Can Out-of-Towners Become Regulars?

Some might say that my family and I are creatures of habit. I don’t know why….every Wednesday we order dinner from La Catrina (and most weeks the bag includes 2 chimichangas, a cheese quesadilla and an order of carnitas); every Thursday is raid-the-bakery-at-Russell’s day (although this may or may not happen now on any day that they are open, cuz it’s all so good!); Friday night is pizza-and-a-movie-or whatever-is-new-on-steaming night; and we’ve been to Disney World as a family close to 15 times. Some would say my family are creatures of habit. I think I’d just call it “searching for regular status.” Or maybe “people who wish to be regulars.” You know, like when you’ve been somewhere so many times they know what you want before get there to order it. Or like at Cheers, where everybody knows your name.

I’m sure that I’ve given some thought to the “why” of the whole thing tons of times; I am by nature a reflective person and probably ask “why” about far too many things.

One of the conclusions I’ve come to is that some of my fondness for familiar things comes from having so much change and uncertainty as a child. Without getting much into the details, we moved a lot and I went to several different schools, which made making solid friendships tricky. I often longed for the things I saw on TV (and then eventually in families around me)—big families, living in the same house you were born in, returning to the same beach for vacation with your cousins year after year. Don’t get me wrong (especially if you’re reading this, mom 😊)—I don’t have bad memories from my childhood, I just didn’t really form any memories. Or at least not the Hallmark-movie kind I had always wished for.

So as I got married, moved into adulthood and became a mom—and therefore in more control of my life—I made a decision to do some things differently.

Back to my question up there at the beginning….it seems that one of the major ways the whole “searching for regular status” manifests itself (besides that long list of dinner choices I mentioned before!) is in the way we vacation. I already mentioned our penchant for visiting Disney World; my oldest kiddo is 14 and has been there 11 times. When answering the questions of why we return over and over, it’s hard to nail down exactly one thing. I guess I could sum it up by saying it feels like home away from home (or insert the other oft-given answer of “Disney magic” 🥰). We know the way to get to all the things, we have our favorites, we know which parks to visit and when (and what restaurants to eat at when we get there)—there’s no map reading, wandering around with confused looks on our faces, no uncertainty about what to do or when or why to do it.

We do the same thing with our visits to the beach: same hotel/condo, same part of town, same ice cream shops same general daily routine. We know our favorite restaurants but are willing to branch out to new ones each time to add to the list.

Which brings us to now. As I write this, I’m standing in a longish, Sunday morning line for a yummy San Francisco breakfast spot. The restaurant is new, but the street I’m standing on is one we’ve walked over and over. It’s next to a park in which we’ve eaten dinner and dessert and smiled at all the cute dogs and babies. It’s on the way to Chinatown, to the bakery we’ve visited four times (and is on the list for today!), and is on the way to many of the other neighborhoods and hidden places we’ve been discovering for the last week. Since we’ve walked it over and over we know where many things are, which direction to head when we leave the hotel, and also what to expect up around the corner. We are by no means experts (of course 😉) after 8 days, but we’re familiar.

And so to answer my own question, I’m not sure out-of-towners can become regulars, but they can become familiar enough with a place that it feels like home, calling them back from wherever they may roam in the meantime. And that’s good enough for me.

Change of Plans

A plan is a great thing, no? I’ve learned over the last year that a plan is often just a suggestion (COVID, am I right?). Just as soon as I think I know what I’m going to do next, something–or someone–comes along and messes it all up. Or at least changes it up. The thing you thought was your next right step becomes differently prioritized. So instead of writing about my favorite past posts, I will tell this story instead.

I met with a friend today, to catch up over coffee after not seeing each other for a couple of years. We talked about our kids and what we’re learning about being moms of teenagers and how there’s just no instructional manual for those things (or if you have one that I don’t know about, will you share it with me?!). We used to work together and so the conversation eventually came around to what we’re doing now and what’s up in the education world. She told me about some amazing things she’s been doing in her program that were recently in the newspaper and how much she’s loving what she’s doing (which I hope that I can someday soon link to right here in this blog!). I shared about what’s been going on with me over the past year, and brought up how frustrated I have become with the pace at how fast everything is changing around me. Of course, change is inevitable (there’s a quote about something about change being the only constant, right?), but it seems like change is my only constant these days.

