Shawna Rothgeb-Bird General, Professional Learning and Growth

Working With a Mentor

As a new hire, all Ontario teachers participate in the provincial New Teacher Induction Program (NTIP). While the specific details of NTIP vary from board to board, one common component is working with a mentor teacher to develop your professional skills.

I was fortunate to go through NTIP in a school where I had already completed a Long Term Occasional assignment. I knew the staff, and as such I had developed great working relationships with many teachers in the school. Before my principal could even ask me who I would be interested in working with, I had discussed the idea with a colleague – my teaching partner from the year before. We knew we had similar teaching styles but different strengths, so it was as much an opportunity for her to learn from me as vice versa.

In my board, we are given three release days to be divided between the NTIP teacher and his/her mentor as they choose. These days can be used for time outside the classroom for planning, time observing either the NTIP teacher or the mentor in the classroom, attending professional development opportunities, etc. It was really nice to have it be so open and undefined because it allowed us to decide what my priorities were and how we would address them.

We started with a very general question: “What am I good at?” This question would give us a starting point for discussion. My mentor had already come up with a few things areas in which she felt I was strong. I added a few more, though it was an incredibly difficult question for me to answer because I was so new. It was really beneficial to see what she considered my strengths because I hadn’t yet had a TPA, so I had never heard someone talk about my teaching skills from an outside perspective. Many of my strengths were things I had already decided were priorities.

The next question, perhaps predictably, was, “What do I want to improve?” While it’s easy to criticize your own teaching style and come up with a list several pages long, I tried to really focus on a few things I felt were particular areas of need for me. It wasn’t going to be possible to touch on all of them with our limited time, so together we decided on one thing that we could work on together. For us, that was assessment. Together we planned a unit for my class and a unit for hers, with the plan being to work together to assess students before starting the unit and again at the end. For all of the assessment during the unit, we would be flying solo (because realistically, that happens on such a daily basis that it would be impossible to do together).

We never had a chance to finish our units together because of a family emergency, but to be perfectly honest, the planning and discussion was beneficial all on its own. Just by having a frank conversation about our strengths and needs and by planning units together, I learned more in two days than I had thought I would. I’m not certain that our discussion would have been as meaningful or helpful had we not been familiar with one another already. My mentor already knew a considerable amount about my teaching style, my strengths, and my areas of need – so we were able to dive into professional discourse and develop a plan.

I suppose my point with all of this (disjointed though it may be) is to strongly encourage you to find a mentor with whom you can work in an open, candid manner. Be realistic about your expectations: you won’t be able to address everything you want to address. Most of all, have fun learning from one another!

Shawna Rothgeb-Bird Professional Learning and Growth

Beyond the Classroom

Before I started teaching, I never really gave much thought to how much more was involved with this profession than simply the day to day classroom experience. I knew about grading, report cards, and extra curriculars, but I had never considered the federation side before. I had never really known anyone who was part of a union, nor did I really have a sense of what a union did for its members.

Since becoming a contract teacher three years ago, I have become active in many aspects of our union. Having participated in the union in several different ways now, I’ve found that I have more respect for and understanding of everything they do for both teachers and students. My practice has evolved, my network has grown, and I have become a better teacher because I have been involved. Here are the three primary ways that I have been involved in my union at both the local and provincial level, just in case someone out there might not have considered what is available to them:

Local Steward: I owe my involvement in the union to a colleague of mine who urged me to get involved. In my first year as a permanent teacher, she was our school steward and brought me along to a few of our local meetings. When she had to take a leave of absence, I filled in for her for the last few months of that school year, then carried on as steward the following year. It was a daunting prospect, to be certain, but I found that the other stewards and my local executive were very supportive of me as a new member and a new steward. I enjoy going to monthly meetings, finding out about new developments and collective bargaining, helping my colleagues when they need it… it isn’t always easy, but even when the meetings are several hours long and have gone way past their expected end time, I have always found the experience rewarding.

As steward, I have also had the chance to participate in discussion of and voting on motions to help people in crisis. Both my local (OCETF) and ETFO have given considerable amounts of money to those in need. At times, I have seen my local executive suggest a certain amount of money to donate, then watched as fellow stewards suggested raising the amount to be given. I have never heard anyone suggest that helping others was a mistake, or that we should think of ourselves and lower the amount.

Provincial and Local Committees: While I haven’t sat on any committees at the local level, I was urged to apply to a provincial committee by the same colleague who pushed me to take over as steward. I have been a member of the ETFO New Members’ Committee since last year. In our meetings (as several other bloggers here can attest, as they’re also members of the committee!) we have had some productive and fascinating discussions about the challenges being faced by new members, the similarities and differences around the province, and how we can better connect new members all across Ontario so that we all benefit from one another’s experience. Being a member of the committee has been fun and very low stress, with two meetings in Toronto a year (in addition to a few e-mail exchanges when necessary). Provincial committees can have a profound effect on ETFO through creating and preventing resolutions at the Annual General Meeting or by presenting them to the executive for action.

