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More About Not Reinventing the Wheel…and Being Resourceful

It is sage advice for us as teachers not to  reinvent the wheel’, and it is so nice when it is followed up with a good idea.  Carmen’s Financial Resource link will go in my ‘back pocket’ of resources to use when in an upper grade, as will many of the ideas and suggestions from the teachers in this blog. To add to the blog’s repertoire of ‘resourceful ideas’ I have one to share that can be adapted to any grade and it has been successful with my Grade 1’s.

One of the initiatives at my school is to be more ecologically conservative (waste less, conserve, recycle and reuse).  In this spirit,  I have planned some creative cross-curricular art activities that have the students re-using found materials and scrap materials in the classroom.  It’s a simple formula for me to follow, requiring us to use what’s available in the classroom and it results in art work that the students become very engaged in and that is meaningful to them:

I start with a picture book or unit theme to act as a springboard to the task. From the unit/book I select something for the students to create in their own image (for example, at the beginning of the school year we read the story ‘Chrysanthemum’ by Kevin Henkes).

I then have the students design a ‘plan’ of their work, mapping out the materials and colour schemes of their work (in this case, a flower that reflects their own individuality, much like Chrysanthemum’s name in the story book).

I give the students a wide variety of materials to choose from (scrap paper, coffee filters, markers, crayons, pastels, water, old wrapping paper, foil, foam etc. ) to construct their item and encourage them t o follow their plan as they create.

I usually follow up the activity with a writing task which can be linked to a variety of Language expectations (writing in the voice of their created item, descriptive writing,  narrative etc.)

It’s incredible how enthusiastic and engaged the students are in these kind of activities because it reflects their own creativity and individuality.  There is no wrong answer as the artwork and writing is the students’ own creation, and it is a rich task that acts as a vehicle for me to teach and assess  specific strands of the curriculum that need to be applied to their work.

I am attaching a picture of the flowers created at the beginning of the school year, and I will attach more photos in the new year of the students’ more recent creations (*the leaves of the flowers show student writing: “I am special because…”)

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Philosophy and Practice of Homework

Recent posts about assignments and parental involvement had me reflecting on  my own dilemmas about homework assignments and how my philosophy  toward student homework  has  evolved depending on the students, the grade that I am teaching and my own experience.  There are many  factors that can influence the kind of homework students could/should receive, and that can be the students’ grade-level, ability, community access, level of support at home, the management of the classroom environment and extracurricular commitments, to name a few.  It’s up to the teacher’s professional judgement to decide what is appropriate. For me as a teacher, additional influences such as experience (or inexperience) with a grade level, access to resources, ability to plan ahead and knowledge of what is actually ‘useful homework’ versus ‘make work’  influence  the type of work that is sent home with the students.  I am discovering that all of the factors contribute to the continuous shifts and swings in the planning and pacing of class work and assignments.

In my first year of teaching, homework only came in the form of research for class work and completion homework.  The intended outcome of this kind of homework was to ‘help the students keep up with the classroom program’ (Heart and Art, p.80), which often backfired.  Some of the same students who consistently did not complete their work in class also had evening commitments, parents with little spare time to supervise them and were forgetting to bring work back to school, resulting in further disruptions.   Frustrations mounting, I quickly learned the importance of differentiation in the classroom and learning a better system for staying on top of the students’ progress.

In my second year of teaching, with little time and knowledge of how to access building materials  for a unit that required the building of bridges, ‘Building a Bridge’ became the month-long home assignment.  My assessment of the assignment required a lot of thought (weighing and grading the different aspects of the assignment) and planning, as most of the bridges that arrived in my classroom were worthy of a passing grade in an architectural course. The students’ grades were heavily derived from their classroom research and ability to orally explain the mechanics behind their work.  While it was a successful assignment that enabled the students to work with and learn alongside their parents, I felt conflicted knowing that the parents/caregivers also sacrificed their evenings and weekends to support their children.

