What? Thanksgiving is NEXT WEEK?!

Holy moly.  I can't believe this is the last week of school before Thanksgiving.  That means November is basically over, y'all.  I can't even handle it.  I've been cooking up this post for a while, and I finally feel semi-organized before 9:00pm on a Sunday so I'm here to share some ideas with you today.

First, before I forget I wanted to let you know that I just made some table points trackers, if that's a thing you're into.  You can snag them for a measly $1.50 right here.  My littles this year are having a hard time seeing the big picture.  They keep getting caught up on fussing at each other, and if we're being completely honest it's driving me NUTS!  I'm a teacher, not a referee, yo!  So I'm hoping that this will be helpful to us.  I'll make sure to let you know how it all shakes out.

I also wanted to get in on the work station posts that everyone does.  When I started this blogging experiment I talked a lot about how I teach math in my classroom, but I wanted to take a break from that and talk about how guided reading and work stations looks in my classroom.  First, they look REALLY different from last year for several reasons.  1.) My kids last year had a crazy high stamina and were great at working together, so I frequently did 3-4 guided reading groups in one day.  And 2) my distract revamped their expectations for guided reading and literacy work stations (LWS), so I'm trying to fall in line like to good little worker bee that I envision myself to be.  =)  Basically, the way that we're doing work stations this year is that we have 5 different work stations--fluency, word work, independent reading, writing, and inquiry and investigation (otherwise known as the work station that keeps me up at night).  The activities in each work station are up to you, but you should have all 5 of them up and running and kids should cycle through them each week.  The big change that's been giving me the 1-2 punch this year is that we're only supposed to pull 2 groups each day.  That's right.  Just 2.  I've also been having a hard time balancing that because I also have a Fundations Double Dose group right now that's supposed to meet 3 times a week (M, W, F).

I will say one thing that has really helped keep us on track this year is a visual work station rotation board.  I always kind of scoffed at them and had never used one before, but I have to say that I really am on board for it now.  So helpful.  It's also really helped me shift responsibility to my little nuggets.  Plus, it's great for kids who transition back into the classroom during work stations.  They just get their folder, check the board, and then go to meet their group.  The other tool that I'm in LOVE with is our Scholastic guided reading library.  DC bought it for all their elementary schools last year and it is amaze-balls.  It has reading behaviors to teach at each level, and it has a matrix that lists each book, the level of the book, and what the book is designed to teach for word work and comprehension.  It makes planning for guided reading a snap.

How many groups do you pull in a day?  What resources do you use to plan?
Happy Football-watching!  (Who-dey!)
xoxo
Rachel

Just Another Manic Monday?

Hi, friends

This is a super short it's past my bedtime, but I really want to share post.

First, I'm SO jazzed!  We finally were able to squeeze in yoga today for the first time this school year!  Two  years ago I wrote a Donors Choose project to get 25 yoga mats to teach my class yoga to help them self-regulate.  Plus, it's a really great way to expose them to an organized activity that isn't aggressive like football.  (Or deathball, as I sometimes like to call the recess version of football.)

And second, I wanted to share this brand spankin' new product with you.  I'm really having a hard time building my nuggets' number sense this year, so I felt like I needed to take a step back and teach them how to extend the counting sequence using tools.  I taught this lesson today and got really concrete, usable data back.  I'm feeling really happy about it.  Also, if you checked out my store yesterday you'll notice that I knocked 50 cents off the price so now this lesson is only $1.50.  I think that's pretty reasonable.

Have a great night!
xoxo,
Rachel

Five for Friday. On A Saturday. Sigh.

Wow.  I'm with my friend Carolyn on this week--there is no possible way this week had just 5 days in it.  Something must have happened to the space/time continuum.  There were definitely extra days added to this week somehow.  But, the upside is that now it's the weekend and I'm sitting on our balcony enjoying some coffee and this beautiful fall weather to share 5 random things about my week with you.  

And I'm so jazzed that Jen from Hello Literacy designed these super cute number buttons for everyone to use!  (You can get them on her blog, on on Doodlebugs.)  If you teach reading and don't follow Jen's blog stop reading right now and add it your Bloglovin' feed.  She has brilliant ideas about literacy and intervention.   No more blabbering.  Here's my 5 for Friday.  (On Saturday.  Of course.)

