{Nearly} 10 Years of Blogging

I started this blog nearly 10 years ago.  I can't believe I'm even putting that number into writing!  It truly feels like an eternity ago.  When I started blogging, I wanted to be able to share some of the things I was doing in my classroom with other teachers, and I wanted to capture my own in-the-moment feelings about teaching, the projects I was doing with my students, and the turns I was taking in my career.  As it turns out,  those last few things have been far more important than sharing anything (especially since my mom is still my primary reader 😉.)

Pre-K Math

I ran into a former colleague at a party a couple of weeks ago, and as we were catching up I shared that I now teach fourth grade. She was shocked! She remembered me as the quintessential Pre-K teacher and said she couldn't really picture me working with older students. It was a funny, and gratifying, feeling to know that I still held this place in her mind, but it made me realize how far I've moved on from that role in the past few years.

I remember a moment last year (which, unfortunately, I didn't sit down to blog about at the time) when I realized that I felt completely "at home" in the role of fourth-grade teacher.  I had stumbled into fourth grade, but it actually seemed the like the perfect fit for me in a lot of ways. I loved my own fourth grade teacher (although truthfully I don't remember very many specifics about her except that I loved her read-alouds and she gave me my own copy of The Giver, which was my favorite book for years to come). I had also loved working in a fourth grade classroom during a high school teaching internship.

4th Grade Math Activity

Teaching math was also an unlikely position for someone who never considered herself very good at math, but, again, it kind of made sense.  For most of my own eduction, math felt to me like a secret code that I couldn't crack. Yet, I think my personal struggles to memorize rules and recognize patterns made me a more empathetic teacher of math. Never feeling like a "math person" made me appreciate the value of teaching math in different ways for different kiddos. And I do remember solving endless long-division problems in fifth grade after I'd learned to follow the algorithm, because it felt like magic! As a math teacher, I live for those "aha!" moments with my students.

As I sat down to try to write something today, I decided to look back through some of my previous posts. Wow! As much as I've held on to the image of myself as an early childhood teacher, I barely remember being the person who wrote some of these words. I've been thinking for a little while about how much I miss working with little guys and these posts brought that home. I miss planning hands-on centers and field experiences to the market.  I miss designing writing units, breaking down mentor texts, and incorporating social-emotional learning into nearly every lesson -- none of which feels as possible in fourth grade with the expectations of our curricula, testing, scheduling, and departmentalization.

My favorite 1st grade math game:
Roll and Record!

Now most of the students and families at my school don't know me as anything but a fourth grade teacher.  As much as the "fourth grade math teacher" role fits me, part of me is still the teacher who puts on puppet shows and sings songs to bring kids to the carpet.  I know there are some teachers who are content to teach one or two grade levels for their entire career, but I just don't think I'm destined to be one of them. After four years of Pre-K, I remember knowing it was the right time to move on. I felt the same way after teaching first grade for four years. This is my fifth (technically fourth and a half) year in fourth grade and I'm wondering if it's time to try something new once again. What that will be, who knows?

Differentiating in Math

A few years ago, when I started teaching fourth grade, our school's "policy" was that students who scored __% (it varied) on the beginning-of-year math assessments (which also varied), and were deemed "strong in math" by previous teachers, were moved up to the next grade level for math.  The third, fourth, and fifth grade teams had to align our schedules so that math happened at the same time in all classes, so that students could go to which ever math class they were assigned to without missing other subject-areas.  In a lot of ways, this worked for our school -- the kiddos who were moved to the grade-level above felt good about themselves, their families felt good about the "challenging" math instruction their kiddos would receive, and at least some teachers felt good about having all of the students in their math class working on the same grade-level standards. This method of "differentiation" was also pretty easy; we made the decision at the beginning of the year about who was in which math class, and it basically stayed the same all year.

However, it wasn't a perfect system. Other trends started to emerge. Within math classes, the range of abilities was still quite wide, but it was now students working well below their own grade-level mixed with younger students working one or two grade-levels above. The kiddos who were "left back" in their own grade-level math classes started to say that they were "bad at math."  The younger students who were pushed forward consistently out performed the on-grade-level students, often dominating class discussions, but also sticking to themselves during partner or group work.  Families of children who were not pushed forward but felt that they should have been complained that their kids were bored and/or not challenged, which sometimes came to a head when a student would be moved mid-year; although this also led to more questions about what qualified a student to move up and how and when.

Last year, when our school fully departmentalized fourth and fifth grade (and got a new principal), we decided to move away from this system.  We justified the shift for a variety of reasons, including that we had a new curriculum, which was more rigorous than our previous curriculum, and that there was new a district-wide focus on mathematical discourse, which we felt required students to engage with peers at a variety of levels.  We also felt that this change would help us address the culture around math that had developed in our school -- with kids thinking they were "bad" at math if they were working on grade-level.

To ease the shift, we also put in place a few opportunities for students to continue working in more homogeneous math groups within and outside of the math classroom. I held "lunch bunches" with the students who were essentially repeating fourth-grade math to set individual goals and reflect about their math growth. Another teacher pushed into my room two or three times per week to pull a small group of these "high kids" to work on challenge problems. Once a month we held "math seminars" where we split the kids across fourth and fifth grade to work on more critical-thinking problems at different levels.

I learned a lot from these experiences! It turned out (not actually surprisingly) that some students who were good at mathematical computation, and even interpreting basic word problems, really, really struggled with open-ended questions. Other students who had weaker computation skills, were very strong in reasoning. And many students struggled with communicating precisely about their mathematical thinking.  As a result, I introduced more problems that required reasoning, practiced math vocabulary to improve discussions, and looked for more ways to have students demonstrate their understanding about concepts.

