How to balance...

I struggle with blogging. I want to. I do. Blogging using the blogger app helps, but doesn't eliminate my one impediment. Time.

I don't have the time I used to. Trying to balance teaching, parenting, and running is a challenge. Three full time jobs really. So some things have been cut out, at least temporarily. Blogging is one of those things.

But I resolve to be consistent. Every Monday - with a promise that if I can do more I will. We just started a wiki project where we are building biographical pages for explorers that came to North America. I love the project based work because it hits a number of items and has built in value- kids want to work through it, and they want to work on the tech stuff. Win win.

I promise to do better. It is good for me to talk it out.

Groups That Run Themselves

I'm trying something new for round two of literature circles/novel study. Instead of imposing page limits per week I'm going to turn control over to the book groups. Previously I'd assign 30-70 pages to be read over the course of the week. Some of that was during social studies and some of it was assigned as homework. This time is a little different.

I'm ceding control for a few reasons. The first is the length of this study. We are going to cruise through our books in 8-9 days. Instead of 2-3 weeks we are condensing it a bit, and more of the reading with happen in class. The second reason is because of how quickly they read. With some kids crushing, and understanding books in 2 days or less I needed to try something different. That leads me to my third and final reason...

I want kids to have more ownership over the process. They need to feel like a part of the process. It doesn't make a big difference if they are chapter 3 or 6 by the time they meet. They will all finish by the end of our schedule. But giving them a chance to decide as a team creates a bit more buy-in, and more ownership over the process. What I need to devote myself to is being sure to provide 15-30 minutes for 3 group meetings... Tough to cede valuable time, but it should be worth it.

True But Useless

I've been wrestling with the Steven Johnson video about "where good ideas come from" all week. I watched his TED talk, found here, and rewatched his "innovation" video. I've also had some conversations with colleagues about innovation, as well as some of the technology content (and lack of time to teach it). The thing that has started to come into focus is that the notion of "not enough time" or "lack of time" is true but useless. It is true that we have a finite amount of time. It is also true that the abundance of standards makes teaching each one thoroughly a virtual impossible.

All of that is useless to me though. I am not going to invent an extra hour. The likelihood that I am going to become vastly more efficient is slightly unlikely, although some gains are to be expected (with practice comes some success). Instead I need to change my mindset. I know kids need to have conversations, as well as share their work with peers. Those things take time, and I wouldn't say that I found that time to be worthwhile previously. I thought that sharing a powerpoint or photostory was cute, but non-essential. There just isn't enough time to make that happen! Or is there?

Instead of worrying about time (that is useless! and even more time-consuming), I opted to place a focus on presenting our work and providing feedback. We had a hard and fast deadline for presenting our explorer presentations. They were due on Tuesday, and I had kids that needed additional time due to their own pacing, etc, stay in to work on them during their recess times. Once we started presenting, kids wanted to stay in to finish (there were only a handful of them). I placed an emphasis on all that wanted to present could, and those that opted out had the option of opting in later on if they wanted to. We were going to provide feedback that was positive and constructive, with an email going to each presenter with that feedback.

What happened? Kids became hypermotivated. There were some who wanted to be involved right off the bat. Others less so, but many jumped at the chance after seeing a few of their peers. Others wanted to go back and edit to improve their work after seeing the work of their peers. I would say that 90% of kids wanted to present their work. The feedback provided was largely helpful, usually specific, and aimed at the student work. My fear was that they would present and it wouldn't be useful for anyone. Instead it turned into an opportunity. This was the first step in a much larger process of slowing down and placing an added value on the peer conversations that will help lead us forward.

Too Much!

I ordered the Units of Study for Reading at the start of March. I've been looking for some other materials to help me get my head around how I organize my literacy time. I combined Social Studies with novel study and our Houghton Mifflin materials. But I have always felt that the time is disjointed. My concern is that using either of the above materials too much ends up tilting the needle too far away from something that needs to be incorporated (i.e. lots of social studies means no fiction; lots of Houghton Mifflin means less authentic reading time AND too little authentic non-fiction).

Well the Units of Study arrived. As excited as I was to receive it, I was also overwhelmed. I've already got my assessment book to read, not to mention the class I need to attend. But I'm also leading our tech training on Friday, which gives me a little pause- you want to do well, but nerves always set in to some degree. Lastly, I have a project I want to get off the ground on Monday, so my available time has diminished significantly. If only there were more time!

Two Weeks, Really?

This has been my first summer off in many, many years. I realize how odd that sounds, as most people don't actually have summers off. That being said, I actually haven't taken much more than 2-3 days off (even during breaks, this year aside) since high school. While I have a planner, I really haven't opened it or looked at the calendar section (aside from planning my running/racing schedule).

Seeing two weeks of summer remaining is mortifying. Saying "I've got time" or "I'll do that tomorrow" is out the window, and it is replaced by "I should have done that yesterday." While I don't necessarily feel behind the eight-ball, I do sense the crush of the school year coming. The beginning of the school year work needs to get planned, and not simply the curricular work I have been focused on.

There is no time like the present.

It's Been Too Long

Has it been 6 weeks? It has indeed. In all honesty I've simply been lazy, not in the mood to write. What has happened in the meantime? Spring Break came and went. Our focus groups for state testing came and went. State testing has come... and is almost done, with one more day and some makeups to be done.

April made a few things painfully obvious...

First was that I should have started our novel study months ago. The switch was flipped for many of our kids as they started to get engrossed in really good literature. Accompanying that was a fact/question/response log (FQR) that grabbed question stems from the standards and put them to use in responding to literature. Kids got a chance to show comprehension of literature, analyze elements of literature, and experience how quality children's authors write. I wish I'd started in the fall, but will need to settle for taking that knowledge into next year. Additionally I'll pour more money into book sets published more recently.

