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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Informational Writing Can Be Fun!

I've been coaching in a 5th grade classroom during their Informational Reports unit. It's not my thing! But, I have to admit, I'm enjoying myself and am thrilled to see how much the students are enjoying it too. We combined the research reports unit with a social studies unit on Native American tribes. Students chose a tribe, researched, and are now drafting. This week, we've been turning our research notes into sentences, adding details with partner sentences, and drafting leads and conclusions. Here's an example of an introduction to one of the student's subheadings on food for the Comanche tribe
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Change is Hard

I've failed miserably at keeping up with this blog!  I apologize.  This might not have been the best year to launch a professional blog.  But, hopefully, I can make up for lost time.  

The first trimester of the school year just ended in my district.  What a trimester it has been!  I've been as busy as I ever have coaching teachers.  This year, we changed from letter grades on report cards to standards based progress reports.  It has been challenging to say the least.  One of the domains on my instructional coach evaluation is about understanding and applying knowledge of the change process.   I can honestly say that in previous years, I would mark myself down in that category.  Not anymore!  I have lived the change process these last few months and feel I have a much deeper understanding.

Here's what I've learned about coaching teachers through major change:

• Teachers hate change. They don't hate me.  
• Celebrating small steps is critical to keep the process moving.
• Teachers don't/can't listen until it's important to them.  I can't take it personal when I have to repeat myself a gazillion times or make another copy of the document I sent at least three times.  

Back to School Gifts for Your Teachers

As an instructional coach, I cannot be successful without developing excellent relationships with my teachers. One way I show my appreciation for teachers is with little gifts and handwritten notes throughout the year, but especially the first days of school. 

This year, I gifted a copy of the book "I Wish You More" - the perfect book gift for anyone you wish well. 

Other books that are great back to school gifts for teachers are:

Courage

Tiny Snail (I scored autographed copies of these from an author visit a few years ago).  A great story about perseverance and the importance of friends.

Mrs. Spitzer's Garden

I've also gifted other items such as:

Coffee/tea pods for our Kuerig with tags that said "Welcome Back to the Grind"

Scratch off lottery tickets with a note that said, "Hope you have a winning year!"

Starburst candy with this tag...

Bags of M&Ms tagged "Wishing you a Magnificent & Marvelous New School Year."

Packs of Extra gum with a note that said, "The difference between an ordinary teacher and an extraordinary one is that little bit extra.  I hope you have an extra special year!"

One year, back to school coincided with the Summer Olympics and I made it a theme.  I gave bags of gold foil wrapped chocolates with this note...

If you have other ideas to share, please share in the comments below.

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Kindergarten Switch-a-Roo

We just finished the great Kindergarten Switch-a-Roo. What is a switch-a-roo, you ask? It's a process we use to balance our kindergarten classes by having our k students rotate through teachers and with various students during the first two weeks of school. Typically, schools blindly build kindergarten classes based on little to no information. Unfortunately, more often than not, this leads to heavily unbalanced classes. One teacher may end up with all the students already reading while another teacher may end up with a class full of students who've never even picked up a book. Not to mention student behaviors that can dominate teacher time.

As an alternative, my school started switching things up a few years ago and has seen great success. During the first eight days, students rotate through the four kindergarten teachers so that each teacher has a chance to learn about and make connections with each child.  Students within the classes are also mixed up several times so we can see which of their little personalities clash and which ones play well together.  During the switch, we are also assessing students in letter and number identification, concepts of print, counting, and much more to identify students as high, medium, and low academically as well as noting social/emotional needs.  On the last day of the switch, we have what we affectionately call "Draft Day" where the math coach and I facilitate a meeting with the kindergarten team to draft the final class placements with balanced classes as the goal. It can be stressful, but we always end up with balance in the end.  The day after the placement meeting, we have a trial run to double check we've made the best decisions and make any last minute switches.  At the end of the trial run day, we send home a letter with parents to inform them of the final class placement.  We also host a breakfast the following day where students and parents can "meet" the teacher the students will have all year.

Each teacher has a color during the switch to help students know which room to go to each day.  Also, students wear name tags that identify their homeroom teacher and the class for the day. 

Students wait outside the green room to switch for the day.  

Charts to track the placement process and ensure balance during "Draft Day."

Norms for the placement meeting.

If you have questions or would like to know more about the Kindergarten Switch-a-Roo, please comment below.

"Am I Ready Now?"

If you're looking for the perfect back to school read for primary students and their parents, I've got the book for you! A kindergarten teacher and friend at my school, Jessica Schneider, published a book titled, "Am I Ready Now!" The book tells the story of a little boy, Louie, and his mom preparing for the first day of kindergarten. It's a sweet book that captures the emotion of our youngest students and their anxious parents this time of year.



I read "Am I Ready Now?" to my own son, my baby, who is starting kindergarten tomorrow. I cried! When I read this page, I couldn't hold in the tears anymore.


It so perfectly captures how I feel about my baby who is now a big boy. It's a great back to school read or gift for a child starting school. It's also a great read for parents like me about to send their babies off to school. You can purchase a copy on Jessica's website:

http://schneiderjessica.weebly.com

Happy Reading!