They won't learn if you are stressed out, so calm down teacher!

Several years ago in Comal ISD,  I went to a training called Quantum Learning and I learned some things that continue to drive instruction in my classroom.  One lesson was that students don't learn if they are under stress. It is physically impossible for your brain to learn if it is in a stressful state.  I remember an example of people not knowing simple things like their birthday or address when they had just experienced a trauma (even though they weren't injured).  It was a great presentation where the presenter explained why and how this happened  and really made it clear to me how important it was to make my students feel safe, secure and supported.    I can't recommend it highly enough and would love to go through the training again myself.  For now, I just want to reflect and remember one of the most important things I learned.

There are days when I find myself among many stressed out teachers (shocking? no!) who are trying to cram every strategy they can at their students.  Keeping every second of every day full of instruction, constantly trying to cram in everything they need to know.  Now, I'm not trying to pick on these teachers.  They are extremely hard workers and do so much for students every day.  However, when I am around them too much, they stress me out.  I always feel like I'm not doing enough.  I need more games, more mini lessons, more activities, more task cards and more work for my students.  However, more isn't always more for me.  When I try to mimic their teachings, I find myself throwing work at my students and rushing them.  Feeling like we aren't getting to it all.  Feeling like if I don't do every activity that they do, I'm somehow failing my students.  Somehow making them fail.  Now, I don't know about you, but feeling like I'm failing stresses me out. I'm not necessarily nice when I'm stressed out.  I don't make my students feel their most safe and secure.  So..... I find that I'm the best teacher when I give my students the time they need.  I have to pick the activities we do carefully.  Maybe I do the ones I did last year (because they are already made and I know how to use them).   Maybe I pick a few from the wonderful strategies that I see these miraculous teachers using.  Maybe I try and reuse a strategy that I have seen my students learn from this year and apply it to this new concept.  Whatever I do, I try and give it time to take effectiveness.  Seriously.  Sometimes all my students need is time.  In this microwaveable/ drive through dinner society headed from baseball practice to a piano recital, my students need time to let something sink in.  They need me to make them feel confident that taking this time doesn't make them a failure.  That they will learn what they need to learn and I will give them time do so.

Let's laugh.  Let's learn.  Let's enjoy each other.  Because they really are precious little creatures.  Many of them have only been on this Earth for 8 years.  Not nearly long enough to stress out or feel like they are failures.  They are good enough.  They are smart enough.  And my biggest job as their teacher is to make sure they know that about themselves.

My break has been so wonderful.  Being around my family (especially my daughter!) makes my heart happy.  I'm excited to go back to school tomorrow and hear about my students' travels.  I'm looking forward to this holiday season with them.  They will be excited.  I'm determined to enjoy their excitement. Mostly, I'm determined to let them relax and take the time they need to learn.
 

Third Graders Know How to Have Fun!

Every day is fun if you choose for it to be.  Children know this.  We need to remember this.  If given the opportunity to test soil samples with their fingers, third graders dive right in and enjoy it!  Seriously, all I had to bring in was a few piles of dirt and Science class was a blast for them!  Tell them to build a structure that will be tested by an earthquake and they embrace the challenge!  I watched them today and thought, wow, I would have looked at those marshmallows and spaghetti forever before I would try and put any pieces together.  I would be timid about my structure being placed on that jello and shaken.  I would be afraid it wouldn't stand the test.  But guess what?  I didn't see one student react that way.  They just started building, and testing and placing it on the jello and shaking. All with a smile on their face.  And when a structure fell, guess what? They just laughed.  And picked up the pieces and started again.  Wow.  That's powerful.

It's math time.  We are making arrays.  I had each child make an array.  Yawn.... boring, right?  No!  Bring in the stamp markers and each child gets a sticky note.  Voila!  It's a fun activity.  Seriously.  "Mrs. Simmons this is so fun!".

