one.

Thankful November post one: my students' parents

I operate with the mindset that every parent truly means well and wants what is best for the kiddo.  While the parent group may be frustrating at times, when I step back and remind myself that I am with their precious baby for seven hours a day, it's a little easier to deal with when I re-frame my mindset to one that emphasizes they are doing what they think is best (instead of thinking they are doing X, Y, and Z on purpose to irritate me).  

Last Thursday, we threw a surprise party for our student teacher.  It was her last day in our (general education) classroom before she transitioned to student teaching in the resource (special education) setting.  I must say, it's tricky to plan a surprise party when someone is with you all day long! I kept finding excuses to send her on quick errands so the kiddos and I could discuss the party in five minute increments. 

I sent home a letter to families explaining our advice book and asking for some donations to our surprise party.

I was blown away by the sheer amount of goodies we received.  I didn't have to buy a single snack supply (and for that, I'm grateful). 

My students wrote wonderful, heart-felt letters to our student teacher.  I glued them into a hard cover book.  Students took the time at the party to share their favorite lessons with her and what they'd learned from her.  There were a lot of tears all around and it was a bittersweet moment.  She's off to a great start in her teaching career.

Parents shared on class dojo how much they appreciated her and their own fond memories of student teachers in elementary school.   I was humbled by their generosity in gifting supplies for our party. 

We had quite the feast and yet, still had left overs.  We had a welcoming party for our new student teacher on Monday.  (She'd completed the first half of her student teaching in the autism room.)  We had even more donations come in for our fall celebration (because I have students who don't celebrate Halloween).

The kiddos had 3 bags of chips, 3 capri suns, cookies, and more yesterday.  I still have boxes of drinks and unopened snack bags of chips.  I guess we'll be having a reading picnic soon!

(Yes, I did also thank them on class dojo as well as in person.  I know many of them do not read this blog.)

One and Done!

As {previously mentioned}, I've got some professional reading to tackle this summer.

This afternoon, I sat down with  Your School Rocks...So Tell People! with the intention of tackling a few chapters.

 

 Two hours later, in one sitting, I was done.  

It was a good, quick read that reaffirmed a lot of what I am already trying in the classroom.

My take-aways?

1) Continue to use class dojo to communicate with families about all the awesomeness that's happening in the classroom.

2) They aren't reading the paper newsletter.  Find a different (digital) way to communicate.  I like the idea of weekly podcasts.  I like the idea of them being limited to 2-3 minutes even more.  I'm hoping to figure out how to link them to Instagram instead of posting to Youtube.

3) Respect FERPA. Get permission before posting face pictures and don't use last names.  When in doubt, take artsy, behind the head shots.  It's hard to identify backs of heads & hands.
 
4) Create a classroom/teacher Instagram account.  I've got a personal one that I use and I'm already snapping pictures of class events for dojo, so why not?  In addition to this book being in favor of using social media, dozens of other respected educational articles back up this idea.

I didn't check with administration first, but created one that's totally separate from my personal account.  I shared a message on class dojo with last year's class and explained that families are welcome to follow me, but I won't follow back (thus ensuring their privacy).

One of the big "a ha" moments while reading was how often teens are on social media, so why not use that as a positive force.  One chapter focused on teachers/schools that were sending daily positive affirmations to help students start their days off right.  I have a teacher friend in Texas who has been doing this for years within the Discovery Educator Network (DEN) with massive success.  Why couldn't the same ideas be applied to the classroom?

I'm eager to see how this evolves, but I've got my branding hashtags ready (classroom specific, school specific, and the 50s pod specific). 

I stumbled upon this:

Which I plan to use.  I want the account to feel like a classroom account, so I will be sending students out with the iPads to take pictures.  I'll have them send to me and then I'll post from there. I also like the idea of them writing the captions and mini-blog posts.  Students tend to put forth a lot more effort when they have an authentic audience (meaning not just me the teacher). 

I've got two followers so far, one parent from last year and one teacher friend's professional account.  She used twitter last year and was my inspiration for the project (and who recommended the book to me), so it's nice to have someone to bounce ideas off of in the realm of technology.  Thanks Mrs. K!

Spring Break Homework

Yes, I gave my students homework over spring break.  

