Random Thoughts of a Teacher

Current Read

2009-09-23T12:25:00.006-05:00

Reading Essentials: The Specifics You Need to Teach Reading Well by Regie Routman is a book that I had previously begun to read but didn't get the opportunity to finish. The first chapter is titled: "Simplify Your Teaching Life." Who wouldn't want to do that?

Sometimes when reading a professional development book there is so much useful information in the book that it could be easy to go on information overload. I used to use Google Notebook(GN) to track things that I wanted to remember and put into place. I was frustrated when GN became obsolete. I think I lost all the information that I had saved on it. I have now decided to use a Moleskin journal to keep track of useful information. My goal is to write no more than three things from each chapter to implement and put into place.

How do you organize information from professional development? In what ways do you implement ideas from books or seminars in your classroom?

Theater in the Classroom

2009-09-15T15:07:00.002-05:00

I love drama. I used to be a volunteer director for a youth drama group. Today I discovered some free theater curriculum while I was perusing a local children's theater website. I noticed that they had a professional development tab and discovered the curriculum on there. The curriculum was developed by the theater and a local school.

The theater is called Stages Theatre Company.

There are many benefits of using drama in the classroom including: building confidence in students, makes learning fun, and a way to get your kinesthetic learners involved and moving.

I have seen young people change and grow more confident by doing drama.

Have you used drama in your classroom? What resources have you used?

Organizing your Calendar as a Sub

2009-09-15T11:32:00.004-05:00

I am going back to subbing for now. I haven't actually been back in the classroom yet this year. I have two more district sub meetings on the books right now and I have already attended one.

I prefer not to get calls in the morning or at night for that matter so I attempt to get my calendar full by watching the websites very closely. To help stay organized, I use my Google calendar to keep track of where I am supposed to be each day. I also block out days I am scheduled on all websites as unavailable so that I am not getting calls for days I am already scheduled.

Here is what I note on my Google Calendar:

School
District
Teacher
Grade
Start Time
Full Day (FD) or Half Day (HD)

Doing this not only keeps me organized by knowing where I am going when, it helps me to know who should be paying me what.

How do you keep yourself organized as a sub?

Update and Upcoming

2009-09-08T14:55:00.003-05:00

Update:
I have been quite busy since I posted last time. Last school year I worked a job as a Library Media Specialist/Spanish teacher. It was a new position for me and a busy one at that. At the end of the year, I was notified that my position was cut due to budgetary restraints. I have spent the summer job hunting. I am still looking. I am also working on getting on the sub lists in my area. I am set to go in one district and have to attend meetings/turn in paperwork for three other districts. I have also applied to sub a few other places. I also got married this summer and am loving married life. So you see I have been a little busy.....working a new job, planning a wedding, job hunting.

Upcoming:

Blog, blog, blog
Current Reads
Subbing Tips

I am going to be working on continuing to blog. I believe it helps my writing and communication skills.

Current Read

2009-03-28T11:31:00.004-05:00

I am currently reading Understanding by Design by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe. I have just started chapter 2. I really enjoyed chapter one and I am looking forward to finishing it so that I can begin to use it in my classroom. It is a book about planning units which is very useful for me in the position I am currently in. I like beginning with the end in mind. The authors used this quote by Stephen Covey: "To begin with the end in means mean to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you're going so that you better underand where you are now so that the steps you take are always in the right direction." That quote comes from the book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Although I am not very far into the book, I am enjoying that it stresses the fact of understanding. A quote from the book I like that talks about understanding is "How do we make it more likely-by our design-that more students really undersand what they are asked to learn?" The book's goal is being able to plan understandable units for our students. It argues against activity focused and coverage focused teaching and for results focused teaching. Some of what I have read reminds me of Madeline Hunter's ways to plan a lesson. Although this book's goal is to plan units. Another thing it mentioned that I liked is to be sure that " 'hands-on' is also 'minds-on'". It stresses engagement and understanding. I also like the fact that it talks about using Essential Questions in your unit plans, which I am also using in Curriculum Mapping. I look forward to reading more of this book.

Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix

2009-03-28T10:17:00.004-05:00

This is a book I recently read that we had at the book fair last fall. It is the first book I have read written by Margaret Peterson Haddix. The preface was amazing. The author hooked us right away. The students wanted me to keep reading it, but I just wanted to give them a taste of it so they would read it on their own. I had many students read the book and reserve the book at the library even before it was on the shelf. A few of them were even passing copies around that they had gotten at the book fair so that their friends could read it.

Found is a great mystery that involves students and time travel. I have had many students read and thoroughly enjoy it! Many of us are eagerly awaiting the next book in the series that is due out in August. The title of that book is Sent.

Update On This Year

2009-03-28T09:13:00.003-05:00

I have been enjoying this year immensely! It has been a very busy year being in a new position. I have read a lot of young adult literature. I have gotten to add books to the library, which is a blast. (It is soooo fun to buy books and not spend a dollar from my own pocket! Of course, I have gotten a few in the library order that I had to add to my personal collection. I have been pretty good this year.) I have enjoyed seeing students read and reserve books that I have read aloud an excerpt from to their class. I have enjoyed getting to know more students. I have also really enjoyed teaching research skills! It is really fun to teach students how to dig into something they are interested about. I look forward to developing the curriculum even more. I have been learning about Curriculum Mapping which I think is very useful. It is also an overwhelming task because I feel like I haven't made a dent in it. I have learned that video projects are a lot of work! I have gotten to know Dewey better! I have enjoyed helping students find good books and then seeing them check out more books from that author. I have enjoyed seeing books get returned quickly....knowing the student read the book very quickly. There are so many things that I have enjoyed! I am planning on getting back to blogging because I enjoy being able to connect to others with it!

A New Adventure

2008-08-20T20:19:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow is the day my new adventure begins. I am going to be a Library Media Specialist/Elementary Spanish Teacher this year. It is a brand new position for me. I am looking forward to all the new and exciting experiences that await me. I would like to think of myself as a bookpusher. Bookpusher - one who discovers appropriate, interesting and engaging books for each reader who comes her way. I also get to interest students in learning a new language.

With the start of a new year, I am going to make some new habits. I am going to get myself organized the night before. This will enable me to enjoy my mornings more. I am going to exercise in the morning. This will help me to wake up and get my day started on the right foot. I am going to be more deliberate about my weekends. This will help me to actively combat stress.

What are some new things that you are doing this year? New habits? How do you get to know your readers?

Nonfiction Monday

2008-08-18T09:15:00.003-05:00

Nature's Fireworks: A Book About Lightning by Josepha Sherman

During the next storm this fall, see if you can identify the types of lightning in the sky. This book is a great way to teach what lightning is. It talks about the different types of lightning and illustrates what they look like. Thunder is explained in the book. The dangers of lightning are mentioned, as well. At the end of the book it gives some ideas of where to learn more. You can even make your own lightning by doing the experiment at the end of the book.

Running

2008-08-02T18:56:00.002-05:00

I have been running since December. The lovely thing is that I have gone down two sizes. My original goal was to go down one more size but I had to readjust it to two. I recently discovered a fun site called Map My Run. I like the site because you can map your runs and keep track of them. You can also join challenges. I joined the Asics challenge to run 100 miles in a month. I started on the first of August. The best thing about the challenge is that you can win prizes. I think you can also map your bike rides and keep track of other types of workouts that you do. Check it out!

Kentucky Days

2008-08-02T16:27:00.002-05:00

So, have you ever visited another part of the U.S. and felt like you were in a different country? My brother and I drove from Minnesota to Kentucky yesterday. It was a fourteen hour drive. At one point we stopped to eat and it was just very different. It reminded me of when lived in Georgia for three months when I was in third grade. Many time when we would be out somewhere others would be quiet when we talked. I remember distinctly one time when we were at the pharmacy I said something to my mom and the rest of the people got quiet. If one part of our country can be different from another, can you imagine being a student from another country in one of our classrooms?

