A Desire for Simplicity

As we enter the long winter months and get settled into a regular routine in our classrooms, it is important to remember how to keep things fun and engaging.  However, it is also the time that we are bogged down with extra things, like Christmas shopping and homework, and we are trying to give everything to everyone in our lives.  So, I was hoping to find some simple steps to help me in my classroom.  I love keeping things fresh, but I also love having a little help coming up with ideas from fellow teachers!  Who knows what you will be able to do with a little inspiration!?  There was an article on Edutopia entitled, "Ten Simple Strategies for Re-engaging Students."  The first thing that caught my eye was the word SIMPLE!  Thank goodness--it won't be overwhelming!  So, I had to read on.  Andrew Marcinek suggests ways to excite your students:
1. Have Fun
2. Learn Beyond the Walls
3. Expand Your Audience
4. Collaborate
5. Deconstruct an Issue Transparently
6. Make Many Mistakes Along the Way
7. Share
8. Provide Constructive Criticism
9. Eat a Sandwich
10. Engage Others
He fully explains each of his suggestions on this blog.  I recommend taking the time to read it!

Creating a Caring Classroom

I am always amazed by the different feelings you can have when entering classrooms within the same school building.  All teachers are able to work in different environments: neat, cluttered, colorful, plain, rushed, organized.  It doesn't matter who you are, your classroom will reflect your own personality.  I am often teased for the organization and lack of clutter in my classroom.  My teaching partner cannot get over the fact that I cannot leave before my desk is tidied up!  Aside from what our own personal desires are for the classroom, it is important to think about what will also help create a perfect learning environment for our students.  Elena Aguilar wrote a blog about "How Classroom Environment Can Ignite Learning and Cultivate Caring" on Edutopia this month.  She wrote about a classroom in Oakland, California that used the theme of a village to set up a classroom in which students were eager to participate and learn.  One fantastic idea that was shared in this article was about the Carecrow.  Aguilar explains, "Recently, the teacher has been addressing bullying. A child-size "Carecrow" hangs on one wall. Students have taped messages onto the figure reflecting their commitment to care for each other."  It seems like an area in which children enjoy spending their time and learning new things!

Read the entire article here.

Promoting Reading in the Classroom

I love to promote reading in my classroom!  I am constantly ordering new books through the Scholastic Book Order with the help of my students!  As they order books and I earn more bonus points, we are able to stock our shelves with some of the most popular books that children love!  I am always curious about what other books I should have on my shelf as a third grade teacher and I found just the perfect site to help me out!  If you go to http://www.kidsreads.com/ you will find lists of popular Classic and New books that are loved by children of different age groups!  I found a whole list of books that I can seek out and add to my classroom library now!  They also provide detailed reviews to help you understand what kinds of books you are placing on your shelves.  I hope you find this website helpful too!

Major Motivation

I am trying to get everything in order for a weekend away visiting my sister.  It's a matter of taking a math exam for one class, grading all my papers, stuffing kids' folders, sending notes home, creating sub plans, blogging, and packing, too!  It's always a lot to get in order, but I know that I am heading down to Dallas on Friday and won't be returning until Monday, so I want everything to be in place.  Because of the family fun weekend, I will miss school on Monday, and am concerned about preparing my students for my absence.  Most years, I do not use any of my personal days.  I find that it is overwhelming to leave my students and create lesson plans that are easy to follow.  I don't know why this is such a daunting task for me, but it is. 

As I am preparing for everything that is awaiting me and my students, I find that I want to keep them motivated to learn even in my absence.  I hope that they will show the substitute how wonderful they are, because they really are wonderful!  Part of what I want to instill in them in a personal internal motivation to be good.  I guess, honestly, this is not something that I just want to show through for a substitute, but it is something that I want my students to learn and take with them in their future! 

With all of this in mind, I was looking through the Edutopia and found an article written by Bob Sullo.  I am surprised at the number of books Mr. Sullo writes about the psychology of the human mind.  A lot of his information is about what gets at the root of the student and how they think.  I fully believe that a lot of what is in these texts should be common knowledge to educators and parents, but if it is not, I think that his books look promising for those who work with children.  Some of his titles include, "Activating the Desire to Learn," "The Motivated Student: Unlocking the Enthusiasm for Learning," and "Teach Them to Be Happy."  I think I might check them out!

