My Primary Passion

Links I Love 12/24

2019-12-24T14:15:00.000-07:00

Building Schoolwide Excellence in Reading and Writing

Lucy Calkins shares her thoughts and ideas about reading and writing in a school community in this hour long webinar. I always find her writing and speaking so inspirational. You will need to create a free login to view this webinar.

No One Gets to Own the Term "The Science of Reading"

by Lucy Calkins

Lucy Calkins' response to the "science of reading" discussion that is happening online in so many places these days.

The Hidden Push for Phonics Legislation

by Richard Allington

Richard Allington's response to the "science of reading" discussion.

Children Experiencing Reading Difficulties: What We Know and What We Can Do

ILA - International Reading Association's response to the "science of reading" discussion.

"First, teaching students to read must start with high expec-tations for all students—a belief and understanding that who-ever the students may be or whatever their reading difficulties, there are well-documented and effective instructional practices that help children become successful readers."

Deeply Analyzing Tolds is a Game Changer

"Let’s be honest…we’ve all fallen into this trap of given a child a Told before they appeal or with an incorrect response and no appeal. I know I have! Recognizing the issues with this can help us change to change our mindset."

Minimizing the "Matthew Effect"

by Mark Chubb

"The Matthew Effect:
An important piece to this puzzle can be attributed to “the Matthew Effect.” The Matthew Effect was coined to describe the process of cumulative advantage, basically, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The idea of the Matthew Effect is that those who start school with a small advantage continue to benefit, while those with a slight disadvantage continue to lose ground. While it might be easy for us as educators to notice the differences between students’ abilities or effort, it is far harder to notice any inequities that our classrooms and schools might be causing."

Rushing for Interventions

by Mark Chubb

"While I completely agree that we need to be giving attention to students who might be struggling with mathematics, I believe the first thing we need to consider is what Tier 1 instruction looks like that is aimed at making learning accessible to everyone. Tier 1 instruction can’t simply be direct instruction lessons and whole group learning. To make learning mathematics more accessible to a wider range of students, we need to include more low-floor/high-ceiling tasks, continue to help our students spatalize the concepts they are learning, as well as have a better understanding of developmental progressions so we are able to effectively monitor student learning so we can both know the experiences our students will need to be successful and how we should be responding to their thinking. Let’s not underestimate how many of our students suffer from an “experience gap”, not an “achievement gap”!"

Big Math Ideas K-2: Professional Learning Series, Fall 2019

Ideas and links for using choral counting and counting collections in the K-2 math classroom.

Building Conceptual Understanding and Fluency Through Games

This link is just for first grade but there are pdfs of games for grades K through 6.

The Deep Sea

by Neal Agarwal

Fun website that shows the various animals that live at each depth of the ocean.

Links I Loved 11/25/18

2018-11-25T20:24:00.003-07:00

Kate Dicamillo on the Magic of Reading Aloud

"Reading aloud ushers us into a third place, a safe room. It's a room where everyone involved, the reader and the listener, can put down their defenses and lower their guard. We humans long not just for story, not just for the flow of language, but for the connection that comes when words are read aloud. That connection provides illumination. It lets us see each other."

On the Podcast: Building Better Heroes with Cornelius Minor

Thinking About Language Development

by Kristi Mraz

"If I only look at the reading side of this (memorize a million sight words, read through to the end of every word) I am working on the pipes and not the well from which the water comes. Oral language drives reading and writing and much of my learning life. So how do I set about helping kids learn more about school English without getting overwhelmed myself?"

Energy and Calm: Brain Breaks and Focused-Attention Practices

"When we take a brain break, it refreshes our thinking and helps us discover another solution to a problem or see a situation through a different lens. During these few minutes, the brain moves away from learning, memorizing, and problem solving. The brain break actually helps to incubate and process new information. Consider trying these activities with your class."

Links I Loved 11/11

2018-11-11T13:50:00.002-07:00

Making Our Teaching Visible: Tide Pools and Teacher Expertise

by Megan M. Allen

"Under what seems like an effortless lesson lays an intricate performance. Under each word, movement, question, task, and response are thousands of prior interactions, many professional conversations with expert colleagues, and hours of learning. Each instructional move is composed of hundreds of micro-decisions. Knowledge of students, content knowledge, pedagogy, content pedagogy, knowledge of community, knowledge of culture, analysis of situation, possible missteps and misunderstandings, reflection, and an ever-growing bag of strategies...the toolkit of an expert teacher is vast. But because of the skill of expert teachers, this knowledge is hidden underneath the surface."

The Danger of Teacher Nostalgia

by Jennifer Gonzalez

"It depends entirely on the impact: Nostalgia for the past is toxic when it makes us feel contempt toward the present. And that toxicity works itself into our classrooms in some pretty destructive ways."

Differentiating Instruction: It's Not as Hard as You Think

by Larry Ferlazzo

In this video, teacher and author Larry Ferlazzo explains that differentiation is not about long nights of planning and grading, but about being flexible and making decisions in the moment based on what your students need.