I'm feeling so thankful for my K-2 team this week.  I had a moment of extreme frustration during a meeting this week and the next day one of my team members came up to me at dismissal and said that there's all times that we feel like that and we're here to support each other and help make each other great.  It was so sweet of her.  She didn't have to say that to me; she could have just let that moment be.  But it really helped to refocus me and remind that I am part of a team, and you can only get out of a team what you're willing to put into it.  I also really need to sing the praises of my real life friend and grade level special ed teacher, Kristin, who helped me cling to my last few shreds of sanity this week.  I have 2 particular little loves this year who need SO. MUCH. SUPPORT and Kristin was there every day after school to help me make behavior plans for them, to listen to me vent, and to give me a 10 minute break from them when I needed it.  Really, y'all, I know this sounds like a cheesy kumbayah moment, but I honestly just feel like sometimes I need to pause and reflect.

I do not know HOW this happened, but somehow the heat in our school kicked on this week.  Uh, it's SEPTEMBER still.  How is that even possible?!  I mean, if I taught in a state that touched Canada I might understand.  I would imagine that maybe at this time of year in Maine or one of the Dakotas or maybe even Minnesota I might wish the heat was on in my classroom.  But here in DC?!  NOT necessary.  On Thursday afternoon it was a pleasant 75 outside.  In my classroom?  A balmy 81.  It felt like the reptile house.  My poor little loves were melting.  At about 2:30 I decided to teach an impromptu origami lesson on how to make a fan.  

This week, I introduced my work station rotation board.  It helped us by 1,000%.  Now I just need to work out the best flow for our work stations and the location of each within our classroom.  I'm hoping to put up the work station rotation cards in my TpT store by the end of the weekend.  I went with seasonal group names--bats, skeletons, ghosts, broomsticks, pumpkins, and spiders.  I deliberately avoided monsters because I didn't want anyone to act like a monster.  ;)  

I'm so excited to take a field trip with the hubs down to Eastern Market today.  It's a fantastic outdoor farmers' market/art market/totally radical market in DC just a few miles from where we live.  I sold him on the idea by promising to be back in time for the Notre Dame game today.  =)  And by promising to buy Honeycrisp apples.  

My classroom printer and I are in a fight.  I'm 95% sure that the fight is over, and that I won, but you can never really be sure.  (Actually, you probably can be sure, but I don't have the technological prowess to be sure.)  To be on the safe side I will be printing most things that I need for Monday at home over the weekend.  I hate that moment of panic when I have to start going classroom to classroom to print what I need for the day.  

Enjoy your weekend, sweet friends!  

xoxo,

Rachel

Five for Friturday

Hello, sweet friends!  I'm linking up again with Doodlebugs for Five for Friday.  On Saturday.  Again.
                                                        

This week was a crazy week!  I got a new students on Wednesday, and it really turned our class upside down, so I'm taking some time this weekend to make 2 behavior plans.  But enough about that.  Without any more rambling here are my five randoms.
1.  Every day when I sign my morning message like this it feels so weird.

I got married last November, but didn't really push the name change last year.  My AP told me I needed to use my married name this year, so I keep trying to remember to tell people that my name is Mrs. Wilser, but every time I say that I feel like it's not real.  I feel like Mrs. Wilser is really my mother in law.  And my poor little nuggets are so confused about my name--some of them still call me by my maiden name (which totally doesn't bother me), some of them have fused  my maiden and married names together---Wilsener, and I have one poor little confused nugget who thinks I'm Ms. Willis.

2.  This week we launched our place value unit and we learned about number houses and how each digit has a place on Wednesday.  They really seemed to be on the same page with me and when I was walking around during math they seemed spot on.  Clearly, I didn't make it to this little nugget.  :(

3.  This week we also did our first science lesson!  I generally start science by talking about the scientific method and I do a few experiments with them that are super cool, but not necessarily connected to first grade science standards.  I do this chromatography experiment with them every year.  Basically, you just draw a big black dot on a coffee filter and get it wet so that the marker bleeds and you show them the different colors that are inside the black. It's always a crowd pleaser.  

4.  Today, I ran a 5K with my husband, a friend, and her boyfriend.  It was super fun, and I totally PR'd!  Average 10:33/mile.  Woot, woot!!  I was really proud of myself.  And I'm also feeling so thankful for the random stranger next to me who pushed me to my PR.  There was definitely a moment where I was ready to walk it out for a minute and this guy next to me said "Keep running.  You're pushing me, and we're going to finish this race together".  That is why I love running.  It was really awesome.

