Treasures 4 Teachers

Treasures 4 Teachers is a non-profit here in Arizona. Teachers can purchase a annual membership for $35 and then have access to some excellent resources. T4T has a warehouse full of donations from businesses and individuals that are available to teachers. Over the summer a colleague and I decided to give T4T a try. We paid for our membership and then spent nearly 2 hours exploring. There are several areas of the warehouse: the free section, the fill a bag for $5 section, and the pay-per-item section.

Some of the great things we found included: binders, cardstock, file folders, books, hole punches, desk organizers, etc. They often have dry erase boards, bookshelves, and file cabinets at a great price. The stock in T4T is always changing because they depend on donations from the community. I've only had a chance to check out the warehouse once, but I plan on going again in the next month.

This past Saturday T4T had a big giveaway. All members had to do was drive up and we were handed a bag stuffed full of goodies! I considered not going because it is located a bit far from my house, but was glad I went because there were some excellent school supplies, and I'm guessing each bag was worth over $25 retail. Here is what I got in my bag:

                                  
Folders
Notebooks
Pens
Crayons
Highlighters
Cap erasers
Mechanical pencils
Glue sticks
Batteries


Thank you Treasures 4 Teachers for the awesome goodies, they will be put to good use by my students! If you are an Arizona teacher you can take a tour of the warehouse and see if a membership is for you.

Smoothing out the roughness

Tuesday was one of my toughest days as a teacher. I was already having a bad day....recovering from being sick, forgot we had staff photos in the morning, things weren't going as planned, I barely ate a few bites of lunch and had a growly tummy, etc. The icing on the cake was when our new principal came in for his first unannounced observation. It was the last hour of the day and everything about it was a disaster. I was (and still am) mortified and fighting feelings of inadequacy. I am my own toughest critic, and while my principal was nothing but kind and provided excellent feedback, I have trouble shaking some of the overwhelming feelings of failure. Tuesday night I was a mess of tears and emotions, but I went in on Wednesday with a plan, and the rest of the week went much smoother and I was less frustrated and frazzled.

I wasn't going to post about this because when I read teacher blogs they paint their profession as perfect and I didn't want to show my weakness. These teacher bloggers have classrooms that are colorful and nothing it out of place, their lessons are beautiful and engaging, they have time to create new resources, their students have perfect behavior, and nothing bad ever happens. I decided to post this because it is reality. Teaching is a tough job. We all have bad days, and I've come to learn that the best teachers are ones who reflect on their practices and strive to improve their craft.

Yesterday I woke up to a cloudy sky (I LOVE rainy days) and headed to work. Just before the morning bell rang the rain came crashing down and the students hurried into the classrooms. In our Arizona desert we get afternoon summer monsoon rain that is short lived. This rain was a steady downpour that lasted all morning and into part of the afternoon. Usually we don't get days like this at all, and when we do they are in winter. I propped our classroom door open and we worked quietly to the backdrop of the rain and thunder and let in the refreshing smell. It was a good end to a rough week.

I have so much I have planned to share (the good stuff that we've been up to) but I've been busy, and I'm still getting over this nasty cough. We've only got three more weeks of the quarter and then two weeks of break!

6 weeks in!

I can't believe that we have been back in school for 6 weeks already! This week we had parent-teacher conferences and they were a breeze. Every single parent showed up as did most of the kids. I strongly believe that students should participate in conferences because it is their education and they need to take responsibility for their learning. I also work with some great families, and it was nice to chat with everyone, and meet the few that I hadn't already met.

Despite conferences going smoothly, the past two weeks have been rough...
* I have now been sick for the third time this school year. I have no idea why I keep getting sick, I've been teaching for ages and I never get sick like this, typically maybe once or twice a year. I guess I need to stuff myself full of vitamins and start juicing regularly again.
* Last Thursday the AC in my classroom broke, again, for the third time this year (are things happening in threes for me?). My class relocated to the library for that afternoon and then spent the next day in an empty classroom on the primary side of campus. For the most part my students did a phenomenal job being flexible and were generally well behaved, but Friday afternoon they were struggling to stay focused.
* This past week has been totally off. Maybe it was the move to another classroom the previous week, maybe it was the two full moons in a month, maybe the honeymoon period is over, or a combination of all of that. My students have been chatty and unfocused. Several received hefty fines as part of our classroom economy system, but they didn't seem to mind. This year I started to include team points and class multipliers as part of the economy system for students to earn additional money, and although this worked a few weeks ago, it was not happening this week. We missed recess to practice the quiet signal and line procedures, and they still struggled.

During conferences many parents told me that they like the economy system and that they give additional consequences at home when they see that their child received fines on their weekly note home. So, it was surprising that I saw them struggle so much. I'm going to try two things next week in hopes that behavior improves. 1. I spent quite some time today setting up a new seating chart. Usually I keep the same seating chart for the quarter, but I know that mixing the kids up at this point is going to alleviate some of the issues. 2. I created a Behavior Reflection form that ties directly into the classroom rules that my students created on the first day of school. I reference the rules often when I talk to the students, but I think actually having to fill out a form will make them understand more deeply how their actions are affecting others.

