Open when you need a laugh. Open when you are crying. Open when you can’t sleep. Open when you are stressed. Open when you are mad at me. Open when you need a smile. The cards go on. When my Mom first started treatments for breast cancer I made her a set of “open when” cards to lift her spirits. There were about 20 personalized cards included in a basket of all the things she loves.
The response she had to one of the cards, the last card, is incredibly inspiring. On her last day of chemotherapy she came up to me and said, “I finished all your cards throughout this journey.” I smiled… she continued, “but I don’t think I will ever need this one.” She handed me the card - Open when you feel like giving up. Tears filled my eyes. I already knew she is the strongest woman in my life, I knew she was going to beat cancer, I knew she would never give up without a fight, what made me cry was that she believed all these things too. She believed in herself. She will never give up. It is an incredible relief knowing that your rock will continue being strong even when it seems the world is against her. I couldn’t imagine life without her, I can’t be without her. So to know her will to fight is stronger than the obstacles thrown at her, makes me feel safe and sound.
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The moment I lift up my blackout blinds my Saturday starts. I have the same routine every Saturday morning:
I am ready for the day. This Saturday is different though. I wake up at my best friend Morgan’s house in Pewaukee, Wisconsin. In college, Morgan and I started as Alpha Phi sisters and ended as roommates. We have countless memories I will always cherish. Morgan is the type of friend you are constantly thankful for. She is the definition of a ray of sunshine. She has a knack for adventure, independence, and laughter… I feel that my sentences are starting to get repetitive and I am not finished listing all the things Morgan is, so I am going to create a list:
Thank you for being my better half, my chosen family, and the great girls night Mo! Fridays are one of my favorite days of the week.
I am in a terrific mood and it reflects onto the students. We all come in smiling, excited for the weekend to come. I could have no plans or all the plans in the world and still be as excited as a kid in a candy shop when it comes to Friday. Once I walk out of school I feel like I have all the time in the world. I am not rushed and instantly relaxed. I take my time going home, listening to some upbeat music. I get to head to the gym later than a usual weekday, which is my absolute favorite because it is EMPTY! I practically have the whole place to myself. Once I am finished with a great workout, I head home to spend some time with my Momma and/or my favorite man. It is an all around good day that puts me in a great mood for the weekend. Happy Friday :) In the previous post I talked mostly about free write and the changes we have made in this writing unit. I think the most important change we made was the exploration we spent so much on in the first week. We spent four days reading biographies written in all different formats. Formats such as a story, a graphic novel, a poem, a chapter book, etc.
Each day I would start the writing block by reading aloud a biography on Helen Keller (the person I was researching) for about 10 minutes. I tried picking three books written in different formats, so the students could see the differences. Next, the students would have about 30 minutes to read biographies of their choice. READ the actual information in these books to see examples of author's craft. They could read about whoever they were interested in. The last 10-15 minutes we came together as a whole class and discussed I noticed… I wonder… about the books we read. These students noticed every single thing I wanted to teach them about biographies. I did not talk at them, telling them what a biography is. Instead, using the I notice… I wonder… lists we created, they came up with their own definition and key features that need to be in every biography. I believe that because they came to the conclusion themselves they take ownership in it. When it is time to create their own biography they know the key features they need to include. Another benefit to letting students explore books, read books, and really dive in is they are learning so much more about their person. They are not just sifting for information to finish a packet we gave them. Instead, they are gaining information on these people to form their own thoughts. They are then summarizing and paraphrasing in a meaningful way. Unlike the animal research project, I see less of students copying information down and more of, “Oh! I know that!” or “I read that somewhere…” or “They did this because…”. They are not just skimming books for answers, but learning! Which… isn’t that the whole point of a biography? This is just another lesson I have learned as a teacher and another thing I cannot wait to change for next year. Happy Writing! This biography unit in writing has been eye opening.
This is the second time they have had to research this year. The first time was in the informational unit, researching animals. In that unit we gave the students “headings” in a packet and let them research wherever they wanted. We only modeled how to research in the beginning of the week when they started. They wrote the whole hour. No break time, jumping right into their research, starting in random places each day. We changed most of this. Now, we gave them at least 4 days to explore biographies on famous people who have influenced our world in some way. They are mostly researching from physical books that they had days to read and explore. If there are not many books I have printed out articles for students to markup and highlight. And a large change I am focusing on in this post is we have been limiting the students to one task/question a day. We have asked them 5 questions they have to research:
When they finish finding all the facts they can for that question we stop them, collect their packets, and they have the opportunity to free write. The biggest change I have noticed is how much more the students are engaged. They know they will not be researching for this insane amount of time and when they finish finding their facts they will get to move on. There is an end goal. They are also motivated to write more when they are free writing. I think this is because they get to write whatever they want in whatever format they want too. I have a student working on a chapter book about worms. Another writing an article about mountains. HOW COOL! They WANT to write!! If they finish a rough draft they have the opportunity to publish it on nice paper, book creator or google docs. It is almost like a break from writing, but they are still practicing the essential skills they need. Perseverance : doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.
