A Little Validation

We just finished our winter benchmarking in my school district.  I can't say I really enjoy doing these assessments, since they take instructional time away from my math and literacy classes, but I do think about the information I get from these assessments and consider what they say about my students' growth and my own instruction.

I don't rely only on the numbers from the benchmarking; I know kids are more than numbers.  I value the information I gather in my classroom every day - the authentic assessment I get from talking to kids about their thinking in literacy and in math, looking at student work, and standing back and observing the interactions and work habits of the 18 young learners who cross my path daily.

The numbers, though, provide validation.  They reinforce that something's going right in room 301.

When I sit back and think, I know that these are the things that are right:

• My students read - A LOT.  Kids who at the beginning of the year did not identify themselves as readers are now begging for more time to read throughout the day.  They have too many books for their book bins, so books are often stacked on top of their desks, so they always have the next book ready (they might have noticed the stacks of books on my desk and filing cabinet).
• My students read widely.  At the beginning of the year, most of the kids were gravitating to my graphic novel collection.  Dogman was popular, so were the Amulet books.  Raina Telgemeier's graphic novels (including the graphic versions of The Babysitter's Club novels) got passed from hand to hand.  Then they moved on to Diary of a Wimpy Kid to Tom Angleberger's Origami Yoda series.  Now about half of them are reading their way through the Harry Potter series and a few have started on Percy Jackson.  I have one girl who has read Wendy Mass's entire collection for middle graders and is now on to Sharon Draper's middle grade books and Linda Mullaly Hunt.
• My students read what they want.  Students will often ask me to help them book shop.  They know I love books more than just about anything else.  I never tell them what to read.  Instead, I ask them questions about what they're in the mood for and what kind of book they want.  Then, I pull a stack of books from the baskets and bins and we talk.  Most of the time, the kids will take three or four back to their reading spots and they choose from there.  They also ask each other.  I love hearing kids talking by the library bookshelves, making suggestions for their friends.
• My students don't do worksheets.  We talk about books.  They share their thinking about the books they read with me in conferences and in their weekly "write long" assignment.  I know they are growing as readers by seeing how their writing and talking about reading has changed since September.  
• My students write.  At any given time, I have students writing a variety of different things outside of our genre studies. Kids are writing collaborative stories in GoogleDocs.  Students are writing graphic novels. Students are researching and writing informational books on their own.  I have two girls who have a "business" (their word - no money changes hands) called Tiny Stories by Michelle and Morgan; they write short stories for other kids in the class who commission them.  They have a checklist of themes they write around.  It's the cutest!
• My students see the connection between reading and writing.  They know that if they want to know how to do something as a writer, the answer lives in our classroom library.  They have seen me go back into a favorite text to see how an author wrote a sentence or described a character and then try it out in my own writing.  They do this as well.  

I don't take full credit for these things.  I'm lucky to work in a school district that shares my vision for what a literacy block should look like.  These kids come to me having been exposed to the workshop model since kindergarten; many were good readers and decent writers when they walked into my room.

I do, however, think that my passion for words and books has permeated my classroom.  The kids know I see them as readers and authors, and they have come to see themselves that way as well.  They know words matter and that books are windows and mirrors that can help us learn to live our best lives.

Now... if only I could get this passionate about math!

Left at Home

This morning I got to school early so I could take care of some tasks before my grade level team meeting.  I entered my room, went over to my desk, and began to unpack.  When I reached into my purse to get my phone out, I realized I left it at home.  Eh... I thought, no biggie.  I don't really use my phone at school anyway.

As the day wore on, I realized that I DO use my phone at school, more than I thought.  I take pictures throughout the day to capture the ins and outs of my classroom.  Some of these pix I tweet from my classroom Twitter account during my plan periods.  Some of them will end up in my Friday newsletter.  Some of them will just live on my computer for a while, bringing back great memories of my first year in third grade.

There were several times I reached for my phone to take pictures.  But I most regretted leaving it at home when I took my kids out into the March sunshine for an extra recess before dismissal.  We were the only class on the playground.  Several girls were playing a strange tag game that involved a tennis ball and lots of screaming.  A group of boys was playing "American Ninja Warrior" on the monkey bars.  Another group of girls was hanging out on the swings.  Other boys were climbing on the slides. It would have been great to capture these unguarded moments, these opportunities to just be kids on a playground.

On the other hand, since I didn't have my phone to filter my view of the kids, I saw things I don't get to see in the classroom.  I saw which kids actually play together, which ones move off away from the group to have some quiet time, which ones actually play alone but alongside their peers.

I was also able to think back to my own days in third grade, to the games I played on the playground at Abraham Lincoln Elementary School.  I seem to remember playing a lot of kickball in the field behind the school.  Dodgeball on the front blacktop.  Jumprope.  Tag.  Many of the same things my students are playing more than 30 years later.

So yeah, I felt a little lost today, knowing my phone was sitting on the dining table where I left it after breakfast.

But I also felt a little found.

