We Are Readers!

We celebrated the end of the kindergarten We Are Readers with a parade. Students held their favorite books as other grade levels cheered.

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Personalized Learning on District PD Day!

On a normal district PD day, many teachers find themselves wondering, "Why am I here?" They find some or, sadly, none of the district development to be timely or relevant. Instead, they wish for choice and time to work. Today, their wishes were granted. Our district allowed for personalized learning for three hours. Teams or individuals created and submitted learning plans and, when finished, a brief reflection.

As I supported teams with their work today, I was inspired and energized by their learning. They set goals for their learning and reached them. They were given the gifts of choice and time! It was awesome!

Here is one team sorting and scoring assessment responses.


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Teach, Fail, Reflect, Teach Again...Be Amazed!

TEACH
So, yesterday, I modeled a lesson in a third grade classroom on elapsed time. We are preparing for state tests, so the lesson was in isolation of the actual unit on time (not yet taught).

FAIL
I failed. The kids struggled...a lot. Kids were literally crying. I wondered, "What did I do wrong?" In my side coaching conversations with the classroom teacher, we wondered why the students weren't "getting it." We brought out the small Judy clocks, the big Judy clock with hands that move in sync, repeated, reexplained, and still they struggled.

REFLECT
Overnight and during conversations with the third grade team, we reflected and researched better ways to teach such a complicated skill. One teacher noticed that the math series we use had kids using a number line for elapsed time. I watched that teacher teach it and then went to the next room and taught it myself.

TEACH AGAIN
I started by admitting to the teacher and the kids my failure from the day before. Then, I modeled the new strategy. The kids practiced it with me on the carpet. The teacher and I had a few one-on-one conferences to guide the learning just a bit.

BE AMAZED
Within minutes, kids were solving elapsed time problems with no struggle. The teacher and I saw light bulbs going off all over the room. Kids were showing off their work and smiled proudly when I chose theirs to display. One girl who was in tears yesterday was all smiles today and even asked to practice more!

LEARN
As a coach, it's not the best feeling to model a lesson that fails. But, as long as you don't shrug it off and ignore the failure, you can redeem yourself and even boost your coaching by reflecting and trying again. This was a reminder for me to model dealing with failure not only for the teachers but also for the students. Coach for success, but coach moments of failure, too.


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Poetry Mini Celebration

Second grade just finished the first bend of the Writing Poetry unit and held a mini celebration. They shared their work and inspired each other!









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Serravallo's Writing Strategies Book Study

What a celebration! Tonight was the third and final session of a class I planned and facilitated on Jennifer Serravallo's "The Writing Strategies Book" for teachers in my district. Our work in the class loosely followed suggestions from the study guide that can be found on the Heinemann website.

The level of engagement and excitement far exceeded my expectations for teachers after long days of school and near the end of the school year. Teachers came to class the first night eager to get their hands on the book and came back each session wanting to learn more.

We learned about the strategies in class and teachers tried some out during the weeks in between classes. My favorite activities that worked well for the class were:
- Mark-Up Mentor Text
- Visualize It











For more information about the sessions and activities, please email me or comment.

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Spring Training Time!

Today, we kicked off testing season with what we affectionately call "Spring Training." We rally the students to do the work of test prep with this spin of spring training for the big game (the state test). Since we work in the Saint Louis metro area, the best baseball city in the country, we use any excuse to celebrate baseball.

To add to the fun teachers dress in Cardinals gear, refer to their classes as teams, and ask students to refer to teachers as "coaches" for the duration of spring training (approximately 10 days). We coach our teams on strategies and secrets to help them win the big game. Ironically, standardized testing really is a game! We fill our days with test taking tips and review of any content that we might need to brush up on before "opening day."

Even though it's test prep season, it's one of my favorite times of the year to coach in classrooms. We make it fun and meaningful. There's a sense of camaraderie that we're all in this together. Let's play ball!






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Lions, Tigers, and Bears...Oh My: 3rd Grade Nonfiction Research Clubs

Lions, tigers, and bears - what's the same? What's different? Why? It's been fascinating to observe the level of engagement and deep thinking coming from students in the Nonfiction Research Club unit of study. Students are studying animals and are at the point where they are comparing and contrasting information learned about different animals. It's hard to move on from mini-lessons and from reading workshop because the students are so engaged in the work. They want to research more and share their thinking with their club! It's exciting to see and to coach.




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Now, That Was Fun!

Some of my teachers are piloting the Reading and Writing Units of Study from Lucy Calkins (and friends) and I'm supporting them with implementation. This is the first week of my kindergarten team trying the Nonfiction Writing How-To Books unit. I stopped by one of the rooms during writing to see how it was going. The teacher was just about to start her lesson, but seemed a little frazzled. She asked if I would mind modeling it for her. "Wait, what?! I have no idea what to do," I thought to myself. But, I smiled and said, "Of course!" That's what coaches do sometimes, right, we fake it until we make it!

I did admit right away that I would have my unit book with the lesson on my lap and might even be reading from it while teaching. "I'm learning this unit with you," I said and went to the front of the room to teach my kinder friends. I taught the lesson with some "freeze frames" so the teacher and I could check in and make instructional decisions together. The lesson went great and the kindergarteners learned the characteristics of how-to books. Best of all, though, the teacher and I learned the lesson together. Coach and teacher side-by-side - a great way to build trust and empower teachers! Not only that, but what seemed like a terrifying prospect - the idea of modeling a lesson totally unprepared - turned out to be fun!




Coach to coach:
Remember, although teachers want to you to have a high level of content knowledge, they also appreciate when you can be a learner right along with them. Being vulnerable goes a long way to build relationships!



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