Day 103: The Day After the Sugar High

Well, as the title says, today was the day after the sugar high.  I don't think I've ever been able to make this observation before, since all of our parties are usually on a Friday or right before a long break, but I noticed that nearly all of my kiddos seemed a bit "mellow" today.  (I can't say all of them, because there are usually one or two that continue to race through their day at seemingly breakneck speed.)  I think it was the effect of coming down from a sugar high induced the day before by various forms of sugar: chocolate, juice, candy, cupcakes, etc.  Either that or the excitement of the party wore off because, well, we had the party!  It's probably the latter, but I think my reasoning is more creative.  Go figure.

My students came in today ready to get down to business.  As usual, I gave them the plan for the day right after announcements and gave them a few heads up regarding what was coming for the rest of the week  (mainly a new format for comprehension quizzes--which will now include a short open response section--and notification that we will be taking our next unit quiz in Social Studies.). 

We are finishing up the story Officer Buckle and Gloria in our anthology this week.  In the next few days, the students are going to write a letter to Officer Buckle and Gloria from the perspective of one of the students at Napville Elementary School.  They are also going to get a chance to offer their own safety tips to Officer Buckle.  (Wish I could take credit for this project, but this one came straight out of the anthology series.)  I'm looking forward to seeing what kinds of tips they come up with, considering the fact that they can't copy a tip from the book.  I tell them to think of things their parents might tell them around the house, like "Don't sit too close to the TV," or "No jumping on the bed." While I've had some interesting tips written by students over the years, my favorite tips are "Don't ride your dog like a horse," and "Don't jump on your brother's head."  I am not making those up.  The illustrations that went with the tips said it all.  I'll try to post the final projects later this week, once the children have had a chance to work on them.

Until then, I'll enjoy the calm and imagine what kinds of tips will be coming my way.

Day 93: More Hours Gone

I. Am. SO. Tired. Of. SNOW.

I know there are many of you out there who have been reading my posts and wondering what I am complaining about because your cities and towns and school districts have been endlessly pounded by the winter storms that have been coming through since December.  I heard on the news that there have been eight major storms since December.

While we have had several delays and one snow day, I know countless others have had many snow days (and may have already reached your allotment for the year).  I know I should be thankful that I am not in one of those areas (and I am thankful), but I am tired of the snow.  It's just enough to be a nuisance.

Today we had another two-hour delay.  The kids are getting used to the routine, seeing as this is the fourth in four weeks.  (Add that to the snow day and early dismissal and the hours just tick away.)

My students know that on delays, there is no morning recess, no independent reading time before lunch, and the rest of our day is squeezed a bit or adjusted and carried over into the next day.  We managed to finish all of language arts, social studies, and half of math.  That lesson will be carried over into tomorrow.  The kiddos know we are about business and have managed to try and calm themselves before entering the room in the morning.  I have really appreciated that.

Friday is supposed to have flurries all day with another inch or so of precipitation.  We are also supposed to get another storm toward the middle of next week; right before conferences.  Joy.  I remember a few years ago, conferences had to be rescheduled and done on teachers' own time because the snow was so bad.  (If you've been reading a while, you know our conferences are usually done during a school day while the students have off.)  A lot of unhappy people that year.  I just want to have the snow pass early or late.  No rescheduling, please!

Next Wednesday is Groundhog Day.  I wonder what ol' Phil is going to tell us...as if we can't already guess.  An early arrival of spring, if that were actually possible, would be truly appreciated right now.

Day 90: Back in the Saddle

It's Monday and we have gotten back into a routine!  Yay!  We reviewed spelling words, defined vocabulary, read and discussed a story, reviewed how to spell plural words, did Daily Edit, and read independently.  We learned how to read a land and water map and create our own.  We began our math test.

My kiddos seemed like their old selves today, working hard and eager to learn.  It's a shame to think that this might go out the window come Wednesday; we are supposed to get yet another massive snowstorm depending on where the front falls.  I really hope this one misses us; I just don't think I can take another one at this point!

I would like the front to move out all of this cold air, though.  This morning I left the house to a balmy 8 degrees.  The temperature did not get above 13 degrees.  Sometimes I wish it were spring already because I hate being cold!

Ah well.  We will be inside and working hard.  We're back in the saddle, again!  

Day 80: Observations

Today I had my second formal observation of the year.  (I had one between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but so many other things were going on during that time.)  As of this writing, I am finished with observations for the year.  (Except for my observation by the Scholastic representatives.  More on that in a moment.)