Science Fun!

Science was a topic that I loved when I was in school.  As it became more abstract, I found that I quickly lost interest.  I feel that as a teacher it is my job to keep my students interested in what we are learning.  I am always looking for ways to make science more exciting for my students.  I want to help the children understand complex ideas, such as gravity, light, air, and water.  I, myself, struggled with the complexities of understanding these forces, states of matter, and other concepts.  While I was browsing through some Edutopia posts and their comments, I came across the website of Vicki Cobb, a promoter of elementary science education.  She has a series of books called the "Science Play Series."  Her titles include,
"I Get Wet"
"I See Myself"
"I Face the Wind"
"I Fall Down"
Each book contains colorful pictures, simple text, and easy experiments to help children further understand the ideas behind the shape of water, how light bends, and how gravity works.  Beyond all of these text, Vicki Cobb has other books including one called, "What's the big idea?" and she also offers teacher in-service options and video webinars to help teachers find ways to grab kids' attention and get them excited about science!  Read more about Vicki Cobb on her website.

Drop Everything and Write?

This week, a question was posed on Edutopia about the idea of using Sustained Silent Writing during your English classes to take a closer look at students' writing needs.  I thought this was a fantastic idea.  I used to do this with my second graders.  I would show them a picture and then prompt them to write about some related topic.  It was one way to get the kids' pencils moving.  I was able to see which kids were immediately stuck with the ideas at hand.  I could see which students would write the bare minimum, and I could see which students were fully confident in their abilities.  This is something I have stepped away from since I moved up to the third grade this year, but I think I will very quickly weave this back into my instructional schedule. 

After have the students write for 8-10 minutes, I then share all of the anonymous stories with the class and we make corrections to the stories that we read.  The children enjoy hearing their stories read aloud, and they find it helpful to see which corrections are made.  It is my hope that the students will learn and grow from this type of an activity and I will work this into my lesson plans right away!

Study Buddies

As I said in my last blog, Parent Teacher Conferences were this week.  I had a lot of concerns about one of my conferences and even alloted 30 minutes for this one conference.  It actually lasted 45 minutes, but it was filled with lots of great ideas to get one student moving in his reading ability.  The parents suggested that during his after school latchkey time, the young man spend some time reading with an older students.  He would be able to develop a relationship with an older, model student and would also be able to practice his reading skills with someone who is not in an authority role. 

Ironically, I was looking through my RSS Feeds and Nancy Jang has posted on Scholastic's website about "Creating a Successful Buddy Program."  Her ideas are more directed toward full class activities and projects, but I think that I can start with these ideas and use them to create a relationship between my student and an older reading buddy.  Nancy Jang lists some tips to get started:

1. Find a partner teacher
2. Pair up the students
3. Do team-building and get-to-know-you activities
4. Hold academic tutoring sessions
5. Plan social gatherings
6. Plan with your partner teacher
7. Commit to meeting once a week
8. Make academics fun with learning games connected to your curriculum
9. Get the parents involved
10. Jump in with both feet

Read the full article here!

TED.com

I was browsing through the Edutopia Blogs tonight and came across a group of people who were discussing a website called TED.com.  TED's tagline is "Ideas Worth Spreading."  I thought if everyone was having a "Love Affair" with this website, I better check it out!  There are a lot of videos on this website of people talking and sharing ideas.  I was trying to figure out how to use this in my classroom and how it would have any educational value for me.  So, I typed "Kids" into the search box and found a whole list of videos to watch.  One title caught my eye immediately, "What Adults Can Learn From Kids."

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/adora_svitak.html
This is a video of a young girl talking about everything we have learned from children.  She is very sarcastic in her presentation and she is very well-spoken for a youngster!  I loved listening to her and found myself wanting to share this video with fellow teachers.  She makes some wonderful points and really gets you thinking!  I'm hoping to find other presenters on this website who can also get my students thinking outside the box!

Conference Time!