Because I am the only part of the equation I can control, I have had to think through the things that I might be able to do to get me back to my version of normal. Or at least to try to head towards that place where I am fulfilled and inspired enough that maybe the changes around me bother me a little less.

One thing that has disappeared from my routine of the last few years in this blog. Starting Over is evidence of that, right? Beyond the fact that I haven’t blogged for a bit, I haven’t been writing in any form at all. For me, writing (whether it’s in my notebook for me online for you), it’s how I process my world. It’s not that I haven’t stopped to think or reflect on anything since 2019, but I can definitely see how NOT working out my thoughts and feelings in writing has changed how I move through the world. I am less aware, less thoughtful, less likely to look for a new or innovative way to problem solve. Somehow for me the absence of that ritual has meant missing out on slowing down, stopping to really notice what’s going on around me and think about my place in it.

Another thing that’s been missing for me are my connections on Twitter. If you’re new around here, then you might not have heard the story of how I use Twitter to improve my practice, make connections and share my thoughts with other educators. Because I haven’t been doing that, I have missed so much of what has been happening in the world and seeing what others are doing. This one is a little trickier than the blog, though, because if you’ve spent any time on Twitter you know it can be a pretty vile place, depending on which threads you wonder into or who you read and follow. While I know that there was much YUCK that surely lived on Twitter in 2020, I also have no doubt I missed out on some really smart insight from a fellow educator that would have benefited me as I worked through that last year.

So what am I to do with this? I am in a weird place as a teacher right now, wishing for some things of the past and trying to look positively at the future through “change-colored” glasses. The pandemic has laid bare some of the things I hold dear as an educator, one being connecting with others and also feeling like my ideas are being validated. I cannot control what happens to me, but I can certainly have some influence on what happens with and in me. I can decide that I am going to write more often (remember the schedule I planned?), I can make time for Twitter and also connect with people in my real life (thank God for vaccines!). I can share my worries and frustrations with those in-person friends and let them help me work through them. I can listen when my kind, smart, AMAZING friend, Kerry, tells me how it feels when she comes in my classroom: how it feels safe, comfortable and alive, and how I make learning fun but how it’s still rigorous and full of language. I can listen when she tells me of how she’s doing such innovative and exciting things with her high schoolers, and cheer her on as she changes lives and inspires the next generation. And most of all, I can remember that all that I do in my classroom day after day (and all the hours and hours I spend at night and on weekends) is for the 20somethingkids. And for them, I will always be willing to change my plans.

Starting Over

Here we are again. Yup. That place where I usually start with a long explanation of why I’ve neglected my blog and how I’m vowing to start over and do better and how we’ll never end up here again. HA HA HA! Like I said: here were are again.

But, since I am not insane, I will not do the same thing I’ve done in the past at this point. Instead of vowing to do better, I’m going to completely start over. Most of you who are here now are probably not even aware that I’ve been missing from the blogosphere anyway because you’re new! So…since you’re new here and I haven’t been here in a while anyway, let’s take a tour of this little blog, and take a few posts to get acquainted and start a new journey together. Maybe a fresh start is what I need to make this blogging thing “stick” again and get us back on track. Cross your fingers, hold on tight and let’s get moving!

By the way, that’s me. I’m Jen and I’m the Kooky Teacher mentioned in the blog title. I just realized that this little blog started 10 years ago, and I’ve had such a great time sharing my school stories and sometimes some family stories (when I’m feeling indulgent). Throughout the 10 years of blogging, I’ve taught 5th grade, 1st and 2nd grade, all of which have been included in these posts: those are the 20something kids. :). And as I mentioned the “fresh start” in the beginning of this post, the new journey we’re on features a new group of 20somethingkids–3rd graders! Also, this fresh start will mean I’m going to do some things differently.