So much of what we as teachers learn is through trial and error, and most of what we learn, remember and refine is from the ‘errors’ that we make along the way.  Now, the homework that I assign falls in the categories of practice, preparation and extension, which I discovered through my trials and errors, and also from the partnerships that I have this year (i.e., learning from what other’s have discovered to be successful).  Weekly, my students are sent home with a language activity that reinforces and extends a concept learned in class, and a math activity (that is intended for family participation and problem solving). The math activity reinforces the skills of explaining thought processes (e.g., pictures, numbers and words to explain their solution), and is intended to prepare the students for the continued expectations through the grades.   Preparing these materials isn’t too taxing of my lesson planning time, the homework is encouraged but not mandated, and through this, I hope to be considerate of ‘family time and commitments’ while giving the students (and their parents) means to practice and support classroom learning at home.

I realize that the next grade I teach will require more re-working and re-programming to find a good-fit homework outcome, and I am learning that this is normal.  In planning the kind of learning that takes place outside of the classroom, I will continue to consider the many factors that influence successful ‘homework outcomes’ and utilize the tips and insights of my trusted colleagues who also continue to work and re-work their methods and planning.

 

 

 

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Parent Teacher Interviews

Parent teacher interviews are definitely one of the things that I love about my job.

To date, I have spent  7 hours a day, for  53 consecutive days (excluding weekends and P.A. days) with these little young people and during parent teacher interviews, I get to speak at depth (at greater depth than  telephone interviews and letters home) with the people who spend all that other time with them, and share all of the students’ gains and struggles that  we have had in class.

Parent teacher interviews allow me to look at each student as the unique individuals that they are.  Often in my teaching, I am focussed on my teaching practices, getting the students to a ‘Level 4’ and looking at what they are not doing, and what I need to do to get them where I want them to be. This is an expected aspect of teaching, but meeting with the parents provides me with perspective and reassurance of how much we have already accomplished together.

I am finding that Grade 1 is a very rewarding grade to teach. I am amazed at the progress my students have made. ‘Johnny didn’t want to write at all in September and is now writing consonant sounds?’ That’s a big gain.’ Liza didn’t seem to understand at all when we were learning our word families, and is now printing initial and final sounds during her spelling tests…even though she got one out of ten words correct?’… ‘That’s a lot of progress for someone I was concerned about when I first did my diagnostic tests at the beginning of the year’…’ Oh,  and she was born a month and a half premature?’ That makes sense of my developmental concerns that I had that were not mentioned in her file.  Let’s monitor that and look into what other resources are available to us.’ ‘Aiden still is having hard time remembering his homework and to hand in letters. Let’s set up more routine at home so that this doesn’t continue to be a problem once grade 6 and big assignments roll around. ‘

Through parent-teacher interviews I also get deeper insights than what were communicated to me through my parent correspondence at the beginning of the year.  Parents going through a difficult time, resulting in misbehaviours in the class?, You are seeing the same inattention at home?’ Let’s both monitor it and see if we need to speak with a professional in the future… ‘. Meeting with parents provides me with perspective of what is going on in my students’ lives and that the time that I spend working with them, pushing them to their best IS working. I get to realise how much of a  positive impact I am actually having on my students.  It’s easy during the day-to-day to feel a little bit frustrated that despite my best efforts to deliver an engaging, memorable lesson,  all students don’t seem to carry it over to their work.  But after meeting with the parents, and after reflecting on where the students were when they arrived in my classroom (and speaking to the parents about where they were before); looking at where they are now, I realise that each and every one of my students have made gains.  Not exclusively academic, but behaviourally and also with respect to their ability to follow routines, socially, and also with their engagement and love of school.

Having parent-teacher interviews affirms the work that I am doing with my students in the classroom, and it also makes me hopeful about the behaviours that we need to correct at school. It serves as a distinct reminder of what I need to revisit or refocus on at school.  When teaching a younger grade level  teachers have the opportunity (with the cooperation of parents) to instil good habits and practices in young students  that will serve them well in life.  To me, this is a very optimistic, and rewarding feeling that can easily fall by the wayside when running around gathering materials, resources, integrating and staying on top of student progress… all of it.  Parent teacher interviews remind me of how much my students and I have accomplished through our hard work.