Math Links I Loved 11/11

2018-11-11T13:40:00.001-07:00

Questioning the Pattern of Our Questions

by Mark Chubb

Week of Inspirational Math

by Jo Boaler

Interesting and challenging math problems for all ages.

Broken Calculators

Online version of the broken calculator game.

Dot Image Cards

More dot images to use as a math routine. Love the idea of carrying them around with you to use while waiting.

Literacy Links I Loved 11/11

2018-11-11T13:07:00.000-07:00

Teaching Young Readers is Not for the Fainthearted

by Valinda Kimmel

"Occasionally, I hear someone outside the education community remark that teaching is not rocket science. Those who would say that are either intentionally or unintentionally led astray (doesn’t matter which) and need a little enlightenment. Teaching, and teaching reading in particular, is both a science and an art. It requires hours of preparation, deep reflection and well-thought out planning. The 187 days each school year allotted for teaching a child to read are full of drama, trauma, joy and frustration. Teaching children to read is not for the faint of heart. Nor is it for the misinformed, or the ill-equipped."

Rethinking Guided Reading to Advantage ALL Our Learners

by Regie Routman

"Finally, while we might pride ourselves on having excellent guided reading groups, we could still fail in developing students who are engaged, inquisitive, comprehending readers. Until we prioritize daily choice, access, and sustained time to read interesting texts as the mainstay of any reading program, our students will not become self-sustaining, joyful readers."

Time to Check in on Your Literacy Plan Implementation

by Michael Haggen

"In the comprehensive literacy culture, you will find an inclusive classroom that goes beyond defining a child by his or her reading level. This classroom will be filled with positive energy focused on addressing the needs of each child through reading, writing, speaking, listening and social emotional learning as students rotate from whole-class instruction, to small-group instruction and independent learning time throughout the week."

Creating Teaching Tools for Picture Books

by Stacey Shubitz

Great list of picture books and possible teaching points for reading and writing lessons for each book.

13 Standout STEM Engineering and Invention Picture Books

by Melissa Taylor

Links I Loved 11/4/18

2018-11-04T15:55:00.004-07:00

Crafting a Curriculum That Works for Your Students

by Cornelius Minor

"Mrs. Davenport and the countless teachers like her have helped me to understand that my job as a teacher is not to “teach the curriculum” or even to just “teach the students”; it is to seek to understand my kids as completely as possible so that I can purposefully bend curriculum to meet them."

Ideas to Help Kids with Their Writing Pace and Volume

by Kristine Mraz

Focus lesson ideas to help students increase their writing pace and volume.

Strategies for Cultivating Mathematical Thinking in All Learners

Google Slides presentation by Heidi Fessenden and Jenna Laib

Picture Books That Teach Kids About Prejudice, Inclusion and Tolerance

LGBTQ Books for Young Kids

The Blurry Line Between Parenting and Teaching

2018-08-05T18:50:00.002-06:00

We Send You Our Best

"I hope my children’s teachers see us as parents who try. That they know that sometimes we don’t understand a behavior either. That we have raised them right but that doesn’t guarantee that they will act right. That even though we did all the things to raise a reader, our child, who is a reader, may not be able to read well, yet. That even though we have raised our child to be kind, helpful, and loving, others may not see her as such.

May we all remember how hard it is to send a child to school. How hard it is to let go and hope that the child that walks through those doors is the child you hoped would show up. Because we tried. Because we are trying. And I hope you see that. I hope we all remember that."

Teaching While Parenting: About This Series

"In taking on some of these questions, I hope to bridge the divide that can sometimes open up between professional and parent, to bring us back to our common goals and desires. It is aiming to be a mix of logic and statistics, and empathy, and maybe a little bit of therapy. We all struggle in this role of parent, we all struggle in this role of teacher."

Teaching While Parenting: Facing Struggle

"I want everything to be easy for my child. I want him to believe the world is good and kind. I want to keep him from pain and from worry and challenge. I want him wrapped in emotional bubble wrap. And yet, the world is hard. Life has pain and worry and cruelty. The best gift I can give my child is the ability to feel capable in the face of challenge, and compassion in the face of pain. The chance to bounce back from struggle and to find love and be loved. You do not learn these things in the absence of difficulty, rather, it is the presence of child sized struggles and challenges that engenders such development.

Don’t fear struggle, celebrate growth."

Games for Young Minds

"We all know to read to our kids for 20 minutes every day, but how should we prepare our kids to learn math?

Games for Young Minds is here to help parents and children learn to love math through the power of play. Using board games, puzzles, and other activities, you can give your children rich mathematical experiences that they will beg to keep exploring again and again."

Book Recommendation Posts

2018-08-05T18:43:00.002-06:00

30 Books Starring Girls Who Love the Great Outdoors

"To celebrate the joys of the great outdoors, we’ve collected many of our favorite Mighty Girl books about all the wonders that outdoor play has to offer. The Mighty Girls in these stories have plenty of imagination, along with bundles of energy, and the end result is lots of outdoor fun. We've also included a selection of books for parents about just how important it is to let your kids get out in the sun, sand, and dirt of outdoor games and ideas on how to build more outdoor time into your family's busy schedule."

