End of Summer

Summer officially ends in September, but for many teachers it ends on their first contracted day. For me, that day is tomorrow. I'll be in my building today doing a small amount of prep, but I won't stay long. My other strategy is to get in early, as I did all of last year. We aren't contracted until 8am, but I would arrive at 7:15 because I'd leave early enough to beat traffic. I'll continue that this year, including the first few contracted days. There is something to be said for peace and quiet in the building!

Poor Examples

One of the big things I found out this past year is that you need to provide multiple examples in your teaching. These examples need to adequately show what it is you are trying to teach. Examples certainly can be powerful and influential.

I say all of that because of an article I read in the NEA Go! (new teacher magazine). I have had it sitting on the kitchen counter for a while now, only flipping through it today as my coffee finished brewing. One of the articles was about Technology, and whether some of the "gadgets" were necessary in our current economic times. I certainly understand the question (Are expensive tech gadgets necessary?), and believe it should be asked in conjunction with the question, "how will it be used/integrated in (into) my practice?"

Where this particular article fails is in the examples it provides. Certainly a Smartboard/Activboard is an ineffective, and overpriced tool if you only use it to go around the Internet with your kindergartners. Instead, how about talking about the big book that is typed on your activeboard? Kids can then recite with you, they can search for words (or words with particular letters/sounds) and highlight them, or they can draw a picture in the margins to show what they visualize. What about shared writing where kids handwriting is turned from scribbles into print (yeah, it can do that).

There are a myriad of things you can do. I use mine to manipulate maps, play video prior to having kids to analyze text (and highlight/note in margins), create shared writing, demonstrate non-fiction reading strategies, and a variety of other things. Sure you can teach without technology, but I'm not sure that fully prepares students for the world they are going to be a part of.

Great Series

This afternoon I finished The Last Olympian, the final book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. At first I resisted the series. My prior experience working in a bookstore where parents got angry when the Harry Potter book wasn't released (not our fault, talk to JK Rowling!) made me resist. I was put off by popular series'. But now that I teach 5th grade, it isn't an option any more. I need to read what the kids are reading, being fluent and immersed in their world.

I will also admit that I strongly dislike hardcover books. I prefer tradepaper, finding it easier to tote around and a cheaper alternative. That wasn't an option in this case, as it isn't scheduled to be released in paper until January and I'd like to finish the series before school starts.

All that being said, whoa! I was engrossed in the final chapter of this series, thoroughly enjoying the wall to wall action throughout. I was also looking for answers to a myriad of questions. What would happen to Percy and the prophecy? Would Luke be destroyed by the Titan lord Kronos? How would Nico's situation with his father, and exile from camp be resolved? I had a myriad of other questions as well, as those are merely some of the larger questions at hand.

I was impressed. The Last Olympian was not entirely predictable (some predictability is needed in kids books, keeping them interested and pulling them along). It balanced predictable ends with turns that you didn't quite expect. Rick Riordan answered a fair number of questions, while also leaving the door open for a future half-blood series (in the notes it mentions the conclusion of the "first" camp half blood series). I also think it successfully showcased all of the characters and their growth (in the book, and series). It was well worth my time this summer.

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Going forward, I still have a few more books to tackle. I am in the midst of the Phantom Tollbooth, a book I haven't read but wish I had. I also would like to tackle City of Ember (DuPrau), and Hesse's Out of the Dust. By then I imagine our staff development days will have started, and my summer reading will have slowed to a crawl.

Changing the Way I Plan

I genuinely enjoy planning. It is a chance to decide how you'll get from A to Z, and what you'll see along the way. For me, planning has been about yellow legal pads where I can just write down whatever comes to my mind. The biggest problem with that is I often don't refer back to it, letting it sit and fade into the page.

Instead I am using OneNote to do my planning. I wasn't completely sold on the program at first, not really seeing how an electronic binder would help my instruction. But after a conversation with a colleague at my writing training last week, I decided to try planning using it. Why? I can refer back to my work (and not worry about which notebook it is in). I can make lists of what needs to be checked off and done, and I can embed my assessments directly into the document. So much easier! Below are two of the screenshots from my work thus far...

Towards the bottom I have the Writing GLE's so that I can open the document without having to search for them. Additionally I have placed images of the Writing Power Standards for our district, making it easier to view as I am planning (what standard does this relate to again?)

Above is an image from one of the units, particularly my launching the writing workshop section. I've taken the information from my Units of Study book and made it my own. Highlighted information is stuff I need to go back and fix as I go forward (what I am going to write about as I demo, etc).

Wax On, Wax Off

I made the trek to school today, a wonderful 25 minute jaunt because it wasn't rush hour. When I arrived I nearly had a heart attack. The floors were being waxed, common for this time of year in schools across the country. What in the world was I going to do? Thankfully my room opens to the outside, and the door was unlocked (courtesy of our janitor! so great!).

I was able to get quite a bit done today. When I left last week they were getting set to re-wax the tile area in my room, which needed to cure before I could move anything. That was all set, so I was able to scoot desks, tables and computers around. I moved our computers back to where they were, taping their Ethernet cords to the wall so that they are mildly inconspicuous. I unflipped the desks that were in a giant cluster, putting them into some approximation of what my classroom will look like. I was also able to return some of my instructional materials (teaching guides) that I won't need to look at in the next two weeks (at least not at home, as some of those are still in the home office). Novels were also moved on top of one of the bookcases, creating another shelf since a majority of them will sit there until used for my various novel studies.

What are the next steps? Getting the physical space looking good is a great start. Next is making notes about what content I will teach, and how I want to teach it. I also need to look at the sequence so that I am sure it makes sense. I'll make other adjustments once the year gets rolling, but you need to start somewhere.

I am using the tool which I am using for my novel study summaries, OneNote, for my curriculum planning. Instead of oodles of notebook paper that I won't refer back to, I have a document that I am excited to add and revise to. I am using a new OneNote document for each curricular area that I teach (Reading, Writing, Social Studies), with different tabs for expectations and units. Thus far I couldn't be happier.

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.

Organize and Save

The image shows my personal experiment with OneNote. I have create a notebook with my novel study books. I knew that I wanted a place to write down summaries and questions that I could use in discussion groups or as reading response. I had previously thought about creating a Word document to store all of this information. The major problem with that is ensuring it isn't cumbersome. I want to be sure that I can go back and refer to my notes, even if I don't utilize the questions I have written down. My hope is that it will save a little bit of my planning time. You'll never guess the trouble of ensuring you've read all 4-5 books in your novel study, while also being sure you've got all of your other reading (instructional materials, social studies, current events) taken care of!

In the future I think I will include tabs for different book groups, grouped by genre or category. I've started a Genre tab, but it falls short in some of the sorting capabilities that Excel has. I have a different document in Excel that has all of my multiple copy books (or most... well, many). I can sort it by title, author, number of copies, or approximate reading level. It isn't perfect, but it definitely helps out with some of my planning.