True Teaching

A few weeks ago, before the craziness of "remote learning" even entered our minds, I had an experience that brought me back to what I love about teaching. I started to blog about it then, but, as always, got distracted by things that seemed more important at the moment. Well, one blessing of the current #coronaclosure is that all of those "important" things -- running errands, meetings, lesson planning -- are suddenly much less urgent. So, I'm trying to use my new-found free time to re-focus. I woke up leisurely (no alarms!), did a yoga workout in my basement, and now I'm drinking hot coffee on the couch, and spending some time writing. It would be much more relaxing if the world didn't feel like it was falling apart, but I'm trying to enjoy what I can.

So here is the story I started to share weeks ago.  Somehow it feels equally, and maybe even more, relevant now as I think about what teaching may look like in the weeks and months to come...

It was Closing Circle. My students were gathered around the perimeter of our carpet. One of my students had a picture in a frame, ready to share. She began by telling us about her grandmother, the special relationship they had and how much they had in common. Then she shared that she was worried about her grandmother, and her grandfather, because her grandfather was getting a kidney transplant.  Her grandmother was donating the kidney and so they were both having to stay in the hospital for a little while (I should pause here to note that I did not verify these facts with her family, so I'm not actually sure this was a real story, but it was what she shared with our class).

As soon as this student mentioned the hospital and surgery, and her grandfather's failing kidneys, another one of my students began to comment under his breath "Ew! Agh, I don't want to hear this!"  Then he started to make fake-vomit noises. Immediately, I sent to our "Safe Place" to take a break. He groaned and pouted, and stomped away to the Safe Place, while his classmate finished her story and shared the framed picture of herself, as a baby, with her mom, grandmother, and aunts.  When she was ready for questions and comments, some of my other students jumped in to share their concern and well-wishes. Then it was time for everyone to go to Art class. I hustled the other students out the classroom door, while instructing the kiddo in the Safe Place to stay put so we could talk after everyone left.

Once the classroom was quiet, I walked over to the kiddo in the Safe Place. He was still a little pouty, but mostly calm. I started, as I always try to when I send students to "take a break," by asking him if he knew why I'd sent him away from the class. He said, "no." Of course he doesn't, I thought, and I could have just jumped to reprimanding him for being rude while another classmate was speaking. For some reason, though, I took another tactic. "Do you know what kidneys are?" I asked. "Yes," he answered confidently, and pointed to his heel. I stifled a smile, "Nope, that's your achilles."

At this point, I shifted gears and invited him, and another one who had stayed behind from Art class to finish a math assignment, over to my computer.  I pulled up brainpop.com.  Side note: This is one of my favorite websites because I can always count on them to have kid-appropriate videos for nearly any topic that comes up in my classroom. Case in point, within days of COVID-19 outbreaks worldwide, BrainPop had a free video available about coronaviruses, which included tips for avoiding spread, getting information from reliable sources, managing anxiety, and supporting others without judgement.

On this particular day, I searched "kidneys" and, sure enough, found a short video on the urinary tract system. We began to watch and I paused a few times to answer questions or explain further. "Yes, your pee is in your body all the time." "Well, your bladder sends a message to your brain when you need to pee so that you don't have an accident." "Right, your kidneys help filter out the bad stuff from the air we breathe and food we eat."  It was evident, very quickly, that neither of these kiddos had ever learned much about how their bodies work.  They were genuine, curious, and fascinated as the video went on.

At the end, I turned to the little guy who had made fake-vomit noises 20-minutes earlier at the mention of surgery. "Do you understand now why your classmate was feeling scared that her grandfather's kidney weren't working?" He answered quietly, "He could die without kidneys because the bad stuff would be in his body." I nodded, then asked, "Do you understand why it might have been hurtful that you were pretending to get sick while she was sharing about her grandfather's kidney transplant?" He was silent for a long moment. Then he just said, "Oops."

I knew he got it. He didn't need a lecture or punishment. He understood why his behavior had been inappropriate, and that he should try to be more sensitive in the future. It was a beautiful moment.  After that, I walked him to Art class. That was it.

Kids, and adults, often appear rude, unkind, disrespectful, or hurtful, when really they are confused and un-informed. We can tell them to be more thoughtful or empathetic, but that's only part of the solution. We actually need to provide more information, to teach them.

