Katie Pryde Celebrating Success, Literacy

Seeing Growth

As it is April, I always feel that this time of year is when you really start to see the growth/progress in our students, especially in Kindergarten. Since taking over my current Kindergarten class in February, I am really starting to see the growth in my students and their learning, Shortly after obtaining this LTO, I put up a word wall in my classroom, created an interactive popcorn word word wall, as well as incorporating the Sight Word Caterpillar in our classroom (see below).

I have worked really hard with my students about what the word wall is for, and how we can use all these resources when we are writing. Each week, my students get an opportunity to write in their Writing Journals. To differentiate for my learners, I encourage ALL students to use at least 5 different colours in their pictures to add more detail. I encourage my SK students to write the sounds/letters they hear. I encourage my SKs to stretch the words so they can hear/write all sounds they hear. We have talked a lot about the use of the Writer’s Rainbow (see my previous post about this), and have modelled for students the various stages of the Writer’s Rainbow.

This past week, some of my students have really started to use what I have taught them and have started to use the word wall, popcorn words and our sight word caterpillar to help them in their writing. All my efforts have finally paid off. There is nothing better than seeing your students use the tools you have provided for them in our classroom! Such joy!

Sometimes you win. Sometimes you learn.
Carmen.Oliveira Celebrating Success, Making a Difference Through Education, Mentorship, Students as Teachers

My Little Guru

Ever since I can remember, I have always strived to surround myself with people and experiences that inspire and motivate me to question, learn, and celebrate the art of living.  My teachers, or gurus, have manifested themselves in different forms.  A parent, a sister, my son, a friend, poets and writers in my favourite books, social activists, great teachers, or simply people who demonstrate an innate ability to rise above obstacles in their quest to live a life of purpose.

I have the privilege of coming across little gurus each and every day of my life.  They happen to share a classroom with me.  I owe much of my learning and growth, both professional and personal, to my students.  One in particular has left me humbled and deeply grateful for allowing me to be a part of his journey.  Daniel* has been the reason behind quite a few sleepless nights.  His life has been one I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.  At the start of year, his personality reflected the confusion, fear, anger, and instinct for survival that is expected within his reality.  He’s the one  I would come home and talk to my family about non-stop because I was determined to understand him and somehow be a guide or figure that would help him see how amazing he truly was.  After a few weeks of racking my brain and over-thinking the situation, I decided to let it go and just work on three things: building trust, getting him to believe that I liked him no matter what he did or said, and playing to his strengths at all times so he felt the power that comes from knowing that he matters.  I learned to really listen, so much so that he would need to feel that he was the most important person at that moment.

What unfolded in the following months was a teacher-student relationship where I learned far more than I could teach him.  When his social worker came to visit 3 weeks ago, he asked me to be at the meeting with him.  What I heard during that time, was nothing short of astonishing.  His wisdom, strength, compassion, and resiliency left the social worker and I in complete awe.  I was in the presence of a little guru, a teacher who knows how to use obstacles to create possibilities and hold himself accountable for the decisions he makes in life.

I’ll leave you with an excerpt from the speech he recently wrote for our Speech Arts unit.  When I conferenced with him to look it over, I had to make an excuse to leave the classroom so I could have a cry in private.  He gave me permission to share it with you:

“Have you ever had a moment in your life when you didn’t believe you could do something or you thought you weren’t good enough?  I remember having low self-esteem.  There was a time I didn’t care about myself and I felt I couldn’t be me.  But that time is long gone and now when I come to school I’m proud to be Daniel*.  I feel free from judgement.  I walk down the hall and feel joyful.  Every child needs to have someone who inspires them to stay true to themselves.  They must be inspired.  The change can happen in your life and it’s amazing.  

My teacher inspires me because every day I’m with her she gets me to really think about life and how I can become better and better at what I do.  When I’m having a bad day and so something I didn’t mean to, she sits down with me and talks to me.  We talk about how I can use what I know to make decisions to avoid negative situations.  I have learned to just be me without changing for anyone else.  