5.  On our way back from the 5K we stopped at the National Book Festival and I had to buy books for my classroom.  I don't know if you've ever read I Stole This Hat, but I literally laughed out loud in the book festival tent while I was reading it.  I love the Book Festival!  I'm also really jazzed to read the book How Do Dinosaurs Say I'm Mad?  It's a really great book about expressing your feelings, and what to do when you're angry.

Thanks for stopping by for my Five for Friday!  I have to hustle up now and get ready to watch the Michigan State/Notre Dame game.  I'll be back with some more from room 125 tomorrow or Monday.

xoxo

Rachel

I'm on time!!!

Y'all!  I can't believe I'm not tardy for the party this week! I'm feeling so proud of myself for posting my 5 for Friday on FRIDAY!  Check one in the getting my act together box?  Without any further rambling, here are my 5 random postings from this past week.
                                               
1.  This past Monday was our first class birthday party.  And I had the frosting on the table to prove it.

I mean, did this little nugget even get any frosting into his mouth?!  

2.  I always forget how crazy back to school time is.  I feel so exhausted.  I only worked out one time this week.  And we went to a happy hour tonight and when we came home at 8:30 I was secretly wondering if there was a way I could call it a night right then and there.  

3.  Last year, in a moment of feistiness, I tossed all my seat pockets.  And forgot to request more.  So far I've been using these crates, but I don't love them yet.  

The kids have a hard time keeping them neat, and sometimes they crush their materials when they are trying to put them back into the crate.  I mean, it's been functional to this point, but I'm just not sold on it.  Any other ideas?

4.  Back to School night was this past Wednesday.  I think it went pretty well; I had half of my families show up, and I did a home visit.  A win-win.  I really think it was a great event, and I have an awesome bunch of babes this year who are so excited to learn.  

5.  We did this Fundations assessment today, and it went really well.  In a shameless self plug, this is part of my Fundations unit 1 work stations and it can be yours with several other activities for $5.  It was a great check in of our first week with Fundations.  I know that Level K rolls out letters a little more slowly than Level 1, but I think these activities would be helpful in Level K as well.  Take a peek!

Have a great weekend, everyone!  Enjoy all the football games!  =)

Five for Friday on a Saturday. Again.

Hi, friends.  I'm late.  Again.  But I'm going to link up with Doodlebug's for 5 for Friturday (that's a mix of Friday and Saturday) since it was so much fun last week.

1.  I launched writers' workshop this week.  We're testing out this new writing curriculum put together by Schoolwide.  I like it because they plan out the entire lesson for you and they use LOTS of mentor texts.  I would say the criticism I have right now is that it seems like sometimes their goal or objective for the lesson is slightly disconnected from the actual content of the lesson.  After our lesson we completed the sentence "I feel like a writer when..." and they had some sweet ideas!  One kid said that they feel like a writer when he reads books and another said he feels like a writer when he concentrates.  

2.  On Tuesday this week we also talked about adjectives as words that describe and brainstormed some adjectives that we could use to describe first grade.  We came up with a nice chart full of describing words and then I gave them part of this lifesaving back to school packet and they wrote about first grade.  This one certainly WASN'T on the chart, but I obviously 100% agree. 

3.  Even though this week was a short week because of Labor Day it felt super long!  I don't think it helped that I had several commitments during the week outside of school.  I'm just feeling so behind, and school just started.  How can that be?!

4.  Today, I spent all day at an area charter school as part of a TeachFest launching the DC Common Core Collaborative (DC CCC).  Even though I was a little sad to miss college football games during the day it was great to be around teachers who are so committed and inspired.  I'm in the first grade math group, and during this first quarter we're each designing a performance task that will fall in the operations & algebraic thinking.  We specifically decided to focus on 1.OA.3 and 1.OA.4.  I'm so interested to see the tasks that everyone is going to design!  

5.  My teacher desk has been a HOT MESS since the first day of school and Friday I promised myself that I would not leave the physical building of my school until I dominated that mess.  I would be lying to you if I said that I hadn't repeatedly looked at this picture of my table throughout the weekend just because it makes me feel more zen.  

You're probably saying to yourself  "Zen?!  I can see scraps of paper on your table!"  You're right.  There are scraps of paper on my table, but those are all piles that have post-its on them and are ready to go Monday morning.  