One of the things I got to do as part of this committee was pilot the Teacher Workload Survey that we were asked to fill out recently. We went through the survey as it was being developed and provided feedback on what was good, what was missing, what needed to be changed or taken out… I appreciated having the opportunity to have a direct impact on something that will, in theory, serve to make our professional lives a little better.

Annual General Meeting: Last year was the first time I attended the ETFO AGM in Toronto. My local sends a large delegation to the meeting and last year they strongly urged people to sign up if they had never attended before. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I submitted my name. I still didn’t know what to expect when I attended the meetings leading up to the AGM. Even if someone had described it to me – a massive room full of teachers voting democratically on resolutions to decide the direction, governance, and policies of their union – I’m not sure I would have really imagined it properly. Maybe I’m a bit of a union geek, but the AGM, as it turns out, is a REALLY neat exercise in democracy in action. Resolutions are brought forward, justified, debated, defended, and ultimately voted on by teachers. Some resolutions are put forward by locals, others by committees, others still by the provincial executive. Teachers vote independently, giving individual members a say in the direction their union takes. It was really cool.

That makes me sound like a nerd, doesn’t it? (Don’t worry, that’s nothing I haven’t heard before!)

Those are just three of the ways that you can become involved with your federation – simple but rewarding ways for you to affect change in your profession. There are many, many more opportunities out there, too. Teaching isn’t just about getting into the classroom and delivering a curriculum. We are a community. We learn from each other, we help each other, and we help others, too.

Shawna Rothgeb-Bird Assessment, Communication Tools, Communication with Parents and Guardians, General

Engaging Parents in Assessment and Evaluation

One of the most common questions a teacher gets asked by parents is, “How is ______ doing?” The question pops up no matter where or when you run into the parent of a student. I’ve had parents ambush me with this question at these (and other) times:

– During school hours when dropping off their child’s lunch, with the entire class sitting there patiently waiting.

– On the yard at recess when I was on yard duty.

– On field trips, usually on the school bus, always surrounded by students.

– At school events, like the book fair, art show, or holiday concert.

– The second day of school.

– The last day of school, after report cards have already been sent home.

It’s a perfectly legitimate question, one that parents and guardians are always entitled to ask, but I am often asked this question at a time when I’m not really able to answer it properly. Either my students are eavesdropping, I haven’t had time to formulate what I want to say, or I have other duties to attend to and can’t give the conversation the attention it deserves.

It didn’t take me long to realize that I needed to find a way to be more open with parents on an ongoing basis so that they didn’t feel as though they needed to ask this question every time they saw me. A few years later, I think I have a few good strategies/suggestions for how to keep parents in the loop and prevent any surprises when report cards come around.

1. “Ask Me About” – In students’ agendas, they write an “Ask me about… _________” sentence a few times a week. This is supplied by me and is usually about a specific topic we are studying in class or an upcoming school event. It gives parents something to prompt their child with and keeps kids accountable for knowing what is going on at school.

2. Send Assessment Plans Home Before Starting – Any time I assign a new task with a rubric, set of success criteria, or other assessment scheme, I send the assessment home BEFORE students start the task. Parents are expected to sign it to indicate that they’ve seen it and are aware of the deadline, expectations, and criteria for the assignment. This keeps students accountable for getting their work done on time.

3. Send Completed Assessments Home, Too! – Once a project has been completed and assessed, I send it home again, with strict instructions to bring it back to school signed by a parent/guardian. Parents get to see their child’s work along with the mark they were given. They’ve already seen the criteria, so the mark shouldn’t be a mystery to them when they see it.

4. Collect Completed Assessments in a Portfolio – I keep all of my students’ assessments at school. I don’t keep every piece of work, but I do keep the rubric, checklist, etc. that was used/sent home/signed in a duo-tang for each student. This allows me to pull it out and show parents/students the progression of the student’s work over the year and also gives me back-up in case any of my grades are called into question. (I’ve never had a grade called into question, but there’s a first time for everything.) I also put any tests/quizzes in those duo-tangs along with the GB+ reading assessments that I complete.

Those are four really simple little things, but they’ve made a world of difference in my teaching in terms of keeping parents apprised of what is happening with their child’s education. It has stopped nearly all questions about students’ academic progress outside of parent/teacher interview times.

Anything to save me from those awkward, flustered conversations where I try to answer the “How is ____ doing?” question in a vague but diplomatic way so that my room full of students doesn’t overhear anything they shouldn’t!

Shawna Rothgeb-Bird Before School Starts, Classroom Layouts

Considerations for Classroom Layouts

One of the most important aspects of your teaching style, in my opinion, stems from the layout you choose from your classroom. The way you set up your class says a lot about you as a teacher and what you expect from your students. There is no “right” way to set up your class – just as there is no “right” way to teach a certain subject or lesson – but you should find something that really works for you.

Here are some aspects of my classroom layout that I feel are important and beneficial to my students:

1. Groups, not rows: I rarely, if ever, set my students’ desks up in rows. I teach a second language program, where oral communication is key, so giving my students time to talk to one another is paramount to their success. I usually set my students up in groups of 4-6 to allow them to face one another rather than a stark blackboard. I can easily facilitate talk time during lessons or put students in groups and be sure they have a place to work where discussion is simple and encouraged.

