Post Election 2016

Without going too political, I will say that this has been a difficult election year ending with a most difficult election week.  The day after the elections, I was sad to hear that many of my teachers did all they could to avoid conversations about the election with students.  I understand that our students are young (kindergarten through fifth grade), but they deserve to have their voices heard, too.  My belief in the need for conversation was validated by many other colleagues as I facilitated a Diversity in Action meeting yesterday.



I lead our school's Diversity in Action Committee and realize, now more than ever, that we have a lot of work to do.  Not only do we need to accelerate the closing of our achievement gap, but we also need to continue to teach tolerance at all levels.  At our meeting yesterday, I allowed committee members to choose an article from the November issue of ASCD's "Educational Leadership" magazine on the topic of "Disrupting Inequity."  In the article I chose to read titled, "Let's Talk About Racism in Schools" by Rick Wormeli, he states, "We can't truly create equal opportunities for all until our institutions take specific actions to end that thinking and those policies.  And, ground zero for an equitable, nonracist socitey is the K-12 classroom."  The K-12 classroom.  Not the 6-12 classroom.  We must not wait until they are in middle school to have these conversations.  Wormeli goes on to say, "We don't need to justify having focused conversations about racism in schools."  Why not take a minute to let your first graders tell you how they are feeling?  We can teach kids that we may not always agree, we must learn to work together.  We must teach our students that.  It IS our responsibility.  It is our job.  In my district, it is our mission.



As each member of the committee left the meeting yesterday, I asked them to find at least one way to move the work forward the following day.  I was so glad to see one member took that to heart and pulled together a multi-grade, ethnically diverse leadership group he's been working with on Fridays for the first part of the year. He called an extra meeting to have a conversation on "Campaign Consequences," allowed the students to share their thoughts and feelings, and called them to action asking what they can do to make a difference.  The session ended with students creating peace flags now displayed in the hallway of our school.

Fellow educators, I encourage you to have the conversations in your classrooms.  Teach tolerance.  I ask you to do what Wormeli asks of his readers at the end of the article and identify one person with whom you can have a conversation on race or just about the election.

Anchor Chart Overload?

In October, I had the privilege of attending the Coaching Institute at Columbia Teacher's College in New York City.  The amount of learning that occurred during the week I was there was incredible!  My brain literally hurt and I was exhausted by the end of the week.  I left Teacher's College with a full notebook, mind, and heart.  Many of my future posts will include some of my learning.

One idea I took away from my time at Promise Academy II in the Harlem Children's Zone was the idea of dedicated wall space for anchor chart for core areas.  As we know, anchor charts build a culture of literacy and provide a space to keep relevant learning accessible for students.  Sometimes, in classrooms, I see an overabundance of anchor charts and I'm distracted from the work by the massive amount of charts hanging in the room.  Other times, there are no charts at all.  Even in rooms with what seems like an appropriate amount of anchor charts with meaningful information, they are haphazardly hung on whatever wall space is available.

The teachers at Promise Academy shared that they dedicate wall space for anchor charts for a couple reasons.  First, it provides a set location for students to look to when it's time to refer to an anchor chart.  Second, it actually limits the amount of charts on the wall because you can only put up as many charts as will fit in the space.  Therefore, teachers decide which charts are most meaningful and useful for students and make only those visible.  Others are stored away and brought out when needed.  To make the learning environment even more organized, many teachers at the Promise Academy organize their supplies and manipulatives in areas under or near the anchor charts.  For example, math manipulatives are housed on a shelf under the Math anchor charts.  Brilliant!

Here are some pictures from Promise Academy.

Reading Anchor Charts

Math anchor charts with math manipulatives underneath.

Imagine my delight when I returned to my own school and noticed one of my teachers doing the very same thing!

Dedicated space for essential questions and anchor charts for reading, writing, and math.

We're Going on a Trip in a Little Rocket Ship!