That wraps up my Five for Friturday.  I hope your weekends are lovely and that your team wins tomorrow!  (Unless you live in Chicago.  Then you have to lose so my Bengals can win.)

xoxo

Rachel

Smithsonian Teacher Night

Hi, friends

This is just a super quick update to let you know about a really awesome annual event in the DC area.  If you're a DC area teacher you should definitely check this out.  The Smithsonian hosts a teacher night every fall; it's always on a Friday night "after hours".  This year, it's Friday, October 25th from 7:00-9:30p.  It's free to register, and I hear that there's some great swag.  I've never been able to go because of weddings and family trips, so I'm super jazzed that I'll be able to attend this year.  It takes about 2 seconds to register, and it's 100% free.

Have a great Thursday!  =)

It's past my bedtime. :\

Holy moly.  I can't believe my life/social calendar decided to explode at the same time as back to school.  The mess I leave on my circle table every day shames me until I get to school the next morning.  I am so exhausted; I feel like a little hamster on a wheel, just running and running in circle and never going anywhere or accomplishing anything.

I wanted to stop by tonight to let you know 2 things.  First, I'm working on (what I hope will be) a really great resource for anyone who does Fundations in their classroom.  And maybe even for teachers who don't use Fundations?  I'm hoping to roll it out unit by unit or several units at a time.  Look for the first unit to be up by the end of the weekend.  And secondly, once I can get my act together I'll be sharing the structures and routines that I've been setting up these last 2 weeks.  And maybe, maybe I can even get some pictures of my classroom together.  (As long as you promise not to judge my anchor charts!)

Have a great night, friends!  =)
Rachel

First Ever Five for Friday...And I'm Already Late

Y'all.  I can barely believe that it's Saturday.  Actually, if we're being really honest what I really can't believe is that I made it out with friends until 1:00am last night.  Or, this morning, I guess?  When we left I really thought we'd be home by 11:30 at the latest.  Suffice to say I'm beat today.  But it's okay because today is college football kick-off so I'm just catching up on all the things that got shoved off this week.  I'm also linking up with Doodle Bugs for Five For Friday.  Except I'm a little late.  Oopsie.  :/

Here are my 5 things.  Unfortunately, I only have 2 pictures, per some phone drama.
1.  This is honestly the best parent information form I have ever received.

  I love that this little girl's favorite thing to do outside of school is shopping.  I laughed out loud when I read this after school one day.  Watch out for this one.

2.  I love how quickly my little loves are buying into everything this year!  They're already giving the kids who are picked for line leaders silent cheers every day.  So sweet!  Yesterday, during Choice Time there were 3 girls at the art supply table and I could hear them playing school.  One of them said "Now pretend like it's your first day off the chart and you get a plus on your behavior calendar today.  Oh, yeah!  Woo hoo!"

3.  Yesterday, we worked on our hopes and dreams.  It literally took us almost all day to finish them, between having an assembly in the morning, teaching them each step of the project, plus embedding in lessons on how to use scissors and glue.  I mean, we really did hopes and dreams and read to self yesterday.  That was about it.  I snapped this picture of 2 cute littles working on their self-portraits.  The best part is that NONE of my kids wear glasses, but since I drew myself in glasses about half a dozen of them put glasses on their faces, too.  Love them.

4.  This first week back was NUTS!  I was so happy I planned the whole week over the summer; I had so much going on outside of school!  I had to 2 parties and a fantasy draft.  And really all I wanted to do was go to bed at 8:00pm every day.

5.  I'm so excited about college football coming back, and having a long weekend to recover that I'm going to put my TpT store on sale through Monday!  Take a look and snag some planning/organizing materials at a discount for back to school.  If there's something you'd like to see that's not there let me know!  =)

Have a great weekend, friends!
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Teacher Tips

Two blog posts in under 12 hours?!  I know, I know.  However, if we're being totally honest this less represents my extreme commitment to Teacher Week and the fact that in preparation for PD next week I refused to allow myself to get back into bed after the hubs left for work.  I even made the bed so I wouldn't get into it!  But no one will be at school to let me in until 8:00am.  Which means that I have about an hour and a half to fill.  So you're getting a bonus blog post!  Once again, I'm linking up with Blog Hoppin's Teacher Week for their last day--teacher tips and tricks.  

Now, if we're being totally honest, I don't really consider myself a really tricky teacher, but I suppose I have learned a few things over the years.  I'm coming at you today with a really cool trick I learned last year from another teacher--data folders.  Previously, I blogged about my school's partnership with the Flamboyan Foundation in DC.  (You can check it out here if you missed it.)  Flamboyan has really been working with us on how to engage parents AND how to meaningfully share data with them. 