They came up with ideas and were really excited about all their "work".  I shared ideas with a few other teachers and they're making similar ones for their students.

They deserve a break, but I don't want them staying inside for 10 days playing video games. I want them to have fun with their families and build happy memories.  I want to focus on their emotional and social needs, not just their academic ones.

Progress Reports

I send home progress reports at least once a month.  I teach in an inclusion classroom, which means there is usually a special education teacher in the room with me during core subjects of reading, writing, and math. 

Students get lots of time to ask questions and work with each other.

Students are allowed to retake any summative assessment before or after school.  Summatives are end of unit summaries that make up 90% of their grades.  The other 10% comes from formative quizzes throughout the unit.  I use these quick checks, exit tickets, and quizzes to pull small groups and reteach.

Progress reports are meant to serve as a check in point to show parents where their students are at.

But...then there are the replies, the emails, and the phone calls.

Some responses say "I'm worried, how can I help at home?"  which are wonderful! I post review videos and stay after to work with students.  Those families acknowledge that it's a partnership between home and school.  

But then...there are other types of responses.

"Please help ___". 

"Can you explain what ___ is doing wrong?" 

"Why don't you work with ___ in class?"

"What extra credit can ___ do?"

"Why is ____ getting a C in ____? The last test was an A. Are you grading right?" (The first two tests were Fs, so the A brought the overall grade up to a C.  That wasn't a sufficient response.)

One, I do my best to help every student. Every day. I do my best to work with them in small groups and individually, every day. I pull small groups.  Other teachers pull small groups. They have extra review opportunities online available at any point.

It's frustrating (and a bit insulting) when parents don't realize I'm doing everything possible to help their students.

But when students don't read or follow directions? When they don't ask questions? When they skip entire pages on the test? When they zone out during an entire lesson, draw pictures, talk to their neighbor, then complain they don't get it...it's frustrating.  

At what point do students start owning their grades?  At what point do I stop becoming the bad guy?

Thankful November, day 14

That {parent-teacher conference} I shared about yesterday?

Not only did it go wonderfully, but the mom brought me hot chocolate:

Score! It's nice to feel appreciated.  It was a very positive conference.  The student took responsibility for his actions and we talked about ways to help him improve.  It was presented as a united front, she told him she was proud of him, and thanked me for my hard work with him.

I wish all my parent teacher conferences were like that: parents working with me, supporting their kids, appreciating my efforts, supporting education at home.

Most are like that...but there's a few hostile ones I dread.

Good thing parent-teacher conference day isn't until December!

A dash of professional reading

I'm in the midst of another graduate course, so I've been doing a lot of professional reading lately.  I'm a life-long learner (as I think educators should be) and wanted to take a minute to share two articles that have been rattling around in my brain this week.

Article {One}: Boo the Long October

Preach it, iTeach Fourth!

I feel like I could have written this article myself.  I liked it so much I took the time to comment, instead of just trolling through and remaining anonymous online.

Basically, October is a long, weird month.  Students are out of the beginning of the year behavior honeymoon, meetings seem to be multiplying, and first quarter grades are due soon.  I'm almost a fourth of the way through the year, how did that happen?!

Instead of griping about this, the article focuses on a cute Halloween tradition of "booing" your fellow teachers.

Images are all over TpT and pinterest, but one person starts by secretly leaving treats in another coworker's mailbox.  That coworker has a limited time (usually 2 days) to reciprocate by "booing" another colleague.  Ghost or pumpkin dicuts are usually put in mailboxes to indicate that one has been booed, and a witch or goblin could be posted if someone does not want to participate.

It's a fun little way to add some festive fun into the month of October.  Plus who doesn't love surprise treats?!

I'll be starting this round of boo-ing at work this week (ssh...don't tell my coworkers!)  I've got two black and white polka dotted tins (obviously) from the dollar section at Target (again, obviously).  I'll fill them with candy and print some boo instruction sheets. 

What fun fall traditions does your school have?




Article {Two}: Rip those behavior charts off the wall and burn them

While this was written with a tad too much angst in my humble opinion, I agree with the underlying message.  The traditional "clip" or "chart" system no longer serves a purpose in classrooms. 

