#BLC13

Amazing thinking and learning going on at the Building Learning Communities Education Conference 2013 in Boston. I'll be following at #BLC13 to get in on some of that awesome pd. I have been blown away by the opportunities we have to take charge of our own professional learning through online resources!

So, Yong Zhao gave a keynote and this is some of the thinking it led to for me. Here's some of his thinking from "Catching Up or Leading the Way:

He believes that schools should offer a comprehensive, balanced curriculum that includes opportunities for students to explore and develop both left and right brain thinking. They should also help children develop a global awareness, an appreciation for differences, an understanding and an ability to interact with the digital world, and the knowledge to develop a healthy mind and body. Schools must also allow children to study what interests them, what they are passionate about, and what they are good at. 

I so agree that this is what we need to do in schools in our classrooms!

Another quote I read that was a popular tweet is, "Education - Make things that are meaningful to other people" by Dr. Zhao. I think this is so true because it gives our students a sense of purpose and a real audience!

I also loved this Design Thinking Process created by Tom Barrett, follow @tombarret.

I look forward to following the conversations at #BLC13

 

 

Great Conversations - Student Growth!

     What a great day Thursday! I don't know how often you can say that about a day as an educator where you had a WHOLE day meeting about RtI, but through our discussions I'm hopeful that we will bring authenticity to the whole data analysis thing and our problem solving process.

     It makes me think about the book Imagine a Day by Sarah L. Thomson. The description reads..."Imagine a day when your swing swings you higher than the highest treetops. Imagine a day when you can ride your bike up a path of falling leaves into the very tree they are falling from. Imagine a day when you release a handful of blue balloons into a cloudy, gray sky to create a postcard-perfect day. Imagine a day when the ordinary becomes the extraordinary...a day when anything is possible." This is what we do for kids when we collaborate and keep them at the forefront of our conversations! Anything is possible - imagine a day like that!

     As a team we talked about how we want to bring more formative assessment data to these meetings. And I loved it that some of us stopped the meeting and said, "Wait, what does that look like?" I'm so glad we clarified this. We talked about how it means we want to bring authentic student work (or analysis of it) to the table. It's by looking at this work and our conversations with students through our conferring that we will impact student growth scores. If we really want to see student growth, we need to focus on these specific reading, writing, and mathematical behaviors that we identify along with the students to move them forward, not merely selecting a goal from the list of skills generated from a writ score from a MAP test. Do we use that to help guide our instruction and narrow our goal? Yes. But is that a "goal" for a student. No. There's so much more to setting goals. I guess I'm excited that the goal setting we do with students in the classroom, as my dear friend Ann Marie Corgill talks about "Growing Readers..." and "Growing Writers...", will now become part of our core conversations in these meetings. That's how we'll see student growth - just imagine!

Slice of Life #31 - I Feel Unwriterly Today

"Unwritten"

by

Natasha Bedingfield

I am unwritten, can't read my mind, I'm undefined

I'm just beginning, the pen's in my hand, ending unplanned

Staring at the blank page before you

Open up the dirty window

Let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find

Reaching for something in the distance

So close you can almost taste it

Release your inhibitions

Feel the rain on your skin

No one else can feel it for you

Only you can let it in

No one else, no one else

Can speak the words on your lips

Drench yourself in words unspoken

Live your life with arms wide open

Today is where your book begins

The rest is still unwritten

Oh, oh, oh

I break tradition, sometimes my tries, are outside the lines

We've been conditioned to not make mistakes, but I can't live that way

Feel the rain on your skin

No one else can feel it for you

Only you can let it in

No one else, no one else

Can speak the words on your lips

Drench yourself in words unspoken

Live your life with arms wide open

Today is where your book begins

The rest is still unwritten

 

Today I just didn't feel "writerly." I thought what a horrible way to end this beautiful challenge. It shouldn't be this way I thought. I should feel more "writerly" shouldn't I??? I began to think I'm just not pushing myself enough and asked, "Am I just phoning it in?" Then I heard this song as I was running today and and I ran a bit harder, it summed up how I was feeling. All I can see sometimes is that blank page, I need to trust that if I "open the window" and "feel the rain,"  "drench myself in words unspoken" ideas and words will come. Some days they'll be good, but most days it will be dribble.

I also read some quotes about writer's block in a link posted yesterday at Merely Day By Day by Cathy Mere that were very encouraging!

I have learned that when I write from the gut I think it's most powerful and moving. What I've also learned is that even when my writing is dribble, there is some nugget of truth in about me and when you're part of a writing community they appreciate it because they get to know you a little better. They see past the yuck and mine it for the nugget. It makes it a safe place to "have a go" at this writing thing because as we know the only way to get better is to write. My favorite quote is below. It was under the heading, "Cope with Badness."

"We can't be as good as we'd want to, so the question then becomes, how do we cope with our own badness?"  by Nick Hornby

 

That's how I feel today.

