Teachers as Rock Stars

A while back I wrote a blog post about how authors are my rock stars. My husband loves concerts; he would travel far just to see his favorite bands. While I enjoy music, I am not that dedicated. However, a favorite author having a signing three hours away, I’m there.

I thought about this in my class this week. Are authors rock stars to my students? At the start of the year, I would say not for most, but the tide is turning. This week I introduced Edmodo to my classes. To say it has caught on like wildfire would be a colossal understatement. I finally had to turn my notifications on my phone off; the alerts I got from students posting and joining were making my dog crazy. Every so often I’d log on, ensure they were still on topic. What I read thrilled me. I saw students making book recommendations, discussing what they were reading, predicting the Newbery, and commenting on favorite authors. Five days in and I think we’re on to something good here.

It was through some Edmodo discussions that I came to an important realization as well. I saw this post from my student, Danielle:

Some background for you all, although I don’t know if anyone needs it. I teach in central Illinois. Over the past years I have become friends with many wonderful teachers across the country. Two in particular are well known in my classes – Mr. Colby Sharp and Mr. John Schumacher, otherwise know as Mr. Schu. I should explain – my students have not met Mr. Sharp or Mr. Schu. We’ve Skyped with Mr. Schu’s students once, and even then they didn’t “see” him, just heard his voice. But we’ve talked about these two often. I’ve shown their Newbery videos. We’ve participated in their Sharp-Schu Twitter book clubs. I’ve told the kids about book recommendations from the two amazing guys.

So when I saw Danielle’s post I realized something. While I know my students want to meet many of their favorite authors, what I really think would make them crazy would be if Colby or John walked into our classroom. We’d have a full-fledged riot on our hands. And while that is not likely to happen, it makes me smile. Because I cannot think of two teachers, two readers, two role models, that I’d rather have these kids look up to than John and Colby. Thanks guys. I’m glad that my students see you guys as rock stars. I know many of us do as well.

I’ll leave you with Colby’s Nerdbery video from June. I showed this to my students today. Three classes of 24 fifth graders singing along. All three classes stood up and cheered when he held up Ivan and Wonder. Pretty amazing way to end my week.

John and Colby – you are welcome to come visit anytime. J

It's Monday! What are you reading?

I’m joining Jen & Kellee (and many other bloggers) in discussing what we are reading this week. Join us! Go to their site and link up your own blog.

Less reading this week due to an increase in grading. J One book that really stood out for me was A Prairie Boy’s Winter. When I told my librarian how much I enjoyed Twelve Kinds of Ice, she said it reminded her of A Prairie Boy’s Winter. She lent it to me from the library on Friday and I read it during our read-a-thon. Beautiful book and I absolutely see the connection. I am purchasing my own copy this week. I feel there could be a terrific mini-lesson in connecting the two books. And both books could be used as mentor texts for a memoir unit.

So, here’s last week’s snapshot on reading:

My plan for this week is to focus on professional development books. I am ½ way done with The Art of Slow Reading, To Understand, Teaching in Small Groups. I need to finish all of those. Also, I’m looking forward to reading Lee Ann Spillane’s book, Reading Amplified, for an online discussion coming up. If I make it through those four, Catcher in the Rye is here and waiting! 

When is Enough...Enough?

"Some people can't believe in themselves until someone else believes in them first." - Good Will Hunting

I saw this tweet from @PrincipalsPage when I logged onto Twitter this morning. I think it would be fair to say that this is one of the guiding principals in my teaching. I strongly believe that without a good relationship with my students, I will not be able to help them grow to their fullest potential. This is why I held students as they cried this week, cheered on some students’ successes, and lamented some bad news with others. I know my kids, they know me.

But today I looked at this quote through a different lens. I just read Kate Messner’s most recent blog post right before logging on to Twitter. You might want to read it first.

Kate Messner: It’s Time To Stand Up for Teachers

I thought of the quote this way – how many teachers are feeling beaten down today? How many are questioning their chosen profession? I think I’m lucky that I have a healthy dose of self-confidence in related to teaching. I think I’m a decent teacher. Even I have days lately that it all seems to be too much. Things that are overwhelming me lately:

Common Core State Standards

Growth Model Implementation

Negotiation Year

State Funding

Federal Funding

Budget Cuts

Class size increases

Not enough time in the day

Grading stacks of papers

Hours away from my family

Shelves of books I need to read and never caught up

And the kicker for me lately? Common Core testing won’t begin in our state for another few years so the current state test, ISAT, is changing the cut off scores. If a student had a “205” last year and that was a “meets”, this year a “225” might be a meets. (Disclaimer, I’m just picking numbers here, we haven’t been told the new cut-offs.)