2. Gathering spaces, like a carpet: The reason why I’m able to keep my students in groups instead of rows is because I don’t generally teach at a blackboard. I keep a large carpeted area in my classroom (yes, at the grade 4 or 5 level!) where I can gather students together and teach a lesson. It provides an opportunity to get up and move, allows me to call on students to participate in the lesson more easily, allows all students a clear vantage point, and prevents students from fiddling with anything in their desk when they ought to be listening. Sometimes I add benches or cushions to my carpeted area to add to the comfort level, but it depends greatly on the students in my class (and whether they are likely to argue over who gets the cushions). An added bonus of having a carpeted area in your classroom is that students will often choose this space to go and work during independent periods – and for whatever reason, I find that some of my students are more focused when lying on the carpet than sitting at their desk.

3. Math manipulatives and supplies out in the open: I keep a stacked drawer unit (clear plastic) full of different types of math manipulatives. I keep another one full of school supplies (scissors, pencils, erasers, rulers, lined paper). Students are encouraged to help themselves to either of these drawer units when they need them. Having school supplies available to students just makes sense to me – they don’t have to waste their time OR mine asking me for something when they can just as easily go get it themselves. I keep the school supplies at the back of the classroom so that it isn’t disruptive when a student needs to get something. When it comes to math manipulatives, having them visible and available to students encourages them to use them even when the lesson has not explicitly called for them. They get the impression that using manipulatives is just an everyday part of math for some students, which makes them more acceptable and less stigmatized than they might be otherwise. It takes some time for students to get used to using manipulatives without it being suggested to them, but for some students it will mean the difference between comfort and discomfort in mathematics.

4. Colour: I think it’s important that classrooms feel like fun places to be. While I don’t spend exorbitant amounts of time creating decorations and elaborate bulletin boards for my classroom, I do take the time to put up coloured backgrounds on my bulletin boards with coordinating borders around the edges. I invested in some simple decorations for various times of year that I could swap out as I go through units. My colleagues often comment on how bright and welcoming my classroom is, and it’s entirely because of my orange and blue bulletin boards that they feel this way. Our students are still young, even in grade 5 or 6, and they generally like being in classrooms with some decoration.

5. Round tables: I have two round tables in my classroom that I wouldn’t give up for all the world. I use these round tables for guided reading or helping students during independent work periods. My students use these tables during group work, independent periods, or indoor recesses. I have found that some of my students who are somewhat reticent to raise their hand and ask for help while working will feel more comfortable coming to work at a round table, knowing that I will be sitting there and available to help them if they get stuck. There is less of a stigma associated with them coming to sit at the round table to work than with me sitting or standing next to them at their desk. Having this space available also allows me to call students over who need a bit more redirection or help staying on task and ask them to work at the table instead of at their seat.

Those are just a few of the key elements of my classroom layout. In my (admittedly short) career, they have proven to be effective, beneficial, and easy to manage. Hopefully someone out there will find some of those suggestions helpful for their own classroom!

Apologies for not having any photos – I’m on maternity leave and had to leave so suddenly that I didn’t get a chance to take any photos before I went off work.

Shawna Rothgeb-Bird Differentiated Instruction, Diverse Learning Needs, General, Math, Use of Technology

Why I Love Teaching “Unusual” Things

I have a bit of a reputation for being a quirky teacher. My students can often be found in the hallways at school, engaged in some strange new whim that I have managed to tie into the curriculum in some way. There just isn’t enough room in a traditional classroom for my students to really get into their work without feeling cramped or overwhelmed by the proximity of other sutdents.

Up until this year, my classroom was located on the second floor of the school, surrounded by other hard-working classes with students who were much quieter and more studious than my boisterous, exuberant class. I think I know why I was moved to the bottom floor this year, and I can sum it up in one word: ukulele. I’ve talked about teaching ukulele before – about how it benefited me tremendously, because I never have to teach dance any more.

What I didn’t really talk about was how the ukuleles – and other unusual undertakings like them – benefit my students.

First, let me tell you a little bit about some of the more unusual or exciting projects my students have worked on over the last few years:

– Melted crayon art: Using hair dryers, hot glue guns, bristol board, and a lot of patience, my Grade 5s explored physical changes of matter by using wax crayons to create works of art for our annual art show.

– Original musical compositions: Using online musical notation software, my Grade 5s composed original pieces of music to accompany short stories they wrote for French Writing. The following year, I had my Grade 5s use the same software to create pieces of music that represented different fractions. One activity, multiple curriculum connections!

– Board games: In Mathematics, my Grade 4s and 5s created their own versions of the popular board game “Carcassonne” to explore fractions and probability.

– Quilts: For our art show last year, my Grade 4s and 5s designed and created small quilts using sewing machines and donated fabric. The quilts were auctioned off and the proceeds were donated to charity. This project was a part of both our Mathematics and Visual Arts programs.

– Dream homes: I have had Grade 4s and 5s design their “dream home” using a set of parameters (specific area and perimeter, specific rooms they must include, etc.).

