{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?

I Love Them All

I've taught in three different grades, over the past ten years, and I'm frequently asked which grade I like best.  While my standard response is that I love them all, of course, there are some things that I love more and less about each.

So what are my favorite things about each grade that I've taught? Here you go:

PRE-K:
I started my teaching career as a Pre-K teacher.  I can always tell when someone is an educator (or the parent of a preschooler) by how they respond to this information -- if you say "aw, so cute!" then you're not a teacher. If you say, "woah, you must have endless patience," then you get it. 😁

Everything is new for preschoolers!  This means that anything can be educational and exciting... and exhausting.  I've taken field trips to the grocery story and the post office with Pre-Kers (activities that we grown-ups find tedious and mundane) and watched their little eyes light up with wonder... and endless questions. It doesn't take much to be a four-year-old's "favorite teacher" (this is great for ego building!) Despite the tears and tantrums (and accidents) that inevitably come with teaching Pre-K, there are days when I really miss the easy hugs and simple joys of playing in the water table.

FIRST GRADE:
I think 1st grade is where some of the most significant learning happens, maybe in all of elementary school. They come in just putting sounds together, and skipping the number 13 when they count, and a few months later they are reading picture books and subtracting back from 20.  First graders are just starting to learn what learning feels like -- for some, it's the first time they realize they are "learning" anything at all. And all that learning is not easy. Every kiddo needs every lesson at least 15 times, with manipulatives and visual cues and physical movements and sing-song steps. And lots and lots, and lots, of encouragement. As frustrating and tiring as all that can be, there is nothing like the first time a kiddo reads, like really reads. I don't think being part of that moment could ever get old.

FOURTH GRADE:
Moving to fourth grade was an unexpected and challenging jump for me, and I wasn't sure what to expect.  When your kiddos start to approach your height and have their own opinions, it can be intimidating. Ten-year-olds don't love just anybody or anything, some of them are already a little jaded about school, and some just want to pretend they're tough, so getting them interested and engaged isn't always easy.  It takes a lot of energy to show you care about them and the subject matter. But once you're in, it matters that much more.  As foundational as early childhood and lower elementary are, this is the age when kiddos develop the beliefs and passions that will truly shape their lives.  They learn that girls can do math and boys can love history. They learn those skills -- like multiplication, essay writing, nonfiction note-taking -- that they really will use when they grown up. No pressure, right?

I don't actually know what I will be teaching next year, and that uncertainty has me a little frantic. How will I sufficiently reflect and plan and prep?  Now that I think about it, though, maybe it's not so much about what grade I will be teaching, or even what students I will be teaching, maybe it's really about what I will be teaching. In every grade, there is the opportunity to make something as mundane as the grocery store, or as foundational as reading, or as inspiring as the American Revolution into something that kids really care about, something that will shape the course of their life. I just need to find the patience, energy, and enthusiasm to teach it to them. No pressure -- I've got all summer.

Why Math Games?

When I first started utilizing math games (as part of the Investigations Math Curriculum), I was rather skeptical about their efficacy.  For one, it was hard to tell if my kiddos were really doing any math while they were playing with dice and cards.  Secondly, even if they were doing math, they weren't producing any "evidence" that could be checked or graded so I couldn't know if they were correct.

As I learned more about how to instruct students to communicate while playing math games, I became more confident that my kiddos were actually doing math.  I also found ways to have them record their responses, like keeping score in other games, so I could confirm that they had done the math correctly.  In addition, I became more adept in matching students to partners who could provide appropriate challenge and support while playing together.

Nevertheless, I wasn't really convinced that all math classes should include math games until I switched to a school that did not use games at all.  I was initially looking forward to trying a direct-instruction approach to teaching math. I expected that my students would be better able to comprehend difficult concepts like "counting on" when they were explicitly taught.  I also thought that management during a direct-instruction lesson would be easier.

Here's what I realized... math is challenging no matter how it is taught and, just like other skills, like reading or riding a bike, kiddos need to have lots practice doing math to really get it.  After I taught a direct-instruction lesson, I noticed that my kiddos would solve a few problems and then get bored and tired. Management became more difficult when they felt overwhelmed by a packet of worksheets.

Despite the direct instruction approach my new school was using, I started introducing a few math games to my first graders.  I realized that there were many other benefits to math games that I'd previously taken for granted. Specifically, math games are fun!  Teaching a lesson on how to "count on" was only one part of having students understand and be able to use this strategy.  Playing math games, like "Roll and Record" with a number cube and a dot cube, gave my kiddos sufficient practice thinking of a number and counting up the dots in a fun way. Unlike simply completing more worksheets, math games also provided just enough variation to keep kiddos actively thinking about the new strategy they were using.

I'm now back at my previous school, teaching a new grade, and learning new math games.  Recently, two of my kiddos came over in the middle of a debate about a math game I'd just taught them -- a decimal version of the card game War.  One kiddo said that his card (0.81) had won and the other disagreed (he had 0.9).  As I listened to each of them explain his side, I heard them using the math language I'd taught them: hundredths, tenths, decimal, and equivalent.  Before I even had a chance to weigh in, the kiddo who had insisted he'd won said, "Oh yeah! You're right: 0.9 is greater! Okay, let's keep going!" and off they went to keep playing!  I feel confident that conversations like this, where kids are teaching each other and having new realizations, would not have surfaced had they been working independently to solve the same problem on a worksheet.

Getting Back to the Firsties

This week I attended a Responsive Classroom (RC) training.  Although I have been using the RC approach since I started teaching and have attended a few mini-trainings, I've never participated in the official Responsive Classroom Course.  This week, the training was being offered 30 minutes from my apartment so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get the professional development credits and experience the full 4-day course.

An important part of implementing RC practices (find out more here) is understanding children's development.  This has gotten me thinking about why I love 6-year-olds and teaching first grade.

For instance, they read in the funniest positions:

(Notice that a marble, a coin, a plastic dinosaur, and a lego have fallen out of this little guy's pocket)

(I just noticed that this little one is reading the same book!)

They also write the sweetest notes.

Next week, we have staff PD and then our kiddos come back the following week. Making the transition from summer to school is never easy, but it helps to know I've got a whole new group of these earnest, eager, adorable kiddos coming my way. I'm taking this weekend to relax, prepare, and ... get excited to get back to the firsties.