Here’s what I’m thinking:

Since so many of you are new here, I’m going to put up a few posts that acclimate you to who I am, what I’m about and what you can expect here.
Speaking of what to expect, I think I’ve come to the place where I should finally set some guidelines and deadlines for when I will share my stories. In the past, I didn’t have a schedule for when I’d post; some weeks I’d post once and some weeks I’d post 10 or 12 new things! Needless to say, that made it hard for you, dear blog reader, to know when to check in with me, and also it made it so I often ended up with sooooo much content that I ended up not even writing it. There was time to do the things, but not time (or energy) to tell YOU about the things we did. This time around, there will be a schedule. 🙂
In previous iterations of 20somethingkids, the posts have gone on and on and on and on. I have a tendency to use 25 words when you only need 3 and so often the posts I’d put up were so lengthy that I was worn out after writing them, and my readers were dead tired after reading (if they even hung around long enough to finish! LOL). This time I hope to be more concise with my storytelling and thoughtful in what I decide to share.

And so in a spirit of wanting to not overuse my words, I’m going to end this first post now, with an invitation for you to help me. If you are so inclined, would you take a little bit to leave a comment and answer these questions for me? I’d be forever grateful! 🙂

Here’s what I’m wondering…

What you want when you read a blog? What are some features of your favorite blogs?
What day(s) would you be most likely to read a new blog post?
Since I’m new to 3rd grade, feel free to share any tips or advice you have and want to share! 🙂

THANK YOU for taking time to visit and comment, and hopefully I’ll see you around here again soon! I’d love if you went on this new journey with me!

Not-Quite-Viral Videos

It’s been almost a year. March 13, 2020. That was the last day we were at school before COVID-19 ROCKED our worlds–inside and outside of school. Eventually we did get back into school, but not until almost 250 days later in October, 2020. And over that time we were on our virtual learning journey, teachers like me worked soooo hard to figure out a way to try to make our online classroom a rigorous, engaging and welcoming place for kids to be. It was NOT the same as being at school in-person, but we did (and still are doing!!) what we could.

One way we pivoted (ha! I wondered how long it would be til I used that word!) to teaching virtually was to begin making videos of our curriculum content. It’s not rocket science by any means, but it definitely had a learning curve from how we had done them pre-COVID, partly because we started using a new tool in Screencast-o-Matic. Now that I know how to use it, I LOVE how it has impacted both my teaching and my kiddos’ learning.