Do you know how funny it is to wear silly socks?  I don't know how, but I forget.  However, every year they come in giggling about wearing two different socks,and admiring each other for finding creative silly socks to wear for the day.  If only adults could find such delight in such simple things!

Nothing makes me feel funnier than hanging out with 8 and 9 year olds all day.  I tell the corniest jokes and repeat them way too much (just ask my biological children if you don't believe me). But, my students laugh at them every time!  Even when they don't get it- that's the best part.  They laugh because I'm laughing and they like to laugh!  I think the world needs more people laughing just because it feels good to laugh.

Let's just call math a game today.  Bring out a deck of cards, a spinner, or a dry erase marker and everyone starts smiling.  They will work problem after problem if it is a "game".  Why is it that when you try to make something a game for adults they just roll their eyes and get annoyed?  Third graders have the right idea.  If you have to do the work anyway you might as well enjoy it in a game setting!

You should see them at recess.  They waste no time at all.  They are happy the very minute they hit the door.  You can literally see the energy in the air just watching them line up.  I mean, these kids really know how to enjoy their free time.  They run, yell, jump, and swing without abandon.  They try new games, talk to new friends, explore their surroundings and soak up every minute of free time given to them.

I guess what I'm realizing as I write this is how blessed I am to be surrounded by these little mentors of mine.  I'm going to make sure and have fun tomorrow.  I hope you do too!


Here is a volcano they made as it erupted.


They are building structures to be tested by an "earthquake".

Here are the arrays we made in math.

To switch or not to switch....

Teaching 8 year old children is about relationships, innovation, relationships, scaffolding, relationships, differentiation, relationships, and did I say relationships?  I mean, lets all get real, they are little kids!  Can they do achieve higher level thinking? Absolutely!  Can they blow your mind with the fast pace at which they grasp a difficult concept?  Definitely!  Can they do any of these things if they don't feel safe and secure with their teacher?  I would say no.  This has been the fundamental basics of my teaching philosophy for the last 22 years.  I need to build a relationship with these children.  I need to set boundaries so they will all feel safe and secure.  I need to create an environment for students to freely share ideas without oppression where they can learn at their own pace without scrutiny from others.

 So- the first time I taught third graders  in a departmentalized situation, things didn't go so well.  I had taken a position to teach ELA/Social Studies to third graders and my switch teacher was teaching them Math/Science.  She and I spent little or no time planning together for our students.  We didn't discuss teaching styles, organization styles, or really anything else.  At the time, she was a much more experienced teacher than me, and I'll be honest, I don't think I ever really thought about it.  I was just worried about "my classroom".  Over time, it became a very difficult situation.  The students were carrying a lot of things back and forth (and therefore losing a lot of things), and trying to bounce back and forth between two very different teaching and discipline styles (and therefore too frustrated to learn as much as they should be).  I tried to build rapport with all of them and their parents, but it was difficult as I don't think they ever really had that "safe and secure" feeling all day. I was frustrated because I hadn't built a rapport with her and didn't really know how to make things better.  So I just kept going the best I could and made a blanket decision that 8 -9 year old students were too young to switch classes and should be in a self-contained classroom!

I did teach self-contained the next year and loved every minute of it!  I had a wonderful class, and I feel like we were all successful in our teaching and learning.  I wanted to teach in that position for a long time, but...... life had a turn.

We moved to a new city and I was extremely blessed to find a job teaching third grade at a wonderful school with a really strong team of teachers.  It was a departmentalized position, and this time I would be teaching Math/Science.  My switch partner and I had similar teaching styles and followed the patterns of others to help the students be successful in switching.  Things went well.  The students were happy, comfortable and successful.  However..... I knew we were losing lots of teaching/learning time with all the transitions and they were still losing things (frustrating!).

