A Good Reminder

Relationships. I talk and write all the time about how important they are, and they are important. In my opinion, relationships must come first in the classroom. Without them, without respect for my students, without sharing myself with my students, I’m sunk. It all begins with relationships.

What I don’t know if I’ve written about before is how hard they can be. With some, relationships are easy. Typically with my more vocal students, my attention seeking students, relationships come naturally. Also with my students with behavior issues, relationships grow quickly. If I want to help them make better choice and make my year easier as a result, I immediately begin the work of building.

But my shy kids, my kids that are having difficulties but don’t want people to know? Relationships are hard. I have to work on those. And the honest truth is, sometimes we don’t get where I think we need to by the end of the year.

It isn’t without tremendous effort, but there are times that the last day of school occurs, the last child gives me a hug, they walk out of our room, and I wish we had more time. Sometimes as much as I try, I struggle to reach them in the way I wanted.

Luckily for me in a small town such as this one, I get to keep trying. Yesterday I saw a student that falls into this category. Not shy, but I didn’t feel like I made a strong enough connection last year. I tried and tried, but there was a wall up that I just couldn’t break down. When I saw this child yesterday, I was busy. I had a full schedule and needed to keep moving. So I greeted him, asked how he was, said something in return, and then turned my attention elsewhere.

Then, that nagging voice in my head that drives me crazy said to ask him what he was reading. I dismissed it initially, he didn’t like reading. That was a yearlong struggle as well. The voice was insistent, so I asked.

He smiled, rattled off a title, I asked a few more questions, he answered, as did his friend, and we moved on.

It wasn’t much, but it was another step towards knowing him. It reminded me that my relationship with these kids is not a nine months and done kind of relationship, it is life long. I always tell them I am their teacher from the moment they are placed on my class list until the day I die. I need to also remember that just because I don’t get to the point I want in the year we spend together, I can’t stop trying. Maybe the kids I can’t reach in the way I want just need more time, and that is something I have plenty of.

I just can’t stop trying.

#WonderWednesday

At NCTE I had the opportunity to go to the Wonderopolis breakfast. Sitting there I was, once again, reminded of the brilliance that is the site Wonderopolis. I have used their wonder of the day in mini-lessons, as mentor texts, and as part of my RTI groups. I love how their videos activate my students’ background knowledge. The vocabulary words they embed in the articles are fabulous. And each year I love how reading this site makes my students start to wonder as well.

Thinking of how I could make it a regular part of my classroom, I grabbed on to the hashtag #wonderwednesday that several folks at the breakfast said they used. I put it in the back of my mind and figured I’d begin trying that out when we returned from break.

Flash forward to a week ago Wednesday. Katie Muhtaris announces on Twitter that she and her students will be participating in #wonderwednesday and invites my class and others to join them. I got immediately excited, but was disappointed as well. I was home with a fever and knew we couldn’t join in that day. But next Wednesday it was on!

Tuesday night I realized we truly wouldn’t be able to join in this week after all. I had a curriculum meeting Wednesday morning and my mom would be the substitute in my classroom. I thought for a bit about having her let the kids get on Twitter, but thought that might be too much for their morning. Instead, we created a Wonder chart. My directions were simple. Have the students read the wonder of the day (Wednesday’s was on internet speeds). As their reaction – have them write one thing they “wonder” about (either still about the article topic or just in general) on a post it. I wondered what they’d come up with.

Yesterday I read them. The kids never fail to surprise me. Many were what I would assume fifth graders would wonder. We had lots of questions about animals, specifically communication with animals. But we had wonders that were personal that broke my heart. Silly wonders. Creative wonders. Wonders that made me wonder as well.

Today we will create a more permanent display, on a bulletin board outside of our three classrooms. There the kids can continue to wonder, or pull one down and begin to try and find an answer. Next week we will begin to blog about our wonders and, hopefully, join Katie’s class online to read their wonders. I cannot wait to see what they come up with.

Falling In Love With Writing, Again

It’s a funny thing about writing daily, you begin to see your ideas everywhere. When Linda Urban tweeted out about the #WriteDaily30 group, I was hesitant to join. I’ve written daily, of course, before. I have done the Slice of Life challenge each year. Yet writing daily? In December? When I’m already overwhelmed and stressed? That seemed like an insane idea.