 I will be the first to admit that yes, I used this system for way too long.  I started it my first year as a teacher because that's what I thought I was supposed to do.  I thought every elementary classroom needed some sort of (very public) way of displaying behavior.  I thought this truly kept kids accountable for their choices and was a motivating factor.

But then I realized how wrong I was.  This isn't really motivating, it's demoralizing.  {Last summer}, I decided to discontinue the use of this system and I haven't looked back.  I know there is some resistance, especially in lower grades, about getting rid of this trusty security blanket.

What good does this behavior tracker actually do?  Almost immediately, your eyes zoom to those kids on red.  We all know what red means.  Tsk tsk Max, Jared, and Brendan.  

How demoralizing.

Did they truly make poor choices all day long?  Or did they simply have one or two "oops" moments throughout the seven hour school day?  Chances are, it's the latter of the two scenarios.  To be fair, what human goes all day long without making an oops moment?  

If a child is truly struggling to make appropriate classroom choices, how does this reinforce doing the "right thing"? 

...It doesn't.

This article goes on to state that as educators, part of our job is preparing students for coping with future demands.  This includes helping them take responsibility for their actions and utilize techniques to cope with mistakes.

As a teacher, I wouldn't if a behavior chart was used to publicly broadcast my performance to the entire staff.  Oops, Ms. Vice left her copies on the machine in the lounge!  Uh oh, she forgot to take afternoon attendance and now she's on red.  (These are common situations for me.)

How humiliating to have one's behavior broadcast for the world to see.  

But instead of continuing to gripe upon problems, I propose a counter solution: Class Dojo.

It's by no means a new teacher tool since it's been available for several years at this point, but it's new to my classroom.  Seven weeks in, we're loving it.  (Bonus? It's free.  That's a must!)

I have the opportunity to recognize students for both positive and negative behavior.  It's easy for me to see if I'm reinforcing the 3:1 ratio (three positive interactions with every negative redirect) with every child...especially the ones that struggle with behavior.  Parents are able to see all the great choices their students make and it's a quick and easy way for me to communicate with families.

The behavior categories are editable, which means I can give more weight to behaviors that are desirable (like meeting a personal academic goal).  

My favorite part? I can send out messages to all the families at once and see who has viewed my message.  This has replaced the Remind app because it's already built in to what I'm using and parents don't have to download two different things to stay connected to our classroom events.

What are your thoughts on behavior charts? 

First Week Treats

I'm finally sitting down to go through old blog drafts that I started, but didn't quite finish.  I found this one from August that I finally finished.  Since I'm starting to think about tweaks for next year, it seemed like the perfect time to reflect on what I did last year and what I will do again this year.

I'm not above bribery. Setting the year off right, with food, can make a HUGE difference. 

Day 1:

They'll be hungry before lunch time. Heck, I'll be hungry before lunch time.  So I bought a few boxes of Lucky Charms and put a few cups in sandwich bags for my students.  This dry cereal will let them munch while their bodies adjust back to a school schedule.

I attached this cute note:

I'll be keeping this, just using smaller snack sized bags!

Day Two:

Last year, I made these:

While I do last minute prep, B will assemble all my treats.  In this case, it's Starburst candies. It's so great to have a supportive man who is extra patient during the chaotic start of the year.

I'll be keeping this idea.  I may even turn this into some sort of fractions lesson by having them find patterns at their table teams. 

Day Three:

You're "mint" for greatness! (With mints).  I didn't really like the sign I made last year, so I'll be tweaking it for this year. 

I'll be keeping this idea for next year.

Day Four:

You're one smart cookie (with chips ahoy).  I feel like I gave too many sweets, so I think I'll tweak this for next year with smart water bottles instead.

Day Five:

I made this sign:

He'll be attaching the goldfish to the baggies.

I'm used to "meet the teacher" day being the Friday before school starts because that's what I've known for five years.  Mid panic, I asked my grade level about this and was pleasantly surprised to learn that's not at all how they operate.  Meet the teacher night is in September. Sigh!

What do you do the first week to build classroom culture?

Things I love about my classroom

A fellow teacher, former coworker, and adorable new mom Katie posted about her favorite things about her classroom in her blog, which inspired me to do the same.

