Thankful November, day 2: Professional Development

On day 2 of Thankful November, I'm pausing to be thankful for professional development.

The professional development I'll be attending later today is sure to disappoint on so many levels.  Some professional development "trainings" are like that.

However, I've also had the opportunity to attend some really good professional development courses that have expanded my pedagogical understanding of concepts.

Explicit Phonics

In fifth grade, I didn't think I had to teach phonics.  I figured they can read, they're fine.  Then I took Explicit Phonics, which was offered in my district.  The beginning section of the course focused on long and short vowels, blends, digraphs, and short words.  Useful for some, but not applicable to my whole group instruction.  However, the second half of the course focused on affixes, roots, and blending through multi-syllabic words which is totally appropriate for upper elementary.  We worked on flexible decoding strategies and tried it in our classrooms.  

Like most things, it got better with practice.  

I then learned about the workbooks with Words Their Way. I was familiar with the WTW program, which is a collection of word lists with specific phonics skills attached.  I much prefer this approach to spelling than the traditional 20 words of the week that are associated with thematic units.  

What I didn't know is there are five different student work books.

I ordered "D" and "E" off of Amazon.  The word lists are appropriate for my ELL fifth graders and the format is student friendly.

I take ten minutes a day of reading instruction to do explicit phonics with my fifth graders.  By the beginning of November, we've covered the six syllable types, long vowel patterns, inflectional endings, and some affixes.  

The instruction is broken into four or five day mini-units and put into powerpoints, some of which are available {here}.  I'm in the process of adding more as I revise them based off of my students' understanding of the skill.

I'm glad I took professional development on explicit phonics for the upper grades.  It makes my reading instruction better and helps my ELL students.

Nonfiction in Focus

{Last month}, I took a course on nonfiction reading and integrating it with writing.  The course was crammed into three days, but I loved the information on blogging and merging nonfiction with writing.  In elementary school, there should be a 50-50 split between fiction and informational text, but our Reading Rangers program doesn't always reflect that.

It's sometimes a challenge to integrate informational text into a reading block that is heavily slanted in favor of fiction, so this course gave us some ideas about integration with writing.

This also made us examine our reading and writing pacing guide.  Quite frankly, they shouldn't be viewed as separate most of the time.  Reading and writing should be integrated together in a more natural way, which is something we're looking at in upcoming units.  (I say we here because Mrs. H took the course with me).

Text-Dependent Questions

I'm in this course {right now}, it's finishing up by the middle of November, and I'm loving it.  The text for the course is by Fisher and Frey, who are some of my favorites.

Yes, I have favorite educational researchers, don't you?

The course is giving me a lot more information about structuring close reads in my classroom.  Once I'm done, I'll synthesize my learning and blog about it, so stay tuned!

Technology Endorsement

A few years ago, there was an opportunity to obtain a technology endorsement for free by taking courses at Nevada State College.  I had to pay for the courses upfront, but if I earned a B or better, was reimbursed.

The four courses went over the basics of jing, edmodo, wordle, and other web 2.0 tools.

I can't recall the specifics, but it was a year-long professional development and I learned that it's not enough for me to use the technology, I need my students to understand how to use it appropriately because I've got to make them digital citizens.

Mount Vernon Teacher's Institute

As a history nerd, the idea of studying George Washington's life and staying at Mount Vernon was thrilling.  I applied and was accepted in the summer of 2012.  It was an amazing opportunity and you can learn more about it {here} or {here}.

MEMTA

Summer 2012 was a busy one because once I got back from Mount Vernon, I almost immediately headed back to the East Coast to attend the Mickelson Exxon Mobile Teacher's Academy.  MEMTA pairs with NSTA and focuses on science instruction in 3-5th grade classrooms.

Oh, and I met Phil Mickelson.

 Learn more {here} and {here}. 

{DENSI}

The Discovery Educator Network Summer Institute is a week long adventure in learning and connecting with other educators.  My brain frequently feels like it's ready to explode from all the strategies and I still haven't implemented all the ideas that are swirling around in my brain.

I've had some amazing opportunities to learn more and become a better teacher.  I'm thankful for the opportunities to grow as a person, challenge my preconceived notions, and continue to learn new things.

What are you thankful for?

Continual improvement, even during the summer

I'm not very good with summer plans.  Two years ago, I experienced a week of learning at Mt. Vernon with a teacher's academy and a week in New York City with the Mickelson Exxon-Mobile  Teacher's Academy (MEMTA).  Last year, I attended DENSI for a week of technology and teaching.  All three experiences were incredible and I learned so much from fellow teachers across the country.

