What are your students saying about you at the dinner table?

As a parent, I treasure those family conversations around the dinner table.  It is where we connected as a family and I learned about my children and spouse's day.  The vacations and the 'big" moments are fun, but I feel like it is those nightly meal conversations where we made our connections that will last forever.

Teachers- you need to know that you are in those conversations.  My children told stories about class.  They told me about funny things their teachers did, times they felt unfairly treated, and how their teachers reacted to stress and behavior issues in the classroom. 

I have also have had many parents tell me that their child tells them about me around the dinner table.  Often times, it is a story that I thought was something very incidental or some I can't even remember when they happened!  Sometimes they are about things I do all the time (sing silly songs, tell silly jokes, talk about my love for the Astros or the color purple) but it seems it is NEVER about the way I taught a concept! 

No matter how many hours I spend on building a lesson, tweaking my presentation and defining the objectives, that is NOT what they are going home and talking about.  That is not what is resonating in their mind.  Now, mind you, I do believe it is sticking with them!  I do believe that the work it takes to make an engaging lesson is worth it!  But, it is not what they will remember about you. 

However, I do believe that if you make positive connections through your actions, they are more open to learn those well developed lesson!  I've seen it work.  I've witnessed it in my own children.  The teachers that they loved to tell funny stories about are also the ones that I watched them grow in their expertise of that subject/ grade level.

Making connections works.  Have fun with your students.  Let them get to know you as a person.  Get to know them as a person.  They will talk about you at the dinner table regardless of how you treat them, but the tone of the stories is up to you!

Have a great week!

Treasure the beautiful moments!

A beautiful moment happened in my classroom the other day.   I keep reflecting on it and appreciating it.

We ended a unit last week, and the students had completed small research projects to share with each other.  They were allowed to choose their presentation piece.  Many chose Google slides shows, but some chose posters, iMovies, or just a prepared speech.  My teaching partner and I were happy with any of those choices, we just wanted them to be able to share their knowledge with their peers.  Now, we learned some things about the way we were teaching research, and we will definitely be helping our students learn to be better note takers in the future, but that is a different blog!  On Wednesday, we witnessed a beautiful act of kindness in our classroom!

The third graders were being chosen randomly, and 36 of them had presented.  They had listened to each other respectively and been a good audience.  (yes- we took a few brain breaks!)  The last boy was called and he had chosen to give a speech.  He stood in front of his peers, said the title, and began to "freak out" a little.  He began shaking his head and saying, " I can't do it.  I can't do it."  I went and stood next to him and put my hand on his shoulder, "Yes you can do it.  I'm here with you".  That didn't seem to help him.  My partner teacher said, "We are all here to support you, no one is judging.  We just want to learn from you. "  She and I continued to try and calm him and get him to present to no avail.  Suddenly a voice from the crowd, said, "what if we close our eyes?"  We said, "let's try it!" and 36 heads went down with hands covering their eyes. 

The student took a deep breath, and began.  He read the whole thing and they all looked up and clapped for him. 

I'm not going to lie.  I think a tear welled up in my eye.  The students went on to pack and clean up to head back to class for dismissal (as usual we were running late).  I just kept reflecting on that moment.

What if we hadn't listened to that voice from the crowd?

How did they know what he needed when I didn't?

I'm so glad they felt safe giving an idea.

I'm so glad that he felt safe accepting it and went on.

I'm so glad he has this triumph to remember next time he has to speak in front of a crowd and to build on this success.

I'm so thankful for those sweet children supporting him.  They could have been cynical, "we had to do it with people looking", but they weren't!

I'm going to keep that beautiful image in my bank of thoughts that I turn to when something is not going perfectly in class.  I'm going to treasure this beautiful moment.  I hope you treasure your beautiful moments too!

Teaching- it's worth it!

Being a teacher means loads of paper work, and lesson planning, and data and parent conferences, and grading, and and and and....

But- more importantly- being a teacher means hugs from so many students!

It means seeing someone at the grocery store and they run to say hi to you!

It means seeing a student from many years ago and they seek you out to talk to you and tell you how they are doing.

It means feeling like a celebrity on your birthday.