Scholastic Book Orders

I love how excited my students get for the book orders.  I love that teachers get free coupons and reward points based on the parent orders, so I get to stock up on new books for my students.  This year I've noticed they're obsessed with the "Who was..." series, which is great!  I've read a few of these informational texts and they're very student friendly.  If you're looking for books on a specific person, I'd try here first.

Plus every few months or so, Scholastic includes coupons for the students.  If they spend $10, they get a coupon for a free book (under $5).  It's a pretty nice way to encourage reading.  Plus the prices are cheaper than local stores, which is always a bonus!

Class Competitions

We are a Reading Rangers school and use AR to gauge students' comprehension on their independent reading books.  We are in a competition within the grade level for the highest engage time and the highest percentage. 

However, this competition isn't enough for my students.  We have additional competitions within our classes and across the grade level.  Our current one is a race to 50 passing tests (85% or above) between the girls and the boys.  However, the catch for this one is that any time someone scores less than 80%, that team loses a point.  The kids are loving it!

Other successful competitions include:

-race to 100 100%s

-race to 100 points (each book is assigned a different point value depending on it's complexity and length)

-table team percentages

What competitions do you have with your students?

Class Dojo

I joined the class dojo train late this year, so I am currently only using it as a reward for reading rangers.  For each 100% students earn, they get 2 points.  85 or 90% gets 1 point, filling a badge earns 3 points, and graduating earns 10 points.   They are motivating one another to be in the top five, which is excellent.

Next year I will be using this exclusively as my classroom behavior system.  As helpful as the card system is, I'm over it.  With class dojo, I can reward specific behaviors.  More importantly, I can easily share the information with my students' families, which increases our home-school connections. 

Plus, it's free!

Our Anchor Charts

I haven't done the best job at posting pictures of all our anchor charts (there are a lot!) but I am proud of them.  I make them with the students and they have mini-versions in their notebooks for reference.  This year I stepped it up and have them color-coded.

Teal: reading

Yellow: foundational skills (fluency, phonics, word parts)

pink: math

white: novels

I love that my students have internalized that these are a resource designed to help them learn.  They often ask to go up and look at the charts for clarification (success!).

I ended up just stapling them on top of one another since we're out of space.  I don't have any cutesy inspirational posters up, but still ran out of wall space!  

Classroom Library 

For the first time in my teaching career, I had to level my library.  I used the reading rangers program to level my library (school mandate) but I went beyond that. I grouped my library by genre in adorable book buckets:

I've had a little bit of backlash because it's not organized by fiction/informational text or by point value.  For me, it's more authentic for readers to pick a book a book based on the topic instead of the length.

The Map

I love the map.  I love the postcards.  But more importantly, the map is getting my students so excited about geography and the other 49 states.  We are able to make connections with literature and informational text by linking the postcards with the locations named in books.  They are getting excited about colleges and starting to think about their options for their future. 

What are your favorite parts about your classroom?

Highs and Lows

With September's Blogtember challenge nearing its end, I'm a little bummed. I liked having these daily reflective tasks.  I did about half of them, which is admirable considering my work schedule, the shared laptop, and that this was my first time participating.

For those who are visiting from Brave Love, hello! Hopefully you'll pop back over once in a while after this challenge ends.

Today's prompt: What are your highs and lows for the month?

Highs:

1) My new school is amazing.  I feel supported. I feel like I have the freedom to make instructional decisions that benefit my students. I don't feel like every choice I make is questioned.  Everyone is super supportive. 

2) My students are excited to be in school and eager to learn.  They want to read.  They ask questions.  There are a few hallway chats each day about being on task and being nice, but it's nothing major.  It's such a refreshing change.

3) My new grade level is so welcoming.  I'm able to be honest with them about the things I'm unsure of (procedures, RTI expectations) and not feel judged.  They're willing to help and allow me to contribute (without expecting me to do more than my fair share).  Plus they're really awesome ladies and since no one plans on leaving, I think I've found a new group of friends.

