring story that none of us will soon forget!

It Just Takes One!

We have a very special community of learners in our school–both children and adults. 🙂 Last year I highlighted the fun and learning we experienced on our Olweus Bully Prevention Program Kick-Off Day (wow…that’s a mouthful for sure!). Olweus is the program that we use with grades 3-5 to help prevent kiddos from developing bully-like behavior. The focus is on turning bystanders into defenders.

In grades k-2, we start with a series of lessons from a program called Second Steps. It is teaching kiddos about learning behaviors, as well as how to be assertive, ask for help and also help others. That, in tandem with our work around our Robinson Road Rules, will set a strong foundation for the work that they will then do in 3rd grade and beyond (Olweus is also a priority in our middle schools!).

So, this year on our first half-day (when we also had our first Read with Your Roadrunner), we again had our Olweus Kick-Off Day. It was a little different doing this with first graders, but no less magical as we had great conversations and talked about what it mean to stand up for ourselves and help our friends, too.

We focused the morning around this great book by Kathryn Otoshi:

In the story, Blue is a great color, but he is pushed around by Red, and all of the others colors are too scared to stand up to Red and help Blue. And then 1 moves into town. 1 is different, and decides to stand up to Red, saying NO! when he is pushed around and then encouraging all the others to do the same. Eventually, 1 helps his friends become stronger, but also finds a way to be kind to Red and include him, too. And yes–there is a happy ending!

We read the story and had a super conversation about what it feels like to be Blue, as well as Red, and how one of the reasons Red probably acts that way is because he is lonely. We shared times when we’d felt like each of the characters and focused on the importance of being strong and standing up like 1 did in the story.

After that, we illustrated our own version of the story:

We also decorated 1’s that will become part of a poster to remind us how IT JUST TAKES ONE to make a difference! What’s been the most exciting about this day is listening to them use the language from the story in our everyday lives. I’m hearing them talk about being 1 and standing up when they hear their friends being treated in a way that isn’t ok. And when they don’t remember to be 1, we are having great conversations about what to do next time. This is the important work of first grade right here, as we mold friends, citizens and leaders for today and tomorrow!

3 Things and 3 Friends

I have to start this post by fully disclosing that neither of the ideas I’m sharing today are mine. 🙂 Remember my FABULOUS teammates Genie and Rachael? These ideas are theirs and I tried them in my room and they went really well. Thank you for sharing, friends!

As I am sure you have figured out by now, building a strong community of learners is very important to me–as it is to many teachers. So we spend the beginning weeks of school getting to know each other, both as learners and as people. We laugh together, create together and hopefully start to build a trusting relationship that will help us as we learn together throughout the year.

One way I help foster these bonds is by going through an exercise called 3 Things (or at least it was called 3 Things this year–I have too many students to do it the original way of 5 Things as Mrs. Hong taught me!). It’s pretty basic, but has been very much worth our time. The conversations we’ve had around everyone’s 3 Things have been great and the inferring that happens during the exercise is great, too.

It’s pretty basic: each person brings in 3 things that tell us something about them and we have to guess (or infer) what those items mean. I started by sharing my 3 things: a picture of Mickey Mouse, measuring cups and a Kirkwood School District pencil. Everyone then has 3 minutes to talk in their 3 Friends groups (which I’ll explain in a minute 🙂 ) and decide what the items mean. Every group shares their ideas with the class, I chart them, and then we hear the “real” answers from the spotlight person. Easy peasy. Here’s what my chart looked like:

Now, honestly, the first two of mine were pretty obvious: Mickey Mouse is to represent my family’s love of Disney World and the time we spend in the Happiest Place on Earth. I can’t really explain what it is about that place, it’s just that it’s become our home-away-from-home and has a special feeling. Just being there is amazing. But I digress…

My second item is measuring cups and represents my recent love of baking and creating things for my family, primarily my kids. If you dig a little deeper there’s a story about how we’ve been learning about eating locally harvested “real food” and are trying to cut out processed food from our diet–this was the spark for my new baking hobby–but that was obviously not a story that kiddos inferred from my picture.

That last one is a pencil. It represents a couple of different things. First of all, and most glaringly it is my love of writing. But I also picked this particular pencil (and a pencil instead of a pen) for two other reasons: it represents the annoying trouble there has been in my room for YEARS with never being able to keep pencils sharpened (EVERY pencil sharpener I have ever tried has broken. I think my room is cursed!), as well as the fact that Kirkwood is my home, and where I have always been a teacher.