As a small aside I would also like to share an encounter that I had with another teacher on the night of parent-teacher interviews: A teacher and I were chatting in the staff room, and she shared that an exasperated student looked at her and said “teachers have it so easy, they don’t have to do all the hard work… it’s us (the students) that do!”.  We laughed knowing that three times the hard work goes into our preparations for their tasks, and yet in their smaller worlds, their work IS the hard work.  The bottom line from that conversation is that we have ALL worked hard.  The conversation also gave me some perspective,… maybe that I need to reward my students’ hard work a little more often: free time, a movie, some extra DPA outside,… after all, each and every one of us are all working hard and all work and no play isn’t good for any one of us.  Another one of my goals this year will be to make a greater effort to celebrate my students’ successes.

My tip to fellow beginning teachers out there is to try to be less anxious about parent-teacher interviews, and use that valuable time to  reflect on how well you actually know your students, how much you have learned from your parent-teacher meeting and how  much you have accomplished in 53 days.  Remember to save the good representations of the students’ work,  their struggles and their gains, and what you’ve both accomplished, and your ability to speak to it will often speak for itself.

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Using Release Time….

In my last blog post ‘ The Power of Partnership’, I discussed the powerful impact that partnering with a grade team member/mentor has had on my teaching.  I related that my mentor and I have been using common planning time and regular check-ins  to align what is going on in both our classrooms and share our resources and reflections.

Mentorship and co-planning  has been wonderful for me, however  for some teachers, establishing a common planning time with a colleague can be challenging for many reasons such as differences in scheduling or teachers’ responsibilities. There can also be school or board-wide initiatives that might require more of a teacher than time that they set aside for classroom planning.   Fortunately the New Teacher Induction Program enables Ontario school boards to provide beginning teachers (and their mentor teachers) release time that allows for such planning.   The school board that I teach in has a Job Embedded Learning Initiative that allows beginning teachers and newly hired Long Term Occasional teachers release time for activities such as attending workshops,  visiting  a model classroom or working with a mentor, and I have found it to be helpful in the past and intend to use it again this year.

In my case, our school is adopting some new initiatives that are intended to improve upon the  way we have been typically teaching in the past. My mentor and I feel that we could use some time for long-range planning and to effectively wrap our heads around what these initiatives look like in our classrooms ( with respect to the materials that we already have and the curriculum). We are going to utilize my board allocated release time for planning and we  plan to find ways to combine the resources and materials that we already have with the school’s learning goals.  We hope to try out our new ideas and then share our successes and strategies with the other teachers in our division.

For beginning  teachers that don’t have a close mentoring relationship or someone to take planning time with, there are options to visit other classrooms in the board or attend workshops.  In the past, I have found that using release time has really allowed me to spend a block of focused time on classroom planning. It has also been beneficial to visit other schools and look at the best practices of other teachers.    I am thankful that my school board recognizes the huge learning curve that beginning teachers face and provides opportunities and choice for how teachers can best use their time for learning.

So, if you haven’t thought of it already, mentors and beginning teachers, consider looking into what kind of support your board is able to provide you with, and consider the many options that will enhance your teaching!

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The Power of Partnership

Like Roz and Sangeeta, I too am figuring out ways to strike a balance between work and life amidst the organized chaos of teaching.  Teaching a different grade each year is a challenge.   Every day, the joy of teaching is a juggling act: IEP’s, managing behaviour, integrating lessons, preparing materials and assessments, chasing down assignments, reporting, communicating with parents…     It has been said that it takes a village to raise a child, and I believe  us teachers are doing our students and ourselves a disservice if we try to do it in the  isolation of a single classroom.

Being new to a school can be a little isolating at first because one hasn’t had the time to develop the strong collegial relations that an established staff already has.   Though every school I have  taught at has welcomed me warmly,  I have found that it takes some time to learn who your ‘go to people’ can be which can be complicated further if you’re using your lunch hour for work and others are busy making the most out of their time as well.  Over time, I have learned that to start building collegiality and partnership is to start by asking.  I ask questions.  I  ask if teachers are interested in collaborating.  I ask if they can share.  I ask if we can meet.  And I offer too. I offer what I have and the skills that I bring. After all, partnership is give and take. Through the power of collaboration I am learning that I  able to be more attuned to the things that need to be done,  while feeling less fragmented by all of the balls that are flying  in the air.