Missing all of this.

This has been a challenging year for me, and I've found myself feeling disconnected and unmotivated more than I'd like, but this experience reminded me what I love about teaching... being able to provide information, ideas, and answers at the time they are needed most.  My favorite moments in teaching have always been when I've been able to follow the interests, questions, or curiosities of my students. I know I haven't been doing this well lately. I've let the pressure of looming state tests, evaluations, and demanding parents push me to plough through content and focus on assessing standards, rather than knowledge. I can do better. We all can.

As we move into a new phase of education, I am hoping that I can make the time, and find more creative ways, to truly teach my students, even if we won't be gathering around the perimeter of the carpet for awhile.

{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?

Learning Long Division

Math was definitely not my favorite subject growing up... I had trouble remembering multiple steps to solve problems and never had a good idea if an answer was "reasonable." Nevertheless, one of my favorite memories of doing math in elementary school was creating and solving extended long division problems during indoor recess in 5th grade.  We would write up 25 or more random digits and then try to divide by 2 or 3 or 5, working our way across the entire chalkboard! It was so satisfying to simply "divide, multiply, subtract, drop down" and get a huge answer that I could feel confident was correct! I now realize that I had no understanding of why those steps worked or what that answer meant, but it felt "smart."

Now as a math teacher, I don't want my students to

blindly accept that a set of steps "just works" -- I want them to be able to explain how, why, and when any algorithm is useful and efficient. Last year our math curriculum intentionally avoided teaching long division in 4th grade to encourage students to use place value understanding and other strategies to divide.  I enjoyed teaching this way... I could explain why each method worked and observed students making logical connections between multiplication and division to solve complex problems.

This year, however, we are using Eureka math which does teach the long division algorithm (alongside other place value strategies) in fourth grade. As much as I loved using this method myself, I was anxious to make it meaningful for my kiddos. We began with mental math division (25 ÷ 5 or 18 ÷ 3), which required students to use multiplication facts to solve quickly.  I wrote the equations out using the long division symbol, but resisted reciting the "divide, multiply, subtract, drop down" mantra. Instead I asked the kiddos questions like "why do I write this here?" and "what should I do next?" and "what does this number represent?"

Then we added in using "place value disks" to represent the division (see above).  I demonstrated using the long division algorithm alongside the place value disks to help students see the connection. The kiddos totally got it!  My Teaching Fellow even commented how clearly she could recognize the steps of the algorithm within the place value model when it was taught this way!  

After two days of using the place value disks and word problems to provide context, it was time to go all in on using the long division algorithm!  Rather than keep everyone on the carpet for a traditional lesson, I allowed the kiddos to decide when they had mastered this new skill. When they felt confident with the algorithm (without drawing out the place value disks),  they could leave the carpet to start the Problem Set. Those who still felt stuck or unsure, stayed with me to keep practicing. I could practically see the gears turning in their heads and they pictured each step. When the lightbulb finally went off, they were so proud of themselves! 

Naturally, there were a few kiddos who were still struggling at the end of class. Rather than move on or wait another day to review, I offered to host a "Long Division Lunch Bunch." I ended up with 24 fourth graders eating lunch and doing long division in my room that day (I teach three classes so I offered the Lunch Bunch to all of them.) As the kiddos ate and worked together, I could see them gaining confidence!  By the end of lunch, most of them had the same satisfied, smart feeling I remembered from 5th grade. But this time, as they followed a set of steps to solve multi-digit long division problems, I knew they really understood what it means to divide one number into another and how those set of steps make their problem solving more efficient! 😄

Finally Spring!

It's finally starting to feel like Spring in DC!  It's been a long winter, which has meant a lot of indoor recess.  Indoor recess is rarely ideal (kiddos need to get out of the classroom and run), but when it's freezing or raining, indoor recess is the perfect opportunity to break out some of my favorite games.

Set: This game has been a favorite in my family for years.  The object of the game is to find 3 cards that make a "set," which either means they have something that is in common across all of them or have nothing in common across all of them.  It's challenging, but so fun!