4) My morning routine is so much more relaxed. I have time to eat breakfast at home, not at the copier.  I have time to blog, check emails, and relax in the morning. I have time to do stretches and a few household chores before leaving for work. I bought fruit and yogurt, so I'm going to start making smoothies in the morning.  Last year, I'd get up at 5, be out the door by 5:30, be at work at 6, and have until 7:10 to get work done before meetings started.  Now I wake up around five, leisurely take my time getting around, leave at 6:50 and am at my computer by 7:10.  The shorter drive gives me an hour of my life back each day. 

5) Our class weebly is getting a lot of positive attention and responses.  This year, my new school purchased weebly accounts for everyone. It's a classroom blog where I share information about our classroom with students and parents. I've given them homework to do online and put up polls and pictures.  I've gotten parent responses on it as well.  It's just nice to have a positive, open line of communication with my students and their families.

6) I tried Jamberry nails and I'm hooked! A week later (and a week of teaching and cleaning no less!, there are no chips.) I ordered my first set, am going to host a Jamberry/31 bags party in November (with an online component where you can order) and going to be a consultant. I've decided that having my nails look nice makes me happy and Jamberry is an inexpensive way to do that.  It may seem shallow, but having pretty nails makes me feel put together and on top of things, which is a message I want to convey to others.

7) I also tried doterra oils and love those as well.  I have occasional migraines and frequent joint pain from years of sports and I like how the oils helped with those. I'm excited to try a natural remedy to common ailments. 

8) I felt appreciated by those closest to me.  My birthday was at the end of August and for several reasons, I didn't really do anything special.  However, a few close friends made the effort to make me feel special on my birthday.
 
Lows:

1) I didn't see my friends as much as I'd like. We all have busy schedules and our own lives, it's just a rough adjustment going from seeing them daily to seeing them monthly. I need to get better at calling and texting them. It's also becoming apparent who will remain a friend now that we are in separate schools and which friendships are fading.  That's life. It's just a sad situation when friendships dissolve because everyone is too busy.

2) I lost my planner. I've meticulously cleaned my car and home, so I know it's not hiding anywhere. I'm pretty sure I left it at a math training at a high school in the early parts of the month, so I don't have high hopes of it returning home. I bought a replacement, but since it was September, my options were severely limited. I'm just irritated that I have to go back through and enter commitments again. I've also felt very disorganized without my planner, which is frustrating.

3) I still don't feel like I have everything in my classroom under control.  I know as a teacher, I will never accomplish everything on my to do list.  I just finally built another filing cabinet insert (the metal part to put the folders on) to organize student data. I have five weeks' worth of filing awaiting me Monday...yikes!  

4) My students didn't do as well on their first math test as I would have liked and that's disappointing to me.  I haven't taught a traditional math block in a few years since we were departmentalized and I know the concept is difficult.  There were just a lot of careless mistakes (skipping problems) that I'll need to address as a class.  I know that they need more review and that I'll be giving the test again.  I just hope parents don't freak out. I know they don't have it yet.  We have until June to master the concept. Learning takes time.

5) The gradebook.  The entire district is trying a new gradebook and needless to say, it's a learning curve.  Last year, I only entered summative assessments (end of unit tests) and nothing else.  This year, I have three categories: summative for 90%, formative for 10% (quizzes, exit tickets, assignments during the unit of study) and a not for grade category (obviously worth nothing).  I'm used to entering grades as emerging, approaching, meeting, or exceeding and having each assignment broken down by standard.  With this new grade book, my standards are clumped together which I don't exactly like.  For example, in reading, RL 1, 2, and 3 are grouped together, then averaged.  This means grades for quoting accurately and making inferences (1), determining the theme of a story, drama or poem (2), and comparing and contrasting story elements (3) are put together.  I don't like this, but I don't have any say in the matter.  I just think it gives a misleading picture to parents.  Students may be struggling with one particular standard, but if several are linked together, the numbers are skewed.  Hopefully this problem is addressed soon by those higher ups.  We also aren't allowed to enter any grade lower than 55%, with the mindset that it's still an F, but students won't have as far to recover from a failed test.  We are to make notes of the actual score for parents to see.  I agree with this idea, I just wish I'd known before I started to enter grades because I had a good dozen assignments to go back and revise.

6) I haven't been to the gym...and feel really guilty about it!  I want to start going more, it's just hard at the end of the day. I need to start taking my gym clothes to work with me and giving myself permission to leave on time. I get there early, so it's okay to leave when my contract time is up.