This summer, I'm not doing any teacher academies.  With moving expenses, I simply couldn't afford the airfare to DENSI (Nashville).  I didn't sign up for my district's teaching classes in time and now that I'm 97% moved in, I find myself with lots of free time...which I don't necessarily cope with well.

My boyfriend is like the rest of the world and works during the summer.  Many of my teacher friends are traveling back home or working second jobs or putting the finishing touches on their own homes or spending time with their kids.  I just had family visit, my home is done (with the exception of a few lamps and dishes at the old apartment), and I don't have kids yet.  I'm trying not to spend a lot of money so travel is out.

I'm doing a lot of reading, which is wonderful. But I still find myself with a lot of free time.  I know I should enjoy this time since it will vanish once the school year starts.  It will vanish once I have kids.

But I am pleased that a summer job has appeared.  I have the opportunity to tutor a third grade student.  My realtor of all people reached out on behalf of one of her other clients.  It will only be a few hours a week but it still gives me an opportunity to interact with kids.  

I'm excited for this opportunity!

Mickelson Exxon-Mobile Teacher's Academy (MEMTA)

If you have the opportunity and are eligible to apply for this fellowship, I strongly encourage it!

I had the privilige of representing my state (yes, I was the sole representative from my entire state) during the summer of 2012.  I loved the opportunity to network with fellow 3-5 teachers from around the world.

(Laura and I organized a surprise flash mob as a thank you for NSTA and Exxon.  Ponchos were involved. It was epic.)

We not only learned about science, but did science and math.  It was like science camp for grown ups!  For more information, visit NSTA's website!

(On a side note, we stayed right across the water from New York City and had evenings free to explore!  I caught a showing of Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, was on the jumbo tron in Times Square, visited the 9/11 memorial and took a horse drawn carriage ride through Central Park!)

(Plus, I met the Mickelsons!  They're also Arizona State Alums, so we're showing some Sun Devil love)

Apply! What do you have to lose?

Strange Days

Today was...interesting.

It started with me picking my students up from humanities because well, we added that special this week and my specials schedule changed yesterday.  One of my favorite subs is filling that job and my kids had so much fun. 

They worked on creative movement and when I picked them up, I was treated to a flash mob.  Yes, they busted out their new dance moves just for me :)

(I do love my flash mobs!  At MEMTA, I helped orchestrate and lead one while last summer at DENSI, I participated in one at the Vermont Lake Monsters game.)

We analyzed informational texts for the main idea, practiced decoding words with long vowels (a, e & i), worked on revising our pieces, observed stream tables, analyzed figurative language and then switched for math and small groups.

However, I had to confiscate a yu-gi-oh card and dealt with post-it notes with "kick me" on the back.  It is entirely possible I learned to time travel today and returned to about 10 years ago.

Oh hump day.

Trying to be positive

As mentioned in my rattled post, I've received some negative feedback on TpT.  I didn't take it well.  I received another piece of feedback on the same product but this one was less malicious and did cause me to be self-reflective.  Perhaps I need to look outside of my school district for professional development in terms of the Common Core.  I know Nevada is frequently at the bottom of educational rankings, but that's due to a plethora of factors, many of which we as teachers can't control.  Maybe I should look into other school districts (since there's really only one in my state) and how they're "ramping up the rigor" for the Common Core.

But at the same time, I don't think I'm unqualified.  If I was, I wouldn't be sharing my materials.  I've written assessments for my school and district for a few years and was on the unwrapping task force for both math and social studies when CCSD adopted the Common Core.  I've been CASL trained and I know what makes rigorous, valid assessments.  All of my materials have been field tested in my own classroom and tweaked as necessary.  I am a DENstar with Discovery and one of our district's DENambassadors (Discovery Education).  I attended DENSI last summer in Vermont and was the sole representative of my state.  Yes, state.  The summer before that, I attended both the Mickelson Exxon-Mobil Teacher's Academy and the Mount Vernon Teacher's  Institute, again being the sole representative of my state.  My list of qualifications goes on and on, so I think I'm a knowledgable teacher.  Of course, I'm never done learning and developing as a teacher, as evident with my current task of working toward masters +32 (so close!) then working on National Board Certification.  Yup, I'm a type-A teacher and I embrace it.  I know I work hard and my students learn.