And yet I knew I needed to do it.

This fall writing and I kind-of broke up.

Or maybe we just had a falling out.

I’m still not sure.

I had written so much this summer. I had started a book, written blogs, articles, curriculum, etc. Then, August hit. And everything dropped.

Family healthy issues,

Commitments to volunteering,

The start of the school year,

Writer’s block on my book.

I was dreading writing each day. I was uninspired. And, to be honest, I looked at my friends beginning the school year relaxed and I knew I wasn’t. I had so much on my plate and never had any down time. So I stopped. Or, to be more accurate, slowed down a bit.

In the process, I fell out of love with writing.

The less I wrote, the farther I moved away from it, the harder it was to get ideas when I did decide I should – not wanted to, but should – blog. I began to question why I did this blogging thing to begin with.

Then, like a miracle, Linda’s tweet.

When I signed on, I decided I just wanted to write daily.

Not on a book,

Not on a blog,

Not for a time limit,

Not for a word count goal.

Just write.

And I have. Each day has ended up going up on my blog, but I didn’t set out to do that. Just when I’ve been done, I have thought it fit there. I’m not requiring that of myself, however. So there might be days in December I don’t post, but I will write.

In writing daily I have found my way back.

Ideas come every morning as I open up the document. My journal has been stuck back in my purse. Writing and I have made up, and I am so glad we have.

Thanks, Linda.

Studying Blogging with my Students

One of my favorite things about Twitter is that my network of Twitter friends inspires me on a regular basis. I can absolutely say that I am a better teacher for joining. By reading their tweets and blogs, I get ideas for my classroom and push myself to try new things.

This week I am looking at our student blogs as a result of an ongoing conversation with Katie Muhtaris (@literacyspark). I had been feeling that some of our blogs were a bit lackluster of late. Many kids saw it as almost a text message with blogs like, Read The Unwanteds. It’s an amazing book you will be glad you didn’t miss. I wanted them to do more. I questioned if I had just rushed them into blogging at the start of the year. I wasn’t sure what to do.

In talking to Katie, I decided to slow down and really study blogs for the next two weeks. We looked at the Slice of Life blogs on Tuesday. We read mine from yesterday, which inspired quite the conversation about sports. And then they wrote their own.

We will continue to do this over the next week. Hopefully this will inspire my students to take a fresh look at blogging and work on improving their writing. I know that in just one day, I was impressed with the change. If you’d like to read their blogs, click HERE. I know they’d love any comments you send their way.

Thanks!

Slice of Life - Lessons from Sports

Slice of Life is sponsored on Tuesdays by Two Writing Teachers.

This weekend was filled with basketball. Liam had two games, Luke had four. We had hours of driving to tiny towns to watch them play, sitting for warm-ups, watching games between their games, and driving home.

Sports are funny. I was not at all an athlete as a kid. I preferred swimming, running, golfing – anything that I could do on my own. I didn’t like the feeling of letting my team down. Too much pressure.

Both of my boys are more on the quiet side, but both enjoy team sports. I have been fascinated to watch them in the various teams over the past few years.  Both have gone from being timid to more aggressive. Both have what I consider to be one of the most important qualities, good sportsmanship. One is developing leadership qualities, the other one might in the future.

Driving home from a tiny town with one of my boys, he commented on the players from the team that had beat them. He said, “I liked playing those kids. They were nice.”

I smiled, glanced over, and said, “Even if they won?”

“Yes, they were good sports. And the refs were good too.”

That made me smile even more. I’ve been around sports enough to see kids who think they are better than others, who are unkind, who blame the loss on the referees.

I’m so grateful my kids don’t appear to participate in those behaviors.

Sports have so many lessons for our children, and many for parents as well. As I cheered on my boys, I cheered on some of the other team too. Beautiful shots, kindness displayed on the court, hard work. It all deserves applause.

Watching them run across the court, my heart filled with gratitude. These boys are growing right before my eyes. I really don’t care what kind of athlete they are. I don’t even care if they win or lose. I do care what kind of person they are, and what type of person they become. Right now they are people I enjoy being around. I love talking to them. So I glanced to my right, squinting in the dark, and said, “Tell me more about the game.”