My former principal did not announce her observation times.  She just came.  My current principal gives a time frame.  Sometimes he also tells what subject he wants to observe; sometimes not.  I think they (my principal and vice-principal) do this so they aren't seeing the same subject every time they come in to observe.

Anyhow, I gave my principal my time frame (yesterday) and he was in my room first thing after announcements this morning.  He stayed for about an hour while we went through the first two pages of daily edit, talked about suffixes, and reviewed for our comprehension quiz tomorrow.  He seemed to enjoy his time in the room, but I won't know what suggestions he has for me until the post-observation conference.

I don't necessarily get nervous when I'm observed; my main concern is making sure I stick to what I've written down for the day.  You know what I mean.  Sometimes the students ask questions that require more detail, you see that the kids need a bit more so you ask them to demonstrate an idea or concept, or there is an interruption of some sort (ex.: a student who gets sick in the room or has a nosebleed).

There are some teachers out there who go all out and put on a dog and pony show when they know they are being observed.  I don't know why.  If your principal is paying attention s/he knows it's a show anyway.

One observation I AM a little nervous about is the one by Scholastic.  If you remember, I told you in December that I have been selected as a Scholastic Teacher Advisor.  As part of the process, two representatives from Scholastic will come and observe my classroom for a day.  They will take pictures of my room, inspect my class library to what things my students read, see how I incorporate books and extra reading into my day, etc.  They will then take this information back to the powers-that-be at Scholastic and talk about it. 

I spoke with one of the reps yesterday and they will be visiting me January 20.  I'm excited but a little nervous at the same time.  I think about weird things, like:
1. Do I have ENOUGH books?  I have a LOT of books.  I have some on my "personal" shelf--you know, the books you let your students borrow, but not keep because you don't want them to get messed up and/or are saving for later units--but all of them are not out right now.  I like to rotate mine with my reading units, science themes, math units, and social studies concepts.  I really try to have books for everything we will study over the year, in addition to the class library the students use.
2. Is the class library diverse enough?  I have twelve bins of various subjects, from Junie B. to magazines, sports to fairy tales, animal books to I Spy, etc.  I also have three additional bins to supplement what we are doing in class:  one for the reading theme, one for math, and one for what we are doing in science--this one gets switched to social studies books when we are in that rotation.
3. Is my room organized and clean enough?  The pictures they take can potentially be placed--gasp!--online via the Scholastic web site.  Do I want thousands of people looking at pictures of my room and saying "Oh my gosh, WHAT is THAT?"  (Not that they would, but you see where I'm going here!)

I'm sure everything is fine, but once in a while I get those feelings.  Once the 20th is over, I'll be sure to give you a front-row seat experience of the day...even if it includes near-fainting or an unannounced nosebleed. 

Stay tuned!

Day 27: Daily Edits and Other Work

I know I've said I would share the topic of Daily Edit with you.  I figured now is as good a time as ever to explain what they are since I just gave a stack to my new student to work through at home.

Our daily edit is actually a group of four pages that the students complete as the first part of their morning work each day.  The first two cover proofreading, sentences, parts of speech, analogies, and vocabulary.  There is always a short passage the students are required to read through and correct for errors.  (This passage we do together until the students are able to do it on their own.) The last two cover basic math skills, and logic/problem solving problems where the students are required to draw a diagram or model of some sort in order to figure out the answers to the math problems below.  A former teacher used materials from several different books to create a daily edit that supplemented the regular curriculum.
  
With our reading program, Houghton Mifflin 'Reading,' we come back and visit topics again.  The nice thing about our daily edits is that they cover a lot of the skills we are doing in our reading series.  When the binder work was put together, the teacher who created them put the skills in the order we would come across them in the curriculum.  She even laid it out so that there was some preview of work to come and review of work we did.  So already my second graders have been exposed to and reviewed homophones, homonyms (multiple-meaning words), synonyms, antonyms, compound words, punctuation, capitalization, word families, sentence structure, analogies, nouns, verbs, adjectives, genre, proofreading, and singular and plural nouns.  

I have chosen to give my new student the daily edits she has missed as sort of a foundation for the writing, grammar, and math skills she has missed.  We are beginning a new unit in Language Arts on Tuesday.  During this unit, there will be several writing projects, a revisiting of comprehension skills that were learned in first grade as well as some new skills for this year, and vocabulary exercises. 