Last year, I went to a workshop after school hosted by Flamboyan about sharing data with parents and left with a ton of really great ideas.  The one that I liked the best and put into practice in my classroom almost immediately is data folders.  Here's the basic rundown:  You decide one day each week that these data folders will go home.  (I would not recommend Fridays because you really want them back the next day.)  I always do mine on the one day that we don't have a special because that gives us a little more time in class to get the folders ready.  So basically, you're selecting 2 goals that you're monitoring on a weekly basis and you're sending the data home to families each week, giving them information on how their students are progressing.  This is a little different from just sending home weekly assessment scores because you're really trying to track growth over time with these folders, so you're trying to assess the same skill (or group of skills) every week.  For example, last year I tracked my students' fact fluency scores because we took a fluency test each Friday and I also tracked their Fundations check-ups.  (I would give them a quick check-up, even if it wasn't in the plan for that week.)  Then, I can either grade them during a planning period or over the weekend and sort all the tests by kid so that they're reading to the put in the folder.  

There are 3 other really important pieces to the data folder that really bring this picture home to parents.  The first is the graphs.  You make a graph for math data, and ELA data.  You add in the benchmark line (where you want the kids to be; this is almost always 80% in my class) and then you have kids color in the graph to show their score.  This makes it really easy for parents to see where their students are, in relation to where we want them to be.  The second piece is the signature tracker.  Here, you're going to make a sheet with 3 columns.  One will be the date for each week when you send the folders home, the next will be a box for a parent to sign that they went through the folder, and last (and super important) is a comment box.  Parents MUST make a comment on the data.  They can really write anything in here that shows that they went through the folder.  I usually put a few suggestions at the top, like "So proud!" or "Way to go!" or "We need to practice short vowel sounds".  You just want to see by reading the comment that they went through the folder and looked at the data.  And the last piece (and the reason that I always do this on my no-special day) is that you have each kid fill out a form letter to their parents about their data for the week.  It's nothing fancy, just a little "Dear Mom/Dad/Grandma, I am feeling ____________________ about my tests this week.  Next week I want to ___________ (do better, do as well, study more, etc.) so that I can ________________ (get a treat, be smarter, know more math facts, etc.).  Love, ___________".  This whole process definitely takes some time to get rolling, but after the first few weeks this goes much more smoothly.  

Here's why I love the data folder:  you're sending home consistent information every week, so parents can't act surprised/won't be surprised when report cards come home.  I also love it because you can send extra information, like a note about increasing reading levels, but at the baseline they're getting weekly updates about the progressing their child is making in school in a really clear and easy to read format.  

Now, I've heard that there's a giant sale on everyone's favorite website this weekend, so I'm going to try really hard to have all the forms for this data folder up in time for this sale.  I wouldn't look for them before lunch time tomorrow, but that's the goal.  Have a great Friday!

The Fear

Y'all--I have the fear.  Big time.  You can get THE FEAR here.  Basically the fear stops you from being productive, and I'm being productive, but I'm too scared to go back to my classroom.  I'm feeling like I will never be ready for school, but just to let you know that I'm not totally screwing around all the time you can check out my first week plans.

First Week Plans_Blog Version by mrs_wilser

Responsive Classroom, Anyone?

The end of summer is so close.  Yesterday, the hubs and I were at a concert and we took some drinks to tailgate and I was refusing to drink fall-y beers because I refuse to acknowledge the fact that fall and back to school are just around the corner.  I am tenaciously clinging to the summertime!

I know I briefly talked about home visits yesterday, but I wanted to discuss another structure that my school uses today--Responsive Classroom.  If you're not familiar with responsive classroom, you can read more about it here.  Responsive Classroom (henceforth abbreviated as RC, for obvious reasons) is really an umbrella term for a lot of different classroom structures, and I have to say that I'm pretty into RC.  One part of RC that I LOVE is Morning Meeting.  Morning Meeting is the first thing (or one of the first things) that you do in your classroom every single day in RC.  There are 4 basic parts to Morning Meeting:  greeting, sharing, a game or activity, and morning message.  I'm not going to lie--sometimes Morning Meeting can go on for a while, to the extent that I sometimes find myself watching the clock, but at the same time I really believe that it's an incredibly important time in our day.  The Northeast Foundation for Children, the group who established Responsive Classroom, has an entire book dedicated to Morning Meeting--how to do it, ideas for greetings, games, activities, etc.  I also own that book and really love it.  But what I really like about Morning Meeting is that it's useful in so many different ways--kids practice social conventions, like shaking hands, and making eye contact to speak; they learn how to take turns, and respectfully ask and answer questions; and through morning message you can build reading/literacy behaviors.  I could go on for quite some time about Morning Meeting, but I'm going to try and be brief.  I really want to highlight one part of Morning Meeting, which is the share.  I follow a whole mess of other teacher blogs, so it comes to my attention that a lot of early elementary teachers are interested in how other teachers structure and manage their share, so I wanted to share how I manage our sharing.