Scrabble: This game can tough for first graders who don't have very large vocabularies, but it's actually great for practicing sight words and phonics. We allow "invented spelling" so the kids can build words with the sounds they know.  An added bonus is that keeping-score is perfect for practicing multiple-addend addition (i.e. 5 + 6 + 3 + 4)

Checkers: A classic.  Most of the kiddos know how to play this game since it's so easy to learn.  They can set it up and manage it all by themselves which is helpful for me.  We have lots of extra pieces because inevitably a few get swept up or slide under a shelf every time we take it out.

Chess: My little brother could beat me at this game when he was 4 (and I was 20), but I still enjoy it. I typically have a few kiddos who already know how to play, and I put them in charge of teaching the others.  I'm always impressed by how they can remember all of the rules for each piece.  I'm not sure the kiddos ever get through a whole game after all of the explaining, but they still seem to have fun.  

* I didn't receive any compensation for these endorsements.  These are genuinely my favorite games and the best way to keep everyone sane during the endless weeks of indoor recess. -- Sarah :)

Reading Rainbow Reviews

The Thursday before Winter Break was our school-wide Publishing Night.  This annual event brings families into our classrooms to celebrate the writing process.  However, in the past, we've typically had only one polished, re-written, titled, and illustrated piece of writing to share.  This year, in accordance with the new Units of Study from Lucy Calkins, our published work looked a little different.

First off, as I explained in my last post (here) about the Opinion Writing Unit, the kiddos actually "published" three different reviews.  For Publishing Night, I set up tables with our collection reviews and review anthologies.  I put the kiddos' book reviews at their tables, with their book inspirations propped up.  It was incredibly powerful for parents to see all of the writing that their kiddos had produced.  One mother picked up her daughter's first review and actually ask if it was from the beginning of the year!  When I explained that, no, it was only from a few weeks earlier, she was definitely impressed with her daughter's progress.

Not only did we have more writing this year than ever before, but for the first time we did not spend time re-writing.  In the past, I've saved 3-4 days at the end of each unit for the kiddos to copy their finished writing neatly onto clean paper.  My rationale was always that they could use the handwriting practice, but some fellow teachers who attended Teachers College this past summer, pointed out that re-writing every piece was really wasting up to two weeks of valuable instructional time.  More importantly, by not re-writing, we were able to recognize and honor the hard work of revising and editing.  I "warned" families ahead of time that they would likely see cross-out, carets, arrows, and other tools that writers use to revise their work, but no one seemed to mind.  I think they actually appreciated seeing how the kiddos had worked to improve content, spelling, and grammar of their stories.

Another new feature of this Publishing Night was the interactive SMART Notebook with clickable pictures of the kiddos and their books.  At the end of this unit I filmed each kiddo reading his/her book review.  (In order for the kiddos to get this concept we watched a couple episodes of Reading Rainbow on DVD, since, sadly, the show is no longer on the air).  The kiddos loved touching the pictures and watching the reviews pop-up!

I've usually enjoyed Publishing Nights just fine, but this one was, by far, my favorite.  Not only that, but I think it was most "impactful" (I know it's not a word, but it just works well here) for parents.  I'm already looking forward to teaching this unit and producing Reading Rainbow reviews next year!

A Miss Nelson Moment

During my first year teaching, I kept track of funny quotes and situations from the classroom as a way to stay optimistic.  It was easy to get lost in the difficulties of first-year teaching, and neglect the lighter moments with my kiddos, so I learned to pick out at least 1 positive moment each day.  I'm grateful that I no longer need quotes to keep me afloat, but there are still some hilarious moments that I don't want to forget.

Fortunately, I now have this blog to help me keep track of them!  One of these moments came last week...

I had intended to be out of the classroom on Thursday to observe in other teachers' classrooms for the morning.  I had prepped my kiddos the day before and didn't plan on seeing them in until the afternoon.  However, about 20 minutes into my first observation, I learned that another teacher had called out sick, so the substitute scheduled to cover my class was going to pulled for the rest of the day.