7) My new crockpot recipes failed :(  Not failed persay, but definitely not a pinterest win.  The first one went awry because I used the larger crockpot and the sauce spread out, thus burning and not flavoring the chicken.  The second failed because it's a recipe that needs to be stirred a few times while it's cooking.  Perhaps we'll try that again on a weekend day when I can attend to the crockpot.

Overall, not a bad month.  It's strange to think it's almost October!

Getting to Know My Munchkins

Since I'm starting at a new school, I'm coming in at a disadvantage.  I don't know these kids or their families.

So I pushed myself to try to learn as much as I could about my new bunch of munchkins.  I gave them several "about me" surveys and this year, actually took the time to read them.  I mean between all their beginning of the year forms, we're looking at five hundred pages or so...good thing it was a three day weekend!

It took a few hours, but I'm glad I did it.  I learned a lot about my new students (and their families).  I can easily name off ten fun facts about each kiddo, which is impressive considering I've known them for five days.  I also made notes about what I saw during their games of 20 wins and various first week sorts.

Here's a top ten list of things I've learned:

1) I've got some pretty eclectic kids.  Some told me they love Mean Girls, others are in Tae Kwon Do, some learned the difference between debit & credit cards this summer.

2) Almost every single one said they struggle with spelling and reading multisyllabic words, which only justifies my decision to spend 10 minutes a day doing phonics during whole group reading.

3) A few of them live around the block from me.  I've never had students live so close. I will probably see them out riding their bikes or have them visit on Halloween.

4) They are pretty vocal about their feelings on reading.  Some love Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, others hate the series with a passion...and weren't afraid to show it!

5) I've got supportive families.  Some filled me in on situations at home, some voiced their concerns about where their kids fall academically, but most want to be involved which is a welcome change.

6) Some already listed me as their favorite teacher, which is adorable. It also makes me worry about their previous teachers...but we'll have a great year.

7) Quite a few want to learn how to use the dictionary.  I don't know if their third grade teachers skipped that standard, but we'll be sure to cover both traditional and electronic dictionaries this year. (Ninjawords.com is my favorite!)

8) They're really good at coaching one another.  I don't know if I should give their previous teachers credit for this (or perhaps their parents), but during our math games they were helping one another.  Yes, there was friendly competition but they were genuinely wanting one another to grasp the concept at hand.

9) They work well together.  Some of them said their best friends are in the class.  I've only had to move one child in the first week.  Very few needed a gentle nudge about participating with the group and I'm thinking it was because they already knew the answers and didn't want to give it away. I'm pleased they want to talk to one another.

10)  They are full of joy.  They're inquisitive.  They want to learn.  This is the best possible scenario I could ask for as a teacher.

It's going to be a great year. 

Prepping Notes

When prepping notes for families, I tend to make a template in word.  I like to make tables and use the fun features to jazz up the notes.

However, I still want these fun borders when I cut up notes, so I tend to organize the table like this:

Parts are intentionally left blank, that way I can cut along the edges

while still maintaining the borders of the note.

Just a friendly tech tip!

Fun Freebie!

While we are in the midst of the TpT back to school sale,

I did find this cute freebie:

 (Thanks Mrs. Hulsey for making such a fun, practical freebie!)


I already downloaded it and put my special touch (font) on it :)  I'll be printing the polka dot ones on pink butcher paper to pass out to families at open house in a few weeks.  I'm much better at responding to emails then phone calls, so I'm excited to use these and promote positive communication with families.

Ms. Vice's boot camp, day 1

I had my first tutoring session with my third grader today.  She's adorable and loves learning, which is a nice change.  Her mom brought me data from her last report card and talked about what books they should get from the library.  It was so nice to see a positive family focused on school!

We read two passages on Helen Keller and set up her reading notebook.  We made a graphic organizer and talked about strategies.  She did really well!

We are going to meet on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for an hour and a half.  It's time to dig into my very unorganized guest bedroom (teacher closet) and find some fluency activities and reading games!

How cute is she?

My previous school essentially became a self-appointed turn around school.  Over ninety percent of my previous staff, including my principal, left for various reasons. 

