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.

Dealing with Bullies in the Classroom

I haven't posted in what feels like forever. The main reason being that I just had 2 new students enrolled in my class and one of them has completely changed our classroom environment. My other student isn't behavioral but his focus and organizational skills are another challenge for me but that's a separate issue for another day. This one student has managed to change our once peaceful and fun learning environment into a war zone and my kids are scared. Well he met his match because I AM NOT HAVING IT! I will give you some background on this child. He is labeled emotionally disturbed and comes from a very "street" family. They think discipline is screaming and calling him names so now we know where it's coming from. He calls my students names, punches them, kicks them and threatens them daily. This is something I will not allow to happen in my classroom. He told me on the first day his last teacher was mean and yelled at him all the time. I explained that we are responsible for our actions in our class and if you make a bad choice that there will be a consequence for it. He said "Oh I like you." I replied,"Great! I can be nice as pie when you follow directions. I will joke around and play fun games. BUT! If you choose to do the wrong thing in my class then it will not be fun and games. That's how life is inside and outside the walls of this school." He gives me the whole yes yes yes and 2 seconds later is tearing ass around my classroom. HELLOOOOOOOOO! Did you not hear what I just said?! He says, "Sorry, Mrs. Guidice." The first few days he seemed to really be falling into the routines. He was earning his points left and right. Then one day in the closet at the end of the day he tells one of my students he will punch her in the face if she gets in his way again. When she tells me I confront him. He denies and denies it. So I asked if anyone heard him and 3 other kids raised their hand and correlated my other students story. I said, "Well, how do you explain that then? Three other students heard you. Are you still going to tell me the same story or will it be the truth?" He then changes his story to some nonsense about the light. I know off the bat he's lying and I said that lying is not a good character trait. Then last week he tells me he wants to be a cop. I said to be a cop you have to follow the rules first. He replies, "No I'm going to be a bad cop." I seriously couldn't believe what he just told me. In my 9 years teaching I have NEVER heard a child say something like that. I said, "Well bad cops get caught and go to jail just like everyone else who doesn't follow the law." He says, "No, bad cops never get caught and they can't go to jail cause they are a cop." I looked him in the face and said "That is not true. People who are bad eventually get caught. Maybe not right away but they will get caught and go to jail." Oh my! I just thought to myself this kid knows way too much for 6 years old. What is he being taught at home or what is he watching? Our school doesn't have students like this. It's not tolerated. The stories go on and on with this child. I could write a book. Basically whenever he gets caught doing something he shouldn't be doing his first response is "Sorry!" I hate when kids think that saying sorry makes everything ok. I explained that saying sorry doesn't mean anything if you are just going to do it again. I don't believe you are sorry because when I turn my back you are engaging in the same behavior. You are only sorry you got caught. I said to him to show me with you actions and not your words. The other kids try to help him do the right thing but he verbally or physically attacks them. They don't want to be his friend and I don't blame them. They make it very clear at lunch when they all sit away from him because they are scared of him. Today he told on of my kids they were mean and stomped on her foot. When I asked what happened they told me he was being mean to them and said that they didn't want to talk to him. I moved him out of that table to one that has some more privacy where he can't bother other kids. This kind of behavior will not fly in my classroom and I have no problem saying that to his parents. Looks like it's going to be a long year but I'm staying positive that this kid can turn it around.

Go Math

Well here it comes. I hate change. A lot. I think I'm worse than the kids. Last school year we were using Everyday Math which I found to be really difficult for students who do not have number sense or reasoning skills. I embraced the thought of a new curriculum and so much as tossed my Everyday Math to the side in my closet. Banished from the current curriculum for this school year, I was looking forward to my Go Math workshop over the summer until I got there and found an extremely overwhelming curriculum with so many different books and tools. I liked this at the beginning. It all sounded so great when they talk about it like Math is the only subject you teach. I left feeling like I had a pretty good grip on it until...the boxes came. The amount of books and the sizes of them were crazy. The student classwork journal is huge for first grade. Last week we were suppose to start unit 1 but postponed it because we didn't feel confident enough to teach it. We administered the beginning of the year assessment which I found to be pretty hard and a waste of time. I already knew what it told me. Scratch that for next year. Monday we started unit 1 and already I have an issue with it. There are a lot of pages the kids are suppose to do for one lesson. Today in lesson 4 they had to complete 3 pages plus a mid chapter check up. We didn't have enough time in our math block so it went into social studies which I don't mind cutting short but that can't happen all the time.