I've also been struggling with where to go from here. I know I want to keep up with Tuesday slices, but I can't keep up more than one blog. My original intention was for this blog, "Refining Our Craft" to be reflections of our teaching lives, but I don't think it's stretch to include writing in with the "Craft." After all, I strongly believe that to be good writing teachers we need to be writer's, so I feel I will be doing just that.

I'm also excited about April being poetry month! And have already included My Juicy Little Universe by Heidi Mordhorst and No Water River by Renee LaTulippe on my blog roll to see what it's all about. I already had subscribed to The Poem Farm by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater and would highly recommend it!I'm excited to continue refining my craft of writing poetry - I know I have a long way to go, but so far it's been fun!

It has been a pleasure and a priviledge joining all of you in this challenge. I have learned and been inspired by you and find your writing and your words filter into my thoughts through out my days. The beauty of your language and craft have become a part of me - know you've changed me for the better! We'll catch up on Tuesdays or more!

I did also remember a quote that talked about reflecting on your writing is not writing, so I had a go at squeezing out a poem, like Elsie talked about in her slice yesterday at elsie tries writing, in honor of Poetry Friday!

Slice

So

comes

loveless

endings

                             

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Slice of Life #30 - IRC Reflections

A couple of weeks ago I attended the Illinois Reading Conference in Springfield, Illinois. We were lucky to be able to go as a team, all the literacy coaches in our district (except one who is on maternity leave - we missed her!). We had the privilege of listening to so many amazing authors and educators and here are some of my take aways...

1.  The first session I went to was Patricia MacLachlan speaking about how she is inspired as a writer. She told the behind the scenes stories from where her books came. I have to tell you that she is one great speaker. She's hilarious and sassy! My favorite book has always been All the Places to Love! I'm looking forward to reading Kindred Souls, as she told about how this story came from her own grandfather and the sod house he had built and has strong connections for her growing up on the prairie in Cheyenne Wyoming. It was just a great reminder and inspiring to see how you can weave together fiction stories based on your own life.

2. This may seem small, but it's a nuance about instruction. We were at Harvey Daniels presentation and he was sharing a video and talking with students about "What does it look like" when we are collaborating. In the video the teacher, Debbie King, was having her students help her create a chart for this. The students began by saying the typical things, "We listen." There were a few other responses then I saw her push them to be more specific. She said, "What do you do when you're listening?" They began then to share things like, "turn your head towards the person." It taught me to get very specific when listing behaviors, otherwise I don't think these charts are really helpful to students.

3. Another amazing author/educator/consultant we heard was Ann Grall Reichel! She has done amazing work in science and shares that thinking in her book, "Expect More:  Children Can Do Remarkable Things." But now she has been expanding her work to social studies also. My biggest take away is the power of visual literacy and using art, along with multiple sources, specifically complex texts and original sources to dig deeper into time period in history. She showed this picture below and had us make inferences. Then suggested looking to texts to confirm or revise our thinking.

                                           

3. We were also listening to Seymour Simon share about his amazing nonfiction or "real books" as he likes to call them, with the amazing pictures and powerful comparisons. I realized that making comparison, which I've been finding that students, even young students, are very capable of, really help a reader understand your ideas. He talks about how a blue whale's tongue is the size of a baby elephant! Wow! But what really struck me about his presentation was when he talked about how he was inspired to become an author. He talked about how in second grade his teacher took his papers for his story and stapled them together and they all (the class) had to listen to him. It was this power of audience that inspired him to tell stories - people listened! We've all been learning the power of audience this month too!

4. After seeing Chris Tovani, I couldn't help but go up to her and tell her that I felt like I was in church. I just wanted to keep saying, "Amen, sister!" She spoke so powerfully about the importance of teaching students strategies all the way through high school and not just for strategies sake, but as a way for them to unlock meaning for them with a text, there's a purpose in them. They seem to forget this in high school. What struck me when she was talking though, was how she mentioned that we are always thinking when we're reading, but we are either thinking about the text or we are thinking about something else. It was the something else that I'm not sure if I've talked enough about with students. For us it could be our shopping list, what we're making for dinner, emails we need to send, etc. For our students it could be playing outside, texting friends, what sport practice they have after school, essentially daydreaming. That's what we want students to notice and listen to, the voice that's in their head and realize if it is about the text or something else. And if it's something else that means they need to do something to get back on track.

There was so much more, but those were some of the highlights. I have to say though, that the best part of the conference was being able to share and discuss new learning with my colleagues. We never have enough time for this!

Just for kicks here's a quote about Lincoln by Stephen Douglas, because you couldn't help but be in awe of this amazing leader and lover of books as you were there! This quote I think shows the power of the story:


"Everyone of his stories seems like a whack across my back...Nothing else - not any of his arguments or any of his replies to my questions - disturbs me. But when he begins to tell a story, I feel that I am to be overmatched."                             

                                                          Stephen A. Douglas about Abraham Lincoln

                             

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Slice of Life # 29 - Biggest Loser

Those who read my post about figuring out the statement, "Just put it in a cloud" or anyone figuring out technology in general will appreciate this story...