It means heartfelt notes of thankfulness for caring.

It means a license to be silly and laugh with your students.

It means continuing to learn with the challenge to reach every student.

and.and and.and.

So- if you're a teacher and you're reading this and you are frustrated because you have a meeting scheduled during your planning period every day this week- remember the hugs.

If you're so tired of grading papers that you can't keep your eyes open, (go to sleep!) and remember the student that came to see you and thank you for the help many years ago.

If you're at your wits end from a parent complaining, or making excuses, or not stepping up to help their child- pull out that handwritten note from last year thanking you for touching their child's life. And read it several times!

So many days, and weeks, and maybe even months are frustrating as a teacher....

BUT.... the perks make it ALL WORTH IT!

Remember, you are in the greatest profession!  Thank you for all the hard work you do for your students.  I know that is who you do it for!  You are making a difference.

Are you brave enough for self- paced learning?

Self-Paced Learning is scary.  Will my students stay on task?  Will they do quality work?  How will I know if they are learning?  

Self-Paced Learning requires intense preparation.  I have to plan what they will do? How they will do it?  How much time will it take the fastest person? And the slowest?  How will I hold them accountable for their learning?  How will I assess their learning?  How will I know what they are doing and when they are doing it?  How will I handle not having control?????

Self- Paced Learning is POWERFUL!!!!!

Let me say that again.  If you are brave enough to turn most of the learning pace over to your students, I think you will be AMAZED at what they can accomplish.  You will not believe how much they can learn and how fast they will learn it.  You will be in awe of how their confidence, passion and maturity will build as they become more adept at self-paced learning.  And you will find yourself more relaxed and the preparation will become much easier and more natural as you continue to move on. 

First- let me clarify.  Not everything can be self-paced.  When material is brand new, I think a teacher needs to present it.  There are also some activities that just don't lend themselves to self-paced learning.  Those should be continued to be taught by the teacher.  If you aren't demanding their attention all the time, you might be surprised how well they pay attention to you when you ask them to!  However, the more lessons you make self-paced, the more times you will find that you can make a lesson self-paced.

Here are some ways that I like to make work self paced in my classroom that have been successful.

1)  Nearpod- This is a great tool I highly recommend.  There are many free lessons that are awesome and many paid lessons as well.  You can also make lessons yourself.  Some Nearpod lessons work best as a whole group, but there is a student paced option that is often ideal for self-paced learning.  It makes it easy for you to keep students accountable for their learning.  They watch a short video or read a short article, then complete a drawing activity, short answer or multiple choice quiz, or any of the other variety of activities that you can monitor their progress on.

2) I have them read an article that I want them to learn about and have them do a Reader Response.  It could be as simple as a summary or even better is using a Bloom's questioning stem that will require them to apply what they learned.  

3) Quizizz- you can make a quiz to test them over anything you wanted them to learn.  It could be over a video they watch, an article to read, or something that you taught earlier and want to assess them over.  Once they have taken the quiz you can print reports for the whole class and/or individually as a formative assessment, or you can use the data as a an assessment tool.

4) Games- teach students a game in small group, then post it as a station for them to play over and over again to review a concept

5) Worksheet- any worksheet can be part of a self-paced student learning time.  Students can turn it in for a grade, for you to review, or take a picture and post it on Seesaw  (my favorite app!)   If you are interested in conserving paper, consider taking a picture of the worksheet and turning it into an activity on Seesaw.  Talk about engaging!

6)  And again- Seesaw- just have students take a picture of anything they do, or video a description of what they are doing and post it on Seesaw.  This will keep them accountable.  Not only will you be seeing their work, but their parents will as well, so they want it to be good quality!

Ok- so there are so many other options for self-paced learning- I hope I've got you thinking!  I'd love for you to give me some of your great ideas too.  I'm always looking for new ways to learn and grow.

When you begin self-paced learning;  

1) Expect that you will have to "call some kids out" for not doing quality work.  They will test your  accountability setups.

2) Expect that you will incorrectly estimate the time that activities will take sometimes.  It's ok.  Be flexible, adjust, take note, you will get better over time.