Easy But Not Boring Beginning Reader Books

Diverse Back To School Books to Help Everyone Feel Welcome!

Deeper Thinking in Literacy and Math Instruction Links

2018-08-05T18:42:00.001-06:00

Are We Opening the Door Wide Enough for our Readers

"When we open the door wide enough for students to engage in real meaning making—which involves continually revising your thinking and considering multiple possibilities—the strategies and skills we can belabor often seem to magically appear. Like the fourth graders, students reading for meaning often infer at higher level than students who are charged with practicing a skill. Also, the claims students reading for meaning make tend to be more nuanced and complex than those of students reading to identify a trait. And when it comes to standardized tests, they’ll be ahead of the game. Instead of starting to think once they’ve read the passage and get to the questions, they’ll be thinking from the very first sentence."

Reading and Writing Connections

"When planning curriculum and setting individual goals for children, it’s important we make natural connections between reading and writing. That way, our teaching can be more focused, children have a greater chance to see the interrelatedness of skills and strategies, and there can be more opportunities for students to practice similar work across their day. In all cases, careful assessment of student strengths and needs is important to determine whether it makes sense to focus on reading and writing goals that relate to each other, or to target different areas in reading and writing."

My Month of Teaching Summer School & The Curse of Content Knowledge

"Here is a truth about my best teaching I learned last month in summer school:

Make yourself more interested in the sense that your students are making rather than the sense they aren’t making. Celebrate and build on that sense.

Celebrate it because too many students feel stupid and small in math class (especially in summer school) and they shouldn’t. The teacher time out helped us understand the student’s thinking, but try to understand what it’s like for a student to hear the big people in the room take her ideas so seriously that they’d bring the class to a stop to discuss them.

Build on that sense because it’s more effective for learning than starting from scratch. This is why analogies are so useful in conversation. Analogies start from what someone already knows and build from there."

Why 2 > 4

What Differentiated Instruction Is - And Is Not

Identity and Social Justice Links

2018-08-05T18:37:00.004-06:00

We Teach Who We Are: Unpacking our Identities

"Ironically, when my students and I read Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, we discuss how schools were often used as one of the most effective tools of colonizers. Control what people think, I remind them, and you can control what they do—and what they can’t. What I didn’t recognize was my own complicity in such a system. In the words of anti-apartheid leader Steve Biko, “the most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.” This is why we must disrupt texts, disrupt our pedagogy."

A Sociologist Examines the "White Fragility" That Prevents White Americans From Confronting Racism

"In more than twenty years of running diversity-training and cultural-competency workshops for American companies, the academic and educator Robin DiAngelo has noticed that white people are sensationally, histrionically bad at discussing racism. Like waves on sand, their reactions form predictable patterns: they will insist that they “were taught to treat everyone the same,” that they are “color-blind,” that they “don’t care if you are pink, purple, or polka-dotted.” They will point to friends and family members of color, a history of civil-rights activism, or a more “salient” issue, such as class or gender. They will shout and bluster. They will cry. In 2011, DiAngelo coined the term “white fragility” to describe the disbelieving defensiveness that white people exhibit when their ideas about race and racism are challenged—and particularly when they feel implicated in white supremacy. Why, she wondered, did her feedback prompt such resistance, as if the mention of racism were more offensive than the fact or practice of it?"

The Heartbreak of Raising a Black Daughter in a Red State

"The National Association of Independent Schools advises that when white parents avoid helping younger children understand how to talk about race and racism, it can affect the children’s ability to have effective and productive conversations about race as an adult. It also perpetuates the harmful notion that race is just another topic that “nice” people avoid. We would all like our children to remain innocent as long as possible, but it’s never too soon to start having these difficult discussions."

Thought Provoking Post by Carol Black

2018-07-10T22:02:00.003-06:00

Children, Learning, and the 'Evaluative Gaze' of School

by Carol Black

"There is something profoundly deadening to a curious, engaged child about the feeling of being watched and measured, or even, some studies suggest, the anticipation of being measured. Sure, some kids seem to dig it. They preen and pose for it, they compete with their friends for it, they want to be better than everybody else. But everybody can’t be better than everybody else, and this business of being constantly scrutinized and compared to others does something insidious to the life of a child. I've seen kids drop what they're doing in an instant when they realize they're being observed in an appraising way. A wall goes up. The lights go out."

Math Resources

2018-07-10T21:51:00.000-06:00

I have been keeping a series of open tabs with various math resources that I want to curate and use with my students. I need to clear out some of those tabs so I am going to link those resources here so that I can share them with you and find them later myself.

Becoming the Math Teacher You Wish You'd Had - A companion website for the book by Tracy Zager

Listening to Children's Thinking

"This approach to assessment is guided by the principle that children bring an intuitive knowledge of mathematics with them to school and that this knowledge should serve as the basis for developing formal mathematics instruction."