I don't think rigor comes from worksheets.  I think rigor comes from discussions and analysis of the text.  Rigor comes from close reading, re-reading, deep discussions and interaction with the text.  I can offer those deeper level questions, which I do, in my discussion guides but it is up to the teacher to drive the discussion and challenge students to think deeper.  As with any teacher guide, you have to make it your own and implement it in the classroom.  

I stand by my products and I am trying not to let two bad reviews ruin my outlook on selling products online.  Last time I checked, 79 people had purchased a product with several hundred more downloading my free ones.  If out of that, two had an issue, I'd say that's pretty acceptable.  I do feel bad that my product didn't meet their expectations but it did meet mine.  For those of you that know me personally, you know my standards are meticulously high.  I don't like wasting time and I wouldn't feel comfortable wasting other people's time.

However, I'll let you judge for yourself.  I have three products for free on TpT: a novel quote preview for Tuck Everlasting, a chronological order sort for Harry Potter and a 5 themes of geography ppt.  Download them here.  If you like them, please rate me accordingly.  If you don't, I'd love feedback either here or on the site about how I can improve them.  Please don't tell me it was a waste of money (since it's free!) or a waste of time.  Offer concrete examples of how you'd like it improved.  I'm always open to constructive feedback, especially if it improves my instruction and benefits my students :)

Thank you,
Ms. Vice

Science notebooks

We've talked a lot about notebooks this year.

In science, we've been studying land forms, geography, earth and space. 

We started with maps and created this tree map of maps (I crack myself up):

We have been looking at physical & political maps.  We talked about aerial maps and tried to be surveyors, mapping out the primary playground by using different benchmarks.

Today we built foam mountains and traced the "layers".  Tomorrow we'll discuss how these "layers" are really contour lines and dig deep into topographic maps.

I'm in no way following the suggested pacing guide because well, my pacing guide made more sense :)

Here is another thinking map about land forms:

We also went over the 5 themes of geography (Mr. Help!) which is available for free at my TpT store :)

Here is one of my TpT sorts in action, ready to be analyzed by my ten year old geologists:

Yay science :)

Science Anchor Charts and Ideas

Last summer, I had the amazing opportunity to attend the Mickelson Exxon-Mobile teacher's academy (MEMTA) in New Jersey.  I spent a week surrounded by other amazing 3-5 educators from around the world, learning about force and motion by doing science experiments.  One of the most important things I took away from the camp was the importance of keeping scientific notebooks for students to record their thoughts.

The notebooks should have a table of contents, like this one I made:

Which you can grab here.

We used post-it tabs to indicate when we switched units of study and had students use the back page to record their further scientific wonderings:

We try to review all of these concepts in fifth grade and make sure our students want to pursue science careers.

Here's a great idea for exploring the water cycle:

It's a wonderful visual for students, especially with the food coloring.

By combining vinegar and baking soda in a plastic bag, students can observe a chemical reaction. (Spoiler, the bag will pop)

Go explore young scientists!

Vocabulary Ideas and Notebooking

After attending the Mickelson Exxon Mobil Teacher's Academy last summer and numerous professional developments since then, the messages of the importance of academic vocabulary and students needing to notebook was obvious in almost every single one.  Here are some great examples of notebooking with students.

Vocabulary:

This would be great for power words at our school and encouraging students to use academic vocabulary.  You could keep a running total on the board.

This foldable is great for prefixes & suffixes.  You can stress how the affixes change the meaning of the word.

This bulletin board is cute, but I would modify it to be "roots" since Greek & Latin roots are explicitly stated for upper elementary in the Common Core State Standards.  

This is a cute idea for decomposing words.  Students could cut the words apart and sort them as partners. They could also practice blending multisyllabic words when they reconstruct the words.  Additionally, they could notebook about how affixes and roots work together.

This idea I'm pretty sure is mentioned in the CORE Sourcebook (a must have!) as a strategy to help students synthesize information.  It's great for literature and informational text.

Another great idea with post-its:

Here is a great example of notebooking for primary students:

This foldable is great for a language mini-lesson, especially for English language learners!

Here is a great way to teach "shades of meaning" with academic language:

Gluing a ribbon to the inside back cover of notebooks will serve as a bookmark and help students quickly get back to their last page.

I like that this anchor chart has pictures to help clarify meaning for students.

Here's a great visual for notebooks:

I like that it places equal importance on teacher and student contributions.  The point of notebooking is for students to make meaning of what they're learning and track their educational journey. 

Notebooks aren't for teachers.  They are for students to take ownership of their own learning.