I did my research and interviewed at one school which prioritizes reading and is quite close to my new home.  They did quite well last year on standards and have a diverse population.  They are still a Title 1 school but with an incredibly supportive community, which will be a nice change.

When I went for my interview, there were dozens of high school students coming over to volunteer and parents helping in the office.  Immediately I welcomed this change and the thoughts of never grading Aimsweb progress monitoring probes again danced in my head.

My interview went well and I was hired, which was a huge sigh of relief.  I was the last of my grade level to secure a new position.  One teacher is headed to teach third grade with several other staff members (oddly at the elementary school my boyfriend attended many years ago).  Another is leaving the district for charter schools with her husband.  A third member of our team is headed to an elementary school close to her daughters' daycare to teach departmentalized math and science, which her masters degree is in.  Our special education teacher is following our former principal to her new school, along with several other teachers.  We are all on to better things and I was finally, with a sigh of relief, welcomed into this club.

It was hard to tell my students I was leaving, but since they are all moving to middle school, I stressed that we all need change.  

My mentee in third grade and his wife had interviewed several places but were struggling to find positions at the same school (their requirement). 

I knew of one opening at my new school and quickly inquired about the possibility of another with my new principal.  I passed along her contact information to the married teachers and was thrilled when they had interviews.

I was even more excited when they were both hired at my new school.  He will be teaching third grade again while she will be back in general ed in second grade, which she's previously taught.  Adding to my excitement is she will be in my pod and only a few doors down!  I was thrilled when I got her Facebook message sharing they'd both been hired.

If possible, I was even more excited when my new principal texted to let me know she adored them and hired them both.  She thanked me for recommending them to join our school family.  This sense of support is such a refreshing change.  How cute is she?!

 I love that I'm going to a new school where everyone is excited to go to work.  I love that there is such a community feel and that two of my favorite teachers from my old school get to join me at my new one!

Onward and upward!

CRT Data

Confession:

I rarely check my work email over the summer.

I deleted the app from my phone and since I'm not in my new school's system yet, I don't see much of a point to log in daily only to delete spam and teacher coupons (looking at you Lakeshore). 

I saw my (former) principal post on Facebook that not only were CRT (Criterion Referenced Test) scores in, but she was excited about the results.  So naturally I asked to see the fifth grade data because well, I'm a numbers nerd!

I was at my new house painting so I figured I'd check the data in a few hours.  Well, my grade level beat me to the analysis part.  In a matter of minutes, I had six texts from my former grade level sharing their excitement about particular students.  

While I'm sure I'll get official reports with the break down of each class, I couldn't wait.  My insomnia got the best of me and sure enough, I was up at four am crunching numbers and making graphs.  I couldn't be more pleased with my class results and know that I didn't accomplish this feat alone.  It took our entire grade level working tirelessly, together, for ten months to achieve these results.  For those at my school who did not approve of our quasi-departmentalization experiment, I'd like to waive this data in their faces...but I won't...because I am a professional.  

I had the privilege of working alongside some of the most inspirational fellow teachers.  I will miss being able to pop into their rooms and the amazing collaborative mindset we all shared.  For various reasons, we are all starting at new schools and collectively represent third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and special education.

Math

(I didn't teach math besides our intervention block and number talks, so these scores are due in a large part to the amazing effort of my two neighboring teachers.  Well done ladies! I trusted that my students were in very capable hands each and every day.)

I'm a visual person, thus the graph.  Here is my class data for math:

1 student exceeded
22 students met standards
3 students were approaching
6 students were emerging


Science

We shared students for science and I taught the FOSS Landforms kit four times before getting my own class back for CRT prep.  When my homeroom wasn't with me, they were with my fellow teachers learning about environments, mixtures and solutions, force and motion, as well as variables.  We broke our year into four seven week rotations and started switching the third week of school.  We didn't switch right away because we wanted to set up science notebooks and go over the scientific method with our homeroom classes.  

Our rotations ended about two weeks before the science CRTs, so we used that time to incorporate Discovery Ed video streaming into our reviews.  We also practiced taking notes from multimedia presentations, a valuable skill they'll most definitely need in middle school.  However, we did this with the Magic School Bus videos and they did an amazing job.

