Deep Thoughts

I'm struggling today. Struggling with why I have this blog and what it means to me.

I started my first blog over 5 years ago. I have been writing this particular blog since 2011. For the most part, I have been happy having the opportunity to share my ideas, philosophy and classroom with so many. And not just parents either! I have people reading this blog from as far away as Europe! 

And, I have to say, that I have never, ever gotten anything but positive feedback from parents at my school and foreign readers alike.

But, this morning, upon arriving at school and finding out that there had been a concern raised about my last blog post (the one on class placement craziness) and, on the advice of my union, I voluntarily deleted the post. 

And, even though I did it voluntarily, I still feel like I have been censored. It feels like, as a teacher, I am not allowed to express my opinion. And I gotta tell you, the feeling really sucks. 

I originally switched to writing a classroom blog (from my previous more personal blog which was more about my art making) because I wanted a way to connect with parents and other teachers on the happenings in our classroom. I wanted a way to share the amazing things that happen on a daily basis. I wanted a way to let others into our daily life and see what we were doing each day.

And, let me tell you, I take the writing of this blog very seriously. There is not a single post that goes out without my having read it, read it again and pored over it some more. (I've reread this one and made changes 6 times already!!!!) I spend hours on my weekends writing blog posts so that parents (and the teaching community at large) can see what is happening in our classroom.

Today has made me question all of that. 

I do have to say that I am filled to the brim with gratitude for the two parents who told me, completely out of the blue, that they appreciated my words in the (now deleted) classroom placement post. You know who you are!!!! Thank you for filling my bucket!

I do know in my heart that most parents at my school who choose to read the blog understand that I am stating my own personal opinion and that I am never speaking about any of them in particular (it is one of the reasons that I use events from long ago years or my other school as examples).

But, today it feels like my right to free speech has been taken away. And, it makes me wonder, is this blog worth the hours I put in to it on my own time, if one criticism can result in the deletion of a post? 

It feels a bit like today deleted a part of me. 

And so, I am struggling. 

Feeling like I can't give one person's negative opinion of a post I wrote, upset the whole apple cart.

Yet, simultaneously, feeling that I am not sure what tomorrow will bring as far as this blog goes. 

Not sure if I should bother continuing to give so much of my free time to sharing what goes on in our classroom. 

Not sure if this blog really matters (or is helpful) to anyone. 

I am feeling very sad about the whole situation. 

Before today, writing this blog has always given me such joy. I love the children I work with and generally spend most of my time sharing the wonderful things happening in the classroom. 

But, on occasion, I do write about something that some might see as controversial. Not often. But every once in awhile. I always try to preface these posts with letting the reader know I am about to talk about something that is a "soapbox" topic for me or that I am about to "rant" about something. I figure the reader has the right to disagree or not read my blog at all. I thought that was what freedom of speech is all about!

Now I feel like I can't do that. I feel like my voice has been stifled. And, I have to ask myself, if I can't be true to myself on this blog, then why have the blog in the first place? 

So, I am struggling with it. 

Not sure where I am going to go with it.

But, if you are reading, and, if you chose to read to the end of this post...thank you. I appreciate it! 

Struggling on....

Olwyn

Taming The Wild with Blog Hoppin'

 

 

 

So today is Day 4 of Teacher Week over at Blog Hoppin' and the topic today is all about Taming the Wild.

Otherwise known as how a teacher manages to make 24 little squirming bodies sit still, listen and pay attention long enough to teach anything!

There are so many different behaviour management systems out there. Over my career I have probably tried all of them at one time or another.

Points.

Names on the board.

Stickers.

Moving names up or down on a chart.

You name it. I have probably tried it.

What do all of these systems tend to have in common?

Extrinsic motivation (or, as some teachers like to call it, bribery!) Not that there is anything inherently wrong in extrinsic motivation (no matter how many specialists try to convince us that intrinsic is best). Show me one grown up who has not done something to get a reward later or who hasn't told themselves that they deserve a reward for doing something difficult. Worked out to be able to eat that pizza. Had a glass of wine to celebrate the end of a bad day. Bought a present to pick themselves up. You get the idea. We all do it.

Why? Because it works! But I do find that these type of systems tend to have a very short life span. I have seen these types of systems be very successful with certain students (or classes) for short periods of time but never over the long term. AND these types of systems take up A LOT of teacher time to make them work. Maybe they only work in the short term because I get so gosh darn tired of doing the system!

So while I do use these on a short term basis every once in awhile, the traditional behaviour management really isn't my "go to" way of dealing with managing behaviour in the classroom.

So, what do I use most of the time?

Get ready because it is going to blow your mind!

Time, patience and love.

Yep. That's it.

First, I make sure to be aware of  how I am feeling. After 19 years in the classroom I am well aware that I set the tone. If I am stressed out, grumpy, sick, etc. then poor behaviour inevitably follows. I can bet on it. Every. single. time. It is my job to model how I want them to behave. Even when it is really hard to do!!!!