Who Talks? "Numberless" Graphs in Grade 2

"What I most was reminded of was how much depth and understanding can come out of just talking about what we see. This is why we spend so much time noticing and wondering (in math and in all subjects). When we slow down and just observe, we make the most sense for ourselves."

Counting Collections: One Nearly-Perfect Answer to Inclusion

"One assumption about heterogeneous pairs like this is that the general education students will help the special education students and not be challenged themselves. (I hear this thought often as my school discusses increasing the amount of inclusion we will do in the future.) Because of the low-floor, high-ceiling nature of the task and the many choices involved, most of the time this does not seem to be a problem. One student deepens her understanding of counting by twos, another gains fluency with counting, others build their understanding of our system of tens, and another works on multiplication. It is really exciting to watch."

Collection of Blog Posts by Kristin Gray - lots of discussion and many ideas here

Counting Collection Lessons and Videos by Teacher Education by Design

More 3-Act Tasks for Elementary School

Classroom Lessons from Marilyn Burns

Dr. Nicki's Guided Math Blog

Collection of Math Games Using a Deck of Cards

Dice Chats - another math routine

The Work of Back to School by Chad Everett

2018-07-10T21:14:00.001-06:00

The Work of Back to School

by Chad Everett

"A paint scheme or flexible seating won’t change a student’s life, but a teacher who is committed to respect and creating an equitable environment will.

Know this: your classroom does not have to look like it's pulled from a Pinterest board to make you an effective teacher. You are enough. You don’t have to teach like a pirate, like a champion, or like your hair is on fire to be enough. You do have to commit to showing up for 180 days and doing the work—the work that is not always visible, the work you may never be recognized for doing, the work that is the foundation of all the other work."

Math Perspectives by Brian Bushart

2018-07-10T21:05:00.000-06:00

Brian Bushart has shared some of the things he learned while attending the Math Perspectives Leadership Institute led by Kathy Richardson. He has also written a blog post about his thinking now. All of it is worth reading and thinking about. I wanted to save his thinking so I am sharing it here.

Disconnect

“Our standards on the other hand are all about getting answers and going at a pace that is likely too fast for many of our students. We end up with classrooms where many students are just imitating procedures or saying words they do not really understand. How long before these students find themselves in intervention? We blame the students (and they likely blame themselves) and put the burden on teachers down the road to try to build the foundation because we never gave it the time it deserved.”

Math Perspectives Leadership Institute 2018

Links I Love 6/25

2018-06-25T15:31:00.002-06:00

Beyond Relevance & Real World: Stronger Strategies for Student Engagement

Outstanding talk by Dan Meyer about changing the focus of math problems. This is a must watch. Click here for the links to many of Dan Meyer's talks about math. All are worth your time.

Instead of That... Say This: Be Precise with Math Language

Presentation on using precise mathematical language in the classroom. Lots of examples.

Two Studies Point to the Power of Teacher-Student Relationships to Boost Learning

“You can’t get to the content if the relationship and the social-emotional well-being piece is not being attended to first,” Howard says. “Any time you get into feelings, that’s more complicated to capture. But it’s still as important.”

Kristi Mraz on Being the Change

"What is Social Comprehension, and Do Little Kids Need it?
Sara defines social comprehension as developing “skills and habits to help us comprehend social issues and participate in relevant, transparent conversations.” She points out that this skill is learned, and to me, that means we need to be teaching it from the first day of school in kindergarten. It is more than just having the skills of conversation. Though that is certainly part of it, it is also normalizing difficult conversations and studying the impact of our actions on others so that we may learn better and do better. Little kids are more than capable of talking about big issues when we approach it in a way that feels appropriate and connected to their lives. It will be messy and clumsy at the start, but what isn’t?"

On Not Over-scaffolding in Writing Conferences: A Writer Puts His Heart on the Page

"If we support too little and the student’s follow-up writing attempts are less productive, we can always come back and support more or differently. But if we support too much by telling students specific moves to make in their writing, we rob them of the opportunity to do the thinking work and diminish their writing identity. Over-scaffolding is like a bad haircut. Once you do too much, there is no going back."

Links I Love 6/24

2018-06-24T18:41:00.001-06:00

Shadows on the Wall: The Promise and Perils of Success

"In many ways this blog post is not for teachers. It’s for parents. It’s for me. Somehow in my mind I already have it locked down that my boys will go to college. But why is that the only way? Our ideas about our kids can be as damaging as our parenting flaws. Recently my eldest tried out soccer. He didn’t like it. I kept pushing him to get on the field. My pushing made him more and more upset. All of a sudden I thought, “why do I care if he plays soccer?” So we picked dandelions and went home. What I care about is that he learns to join something. It just seems like everyone is playing soccer and sometimes I want my kids to be just like everyone else so they may be insulated from pain, or doubt, or struggle."