This year, I have been collaborating closely with one of my colleagues who has inadvertently become my mentor.  We meet on a common prep time once a week and map out what our week looks like, share materials and resources and brainstorm ideas together. We build on each other’s ideas, pull out books to read, make to do lists, refer each other to helpful information sites,  pull what needs to be photocopied, divide the labour and regroup halfway through the following week to reflect on how the students are doing, what we found challenging and share with each other what we would do differently.  It is a wonderful partnership.

I can’t even begin to share what a relief it is to be able to collaborate so closely with an experienced teacher on such a regular basis.  For one, my thoughts aren’t going into overdrive figuring out ways to organize the multitude of information that I come across daily. Because we approach the teaching of our respective classrooms as a shared responsibility, I can worry a little less that I may not have certain materials in the classroom to do an art lesson, or that I am missing information that needs to be communicated in a newsletter or calendar to parents (which is likely to happen if you’re new to a school or a newly hired LTO).  I have a ‘go-to-person’ that can come to my aid or fill in the blanks, and this has been so good for my peace of mind.  I am sleeping better and have the energy to accomplish all of the things that I set out to do with my students , and I think it is making me a better teacher.

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Slowing Down and Creating Goals

“Go Slow, Go Deep” – Tina’s words have been resonating in my head since I read her last post and over the past couple of weeks. I find myself repeating them to myself daily in response to everything from delivering my lessons in math, teaching the students how to sustain reading effectively during independent reading time, to working through our class agreements and routines.

After reading those words, I found myself reflecting on how intently I work to developing class lessons, routines and climate, and how there are always times when a few students don’t seem to transfer the learning from the class lesson to their individual work or conduct.  It can be frustrating trying to figure out why the students are missing it: Was it because I am moving through the lesson too quickly? Were the expectations clear?  Was it because Jimmy was squirming too much in front of Tommy?   Maybe I’m not engaging them… or is it the material?

Then I remember  the words Go Slow, Go Deep…

After some reflection, I remembered that in order to go deep with my students, what they are doing has to be meaningful to them (even when the subject area isn’t every students interest), and that time needs to be given to hook the students into what they are learning and reflect on what they are supposed to be getting out of a certain activity or lessons  (their learning goal). I usually draw upon student interests to make my lessons fun but not all students are passionate about all areas of the curriculum all of the time, and rather than spend all my time scouring the internet for more fun teaching ideas, I need to find a sustainable way for the students to buy in, and go deep:

Inspired by  Jim’s inclusion activity about developing Goals/Strengths/Beliefs ( Heart And Art of Teaching and Learning, p.36), I adapted the activity to have students communicate their learning goals for several learning tasks and we have begun this for a number of activities and subject areas.

Before and during lessons I  have started to include time for developing goals with my students for what I hope them to learn by the end of the lesson and I have the students share what they  think the final outcome should look like. Sometimes that means that a lesson that was originally intended to take one period will now take two, or even be spread out over the week. These goals are communicated on the whiteboard or chart paper for the students’ reference and so that the students can begin to self-regulate more.  I hope that by putting in the extra teaching time now,  by mid-year the students will be in the habit of viewing  their lessons as a  ‘goal’ with a defined outcome that they want to achieve.

I hope that by taking more time to developing goals with the students, it won’t matter as much that Jimmy was particularly squirmy one day or that Ari was counting the ceiling tiles instead of paying attention to  what a Level 4 Journal entry looks like. It will matter less  because our goals will be visible, available and referred to regularly and eventually (hopefully) it will sink in.  One of my  goals for this year is to continue taking the time to make goals with my students so that they may  develop it as a habit that is internalized, routine and oriented towards success.

 

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Getting to Know My Students

During the first month of school, there is a lot to do.  Finding myself in a new grade and new school every year, I am  seeking out resources, and learning the ropes. One thing that hasn’t changed for me from every differing grade and school, is the need to get to know my students from early on in the first month, so that I am able to best meet their needs in the classroom and transfer the information seamlessly to others. For me, getting to know my students personalities and needs early on, allows me to create a safe learning environment that reflects what the students want to get out of their learning experience and also develop a system that has the information and supports in place for myself, a teacher returning from leave, or a substitute teacher.