Second, I teach the class calming strategies to get their bodies and minds ready to learn. I bought the book  Conscious Discipline. a number of years ago and have been slowly using more and more of it in my teaching. I got the different calming strategies from it. There is an AWESOME blog called Heather's Heart where the teacher uses tons of Conscious Discipline principles. I want to be Heather when I grow up!

Combined with the Conscious Discipline program, I use  the A.LE.R.T. program to help students learn expectations. I like the simple language and being able to just tell kids that they need to be in Green Zone.

I create an area in my room each year that is the Quiet Zone or Safe Place. Here I keep some cuddle buddies (stuffed animals), books, etc. This year I am adding a wave bottle and some lotion. Not all kids like to use this area. Some just find a quiet spot (like one of our community bean bags) when they need one.

So how does it work?

Well, I spend tons and tons of time explaining, demonstrating and practicing positive behaviour choices in the classroom. Then, after they have all learned the expectations inside and out I start giving them three chances to correct poor behaviour choices (I use a silent signal of raising my fingers). If they get to strike three, they are asked to leave  the group and come back to the group when they are calm and ready to learn. What I am aiming for is self regulation. And most kids don't end up needing to leave the group. They just need a reminder (or two!!) about making better choices.

That's it.

Sound simple? Well, it kind of is.

It is all about the front loading and teaching. The time spent in the beginning of the year teaching the calming strategies and behaviour expectations is worth its weight in gold, and silver, and diamonds, and...!

I find that most students want to behave. They want to learn and make good choices. But sometimes they have a bad day. Sometimes I have a bad day, too. That's life. So, no Time Outs. Just time to calm themselves and get ready for learning. And, yes, I have been known to tell the class I need to get back to Green Zone, walk to the Safe Place, do some deep breathing or another calming strategy and then come back to teach again. I am a firm believer in practicing what I preach!

Now wait! I know what you are going to say next!

What about THOSE kids? You know, the ones who NEVER seem to follow the rules, who seem to be always disruptive and who seem to be in our class for the sole purpose of driving the teacher CRAZY?!?!

I know that we all have them. Every year there are one or two tough cases that seem to require an extraordinary amount of teacher time (and too often that is negative teacher time!)

I have a secret weapon for these tough cases.

Are you ready?

DOUBLE THE LOVE!!! Yep, good old fashioned, love and lots of it!!!!!

I had a student like this last year. There were days when it felt like he was going to drive me crazy!!!!! Some days it was all I could do to maintain my sanity. I had to keep reminding myself that none of his behaviour choices had anything to do with me. They had to do with him. His fears, his needs, his insecurities. (This is NOT easy to do some days!!!!)

And so I gave him love. And lots of it!  One of the tricks I used was to give him a big hug every time I felt like saying his name in anger or frustration. There was one day when I think I hugged him about 40 times in a 5 hour period!!!! By the end of the year, we had built up a bond. He no longer made poor behaviour choices (most of the time) and his learning was coming along (now that his behaviour didn't interfere with it!). On the last day of classes, he gave me a hug that practically cracked a rib! The sweet feeling of success!!!!

So, there you go. My management plan in a very long nutshell!

Ms. Hughes

Long time, No write

 

As per usual, I have been composing blog posts on the bus, while walking the dog, during my workouts, in my sleep (you get the idea!) and never in front of the computer!

So, here goes...

I am so happy to be back at work and to have the parent/ student/teacher goal setting conferences behind me. To have two VERY long days in the first week back was very, very tiring! I was so pleased that, for the most part, the students have a good understanding of what they want to improve in both their academic performance and behavioural choices. And, I am glad, too, that the class is starting to work together more and help each other to work on turning their goals into reality.

I love this time of year. It is when I do book studies on winter and snow. (Even though the snow seems to have disappeared, thank goodness!!!!) We started our week making folders to store all of the work we will be doing. They turned out great!

 

They were based on a picture I found (where else?) on pinterest! The site that had the original is Artsonia.

 

We watched the video of the classic book The Snowman by Raymond Briggs and then wrote a reader's response about our favourite part.

I love this story. I love that it is a wordless book and makes the reader infer and make connections about the events happening. And, bonus, the beginning is introduced by a young David Bowie which gave me great memories of my childhood (His was the first concert I ever attended. It was also the very first concert at BC Place. If you know when that was, you have an idea of how old I am!)

Then we started studying Jan Brett's book The Mitten.

 

 

We have read it and re-read it and re-read it some more. We did sequencing activities, retelling activities and learned some mitten poems as well.

 

This coming week we will read a different version of The Mitten and compare/contrast the two. (More on that to come...)

 

Then it will be on to Snowmen at Night and some art activities to go with it. This is one of my favourite stories and we will be doing some art kind of like this...