Memoir Monday - Called to Teach

2008-07-28T15:47:00.003-05:00

When I was young, I wanted to be a lawyer (they made the big bucks and I was good at arguing), a mom (what little girl doesn't), an astronaut (it is still a dream of mine to go to space camp some day) and a teacher (Thank you, Mrs. Soltow). As I went off to college, I would have to say that teaching won out. I began the program and took the dreaded Teaching 101 (I hated retaking that miserable class in my M.A. program). At our school the text was So, You Think You Can Teach. During that class, we had to do a clinical experience. I was so excited! My first time getting to be in a class. I met a teacher that didn't seem to want to have me there. I didn't really get to experience what a classroom was like. At the end of the experience, I got to interview this teacher. She basically told me that she did not like teaching. She had taught for the last twenty years and it was the only thing she could do. She completed the interview by advising me not to teach. I took her advice and decided to become a psychologist and promptly changed my major.

After graduating, my first principal recruited me to be one of her paraprofessionals. My response was negative. I was going to be a psychologist. She eventually hooked me by asking me which grad program I was in. When I couldn't answer her and had no idea where to even begin, she responded by saying that I could do this while I was deciding and applying for school. She made perfect sense. It wasn't an easy year. The job of a paraprofessional is hard and demanding. I have to say that it made me very aware of how hard they work. At the end of that year, she asked me to teach for her the following year. I jumped at the chance to have my own classroom. I taught prekindergarten on a variance for 8 years after that.

After teaching a few years, I went back to pursue my M.A. in Education to get my licensure. Teaching full-time and going to school was not easy. Last May I finished the program and graduated. This past year I subbed for three local districts and did two long-term sub positions. I am so glad that is over. This spring I signed a contract for a Library Media/Spanish position for the school that I taught prekindergarten for.

I can't imagine being not being a teacher. If you are in the job hunt right now, don't give up! Finding the place for you make take some time but it is well worth it!

First Day of Class Questionnaire

2008-07-26T15:54:00.002-05:00

I am thinking about doing some type of a questionnaire for the first day of library. I thought this would be a good way to get to know my readers.

Questions I am going to include:
What is your favorite book? Who is your favorite author? What type of books to you like? What is the last book you read? About how many books did you read over the summer? What would you like to learn about? What do you enjoy? What are you interested in?

What do you do to get to know your learners?

This Fall

2008-07-26T15:49:00.002-05:00

I am going to be doing something different this fall. I have taken a position as a Library Media Specialist. My schedule will rotate weekly between teaching research skills and Spanish. It will definitely be a change but I am looking forward to it!

Where Have I Been?

2008-05-28T21:44:00.002-05:00

Good question.

I have done two long-term sub positions. One was Pre-K two times a week and coaching cheerleading. The other was a sixth grade position. You would be amazed the things you will learn from sixth graders. I just wanted you to know that I am back. I going to get back to posting!

Reading Books and Incorporating the Ideas in the Classroom

2008-02-27T17:24:00.003-06:00

When I read I tend to write in my books or jot notes in a journal. I plan on continuing to do this. When a journal fills up I get a new one. At one time I had many different journals for different aspects of my life and now I just keep one. It has a leather cover and the inside can be refilled. I recently talked about using Google Notes to keep track of a few things. I am currently using it to track progress of my goals for the year. I am also beginning to use it for keeping track of ideas from books. I titled one of the notebooks Research and Development. The nice thing is that each notebook can have sections with notes in them. I believe this way I will be more able to implement ideas from books. I can keep the same types of ideas together or I can keep all the notes from a book together. I can move my notes around. I can access them from any computer. I can easy copy and paste things from the internet that I see into my notebook as well. I can also share my notebooks with others.