…Imagine what society would be like if everyone who needed help had someone to inspire them?  Thinking back to when I felt so low and not like the Daniel* I am today I realize that having someone that came into my life and helped me change made all the difference.  There’s a quote in my classroom I really like.  It goes like this, “I may not be perfect, but parts of me are pretty awesome.”  I’m not perfect, but I am a very unique and awesome kid.”

I let him know that he inspired me to share our story with teachers world-wide.  He smiled with the smirk of self-confidence.

peer-to-peer book recommendations
Katie Pryde Diverse Learning Needs, Literacy

Reading Suggestions

I have often heard about teachers doing Peer to Peer Book Recommendations (see picture below)in their classrooms, however, I have never heard of doing Student-Teacher Book Recommendations. While reading the Guide to Effective Instruction in Literacy K-Grade 3, I read a section that touched on the idea of having book recommedations in the classroom, and I thought this was a wonderful idea!

1) Peer to Peer Book Recommendations: This is an opportunity for students to recommend books that they have read to other students in the classroom. This is a wonderful idea for many different reasons. Most students will recommend books that they have enjoyed, and that they hope another student would like based on the characters, or plot. This will help students read books that are interesting, as well as show them that the other students in the classroom truly know them if they recommend the book based on the knowledge of the students’s likes/interests; it’s a great way of showing that each student cares about one another and has paid attention to eachothers’ likes and dislikes.

2) Student to Teacher Book Recommendations: This is an opportunity for students to recommend books to teachers, which can be used for novel studies, read alouds, shared or guided reading. This is a wonderful way for teachers to ensure that they are using books in their classroom that are of interest and of relevance to their students based on their interests, culture and reading levels. Of course, teachers will have to evaluate and look at the reading levels to ensure they are appropriate for readers if using as a novel study or guided reading piece, but I think this is a wonderful idea for ensuring students are interested in the reading material which will help instill a true love of reading for all students. This can very easily be done by the teacher, but creating a suggestion-type box where students can write down their book recommendations for the teacher.

* The picture above was provided by www.scholastic.ca

Photo of Tina Ginglo
Tina.Ginglo Building Inclusion

Building Community with a Student of the Week

When I was teaching pre-service and visiting teacher candidates at their practicums, I had many opportunities to see the different ways teachers create community in their classrooms.  One fourth-grade classroom teacher (I am sorry, I don’t remember the classroom teacher’s name) assigned a table in her room for a student to set up a display about his or herself.  This display immediately caught my attention because the student, whose turn it was to share, had brought in a variety of Montreal Canadian artifacts. Since I am a Habitant fan, I immediately wanted to meet this student and talk with him about the artifacts he brought to school.  The student was so pleased to talk to me about how he and his family came to be Hab fans.   The other students in the class were quick to fill in pieces of information the student didn’t share.  This told told me that his classmates practiced attentive listening and mutual respect when the artifacts were presented. I left that classroom knowing that when I returned to teaching elementary students I would do something similar.

Well, I finally introduced the idea of a “Student of the Week” when we returned to school in January.  I asked my student teacher to launch the project by sharing personal artifacts before we broke for the holidays so that when we returned, the first student would be ready to go.

Basically, each week a student prepares an oral presentation and display about them self to share with the class.  I tell the students that by sharing this information we learn more about each other and we will have a greater appreciation of how each member of our class is unique and special.  

Below you will find the learning goal and success criteria for this activity.

 Learning Goal: 

As Student of the Week, I will learn how to:

  • Organize my ideas and present information in a logical sequence;
  • Communicate in a clear way using good volume, speed and eye contact.

Success Criteria:

I know I successfully presented myself as the Student of the Week if:

  • I included information about my past, present and future;
  • I used visuals such as photographs, magazine or Internet pictures;
  • I included objects such as favourite toys, lucky charms or other artifacts;
  • I looked at the audience when I presented;
  • I spoke in a loud and clear voice.