For the first week of school, every kid shares every day.  I will pose a question to the group and give them a sentence stem, and then we'll go around in a circle and every kid will answer the question, and so will I.  So that might sound something like this--me:  "Friends, today we're all going to have the chance to share.  We are all going to answer the same question.  Our question today is what is your favorite color?  Let's all take 5 quiet seconds to think of our favorite color" (silently count to 5, while ticking seconds off on fingers)  "Great, friends.  When it's your turn, please stand up and say "My favorite color is ______", and put in your favorite color.  Then you can sit down, and it will be your neighbor's turn".  We do lots of favorite during the first week, and then starting the second week I'll have a sharing calendar that divides the entire class as evenly as possible across the 5 days of each school week.  When it's your day to share during morning meeting, I'll call students' names, one at a time.  When I call their name they'll stand and say "Good morning, class" and then the class will greet them in return, "Good morning, _________".  Then, that student will share in basically this format:  "Today, I would like to share ________________.  Any questions or comments?"  Students are allowed to take 2 questions and comments--1 boy, and 1 girl.  Then, they sit down, and the next student shares.  I generally do not have my kids bring in items from home, and I also almost always make them share.  If they say they don't have anything to share I'll ask them a few questions to get them thinking, like what did you do after school yesterday, what did you eat for dinner last night, are you excited about something this weekend, etc.

Responsive Classroom has a ton of structures that I use daily (as well as some that I really need to get about--logical consequences, I'm looking at you)--morning meeting, quiet time, choice time, closing circle, academic choice.  They also have structures that you use on an as-needed basis to introduce new topics to students, like guided discovery and modeling.  If you're new to RC, or looking to learn more I would recommend their book The First Six Weeks of School.  You can buy it on Amazon, or on the RC website.

I use this book every year to plan my first few weeks of school.  (Ironically, not all 6, but it's still really helpful.)  Anyone else use Responsive Classroom?  Feelings?   

Home Visits & Parent Volunteers

I canNOT believe that there is only one more week of summer break!  In DC, teachers go back on August 19th, and our new little loves come to us on August 26th.  Literally two weeks from Monday I will be greeting 27 brand new first graders.  Yikes!  I don't know if it's been how busy my personal life has been this summer, or if the space/time continuum has really started to move forward at a faster pace, but this summer has really flown by.  Really, it feels like I just packed up my classroom last week.

Over the past few years, my school has tried out several different parent engagement initiatives.  One of the ones that has been pushed the most intensely is the home visit program.  (If you're interested you can check out their website here.)  We partner with the Flamboyan Foundation to support this initiative, but the basic idea is this:  before the school year, or early in the school year, teachers go to visit the homes of all their students to build a relationship with the family.  There's obviously more nuances involved than that (you're supposed to take a partner with you; you schedule the visit, and call to confirm, etc.), but that's the basic core.  It's a very interesting program, and I feel like sometimes it really pays off and sometimes it doesn't as much.  I usually do my home visits with my grade level special ed teacher, since she's in my classroom often and all of my students will interact with her on some level.  I will say the one thing I like the most about the program is that it's really nice to already know and recognize kids before the school year starts.

One thing that I'm really working on this year is to have a small base of parents who will volunteer/support our classroom throughout the year.  I'm thinking that I'll start them out with preparation tasks, like prepping materials and work stations, maybe organizing the library?  But what I'm wondering is:  how do you get parents into your classroom?  What do you ask them to do?

Evaluating Inverted Workshop Math Products

Greetings, and happy Sunday, friends!  I don't know about you, but I'm really starting to feel the back to school pressure.  Which is why I was so happy when the weatherman predicted a gross Sunday, because it's much easier to convince the hubs that I need to spend a (summer) weekend working on school stuff when the weather is yucky.  And it doesn't hurt that we both shirked all adult-like responsibilities and went to the pool all. day. long yesterday.  It was glorious!  And then we acted like we were both 22 again and went out way too late last night with friends.  Whoopsie!  But all in all it's been a very fun weekend; I even made eggs benedict this morning (first time ever)!  You can start calling me Martha Stewart whenever you're ready.  ;)

Today, I want to talk about evaluating student work/products in an inverted math model, especially since it's much less cut and dry than a typical word problem.  Of course there are still answers that are right and wrong, but there's a lot of information you can learn from your students' work, even if their answer is ultimately incorrect.