Recording lessons allows me to post content for kiddos so they can revisit the topic. Sometimes you just need to hear something more than once for it to “stick.” This is as true for adults as it is for kids! Especially when we were home doing virtual learning full-time, there were times when kiddos couldn’t be there for the lesson when it was “live.” Sometimes they were there, but it was hard to understand because of being on Zoom or because of distractions in the background–or for any of the countless other reasons people have a hard time listening. :). Since I had recorded the lesson ahead of time (and was then playing it during my mini-lesson time), kiddos could easily access it via our Schoology page and rewatch it. 2 or 3 times if need be! Then they can get on with whatever the follow up activity is.
Recording lessons allows for my team to share the load. One of the BEST things we discovered during our virtual learning so far, is that it is A LOT for one person to do on their own. Differently than during in-person school, virtual learning has another level of difficulty–partly just because it’s new for everyone! I know we can all agree that teachers can do everything (well, almost everything LOL), but of course pandemic teaching was a whole new kind of hard. As a means to make sure we were taking care of ourselves and giving our students what they needed, our 2nd grade team divided up the work and everyone took a subject. We planned out the goals and objectives and which lessons and all of that, and then teachers focused on making “their” subject accessible to their students and the rest of the grade.
Teaching through videos and sharing the load allowed kiddos access to ALL of the 2nd grade teachers. This was great because it gave our kiddos a teeny sense of “regular” school normalcy. In those long-ago, before-COVID times, our team did many things together and “shared” kids for experiences and group learning. This was especially helpful as we tried to differentiate and address specific student need. Welp, it was all gone once this stupid virus started messing everything up and it was obvious that kiddos were missing it. By using videos that other teachers had made during my mini-lessons–and then stopping along the way to explain or discuss as a class together–our 2nd graders still felt a little connection to their “other” teachers, even if they weren’t really there in person. Additionally, I think it’s a benefit for kiddos to hear how other teachers teach things. Just like how hearing something more than once often makes a topic “stickier,” hearing it from someone else’s mouth can be the thing that makes that concept finally understandable. Everyone has their own set of strengths and talents and I LOVE that we can spread the wealth and take advantage of what we all do best. :). Even though we’re in-person again, we’ve continued this because it worked so well!
Videos allow me to focus on making a mini-lesson ACTUALLY mini! I know I cannot be the only one who sometimes teaches mini-lessons that go longer than they want them to. Yeah, maxi-lessons. Or I-was-on-a-roll-and-should-have-stopped-talking-15-minutes-ago lessons. It’s not just me, right? Well…since I am recording my lesson, AND since I know that other kids and other teachers are going to have to use my lesson, it somehow forces me to make sure that I am more on point. Accountability maybe? Focus on a sense of clarity? Something about making something for someone else helps me not to ramble. Ok, at least not ramble as long as usual.
Recording videos helps me reflect on my own teaching. After the teaching/recording part of the lesson comes the editing part. Besides being about to take out dead air and ums and mistakes I made, it also allows me to see what I actually look and sound like to a kid when I’m presenting something. I have to admit, when I first started doing this I was surprised by how it didn’t always turn out the way I intended. Alternatively, though, sometimes it turns out even better and I’ll hear myself say something that I KNOW is going to hit kids them in a way that will really be impactful. And because it’s recorded and I have the luxury of seeing what happened, I can respond appropriately based on what comes out in my first draft. In my opinion, this is one of the best things I can do as a teacher–figure out what I do well so I can do it again, and also figure out where I struggle so I can work on making that part of my lessons better.
Using videos from other teachers gives me instant PD and helps me to see how other people do things. Besides watching yourself teach, some of the best professional development comes from watching someone else doing something really well. I LOVE to see how my colleagues explain things and which parts of a topic they choose to enhance or highlight. I often hear phrases or questions that I would never have thought to say, that I can later tweak to use in my own teaching later. Sometimes it is tone of voice, sometimes it’s how different teachers use visual pieces to reinforce what they’re saying, and sometimes it’s just learning about a new book or teaching tool I haven’t used, but I ALWAYS learn something when I see what my colleagues are doing. It’s definitely a win/win!
Posting videos for kids helps parents to know what’s going on, too! I have no expectation that parents are watching the videos I post (they are for the kiddos after all), but if they want to, they are definitely welcome to! I know that parents can feel a little out-of-the-loop, since their kids spend all day here at school without them, and we have experiences and learning they don’t know about. By being able to see how it sounds when I teach it also helps parents help their kiddos if there are questions.

I know we are all feeling some COVID fatigue and are super tired of all the changes this past year has brought us. After it all, though, I do think there are some positive changes that we have had to make—-and changes that we will keep even after COVID is a distant memory.

What experience do you have with videos in your teaching? How have videos helped you grow? What struggles or hiccups have you run into? I’d love to hear more about others’ experiences with virtual learning and/or videos in teaching.

Global School Play Day 2021: COVID Version

Many years ago, I saw a tweet about Global School Play Day. Being one who truly believes in play as an important learning tool for kids (and adults!), and being one who likes to jump in with both feet when I see something that looks like fun (like I did with World Read Aloud Day, for instance), I knew that this was something I wanted to try. And honestly, we have choice time and recess every day anyway, so it wasn’t that far out of our norm.

And so even in the midst of this new COVID world at school, I knew this was a day we wanted to continue to observe and celebrate. We had all done GSPD last year as first graders, and so as I was announcing that it was coming up, all I had to do was start the beginning of the word GLOBAL and kids filled in the rest. They were NUTS! Besides the fact that play is always important in the life of a child (and lets be honest, adults, too!), it feels especially important now. Besides the fact that it is a child’s most important work, it helps to add a level of normalcy to their lives right now and helps add to the fun of school.

As we did last year, we started with the ground rules, and also the conversation around why GSPD is a big deal. They came up with this:

What great thinking, huh? I am sure that some of it was because we have had conversations like this before (including GSPD last year), but also, I think they are just really in tune and super smart kiddos! All of their ideas were right, and I had some additional ideas of my own:

1. Negotiation: By participating in free play, children get to learn how and practice what it is like to initiate play with someone else, as well as negotiate with that playmate about what to do, where to do it and how to do it. They get to learn give-and-take, as well as how to work with others in a positive way (because unfortunately, if you choose NOT to do it positively, your friend may not want to play with you anymore!).