This month, I began by learning about my Grade 1 students needs in two ways:  creatively– using ideas from The Heart and Art of Teaching and Learning (ETFO, 2011); working with the students to develop a classroom contract that reflects their wants and needs for their learning environment, and practically – developing my own personal informational database on the needs, routines and information about the unique students that I am teaching.

To develop a classroom community in Grade 1 that reflects my students’ wants, I drew from Leah’s helpful ideas (p.43, The Heart and art of Beginning Teaching and Learning), to generate a list of ‘promises’ from the students to one another.  I’m finding that these ‘Inclusion Activities’ are helping me to  establish the tone of the students’ classroom and decide what they think the classroom should look like, sound like and feel like.  Last week in Grade One, each student shared one promise or wish for the classroom (for example,  not to butt-in in line, or to ask permission before touching each other’s things) and then they illustrated their promise for a class book.  The students are enjoying reading and reminding each other of their ‘Promises’ to one another and learning about the kinds of things that help us  to minimize conflict and increase safety in the classroom.  For me, this activity illustrated that the students want a lot of the same rules and routines that I want in establishing a harmonious classroom environment and we plan on working on dramatizing what these promises actually look like in practice.  It has helped me to establish and reaffirm what is important to my students in creating a safe and inclusive classroom environment and pare down what is really important to my students in their daily school life.

I am also gathering important personal and historical information on my students for their files so that I can have a better understanding of their background and so that I am able to meet their safety and learning needs.  This will serve as an aid for me when communicating with parents and guardians, and also will enable me to communicate important information to substitute teachers and the teacher that will be returning from leave when my LTO is over. I sent home a Student Background form for parents to complete on their child for my files. :

  • child’s name, birthdate
  • siblings, both in the school/out of the school; household members
  • languages spoken at home
  • allergies/dietary restrictions (i.e., religious, health related or otherwise)
  • before school/afterschool care/ who picks up the child (in primary grades)
  • emergency contact numbers, email addresses, best times to call
  • routines (i.e., do they go home for lunch, stay at school etc.)
  • the child’s strengths, areas of need or other important information that the parent wishes to communicate.

By planning creative and inclusive activities I hope to elicit meaningful responses from my students and learn what they really want to get out of their day to day classroom.  Be gathering practical information for my records, I hope to better manage important information on my students, so that I can understand my students’ needs, use the information as an ‘at a glance’ about the child, and so that the knowledge of the individuals who make up the classroom community is followed through with when I am away. Throughout both processes I hope to develop a community of students who are having their safety and social needs met and allow for subsequent teachers to do the same.

Building Inclusion in the classroom is something that doesn’t only happen during the first week of school, it’s something that teachers and students should work on and revisit consistently throughout the year.  So, if you feel that you may have not done ‘Inclusivity’ justice during your first crazy week at school, rest assured that you have the whole month (and the rest of the year) to bring great activities and ideas into the classroom.

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I got the job and school starts in a few days….. now what?!

A post for beginning teachers who JUST got the job.

First of all, Congratulations!  Your Principal has seen your dedication, skill and dedication to teaching and has chosen you to become a member of the school community and guide these young learners.  It’s a great feeling of excitement and adrenaline but it’s also often laced with a twinge of anxiety over where to start.  As a teacher who has been teaching in LTO positions for the last few years, I understand what it feels like to go from completely uncertain, “do I even have a job?” to hitting the ground running,  “I have 3 days to set up my class for the year???”  in a matter of seconds and with only a few days before the first day of school; sometimes with little direction.

Many new and beginning teachers find themselves in this situation. Contract postings are available throughout the summer, but Long Term Occasional postings and some contracts often  come up during the mid-to-late August, which means that candidates are being interviewed a week or two before the first day of school, and are  discovering their new school and grade merely days before the school year starts.  This can be a little intimidating for new teachers who are new to a school, have few resources in their bag of tricks and don’t have the explicit or implicit knowledge of what needs to be done to ready yourself and your students for a new school year.

