Seeing is Believing

Envisioning my Success

Now that I know what I want to do in my classroom by resetting my purpose I need to create a vision, literally see it in action.  First I'll start with the purpose statement as discussed in my prior blog:

"To inspire students to explore the world through reading various literary genres and media types to discover and develop their passion in life"

What do I see myself doing to put this into action?  What do I see my students doing?  

It's time for a mind movie {insert harp music and fade to alternate universe, what I call "Michelle's Perfect World"}:

I see a peaceful classroom with all students having access to the books, magazines, and online reading materials of their choice.  Some students are working independently reading books, magazines, or scouring online for articles or using reading apps.  Others are sitting in a small book club group discussing their latest reading selection.  Perhaps I'm in one of the small groups or conferring one-on-one either discussing a book we both read or guiding a student through a selection in the classroom library.  Maybe a student is even giving me a book recommendation and I am taking their challenge seriously.  I see a classroom library overflowing with offerings both classical and contemporary with both books and magazines.  The students iPads have applications geared towards increasing their reading skills, applications for online magazine subscriptions.  Students are free to choose between what hard text offerings are in the classroom or the applications on their iPads or simply browsing book lists and searching online articles to read.  Sounds idyllic.

{FLASHBACK}  How do I even begin to accomplish this?  I've had this dream for years but have lacked the courage to move outside the comfort zone of teacher directed everything.  After all, can I trust the students to be doing what they're supposed to be doing?  Aren't I supposed to be using the curriculum to guide my instruction?  That reality left a lifeless, robotic reading of bored students.  Students who are capable readers and might enjoy their reading.  Then enters The Book Whisperer.

Reading this book opened my eyes to what made me a reader, reading books, lots of books.  Just like in my previous posting moving from first to fourth grade gave me the opportunity to reset my teaching purpose which, in turn, meant I KNEW THE KIDS!  Many of the students I have this year I taught three years ago.  That thought comforted me and gave me the courage to begin to move away from 100% teacher directed reading groups to a reader's workshop format using many of the ideas and suggestions Donalyn Miller outlined in her book.  There, done, vision created:

I envision myself implementing daily reader's workshop with both teacher selected and student selected reading in electronic, book, and magazine format.

This vision is a small step towards letting go and letting children become immersed in a story, so captivated by what they're reading that they don't even realize it's time for lunch.  Now, all I need to do is get the materials and put this into action.

What's my purpose now that I'm changing grade levels?

For the past nine years I have taught first grade with the purpose of teaching students to read through breaking the code of an alphabet through comprehending the text.  This purpose served me well until I found myself suddenly reassigned unexpectedly to fourth grade.  Hmmm...these kids know the alphabet and most are comprehending.  Looks like my purpose needs to change to meet the students where they are in their development as students.  So...I did first what most teachers do.  Put that project on the back-burner until I could successfully navigate myself through the finer points of teaching...updating my classroom management, navigating the curriculum, basically launching a classroom.

Now it's a few months into the school year and we're off and learning.  That's all good and well however I still need to reset my purpose so that it fits the new grade level.  Think, think, think...

what makes me a life-long learner?  Why do I want to learn?  How do I discover more about myself and my place in the world?  Through the love of reading and reading many different types of text both in traditional print and electronic form.  I read every day, sometimes for pleasure, sometimes to learn something new both personally and professionally.  That is what I want my students to do!  Read!  So, here goes:

My purpose as a fourth grade teacher is...

to inspire students to explore the world through reading various literary genres and media types to discover and develop their passion in life.

Now how do I do this?  More to come in my next post!

Flip your Attitude to one of Gratitude...How I use a negative learning experience in my teaching

It is often stated that we teach how we learned meaning that teachers take pieces from their positive learning experiences and use them to meld into their teaching style.  What about the negative experiences?  In light of the season of Thanksgiving, I am sharing how a negative learning experience  was "flipped" into an attitude of gratitude.

I remember clearly one negative learning experience, so clearly that it probably is the most negative experience I had as a student.  It was in the fifth grade with Mr. B.  Mr. B has the distinction of not only being my fifth grade teacher but also being my first male teacher.  He had a very firm hand and his management style was reactive, often in a very condescending negative way.  For example, he often assigned lines as punishment such as "I will not forget my library book at home" for 100 or 200 repetitions.  Now I was and still am an a reader.  The day I forgot my library book was a huge disappointment because that meant I couldn't check out a new book.  For an avid reader such as myself that was worse than the lines assigned to me by Mr. B.