– Weblogs: As part of my Language Arts curriculum, I have had my Grade 4s and 5s create personal weblogs (password protected) where they responded to writing prompts, wrote about their lives, and read and responded to peers’ posts.

It has been a phenomenal experience teaching my students to do these things. Some of them are REALLY fun, some of them are REALLY hard, but they have all been beneficial. These projects have allowed my students to explore the curriculum in ways that they wouldn’t have imagined on their own.

You’ll notice that a lot of them have to do with Mathematics – and that’s been a conscious focus on my part. When I ask my students at the beginning of the year what their favourite and least favourite subjects are, the majority of my students list Math as one of their least favourite subject. I try to change that by having them look at Math in a different way. A lot of my students don’t realize, at the beginning of the year, that Math is an integral part of music and graphic design. It’s exciting to watch them discover fractions and patterns in a musical composition, or figure out ratios to make different colours in visual art, or carefully and painstakingly measure out quilt squares to ensure that they will fit within the design they have envisioned. These activities help my students see that Mathematics has more to do with everyday life than just adding up numbers or memorizing multiplication facts. They see why Math is important to learn and how they might actually use it in the future. It is made less abstract by being placed in a real world context.

The blogs, on the other hand, give my students a purpose for their writing that goes beyond “writing in a notebook that only my teacher will see.” Their voices as writers change when they are writing for their peers instead of their teacher. It’s exciting to watch them interact in their second (or third, or fourth…) language through the comments on their weblogs. It’s also a way for them to make connections with other students that they might never have spoken to or sought out before. I have watched new friendships form in our protected online sphere, then watched as those students brought that friendship into the real life classroom. By having them write for one another instead of me, I find that my students are more willing to take risks with their writing and worry less about getting it “perfect.” They have fun. They talk about things they wouldn’t have talked about before. They enjoy writing.

These projects take a lot of forethought and preparation. They are not small undertakings by any means, nor are they particularly easy. There is a learning curve with these kinds of things, and not all students will enjoy all of these activities. It’s worth doing things a little outside the traditional realm of teaching, though. I’ve never seen some of my students laugh as much as they do when they’re making up a ridiculous song on the ukulele about smelly feet. I also never imagined that a group of very athletic, very boyish boys would take quilt design and sewing quite as seriously as some of my students did last year.

The best part, though, is seeing every student in my class find something to be proud of. Sometimes it’s the fact that they got up and performed a song in front of the class, other times it’s the new skill they learned, other times it’s that they actually knew HTML before I taught students how to make weblogs and they were able to jump in and help other students learn. It is really exciting and rewarding to see my students engaged in these activities and taking charge of their learning.

Even if I’m a giant disruption to my colleagues when I take over the foyer of the school with six sewing machines (and 50 students) every Monday morning for two months straight… or when my 25+ students are scattered through the halls of the schools plucking away at the strings of their (mostly out of tune) ukuleles… or when we blow a breaker on one side of the school with all our hair dryers so none of the hallway outlets work.

I am that teacher. My students are those students.

We have a LOT of fun learning.

Shawna Rothgeb-Bird General, Wellness

The Hardest Thing I’ve Done as a Teacher

A month ago, I had to suddenly and somewhat unexpectedly leave my teaching job to go on sick leave. Being pregnant, I knew that at some point this year I would be handing off my class to a stranger, but a big part of me was relying on having lots of notice that it was happening. I imagined a nice, smooth, calm transition where I would be able to give my students ample notice, sit with my replacement and give him or her lots of information on my students and their needs, talk to parents about it…

I definitely did not envision myself standing in front of my class with 20 minutes to the dismissal bell, tearfully telling them that I was sorry, but that I’d be back in the next day to say goodbye but would otherwise not be coming back until after my baby is born.

I had known for a few weeks that being ordered off work was a possibility, but I naively thought that my doctor would give me some kind of nebulous recommendation about going off work and leave the date up to me to decide. Instead, at a routine prenatal appointment on a Monday morning, he wrote me a note that said I would no longer be working as of that day. That day?! I wasn’t ready! My classroom was a disaster, I hadn’t finished marking, I hadn’t even taught things I needed to teach for the Progress Report yet, I hadn’t spoken to my students or their parents, I hadn’t even spoken to my colleagues or, more importantly, my administration!

Stubbornly, I waited until later that day to show the note to my principal and said that I would leave work at the end of the week, on Halloween. She shook her head and pointed to where it said “as of today,” explaining to me that the health of my child was paramount (as was my own) and that my students would be okay. I cried. I argued. I asked if I could please just be at work the next day so that I could get a proper goodbye in. She allowed me to come to work the next day, but not to teach. She had an OT come in for that day, and I spent the day getting things in order for someone to come in suddenly and jump into my class.

I had 20 minutes with my students at the end of the day on that Monday where I could tell them that I would be leaving and that it wasn’t my choice but that it was important for me to be at home and taking care of myself so that my baby and I would be healthy and safe. On the Tuesday, I popped in to see them throughout the day, answered their questions, and managed to get a goodbye in to everyone. They threw together a quick goodbye party for me and made me cry over and over with their kindness and generosity.

