DENSI 2016

A year ago, I was boarding a plane to represent Nevada at an international teaching convention in Washington DC.  Full of excitement and an open mind, I was ready to learn from the best and build up my professional learning network. I was ready for some tribe time.  I was ready for {DENSI}.  I had an amazing week and started the school year so energized and ready to try new technology tools with my students.  But...life happened.  Student behaviors made it very, very difficult to be the teacher that I wanted to be.
 

Later on this week, a hundred or so educators from across the United States, Canada, and the UK will be descending upon Chicago for Discovery Education Network's annual summer institute (DENSI).  

With a heavy heart, I will not be joining. I applied, but was wait listed.  

This has been a hard pill to swallow and one I've been grappling with for months.  I've started and stopped this blog post a half dozen times, but writing is therapeutic and keeping it to myself doesn't do any good.  The timing of the waitlisted news came within days of learning that I would not be earning a raise for completing my masters +32 coursework (but more on that debacle later). 

My grade level and administration was incredibly supportive at helping me deal with this news in the form of hugs, texts, and treats.  One of the coordinators and my favorite people at Discovery called and emailed to let me know she was proud of the work I'd done and make sure I knew I was still cared for.  It was a tough decision for Discovery. I'm sure they had hundreds (if not thousands) of applications and a finite number of spots.  I've had the privilege to attend twice.  It wasn't my time, as difficult as that is to accept.

I guess professionally I needed an ego adjustment.  I (wrongly) assumed that because I'd been twice and was hosting the ambassador program for the district, I was a shoe-in.  I filmed my application video once and even though I made a mistake in it, I corrected myself mid-video and kept going. I didn't take it as seriously as I should have.    

If I'm being super honest (and reflective), I didn't try a lot of new technology things this year.  We did a kahoot session to review for a test, skyped a few times to other states, and did a virtual field trip.  I struggled with classroom management due to a variety of issues (mainly student thieves) and I let my frustrations get the better of me.  I didn't try new things with my class because I couldn't trust them not to harm the materials or each other.  I learned lots of amazing things at DENSI 2015, but I kept them to myself.  That's not how collaboration should work.  That's not the mindset I want to have as a teacher.

I've spent a lot of time this summer reflecting on last year (because it was a tough year) and changes I want to make for next year.

I will not be teaching inclusion next year.  I will not have the pleasure of working with our wonderful new sped teacher Mrs. H, but I've come to terms with it.  I wasn't explicitly told I wasn't inclusion, but heard through the grape vine that they thought I needed a break.  The other inclusion teacher is also getting a break, so that made it feel less personal.  I had to shift my mindset from "I failed and they don't trust me with the inclusion students" to "they realize it's hard dealing with behavior plans, IEPs, and difficult parents, so let's give them a break". 

I'll be teaching to my strengths next year.  I'll still be co-teaching, but this time with the GATE teacher.  I'll have more of the "outside of the box" thinkers, and since that's how my brain is wired, I think there's a lot of potential for some awesome enrichment activities.  I've already got some thematic units in the work with a colleague, so it's nice to add some fun and excitement back into the classroom (which, truly, is the spirit of the DEN).

I am genuinely excited for my friends that get to spend the next week in Chicago.  I am glad that there are a bunch of newbies that get to experience the magic that is DENSI.  But I wish I was there.

Financially, it wouldn't have been a good time to go. I have vet appointments for the cats and medical appointments next week to keep me busy. I'll be limiting my social media time to keep my jealousy in check.  Luckily they archive everything so when I'm ready, I can learn digitally and virtually. 

For those of you at DENSI 2016, enjoy! Maximize your learning time. Take notes and don't feel like you have implement everything right away.  Your brain will hurt. 

Learn lots for me! 

Hopefully DENSI 2017 is in the cards!   

Writing Ideas

As a teacher, I think teaching writing is my weakness. I'm constantly in awe of my former co-teacher who is now in the general ed classroom. She makes teaching writing look so easy and her kids enjoy it.  I love picking up ideas from not only her, but the rest of my grade level as well.

This year we are starting using a new curriculum called Being a Writer.  I read through the teacher manuals this summer and I'm pretty excited by all the mentor texts that are used.  The lessons seem to blend nicely with the Common Core and are worded very similar to how I would start lessons.  I'm rarely a fan of a provided curriculum, but Being a Writer seems to make sense, spiral nicely and be student friendly.  Plus, there are sample anchor charts included which is great for days you have a substitute teacher.

At our school, we have writing conferences with our students and I keep all my information in a spiral bound notebook.

I use colored post-it tabs down the side with students' names.

I color code them for who I need to meet with more frequently.

I grade their essays and write my feedback on post-its.  I make a copy of the essay for the students to keep in their data folder, place the post-it on the student's page in my notebook, then we discuss their paper.  I try to have most of the conferences student-led by asking them the following questions:

What did you do well on?

What part are you the most proud of?

What did you take away from our mini-lessons that you tried in this paper?

Who did you peer edit with and what feedback did they give you?

How would you make this better?

What is still challenging for you as a writer?