Two things I noticed today. Kids didn't seem that engaged and I had 3 kids go to the nurse with a stomach ache. Could

just be a coincidence but I'm skeptical as always. I want to love Go Math but we just aren't there yet. My hope is as it goes along we will enjoy it more. There are so many different tools and everything is scattered on ThinkCentral. Only time will tell if I give this curriculum 2 thumbs up or down. Right now it's 1 up and 1 down. 

Teaching Manners

Every month our principal chooses a book of the month. Every other month we have to submit a classroom writing response to it. Then the book is sent home with a child everyday accompanied by a notebook for both parent and child to respond in. This months BOTM is "Do Unto Otters" by Laurie Keller. I've never heard of the book but when I read it I just thought it was the cutest book ever! The characters are adorable and the way she displays the text in the book is so unique. After reading we created a list of manners that rabbit spoke about. We also discussed the way rabbit said these things using speech bubbles! Our response to the book was creating a poster using speech bubbles. Students wrote in the manners they thought were most important. I wanted to have them write why they thought that manner was important but due to lack of time it just wasn't possible. I got the idea from rowdy in first grade. If you need a book that teaches good manners and is engaging then I suggest you check this book out. I also found these these awesome resources on picture book lessons blog. I really need to start remembering to take pictures of the work we do.

Classroom Management

Now that my students are starting to settle into the class I've noticed they like to chit chat a lot on the rug. This is one of the behaviors I want to really work on this year, as well as, staying seated during independent work time. I find managing 24 students behaviors to be exhausting and not to mention sometimes they truly just don't care. This year I've been using ClassDojo and WOW what a difference. I am able to reward multiple students at the same time and it's up on our Promethean Board all day. We check it after every period is concluded and we go over any behaviors we need to work on as a class. There is a visual graph to show the class what areas they excel in and where they need to improve. I've had most of my students log onto the website and create their own avatar. They can also check in to see what their classmates have done to their avatar. I had a parent ask me today about her son's behavior because she got an email alert from ClassDojo saying he did not follow directions. WHOA! I almost didn't know what to say. My co-teacher is totally in love with Dojo. We talk about earning Dojo points all day. At the end of each week the student with the most amount of points earns a reward. We let them shop in our prize box or take a DVD for the weekend. Slowly they are starting to fall into a routine. I think this year is going to be a good one after all. If you haven't checked out ClassDojo I highly suggest you do. It's really a helpful tool to have.

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.

First Day Jitters Activity

So the first day of school for NYC is upon us. On Monday I plan to read "First Day Jitters" by Julie Danneberg. I taught this lesson last year but I vamped it up this year with more questions for my students. I also found this really cute poem for "Jitter Juice" I plan to give my kids. I saw a lot of recipes that had soda in it and I'm not really comfortable giving that to them since we promote healthy eating at our school. So instead I'm going to mix lemonade or orange juice with seltzer water using equal parts. I created a powerpoint that goes along with the story using a venn diagram to compare how teachers and students got ready for the first day, leveled questioning and follow up activities to do in class. I believe this lesson can really be stretched out over 2 days if you really put some thought into it. You can find my lesson here on my TpT store.

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.

iTeach. iCoach. iBlog.: Five close reading strategies to support the Commo...

iTeach. iCoach. iBlog.: Five close reading strategies to support the Commo...: I walked in to my first college class, Political Science 101, eager to learn. For my inaugural college assignment, my professor asked ...