I’ve been off work now for four weeks. In that time, I have only been able to visit my class and my students once. This was partially due to time constraints and health, but partially because it’s important to me that they are able to move on and build a rapport with a new teacher.

I’m telling you this story because this experience has taught me several important lessons as a teacher. I’ll try to be concise as I explore them here.

1) Keep your classroom ready. I was fortunate to be of sound mind and healthy enough that I could stay after school those last two days and, with the help of my husband and some very generous colleagues, madly pack up the things I wanted to take home, throw away the things I had been meaning to throw away, and put away everything else in a place that a new teacher could come in and find them. It made me realize that had I gone into preterm labour, or had a major medical emergency of some kind where I could not come in at ALL, my classroom would have been a terrible experience for another teacher. It worked for me, but it didn’t work for anyone else. When I eventually return to work, I’ve learned that I need to keep my classroom in a state of relative readiness at all times so that should anything come up – even if I just need to be away for a day or two – another teacher will feel comfortable walking in and taking over.

2) Your students will be okay. I work hard to build a rapport with my students and I feel like I’m successful in reaching most of them. I am very invested in their success and well-being. It was very hard for me to pass off my class, especially so early in the year, to a teacher I didn’t know. It wasn’t that I didn’t think the new teacher could do a good enough job – it was that I worried about those young souls I left behind and if they would be able to engage with their new teacher. I worried about the ones who needed accommodations and whether they would advocate for themselves in my absence. I don’t deny that the transition was hard for some of my students, just as it is for them to adjust to me as their teacher at the beginning of the school year, and how hard it is for them to adjust to leaving my class at the end of the year. What I learned, however, is that students are flexible. They find things to relate to with their teachers. They find a way to fit a new personality and a new way of doing things into their lives. Will they like every teacher they ever have? No, of course not; to think that would be naive. But they will be okay, their needs will be taken care of, because deep down every teacher (I hope) has their students’ best interests at heart. We all have different styles, but we all want what’s best for our students, and they know that.

3) Crying in front of your students is okay, too. I am fairly certain that my students don’t think less of me because I was an emotional wreck those last two days. They don’t care that you didn’t wear makeup because you knew you were going to cry. They don’t care that you’re flustered and can’t find the right words to say. These things make you human. They make you “normal”. Accessible, in a way.

4) It’s okay to be honest with your students. I didn’t hide anything from them. I told them that my doctor had told me that I had to stop working because it was better for my baby (and me) to be at home resting. I assured them that nothing was wrong, but that this was just to make sure my baby could keep growing as long as possible. They appreciated the honesty. Had I just disappeared or left without giving them any detail, they would have been much more concerned. They were invested in the well being of my child because they cared about me. They were not distressed because I wasn’t distressed, I was just sad to leave.

5) You really, really, really need to disengage when you leave. For the first two weeks after I left work, I thought about it all the time. I cried more. I was upset that things weren’t the way I wanted. I checked my work e-mail constantly and was always texting my colleagues with things I had forgotten. This didn’t really help me “de-stress” the way I was supposed to. I still check my work e-mail once a day, because the official handover hasn’t happened yet and my long-term replacement only starts next week, but once she starts and we’ve had a chance to connect, I plan to reduce my work e-mail perusal to once a week (if that). Trust your colleagues to take care of your students in your absence. It’ll be alright.

I’m finally, four weeks in, embracing my time off. In a way I’m glad that I was sent off work early, because I can only imagine that being as upset as I was about it would have been ever harder if I was going through that while also caring for a newborn. It was very hard to let go and believe that everything would be okay. I still have moments where I think about individual students and how badly I wish I could be there for them, but I’m able to remind myself now that people are looking out for them.

We’ll see how I feel six months from now. 😉

Shawna Rothgeb-Bird General, Resources

Useful Resources for the French Immersion Classroom

As many FSL teachers will attest, finding resources for your French classroom – especially, I find, an immersion class – is a challenge. It’s difficult for established teachers, so for new teachers, it can seem like an impossible feat to find resources with the right mix of content and language for your students.

The program I teach – Middle French Immersion – isn’t a common one in Ontario. My students start French Immersion in Grade 4, with their only English instruction being in English Language Arts (40 mins/day) and Mathematics (60 mins/day). While most of them will have had exposure to French via Core French classes since kindergarten, it is still a big adjustment to go from primarily oral communication-based learning to a program where you are expected to read and write regularly, including scientific texts.

Luckily, we live in the internet age! There are SO many resources available on the internet. Some are better than others, and some I would avoid entirely, but throughout my first four years I have found a few excellent tools that I have used every year.

Without further ado, my list of useful resources for a French Immersion classroom:

1) Word Reference – This site trumps a physical/paper French-English dictionary every single time. When you input a word, it provides you with a list of options to choose from depending on how you meant to use the word. Context is KEY to using the correct word in French, and English has a bad habit of using one word for 15 different words in French. The sentences/examples for each option are incredibly helpful to my students.