I have found myself in this position a few times now, and have learned (often the hard way) some practical tips and tricks that will make my classroom infrastructure a little less chaotic and a little more seamless for transitioning to a new school, new grade and new classroom.  I’m here to help and expand on Before School Starts,  Chapter 2 of THE HEART AND ART OF TEACHING AND LEARNING: PRACTICAL IDEAS AND RESOURCES FOR BEGINNING TEACHERS (ETFO, 2011).  I’ve compiled a list of things you should consider doing (and I wish I knew during my first year) in the days before school starts/during the first week as well as practical solutions for what to do in the event that you are missing the tools or information you need:

 

Do you have… If the answer is no…
  • A room key, class list, timetable and supervision schedule?
  • Speak with the office staff, administrator and caretaker
  • The basic supplies (i.e. pencils, masking tape, staples/stapler,  pencil sharpener , chart paper, markers, notebooks, paper,  glue, scissors, rulers, construction paper, file folders ) to start you off?
  • First make a list of the things you need to get you through the first week or two. Ask the office staff or administrator for some staff email addresses so that you may begin the ‘beg and borrow’ process.
  • Then obtain the Stock Order Catalogue from the office staff so that you can place an order for the things that you need and can’t access. If the catalogue is too intimidating, ask a teacher in your grade (or a grade close to yours) for a copy of their order lists to see what they order as class necessities.  Looking at the supply lists for other classes may help you conceive of what you will need and it will save the precious time you have.
  • Enough desks or work spaces for the students?
  • Speak with the caretaker or include the number of desks and tables in your ‘beg and borrow’ email to other teachers.
  • Peruse the halls of the school. Often teachers will leave furniture out in the halls that they no longer need.  Ask before taking!
  • Peek into other classrooms for ideas and refer to pages 26-30  in  “The Heart and Art of Teaching and Learning” for some ideas and inspiration
  • The emergency procedures (i.e. for Fire and Lockdown)?
  • If you can’t find any information in the classroom, ask a neighbouring teacher and make a copy of theirs or ask the office staff for help.  Include a copy of your class list, pencil and paper,  label it “Emergency Folder” and hang it by the classroom exit ( I use a pushpin and a binder clip).   I find this helpful to get out of the way early in my set-up because there is usually a fire drill during the first week of school.
  • Textbooks or teacher guides in your classroom?
  • Ask around. Your school may have a resource room where teachers may sign out the shared resources, or another teacher may have them sitting in their classroom already. You may need to include a request for this in your ‘beg and borrow’ email to teachers.
  •  Books for the students to read?
  • Go to the school library or email the librarian to help compile a variety of books for the students to enjoy during the first week.
  • Think about including a request for ‘book donations’ for used books in your first news letter to parents to build your classroom library.
  •  A computer?
  • Find out where the closest one is so that you can type up class lists and do your timetabling at school
  • If you have a computer in your classroom and it isn’t set up, contact the teacher-librarian or board technology help desk for how to log-in and connect to printers in  the school.
  • A place to store the students work?
  • Think about using classroom budget to purchase plastic bins, or plastic storage drawers for storing some of the students’ work books.  I found that sometimes relying on students storing their work in their desks can be a bit of an organizational nightmare, especially in the younger grades, as students can often ‘forget’ which folder is which and spend a lot of time looking for it. It also makes it easier to collect the student work when it comes to assessing their workbooks.
  • Find containers that can be used for storing class supplies for the students’ easy access (pencils, rulers, scissors, pencil crayons).  It may be an empty soup can for storing pencils, or you may wish to purchase some smaller baskets and label them. It will save you a lot of running around if the students can independently locate the things that they need in the classroom.

 

I have figured out that these ‘basics’ are a priority in helping me to orient myself for my new school, classroom and what’s to come in the days approaching the first day of school (and during the first week of school, if you don’t have the luxury of a few days). There is more to do (which I will expand on in subsequent posts), but you will be busy over the next couple of days accomplishing all of these things first,  for a smooth start.

Don’t worry as much about the frills and how to beautify the classroom, that will come with time and  it will reflect the classroom community. Try not to compare how your classroom looks to neighbouring teachers. Many of them have been at this a lot longer than you! You were chosen for the position because you are the best candidate for the position, and you will bring knowledge, your experiences and heart to your classroom and your students. Remember that there is a big learning curve with every new school and each grade that you will teach, and with some direction it will get easier…you will be amazed at how much you will learn and how much you will grow this year.

Congratulations again and best of luck over the first couple of weeks!

Sincerely,

Samantha Perrin