Since then, I've been at this school teaching for the last 7 years (including the first one I just told you about).  In that time, I'm now with my 5th switching partner (!) and have taught self-contained 2 years.  The first time I taught self-contained it was FABULOUS!  It was probably the most fun I've ever had teaching.  EVER!  I had the most wonderful group of kids and most of them came to me way above level.  Administration was very supportive, but let me "pilot my own plane" as you will, as long as things were going well.  And again, they were!

I had one very successful year when my switch teacher and I switched rooms instead of the teachers.  This idea was scary to both of us, but turned out to be pretty easy to do.  It involved she and I working together a lot and communicating well, but that was easy because we enjoyed each other a lot and built a wonderful friendship along the way. (which I have to say, seems to me one of the key pieces to success looking back).

In my other year of self-contained, I'm not going to lie, it was exhausting.  And stressful!  The state of Texas has pushed so many TEKS down to third grade and the demand is unbelievable.  Again, I'm still blessed to work in a wonderful school, but the expectations of teaching are HIGH!  I was at school by 6:30 most mornings studying my lesson plans, preparing anchor charts and strategy groups, guided lessons for math, as well as engaging and worthwhile independent math stations, setting up labs for Science, and never feeling quite ready when they walked in at 8.  We have meetings most days during our planning period, so after school I was grading, organizing and trying to make heads or tails before I left each day (usually I had somewhere to be as a mom by 5 or 6).  Taking work home and then trying to start over again.  It was hard for me to admit, but even though I had beliefs that self-contained was better for these young students,  and even though my students were very successful (they weren't an easy bunch),  I didn't want to do it again.

So here we are, in October.  I have a new switch teacher who is new to my school.  We became partners purely by the luck of the draw.  Every time, we talked to each other over the Summer, I became more excited about working with her.  She and I worked together to make sure that our students were hauling back and forth as little as possible.  She is great with the students.  Loving, firm, fun and demanding all rolled up in one.  She is easy-going about them slipping back in the other room to grab something, but keeps a disciplined group of learners working throughout the day.  She and I worked together to create a schedule where students switch right before specials and right before lunch (alleviating the poky little puppies who won't hurry to get to math!).  So far, it seems to be seamless.  The students are doing well.  I'm not frustrated.  My workload has been lightened and I feel so much more relaxed about being prepared for my day every day.  (I'm only there from 7-5 or so most days).

Maybe the question isn't to switch or not to switch, maybe the question is have you put your students in a position to be successful?

I'm wondering how I will feel about this at the end of this year, in 5 more years, and beyond.  What are your experiences?  Successes?  Growth opportunities?  I'd love to learn from you more ways to make my students successful!

Every day should be like a new at bat

I love back to school- the new markers, backpacks, pencils and scissors.  The excitement of getting to know my new class.  My room is set up and organized (let's be honest, that won't last).  I thrive on the excitement of a new beginning each August.  I hope my students do too.

I want to be positive, but what do I do when I'm given a student that is so clearly marked as a behavior problem? Or as an underachiever?   I'm always torn with how to best use the information from former teachers about my new students.  I want to use this form of data to drive my instruction, but I don't want to 'pigeonhole' a student into a pattern that they could and should break out of.  As I watch my favorite team, the Astros, on TV tonight, I'm struck that I need to give every child a fresh at bat.  Every day!

Each at bat is defined by itself for baseball players. Whether a player hits a home run, strikes out, or anything in between, he still comes to the plate next time with 3 strikes before he is out.  Now, I assure you that the pitcher uses the information about the batter to guide his pitching.  He won't pitch it to that same outside corner if the guy went yard last time on a pitch there.  And if he struck the batter out on a slider, expect to see a few more next time that same player is at the plate.  But, no matter what, the batter has a new fresh chance, EVERY SINGLE TIME!

