Time to Revive this Blog

I haven't posted in what seems forever. This last school year I got pregnant and had a baby just 2 months ago. My life has now been consumed by caring for an infant and not giving teaching a second thought. In September, I go back to work and will be teaching Kindergarten. I'm sad I'm leaving first grade but it will be a nice change. Maybe I should think about changing the name of this blog but who knows what grade I will be teaching in 2015 since I'm a SPED teacher and I can be bounced around in my school. ICT's depend on numbers and this upcoming year we have a lot of K special needs kids and two ICT classes. First grade only needs one ICT class so I was the lucky one to get bumped. I think it was because I was on maternity leave when reorganization happened and it was easier to move the teacher who wasn't in the building because she wasn't there to bitch lol. Oh well, I love my co-teacher for next year.

This past school year was extremely difficult for me. Between being pregnant and a new teacher evaluation system I was always on edge. Basically I'm observed 6 times during the year and my principal and assistant principal can walk in at any time and sit down for 20 min and observe my lesson. It's awful! One observation my principal didn't think was well planned and I was pretty much told that not so nicely. It was a Math lesson teaching addition strategies doubles plus one and doubles minus one. Google that if you don't know what it is. I've never taught a concept like this before and Go Math was brand new to me. I went to some PD's for it and was using concepts taught at those PD's and she didn't seem to agree with them because everyone else was doing the same thing except me. My reply to her was "Well they got the lesson by the end." Isn't that the result we want regardless how we teach it? She stated to me "They're six. Of course they'll get it!" I really didn't know what to say. That was the most ridiculous answer an administrator has ever given me. You can't even argue that. Needless to say she made me cry and feel like an incompetent educator. Ten years I've been teaching and NEVER had a bad observation. She had not one positive thing to say to me. But she didn't count it and observed me another time. Still, I will never forget that day and how she made me feel. I definitely have a different outlook of my school after that. But that's a different post for a different day. Are you being evaluated by Danielson's Rubric? How is it going? Any NYC DOE teachers out there dealing with it? I think we as teachers know our students better than anyone else academically. I have a very hard time when someone walks into my classroom and from one glimpse tells me I'm doing something ineffectively. Hoping for a better upcoming year.

The First Two Days

So, it is official. We are now into our third day of school tomorrow. So far it hasn't been all that bad. This year we are on a new schedule since our school day changed. We used to have two days where we would support struggling students after school in ELA and Math. We really found that the extended day wasn't helping the struggling students because they were exhausted by 2:40. We now changed our day from ending at 2:40 to 3:05. We built the extra help into our daily schedule and now all students are serviced from 8:20 - 3:05. It's been a very difficult transition especially for our new first graders who had lunch last year at 11:00 and now because of the schedule change they have to eat at 12:30. That's INSANE! As a parent I'd be furious. Especially since we are not allowed to give snack. Basically from 11:00 - 12:25 I have a very whiny class who really isn't learning much but how to complain for 90 minutes. We are going to get through this week but if this continues to happen and they do not adjust then I'm going to push to have a working snack for my students where they can work and eat. How can I be upset with them when I'm starving by 11:00 and I eat breakfast. There is absolutely no food in the classroom which stinks that I can't munch on pretzels or something. I'm not sure what's going to be done but all the first grade teachers are experiencing the same issue.

Anyway, yesterday we read First Day Jitters, had Jitter Juice, wrote about ourselves in writing and then graphed how we felt on the first day of school in Math. I did this lesson last year and I really liked it. I gave my students circles and they drew how they felt on the face. They had to choose from happy, sad, angry, nervous, and excited. I think they really did an awesome job. For the most part they were all happy and they all came back today so I didn't scare them off. I do have one student who I can see already is going to need a lot of help staying on track academically and behaviorally. I hope we get him a para ASAP because I'm realizing I can't take my eyes off him for 2 seconds.