In math, we are still working through different strategies to add (13 in all according to our Everyday Math curriculum), and strategies for subtraction in order to help the children recognize and retain their basic facts.  Math is a universal language, and she has been doing well so far.  I have decided to pick out the pages in her math book that are related to the skills we are working on now.  Since Everyday Math is a spiraling curriculum, she will be exposed to those skills over and over throughout the quarter.

In social studies we finished our first unit, which was on communities, and the second unit is more of a continuation of that idea.  I have decided that I am going to take a break from social studies and teach science in its place since, a) our daily schedule does not permit both being taught at the same time (We have one block of time during the day to teach either science or social studies.), and, b) I already did a unit in social studies.  So this week we are going to start our Foss science curriculum. That way, when we go back to social studies, the review of communities will be a review for everyone and my new student will benefit from that review.  (Besides, trying to teach science one day or week at a time and then social studies the alternating week or day has shown to be too confusing for the students.  So now I alternate by unit.)

It's a fine balancing act, trying to get her caught up without overwhelming her and her parents.  On one hand, she needs those most vital skills for her foundation.  On the other hand, she would be buried under work if I gave her every single assignment she missed for those 25 days. 

Bit by bit, I'll get her there. 

Day 26: "New" Student

Today I welcomed a "new" student to my class.  I say "new" because she is not new to the school, just to my class.  Let me explain.

My school has a group of students who travel to their countries of origin over the summer.  Sometimes they do not return until after the school year begins.  This particular student was on my roster for the beginning of the year, but she could not be dropped from my class roll until she missed so many days.  At that point, she was withdrawn with the understanding that when she returned she would be registered as a re-entry and added back to my roll.  She was added yesterday and joined my class today.

So where to begin?  The parents would like me to send home all of the missed work (for a month's time).  A family friend was supposed to pick up the work on a weekly basis to send, but never came.  This child has missed 25 days of school work.  In those 25 days, she has missed 25 daily edits, 40-plus pages of the math workbook, 30-plus pages of the reading workbook, six weeks of spelling activities and tests, four comprehension quizzes, one reading unit test, four writing projects, one math unit test, half of unit two in math, one unit of social studies, 10-plus writing journals, and numerous hands-on activities.  Now I need to figure out what the most vital pieces of information are so she can be somewhat caught up with the rest of the class.  I started with the daily edits today.  The rest will just have to trickle through in the next few weeks.

Even though she is not new to the school, she is new to my class, which means the routines have to start all over again.  My class was really helpful today in trying to get her acclimated to everything, but you know how little kids are.  They don't quite understand the term "overkill."  I tried to warn them yesterday before dismissal by telling them to remember that today was her first day and she will already be overwhelmed with all of the things that come with a typical first day of school.  Some of them got it.  Some of them didn't in their eagerness to help.

Tomorrow's another day.  Hopefully we didn't scare her off!

Day 13: Desk Fairy

On the first day of school, I go over all of the books with my class.  We also go over folders, and because I'm slightly neurotic, how to organize our desks.  The students keep the hard-backed books and their daily edit binder in one side of their desks, and all of their soft-sided items (folders, journals, workbooks) in the the other side of their desks.  Keeping track of things this way makes it easier for me to find items if I need to get them together for an absent student, but it also cuts down on transition time.  You're not stuck waiting for the student who is trying to locate the folder or journal that has been swallowed up by the abyss within.

In order to keep the desks and students organized, I call on the "Desk Fairy."  The Desk Fairy randomly appears (when the students are out of the room, of course) and does a desk check.  If the desk is clean and organized, the fairy leaves a little note on the desk and a prize of some sort.  If the desk is not neat and organized, then the fairy leaves a little reminder note that she knows the student can do better for next time.

I've not had much of a problem with students not getting prizes.  The ones that don't always try a bit harder for next time and end up earning their prize.  It's pretty funny because the kids can't wait until the next desk check.  I keep it interesting by changing the times the fairy comes.  Sometimes she will come after school, sometimes she will come during special, and sometimes she will come during recess.

The other thing that keeps it interesting is the fact that she never announces exactly when she is coming.  I'll tell the class something vague, like "She'll be in next week."  That's it. When she comes, she comes.

Today was the first visit from the desk fairy.  The prize today was a trading card from one of the local university football teams.  You would have thought the students were given gold!  Next time, the prize may be a new pencil, stickers, squishy pencil grips, or any little thing that catches me eye.  The kids appreciate it and work toward the next time.  They learn to be more responsible for their things and you have neat desks.

Not a bad deal at all.