Here is my class science data:

Numbers wise,
6 students exceeded standards
17 met standards
6 students were approaching standards
3 students were emerging on science standards

I'm quite pleased with my little scientists!


Reading

If you are new to my teaching blog, know this: I love reading.  I love discussing books with my students and watching them fall in love with literary worlds.  I love watching their excitement when they learn more about the world around them from informational text and seeing them become self-motivated to learn more by reading more is simply wonderful.  

I broke my reading data into two groups: my small groups and my whole class.

I had the higher half of the grade level for small groups, so naturally these numbers are expected to be more in the meeting category.  My job for small groups was to push these fluent readers to become more critical thinkers.  

Numbers wise,

23 students exceeded standards
28 students met standards
7 students were approaching
2 students were emerging

I'm quite pleased with my small groups!

For my whole class, which is inclusion, here are my results:

7 students exceeded standards
13 students met standards
4 students were approaching
8 students were emerging (of these 8, all were either students with IEPs or in the RTI process and still made growth over their previous scores)


I'm thrilled with my students' performances.  Did they all meet standards? No.  Did they all make growth? Yes.  

With my data analyzed, I can emotionally bid this past school year adieu.  I did my best.  I taught them strategies and how to think critically.  They learned and proved their knowledge on these tests.  It is time for a much needed, relaxing summer.

Last Days

One week in to summer break, I can take a breath and relax.

The last few days of school were an emotional whirlwind. This school year has been the most difficult of my teaching career for a variety of reasons. I asked my students to be reflective in end of year letters to me and well, the results were heart wrenching. Many wrote about how they felt I was mean and yelled. They however didn't acknowledge their own poor behavior choices, but I guess that comes with maturity.

We watched Frozen, signed yearbooks, and did a circle of sharing where we talked about our favorite memories. I passed back letters from their first days and notes from their parents.  I gave them their wordles and allowed plenty of sharing time for their paper slide videos (end of year novel projects).  We had counselor lessons on adjusting to middle school and they had time to practice opening combination locks.  Right before the awards assembly I read Oh the Places You'll Go and shared with them how privileged I was to be their teacher.

(I wasn't the only one in tears after reading this book)

With the help of my grade level, we created a PowerPoint slide show to share with their families at the awards assembly and moving up ceremony. We tracked down their kindergarten yearbook pictures to include in the presentation which was a tear-jerking touch.   After their ceremony, we lead the fifth graders outside where the rest of the school was waiting to clap them out. It was an emotional day for the fifth graders and their families.

The next day (last Thursday) was our final contracted day. I was kept 2 hours past my scheduled check out time because I'd left paper in my room. Mind you, this was unopened notebook and copy paper, stacked neatly in a drawer labeled supplies and was left for the incoming teacher.  This what I thought was kind gesture was frowned upon by certain persons and had to be undone before I could leave. So much for trying to be kind! Our rooms were also searched after hours and various supplies were reclaimed when we weren't there to vouch for them. There isn't an educator I know that doesn't purchase supplies (like notebooks, glue sticks, etc) out of pocket, so for these to be snatched back late at night was simply absurd...and another reason that validates my decision to change schools!

So after 5 long years, I bid adieu to room 45. I'm off to start a new adventure. 

Today is my day, I'm off to great places. I'm off and away! 

Facebook

I have a teacher facebook.  It's completely separate from my personal account and it's a great way to connect with families and students.  Every so often, I'll get messages like this: 

This will possibly be one of the hardest things about moving to a new school.  My old students can't just come visit me unless their parents are willing to make a twenty minute drive across town.  

At least I'll be able to keep in contact with them online!  I do love hearing about the books they're reading :)

Letters

We just sent the last progress report of the year (hallelujah!).  With it, I attached this note:

During the first week of school, I had students write notes to themselves to open during the last week of school.  Luckily I'm sure most of them have forgotten about this task, so it will be quite the surprise!

I asked their families to write them letters about how proud they are of all their academic growth this year.  I included stationary and an envelope to make it easy for them.

Here's one of the letters I got back:

In the past, many students cry upon reading these letters which is a touching moment.  Granted, some parents just send back blank stationary which is a little frustrating.  For those students, I will write them letters myself that way they have something to open.   I'm excited to make their last days of elementary school memorable!