Even as I'm typing this, it's hard for me to believe this was all just last year!  Thinking back about all of the questions and challenges we faced last year, I'm realizing how quickly some of the issues resolved themselves, while others we've still barely addressed.  I've come a long way in my own way of thinking about and planning for math instruction and differentiation. This year, I have a completely different group of kiddos, with different strengths and areas of need which has led me in different directions.  As I remember all the things I tried and learned last year, I'm realizing that some practices have already become second nature and many more are still very much a work in progress.

More on this soon 😉

Take Advantage

Teaching isn't easy, but some years are just easier, and I've learned that when I have one of these years, I need to take advantage of it!

If some years are just easier, then naturally some years are just harder (I blogged about one of these years, a few years ago, here) -- sometimes because of particularly needy kiddos, sometimes because of demanding families, sometimes because of new coworkers, and sometimes because of personal life outside of school. Whatever the challenge, some years it takes longer to get into routines, more time to teach new concepts, and it may never feel like you can fully relax in the classroom. This is hard, but it's part of the job. Looking down the hallway, and talking to other teachers, I suspect that the next few years are not going to be so easy. All the more reason to keep pushing myself to be creative and try new things. Of course, it's all made so much easier with the help, encouragement, and support of amazing teammates -- so that's another thing I'm trying not to take for granted! 

Last year, for me, was one of those years.  Looking back, it was a combination of kiddos and coworkers, and some new things for me (like having an intern and using new curricula).  I tried to take advantage of those challenges by pushing myself to be especially reflective and honing my management skills.  It was still a great year in a lot of ways, but truthfully it wasn't too hard to say goodbye. 

This year, on the other hand, has been one of those rare years that, frankly, is just going smoothly (knocking on wood)!  I've got the same team (plus an incredible addition) that I had last year, this is now my third time teaching a full-year of our curricula, and most of our kiddos are pretty easy-going.  This is a crew that can handle open-ended activities without getting too crazy; they can adjust to a flexible schedule without getting overwhelmed. They work together well and can reflect on their own learning without too much structure or encouragement. 

So what have I been doing new this year? Let's see... we started the year with a collaborative growth-mindset oriented math challenge. We've done an "Escape Classroom" at the end of each of our math modules. We have had open-ended math lessons, launched from read-alouds and inquiry questions.  We've have had free-writing afternoons and "class-keeping" (i.e. "housekeeping") chore charts. 

These activities have been great for the kiddos and I definitely want to do them in the future, even if I have a less adaptable group.  Fortunately, now that I've had some success (and learned from some of the less successful experiences), I'll feel more confident trying these activities again. Some teachers are comfortable with a fair amount of chaos and uncertainty in their classrooms, but try as I might, I am not one of those teachers. 😬

Me by the Numbers

Of course, at the beginning of each year we always start with those obligatory "getting to know you" activities. Now that we are departmentalized, I wanted to do those general "meeting and greeting" activities with my homeroom, but I also wanted to do some more math-specific activities with each of my three math classes.  We did not rotate classes for the first two days of school so that we could have a little more time to bond with our new homerooms, and then on day three we did a "practice rotation" with slightly shorter periods and extra time for reviewing expectations. Our math activity on this day was something I called "Me by the Numbers."

This activity was particularly important for this year because, for the first time in a few years, I had never taught any of my students before.  Because I've moved grades a few times, I've had quite a few classes where I've actually already taught at least half of my kiddos. Even when I hadn't taught a particular kiddos, I had known all of the students in the grade reasonably well and could often remember anecdotes or details about them from their previous teachers. This year, though, I had never taught this cohort -- I'd moved to fourth grade by the time they were in first.

The connections I build with my students and their families is one of the things I value most, and it's a huge contributor to my classroom management approach.  So this year I was really nervous about how I would connect and bond with so many (58!) new kids and families. Granted, I'm still at the same school, so there were a few kiddos in this crew who I had known as babies when I taught their older brothers or sisters, but for the most part, we were all new to each other.

As it turned out, I had no reason to worry because these kiddos are such loves! They wanted to know everything about me as much as I wanted to know everything about them. I shared my own "Me by the Numbers" and added in some stories about my pets, where I went to school, and how long I'd been teaching. They were so into it!

Then, while the kiddos were working, I got to walk around, ask questions, make connections, and learn more about each them -- how many siblings do you have? what are your hobbies? how long have you lived in the neighborhood?  Instead of sending these home after we completed them, I held onto them so I could refer back to them during the first few week as I tried to put names and faces with personal details. I've found it really helps to know who likes sports, who loves to travel, who has pets, and who is an only child.  I don't necessarily use these facts all the time, but when I want to write a meaningful word problem or share a great book, I know who I can turn to!

 

Making Time

This school year has honestly been one of my best, top three perhaps (knocking on wood!), and yet I've found it hard to stop, pause, reflect, and write about what has been going on in my classroom. Why?  I'm not entirely sure. I think a lot has to do with giving myself the time.  In this "New Year Season" I've been seeing a lot of memes, posts, and reminders to take time -- really, to make time -- for yourself, especially as a teacher. Most of these seem to be geared toward working out, which I should also do more of, but I've realized that part of the reason I hesitate at the end of the day to sit down and write about my day, and the adventures I've had with my kiddos, is that it means slowing down. The words don't always come quickly and easily, it's messy, and takes time! 

It's so much easier to just keep going, to create the next lesson, to plan the next activity, to write the next assessment. This work, for me, is easier -- and feels more "practice," "purposeful," and "necessary." But of course, as I recognize every time I sit down to write (or work out for that matter), it's just as important, if not more. And feels great -- once I do it. 

After a quick look through previous posts, I've written this same message (i.e. "haven't blogged in awhile, will write more now, blah, blah") at least three times in the past, but here we go again. 

And maybe I'll work out at some point too. 😉