Second takeaway was how beneficial targeting students can be. This is a no-brainer, and is done by countless teachers on a daily basis. I've done this as well, but I've seen the payoff of late. There are times when the loudest, or the most disruptive, can monopolize your time, making teaching less about the 20+ kids in the room and more about those 1-2 children. But at some point you need to focus your resources to impact those kids that might be lost under the loud or disruptive, the kids that might more comfortable not being pushed.

Lastly, you need to maximize instructional time and focus on your standards. There are so many things that will pull you away from instructional time, from concerts to art projects to god knows what else. As we hit April, I was constantly going "gosh, there isn't much time left between now and testing time" which is when they are expected to demonstrate proficiency in the standards. Time is a luxury you have in October, but less so in March/April. You need to use it wisely.

Race to the Top

As I am enjoying the sun shining through the living room window, I decided to flip through the upper reaches of the cable channels. In the 900's you'll find radio stations. I decided to see what was on KUOW, the local NPR affiliate out of the University of Washington. I really enjoy Weekday, when I get a chance to listen, and find Steve Scher to be a great host (ability to ask direct questions, let people speak, and keep the conversation moving).

This morning the program is called "Race to the Top." One thing that I found interesting, which piggybacks off of yesterday's posting, was the quote "there isn't a magic bullet. This isn't rocket science." The speaker mentioned the need for additional time, which I agree with somewhat. I certainly agree with the notion that we need to go into the summer, if for no other reason than the fact we aren't predominately agrarian anymore! What I wonder about is why we can't succeed within the time structure (daily) that we have currently? If you structure your time effectively, what prevents you from making the gains of those who are going 7-5? The other issue is that 7-5 inspires burnout in teachers. My September through December were largely 7-5 days, and I felt awful. Now it wasn't 7-5 with kids, but rather 7-5 with planning on the front and back end. Do I do that now? To a degree, but I leave by 4 or 4:30, and do additional time at home. Alas I digress.

Let it go

I finally worked my way through the bag of papers. They are complete, graded, marked in my spreadsheet, and sitting in folders to be picked up by the kiddos. Why did I carry them around? A perceived lack of time led to pushing it off. Then the more time that passed, the more guilt that built up. Eventually you need to release the guilt and make it happen. Otherwise the papers stay in the bag, and you retain the guilt.

More lessons learned during year one.

Meeting Goals

One of my goals for the year is to create an environment where students assess the quality of their own work. To do this, students will be involved in creating and utilizing rubrics. That was the goal that I wrote for myself back in Oct/Nov as part of our professional growth plan in the school district. Accompanying that was the benchmark that I attempt to implement at least 1 rubric within the first grading period.

This week was an opportunity to work on those goals, and see where we were with respect to progressing to meet them. Well I have used 3-4 iterations of rubrics for different assignments. I believe the students have found them useful, as they have given honest feedback about their work. Instead of simply saying "this is great" they will say "this is great because..." or "I think it was good, but needed to improve here..."

The trouble I have run into is returning work. I've struggled with that as a whole, in particular with respect to the rubric-ed items. Obviously that begs the question: why self-assess if you don't see the feedback in a timely fashion? That has been the question I've been pondering, as well as how I can be more efficient in the grading process?! My struggle is largely around ensuring that I give them feedback, record the information in my gradebook, then return it into their "Completed Work Folder." As a whole it just some stuff I am thinking about as I try to improve my practice.

Blinded by Science!

I have become increasingly enamored with teaching science. I was never a huge science person in high school or college, but do have a passion for learning. I enjoyed Physics, and I liked Biology and Chemistry because my friends were in the classes. As a whole though, science wasn't very memorable.

Ah, but now I am teaching science... and I love it. In fact I want more time for it. Lately we have had a whopping 35 minutes. (dramatic pause)... I know your head is a little sideways right now, or you are scrunching your face up into a nasty sour and confused look, as 35 minutes isn't enough! Tell me about it.

Today our 1st and 2nd graders got as far as gluing in their focus question (What do all living things need to live?), compiling a list of living things (including coyotes, trees, AND some non-living things accidentally) and drawing the living thing of their choice. They then drew the surroundings, and what it needed to survive. Things I learned...

• Pigs eat food (specifically garbage) and use mud so as not to burn their bodies
• Plants need food, in particular that Miracle-Gro stuff
• Lizards like water
• Oxygen is the forgotten, perhaps assumed, part of what living things need

Mr. Hanson, what is texture? Like, feeling?

Today was science for our 1st/2nd grade kiddos. In a nutshell, our goal was to learn that we can use properties (details) to describe things. We took our super duper describing skills to 4 different foods: oat cereal (cheerios), split peas, sunflower seeds, and macaroni.

How did they do? Awesome! We had some kinks (read further), and we didn't have enough time. Science has been pushed from a 45 minute block to a 30 minute-ish block at the end of the day. Can we do some of the work? Yes, but it makes the exploration, sharing and closure all very confined.

Kinks? After going over that we use all but one sense in science, our sense of taste, we had someone push the boundry. I am not so sure who has touched the materials, as they come from the district, so the issue is more one of safety than anything. Other kinks? Well I went through words that we could use for our describing (shape, color, texture, etc) but then failed to follow through and say exactly how we would get there... hence where the title comes from!

Alas the responses were awesome. We had descriptions like greenish, half-moon shaped, like a C, soft, smooth, bumpy, sounds harder than the others, like a bridge, felt cool, holey... Plus I had responses from just about everyone, and everyone was engaged.... Success! I just need more time...