Why Children Aren't Behaving, And What You Can Do About It

"If we respond to our kids' misbehavior instead of reacting, we'll get the results we want. I want to take a little of the pressure off of parenting; each instance is not life or death. We can let our kids struggle a little bit. We can let them fail. In fact, that is the process of childhood when children misbehave. It's not a sign of our failure as parents. It's normal."

How To Get Your Kids To Do Chores (Without Resenting It)

"The moms see it as an investment, Mejia-Arauz says: Encourage the messy, incompetent toddler who really wants to do the dishes now, and over time, he'll turn into the competent 7-year-old who still wants to help.
Research supports this hypothesis, says the University of New Hampshire's Andrew Coppens. "Early opportunities to collaborate with parents likely sets off a developmental trajectory that leads to children voluntarily helping and pitching in at home," he says."

Ten Things I've Been Meaning to Say to You

"Dear Reader,

If you are a young person — by young person I mean 19 and younger, though young-at-hearters aren't excluded. Nor are older people. Or old people. But I’m speaking primarily to young people. Anyway, if you are a young person, the following are 10 things I’ve been meaning to say to you:"

Links I Love 6/24 Math

2018-06-24T18:37:00.002-06:00

How Will We Know What They're Thinking Webinar

"Curiosity about students’ mathematical thinking is at the heart of effective and joyful mathematics teaching. There are four channels via which we can gather information about student thinking: we can look at student work and products, we can observe and listen to students while they work and talk, we can confer with students about their thinking, and we can ask students to reflect on their own learning and share their self-assessments with us. We’ll explore how to open these four channels strategically, so we can gather better, richer, more interesting information about our students and their thinking, even when using curricular materials that don’t prioritize formative assessment."

Routines, Lessons, Problems, and Projects: The DNA of Your Math Classroom

"Routines – Routines are well-understood structures that encourage discourse, sensemaking, and equity in the classroom. A teacher may have many different types of routines in her toolbelt and utilizes them daily.
Lessons – Lessons include any activity that involves transmitting or practicing content knowledge. Lessons can vary from whole class lectures to hands-on manipulative activities.
Problems – Problems are complex tasks, not immediately solvable without further knowhow, research or decoding of the prompt. Problems can take anywhere from one class period to three or four class periods.
Projects – Projects apply mathematical knowhow to an in-depth, authentic experience. A project occurs over the course of two to four weeks. Ideally, projects are outward facing, community based, and/or personally relevant."

What Should a School Do with an Advanced First Grader?

"It seems to me that the status quo almost works. If more schools had interventionists who could come in and focus on the needs of the unchallenged, that would be amazing. (Those specialists along with teachers and parents could then decide if a kid would be better off in a different math situation.)"

To Ability Group or Not to Ability Group? That Is the Question!

"While the intent of structuring classrooms according to ability may be to create a pace that is more manageable for students, more often expectations are lowered and the work is overscaffolded. Students learn best when there is a balance of struggle and support. It is important that all students are held to high expectations (the end goals are all the same right?) and that they have opportunities to problem solve through mistakes with guidance such as questioning from the teacher."

The Progression of Early Number and Counting Video

"If you’re not a pre-k, kindergarten, or 1st-grade teacher, you need to find one and give them a hug after watching this video. They do the work of an army and many times their work goes unnoticed. There’s so much happening in the early years of school, that without this progression of early number and counting, we’d all be out of a job.

Here’s the 5th installment in the Making Sense Series. If you’re looking for other progression videos you can find them here."

Links I Love 6/24 - Literacy

2018-06-24T18:37:00.001-06:00

Revolutionary Reading: Reading to Change the World - slides from a presentation by Jess Lifshitz

#classroombookaday: Engaging Picture Book Read-Alouds That Support Community & Identity - slides from a presentation by Jillian Heise

Why I Don't Like Music or The Truth About My Singing

"I think as teachers we all say and do things in the course of the day hoping it is in the best interest of our students. I am confident that all of the music teachers I had wanted what they thought was best for me. But they let me know over and over again that I was just not cut out to be a person who sings. Of course, we want students who can read, but we also want students who become lifelong readers. We want students who see themselves as readers and students who cannot imagine a full life without reading. We need to remember that in every single interaction we have with a child."

Self-Monitoring: Who's Finding the Errors?

"In our zeal to be ever so helpful to our struggling readers, we may find ourselves falling into the trap of finding and pointing out the error to the child ourselves. When the teacher finds the error the focus turns to fixing the error rather than promoting self-monitoring during reading. Finding the error for the child and showing them how to fix the error will not help to improve the child’s ability to self-monitor. THE CHILD NEEDS TO FIND THE ERROR!"

Links I Love 5/19/18

2018-05-19T14:35:00.000-06:00

Two of my favorite presentations from ShadowCon 2018 - notes about each presentation are from Dan Meyer's blog post.

Andrew Gael reveals the potency of our presumptions about student competence, and how students often live up and down to those presumptions. What we believe about student competence affects how we work with those students, which affects their opportunities to develop competence.
ShadowCon 2018 - Andrew Gael from Shadow Con on Vimeo.