 

from here

We will also start working on some non-fiction activities to compliment the science unit the class has started on whales with Mrs. V. I headed off to the library today to borrow a bunch of books because the non-fiction in our library is still packed! Wish those shelving units would get here already!!!!

 

Anywho, I promise to try to write these posts more often at the computer (and not everywhere else!)

 

Ms. Hughes

 

 



The days are long but the weeks are fast....

Teaching has many similarities to parenting in that what works with one child (or class) does not work AT ALL with the next child (or class!)

And...what works with one child (or class) one day is a complete and utter failure the next. So much for Plan A.

Moving on to Plan B, Plan C, Plan D...etc etcetera....

So much of last week (and this one if I am honest) has been about trying plan after plan.

It has quickly become apparent that a good portion of the class are not morning people. They come in and sit down looking like they are thinking about bed and more sleep. Energy is low. Definitely in the blue zone.

The other half of the class, of course, comes in ready to go with energy to spare! Green zone all the way with some heading towards red!

Getting these two groups to work together first thing in the day is a bit of a juggling act right now. 

So, doing spelling first thing is out. Having a morning meeting where we go around and tell our zone in the A.L.E.R.T. colours is in.

Sitting to listen for more than 5 minutes is out. Getting up to do dances and movement on a very frequent basis is in.

Pulling out my Conscious Discipline book is definitely in. I have been using products from CD for awhile. I have a couple of their
stress stars (which the kids fight over. Might have to get more of those really soon!!!!)

stress star
 

I also have the safe place mat in my room. More on that in a future post.



But I have never done more than read the website and try a few ideas. This past summer I ordered the book because one of my favourite bloggers was doing a summer book study. Heather over at Heather's Heart is such an inspiration to me. She is so honest about the daily struggles of teaching young children and has helped me keep my sanity along the way. Plus she is beyond generous with her ideas and printables. In a word she is AWESOME!

So, on Wednesday of last week, I made myself a cup of tea (because, after all, as my husband says "Where there's tea, there's hope") and hunkered down with my book. I re-read chapter 1 which is titled "Composure - Being the Person You Want Others to Become" and deals with the power of perception. The key here being that as a teacher I must be self aware and maintain my self-control. I am responsible for modelling what I expect from the children. It really is true that the teacher sets the tone in the classroom.

And the best way to do that is to practice what I preach. Stop and take deep breaths. Rub the palm of my hands. Get a drink of water. Stretch. (All strategies to get back to green zone) Then repeat as often as necessary when I feel my volcano is about to blow! I have a solid feeling that this is probably going to be my biggest challenge this year. I have to keep calm as my triggers are pushed over and over and over again. So in the words of probably the most pinned phrase of 2012. I am going to...



Wish me luck!

Ms. Hughes
 

Pete the Cat

I originally started this blog as a way to communicate with the parents of my class. But, as I get more into the teaching blogging world, I am discovering so many cool things happening on other blogs. There are a number of teaching blogs that I follow religiously. One of them is Heather's Heart. I actually have her blog posts sent to my email so that I never miss one! I am very interested in her Conscious Discipline book study and plan to participate this summer. I have used some of Dr. Becky Bailey's ideas in the past but never really dove into the thing whole hog.

Well, over on Heather's Heart right now there is an awesome giveaway happening. You know Pete the Cat? I mean, doesn't everyone know Pete the Cat by Eric Litwin?


Over at Heather's Heart you can enter to win a fantabulous Pete prize. There are 6 blogs and one etsy store participating. There are three chances to win. So what are you waiting for? Get on over to Heather's Heart and enter already! Just click here!

A Little About Assessing Students

I believe that what I am teaching and why I am teaching it should be as transparent as possible to both students and parents. I hold students accountable for the work they produce and the effort that goes into it. I tell them clearly what is expected of them and then mark accordingly. For my fairytale unit this year, I included a basic rubric for general expectations and a marking sheet in each student's folder. I am able to mark as we go, giving a comment when needed and the students can easily see where they are at and how their work holds up against the expectations.  

In our district we grade on a 4 point scale that looks like this:

N - Not meeting expectations
A - Approaching expectations
M - Meeting expectations
E - Exceeds expectations

Students aim to be at the M level on the scale. This scale works well for report cards as it clearly lets parents know where their child is in terms of learning outcomes and expectations. That said, the Meeting expectations can be a bit tricky as a student can be just meeting or fully meeting and still have the same mark on their report card.

Students rarely get Exceeds expectations overall for a subject as it means that a student is working well above the Meeting expectations level. A full year or more above. Probably the most common place to find an E in early primary is in reading. There are often a few students who have taken to reading like ducks to water and are reading well above grade level in grade 1 or 2. These students are given an E in reading for grade 1 or 2 but have that same mark drop down to an M by grade 2 or 3 when the other students have caught up. This can be confusing to some parents who expect an E to stay an E and end up in the next year's teacher's class asking why their child is no longer Exceeding. An E on a report card does not mean that a child will always be an E. It means that the child is exceeding expectations at that time.