2. Problem Solving: Much like negotiation with friends, kiddos learn and practice problem solving in many ways when they play. From what to do when the Legos don’t go together they way you want or you don’t have enough big blocks to build your castle, or even where to put the pieces of the puzzle you’re working on, problem solving is a crucial part of play. Even choosing what to play at any given moment is a kind of problem solving in itself. Letting kids figure these things out for themselves helps build and encourage grit and perseverance.

3. Winning (and losing!) Graciously: Child-directed play (including playing games) allows kiddos to learn how to win–and also to lose–graciously. We all know an adult who didn’t get the chance to learn this when they were younger, and now has such a hard time knowing what to do when things don’t go their way. That same adult might have a really hard time not being overly proud or boastful when things do. Allowing (or even planning for) situations where students DON’T win are crucial! Life is not fair, things don’t always go as planned and sometimes someone else does better than you. How great that kiddos have a chance to learn to deal with these disappointments when the stakes are low, so that when they are higher, they’ll know the appropriate choices to make. And yes, winning is a good thing that can happen occasionally, too (and how great that kids can learn how to deal with their happiness without sacrificing the feelings of others).

4. Creativity: A big pile of paper, blocks, Legos, cars or any other open-ended toys allows for such a great development of creativity in kids! Being able to figure out what that pile of “stuff” can become is a great practice in trial-and-error, trying new things or even working with a friend to put two great ideas together to make an even better one. This practice of creativity in free play can easily be transferred to learning, then, when a kiddo is given open-ended opportunities for both gaining information and showing what they’ve learned. When they’ve had a chance to try out new things and take risks in a safe, play environment, many students will be more willing to take the same creative risks with their learning.

5. Beating Boredom: I guess this one is another idea that’s related to some others on this list, but being given free time to play is a great way to figure out how to entertain yourself (either alone or with a friend) and keep a kiddo from being “bored.” Knowing what to do when there’s [seemingly] nothing to do is a life skill, really.

6. Respect, kindness and including others: Play is a great opportunity for kiddos to practice skills they’re learning about showing others respect, using kind words and helping make sure everyone is included. Helping kids pay attention to who doesn’t have a playmate is a lesson in empathy and is definitely a bucket-filler for a friend who longs to be involved but is perhaps unable to initiate themselves. Knowing how to speak to others kindly is a skill that can never be mastered and can always be improved upon.

7. Fun!: Um, how have I not mentioned that playing is TOTALLY FUN!? Yep. Should have mentioned that one first. 🙂

Ok, so enough of my rambling…I know what you really came to see were the pictures of Rm. 202 kiddos PLAYING!! Here you go!!

One of the things kiddos were especially looking forward to was our class puzzle. We did one last year, too, and what a fun time we all had putting the pieces together to create something wonderful! Check out our hard work!

Our class LOVES puzzles and this was a cute one I found over Winter Break. We’re thinking we might want to research all of those faces to learn more about what they did in the Science world.

Another interesting thing to watch during GSPD is which kiddos play with whom, what they play with and for how long. Some kiddos stay super engaged for a llllooooonnnngggg time and some flit and float from thing to thing.

Kiddos chose to play with all sorts of different things, from Legos to stuffs to arts and crafts to card games. Those two games we played were taught to us by Jacob and Luke! Henry even spent some time immersed in a good book. :). And yes–even teachers play sometimes!!

We started the day with kiddos talking about what THEY could learn, but Mrs. Nguyen (my student teacher) and I also had a great conversation about what WE could learn about our kiddos from this day. Besides what I already mentioned about how we can watch how kids interact and also what they choose to play with, we can learn some important things that can inform what we do in the classroom on “regular” days, too. It is obvious that in our class this year, that most of the time our community splits between girls/boys for play time. In general, the girls do artsy and/or more quiet things, and the boys (again, in general) like to participate in more lively, active type activities. Both groups, though, like to spend time building and creating things. It would make sense then, that we as the teachers prove opportunities for these types of activities in our “normal” school days to allow for fun, creativity and a variety of ways for kiddos to learn and show their learning.