3) Expect that you will fail- something will not work at all the way you want it.  If you aren't failing sometimes, you aren't risking enough.  Without risk, you will never know how great you can be.  Your students will learn so much from watching you fail, and how you handle it. 

Be brave!  Let me know how self-paced learning works in your classroom!

Summer!

Summertime!  Every teacher and students favorite time of year!  I've already enjoyed some of my favorite Summertime activities:  hanging out with my best friend at her pool, watched my son play baseball (and win!), and stay in my pajamas til 11 am on a weekday morning.  I even took the time to use the Mother's Day gift certificate for a facial at a spa and it was FABULOUS!  It is nice to relax and finally get caught up on all that laundry.

But I have a confession, as relaxed as I have been, I can't stop thinking about school!  I'm so excited about next year!  I'm going to be a Gifted/ Talented teacher at my school and I'm really excited about this opportunity.  I've started looking at some organization options and have done a little shopping to add to my flexible seating.  I also spent over an hour talking to my new teaching partner today.  Without this Summer break, I wouldn't have all this time to process and prepare for the new year.

I love that we get to start over every August with a clean slate.  We can all be excited and ready to learn!

However, for now, let's enjoy Summer!  Enjoy the time to relax and recharge.  Do whatever you need to do to Hopefully, our students are recharging as well!

Team Planning is powerful!

I began teaching in Katy ISD in the Fall of 2010.  It was my 5th district to work in and my 17th year as a teacher and I felt like I was "well tuned" in my profession.  I had received glowing observations from administrators, my students had found success in standardized tests, my students had learned and grown and their parents had appreciated my efforts with their children.   However, I had no idea the surprises working with my new team at BHE would give me.  I had never planned as a team before.  Yes, I had worked with people that taught the same thing as me.  We would discuss topics and ideas we were teaching.  We would follow the general scope and sequence that the district would give us.  We would adhere to the TEKS provided by the state to guide our teaching.  But I would plan alone.  I would decide when I would teach a concept and how.  I would find activities, guiding documents, games, enrichment, assessments, etc. on my own.  Sometimes I would do a great job, and sometimes I would come up dry.  I would find myself in ruts at times, or I would spend countless time and energy creating something new.  I'm not the best at keeping up with documents from year to year so I would have to rely on my memory year to year (thank goodness I was younger!), or come up with new ideas each year.  Looking back, I really don't know how I did it.  I don't know how I kept up with it all.  Or did I?

Well, when I joined the team at BHE they were team planning.  I'm not going to lie, we didn't do it especially well that year.  I was overwhelmed at the idea of having to work so closely when I had held so much control over my teaching for so long.  It was hard giving that up!  We weren't efficient with our sharing and we had some different ideas about a lot of things.  We had several different teaching styles among the four of us and we had all been successful with our own styles.  They had never had someone so hard to work with as me before and perhaps the other new person on our team.  I think that they were used to people just saying "yes" to their ideas and what they had done last year.  It was nonnegotiable on our campus that we would team plan. Thank goodness we worked through the kinks that year.  We went on to be a great team.  None of those ladies are still on my team, but I still consider them all friends.

I feel my current team is powerful.  We are four veteran teachers of 10 years or more teaching experience each.  Our teaching styles vary somewhat, but I think that only makes us stronger as a team.  Here are what I believe makes a "powerful" planning team.

1.  A safe sharing environment- everyone's ideas must be accepted. We may not use every idea, but everyone's opinion is validated.

2.  Everyone must bring ideas.  You may not have an idea for every topic, but you need to pull your weight.  You can't always rely on others to carry you.

3.  Try someone else's ideas, even if they scare you a little.  I have taught some of my best lessons from these very type of lessons.  Get out of your box!  You may not hit the jackpot every time, but your students will always love that you aren't in a rut!

4.  Roadmap together to keep a good pace.  We work together before the 9 week period to map out the whole 9 weeks.  Now, sometimes we have to stretch a topic a little if we feel our students need more time, or move on faster if they are doing better than we expected, but we keep each other accountable for a pace that will cover all TEKS before year end.

5.  Encourage and support one another!  If someone is having trouble reaching a certain student, or struggling to teach a certain skill to their class, help them!  Counsel them, switch classes for a day, whatever it takes!  Be the teammate you would want to have!