My thought is, why? Do we just want to point at our schools and say they are failing? Seriously? The teachers I know work HARD, they give up time with their families, their own salary to buy items for their classrooms, care about their students, and try hard to help their students become the best they can be. So much of what we do cannot be measured on a test.

My heart is breaking for these teachers. I am so tired of a society where we continually bash people that are doing what they can, with less and less each year. When, WHEN, are we going to say we have had enough?

As for me, what will I do to prepare for these new cut-off numbers? I am not doing anything new, I am already doing the best I can. I will continue to teach my students, love my students, cheer them on, and make sure they know I believe in them. Maybe then they will believe in themselves. And you know what? ISAT won’t be able to measure that. 

Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool

A few weeks ago Colby Sharp tweeted that he was reading an incredible book that had Newbery written all over it. That comment alone made me purchase said book immediately. The title? Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool.

I devoured this book. From the first pages I fell in love with Jack and Early and just wanted to stay immersed in their world. You start out meeting Jack, a teen from Kansas at the end of World War II. He has just lost his mom, his dad is moving him cross-country to attend a boarding school in Maine. It is there that he meets a fellow student named Early Auden who is a bit odd. The story follows the friendship of Early and Jack and Early’s story of Pi, who is a boy whose story is told through the number pi.

This book is so hard to describe. You have the story of Pi – a number but a boy? And the way that Early can “see” his story through images and colors when looking at the number. And his unwavering conviction that Pi is lost and that he and Jack must go on a journey to rescue him. And then you have the “pirates” the Great Appalachian Bear, the lumberjack, the ancient one, and more. I told my students that while there was so much to tell them about, it all boiled down to one thing. This is the story of friendship. What would you do for your friends? And the story of loss. And of love. And of acceptance. Regret. So many lessons are contained between these covers, it is a must read.

One side note, many years ago, 1995 to be exact, my dad asked me to read a book he had fallen in love with – A Prayer for Owen Meany. It was my junior year in college and I was fascinated by this book. It was unlike anything I had ever read before. And while I have never reread it, sometimes I am reminded of it. Last January I read The Art of Fielding and constantly thought of A Prayer for Owen Meany as I read. Navigating Early also gave me the same feeling. I have no idea what the three books have in common, only that I think all three are exceptionally well written for certain. If any of you have read the three and see a connection that my brain is picking up but not sharing completely with me, please share in the comments! J As for Navigating Early, this is a book any middle grade classroom should feature prominently on their shelves. 

It Was A Good Day

You know it’s going to be a good day when you tear up three times in the mini-lesson in reading class, right?

So, I shared my letter with my students. (Read it HERE) I wasn’t sure what type of reaction I would get from fifth graders. Mostly it was along the lines of… Wow, that was good. Or… Sorry, I need to read more. Several kids thanked me for thinking of them. I thought that was sweet. For ten-year-olds, I figured it was a good reaction. I hadn’t anticipated tearing up as I read it the first time, I just love this group of kids so much it makes me even more emotional than usual – which is a lot already. J

Then today’s lesson I wanted to have the students connect themes of two different shared “texts.” I read Penguin and Pinecone last week. Then yesterday I saw this video about two brothers. I immediately thought of the connecting themes between the two “texts.”

For our lesson I had the students take notes, in any format they chose. (We’ve been learning about note taking in class.) I read aloud our picture book first. We talked about possible themes for the story and evidence that would back them up. Then I played the video. Again the kids took notes on the video, deciding possible themes and evidence of them. (And if you are keeping score, teared up in the book AND the video. 

Finally, the students wrote an essay comparing the Penguin and Connor. Many discussed the similarity of Penguin’s love for the Pinecone and Connor’s love for his brother. How in the face of obstacles their love grew stronger. They were able to use their notes to provide evidence of the themes they had selected.

At the end of the day my reading group table had stacks of reading responses to grade, piles of essays, and my iPad open to Evernote from reading conferences. I would normally feel overwhelmed when I have stacks – items where I am not caught up yet. But not today. I felt an overwhelming sense of peace. I delivered my letter to the students, and whether they “got it” or not, they clearly got the message that I cared deeply for them. And their insights in their essays showed me that they are doing some deep thinking in reading. Add that to overhearing one of my boys recommending Found, Sent, and then Bomb to others and today was a good day.

And for your enjoyment, his recommendation of Bomb… you should read this. Somehow this guy makes history interesting. Feel free to use that if you need to book talk it. J

Finally, thanks so much for the amazing feedback in the last few blog posts. You all make a girl feel good!