I want to focus on this for my students.  I want them to show up everyday with an opportunity to hit a home run in my class!  Even if they struck out every day last week!  Or last month!  Even if the teacher from last year made notes that they misbehaved badly every day last year.  I want to use that information to guide me.  Can I find a pattern in their behavior?  Can I limit exposure to triggers?  Can I find a change to reinforce good behaviors before they have a chance to revert to bad habits?  Can I send a note to their parents about something they have done well?  How can I build their self-esteem?  What can I do to encourage them?

Most of the information given from past year teacher to current teacher is given for good reason.  I want to make sure that I use it in a productive way.  Baseball is fun.  School should be too.  My students are going to hit a lot of home runs this year.  And yes, they will strike out quite a lot too.  But that's ok, because next time they come to the plate, they will have a clean start.

Hope your school is off to a great start!  And... of course, Go Astros!

The ABC's of Student Engagement!

Teachers wear many hats- counselor, nurse, disciplinarian, teacher and so many more!  How can one person do so much at one time? How can you make sure your students are learning and growing, as well as following state standards and district curriculum while making parents happy and administrators happy with your job?  For me, the key is to focus on student engagement.  If my students are engaged, everything else falls in place.  My classroom manages itself, my parents are happy because their children are happy and learning, my administrators like what they see when they look at my classroom and my data, and I’m able to cover the curriculum required by the state and my district.  Really!  For me, here is how I work to keep my students engaged.  

ABC’s of student engagement

A – Activity    Keeping students moving is key!  The more you can have them moving, the more engaged they will be in an activity!

B-  Brain Breaks   Short brain breaks are key.  Here are some great ones that I like to use in my class when I see that glazed over look in the eyes of my students ( or hopefully before the glazed over look sets in!) http://www.thehappyteacher.co/2012/08/brain-breaks.html

C- Caring If your students know that you really care about them and that their success is important to you, they will “buy in” to your lessons and stay engaged. 

D- Dojo!  I love to use Class Dojo to keep my students engaged.  I find it is most beneficial when students are working independently and I am with a small group or conferencing one on one.  It is one of my favorite web tools!  Check it out at classdojo.com if you aren’t already using it- you won’t regret it!

E- Exciting It doesn’t take much to make your lesson exciting for your students.  If you are excited about the lesson, it will be contagious.  J

F- Flexible seating   I’m so intrigued in this idea!  For years, I have let my students move around the room and work where they want during independent working time, especially while I’m meeting with small groups.  They love the “power” of  they have to sit where and how they want.  I’m researching this concept online now (mainly through Pinterest and researching educational blogs) to build the choices and time used in flexibly seating in my classroom.

G- Growth Mindset  Help your students understand the power of determination, perseverance and learning.  For years, I used competition to drive my students.  While it worked for some, it didn’t work for everyone and in fact, it squelched the spirit of some of my students.  L  I still use it at times (very carefully) because I love it and some of my students thrive on it!  However, it is imperative that your students have a grasp of the “growth mindset” in order to have them still engaged even though they aren’t winning.  Check out the “Big Ideas” videos in Class Dojo for a great start to building this in your classroom.

H- Happiness   Be as happy as you can every day.  It is contagious.  Fake it til you make it.  Your life will be better, your students will love you, your coworkers will love you, and your students will be engaged and learn more.  It really is that simple.  J

I-Independence Students thrive on independence.  It takes time to build, but it is worth it!  You must set or review expectations EVERY time, hold students accountable and build on their growth mindset.  Keeping students engaged will build independent learners.  Isn’t that what we want?  Lifelong independent learners?  You must build it in baby steps. 

J-Joy  Find joy in your classroom!  Watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAmZucyzyZM if you are having a rough day.  A joyful teacher creates a joyful classroom where students are engaged and excited to come to school and learn!

K- Kindness  Be kind to your students, train them to be kind to each other, and always honor kindness shown to you or others.  Building a “kind” climate will make students feel safe.  If they feel safe to take risks and grow they will be engaged in learning!  The two may not seem connected at first, but believe me, they are!  If students are worried that others will make fun of them for failing, they will be more worried about others watching them than the lesson being taught.  You must create a “safe” climate in your classroom for authentic student engagement to occur.