6.  Always give common assessments.  For the most part, we teach concepts and skills with the same method and resources.  But sometimes because of class needs, teaching styles or other reasons we might vary a little.  However, we ALWAYS give common assessments.  This holds accountability for us and our students.  If we have tested the same way, we can disaggregate the data together and compare.  We can help each other with any gaps we have (see #5).

7.  Laugh together.  Yes, we are here for our students, but if we are having fun we are happier and better at our job.

If you aren't team planning, start!  If there isn't anyone at your school, find another teacher of your grade level in your district, town, or state.  The benefits will outway the time and effort!

Do you team plan?  What are your keys to success with team planning?

I'm so excited to be a teacher!

In the Summer of '94, I was hired for my first teaching position.  I was so excited I just couldn't stand it!  I was actually going to be a teacher!  I would be paid to work with children and have fun!  I would be a part of their lives and  could impact each student for the rest of their lives!  Woah.....  I just couldn't wait to get started.

Well, I've been teaching every year since.  Five Districts, several different positions, but all of them with young impressionable students.  Some years have been easier than others.  Some students have been more successful than others.  Some parents have been more supportive than others.  But I'm thankful for the opportunities God provided me in each and every one of those positions.

I can honestly say that I'm just as excited about teaching my students tomorrow as I was 23 years ago.  Why, you ask?  Why are you excited?  I'll tell you!

1.  I have a student teacher.  I love the renewal of love for my profession when I meet someone just starting out.  I can tell that she is so excited to "get in there" and work with these kids.  She sees them for the malleable pieces of clay that they are and is excited about helping them reach their potential.  Having her observe me inspires me to the be the best I know how to be.  I owe it to her, my students and my profession to guide her in a way that will help her be the best educator she can be.  I want to give her realistic expectations, with unrealistic goals to reach!  (because sometimes those kids do what I think is impossible if I don't limit them!)  I want to mentor her so that she will be inspired to never stop learning and growing in our field, because I think that is the only way you limit burnout.  Mostly, I want to show her how to not only teach the students, but care about them and get to know them. That is the only way any teacher will every really make a difference in her student's lives.

2.  I just became a Seesaw Ambassador.  I'm so excited to be using this app to connect my students learning at home and school while keeping them accountable for high quality work!  Learning something new and accepting a new challenge keeps my profession fresh and exciting for me.  This new role makes me so excited to be a teacher!  I would love to answer any questions you have about using Seesaw in your classroom via email, text, phone call, face time or in person!  Whether you are brand new to Seesaw or just want to know how to use it more, I'd love to help!  Just start by emailing me at mandamsimmons@katyisd.org and we can work out the best way to work on this together!

3.  I'm excited by the work my peers are doing with their students.  All I have to do is walk down the halls of my school and it is evident that students are excited about the learning going on in their classrooms!  I work with the best teachers I've ever known and planning with this team is always inspiring.  When I work with people that know their standards inside and out and are fluent in the methods that they will use to teach them, I am pushed to do better every day.   I love how much these teachers love their students and the work they do to inspire them.  They make me so excited to be part of this team.

4.  My parents are so supportive this year.  I just can't tell you how far a compliment goes.  "I appreciate all you do for my child.  I see the extra work you put in.  I see that you care about him.  He loves how you make learning fun."  These statements make it ALL worth it!  It is so much easier to work after hours or on the weekends when I hear statements such as these.  I am blessed with a group of the most appreciative parents I have ever had.  I will continue to do all that I can for these people and with a smile!

5.  I was gone for a week to help take care of my mom and I came back to the tightest squeezing hugs from my students that I've ever had.  I had an excellent substitute, and my students had a good week.  However, they made sure I knew that they missed me while I was gone.  They were so sweet and welcoming.  The connection I have made with them makes me so excited to be their teacher!  They are smart, funny, kind and wonderful kids.  I love them.  I'm so excited to watch them grow this year and I hope to see what success they find as adults.

Are you excited about being a teacher?  If so, share why!  It will help others become excited.  If no, then find a way to rekindle the excitement you had when you were new!  Your students deserve it.  :)