Initially, I was using a simple check/check plus/check minus system to evaluate my littles' work during this time, but I really felt like it wasn't really meaningful for them or for me.  And if evaluation isn't driving future/forward progress then what's the point?  So I spent some time brainstorming and trying to think about what I really wanted out of my kids' work, and how I could communicate it to them in a kid friendly way.  I've always liked the idea of rubrics, but conversely also frequently had a hard time using them in a meaningful way in my classroom.  And then I was paging through this unit that I bought from Deana Jump and DeeDee Wills and they had a writing rubric inside that was based on smiley faces, which I thought was really brilliant, and it was sort of like the clouds parted and I had this flash of teacher brilliance:  I could use a similar evaluation system for the math work that I was doing with my kids.  But one thing that was really important to me is that my kids bought into the rubric, also.  So I brainstormed the things that I really wanted to make sure were included in the rubric, and then I sat my kids down on the carpet the next day for math and I told them that we needed to think about what the very best first grade mathematician work looks like, and what it looks like when you're not doing your very best work and this is what we came up with.

After we made this chart, we had an epic dance party because we spent so much time on the carpet making it, then I laminated it and it hung up in our classroom the rest of the year.  The next thing I did that I really think helped my kids have a clear understanding of the work at each level is that we evaluated some anonymous work together as a class.  We went over what different mathematicians produced and I asked them what symbol they would have put on it, and then I showed them what symbol I actually gave it.  We did this for about 2 or 3 days so that they really understood how to get smiley face exclamation point (which, by the end of the year, was one long word in our classroom--smileyfaceexclamationpoint).  I really feel like this rubric helped my students be clearer about the way I was evaluating their work, and it gave us all a common language to use around discussing our mathematical work.  It was great to see kids using the chart with their partners to think about what they needed to add to make their work even better.

For those of you wondering how I tracked the data across units, I'm here for you.  =)  I really tracked this data in 2 ways.  I would create a chart in word of the problems we were doing each week, and all my kids names and then I would just put the symbol they earned in their box.  This allowed me to look across the week and see if there was a student who really understood and should maybe be pushed harder, or if there was a student, or group of students who really didn't seem like they were understanding our content that week.  The other way I tracked it was numerically, in a grade book so that I could use these symbols to factor into my students' math grades at the end of the quarter.  I just used a 4/3/2/1 system, with the 4 being equivalent to the smiley face exclamation point, and the 1 being equivalent to the straight face.  I didn't use 3/2/1/0 because I feel like zeros can really wreck an average.  But you are, of course, the boss of you.

Honestly, I had planned to talk about evaluation and leading a share/debrief in the same post, but I feel like this is already a super long post, so we'll save leading the debrief for tomorrow.  And last but not least I am working hard at making my debut on Teachers Pay Teachers, and I'll be sharing the documents that I use in my own classroom to make this model work--planning guides, tasks that I've already written, blank rubrics for you to fill in, and maybe a quick how-to guide, if you think that would be helpful.  I hope to have all of those documents ready to go by this Wednesday.  If there's anything else you'd like to know let me know!  I aim to please.  =)

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!
Rachel

More Math!

Friends!  Before I tell you more about this rad type of math that I'm working on I have to tell you what I did today.  (pause for dramatic effect)  I went running outside today for the first time today since the end of the school year.  It's been super nice out for 2 days in a row; normally DC is about 95% humidity in the summertime because the Founding Fathers decided to drain a swamp to build the nation's capital.  I felt like it was a sign that I should head outside for a run. When I opened my Nike+ app it totally shamed me.  It said "it's been 8 jillion days since your last run".  So embarrassing.  But then I did a 5K, and I didn't die so I'm going to go ahead and label that a success.