My students LOVE our Student of the Week presentations.  Each week, after a student has done their formal presentation, the presenter pulls a new name from our Name Jar.  The name drawn will have one week to prepare their presentation and display.  I can’t believe how excited the students get when someone’s name is read from the jar.  You would think they one an iPad or somethingJ

I am so pleased with the quality of the presentations each student prepares, but I am equally pleased with the quality of the feedback the students receive from their peers.  Not only do they ask thoughtful and caring questions to find out more about the individual, they also point out which success criteria the student has included and which success criteria they can build upon.  What is really cool is that I didn’t ask the students to provide the feedback, they did it automatically, which tells me that peer feedback is part of the culture of our classroom (I guess I did something right!).

After the presentation and Q and A time I ask some reflection questions such as:

  • What did we learn about <student’s name> that we didn’t know before?
  • What are some of the things you have in common with <student’s name>?
  • How does this activity help our classroom community?

I am sorry I didn’t start this activity at the beginning of the year.  With a never ending list of things to do, I kept skipping over this activity. In hindsight, it didn’t take long to set up.  I basically purchased a display board and stick on letters.  I narrowed down our learning goal and success criteria and put it on a handout for students to take home.   Now Student of the Week is in the students’ hands!  So far, I haven’t had a student forget they were the next Student of the Week.  Each week the Student of the Week has come ready to set up their display and prepared to give their oral presentation to our class.  I think this activity is a keeper!

 

List of 2013 Goals
Katie Pryde Building Inclusion, Diverse Learning Needs

Goal Setting…Even in Kindergarten

Upon the return to school after the Holiday Break, I thought it would be interesting to see how goal setting might look in Kindergarten. We had a little discussion as a whole class about goals, and how at this time of year many people create goals for themselves. We brainstormed some common goals some people may want to make for themselves. Then, I made it specific to school, and my students brainstormed some ideas of Classroom Goals we should have for the 2013 school year.  I have attached our goals for each Track that I teach. Some were very similar, but some were very creative and inclusive to that Track only. I was very proud of my students for coming up with such amazing goals.

 

I also got each student to write about what they would like to learn about for this upcoming year. Again, I was shocked and and so proud of the goals many of my students came up with!

See these goals at: https://mobile.twitter.com/class_pryde/status/289774661540147200/photo/1

https://mobile.twitter.com/class_pryde/status/289774263022534656/photo/1

Goal-setting can happen…. even in Kindergarten!

Katie Pryde Learning About Your Students, Occasional Teaching, Professional Learning and Growth

Making the Change

As my Grade 3 LTO came to an end on a Friday, and my new Kindergarten LTO started the following Monday, I needed to change from Grade 3 mode, to Kindergarten mode in just a weekend’s time. As I have taught Kindergarten before, I knew what to expect. However, I knew it would take some time for myself to become familiar with the new classroom routines, the new students as well as the Kindergarten program that the teacher had already implemented. Because I will only be working this LTO for 3 months, I felt it was really important to make the transition as smooth as possible and to continue with the type of program the teacher had already implemented. I felt this was extremely important to keep some sense of normal for the students, as the adjustment to a new teacher would be more than enough for them.


The Week Before:

  • I felt extremely lucky that my principal gave me some extra coverage time the week before I started my new Kindergarten position to go into the classroom for 2 half days to meet the students, meet some of the parents and see the program in action. I felt this was so beneficial not only for me, but for the students as well
  • Students got a chance to meet me, and they knew a head of time that I would be their new teacher, so that hopefully eased  the anxiety and helped the transition from one teacher to another
  • I was able to see exactly how a day in this Kindergarten classroom was run

The Week I Started:

  • The week I started teaching Kindergarten, the students were very excited since they had already met me. I came to school with students bringing me pictures they created as well, showing/telling me how excited they were I was their new teacher
  • I hardly changed anything in their room or the program, and just continued teaching what the current teacher had been doing
  • I started giving some diagnostics to the students so I could really see where each of my students were at
  • As I have a lot of ESL and ELL students in my class, I also downloaded a translation app on my iPhone, which helped me interact and speak with my Spanish speaking students
  • We also reviewed our classroom rules and created some carpet rules, to make sure students knew what was expected of them and to show them that I knew/was familiar with the rules they already had in place in the classroom
  • I wrote an introductory letter home to parents, so they know who I am, what my teaching experiences are, and how they can communicate with me (which I got a lot of positive feedback from).