2) Bon Patron – A little trickier to use with beginners but invaluable for experienced students in French, this site will allow students to input typed text and have it check their writing for spelling and grammatical errors. It doesn’t fix the errors for them, just guides them in the right direction so that they can fix it themselves. I’ve seen a marked improvement in my students’ writing since teaching them how to use this site.

3) Duolingo – This is both a site and an app available for iOS/Android. This site allows students to practice a variety of French skills and earn “rewards” (similar to IXL, the Math practice site) as they progress through the levels. It’s great to use as home-based practice. Because many of the activities are user-created, there are some small errors here and there, but overall it’s very well done.

4) Brainpop – A useful website for exploring scientific concepts with your students! The language used is somewhat advanced for my Middle French Immersion students, but it was certainly accessible to my Early French Immersion students when I taught EFI a few years ago. There are subtitles available for the videos, however. Lots of interactive activities/lessons on this website!

5) Reading A-Z – This may not be a free resource, but I have found that the $100 yearly membership fee is worth it for access to all of the levelled readers available on this site. My classroom library expanded significantly when I signed up for this site, allowing my students more variety and choice when bringing readers home. These are also MUCH cheaper to replace than the significantly more expensive GB+ books.

6) TumbleBooks – Your local library likely has an account with TumbleBooks that you can access for free. This site has many picture books available for you to listen to/watch. I’ve used this site as part of my home reading practice in the past. Students like having the opportunity to do something a little different (i.e. listen to reading via TumbleBooks instead of reading out loud to a parent) from time to time.

7) TeachersPayTeachers – There is a growing FSL community on the TeachersPayTeachers site, an online marketplace where teachers can post resources they have created and others can buy and download those resources. While it takes some sifting through to find the really good resources, I’ve found many great language centre activities on TPT – especially this year!

There are so many other great resources out there and I could go on and on, but those are the sites I visit/use most often in my teaching. I hope at least some of them are useful to others out there – and if you know of any others, leave a comment!

Shawna Rothgeb-Bird General, Report Cards, Student Ownership

Setting Learning Goals

One thing I really try to teach my students is a sense of ownership with regards to their education. All too often, I find students are content to just sit back, be told what to do and where to improve, and never think too hard about their own strengths and needs as learners. It isn’t ever as simple as just asking them what they think they did well and how they could improve next time, though – you have to start small and work up from there. Overall, I’ve found it a really rewarding experience to work with them to create goals, monitor their progress, and reflect on their learning.

I start on the very first day of school, where I ask them (among other things) what some of their goals are for the year ahead. Often my students’ goals are related to learning French, as I teach Middle French Immersion and it’s their first year in the program. I’ll ask them for a bit of detail – so instead of just saying “I want to get better at math,” I ask them what specifically they think they could be doing better in Math. It’s a good starting point to see what they think about themselves as learners. Sometimes it even highlights anxiety right from the start, as I have had students in the past give me a very long paragraph about how “bad” they are at reading, writing, multiplication, etc. It’s also usually very good insight into which students are highly motivated to learn and/or improve their French skills.

In mid-October, after we have gotten a few larger tasks finished and I have had time to see their learning skills and work habits in action, we have a discussion about the six different learning skills on the report card and what those mean for them in practice. I have them complete a self-evaluation using criteria that we develop as a class, giving themselves N, S, G, or E for each learning skill and answering two questions: What do you think you are doing really well? and What do you think you could be doing better? I limit them to only one area to improve, in order to focus their attention; otherwise, some students would put “everything” down for what they could improve.

This first self-evaluation often has students being WAY too hard on themselves. It’s why I always give them my own evaluation of their progress immediately afterwards, so they can see the comparison. Sometimes our opinions line up, sometimes our opinions are wildly different, but it’s an opportunity to have a dialogue with each student individually about what they think of themselves as learners and what I see as their teacher. We discuss both evaluations – mine and theirs – and then decide on a course of action. What will he/she be working towards improving? (Responsibility – managing time effectively and getting work done on or before the deadline.) How will he/she get there? (Break tasks down into steps and check in with the teacher regularly to ensure that he/she is on track.) How will we know that he/she has been successful? (If most work has been handed in on time, it’s probably an improvement!)

I send the student’s self-evaluation and our plan of action home with them when I send the Progress Report in November. It helps students be accountable to their parents about how they are doing in school. If a student is going to give him/herself an S for Collaboration, and I agreed, then the parent knows that it isn’t just me that sees it this way – the student is admitting that they need to work on this area. It allows an opportunity for students to speak with their parents about their strengths and needs, too, and vastly reduces the amount of explaining parents need ME to do come interview time.

By the time first term report cards come up, students have generally had a lot of time to work towards their goals and we can sit down and assess where they are, whether they feel good about their progress or not, etc. We do another self-evaluation following the same format as the first, and I again show them my own evaluation afterwards. We repeat the process: sit down and chat, compare evaluations, decide on a course of action, send both evaluations home with the report card. Sometimes students keep the same goal, if they and I feel that they have more work to do, but others have made good progress by this point and want to tackle another area of need instead.