L- Laughter  Laugh with your students and at yourself. See “K” and “H” to understand why!

M- Memories Share special memories with your students.  Listen to special memories that they tell you.  Getting to know your students and letting them really get to know you will build a trust amongst you that will enhance student engagement!

N- Notice   Notice what works in your classroom and what doesn’t!  Be flexible and change accordingly.  If you find an activity that your students love and work hard at, find a way to alter it for different skills.  Also, if something doesn’t work for you, don’t do it again!  You should reflect on  the WHY it didn’t work- maybe you could change it slightly, or maybe it just isn’t a good fit for your classroom.  You might even find that things that worked for one group of students, doesn’t work for another!  Or, sometimes students get tired of an activity and you have to mix it up!  Constant noticing and reflection is key.  Don’t feel defeated if you find that you have to change up an activity- instead, feel the opposite!  Embrace the growth mindset for yourself and understand that learning is a process.  As lifelong learners, we have to continue to change to grow!

O- Open Be open to ideas that are working for others.  Listen to your colleagues for successes they are having, have learning walks in your school to find new ideas that are successful. Always be looking to improve!

P- Procedures, procedures, procedures… If you haven’t read Harry Wong’s The First Days of School, read it!  If you haven’t read it in a few years, read it!  His advice is spot on!  You can find it here- https://www.amazon.com/First-Days-School-Effective-Teacher/dp/0962936022

Q- Quality  Make sure the work you provide for students is quality work.  Remember Bloom’s Taxonomy from college- it really is important to vary the level of questioning!  With quantity they become bored and unengaged.  They will learn more from practicing 10 quality problems than from 100 questions that are just pure monotony. 

R- Relationships Foster the relationships with your students and the relationships they have amongst each other.  Students will encourage each other when you build a classroom community!

S- SeeSaw My favorite app to use in the classroom.  My students are excited to share their work with me and their parents.  Students can make projects through other apps (some of my favorites are pic collage, tellagami, kidpix, book creator, imovie) or they can make a movie or explain their work with digital drawings in the app.  One of my favorite things is when they are doing a simple activity with dry erase markers or card sorts while I’m working with a small group.  In the past, I wouldn’t have been able to monitor that their work was quality in this type of activity.  However, when they post a pic of their work, their parents and I can see (and comment) on the quality.  This promotes engagement in independent activities.  To start a class account, go to seesaw.me

T-  Talking Research proves that the people who are talking the most are learning the most (as long as they are listening to).  Allow your students opportunities to talk to each other and to practice their academic vocabulary.  Students will be engaged in their conversations!

U-  Uplifting  Create an environment where all students are uplifting to each other.  They will follow your lead and your expectations.  Create a classroom where all students feel safe to share their ideas and questions and you will have a class of engaged students learning and growing together!

V- Variety The most exciting activity becomes mundane when repeated too much.  Watch for cues from your students to decide when to retire an activity.  Put it in your toolbox to use again next semester or next year, but don’t wear it out.  Use variety to keep students engaged.

W-  Wonder  Using “I wonder” statements can give students opportunities to explore their thoughts and delve into those higher order thought processes.  Once those levels of higher thinking are reached, students are hooked!  Their engagement goes beyond a superficial level and who knows where their thinking will take them!  Look for ways to give your students the platform for these types of “I wonder” statements!

X-  Xylophone   (ok, maybe not an actual xylophone), but incorporate a catchy song or two into your lesson and watch the whole class join in the fun!

Y-  You!  Be yourself, have fun and let your students learn a little bit about you and your life, family, etc.  If they know you, and you know them, they will listen to you and work hard for you!

Z- Zing  Put a little zing in your lesson with a song, catchy phrase, gesture, anything!  It doesn’t take much, but a little effort to put “zing” in your lesson