Day 7: Discipline Expectations

During the first few days of school you go over routines for everything from how to line up to morning routines, from restroom routines to end-of-the-day routines, etc.  Somewhere in the course of those few days you also go over behavior routines and expectations.

Before the first day of school I send out notes to my prospective students as well as separate letters to their parents.  In the parent letter I outline my behavior expectations in accordance to our school-wide discipline program and my personal expectations.  Our school-wide program has four basic rules:  Be safe.  Be prepared.  Be respectful.  Be responsible.  The discipline committee, of which I was a part, figured these four commands would be the basics that pretty much covered everything.

My personal expectations stem from the fact that I am somewhat old-fashioned, raised in a household where we said "Yes, ma'am/sir" and "No ma'am/sir,"  and knew how to say "Please" and "Thank you."   The words "Yeah," "Huh?" and "What?" were unacceptable.  We didn't talk back to our elders; that was a sure way to a righteous butt-warming.  We took care of our responsibilities or there were consequences.  We were respectful to others.  We were taught to leave an area a little better than we found it.  We learned that personal business is personal.

As a parent, I am raising my children to follow these principles.  As a teacher, I'm finding that more and more students are lacking in some of these things. 

When I send home my parent letter, I explain to parents that I expect students to be respectful, hardworking, and responsible for their actions.  I explain that I will hold students accountable for these things as well as their academics.  I go further to say that if these expectations are unrealistic, I can be contacted for discussion.  I've never had a parent contact me.

With all of that said, the first week of school is used not only to remind students of the school-wide plan, but what I will and will not accept as proper behavior in my room.  Aside from the "Yes ma'am/sir" (They say "Yes.") and the "No ma'am/sir" (They say "No."), I hold them to the principles I learned as a child.

I do not yell at my students; in fact, I rarely raise my voice.  I state the offense matter-of-factly and move on.  I find that it's harder to argue with a tenet that is already in place. 

Case in point, I had three children move their clips today for talking.  I had already told the children to stop talking on two occasions.  The third time was a strikeout, clip moved.  I simply said, "_____, please move your clip to yellow.  I've asked you twice today to stop talking."  End of story.  Done.  No long tirades.  No lecture.  Fact stated; consequence given.  And we moved on.  Message received.

During the first two weeks I give my students two reminders before moving clips because I figure they are learning the routines the first week and the second week they may need reminders after the Labor Day holiday.  Come the third week of school, there are no more reminders.  I figure they should know by then.

When parents come for Parent Night, I reiterate my expectations.  That way there is no confusion when little Johnny or Sally comes home with a note in his/her planner.  (We use district-issued planners in my district.  The students copy their homework and reminders into their planners.  They also copy their behavior color for the day. (Each color is a different level of behavior.  Green=a perfect day, Yellow=5 minutes off of recess, Red=10 minutes off of recess and a think sheet that must be signed by parents, and any color below (Pink, Blue, or Purple) equals no recess and varying levels of conferences between myself and parents and/or the principal.)  Copying of the behavior color is not part of the school-wide plan, but I use it as an accountability tool for the students.  I figure, if you did it, own up to it.

Now this is not to say that I'm a witch or a tyrant and that we don't have fun.  On the contrary.  Once the expectations are given an reinforced, we actually have more time to do the fun stuff.

Overall, I have a good bunch of children.  There are a few that I will need to "sit" on because of talking or being very social.  I have found over the years that being consistent in my expectations and consequences helps curb the unwanted behavior and we can get more accomplished.

What about you?  What are your expectations for your students?  How do you go about keeping an orderly room?
   

Day 6: Off and Running!

Today was the first taste of what is to come, and I must say, the kids were a bit surprised.  It's always hard to explain how much expectations change from first grade into second grade.  However, once the work starts, it's obviously clear.  Case in point: I always give a "plan for the day" as soon as announcements are over just to let the children know what to expect during the course of the school day.  The practice also helps eliminate questions from the more patience-challenged students in the class because they've already been told what to expect.

Student work starts as soon as they walk through the door.  After making their lunch choice, putting their take-home folders in the bin, and getting unpacked, there is a list of morning work on the board.  The list always starts with the Daily Edit (talked about in an earlier post), and contains about two more items.  These items vary between a math box, journal, practice book page, etc.  Students have until the announcements are over to finish; any unfinished work is to be done during free time.

After morning work, announcements, and the plan for the day we jump right into Language Arts.  Today spelling lists and homework was assigned, a new reading theme was started, a writing activity was done, and some preview work for our story was done.  Somewhere in there was a read aloud, done during snack time.  This was followed by recess.