Do you ever read a great book that has lots of ideas and things you can implement in the classroom? What do you do with the information you learn? How do you incorporate it?

How Can It Start So Early?

2008-02-26T22:43:00.004-06:00

I have a few comments and a few questions. Tonight, I was at Ambercrombie with my niece. I had gotten her a shirt there recently but it didn't fit so we had to go back to get a larger size. She is an average nine year old. (Please keep in mind that the smallest pants size there is a ten which she is beginning to wear. ) She will be 10 in May. I had picked out one og the t-shirts assuming she would be a small because she is only 9. When we went back tonight, we had to buy a large. I know that sizes are just sizes because I am an adult. But do all young people get that? And we wonder why we have young women with eating disorders.
Another thing I should mention is that we would not ever let our girlies wear skin tight clothing even if that is the look. There are already people in the world that we have to protect our children from because they are unnaturally drawn to them. Why dress our children in a fashion that draws the wrong kind of attention? Perhaps, I have no business being in that store feeling the way I do. However, at the same time it is just one of the many stores that are like that. I do not want my nine year old niece or any other girl developing the idea that she doesn't look the way she should.

What are your thoughts? What can be done?

Book Recommendation

2008-02-23T14:06:00.002-06:00

I would like to recommend Teaching Outside the Box: How to Grab Your Students By Their Brains by LouAnne Johnson. She is the author of the book My Posse Don't Do Homework. It covers subjects from classroom management, being prepared for a new year, motivating students, and shares some time and energy savers. I am currently re-reading this book and getting more out of it the second time. You will probably see me post about different things she has reminded me of or taught me through the book.

Student Participation in Discussion

2008-02-23T13:41:00.004-06:00

Most often I am finding that the same students participate in discussions or respond to questions in the classroom. One thing that I have seen in some classrooms is an action that students do when they agree with something said or were going to respond in a similar fashion. A few actions I have seen include snapping, giving two thumbs up or patting themselves on the head. I like this because it gives the students an opportunity to do something instead of blurting "I was going to say that." I believe that it demonstrates who is tracking along with the discussion and who is thinking the same thing.
I have also found that there are different ways that I would like students to respond in different situations. There are times I would like students to raise their hands. Other times I want to hear the first thing that they think by saying it spontaneously. Yet, at times I would like students to think before they respond. LouAnne Johnson recommends teaching all three of those ways in Teaching Outside the Box: How to Grab Your Students by Their Brains. She discusses it on pages 90-92. She suggests explaining each and making a visual to display for what types of responses you expect in a discussion. I am going to implement this in my classroom.
She also talks about how beneficial wait time can be in some discussions. It is amazing the type of responses that you can hear after giving students some time to think. She states that "Students who normally didn't respond began raising their hands, and their thoughtful comments inspired deeper thinking from the quick thinkers." (pg. 92) I have found this to be true even in an early childhood classroom.

How do you get students to participate? What kind of procedures do you use for classroom discussion? Do you have any stories or comments about using thinking time before allowing students to respond?

The Saturday Survey

2008-02-23T13:24:00.004-06:00

Perhaps, I should title it the every few Saturdays Survey. I have been extremely busy teaching and coaching, but I still believe it is important to evaluate progress on my goals once a week. I am accomplishing this on Saturday, which is a step in the right direction.

Next Week's To Do List
1. Blog goals: 4 posts (1 reflection, 1 on what I am reading, Saturday Survey, etc.), catch up on reading blogs, comment on other blogger's posts
2. Continue reading Teaching Outside the Box: How to Grab Your Students By Their Brains by LouAnne Johnson
3. Organize Reading List
4. Implement the use of Google Notes for reading

Progress Towards Goals
I have made progress in reading. I recently read What great Teachers Do Differently: 14 Things That Matter Most by Todd Whitaker. I am also continuing to read Teaching Outside The Box.