The lines were a humiliation and total waste of my time.  So, I didn't do them in my free time at school, instead I enjoyed my recess and lunch periods.  At home after my homework was finished I guilted myself into starting my lines, it was, after all, an expected assignment not matter how I felt.  I don't recall how far into the work I was when my mom poked her head into my room.  Far enough for the paper to show that something repetitious was upon it.  She asked, "What are you doing?"  I quckly covered my paper, ashamed, and said quickly, "Homework!  I'm doing homework!"  Of course my suspicious mannerism got her attention.  "Really?" she said, "Let me see."  "I don't want to show you." I mumbled ashamed.  She replied, "Michelle, show me your work."  I was stuck, I had to show her, there was no way I was going to disobey and get into more trouble than I already was.
Now my mother, also an avid reader, was shocked that A) I was writing lines and B) that they were for a forgotten library book.  She frowned, took my paper, and forbid me to finish the punishment.  She told me she would be calling my teacher and that he was not to assign me lines as punishment.

Now I don't recall if it was the next day, week, or month; but I do recall Mr. B being quite angry with me.  He never asked for the lines but he did ask me a question during science that I couldn't answer.  I told him I didn't know the answer.  He proceeded to have me stand up in front of my desk to answer the question, I still didn't know.  The class was silent, I was silent.  I wanted to become a statue because I was mortified.  I stood at my desk looking down pondering how I could possible crawl underneath and hide.  He demanded that I pick up the text book as if by merely holding the book the answer would jump out at this newly created statue that I had become.  I slowly picked up my textbook and with everlasting horror found myself slamming the book onto the desk and yelling "I DON'T KNOW!!"  And that is how I got suspended...for the first...and the last time.

For those of you who read my memory and sympathize, thank you.  For others who support Mr. B, thank you.  I recanted this experience not for empathy nor even to start a movement of followers who are pro or con Mr. B.  It was, after all, the 1970's and Mr. B was an older, experienced teacher who was probably using what he felt were best practices at the time.  Also, rest assured that I went on to have many male teachers and had wonderful, positive experiences.  What I want to focus on is how this experience formed part of my teaching style and philosophy.

I am thankful to Mr. B.  Of course, as a ten-year old I would have never seen this experience as a gift. I couldn't even say it was a gift during my teacher preparation courses nor in my first few years of teaching.  Today, I see it as a gift and I am grateful.  I am grateful for this experience because it showed me how natural consequences reign over punishment and how humiliation doesn't positively affect learning.

Today, in my classroom, I use natural consquences like when a student of mine began forging notes to get out of PE with the PE Coach.  I could have reacted by condemning the girl, humiliating the girl, and giving her a punishment immediately.  Instead, I state my disappointment, told her we would discuss it and most importantly, followed through and actually did meet with her the next day.  Not always an easy thing to do.  Prior to our meeting, I gave the situation a lot of thought noting that she doens't like PE, probably doesn't have success in PE, and was willing to do anything to get out of PE. I contacted the principal and asked about our after school enrichment program to empower girls through sports with caring coaches whose motivation is to inspire girls to enjoy an active lifestyle.  Through a phone call with the principal and her parent we put her on the wait list for the program and I have noted to myself to regularly check on that wait list to see if space has opened up for her.  Then I talked with the girl personally and privately, she has not brought a PE note since the incident which was over 30 days ago.

Yes this example isn't in an academic subject but rest assured that I use the same approach in all areas such as taking the time to watch a student write down their homework, pack their homework, and wish them a wonderful afternoon and evening encouraging them to feel good about their ability to complete and return an assignment.  I could go on with more examples, but back to Mr B.

Because of Mr. B, I believe that the best way to improve student behavior is through encouragement and helping them feel good about themselves and their place in the world and once that is in place they will rise to the high expectations I have for them.

None of that would be possible without Mr. B.  So, thank you, Mr. B for showing me how to focus on a child's precious self esteem and use that as catalyst to success in the classroom.