 

Overall, I feel the transition was quite seamless, and I think the main reasons are because:
1) My principal gave me time to go into the classroom before I officially started my new position, in which I was able to get to know and start the bonding process with my new students

and

2)  I kept the program the same, so the students did not have to adjust to too many things at once. With young students, especially Kindergarten students, I feel it is important not to change everything because it will confuse them and may take away their sense of community/ownership that has already been created in the classroom.

Photo of Roz Geridis
Roz.Geridis Classroom Management, Learning About Your Students

Connecting with Students as a Prep Teacher

It has been an interesting start to the school year. I have a change in my teaching assignment and for the first time I have ½ day of prep coverage. Getting to know all the names and developing relationships with over 100 students I see 80 minutes a week has been a challenge. Especially since most of my teaching position has me in the gym (no desks and regular seating plans).

To help me get to know the student names – I have the students change into gym clothes. At the beginning of the year, I had the students sit on the floor or bench in the gym and went through the class list calling out the student names and putting a face to the names. As the year has progressed, I have moved to having the students come up to me and showing me their clothes. I have them share their last name which still gave me time to get to know their names. To move things even faster, the students who have brought in their gym clothes regularly go a change right away and say hi to me as they come into the gym.

The student teacher relationship has taken some time to develop. I try to find a way to connect with each student. Some students, I ask about their extra-curricular activities (sports, dance, etc). Once I know what the student participates in, I try to ask the student about their extra-curricular once a month. For my ELL or students who do not have extra-curricular, I ask about their weekend or break plans. Sometimes, the kids go to the movies and I ask about the movie s/he saw.

Developing the relationships have really helped with the classroom management during the prep periods. The students have appreciated my effort to get to know them a little better and are making a larger effort to listen and to do their best during class time. It is great to have the kids walk up to you in the halls asking when we have your class again. I know some of that is because it is gym but also I have some classroom prep which kids are also inquiring about. Making the connection with students is something that helps to make a difference in student education.

 

Photo of Alison Board
Alison.Board Building Inclusion, Classroom Management, Diverse Learning Needs, Learning About Your Students, Planning

Making Adjustments

As I read the previous additions by fellow bloggers, I look for connections to my own classroom, and what I see is the constant of change. We are all working with different age groups, but consider similar topics, such as adjustments to integrate technology, outdoor education, or making learning meaningful. Like others, I am continuously reflecting on my practice and making adjustments. As I am teaching in a new Full-Day Kindergarten classroom, there are many changes that the ECE and I have made in the last 8 weeks.

In September, our days were focused on establishing routines and building a community with our 27 children. The biggest routines were entry and dismissals, learning centres, and independent reading/quiet time. Then, as the children settled into these routines, we constantly re-assessed our schedule. We found that our children are so social, that independent reading is more like a book club with sharing and discussions. So, we now lead meditation and quiet breathing and stretching exercises after our reading block. Some of the children struggle with stilling their minds, while others have embraced it and look forward to this part of our day.

Adjustments to the classroom are also a constant in FDK. As interests in certain areas increase or wain, I change the spaces to accommodate the children’s interests and needs. I also change the materials. The basics in each learning centre remain the same, such as the blocks in the building centre, however, I may add recycled materials, clipboards and paper, or figures to encourage new relationships with the materials.

The planning has become one of the most challenging aspects of the FDK program, as there is no time for the ECE and I to sit down and exchange ideas. I continue to plan weekly with my Kindergarten teacher partners, then I convey ideas to my ECE while we are in the classroom together. I started off the year with my weekly plans in a binder on my desk (as I always previously used them). Then, I realized that it was more beneficial to enlarge them on an 11 x 17 inch page and hang them in the centre of the room where the ECE, and the Special Education Assistant can access the daily plans with ease. We are also using a web diagram to document the big ideas that are emerging in the classroom and the connections to the curriculum, which is visible to all.