Today in writing my students worked on drawing about themselves. I taught them that good writers choose topics to write about (people, places, things). This month our mentor author is Joy Cowley. I think she gives students amazing ideas of topics to write about. She has great humor and such cute characters in her stories. I've really grown to love her in the last year. I gave my kids a blank t-shirt template to draw pictures about themselves. Tomorrow they are going to write about one thing on their shirt that is special to them. This is going up on our bulletin board this month. I will take a picture when it's finished. Hope everyone had a great first few days back. Summer is just around the corner.

Tomorrow is the 12th anniversary of 9/11. I have this amazing view from my couch that reminds me what an amazing city I live in. I'm truly fortunate.

Determining Complexity of Texts

Question: How does Common Core Learning Standards demand close reading of text?

Answer: CCLS expects and demands that all students have a chance to productively struggle with complex texts. Students need opportunities to strengthen their reading abilities but to also experience satisfaction and pleasure of easy fluent reading. Close reading is 80% of the ELA CCLS. WHOA!

Question: What are the opportunities during the course of the instructional day? How can we maximize these opportunities?

Answer: Close reading of text involves investigation of a short piece of text with multiple readings and deconstructing of text. Students analyze through discussion and reading and will appreciate things such as vocabulary, form, tone, imagery,word choice, authors message, etc.

Here's the dealio. We want students to grapple with advance concepts and participate in collaborative discussions. This is what will make them better thinkers. I've seen this first hand in Reader's Workshop. I had 3 kids last year who were just stuck on a level B. Every time I tested them they just weren't meeting the mastery. So, I experimented by just pushing them up a level. They saw the other students around them moving up and I know they desired the same. As soon as I pushed them up I noticed their decoding skills improve along with their fluency. Two out of my three strugglers ended up moving to a D by June. They still weren't on grade level but progress is progress. Let's face it.

This brings me to my next question...

Question: How do we determine complexity of a text?

Answer: There are three major components that go into selecting a complex text for your kiddies.

1. Qualitative Measures - Aspect of text complexity, word/paragraph/sentence length, number of pages
2. Qualitative Measures - Aspect of complexity, layout, meaning, structure, clarity, purpose
3. Reader/Task Consideration - How much prior knowledge do your students bring to the table? 

Qualities of Effective Close Reading

On Wednesday we had our first PD of the year on Close Reading. We started to implement this into our classrooms early this past spring and we modified it to 30 minutes three days a week. This year we are jumping right in first thing in the morning everyday for 30 minutes. Students will arrive in the classroom drop their bags at their tables and get right down to decomposing unfamiliar complex texts. I'm not sure how I feel about it right now but I'll let you know in a few weeks. Anyway, here's what I learned at our PD. I hope it helps you out.

Qualities of Effective Close Reading

1. Selection of a brief, high-quality, complex text.  Limiting the length of the passage allows students the opportunity to apply new skills and strategies through multiple readings of the text.
2. Individual reading to the text.  Students unable to read the text independently might engage in a partner read or a group read in lieu of an independent attempt.
3. Group reading aloud.  A group read aloud might be teacher-or student-led.  This practice supports the engagement of all students, especially those who struggle with reading the text independently, and reinforces the primacy of the text throughout Close Reading lessons.
4. Text-based questions and discussion that focus on discrete elements of the text.  Questions and discussion may focus on the author’s word choices and repetition, specific sentences, literacy devices, academic vocabulary, or particular passages containing information that is key to the curricular objective. 
5. Discussion among students.  These discussions, either in small groups or across the whole class, will ensure that the text-as opposed to personal reflections-remains the focus as the reader explores the author’s choices.
6. Writing about the text.  Students may be asked to reflect on the knowledge gained through Close Reading in short or long written passages.

Show Some Lovin' by Following on Bloglovin

Follow my blog with Bloglovin and stay up to date on my posts. I plan to blog about our current school curriculum which I find to be rigorous and enriching for our students. We have a dedicated principal who has turned the school around and we now have an A on our school report card. Our students really held their own in ELA and especially Math tests. We were well above the average in NYC. I plan to turnkey any PD's I attend because I feel spreading our knowledge to each other is extremely valuable and easy in this day and age. The great MLK said "The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education." This is my teaching philosophy and what I think everyday when I am tapping into young minds.