For the last report card, I still have students do a self-evaluation, but I don’t help them plan the course of action that time. They’re expected to be able to reflect, think critically, and come up with their own plan of attack for how they will work towards their goal over the summer and/or as they enter the next school year. Overall, my students have been very successful with this kind of self-reflection and I have seen a tremendous amount of benefit in having them be accountable for their learning skills and work habits. It sends the message that I feel that the first page of the report card is every bit as important as the academics on the subsequent two pages, and I find that my students take their work habits MUCH more seriously in class knowing that we talk about them so often.

Sometimes I have students who honestly deserve an Excellent in all six skills and don’t have much space for “improvement,” so to speak. For these students, we try to find ways to encourage them to take on more of a leadership role in the classroom so that other students can benefit from their skills and confidence. This, too, has been highly beneficial, especially in a second language classroom. It lets them know that their work isn’t finished when they get their E and that there is always somewhere to go from there.

I would strongly encourage all teachers to talk to their students about that first page of their report card, break the language down to criteria they will understand (because honestly, some of those criteria on the report card are HARD to understand!), and get them to think critically about their strengths and needs as learners.

Shawna Rothgeb-Bird Communication Tools, Communication with Parents and Guardians

Communicating with Parents and Guardians

I consider communicating with parents to be one of the most important parts of my job. I won’t lie and pretend that I have it all figured out (and I certainly didn’t in my first year), because I find there’s only so much time in the day and sometimes that message I meant to send home didn’t quite make it out, but I have learned a few things over the past few years.

Here are a few of my “rules to live by” when it comes to communicating with parents:

 

Pick a system and stick to it!

My first year, I didn’t have any kind of system. I jumped into someone else’s class to cover a parental leave and just followed the minimalist system the previous teacher had put into place. It was short and sweet: students write in their agendas, I sign to show that I’ve seen it, parents sign to show that they’ve seen it, the end. It meant notes never went unnoticed.

About a month in, I kind of stopped following this system. There wasn’t any reason for stopping, other than my own absentminded nature. I missed a few notes from parents (which weren’t incredibly important, else they would have called the office, but they were worthy of my time just the same). By the end of the year, I wished I’d stuck with the system for my sake, for parents’ sake, and for the sake of my students.

My second year, I was determined to keep up with communication. I thought I would be tech savvy, have a blog, keep parents up to date every week with what we were doing in class… and it was GREAT until our job action started and I had to stop my blog. Parents were confused. They missed the information. I tried (and failed) to have my students adjust to a new system (the agenda one from the year before) but so many had misplaced their agendas by that point that it was pointless.

My third year, I started a blog again. No job action! I can do this! Only no, I couldn’t, because my personal life got crazy. Unless I was doing something in-class, I wasn’t getting it done. My blog fell apart a few months into the school year and again, trying to change halfway through just didn’t work for my students.

Fast forward to this year. I’m trying the agenda thing this time. No newsletters, no blogs, just straight-up agendas. Kids write down the relevant info, I sign off on the agendas before they leave, parents sign each night – done. I built 10 minutes into my day to accommodate this. So far, so good.

 

Communicate regularly, not just when there’s an issue.

Too often, parents only hear from teachers when something has happened at school. It naturally makes parents defensive when hearing that it’s a teacher calling, and that doesn’t help your relationship with them. I realize that contacting every single parent in your class on a super regular basis would be difficult, but I don’t mean you need to call all of them every week. Here are some things I and my colleagues do to keep regular communication lines open:

– Pick a few students a week and highlight something they did. I try to write a short, sweet, one-sentence update in about eight kids’ agendas a week. That’s fewer than two per day! For example, today we had a hip hop workshop and I noticed a few students doing a really phenomenal job and having lots of fun. I wrote a short note to their parents about it to let them know that I noticed their child participating actively. They always appreciate it, and it gives them an “in” to talk to their child about what’s going on at school.

– Call before school starts! My grade partner actually calls all of his students’ families the week before school starts to talk about the Middle French Immersion program, find out about their goals for their child’s education, etc.

 

Invite parents into the classroom to see their children in action.

Throughout the year, I do a lot of small presentations and activities in-class with my students, especially at the beginning of the year. Virtually any time students are going to be doing a presentation in front of the class, I invite their parents in to watch the presentation (and any others happening that day). Not only do they get to see their child speaking in French, but they understand my feedback after in a way they might not have otherwise. When I say, “It seemed like ________ was very nervous when presenting,” they know what I’m talking about because they were there.

Parents, in general, are very respectful of your students’ learning time. I’ve never had a parent try to speak to me after the presentations about their child’s progress or insist on staying. They come in, watch the presentation, and leave – but they leave feeling like they were involved in their child’s education.

 

Take photos of students working and share them with parents.

I love technology. I take photos of my students working on things and upload them to Google Drive, then share the photos with my students. They can show their parents the photos at home. They like seeing themselves – especially when they’re playing ukulele or doing drama – and parents like to see what they’re up to. Because Google Drive is password protected, I have never had parents be concerned about privacy, but they always have the opportunity to ask me not to share photos of their child.