This week, our students are taking virtual field trips using the Google Expedition app and goggles.  We led all our students K-5 on a virtual expedition to places such as the Great Barrier Reef, the top of the Washington Monument, and even to the moon!  If your school has a chance to use Google Expeditions, I highly recommend it as a way to provide them with opportunities to experience faraway places.

Imagine the first collective "oooohhhhh!" from first graders as they spot a giant whale shark lurking above them near the Great Barrier Reef.  It gave me goosebumps!

Coaching Moves: Practice Makes Permanent

Today, I had the privilege of facilitating work with coaches from across our district. We focused on preparing for our next coaching lab by practicing some coaching moves. These are the intentional verbal and nonverbal cues and prompts we give as we coach in the classroom.

Today, we focused on just three moves: whisper in, freeze frame/time out, and voice over.




First, we read about the moves. Then, in groups of three, we played the roles of teacher, student, and coach. The teacher taught the student how to blow a bubble with gum or how to make a paper airplane. While the teacher taught the student, the coach practiced her coaching moves. Every coach had a chance to play all three roles.

With this exercise, we hoped to strengthen our coaching muscles so that practice makes permanent. We also had quite a bit of fun and some good laughs! Afterwards, we reflected on which coaching moves felt easy and which felt more challenging. We made intentional plans to use the moves during the next coaching lab.

As a coach, today's practice was invaluable. Not only was it a safe environment to practice, but it was also a great opportunity to refine the intentional cues and prompts that make coaching stick with teachers in the classroom. If we want our coaching to transfer, we must make our coaching visible.

Coincidentally, voice overs was the topic of today's blog post from "Two Writing Teachers." Click here to read more about what they have to say about voice overs:
https://twowritingteachers.org

Comment below if you have tips or tricks for making your coaching visible through coaching moves.

It's Like Teaching Someone to Ride a Bike

This summer, my husband and I taught our two sons how to ride their bikes without training wheels. There were times my husband and I demonstrated, or modeled, while other times we ran alongside giving prompts (watch out for the pole, slow down, use your brakes!). There were plenty of crashes, but we just said, "That's part of learning something new." There were times our boys thought they'd "never learn," and wanted to put their bikes back in the garage. My husband and I had lots of pep talks, thought about next steps, and researched best practices (thank you, Google, for the tip to take the bike pedals off). There were times we were exhausted. Imagine running full speed down hill just in time to stop your child from biking full speed into your neighbor's garage door. But, in just about a week, we reached our goal of transfer and our boys could ride on their own! The pride we all felt was tremendous!












My husband with our youngest.


Whether I'm teaching students or coaching teachers, I find it's a lot like the experience of teaching someone to ride a bike. The ultimate goal is for the student or teacher to be able to feel confident and to do the work on his/her own. But, to get there, you have to research best practices, assess current understanding, sometimes demonstrate or model, plan next steps, and always run alongside prompting and guiding for support. And, you can't forget the pep talks!

I encourage you to reflect on the questions:
- How is teaching or coaching in the classroom like teaching someone to ride a bike?
- How does that fit with what you know about the gradual release of responsibility (shown below)?










Gradual release of responsibility from "Student Centered Coaching" by Diane Sweeney.




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Reading Mats in 1st Grade

Coaching in a first grade classroom? Sign me up! First grade will always have a special place in my heart since that's where I started my teaching career. I love the excitement and curiosity of first graders as well as teaching them how to read. So, when a former intermediate teacher, now a first time first grade teacher, asked me to coach in her room, I was ecstatic!

We've been working or reading workshop including structures to build engagement and stamina of our little friends. We introduced reading mats (as seen in the Calkins Reading Unit - 1st grade, Unit 1) as a way to build fluency and stamina. The students love it! I'm amazed at how effectively they 1) make a plan to read the books in their book box, 2) read each book moving it from the "go" side to the "stop" side, and 3) read the books one more time moving them back to the other side. It really works! Even the level A-D readers are reading the whole time and are feeling more confident.