If students fill out the form and still struggle then I will be having them call home. I'm not one to send students to the principal, but that is an option if I am not seeing improvement. Any other suggestions for chatty and unfocused kids?

Montessori in public schools

Yesterday I met a friend (who is also a former colleague) for coffee. She recently left the school district and was hired by a Montessori school. I was anxious to hear about her new experiences, which I was certain would be no less than amazing, but I wasn't prepared to be almost in tears by the end of our chat.

In my mind "the Montessori way" was for the younger kids. I went to Montessori, as did my siblings, before starting Kindergarten, and I knew that it was a valuable step in our learning. I knew that there were Montessori schools that catered to upper grades, but I knew they were rare. In my studies I grazed the surface of the Montessori philosophies, and I knew that I agreed with Maria Montessori's ideas about education. But still I didn't think much about Montessori as an upper grade system. It is obvious that I was very wrong. My friend is teaching, actually she is called a "guide", in a 7th-9th grade classroom. There are two other "guides" with 31 total students. And so far she is loving everything about it. Everything is different from most public schools. They garden, they have a full kitchen, and more!

I came home feeling so happy for my friend, a bit envious, and also inspired to find out about implementing Montessori methods in my own classroom. Within minutes of Googling and reading a few blurbs I realized that my philosophies really do reflect Maria Montessori's and that much of what I do as a teacher aligns with her methods.

I believe that students . . .
. . . are responsible for their learning.
. . . should have opportunities to interact with concepts.
. . . need to create in order to gain a deeper understanding.
. . . must work together and learn from each other.
. . . should be taught with minimal whole class direct instruction.
. . . are striving to be responsible and good citizens.
. . . have opportunities to present/publish/share what they know.

Although I would love to have the opportunity to work in a Montessori school, I believe that it is possible to implement much of her teaching philosophies and methods into a public school classroom. I shall be reading more on this and hoping to include any gems that I find. Perhaps I have some readers that are more familiar with Montessori, and with implementing it in a public school classroom. I'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas!

Click! Take a pic!

Just a little Instagram shot from my desk. Notice that my binder sort of matches my blog theme. 

You wouldn't know it from the poor quality photos on my blog, but I am a photography buff. I have a decent DSLR and a few decent lenses. Plus I've had the pleasure of doing some family, kid, and newborn photo shoots. So why the mediocre photos on the blog? Mostly because I'm busy and love that I can upload photos straight from my phone to Picasa web. Besides, it would be ridiculous to lug around my expensive equipment and risk damaging or losing it at school. I've wanted an iPhone for years because the photos it takes make me drool, a lot are better than ones I take with my DSLR, but I don't think the iPhone will be in the cards for me anytime soon. Luckily, I should be able to upgrade my phone in a few months, and I hear the newest Galaxy takes some pretty shots comparable to the iPhone. So, if all goes as planned I should have some better blog photos in October!

What do you use to take photos for your teaching blog?

Read and Respond, we've almost got it!

I love seeing the progression that my students make from writing summaries, to actually responding to what they read. The progression is pretty predictable. The first few weeks many students are typically stuck in summary mode. Then as I score them, share quality entries, and offer them suggestions, they move to stage two, trying out too many prompts. This example is a student in said stage:

She has several different prompts mashed into one entry. She has:
I hope . . .
I think . . .
It surprised me when . . .
I think . . . (again)
I hope . . . (again)

All are excellent thoughts to jot down, but she needs to stick to one and use the rest of the entry to explain why she thought something. The note I wrote at the bottom didn't make it into the photo, but it went something like, "These are all great thoughts, but I would like you to stick to just one prompt, and then explain why you think or feel that way."

Nearly all of my students showed significant improvement in their responses compared to last week. They are almost there and it is exciting to see them to progress from re-tellers to deep thinkers!

I've sold quite a few of my Read and Respond kits on TpT. I'd love to hear how it is working in other classrooms!

What genre are you reading?

When I taught 6th grade I felt that the students knew genre pretty well, but this year my 5th graders seem to struggle with it in their Read and Respond (I haven't "taught" genre yet). I set up this genre bulletin board in our classroom library area.

Last year I started using those small shelves from Ikea to display books in my classroom. I don't remember how much they were but they are super easy to install and are very sturdy. Since we study ancient civilizations in 6th grade, I would display books to go along with whatever we were studying: ancient Greece, Rome, China, Egypt, etc. I figured that for 5th grade I would try to display different genres and switch them out every few weeks to help the students understand them better. I used the free genre poster download from Beth Newingham (who coincidentally inspired me to start a classroom economy years ago).

My photo isn't the best, and there is an inconvenient glare, but I currently have up Informational, Mystery, and Realistic Fiction. My hope is that they not only better understand genre, but maybe they'll pick up and read some of the books I have displayed. Books are so much more welcoming when you can see the front cover and not just the spine!

I am also planning on adding an insert to the students' Read and Respond that includes a handy guide to genre.