Javier Garcia contrasts the ways we talk about students (as though they're incomplete, fallible) and mathematics (as though it's complete, infallible) and made a case that teachers should reverse those two descriptions.
ShadowCon 2018 - Javier Garcia from Shadow Con on Vimeo.

Links I Love 5/5/18

2018-05-05T17:12:00.000-06:00

Planning for Growth in Teaching

"When we are able to see setbacks as a natural part of learning and living, look at them honestly, and come away with some valuable feedback about what to try differently next time, then we live as teachers who constantly grow and develop and constantly improve."

Engaging Children with Ellin Keene and Tom Newkirk - Podcast or Written Transcript of the Podcast

"Can you think back to when you were last fully engaged in something? So consumed that you lost all track of time and your surroundings? As Ellin Keene writes, “when engaged, we enter into a state of wideawakeness that is almost blissful.” She says this feeling is intoxicating. How can our students find this deep engagement on their own? In her newest book, Engaging Children, Ellin Keene explores that very idea. She examines the conditions that lead to engagement and how we can promote student-driven engagement."

The Low Kids and The High Kids

"And sometimes, being in this work means we develop some short-cut ways of describing the complexity of what we see in front of us. It's normal and natural as humans to look for patterns in our experience and categorize things. If we didn't our brains would be on overload all the time. We need these ways of explaining the world. But sometimes, these short-cut terms we come to use to describe our teaching world need to be examined. We need to take a step back and make sure that we aren't doing harm by labeling things and putting kids into categories they can't escape. We need to use that kind teacher heart as a lens to examine what short cuts our brains have made for us."

Resources for Elementary Math Teachers

A Google doc with a wide variety of resources for elementary math teachers.

Random Photos and Screenshots of Tweets

“Look mom! Diamonds.” #tmwyk pic.twitter.com/kUqiadfp6B
— sarah caban (@csarahj) May 5, 2018

Links I Love 4/15/18

2018-04-15T19:23:00.001-06:00

Kristi Mraz on Being the Change

"What is Social Comprehension, and Do Little Kids Need it?
Sara defines social comprehension as developing “skills and habits to help us comprehend social issues and participate in relevant, transparent conversations.” She points out that this skill is learned, and to me, that means we need to be teaching it from the first day of school in kindergarten. It is more than just having the skills of conversation. Though that is certainly part of it, it is also normalizing difficult conversations and studying the impact of our actions on others so that we may learn better and do better. Little kids are more than capable of talking about big issues when we approach it in a way that feels appropriate and connected to their lives. It will be messy and clumsy at the start, but what isn’t?"

Embracing Student-Generated Questions in the Classroom

"The research on student-generated questioning is compelling; questioning pushes students forward in making meaning of information. Students in inquiry-based classrooms demonstrate higher test scores. Brain scans reveal that when learners’ curiosity is piqued by questions, the parts of the brain associated with pleasure, reward, and memory undergo an increase in activity. Questioning generation improves students’ reading comprehension and promotes positives attitudes about reading and literacy."

Parent-Tested, Expert-Recommended Advice for When Your Child Isn't Reading Yet

"Don’t judge. This is the cardinal rule, and the one I break all the time. So your child isn’t reading in first grade. So what? You can start labeling or comparing, or you can accept the situation as it is, and work with it."

Story Time from Space

“What you cannot imagine, you cannot do”

Now imagine Astronauts on the Space Station reading stories to the children of Earth as the world rotates below.
Imagine no more…it’s Story Time from Space!

A Few of My Favourite Blog Posts - to Read...or Inspire Writing

"I was asked the other day by another professional to share some blog posts that have inspired me. She was curious about starting up her own blog and wanted to read through a few different writers’ works to get some inspiration. To be honest, there are so many great educators posting wonderful blog posts that it is difficult to narrow it down. Here is my attempt at creating a list of some of my favourite blog posts from the past few years. Find one you haven’t read and take a look."

The 5 Practices Framework: Explicit Planning vs. Explicit Teaching

"Trust me, I get it. The word “explicit” has developed a cringe-worthy connotation among peers in the math community. In the past, if I were asked to paint a picture of a math teacher engaging in “explicit” teaching, I would have painted either a teacher standing up at the front of the room, telling students how to solve a problem, or a teacher crouched down next to a struggling student, “correcting” the way the student approached the problem because they were taking the “long way there.”

Promoting Productive Struggle in Math

"Math hooks changed the feel in class right away. There was confusion, conversation, wonder mixed with frustration, some magical revelations, and lots and lots of rigorous thinking. This was all exactly what I was looking for."

What is a Number String?

"A number string is a set of related math problems, crafted to support students to construct big ideas about mathematics and build their own strategies (Fosnot & Dolk, 2002)."