I am spending tonight gearing up for a 12 hour day tomorrow filled with Parent-Teacher Conferences.  At our school, it is a one day, all day kind of thing!  All the parents sign up for a time, I collect work for weeks, write special notes, record test scores, and prepare to "chat" with each parent.  I've been through this before, so it is nothing new, but every year it seems to worry me or get me nervous.  What is going to be said?  How are things going to be portrayed?  Am I going to support and encourage while still setting high expectations for all of my students? 

Anyway, as I prepare each year and get myself ready to do the talking, I always wonder, what would the kids say?  One of my colleagues told me today that she had her students do their own Conduct Records.  The kids know what they do and they are pretty honest about it.  I thought this would be a great thing to show to parents.  As I was getting ready tonight, I found this link on Scholastic's website as well: http://blogs.scholastic.com/classroom_solutions/2010/11/student-led-parent-teacher-conferences.html  This article is a representation of STUDENT LED Conferences.  I remember doing these in middle school, but I had forgotten about them.  I think this is a link I will save for next year!  There are even directions for organizing and creating a Power Point Presentation for the children to share with their parents during conferences.  In reality, I could have had the kids create their Power Point Presentation last week and I could have pulled them up on my laptop to share with the parents tomorrow.  But, oh well, next year is another chance to do something different!

A Virtual Principal?

Recently, I took a look at a video on Edutopia called, "Meet a Virtual Principal: How to Lead from a Distance."  This video is a great link which shows a number of middle and high school students at work on their individual computers.  I found it very amazing to watch the kids busily working on the internet and talking to their professors over head-sets hooked up to their computers.  I guess I have always just really wanted to see the technology at work in the classroom and I was shown a snipet of what that would be like.  The children are all sitting at separate work stations on this video and do not appear to have much contact with the people around them.  It is just astounding to think that they are getting the same education that we offer in a regular classroom filled with many chattering students and varying ideas.  Does it really work?  Is it just as effective?  Has anyone else had any glimpses into a fully functioning technological classroom?  I'm so intrigued, and I would like to see more!

Meet a Virtual Principal: How to Lead from a Distance | Edutopia

Don't Forget About Art!

As I continue to think about what we are trying to do in the classroom, I am constantly thinking about how to make things more fun for the students.  I realized that even in the core academic areas it is important to incorporate things like music, art and technology.  This article I read this week from Carol Scott on a website called Change.org is all about a group of parents trying to incorporate the importance of art education into their schools.  They fear that students are going to miss out on the fine arts aspects of education.

Ms. Scott says, "In our culture's shift to standardized tests, some educators worry that stressing "core" skills will mean that "extras" like art will be left out in the cold. If schools don't provide arts education to students, only the wealthier children, whose families can provide them with those opportunities outside of class, will truly have well-rounded education, they fear. Arts education improves interpersonal skills, emotional skills and group skills, recent studies say."  I think it is going to be important for us, as teachers, to try to incorporate more fine arts skills into our classrooms to make up for the budget cuts that are taking place across the country.  In doing so, we will be addressing some of the demands of differentiated instruction, also!

Laughing's My Favorite

I was reading the Scholastic blog today and a headline caught my eye, "Using Humor in the Classroom."  I immediately thought of my little third graders and their smiling faces!  One of the rules in my classroom is "Be Happy!"  I'm always looking for the kids to enjoy what they are doing and to show their happiness to me through smiles.  Their smiles get me through the hectic day, and I know I smile and relax because of them.  There isn't a lot that can calm me down when I get stressed out, but the smile of a kid can always make me smile.  I went through a bad string of panic attacks during college and dealt with the stress of finals by taking a picture of my young smiley cousin with me to each exam.  Something about those pudgy cheeks and gummy grins just make me laugh!

We all know that laughter is one of the most important things in life...they say, "It keeps us young!"  I think it is important to remember to bring it into your classroom as well.  On the Scholastic website, Mary Blow says, "Laughing is something we forget to do when we become overwhelmed with lesson plans, grading, parent meetings, and state testing. It was then that I realized how important humor is in the classroom. It captivates and energizes, but more importantly, it helps you form relationships with your students."  We all know about how overwhelming our jobs can be, but try to smile and to laugh.  Just remember, we will be able to form important relationship with our students through that laugh or smile, too!