A few days before spring break I get a note from our tech person, directly to me, saying that there is a new guideline and that everyone's "P-Drive," our network storage, should be less than 2 GB. It's embarrasing, I didn't even know for sure what GB stood for at that moment. I could have guessed, but have been telling the story saying the letters "G" and "B". Well...I was at 19 GB!!! Included in his note is that he has let the librarian at my home school know so she can help me if I need it.

To which I replied, I'm sure our dear librarian has better things to do than sit and watch me delete and transfer files! And that I'll get on it. I'm thinking to myself they could have let me know a few GB's ago, but whatever. I decided now I really gotta figure out this cloud thing and I just heard about "dropbox," I guess it's a file cabinet in a cloud and now in someone else's post I read about "LiveBinders" both are free - I think. But just as a back-up I decided to go ahead and get one of those external hard drives. Not excited that this will now be a spring break project - Boo!

O.K...Then, the day before spring an email goes to "All Staff" from our tech guy, declaring the new 2 GB guidelines and attached is a picture of how much EVERYONE has saved in our "P Drives" and if you're over 2 GB you have to take care of it by May or it will be deleted. Wait for it...there's a BIG RED ARROW pointing to the GB column and guess who is at the top - ME, at 19 GB and the next person with something like 6 GB. GREAT! How embarrassing!

I "Replied All," to the whole staff and here is the email dialogue that resulted - Too funny!

Nice - way to call me out, being first on the list and all!!! I'm working on it, I'm working on it! FYI I have lots of videos for the district. I did just buy an external hard drive and I'm saving things to a cloud with Drop Box! Oh brother!

Have a great spring break everyone!

Jen

(From the gifted resource teacher) Shouldn't there be some allowances for seniority or the gifted teachers?!?

(From the P.E. teachers) We are willing to sell some of our GBs for a fair asking price...

So is this the black market for GBs. Hey I might get in on the bidding for that, but looking at the data I will have to hit up some other less than 1%ers - Anyone, anyone? (Ha Ha) I don't think (our tech guy) will go for that :(

Jen

(From our Tech guy) Sorry Jen, didn't think about that!

Yeah - big red arrow right to me! AND leave it to (another teacher) to be right at 2 GB! O.K. - I'm not bitter or anything... ;)

Jen

(From our sweet librarian) Jen, let me know if I can help.

Consider it an honor to have been number one out of the entire building.  :) 

(Again - sweet librarian) That's a positive way to look at it!

Here's another way of thinking, Jen, though the district wouldn't ever acknowledge this.  Add up all the schools + all the teachers + all the students you have worked with directly and indirectly as a literacy coach + all the meetings you've attended + all the personal hours you've spent in the past few years reading professional books, articles, reports, and journals,etc.  Divide your GB's by that number... I bet your number would look much better then!!!!

OR NEW BIGGEST LOSER CONTEST! Jen B, Jessica, Dan, Sarah, Jim, Dawn and I compete to see who can reduce space on our P: drives the quickest!  (Our tech guys) can be our coach. "Delete, delete, copy, move!  Come on, give me four more deletes before you add any more pictures!"  "Do you really need that document?  Can't you create one with less bytes?"

I guess we were getting a little punchy right before spring break and needed a little email banter.

Good news: I'm at 0 GB. I think I won at least one of the BIGGEST LOSER contests.

Bad news:  It's all on and external hard drive and my beautiful files kind of got messed up a bit. So more organization required and still have to figure out the drop box thing, but I can tell you...THAT won't be happening over spring break!!!

                             

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Slice of Life #28 - My Girl

I often think about the importance of being known, knowing someone better than anyone else. I had started this post early in the challenge and thought it appropriate to finish it with the commencement of her birthday celebration.

So shy

but if you only knew...

So shy

out and about

even with grandpa and grandma,

so reserved,

BUT at home,

in her element,
she's a mad woman.
She would ride,
at 22 months,

a pink, stuffed, rocking unicorn,

mouth wide open,
huffing and puffing,

in and out,

hair gone wild

She is anything but reserved -

She's a wild woman!
She's my girl ~

Side note:  As I tucked her in the night of her birthday party, she asks, "Mom, did you look under the books on you night table?" Below is what I found. Soooo sweet!

Love you forever

I love you forever, now (no) mater whoat

Another side note - Here's a recent quote after measuring her height in the kitchen pantry, where we record their growth, she says..."That's the tallest I've ever been!" Too cute! Just had to share...

                             

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Slice of Life # 27 - Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!

We cheered!

  We made books.

(I couldn't help it. You know, the teacher in me and

when I first mentioned it, one little girls face was crest fallen, but

I mentioned coloring and stamp-a-story! That worked!)

We made pizza and we ate pizza.

(How did I miss taking a picture of making the pizza???)

We cheered some more!

We ate cake...

and opened presents.

We did nails...

and a craft.

Now I am waiting out 5 girls to fall asleep. Three down

two to go! Come on Smurfs lull them to sleep!

Favorite quote of the night:  "This is the best sleepover birthday party ever!"

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!

                             

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