But back to this inverted math.  I'm pretty into it.  What I want to tell you about today is how crafting a task to use with this model is different from a standard or typical word problem.  I think one of the easiest areas to see this difference is in addition and subtraction.  So, when you teach a unit on adding and subtracting you're generally spending part of the time teaching students how to solve word problems.  A normal word problem might sound something like this:  "Mattison has 4 cookies.  James has 3 cookies.  How many cookies are there altogether?"  But when you're using the inverted model, you're going to write a task that is either open-ended, or has multiple answers (sometimes both).  Going to the original example, a task for this model on the same content might read something like this:  "In all, Mattison and James have 7 cookies.  How many cookies could each kid have?"  What you really want is a task that has multiple points of entry, and that kids could really spend a significant amount of time working to solve.  In this example, you could encourage kids to think about how many different ways they could put 2 numbers together to get 7.  It's also likely, in this example, that you would be pushing students to notice how turning numbers around represents a different problem.  I find that the easiest way to get started crafting tasks is by working backwards--starting with something more traditional or typical, and then thinking about how I could make it more open-ended or how I could turn it into a problem with multiple solutions.  One more piece that's important in this model is that students are generally using a combination of words, numbers, and pictures to show their work/thinking.  There's also a heavy emphasis on using labels, but I'll get into that more when I talk about evaluation and sharing.  

Another important part of this math model is that students are usually working with a partner, and that they almost always have a variety of tools available to them.  Obviously that implies that at the beginning of the year you're teaching your students how to work with a partner and use tools, but that's likely to be something you're teaching at the beginning of the year, regardless of the type of math you plan to use in your classroom.  Since you're also usually giving students a materials choice when using this model, you also have to help them figure out what tools are best for different tasks.  But I generally feel like these are things that smart teachers are doing at the beginning of the year, anyway, so I'm not going to waste your time talking about all of that here.

I'll be back tomorrow or Sunday (it's supposed to rain on Sunday) to talk about evaluating tasks and how the structure is different when you're teaching at the end, instead of the beginning of the workshop.  Happy Friday!

Brand Spankin' New!

I remember the very first teacher blog I read.  It was this lovely gem, right here, that I still read faithfully.

I actually found about this whole idea of teacher blogging from my mom.  She had mentioned to someone at her fitness classes that I was about to start teaching first grade, and they gave the website to my mom to pass along to me.  If we're being honest, I was skeptical at first.  I had never taught anyone as young as first grade before.  I was up to my eyeballs in preparation, and you wanted me to find time to read someone's blog?!  Which explains why I did not read said blog until mid-way of my first year of teaching first grade.  What an epic mistake.  It unlocked an unveritable treasure trove of ideas, resources, and headache easers.  I'm pretty sure I spent the next few hours bouncing from Fabulous in First to the brilliant ladies teaching first grade that you can find here, here, and here.  I truly believe that the blogs I first started following (and others that I've added along the way) have made me a better, and more creative, teacher.

Fast forward to now, and I'm getting ready to teach first grade for the third year in a row.  If you had asked me when I graduated from grad school what grade I thought I would be teaching it totally wouldn't have been first, but I have to say that I love those little firsties.  They're so darn adorable!  Which is why I have spent so much of my summer preparing for the school year, and why I am starting this blog.  I think that teachers sharing ideas with other teachers makes everyone better.  And that's the goal here--to share ideas, and to become better teachers all the time.

One thing that I've spent a lot of time learning about throughout the past 2 years, and this summer is this flip-flopped model of math (that goes by a thousand different names--inverted workshop, discovery math, and constructivist math are some of the ones I hear most often) where kids are working on solving really complex tasks and the onus of constructing meaning out of the work is on them.  It really changes the role of the teacher, in my opinion.  This model, which I tend to call either reverse or inverted workshop (because the learning comes at the end, rather than the beginning) really challenges students and teachers, and works in extremely well with the Common Core standards.

The basic idea is that you have a short launch with the kids (about 5 minutes), make sure everyone understands the task, and then you send them off to work.  And they work for a really long time--like 15-25 minutes (with one brief mid-workshop stop in the middle-ish)!  If you had told me I would get my kids working for 25 minutes on a math task before I started this model I would have told you you were living in a fantasy land!  But I won't tell you that anymore because I've done it with my kids, and that really is how long they work. =)  Then, you bring them to the carpet at the end and you share/debrief with them and THIS is where you're really teaching them rules/patterns/properties, etc. about math.  I've been using this model in a variety of capacities for about 2 years now, and I still think it's totally wild.  I really like it, but I also definitely think it has some limitations.  The biggest one, for me, is that some kids really don't (ostensibly) seem to make their own meaning, despite repeated exposure to the same idea or concept.  The biggest advantage to me, conversely, is that everyone can start the task in a place that's appropriate to their current understanding/level of learning.  So my questions are this:  have you ever tried a model like this?  Do you use it daily?  Would you try something like this?