Every day at our gathering circle, I start by asking the children, “How do you feel today?” As the children share their responses, I get a better understanding of what adjustments I can make to ensure it is a successful day for all of us. Making adjustments is just another way of being a reflective and responsive teacher.

Art work hung to the peace tree
Sangeeta.McAuley Building Inclusion, Celebrating Success, Learning About Your Students, Learning in a Real Life Context

The Peace Tree

Recently, for Remembrance Day, I contemplated how to help my students understand the meaning of this solemn occasion.

My class is made up of students from India, Pakistan, Somalia, Czech Republic, Afghanistan and Slovakia to name a few. Through several discussions, I learned that their understanding of war from their homelands seemed different than what our Canadian soldiers went through, yet the common thread was the idea of peace.

Having seen the film, “The Peace Tree” by Mitra Sen, I thought this might be a good place to start. The film is about a young girl whose family is celebrating Eid. She shares her holidayand customs with her best friend and when Christmas draws nearer, she questions why her family can’t celebrate both occasions. This leads her to make a peace tree with symbols from different religions and cultures. After watching this film with my class, I could see them making connections to their own experiences with religion, exclusion and identity.

We became excited at the thought of making our own Peace Tree and I began the search for the right branches to hold our ideas. Together, we spent some time studying different signs of peace from around the world, such as the diya (India), the Inukshuk (North America), the Yin Yang (China), the Star of David (Israel) and more. My students took materials home in earnest to start making these signs and often came up with their own symbols: flags from different countries, chains of people, and hands.

At our school assembly, while each class was invited to bring a wreath, my class chose to bring their Peace Tree which had also been decorated with poppies. Two of my students spoke at the assembly about why we had created this tree and what it stood for. It has been an interesting experience for me to watch my students get so excited about the different symbols and how the meaning of peace is the same no matter where you live in the world.

We were asked to put our Peace Tree outside the school office for others to enjoy and my students often ask when we are getting it back…they want to add more to it!

                

Alison.Board Communication with Parents and Guardians, Interviews

Preparing for Interviews

 

The interviews provide an opportunity for parents to meet the teacher, see the classroom, and ask questions about their child’s progress. It is also an opportunity for the teacher to ask questions that will provide a better background understanding of the child that is struggling in his/her adjustment to the Kindergarten program. You may want to know if the child has siblings, has opportunities for play dates, or gets enough sleep.

To prepare for interviews, I do the following:

  • review anecdotal notes, highlighting any positive comments as well as any concerns
  • look through examples of child’s work, and have it on hand to refer to during the interview
  • have a copy of the SK report
  • make note of something positive to start the interview, and something to work on with the child to end the interview.

I like to use a basic notepad and dedicate a page to each student. At the top of the page I write their name and time of interview. I copy the points that I highlighted from my anecdotal records to ensure that I can easily refer to them during the interview. (When you get in a roll of interview after interview without a break, your memory should not be relied on!) I then add parent/guardian comments from the interview and next steps for myself to follow up with. I can then refer to this notepad when I am measuring progress in the next couple of months.

Since JK students do not receive a report at this time, a half-page checklist can be created as a reference for parents. List items like; can recognize first name, can write first name, can count to 10, can follow routines independently, etc. This can also be created for your own use to guide the interview and be kept as a reference to see progress when you write the JK reports in January.

Interviews can be difficult if you need to address challenges that the child is experiencing. A good way to approach these interview is by starting with your observations in the classroom, then asking the parents/guardians, “What are you seeing at home?” Often, parents see the same behaviours or have similar struggles, which they will expand on when the discussion is directed in this way.

You may want to set up a desk or table in the hall for parents that are waiting for their interview. It can have a clock (set to the same time as your clock in the classroom), resources for parents that you may find applicable from public health, the public library, or a list of websites that you think would be beneficial. This is also an opportunity to display a project, photos (even a digital photo frame!), or some form of documentation that the parents can enjoy while waiting for your interview.