Using Math Routines to Build Number Sense in First Grade

"Every time we do this routine, I find students building on one another’s ideas, challenging themselves, and getting excited about the different ways they can represent a number. I hear cheers and gasps as other students share their answers. This routine not only builds an understanding of how numbers are composed and decomposed, but it is also an engaging way for students to dive deeper into the meaning of numbers, which sets the foundation for future mathematical experiences. The conversations this routine spurs surprise me time and time again."

Links I Love 3/31/18

2018-03-31T14:51:00.001-06:00

I am dusting off this old blog so that I will have a place to gather, store and share some of the great posts and articles I run across online. I won't be writing a summary for each article but instead I will be pulling out a favorite quote from the article to give you a taste of what the whole article might be like. There are so many thoughtful educators out there and I learn so much from them every day.

Close Listening and a Kids-First Approach to Our Day to Day Interactions
by Kristine Mraz

"Putting kids first does not mean that there is no expectation or difficulty in classrooms. It means that how we respond is different. In our actions, in our words, and in our conversational moves we demonstrate that we care for and value the children in our care, that we center on their needs, and support their growth. "

Non-Math Essentials for Math Learning
by Margie Pearse

"A teacher who loves teaching math will get students excited to learn math. Step into a classroom led by a passionate math teacher and you’ll notice students at the edge of their seats anticipating his or her next move, ready to take on any math challenge, and willing to take risks. When math is taught with enthusiasm, students begin to see learning in a different light, approaching each problem with interest. Passion sets the stage for engagement to happen in math. Brains are awakened by emotion, offering students a way to make stronger mathematical connections."

"Islands of Certainty" - Learning Sight Words
by Katie Keier

"This reminds us of the importance of making sure that everything we do is in the service of meaning. We can’t simply teach kids lists of words to memorize or put these words on flash cards. We have to focus on teaching these words in meaningful text and show our readers how these known words can be “islands of certainty.” We have to help our readers and writers see how to make these words theirs, and how they can use that knowledge in their reading and writing. "

Beyond Dojos and Card Charts
by Sarah Caban

"As math educators, we talk all the time about how important it is to get students to ask questions, justify their thinking, and critique the reasoning of others. If we really want to make this happen, I think we need to pay attention to the mirrors we hold up for our students. If we use extrinsic rewards and punishments are we building agency or promoting complacency?"

Making Space: Entering Lessons Mindfully
by Kim Yaris and Jan Burkins

"In classrooms, we all pay great attention to the physical space. We are conscientious about classroom clutter. We are intentional about room design, furniture placement, and color, particularly in these early days of a new school year. But, more important than the things we place and arrange in the classroom is the space around the people and the objects—the emptiness that is actually something. Similarly, creating space, or making room for nothingness, between lessons, by taking a few deep breaths as you cross over the threshold of a lesson, will affect your quality of life as well as the quality of student learning."

The Work of Finding Empathy
by various Heinemann authors

"One of the most enriching—and challenging—aspects of being an educator is that we must live what we teach in order to teach it well. To teach reading effectively, we must be readers ourselves. To teach writing well, we must write. To build an inclusive school community, we must look inward and examine how we work to see the humanity in others when words or actions differ from our own identity positions."

When Pushing Boundaries in Math Education, Where Can Teachers Turn for Help and Comaraderie?
by Kristen Rae Lapore

"As an educator, how do you overcome the shortcomings of social media and network with other innovative teachers beyond the Internet?"

Trying to Find My Way

2016-06-10T16:13:00.001-06:00

So I haven't posted on this blog for almost two years. Today my thoughts were swirling and I thought my head might explode, so I knew that I needed to find a way to hold these ideas so that I could come back to them again. I have been doing lots of reading - online and off - and so many ideas are converging and diverging. I can't seem to pull them all together and decide how they will impact my teaching or the learning of my students. Perhaps another blog post will come along once (if) that begins to happen. I know that writing helps clarify your thoughts but I am still too far gone for that.

Books I Have Been Reading:
Mathematical Mindsets by Jo Boaler (currently reading)
Making Sense of Mathematics by Cathy Seeley
The Journey is Everything by Katherine Bomer

Blog Posts, Articles and Tweets that I Have Been Reading and/or Rereading:
A Thousand Rivers by Carol Black
On The Wildness of Children by Carol Black
Children Teach Themselves to Read by Peter Gray Ph. D. in Psychology Today
Five-Year-Olds "Falling Behind" by The Teacher Tom
This is Why "Personalized Learning" Will Fail by Will Richardson
The Five Questions That Most Define My Work by Will Richardson
Learning to Disrupt: Six Courses that Must be Required for Every Pre-Service Teacher by Ira David Socol
Hour of Code is Good Enough by Dean Shareski
Excerpt from Choice Words by Peter H. Johnston in a tweet by Tracy Johnson Zager
Education begins the moment... a tweet by A Recipe for Wonder
Tweet about "deficits and dysfunctions" by Alicia Martin
This Work. It is Lonely. by@JessLif
Why Teachers Need to Know the Wrong Answers by Anya Kamenetz

If you read through some of these links and can help me begin to process some of this, please share your thoughts. I need them!