 

“AMA”

Something I’ve started this year is what I call my “AMA” or “Ask Me About”. Lots of teachers do this and it’s a GREAT way to get parents to ask their children about what’s going on at school. On our agenda board, we have “Ask me about…” written permanently up there. I change it every few days (not every day) to reflect what we’ve been learning in class. Last week we learned about prepositions in French, so one day it was “Ask me about… les prépositions.” When we started learning how to play the ukulele, that was our AMA.

The AMA is great because it gives parents a specific question to ask instead of asking their child, “What did you do at school today?” Kids can’t respond with, “Oh… nothing.” Parents know that if it was the AMA, their child should be able to tell them about it. If he/she can’t, there’s a problem. Not only does it engage parents, but it helps me to know if there are any major errors in understanding, because parents will come back and flag it for me if they asked their child and he/she said, “Oh man, we were doing that today but I have NO IDEA what we were doing.”

 

Communication is vital. You want parents to know what’s happening in the classroom. You want parents to know how their children are doing. Nothing should be a surprise – not the topics being studied in class, not their child’s progress, not whether or not their child is enjoying something. Invite them in. Chat with them in the hallway or when you see them after school. Engage them.

When parents are invested in their child’s education, their child is a lot more invested, too… whether they like it or not!

Shawna Rothgeb-Bird General, Planning

Sharing Expertise; AKA, How I Got Out of Teaching Dance

First, a brief introduction: I am a Grade 4 Middle French Immersion teacher in Ottawa. This is my fourth year as a homeroom teacher, third year as a permanent teacher. My entire (short) career has been spent at one lovely school in the heart of Westboro. I’ve never actually taught the same assignment two years in a row, but one thing has been constant since my first year at my school: I have never taught dance.

I started at this school in November of 2011. At the time, I was covering for another teacher who had taken parental leave. That year, dance had already been taught before I arrived, which suited me fine. I am not, you see, what one would call coordinated. At school dances, I was the type to stand around at the wall and pretend I was too “goth” for the dance and was only there to be snippy in the dark corner. At my wedding, I danced twice: once with my husband, then once again with family and friends.

Twice in my life, I’ve shown what I would consider minor, and I stress minor, proficiency in dance: Irish hard-shoe step dance (AKA have some rhythm and stomp your feet, no grace required) and Dance Dance Revolution (AKA understand video games and timing).

At the end of my first year of teaching, my principal revealed to the teachers at my school that she had purchased a class set of ukuleles for use in our (admittedly lacking) music program. None of us had the slightest clue how to play ukulele, but we were all pretty excited about the prospect of listening to a class full of miniature guitars (note: ukuleles are not, in fact, miniature guitars in any way) instead of a class full of recorders.

I took one home for the summer, watched a bunch of Youtube videos, more or less figured out how to play the ukulele, and was determined to have a successful second year.

Going into my second year of teaching, I was just so excited to have a contract, my own classroom, and a bunch of new kids that I didn’t stop to think about how I would, at some point, have to figure out how to teach dance to 27 Grade 5 students. It didn’t hit me, in fact, until I was sitting in the staff room one day at lunch listening to someone else talk about starting dance with their class that I realized (aloud, because that’s my style): “Oh god, I have to teach dance.”

Fortunately for me, I have a Grade 5 colleague who LOVES teaching dance. He has a knack for getting kids to buy into dancing – boys and girls, coordinated and uncoordinated, trained and untrained. It’s amazing! He happened to be in the staff room. He happened to hear the dread in my voice as I came to my realization only moments before. Without hesitation, he said, “I could teach your class dance.”

Wait, what? Can– can we DO that? Are we allowed? How does it work? All of these thoughts ran through my head, but the one that actually came out was, “YES, PLEASE.”

He explained, politely ignoring my desperation in favour of professionalism, that he had noticed my students playing ukulele in the hallways and would be interested in doing a class exchange so that I could teach his students how to play the ukulele.

Thus began our yearly autumn tradition of swapping classes one hour a week so that we could fill the hallways with awkward dancing and fumbling ukulele strumming without stressing either of ourselves out. He teaches my class dance, I teach his class ukulele, we report on these subjects for one another on the first report card, and the world continues turning. As an added bonus, I sleep better at night knowing that a bunch of ten year olds aren’t laughing at my remarkable lack of coordination.

I have since explored many other opportunities to trade classes with other colleagues so that we can benefit from one another’s expertise. It doesn’t always amount to reporting on another class full of students; sometimes we trade places just for a 40 minute block so that we can run an activity with a fresh group of faces and share some of our passion with them. What I’ve found, over four years, is that my students benefit from being exposed not only to other teachers and their unique teaching styles, but also from being taught a new skill by someone who really, honestly enjoys it.

I would strongly urge you to reach out to your colleagues and find opportunities to co-teach, trade places, or even swap classes regularly so that you can share some of your passions with them. There is room in the curriculum to connect your hobbies – and your life – with the students in your school, even if they aren’t “your” students. Their lives are richer for it, and so is yours!