Teacher AND Learner

Today, kids across Illinois had the day off of school to commemorate Casimir Pulaski.  Don't know who he is?  You can read about this Revolutionary War general here.  In my school district, the kids are off, but the teachers have an inservice day.  This year, we started the day with a whole-district presentation about supporting students with anxiety disorders in the classroom.  It was interesting and informative, but it certainly wasn't interactive.  The presenters left about two minutes for questions.

Following that presentation, the elementary teachers left and went to another building to have EdCamp D28.  I was on the committee that organized this day, and I was a bit nervous going in.  I don't know of many of my colleagues who have attended an EdCamp, and I wasn't sure how the day would go.  As a committee, we made the decision to pre-fill part of the schedule by asking teachers ahead of time for session ideas.  We had about 18 different options, which was great!

Our district places a high value on student voice and choice in our classrooms, and it was awesome to see that value reflected in our PD day.  As I moved through sessions, it seemed some teachers were more comfortable with the "unconference" aspect of EdCamp than others, which is to be expected for the first time.  I hope our district will do more days like this, so that teachers will feel empowered to make choices about their own professional learning.

I plan on wearing my "Team 28" tee shirt with pride throughout the rest of this school year.  I think it sends an important message about who I am.  I am a teacher AND a learner.  I think that is one of the things that keeps teaching fresh for me after 23 years.  I seek to learn something new every.single.day.  People who know me know I own almost every literacy-based book in both the Heinemann and Stenhouse catalogs (and I'm making a dent on the math ones).  I love going to conferences to learn from not only the big guns in the ed world but also everyday classroom teachers.  I love participating in Twitter chats to get new ideas and challenge my own thinking about what I do in my classroom every day. I love participating in labs that take me into colleagues classrooms.

Maybe that's part of the reason I became a teacher.  If I teach, I never have to leave school!  I can continue to be surrounded by books and pencils and markers and kids and other adults who are just as nerdy as I am.

I am a teacher and a learner.
And I hope that never changes.

Pizza Night

Tonight was pizza night at the Rench Ranch.

I realized last night when I was making the grocery list that we had not made homemade pizzas since we moved into this house.  Boboli pizzas, yes.  Delivery, too often to mention.  But not for real made-from-scratch dough pizzas?  Nope.

One reason I've put off making pizzas is the fact that my kitchen is short on counter space.  In the old house, I had a huge island where I could roll dough and put out all of the toppings.  Not so in the new house, but I've learned how to make things work when I need to.

My kids certainly didn't mind standing at the stove to put the toppings on their pizzas.  Neither did I.

I love these nights when we are all in and out of the kitchen.  Dinner certainly isn't a chore when everyone is laughing, music is playing, and I have a nice glass of red at my elbow as I roll out pizza dough.  Even better, we each have our own pizza, so we can customize them as we please.

Here's mine:

Pepperoni, sausage, olives, and mushrooms.  All of my favorite toppings.

Saturday night dinners at our house are casual.  I don't go out of my way to make over-the-top dishes.  Sometimes we just have noodles and red sauce or waffles or scrambled eggs and bacon.  I figure I cook healthy, balanced meals at least five nights a week, so I can take it a bit easier on Saturday nights.

I also know that these Saturday nights when we are all four at home to share stories and laughter around the dinner table are numbered.  Molly is a sophomore, Abby a seventh grader.  Before I know it, they will be out of the house, making lives of their own.  I hope they will take some of these family traditions and recipes with them as they do.

And I hope they remember they will always have a place at my table.

Friday in Third

Friday afternoon in third grade is a world away from Monday. Today my kids were super chatty all day, and not in that good "I'm excited about my learning" way.  They couldn't keep their hands to themselves.  As we walked through the hallways, our line looked more like a giant anaconda than the straight quiet line our hallway expectations posters ask for.  They kept falling off of their chairs; it didn't matter if the chair was a regular chair, a wobble stool, or a yoga ball.  We all know that once one kid slipped off the chair at least five more were sure to follow.  It's funny.

I didn't think it was funny.  I was annoyed.  As the day went on, I could feel my patience slipping away.  I could feel the sarcasm creeping into my brain, and I had to actively stop my mouth from letting sarcastic, zinging words past my lips.  During my afternoon prep, I didn't make myself work.  Instead, I sat in my classroom and just let myself BE.  I scrolled through my Twitter feed.  I read a National Geographic Kids magazine.

On Mondays, I am energized, ready to go for the week, my head full of plans.
On Fridays, I am spent, energy exerted, my head full of wishes for a weekend of quiet and relaxation.

Of course, as a mom of a teenager and an almost teenager, a wife, and a homemaker, my weekends are rarely full of quiet and relaxation.  Tonight I will begin to tackle my weekend to-do list:  menu plan for next week, make the grocery list, tidy, vacuum, laundry, lesson planning.  There's always a list, and there's always at least one thing that doesn't get done.  And I'm ok with that.

Because I will take some time for me this weekend.  That might look like binge-watching some episodes of Downton Abbey.  It might be a nap on Saturday afternoon.  It might be finding a book to lose myself in.  It will definitely involve conversation, laughter, and at least one glass of wine.

Because I have to recharge.

Because I have to be energized, ready for the week, my head full of plans on Monday.