My mom has persevered the past year and a half with fighting off two different types of cancer. She was diagnosed with Breast Cancer and Chronic Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma at the same time. Having one type of cancer is a huge battle to fight, let alone two. The Chronic Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma was at a low grade, so not the main concern... at the moment. The breast cancer was the first to fight. She had surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation to get rid of the breast cancer. It was a long road, but she won that battle. Recently, she has started her new battle with the Chronic Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. I say chronic because it is something she will have the rest of her life. It is in her bones & blood. It is not something you can just remove, she will have to constantly fight it. The new rollercoaster started when her doctor said her white blood cell count has tripled. This means that her body is fighting off some sort of infection… since the breast cancer is out of the way, this makes us think it is her Non Hodgkin. Her doctor said she would need to go through treatments again. Devastation crashed into our family once again. I remember receiving this information while I was teaching math. I broke down, running to the bathroom with tears racing down my cheeks. How? Why? Now what? So many negatives and questions ran through my mind. People do not realize that the family members are flooded with a range emotions just as much as the person with cancer. I take ownership in “taking care” of my mom. In my mind, it is now my job to take care of her and be her rock. She may not think that, but how could I not? Cancer is not that simple though. Just as we were coming to terms with her going through treatments again, her doctor said her cell count went down. WHAT?! How could this be? Cancer does not just go away… Was the doctor wrong? Does the doctor have any idea what is even going on with my mom? A new range of emotions fled through my body, anger being the main one. What now? The doctor’s answer… we wait. To be continued... Picture this… It is the first week of school. Students are just learning your name. They are practicing routines, procedures, classroom rules, and how to get into centers properly. Students are being reminded of all the ways we should act in school. Now, while all of this is going on in that first week, picture jumping right into your first writing unit. Our first unit is narrative writing. I remember in the beginning of the year getting students to write a small moment from their life and not even being through the first or second week. They are still practicing skills that are necessary to function in a classroom. How can we jump into the curriculum when we are still setting up our classroom? In reading and math we wait at least two weeks until we jump into the curriculum. We start with easy content so we can focus mostly on the routines of that subject. We practice getting in and out of centers. As a class we review how to problem solve. This is crucial for the students to master independent work time... and it works! They are pros when it comes to getting into their centers and staying on task. We need to be doing the same for writing. It is an abstract subject for most students and should be set up properly. I started putting ideas I had to start the year off in writing into a powerpoint. I create PowerPoints because they are easy to visualize and all my information is in one place. My team member, Hannah Berkowitz, does something similar with PowerPoint presentations and her day to day lessons. This PowerPoint of random ideas turned into a whole two week plan on how to “kickoff” writing. So that is exactly what I called it. I showed my team and they seemed to love the ideas. I have attached the Writing Kickoff Powerpoint and challenge you to try just one idea inside. The main focus is to create a sense of purpose for the students. To show them that they are ALL writers. It shows them that writing is and will be enjoyable all year round. I want to remind you that this is more of a mockup and not set in stone. Things can be changed, moved around, etc. Alter activities, routines, ideas in a way that works for your classroom. I cannot wait to start off a brand new year getting students excited to write!
We had a wonderful time. The best part of the night was having everyone together. His family came first, arriving one by one. When his Mom rang the doorbell I thought he was going to lose it. He thought his family coming over was the surprise. But the doorbell continued to ring. As his friends started popping in, his smile was gradually growing. At 10pm we all put on our jackets and made our way outside. His face was priceless when he saw the bus!
Overall, it was a fantastic night and I would do it all over again for the man that I love so much. Happy Sunday! I love birthdays! They are a day to make someone feel special and remind them of all the reasons you love them.
Today is my boyfriends 26th birthday. He does not like birthdays. He believes he is now officially "old" and not very excited about the day. Not happy about your own birthday? NOT ON MY WATCH! I have planned something extremely special for him that is a complete surprise. All he knows is I have something planned for the two of us. Let's start off with a little background information. His family (mom, stepdad, 10 year old sister, 6 year old brother) live about an hour and a half away from us. He does not get to see them as much as he would like. His close friends also all live in this area. He took off work thinking he would be able to drive up to see them before our day together. They all told him they were busy and they would have to reschedule. He was bummed. Little does he know they are all driving to his new place, which none of his friends have seen before, to surprise him! About 12 of his close friends, mom, stepdad, siblings, aunt and uncle are going to come over tonight for some drinks and dinner. He is going to be so happy. But that is not the actual surprise... I also got a large party bus to take his friends and ourselves to Downtown Naperville for a night of fun! My hope is that by the end of this day he is reminded how much the people around him love him, appreciate him, and how lucky we are to have him in our lives. I will keep you posted on how it all goes. Happy Birthday Ry! How do you reflect on what your students produce in writing? There are many different ways to assess your students learning. I found that 4 point rubrics are simple enough for the students, parents, and teachers to follow and they directly correlate with our 4 point grading system. Unfortunately, these rubrics were not made. When my team and I started the Narrative Writing Unit I brought up the fact that we have nothing to grade them with, nothing to refer back too. Together we made a rubric that related to the common core standards for that unit. This was not only beneficial for the students to know exactly what is expected of them, but helpful for us teachers to have an end goal. For the students who succeed in writing, it also gives them the opportunity to go above and beyond on how to reach a 4. The rubric is written with “I can” statements. This is easy for the students to read and in the simplest terms for everyone to understand. I have attached a PDF of each rubric created. I love reading through their final pieces and writing little notes on their rubrics on how they did or what they can work on. It allows me to reflect on how much they learned and my own teaching. The next step… what worked? What needs to be adjusted?
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AuthorI am a second grade teacher at Irving Elementary School in a co-taught classroom! Archives
May 2019
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