I LOVE the reminders that this day provides for us that EVERYONE likes to and needs to play EVERY DAY!!

Mystery Skype: 2019 Edition!

We have been Mystery Skyping at Robinson for a while now. It’s such a great opportunity for kids to learn more about their world, themselves, geography topics, asking good questions, and just have a lot of fun with something new.

In the past, the introduction and explanation was always done in person and honestly, I probably did too much talking. Probably kids were confused and maybe unsure about what they were getting into. They were excited, of course, but since it was a completely new thing, they probably had a hard time envisioning exactly what I wanted them to do. First graders have always done a great job–eventually–once we got the hang of it, but there was usually a pretty big learning curve.

Then, this year, as Ms. Turken and I were beginning to put together our first Mystery Skype plans, she had a SUPER idea of introducing kiddos to maps and Mystery Skyping in a completely different way.

Rather than talk, talk, talk (which I seem to do too often!?), she started with a screencast explaining what we wanted kiddos to notice and note about maps in general. The video was available to kiddos as a morning work job, and then we had some explicit teaching in small groups later on in the day, and they were able to watch the video again. This time they also had a job related to it, and some guidance from Ms. Turken or I with an actual map in front of them. Check out the first screencast she made here:

It was so great to watch how quickly kiddos seemed to pick this up (partly because of the video, but also because we had done some work previously with directions and maps in science). Just having the visual that they could visit and revisit if necessary was an important support that we haven’t had in past experiences.

The second day of our Skype preparation involved the next steps of the process, focused on what to ask our new friends to help us narrow down where they are in the world. Again, there was a screencast that we shared with kiddos, allowing them to watch and review as necessary.

We did small groups again, with a mock mystery Skype that we practiced as kiddos tried to guess the state that the teacher had chosen. Even after just these two days of practice, kiddos seemed ready to do the real thing.

The next day was our “real” Skype, and we did a SUPER job of finding out that our new friends lived in a very tricky northeastern state–Vermont. Because of our focused and intentional work, they got it right in just 4 questions! Thanks, Mrs. LaRose’s 2nd grade for playing with us!!

Kiddos were SO EXCITED!! Such a proud day in first grade and we’re looking forward to our next opportunity! Do YOU want to Mystery Skype with us?? Leave a comment and we’ll contact you, or contact me on Twitter (@jenbearden) and we can set it up!

Even Recess Time is Learning Time!

We love recess in first grade. This is the second year we’ve had an “official” first grade morning recess–on the school calendar and taken no matter what–yep, rain or shine! Kids need time to run and play and breathe fresh air!!

Recently we attended a meeting, though, that helped us see the need to use this play time as an even more important learning time for our first grade friends.

Data is showing us that many friends in our school (and our grade level) are having a hard time playing. Sounds weird, I know, but with so many kiddos only doing structured, planned things like sports or spending more and more time on screens, they are showing us that they are struggling with playing together appropriately at recess. And what do first grade teachers do when we see a need such as this? Figure out a way to TEACH recess!

We decided to become more intentional with this time already carved out in our schedule. We decided we wanted to teach our kiddos 1) the “rules” of recess (like no fighting, use good sportsmanship, speak kind words, and some others), 2) how to play some specific games, and 3) how to appropriately use the playground equipment, rather than assume they know what they are supposed to do.

We decided which places on our playground we wanted to teach first, as well as what games we should start with. Together we chose: an area of our playground that houses the saucer swings, regular swings, monkey bars, playhouse structure, and merry-go-round; an area of our playground that is an obstacle course; duck-duck-goose; and kickball. Once we had activities and areas, teachers choose a place to focus on; classes would rotate as a group around to each place/teacher. We made up a schedule to allow students to spent multiple days and multiple recesses (we follow the schedule during our morning recess as well as their regular lunch recess). The time students are in each rotation is focused on explicit teaching, as well as getting to know kiddos we may not yet have met and for all of our kiddos to spend quality time with ALL the teachers on our team.