Owl Decorating

 Today was our first official day back for teachers in NYC. Hooray! After our meeting about Danielson's Rubric for the morning we finally were able to spend the afternoon creating our classroom environments. I continued with my owl theme by making name tags for our door. I printed out my owls in different sizes and them laminated them. I then used a Vis-a-Vis marker and wrote each students name on the owl. At the end of the year I wipe off the name and I can reuse them next year for my door or something else in my room. The picture isn't the best because of the glare but you can get an idea. Tomorrow I will add the finishing touches and upload pics. You can find my Owl Labels here.

Writing Bulletin Board

Yesterday I went in to set up my classroom so I can have my two full days next week to plan and not have to worry about cosmetic things. Of course when I show up my classroom looks as if it went through a tornado over the summer. Everything was out of place and I made the mistake of not taking a photo before I put everything away. So with that I decided to move things around because change is good. I'm on an owl kick if you haven't noticed. Since I've gotten photoshop I started playing and I've created owls, hence my classroom theme for the year.

I just finished up my reading bulletin board and you can check that out on my previous post. So, today I spent the day creating my writing bulletin board where I hang up the 5 major elements in writing. This is what I teach my first graders throughout the year. There are 5 areas we focus on: focus, detail, structure, voice and conventions. After the first month of school and assessing where my students are they are assigned reading and writing goals. We conference together and talk about their strengths and weaknesses in writing and how we can get better. Students write out their goals and stick a small post it with their name on the goal they are working on. I actually thought this would be too much for my kids last year but most of them really understood what we were expecting out of them. It was nice to see a piece of writing they did and how proud they were when they met or came close to that goal. You can find my writing goals on my TpT store. Here's a sample of my writing goals. I printed them on card stock and laminated them. They look amazing. Next up are my owl labels for my classroom door. Stay tuned!

Reading Strategies

Today I spent the day thinking about my bulletin board for Readers Workshop. I wasn't too thrilled with the layout I had last year so I decided I would change it up a little bit this year and make it bright and fun. I just started to play with Photoshop and I'm having way too much fun with it. I think I'm addicted. My first design was a simple owl and I created them in different colors to represent a particular area of reading. Under each heading are little subheadings or strategies I teach my students to improve their Accuracy, Fluency, Comprehension and Vocabulary. I can't wait to hang them up this week when I go in to set up. Here's a preview of my newest creation!

There are 34 different reading strategies I teach my students in order to be proficient in reading. In September when we launch Reader's Workshop I introduce my students to a new strategy at least once a week. If I see they are independently using their strategies then I'll expose them them to more or go over other strategies during Guided Reading. My next project is creating a strategy list for my students to place in their book baggy so they can take it home and use it in class. You can purchase my strategy set on my TpT page.

Using Technology to Make Teaching Easier

Let's face it, teachers have a lot on their plate when it comes to educating the students they have in their classroom. The paperwork seems to pile up and before you know it you completely forgot what was next on your to do list. Last school year I found that using my iPhone in the classroom not only made my life easier but also kept me organized. Here are a few apps I found made my life easier and hopefully they will help you too.

Dropbox is a great way to be able to access your files from anywhere on any device. I can't tell you how many times I forgot my USB drive at home and panicked when I got to work and realized I was unprepared. Now with Dropbox that doesn't happen anymore. All my docs and PowerPoints are available to me anytime. I can even share my files with my colleagues and vice versa! 

The Common Core app is a HUGE help when creating my lesson plans. You can view K-12 Math and ELA standards easily. A must have for every teacher!

Three Ring is basically a digital portfolio. It allows you to create multiple classes with accompanying roster and you can upload photos from your phone and access it from anywhere.

Last school year I had the loudest class ever. They weren't bad they were just loud. We try to evoke conversation from our students but then during independent work we tell them to be quiet. Not fair. I want them to talk and have discussions about things that confuse or intrigue them. They learn better from one another anyway. This year I'm trying out the app Too Noisy. I can hook my iPhone or iPad to the Promethean board and the class can visually see how loud they are being and self monitor. You can adjust the sensitivity of sound also which is really neat. I'll keep you updated on how it fairs with my new class.