However, I'm excited to try these new ideas this year:

Personalized word wall in their notebook.

 I'm awful at keeping up with word walls.  I try to do anchor charts of the vocabulary words we learn in our novels or our school's "power words of the week", but it's one of the things I tend to let slip through the cracks.  I love the idea of having students make their own because then the words are personalized.  With my inclusion classroom, some students are working on spelling sight words while others are working on multisyllabic words.  This allows students to feel empowered and write down the words they truly need help with.

On the subject of word walls, I also like this teacher's idea:

Instead of using a bulletin board (because I have so few and they're usually covered in anchor charts), a recipe box was used instead.  This would go great in our resources are of the room next to the dictionaries.  

This TpT freebie is great for students to organize different words and phrases:

I always teach "fanboys" with a fan shaped foldable, but I like this teacher's structure with an anchor chart:

I also found this idea on pinterest and it'd be a great review of text structure and topic sentences.

By using different colored sentence strips, you can review structures of a paragraph.  This idea also has potential with reading cross over by showing how to summarize an informational text.

This was developed by a primary teacher, but I love that it could be adapted as an extension center for early finishers.

It could also be used to review parts of a sentence with more struggling writers.

This anchor chart would be great for reviewing types of sentences:

I might modify it into a foldable in their notebooks because wall space is limited.

This is another great one for helping students with the different type of verbs, which is part of the Common Core standards:

I love new ideas!

Math rotations

I don't teach my math block in a whole group setting.  Last year, I had the privilege of working with the lowest academic math group which really pushed me to reexamine my practices as a teacher.  Since about half of my math class was filled with students with IEPs and nearly ninety percent of them ELL (English Language Learners) students, I thankfully had support from a paraprofessional (special education support staff).  

Since our students weren't successful in a whole group setting, we broke math down to 3, 20 minute rotations after our Number Talk during breakfast.  

Rotation 1: new material with me 

Rotation 2: review of content and word problem strategies with our para

Rotation 3: centers, manipulatives practice (or previewing the manipulatives), computer/iPad review or collaborative group work with an emphasis on the 8 math practices.

I was concerned with students developing their number sense and working knowledge of math. I was more concerned with reasonableness and strategies than the right answer (although that matters too).  

My groups were based on needs and behaviors.  They were flexible and students were on task a majority of the time (which is asking a lot for ten year olds at eight am).  If they made the decision to be off task, that's when they were assigned work sheets and tedious "drill and kill" activities.

My students were assigned a few problems nightly for homework in their notebooks.  I didn't give out worksheets.  They solved the problems and talked about them with each other and me during our warm up.  

I found this super cute anchor chart on pinterest and it would have been great to find last August!

I know other teachers had great success with pulling small groups on Fridays after giving formative assessments all week.  They would use that time to reteach concepts while other students worked collaboratively at stations, centers, computers, iPads, etc.  

Of course, after you've gone over the 8 math practices, it's great to have an anchor chart like this to remind students of your expectations:

Happy math time!

1st Week Idea

I admit it, I'm guilty. I am guilty of trying to condense the entire first week's worth of ice breakers and procedures into the first day of school.  I think I do this because I'm so eager to get to the part of the school year where students are learning and eagerly sharing ideas with one another. I'm ready for the part where my classroom runs smoothly and I don't have to go over how to set up notebooks and center expectations.  However, I've also learned through trial and error that the first week(s) of school need to be spent going over procedures and expectations so the rest of the year can run smoothly.

I stumbled upon this great idea on pinterest and immediately added it to my first week lesson plans.

Essentially, students are completing a Venn Diagram about themselves and a buddy.  Pretty simple idea, but then I got to thinking about why this would be important.

1: It's a great, non-threatening review of Venn Diagrams and what it means to compare and contrast two people.  Since the comparing and contrasting of two individuals is a cornerstone of RL 5.3, it's a sneak peek formative assessment.

2: It's a non-threatening format that students are familiar with.  It doesn't involve notebooks.

3: It's a great way to establish speaking and listening norms.  I would model this with a co-teacher to show students what is expected in a conversation.  We could also model appropriate voice levels, thus reviewing another classroom expectation.

I wouldn't do this the first day of school.  Instead, I foresee this as a great Tuesday through Thursday activity.

At our school, we use Kagan grouping structures, which means I have my students in groups of four to six that change every six weeks (or so).  In each group, there is a "high flyer", a medium student, a lower student, and usually a student with an IEP (since I am inclusion).  The students work together and learn from one another.

On the first day, I would have students interview their "shoulder partner" who is the person sitting next to them.

The second day would be devoted to interviewing their "face partner" who is the person directly across from them.

The final day would be interviewing their "kiddy corner" partner.  Then they will share out with the group and make a four way Venn Diagram (I'd provide the templates) about their table teams.  

From there, we would do a gallery walk to learn more about the other table teams.

During this fifteen minutes, I would monitor for appropriate voice levels and have the opportunity to teach Kagan structures and group expectations.

I'm excited to give this new idea a try!  I also plan to repeat it within small groups once we start switching during the second week of school.

How would you make this activity even better?