How are your goals coming? It is never to late to set some. What have you been up to? Share some of your goals with us. Inspire us with your success.

The Saturday Survey

2008-02-03T15:59:00.000-06:00

I missed last week and I am a day late this week. However, I believe that I must get back to it. I had an extremely busy week last week and the tale end of the week before. I was ill for a few days. I had 4 basketball games with the cheerleaders and 2 competitions. The competitions went extremely well. We place 3rd at both. One was the state competition. The squad has been amazing this year! (four out of the seven are new cheerleaders) I haven't been up to much else other than sleeping until this weekend. Yesterday I had a competition, went to church and got to hang out with some friends (which I haven't had time for lately). Today, I have gotten to clean up, run, and grocery shop. I am planning on getting some reading in and going to church tonight. This is my update.

To Do This Week
1. Blog Goals - Post 4 x's, comment
2. Reflect on teaching 2 x's
3. Organize reading list
4. Implement Google Notes for Non-Fiction Books

I hope you are all well. What have you been up to? What do you plan on accomplishing this week?

Carnival of Education

2008-01-23T07:50:00.000-06:00

Check out the latest Carnival of Education which is being hosted this week by The Median Sib. I submitted two posts that I would like feedback on. One is What are you Reading? and the other is about creating a peaceful classroom. I would enjoy hearing your thoughts or suggestions.

What are you reading?

2008-01-21T13:47:00.000-06:00

I have been thinking about my reading list lately. There are so many things I would like to put on it. I have to admit at this time I have part of my list on paper and part of it in my head. I know that the part of my list that is in my head is ever changing, which is mostly due to the fact that I tend to store it in my short term memory. I need to be more diligent about it. I have made a master list using Shelfari. The list has 31 books on it. I know there are more that I could add. I will use Google Notebook to take notes. (I won't take notes on fiction.)

I read for several different purposes. I read to relax. I have to admit almost every type of reading is relaxing to me. It is just that some reading prompts me to think too. I also read to develop myself in different areas including personal, spiritual, and professional. I just need to organize the books so that I am using my time to read effectively. I think I am going to categorize the books and develop some kind of rotation for reading. I'm going to have to think about this some more.

Is there a way you organize your reading list? How do you fit reading into your busy schedule? Is there some kind of rotation you use? How do you decide what to read next? Do you read more than one book at once? What are you reading? Do you have any other thoughts you would like to share?

Another Recent Read

2008-01-21T11:32:00.000-06:00

Ok, so I just posted yesterday about 3 books I have recently read. I finished two of those books yesterday and I started a new one. I have really been enjoying Shannon Hale. I am going to start reading her book Goose Girl next. I have decided that I can start reading it tonight or I will spend the day doing it and finish it tonight.

Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale. I thoroughly enjoyed Dashti's story. It is a fairy tale that is told through the diary of the main character.

Well, I am working on clearing the clutter and getting myself organized today. It is amazing that I have almost filled a paper bag full of garbage from the top two little drawers in my desk. (Ironnically, I am always wondering why I don't sit and take advantage of it.)

Recent Reads

2008-01-20T14:22:00.001-06:00

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. I throughly enjoyed the mix of pictures and writing. I am also a fan of possibilities and talent in each of us. This book also won the Caldecott for 2007, which was it was very worthy of.

Shakespeare's Secret written by Elise Broach. This was a great mystery about a girl who just moved, an interesting neighbor, and a diamond. I enjoyed it.

Bloomability written by Sharon Creech. This is a great story about a girl who discovers and becomes confident in herself. (I am getting better at html. Allow some of the grow areas in my knowledge of it are quite evident.)

Perhaps the reading of these three books in the last week and a half is a good reason I have not posted more. I am aware it is more of an excuse than a reason. I have discovered that reading is quite simple if the television is off.

Well I had better be off... so that I can work on clearing the clutter. I know it is the first step to organizing.