Last but not least is my absolute favorite app Class Dojo. As a Special Educator I believe that behavior management in the classroom is just as important as Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. My issue with it was that it could be time consuming to go around and mark behavior charts, give out stickers and not to mention the other kids sometimes get jealous. I can't wait to start a new school year using Class Dojo for the whole class. All of my lovely little 25 munchkins will be positively rewarded and motivated using Class Dojo. Best part is parents can access it and view their child's progress.

Looking forward to a new and exciting year with lots of learning for everyone!

Tenure Portfolio

Table of Contents

It's that time of year. Tenure time! After blood, sweat and tears it's finally complete and I have a GREAT feeling about it. I've added my resume, teaching philosophy, formal observations, student work samples, unit plans, student photos, letters of recommendation, and projects outside of work. It took about 3 days of work, proofreading and reorganizing to finally make myself content. The binder is visual making it simple and clear to whomever is viewing it. I found this sample portfolio very helpful. Check it out!

Seperators

A7 in the News!

A7 was featured in the Park Slope Patch! Stay tuned for big news from A7.

Conferring in Writing Workshop

This year I've been lucky enough to work with writing guru Carl Anderson. He's taught me how to not dread the conferring part of writing workshop. Let's face it, writing is just plain hard for some students and they dread the conference as much as you do. I had to take a step back and figure out why I had that dreadful feeling some days. The problem was me. I tried to do too much with a struggling student and I was the one overwhelming them making them dread me! I reorganized my teaching notes to have a clear teaching point for that day. I already knew where my students struggled so I knew to pick the most important area, whether it was focus, detail, conventions or structure. For one of my students I made her goal to improve her use of conventions in her writing (e.g. capitals, punctuation, and finger spacing). This is what we've been working on all year and boy have I seen improvements. She doesn't wince when it's time to conference anymore. I'd say all of my students now understand they have one clear goal to focus on in there writing. I think what we as educators need to understand is that our students already feel bombarded with information we throw out at them all day. Having a clear teaching point makes for an effective conference between teacher and student.

Qualities of Effective Teaching Points

1. We give clear, precise feedback to the student.
2. We should start the conference off by saying, "Something good writers do is....."
3. We name what we are teaching the student. For example: five finger rule in writing.
4. We give an explanation of what we are teaching (what is it? why are we teaching it?)
5. We give clear example of what we want the student to do by using mentor texts and our own writing samples.
6. We have the student give it a go by talking it out and telling them, "I'd like you to try this right now..."
7. We end the conference by linking the conference to the student’s work and reminding them to keep trying it in future writings.

A Little About Me

I never knew I wanted to teach. I didn't consider myself to be someone who could educate children and be effective at it. I obtained my Bachelor degree from Stony Brook University in Psychology and my last semester there I enrolled in an Infant and Young Child class. Being young and clueless I didn't realize this class would shape my future career choices. Following my graduation from Stony Brook I enrolled in Dowling College's graduate program for Childhood Education/Students with Disabilities grades 1-6. My whole teaching career has been about Special Education. I've worked in self contained up until this past school year when I made the jump to a first grade inclusion classroom. My first teaching experience was in an Autism preschool 6:1:4 class. My students were ages 3-5 and super cute and educational to say the least. I learned a lot about how the mind works and just how Autism affected my students. I became proficient at utilizing RDI and saw my students make wonderful progress with it. Following my preschool experience, I worked for a private elementary school for Autistic students and used the ABA approach while following an adaptive general education curriculum. I mapped the whole ELA curriculum for grades K-2, piloted various reading and math programs in my class and became one of the first classrooms to have a SmartBoard installed. I then made the jump to the NYC public school system. I worked for 2 years in a District 75 school for Autistic students. While there I created an adaptive curriculum that was aligned to the Common Core Standards, Units of Study and Webb's DOK. Currently, I work in a first garde ICT room as the Special Education Teacher. It has been an amazing and challenging experience. On the side I work for iMedia.fm who is developing a fun and educational learning platform that will motivate and inspire children to become lifelong learners. Visit http://playa7.com/ to learn more. Stay tuned for more updates!