Fall Voyage

2014-08-28T18:49:00.001-06:00

This post was cross-posted on my classroom blog, Ms. Jill's Crew.

Our Fall Voyage was wonderful! We were worried about the weather because so much rain was predicted for our area but we ended up with only one small rain shower. The Rattlesnake and Eagle patrol groups had a great time, challenged themselves and learned so much.

Why do we have a Fall Voyage?

We have a Fall Voyage for many reasons.

We take voyages to push students just a little bit out of their comfort zone. Real learning occurs when you are pushed out of your comfort zone and are challenged to try things you have not done before. For some first graders the biggest challenge is simply being away from home for a night and learning that they can trust other adults and themselves. For others the challenge is being responsible for themselves and their gear instead of counting on mom or dad to keep track of everything. Most are challenged in some way by the activities of the voyage. They must learn to work together, show perseverance when trying to find solutions to challenging problems, push themselves physically, and start to show independence in an age-appropriate manner.
I love the voyages because I get to see the students in a completely different environment and see other strengths that they have that might not show up in a classroom.
The voyages are also a great place for the students to practice the character traits that we have been working so hard to learn in class. Students also bring back some of the confidence and new skills that they learned on the trip and are able to apply them to academic learning.
We also all form tight bonds as a crew and are able to work very well together for the rest of the school year.

What did we do at Camp Elim?

In addition to eating, sleeping, packing, unpacking and taking care of ourselves, we also had time for some learning and some fun. Listed below are the activities we did along with a very short description.

Initiatives (Problem Solving Challenges)
Bag It – This activity had us feeling objects in bags (without looking) to try to figure out what they were or finding the rock we put in the bag. We learned to use other senses rather than simply rely on sight to gather clues and make decisions.

Camouflage Hide and Seek - A unique version of hide and seek that can be played in a wooded area. We learned about predators and prey in this fun game.

Nature Hunt at the Lake - This was a beautiful walk around a lake. We were challenged to really look at, listen to and smell what was around us. We had a list of things to look for and check off as we found them.

Web of Life - During this activity, we learned about how plants and animals depend on each other. We all wore an animal or plant nametag and then made a web (with string) to show how they are all related and what happens to the whole web when one animal is removed.

Recreational Activities

Alphabet Hike - At the beginning of this hike, we were all given a card with a letter of the alphabet on it. During the hike we had to look for things that started with that letter of the alphabet.

Obstacle Course – There were several physical challenges at this station. Check out our photo slideshow for more.

Solo Hike – This was a short walk with a stop for a little solo time to reflect on the voyage. The kids chose spots within a set boundary and they sat by themselves just thinking, reflecting, writing or drawing about the Voyage and what they had learned.

Games - There were several fun running and very active games that were played indoors. We played various tag games, follow the leader and parachute games.

Photographs
I have created a slideshow of photos for you at the link below but first, here are a few photos to pique your interest. Thanks to Ms. Wendy for helping me get some great photos. Chaperones, if you have any more to add, please send them to me.

Fall Voyage Slideshow - 152 more photos of our time on our Fall Voyage (once at this link, click on the small arrow at the top, right of the screen to choose to view the photos as a slideshow)

Thank You Chaperones!
We had a fantastic group of chaperones this year and we so appreciate their time and help on this Voyage. We couldn't have done it without them! Thanks to:
Ms. Aleia (Lilliana's mom)
Ms. Jody (Madison's mom)
Ms. Lisa (Kyson's mom)
Mr. Mark (Taylor's dad)
Mr. Michael (Lexi's dad)
Mr. Steve (Simeon's dad)
Mr. Mike (Gabby's dad)
Mr. Jesse (Landon's dad - he filled in for Ms. Mary Beth's crew)

We are Crew!

My School - It's a Great Place

2014-08-06T19:04:00.002-06:00

My Primary Passion

Links I Love 12/24

Links I Loved 11/25/18

Links I Loved 11/11

Math Links I Loved 11/11

Literacy Links I Loved 11/11

Links I Loved 11/4/18

The Blurry Line Between Parenting and Teaching

Book Recommendation Posts

Deeper Thinking in Literacy and Math Instruction Links

Identity and Social Justice Links

Thought Provoking Post by Carol Black

Math Resources

The Work of Back to School by Chad Everett

Math Perspectives by Brian Bushart

Links I Love 6/25

Links I Love 6/24

Links I Love 6/24 Math

Links I Love 6/24 - Literacy

Links I Love 5/19/18

Links I Love 5/5/18

Links I Love 4/15/18

“What you cannot imagine, you cannot do”

Now imagine Astronauts on the Space Station reading stories to the children of Earth as the world rotates below. Imagine no more…it’s Story Time from Space!

Links I Love 3/31/18

Trying to Find My Way

Fall Voyage

My School - It's a Great Place

Now imagine Astronauts on the Space Station reading stories to the children of Earth as the world rotates below.
Imagine no more…it’s Story Time from Space!