If you stop and think about all the people you know in your life, probably most of them would not be exceeding expectations in all areas of their lives or for all of the time. Most of us go along in life meeting expectations for our jobs, families, co-workers etc. Meeting expectations is good. It is where you want to be. It means you are doing your job. Doing what is expected of you in an efficient and timely manner. Getting the job done. You can be counted on to do what you say you will do. This is good. This is a productive member of society. There will be times when one is moved to go above and beyond expectations and that is great. And society needs people to have passions, to have areas in their lives that they try to do more, be more. But chances are that those people who exceed expectations are not doing it in every single area of their lives all of the time.

When I stop to think about my daughter and her school years thus far, I realize how little many of the grades mean. Will it really matter if she got an A or a C in Math 8? No. What I have always looked at and counted as more important than the grade are her marks for work habits and effort. Does she try her best? Does she keep going when it is hard? Can she work independently asking for help when needed? These are the attributes that are going to make her a successful and productive member of our society. Not her marks in Math (which are consistently on the lower end of the scale and which is a subject she hates) or her marks in Social Studies (which are consistently on the high end of the scale because, wonder of wonders, she actually likes social studies!)

And, yes, I know what some of you are thinking.They need to have good grades to get into university. This is true. However, there are plenty of highly successful people who went to community college first and then transferred into a university or, for that matter, who went to different types of learning institutions altogether like technical colleges or trade school. Society needs a lot of different kinds of people with a lot of different kinds of skills to be successful. Many of the jobs that will be available when my daughter finishes her post-secondary education haven't even been invented yet! I believe that in the years to come, it won't matter so much what schooling anyone has so much as whether they are problem solvers, independent thinkers and capable of getting along with others.
 
In my blog hopping this morning I came across a teacher who has the students self assess after a lesson so that she can get a quick idea of where they are at and who will need immediate support to complete the lesson. And I thought, "What a great idea!" Her name is Alison Eber and her blog is called Eberopolis . In her district they grade students on a scale of 1-4. This corresponds nicely to our 4 point grading system in primary.

The scale in her district looks like this (picture taken from her website) :


with Novice being a 1 all the way to Expert being a 4. Expectations are that students are striving to be a Practitioner or a 3.



I am going to tumble this idea around in my head for a little and let it percolate. I know that it would be a great visual and really easy ways for students to quickly self assess and for me to get a quick count of students requiring immediate support after a lesson. It also really shows how learning is a continuum. Saying that someone is not meeting expectations does not necessarily send the message to that person that they will eventually meet the expectations with continued effort. If you think about any of the trades like woodworking, plumbing etc., where one starts as a novice and through effort, practice and hard work becomes an apprentice and then eventually a practitioner and (perhaps if one has a particular talent for that trade) an expert one day, you can see how through time and effort one can work through the levels to be at the meeting expectations level and how the language supports this transition from stage to stage.

Maybe I will try using this vocab with the plant unit we are just beginning and see how it works out. I mean, it makes total sense to me but will it make sense to a 7 year old? I think it is worth a test run. Will keep you posted on how it goes!

Health update and Christmas catch up

Well, being hit by a nasty stomach bug the first week back at school was certainly NOT one of my New Year's Resolutions!!! It hit me right before school ended on Thursday and I had to send one of the student's running for our principal. Thank heavens the principal was in her office! She came and took my class out for home time dismissal and then I headed home and to bed. I felt awful!!!!

I spent all day Friday sleeping, eating Saltines and drinking Gingerale (thank goodness for good ol' Gingerale!) Luckily, it seems to have been of the 24 hour variety and I am now feeling human again! I should be back at work and raring to go by Monday.

Given that I have energy again, I finally dug out my camera (which I haven't even looked at since Christmas) and downloaded the photos.  Most were before photos of the new house that I will post on my house blog when I get the chance to do some after shots. But I also found the one of the gifts I got from my Holly Bloggy Secret Santa that I had forgotten to download and post at Christmas time. So here is a little Christmas catch up a few weeks late! 

This past Christmas I participated in a teacher gift exchange that was created by Caitlin and Sarah. It was called the Holly Bloggy Christmas Gift Exchange and you can find all the link ups here for the participants. I got a lovely package in the mail all the way from Florida!

Thank you to my Holly Bloggy friend, Jessica! I love the notepad (in turquoise, my new favourite colour!), the book and the note cards. So nice to open on Christmas morning!

I forgot to take a photo of what I sent to my holly bloggy friend in Washington state. It had lots of pink in it since that is her favourite colour! I had fun doing this exchange and look forward to the one next Christmas!