Since I shared my 3 Things, we’ve randomly chosen two kiddos every day (a boy and a girl) to share their own 3 Things. Kiddos have taken this very seriously, and with each group that goes, they’re getting better at picking tricky things that get us really thinking. They’ve been really good!

Then the other simple but powerful thing we did was called 3 Friends (thanks for sharing, Ms. Turken!). Again, it’s not very complicated: you and two other people get in a group and do a couple of simple things–make sure you know each others’ names and find out 3 things you have in common. The groups then introduced their 3 new friends to us, and shared what they had in common. We took a quick poll to see who else had those common interests, too. Then we come back to these groups everyday in 3 Things, helping to solidify the connections we’re making. I’m thinking that as we go on, we’ll create new 3 Friends groups periodically that have different goals or functions in our room.

What would you choose for your 3 Things? Post your list here and we’ll see if we can figure you out! Play along with us! 🙂

Finally! Time to Rest and Reflect….

I had forgotten how hard teaching is. After so many days “off” this summer (while I could get on my soapbox about how teachers are not really off all summer, I’ll spare you the details. For now. 🙂 ), we’re finally back into the school year. Today was day 5. And I am tired. Exhausted. Sleepy. T. I. R. E. D. Perhaps it comes from the fact that, even in 5th grade, you still have to do so much for your students this early in the year–mainly just since routines and procedures are not yet in place–or maybe it’s that I’m out of shape. Either way, I’ve been ready for bed by 8:30 or 9 every night. Granted, I haven’t actually GONE to bed that early because I’ve had work to do, but believe me, I was ready. 🙂

But by day 5, things are starting to settle down (at least a teeny bit), so I can stop to rest and reflect on how the first week (and then a day today) have gone. And I’m happy to report that things have gone pretty well. So far so good!

I mentioned in a post before school about how my team had come up with some great ideas for how to thoughtfully do our community building activities. This turned out to be a genius move (if I do say so myself!) and I’ve loved how things have worked out thus far. We even worked out the order together on a Google Doc (which has been a personal goal of mine). It’s nice to know that even though we’re not trying to be copycat classrooms, we’re all doing similar things in a similar order. Teams kinda work like that, you know. 🙂

While I would love to share EVERY MINUTE of what’s happened over the last 5 days, I don’t have time (nor energy) to do so–hopefully if you’re a parent in our room you have heard all the fabulous tales from your kiddo anyway! What I will do, though, is share some highlights. Then I will promise to eat my Wheaties and take Vitamin C so that I will not be so pooped next week and can instead update the blog more often. 🙂

HUMAN KNOT

One of the team building activities on our list was the Human Knot. Basically, you “tie” yourselves together by holding hands across the circle, then you have to work together to “untie” yourselves into one big circle at the end. We did this very early on, very shortly after we had all met each other, thinking (and hoping really!) that it would be hard. We did pretty good for our first try, actually, and got two parts of the knot undone. There was a pretty large tangle still left in the middle, though, that was ready to topple over at any moment. We celebrated the way we worked together and let certain friends step up and lead, and vowed to do better next time. I’m so excited to try this again after we’ve done some more community building, because I know they will do even better!

SAVING SAMMY!

I found an activity on Twitter the other day, posted by another #5thchat teacher, that I thought would be a great partner thing to try–Saving Sammy! The basic idea is that you have to get a gummy worm (Sammy) into a gummy life saver (his life preserver) so that he doesn’t drown. The only catch is that you can’t use your hands! Instead you have two paperclips as tools. I added in a step at the end for partnerships to write about how they figured out what to do and any advice they had for kiddos trying for the first time. This went pretty well, and they definitely enjoyed it!

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SNACKS

If you read our first day post, then you are aware that we eat lunch around dinner time. So on Friday I brought the snacks, which included cantaloupe from Terripin Farms CSA (to which I belong and LOVE!), as well as strawberries and raspberries. These were from the grocery store, but were also tasty. While I am not allowed to share like I would like to (because of school allergy rules), I do what I can. I think there is something great about sharing a meal together, or in this case a snack. Plus, we got to use the new table! Bonus. And yummy! 🙂

More to come…

Even as recently today, we have had some FABULOUS conversations about grit, played Appleletters, done something called 3 Things and 3 Friends, and almost completed some rather involved work with multiple intelligences. I hope to update you on those happenings soon! Please come back soon to visit again and catch up on the great things going on in Rm. 202!

20somethingkids and 1kookyteacher

Starting a 3rd Grade Journey

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