While we haven’t yet officially sat down to talk about what we’re learning from our kiddos (that meeting is tomorrow actually!), I think it is safe to say that there are some things that I am seeing as I lead my swings/monkey bars/merry-go-round rotation:

Having a common set of expectations for recess behavior as well as “rules” for each piece of equipment/game is incredibly helpful. It seems to me that kiddos appreciate this as it takes much of the guess work out of how they should maneuver during recess. It’s pretty black-and-white. and they’re hearing the same thing from all the adults. This way they can even support each other with reminders and encouragement!
Being able to have contact with all of our kids helps with recess, but also in many other ways. All students see all teachers as an important member of their learning team, and they are already more likely to listen to us in future situations since they’re getting to know us in this small way now. We can build on this as we go on–this year and NEXT!
Kids are doing many GREAT things at recess already! While we were focusing on the “tricky” parts, this experience is showing me that there are already many things that kiddos ARE doing the right way, like taking turns, encouraging their friends, and generally following the equipment rules. I’ve just had to tweak a couple of things (oh, and reteach some third graders I saw outside today who had completely FORGOTTEN how to use the merry-go-round safely! Lucky for them I was out there today, right? 😉 ).
There are indeed things we can work on. :). My class, for example, is having a very hard time with kickball this week. There is something about this age-old recess yard game that seems to being out the very worst in kids. :(. There has been much yelling, screaming, crying (which is against the recess rules, too, unless you are hurt!), arguing about the rules and calls, and also just generally not having a good attitude about the game. Our class is definitely not following the rule that “Recess is supposed to be fun!” What’s so great, though, is that in this setting, where we purposely picked this game, knowing that it’s a hard part of recess for many kiddos, is that we don’t feel icky and discouraged about such problems. We see these struggles of course as unfortunate, but also as opportunities! Behaviors always tell much more than the obvious surface things you can see, and we’re willing to dig down and figure it out! Rather than just saying “no kickball!”, we’re helping kiddos know how to do kickball (and just life!) better.

This is the end of the first round of rotations, and I’m excited to see what our next level of play will look like. Kids keep asking us when they get recess back (ha!), but we’ve said many times that they will show us when they’re ready. And no, in case you’re wondering, they’re not ready yet. 🙂

#classroombookaday 2019–Finally Telling the Story!

Oh my goodness, friends–how have I not written about this yet? (Wow, those words sound soooo familiar. Please don’t go back to last year’s blog to see if I wrote this very thing last year at this time….LOL). I know, it’s so silly since it’s SO EXCITING! Let me start with a picture, because it’s SO BEAUTIFUL! (Sorry, I overuse capitals when I’m excited. Exclamation points, too. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. 🙂 )

Am I right? So bright and colorful, and represents SO MANY words, stories and ideas that our first grade friends have already heard. The other great thing about it? While it’s got SO MANY books already, look at how much wall is left! That means we have that much room to read that many more books together this year!

Ok, let me back up. I know that some of you are new to this blog, or new to this whole #classroombookaday thing, so let me explain…

Many years ago, the great Jillian Heise (@heisereads) started a super thing: read a picture book a day and tell someone about it. I am sure that there is a better, more thought out explanation to why she did it than that, but really in some ways it’s that easy. Be committed to reading to kids every day. Find good books. Talk about those books and share them with others. Amazing. She started a hash tag to share her ideas and it’s gone CRAZY places since then.

Fast forward to 2016 and enter me. 🙂 I joined the fun and began my own #classroombookaday journey, posting all of the books my class read on our door. We expanded the next year, and the next, and that brings us to where we are now–all of the first grade teachers in this together. 🙂 The display continues to grow and change, but the intent of the project remains the same: read good books to kids, talk about them and enjoy the reading experience!

This year’s display is a little extra special, though, as we are looping with this group. In past years we’ve had a goal of something over 500 (depending on the previous year’s final numbers!), and we will do so again. But this time, rather than taking down the display to start over–we’re going to keep going! I’m not exactly sure how we’ll do that (don’t worry fire Marshall, we’ll figure out a safe way to make it happen!), but how exciting to see it grow and grow and grow like never before!