After short recess, we went over the daily edits; there were two because there was no school yesterday.  Then we were on to lunch. 

Following lunch was another quick read aloud before we dashed off to special.  After special we had Content, where we read about and discussed the purpose and history of Labor Day, as well as what other countries celebrate.  (I just didn't have time on Friday with all of the routines and character education lessons.) 

Math followed Content. Since we are in a review of skills unit, we covered coin values, counting strategies for money, and read a short story about the history of money (I am a big fan of having math stories for reference!).  Then we were out to long recess.

The students were surprised at the amount of work we were able to get in today.  Not that they don't work in first grade, but the level of work and the execution of the work is different.  Learning how to work with a partner without relying on me for step-by-step-by-step directions is something we are working on.  We are also working on reading directions at the top of the page and following those directions.  We are working on being able to look back in the text to find responses and support.  We are working on managing time to get things done in a timely fashion.

It's like being a magician.  Under my guidance, day by day, bit by bit, they will get it.  It's always neat to see the surprise on the students' faces and in their confidence levels when they realize how much they can do by the end of the first quarter, not to mention by the end of the year.

Just watch me work my magic.

Day 2: Routines

Today we were ready.  The students came in, made their lunch choices, and got to work.  I only had to remind a few about turning in their take-home folders.  I had to remind most of them to work QUIETLY!

We buzzed through the morning, reviewing reading comprehension skills in language arts in order to apply them to a short story we are reading in parts this week.  We also reviewed how to take a spelling pretest and check over the words.  (My program has leveled spelling lists each week, and the pretest helps me determine which list to give each student for the week.)  I had to remind students to number down the side of a page, and to not skip random lines while doing so.  I can see I will need to model that a few more times this year!  Tomorrow they will learn about the spelling homework policies.  Took a bathroom break and reviewed those rules.  By then it was time for short recess (15 minutes), where I had duty.

After recess we reviewed our Daily Edit.  Some of you may call it Daily Language Practice or something similar.  Ours is assigned as part of morning work (the first thing done each day), and is comprised of four pages.  The first involves phonics skills and proofreading simple sentences, the second has a vocabulary word of the day and two analogies, the third had five mixed math problems, and the last is a logic problem that needs to be drawn out to be solved.  It takes the kids a while before they get the hang of it, so we do them together for the first week.

Lunch follows Daily Edit, which is then followed by a short read-aloud.  Today's was Ruby the Copycat by Peggy Rathman.  Very cute story about being yourself.

Special today was Computer.  We don't have an official computer teacher, so I went over the expectations of the lab and what types of projects we will be working on this year.  Then I assigned seats and let them explore some links on the PBS Kids website.  (I like WordGirl and Martha Speaks for vocabulary, Cyberchase for math, Between the Lions for phonics and reading, and SuperWHY! for problem solving.  Dr. Seuss stories will be available once the show airs next week.  I plan to use that link as well.

After that, we took the first half of the beginning-of-the-year inventory.  It's actually the end of the year test the students took in first grade, but we give it again at the beginning of second grade to look for gaps and help us plan.  Then it was on to long recess (30 minutes).

During long recess (no duty this time), I wrote out a thank you for another giraffe added to the classroom, wrote a note to another parent about snack, and checked/read the 14 e-mails that were waiting for me.  Then it was time to pick the class up from recess.

We got drinks (It was another 90-plus degree day today.), copied reminders and behavior colors for the day (more on that later), got planners signed, checked mailboxes, packed up, and listened to poems from the book The New Kid on the Block by Jack Prelutsky.

I got through dismissal with no missed buses or lost children! (Woohoo!)

After school I went to the doctor for a pain I've had in my right knee for about a week.  Turns out, I have a slightly torn meniscus.  (I think I tore it when I stepped off the curb and landed in an awkward position.  That was during a car wash for my church's youth ministry on the 21st.  The same car wash where I proceeded to bend and squat drying cars for several hours.  Oh, and I guess moving furniture around my classroom last week in order to get ready for this week didn't help matters.  Oh well.)  Thankfully, I don't have to wear a leg immobilizer--you know, one of those brace things that go from your calf to your hip.  (Can you imagine chasing after 19 second graders in one of those things?!?  I actually laughed when the doctor mentioned it!)  I just need to elevate it at home, ice it, and take some Motrin to take the swelling away and help the healing process.

Well, well. Tomorrow's another day.  Let's see what it brings.