Um...what did you say?

Fifth graders say the weirdest things sometimes.

They're researching Native American Indians in reading/writing and learning how to create multimedia presentations.  Today we were working in the classroom and in the pod (on the computers) when one group of (rather giggly) girls called me over.

This same group had confused "Pablo" with "Pueblo" last week, so I was concerned about their question.

I was asked "what's a butt skin?"

Yes, butt skin.

Struggling to keep a straight face, I racked my brain to figure out what on earth they were talking about.  Luckily, it dawned on me: buck skin.

So, I asked if she meant buck skin.

She said yes because that's what she'd said.  I went on to clarify that buck and butt are two different words and that a buck is an animal.  That seemed to please her but I had to struggle to keep a straight face.

Naturally, I immediately told the rest of my grade level.  There are no butt skins during our project.

Oh fifth graders.

New School, New Teachers, New Questions

Last year I mentored several new teachers and was always ready to answer questions.

Now I will be the new teacher with dozens of questions for my new team. I apologize to them in advance but I just want to make sure I'm on the same page as them in terms of procedures and school policies.

Here is my list of questions for new teachers (or veteran teachers at a new school):

School Procedures & Responsibilities

• What are the expectations in terms of lesson plans? (content objective, language objective, assessment component, how specific)
• Are they due at a specific time or day?
• Where are they saved? (In my documents? On a shared folder?)
• Do I have to post them online (curriculum engine for CCSD people)?
• Do I have duty (playground, lunch room, etc)?
• Do I have duty on a specific day of the week (every Monday) or weekly (every five weeks for the entire week)?
• What is expected in my emergency sub plans? 
• Is there a master schedule?
• What time does my grade level have specials/prep?
• What is expected of my bulletin board? 
• Does there need to be a title?
• What type of work should be displayed?
• How often should bulletin boards be changed?

Classroom Management

• Is there a school wide incentive for specials?
• Is there a school wide policy for hallway behavior? 
• Is there a school wide behavior plan?
• Is there a grade level behavior plan?
• What are the procedures for an office referral?

Classroom Instruction

• Are there any programs we are expected to follow? (Being a Writer, Investigations, Envisions, Every day math, Trophies, etc)
• To what degree am I allowed to supplement? (some schools require fidelity with provided programs, others are much more flexible)
• What resources are available? (reading A-Z, reading eggs, Time for Kids magazines, literacy lab, online resources)
• What do I use in terms of small group instruction?
• What do I use for science instruction?
• Does our school use the Common Core State Standards?
• What assessments do I use? 
• Are assessments already created or provided?
• Are there any programs I should use for progress monitoring? (Aimsweb)
• Is there a RTI process? (response to intervention)
• When should I have my small groups established?
• What data do I use to form my small groups?
• Do I teach phonics or spelling patterns?  If so, when?
• Do I use project-based learning?
• Do I use rubrics? (rubistar.com is an excellent resource if the answer is yes)
• Do I do Number Talks?

 Special Education

• What co-teaching models (if any) are used?
  
• Does the school use push in (coteaching) or pull out (resource) models?
• Where are IEP meetings normally held?
• Are IEP meetings before school, after school, or during prep?
• Who is responsible for implementing IEP goals?
• Who is responsible for small group instruction?
• Who is responsible for progress reports and report card comments?

Collaboration

• Does my grade level plan together?
• Are resources shared between teachers?
• Are students switched between teachers?
• Do any teachers departmentalize (elementary) where one teacher may teach writing to several classes while another teachers science?
• What does my fellow grade level members like about the school?
• Is there a grade level chair?
• How are the responsibilities divided?

Questions for Administration

• What are the school's biggest strengths and weaknesses?
• What are my grade level's biggest strengths and weaknesses?
• How does the school prepare for standardized testing?
• Is there any opportunities for extra duty pay? (tutoring, supervising clubs, etc)
• What are the expectations for committees? 
• Are there any clubs or student organizations?
• How often are meetings? (Staff meetings, planning meetings, etc)
• Is there a format that is preferred for lesson plans?
• What is expected of report card comments? (Some schools require full paragraphs, others are fine with a sentence or two.)
• How are problems with parents dealt with?
• Is there a PTA?
• Does the school have supportive parents?
• Does the school have a system set up for volunteers?
• How many materials does the library have?
• How often will I be observed?
• Will we meet after every observation?
• Will I be informed of upcoming observations or will they be unannounced? 
• How many teachers are at this school?
• How many teachers are in my grade level?
• How long have other teachers been there? (Frequent turn around may be a red flag)
• Am I the only new teacher?
• Why did the previous teacher leave?
• What is our school's demographics?
• What do you love about the school?