I’m not entirely sure that this year’s first graders are entirely clear on what we’re doing here yet, but they are at least familiar with that big book wall in the hall, as they walked by it over and over again as kindergartners last year. Now it’s theirs, and we’ll watch it fill up together! I hope you’ll come along the journey with us this year (and next!). PLEASE suggest books to us that you think we might enjoy! WE LOVE BOOKS!! 🙂

Directed Drawing and Watercolors: Early Lessons in Being a First Grade Artist

Last year I wrote a story about my journey to understanding how and why directed drawing would be a good thing in the classroom. This year, I was even more dedicated to showing kiddos from the beginning how EVERYONE is an artist, as well as how important it is them know how to put their thinking into pictures. I decided that I’d start from the earliest days with this, and so we learned how to draw a boy and a girl.

I found a series of videos where an artist works with kids and teaches them how to draw things. In this one, he draws a boy and a girl and talks through variations you might do to make them different the next time you draw them. Here’s the video if you wanted to check it out:

As we watched the video, I drew the figures up on the board in great big form, and first graders tried it out on their smaller paper. They only had to do one or the other, but a couple took the challenge of drawing both the boy and the girl!

We stopped the video along the way to rewatch a step, or to answer questions. We erased, encouraged and enabled ourselves to not be perfect the first time we attempted this feat. We talked about how it’s true that this might be hard now, but that the next time we try it (to draw a kid or something else), it’ll be even easier since we’ve done it before. I heard many kids say how they were impressed by their first tries and also how happy they were at what their pictures looked like.

Another important thing I wanted kids to know how to do from the early days (because it’s a huge part of learning in our classroom) is to paint with watercolors.

So the next step, after we drew our kids was to learn how to paint them.

We talked about how to get water and carefully walk with it to our table (this is much harder than it might seem! 🙂 ), how much water to use to make the colors look richer or more transparent, as well as the order in which to paint so that the colors don’t run (yellow, orange, red, green, blue, purple, brown and then black). We also learned that when you make a painting, the whole paper has to be covered (with details and background). Then we tried it out for ourselves.

One thing I LOVE about doing whole-class learning like this, is that even though we’re all doing the same thing, we are all doing it in different ways. And I love how often a kiddo will do or say something that we can share, as it might be helpful to everyone at some point. This happened as I walked by and saw Finley doing this with his painting:

We shared how he outlined the figure with the background color to help make sure it was crisp and clear. Lots of kids tried it out, too! And wow–what a great thing to learn today and use for the whole year. And beyond!

After we were painted, we already had some pretty great results. 🙂

But we weren’t done yet! Last step was to trace our pencil marks with Sharpie and sign our work!

And so after all of that HARD WORK, we had a pretty fantastic painting and some skills we can learn for the whole year and beyond. Check them out!

WOW!! What incredible work, first graders! 🙂

We made…butter?!

I think I mentioned in an earlier post about how our goal for the first days of school is to make kids excited about school and get a feel for what the rest of our year will bring. Another way we decided to do this was to make ice cream for our first-day snack. I mean, come on–who wouldn’t want to come back after ICE CREAM on the first day of school? And if THAT doesn’t give a clue that this year will be fun-filled, I don’t know what would!

So, when, in the midst of spinning the cream as the first step to our ice-creamy goodness, I saw this in the mixer, I was less than impressed. 😦

Yes, friends, instead of ice cream….we had made….butter!!

I really just had to laugh as I explained to the kiddos what I saw in the mixer and then showed it to them on our big screen. I was glad that not a single kiddo was mad at me; somehow they seemed to understand that mistakes happen.

Mistakes happen….that’s the part of this story we honed in on. It was almost like I had done it on purpose (did I? hee hee) as a means of highlighting how messing up is how we learn new things. And now, we know that when you whip butter too long you get butter instead of whipped cream!

And don’t worry–I promised them that since we had messed up on our first try that I would try again and bring them some ice cream for their day 2 snack. And BOY was it yummy!

Oh, and we didn’t let that butter go to waste, either. The next day we had bread and butter, with some honey courtesy of our friend Jacob’s bees! Best of all worlds! 🙂

Here’s to a fun- and mistake-filled year in first grade!

20somethingkids and 1kookyteacher

Starting a 3rd Grade Journey

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