I happened to have worn my glasses that day and a new button down shirt (not my contacts and usual version of a knit top), so as I walked into the classroom, I got some sideways glances from the kiddos.  When the substitute left the room, one of the kiddos asked cautiously, "Are you our new substitute?" I had a flash of the classic book, Miss Nelson Is Missing, where the sweet teacher "disappears" for a few days and is replaced by the mean Viola Swamp who straightens out the unruly students and makes them realize how much they love Miss Nelson.  I decided to give it a try...

"Sure," I answered, "Show me what you are supposed to do." For the next 45-minutes, I watched as my kiddos lead Morning Meeting, dismissed themselves to their Literacy Stations, and then cleaned up from Literacy Stations and went to their reading spots for independent reading.  I gave a few cues and prompts, but resisted the urge to step in much more. Instead, as the kiddos worked, I took the opportunity to give a few one-on-one assessments.

Of course, I didn't really have most of the kiddos fooled, and unlike Viola Swamp, I didn't have to be a nastier, stricter teacher to get the class into shape.  In fact, it was impressive to see how capable they were of taking over many of the classroom routines.  It was actually a relief to take a break from the nagging and reminding that I've been doing way too much of over the past couple of weeks.  Lesson: I just might have to be "out of the classroom" again sometime soon...

First Grade Memories

As a follow-up to our Hopes and Dreams, this is a very late post about our end-of-year memory scrapbooks...

At the beginning of the school year, we do a lot of assessing and goal setting.  We talk about our Hopes and Dreams for the year, measure reading levels, take math benchmarks and on-demand writing prompts, set goals for reading growth, and track fluency with math facts.  We also talk about how perseverance and self-control will help us reach our goals.  We read books about characters who dream big, experience set-backs, work hard, and overcome obstacles.  All of this is in an effort, to set our kiddos up for a successful year.

And then we get to work.  By mid-November, we're typically into autopilot mode; we do what we need to do, glance up at our posted "hopes and dreams," track progress periodically, and adjust as necessary.  While I analyze student data frequently as I plan, intervene, and differentiate, it's challenging to keep the kids focused on our goals; June just seems way off for little kiddos who don't have much sense of time.  When we finally reach the end of the year, I can see how much they've grown and changed, but it's harder for them to reflect on the work they've put in and the progress they've made.

This past year, we made "First Grade Reflections" scrapbooks and had a great time re-living our favorite experiences, including reveling in how much we had accomplished. We had a page to reflect on our reading growth, a page to reflect on our favorite field trips, and a page to reflect on our favorite subjects.

Students wrote caption for field trip picts.

I also took down the "Hopes and Dreams" we had posted at the beginning of the year so the kids could reflect on whether they had met their first grade goal.  Most of the kids had, but even more interesting was to see how much their drawing, writing, and thinking had evolved. Many of them found their goals funny and noticed that they wrote their names in all capital letters.




It was so exciting to see them get excited about their own growth... and hopefully it motivated them to continue setting goals, working hard, and reflecting on their progress.

Read-Aloud: Enemy Pie

One of my favorite parts of the day is Read-Aloud.  I love reading books aloud, using voices, building excitement, and sharing the language of literature.  I especially love when I get to read one of those books that draws kids in, has them holding their breath, giggling, and whispering along; books like Caps for Sale, Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, and Strega Nona.  When I taught pre-K, these were the books I would read again and again just for fun.  I was a little nervous when I started teaching first grade that these books would no longer hold the same appeal, but fortunately books like these never really seem to get old.

This week, I read one of these great books, Enemy Pie, as part of our Voices Literature & Character Education Curriculum (by Zaner-Bloser).  Enemy Pie, by Derek Munson, is a Reading Rainbow book, as so many classic books are.  The story is about a boy whose father offers to bake "enemy pie" to help get rid of the boy's newest enemy.  Unfortunately, enemy pie only works if you spend the whole day with your enemy first.  The kiddos love hypothesizing, along with the boy in the story, about what horrible ingredients must be in enemy pie. At the end of the story, the boy, his father, and the boy's enemy sit down to eat enemy pie, only to discover that it tastes amazing and doesn't cause any weird side-effects. The little boy, along with my curious kiddos, wonder why the pie hasn't worked but simply conclude that it must be because the new kid has become a friend.  I love walking away from the carpet hearing the kiddos continue to whisper about what must really be in enemy pie.  Oh, how they can be cute!