 Technology

• What technology is available? 
• Are there trainings available on technology?
• Is there a computer lab? 
• Is there a computer lab schedule?
•  Are there any specific skills I should be teaching my students regarding technology? 
• Are there iPads? 
• Does each classroom have iPads?
•  Does the grade level have iPads? 
• Do students have to sign any usage forms before using the iPads or computers?

Miscellaneous

•  How often are there fire drills or other emergency preparedness drills?
• What is the policy for class parties?
• Are students allowed to bring in treats for birthdays?
• Is there breakfast provided for students at school?
• Do students eat breakfast in the cafeteria or in the classroom?
• Is a mentor available?
• Who is a good person that I can ask further questions?

Good luck new teachers!
 

Final meeting for Book Club

Last week was our final meeting for Battle of the Books.  Our school competitions are this coming week and the district finals are on the 25th of April.  I'm excited to take my winning team to face off against the other schools.

I haven't given them any instruction on the books and they held their own small groups.  I'm really proud of how much work they've put into this competition.

One of them even made treats, which was adorable:

Plus they're loving book jeopardy! 

I promised my students we'd play with our small group books during standardized testing time (since they'll need something fun after a long day of bubbling!).

I love watching how much they love reading.

Historical Assembly

Our fifth graders had an awesome opportunity today!  In partnership with the Mount Vernon teacher's association, we had a special presentation.  A historian pretended to be William Lee, man servant to General George Washington.

For an hour, our fifth graders were completely engaged in learning about history.

It was a wonderful sight to see.  

#95! Comprehension Question Stems

I'm pleased to announce my favorite center is now available on TpT!

I'm an advocate of guided release, which means over the course of our school year, I relinguish more and more control to my students.  This comprehension station perfectly aligns with this teaching practice.

This mega center (50+ pages) includes question stems to help students guide their own discussions.  It is color coded and includes different fonts for easy clean up!

The skills that students will practice are:

Snapshots of the center:

This product is priced at $6.00 on TpT, which is quite a bargain considering it is 59 pages long!

The best part is this station can be used for literature or informational text! (The second best parts are that the center is in color and uses fun chevron prints!)

Purposely Vague

I recently attended a math training and while it wasn't earth-shattering revelations, I did enjoy this snippet:

Be purposefully vague.

That's right, be vague in your questioning.  Let them struggle.  Let them make meaning of the problem.  Let them talk it out and try multiple strategies.  Let them persevere.  Let them come up with several answers and justify them to one another.  Let them express their thinking and critique others.  But again, most importantly:

Let them struggle.

It's productive, I promise.  They need to struggle.  It's not helpful to let them get all the answers right away. It's not helpful to spoon feed them the answers.  Not everything in life comes easily and they need to understand struggle so that when they work through the problems, they are that much more excited about their success.  Not every problem is given with the purpose of finding the one correct answer, but rather an emphasis should be placed on the problem solving strategies and critical thinking that lead to the answer(s).  Give meaningful, complex problems that are based on real world situations.  Don't provide problems where the solutions can be easily googled.  Let them struggle.  They'll be better students if they learn to persevere through problems and work on their critical thinking skills.  Provide the necessary scaffolds, yes, but not the answers right away.  Ask them questions rather than give them answers.  Challenge them. Encourage them. Inspire them.

Be vague.  Let them struggle. Let them do the thinking.

Post Card Fun!

In my former blog Project Postcard, I asked for post cards from around the world so my students could study geography.  I'm pretty well set for the United States, but if you're abroad and in a cool place, send me one!  (Also, if you're near Mount Rushmore, I would like one for that monument so I can discuss human-enviornment interaction, which is one of the five themes of geography).

Today we had ten minutes left after our vocabulary review and since it was Friday, I couldn't set up the next activity because air would dry out our clay/sand models that we'll use for stream tables next week.  

So we went on a photo safari instead.

I passed out groups of post cards to each table team and had them talk about the landforms they saw.

They did a great job with coming up with questions without even being asked, which of course is wonderful!

Yes, they got a little too loud but it was nice to walk around and hear them getting so excited about mountains.

Here are some snap shots of my young scientists:

Zacatecas, Mexico

Northern Lights, San Fransisco and Alscase, France

St. Louis and the Atlantic Ocean

Yellowstone, Michigan and Big Bear Lake (CA)

Yellowstone

Meteor Crater (AZ) 

Great Wall of China and Hawaii

Atlantic Ocean and Alcase, France

A beautiful mountain (I couldn't see the back of the post card, they weren't very eager to share with me)

Thank you for all the post card donations!  

I love when my students get so excited about science and geography.  We made some great connections with the 5 themes of geography.  You can download my TpT freebie about geography here!  If you like it, please rate it and give feedback :)  If it didn't quite meet your expectations for a free product, I'd like to hear that constructive feedback as well!