Now, if we can just get the students to keep only "just right" books in their book boxes...



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My Goal For This Year Is...

In my last post, I shared tips on gaining coaching opportunities by supporting teachers with their professional goals. Like teachers, coaches in my district are also requires to complete Professional Learning Plans (PLPs). So, I'd also like to share my professional goal to make it public and, hopefully, hold myself more accountable.

My goal is....
I've been coaching for over a decade and have often struggled with knowing whether or not my work has actually made a difference for teachers and students. I often wonder, "Am I making a difference? Does my coaching impact students? Does the work done during a coaching cycle continue after I've moved on to another classroom? Does the professional development I offer outside the classroom make its way into the classroom?" I guess I'm looking for transfer. This has become even more important to me in recent years since I often mentor new coaches and now serve as a "lead coach" for all the coaches in our district. I've always wanted to do well, but, now, more than ever, I feel a need to know my work makes a difference and that I'm doing the right thing.

Since my ultimate goal is transfer, my actions steps include:
- making my coaching more visible through in the moment coaching
- intentionally following up with teachers in the weeks and months after a coaching cycle to look for transfer
- setting expectations for transfer when designing professional development for teachers in my building and my district

By making my coaching visible through more in the moment coaching, I think I can increase the level of transfer. Wish me luck!!

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What's Your Goal This Year?

All teachers in my district are required to have a yearly Professional Learning Plan (PLP) based on a self-selected goal. The goal is a professional one and student centered. As a coach, I'm often asked by teachers to help them refine their goals and come up with action steps. This is great because not only am I supporting teachers in the moment, but it's also an opportunity to schedule future coaching. In fact, even with teachers I haven't specifically met with, I often later discover that they've included "working with the coach" as an action step in their plans. Because of this, I always send a quick survey shortly after PLPs are due asking:
1) What's your goal for this year?
2) How can I help you and your students reach your goal?

Link to survey

Once I have survey results, or have learned this information from actual conversation, I strategically plot on my calendar "check ins" or follow up planning conversations with each teacher. For example, I learned through conversation that Teacher A has a goal of meaningful integration of technology in the classroom. I immediately offered to help familiarize her with Google Classroom and set up a plan time the following week to do so. Then, I also added two more follow up dates with Teacher A to check in and to plan next steps. I have found that the coaching work that comes from supporting teachers with their PLPs is often enough to keep me busy for quite a while.


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A New Year, A Fresh Start

Although I started this professional blog with the best of intentions last summer, life was hectic and I didn't follow through. But, it's a new year and a chance for a fresh start. Honestly, that's one of the best aspects of being a teacher is the chance for a fresh start each year.

Maybe you didn't achieve your goals. Readjust and try again this year. Maybe you didn't reach that challenging student. Reflect on what you learned from your experiences and try again with this year's challenger. Perhaps you had a great year yet are excited about a fresh group of students or some implementing new ideas.

I know I'm always grateful for a fresh start and a chance to be better every year. I hope you'll join me in that quest to be better.


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#EdCampSTL

Yesterday, I had the privilege of attending my fourth EdCamp St. Louis. It is a free, annual event for educators and is awesome PD! It's an unconference meaning participants create sessions of their choice. Many people ask questions or pose topics for discussion. You're free to leave a session if it's not meeting your needs. As a result, it's an incredible thought provoking day of learning for all.

This year, I attended sessions on social justice in elementary classrooms, Google classroom, and successes/challenges of instructional coaching. I ate free Einstein bagels for breakfast and Pi Pizza for lunch. Some other educators from my district and I also "escaped the room" by figuring out clues to do so. What a great way to spend a Saturday!

If you've never attended an EdCamp before and you have a chance to go, please do! Seriously, it's some of the most relevant and helpful PD I've had. If you're interested in learning more about EdCamp or how to start your own, leave a comment below.






That's me holding the Diet Coke - the antidote for the zombie apocalypse. #escapetheroom

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