kindergarten buddies

It was revealed in our school improvement plan survey at the end of the school year that teachers wanted staff development to improve their math instruction. We want our math instruction to be as comfortable a fit as our literacy instruction. When requests like this come in (ground up) our administrators and specialists listen... and respond. As a result our math resource teachers helped organize us and twenty-four teachers formed a focus group to improve our math teaching skills and knowledge. Books were bought. Time was creatively carved so we could have an hour during the work day six times a year to collaborate and discuss the bones of "numeracy." Half our group is working on primary conceptual development and the other half is working on multiplication and division.

How do we do it? One week the primary numeracy group meets and sends their little guys to an upper grade class which is part of the multiplication/division group. We "buddy" the students for 1/2 hour at the end of the school day and dismiss them from this class while their teacher spends that 1/2 hour and 1/2 hour after school dismisses to learn. On another week we swap... older students go to the younger students. Brilliant.Last week our class had our first swap. We partnered a kindergarten student with a third grader. They each drew a portrait of their buddy. Third graders interviewed each kindergarten student and shared what they discovered. Later they swapped portraits. It was a very fast 30 minutes!
Things seen and heard:
K boy: I have flames on my shirt.
3rd boy: Uh, I know. They're cool.
K boy: I have flames and words on my shirt.
3rd boy: I know. I was just about to put the flames here.
K boy: Uh huh...don't forget the words.
3rd boy: Shaking head, eyes looking sideways at his buddy, smiling with no teeth showing.K girl: This is you on a sidewalk.
3rd girl: What am I doing?
K girl: Walking to school. You're going to be late.
3rd girl: That really looks like my outfit today.
K girl: I know. Did you hear me say you're going to be late.

A good time was had by all.

happy anniversary!

Today Blink and Bridge is one year old. I didn't intend to take a sabbatical over the summer. It just happened. It's interesting how the urge to post and read blogs has been creeping up the last few weeks. I attribute it to being back in the "condo" (my classroom) with students and my mind responding to all things infused with school and teaching: new third graders, new curriculum, my own college student going back for a second year, my high schooler readying for junior year, my oldest working with fledgling kindergarteners, my teammates rallying to get to know their new students, the "drive-by" teacher meetings in hallways, the staff development already going on, the collaborative support surrounding individual students, the hunting and gathering of materials and furniture as we create our environments for learning, administrators and staff working to welcome a huge increase of students. It's a hubbub of pedagogy. Can't wait to write about it.

student run blogs

I recently reactivated a class blog called Third Grade Thoughts that I started last October. Between then and now my hope was that our students would be writing and managing our news on this site. Today I added photos of our recent field trip to a beautiful county park on the Potomac River. I also added a podcast of students making daily observations about their butterflies in various stages of their life cycle over the last two weeks. Prior to that, I added a podcast of our field trip and a lesson that kicked off our butterfly unit. Sounds productive but, I have a little teacher's guilt about it.

I didn't achieve my original goal to have students directly produce the blog. They are indirectly "writing" the blog by adding their voices in podcast form but... Okay, so I have hopes for next year. I spent about a month and a half on a language arts unit of study last quarter informally titled, "writing for the web." The writing objectives, drawn from our district and state objectives, were all geared toward publishing on a website. Our technology resource specialist co-taught some of the lessons. Our students had great ideas: a food column, a winners column, a games column, a favorite animals column, etc.

I loved these kid-centered themes and the kids mostly loved working on a team to produce a bit of the website. There was a lot of collateral learning on this project. I learned a lot about my students and how they work. I realized we have a lot of strong personalities who need lots of support to work on a team project like this. Students learned they have strong personalities and have to sometimes let go and work toward consensus. It's all good, but, this unit was much more time consuming than I expected. So, now after many weeks, after abandoning the student blog idea, and working to get in other reading and writing lessons, I have caved and put our news online, without student help. I don't like the idea. I am determined to work next year to help students get their own news online. In the meantime, student's voices on a couple of podcasts are helping me assuage my guilt and reconcile the fact that the blog is not as pure as I'd like it to be.

The Olympic Torch Relay- Slice of Life

The other morning I woke to a piece on NPR about the Olympic Torch Relay finally getting on Chinese soil. Today it is on the mainland enjoying quite a following. To say this ritual carried from the ancient games has ignited more than the current Olympic flame, which began March 24, 2008 at the ancient Temple of Hera in Olympia, is an understatement. Every leg save the current legs in China have been accompanied by huge crowds protesting against human rights violations, the sovereignty of Tibet, and the political support Chinese has offered the Sudanese government. Accompanying the protests have been intense security, tactical diversions, and hot media. Now that the torch is in China the protests are gone, the security is more relaxed (or is it?) and the media is state run. So if there are protests we might not know. Hmmm. The AP has headlined an article, "Olympic Torch Enjoying a Smooth Relay" (May 7, 2008). Well, there are around 100 legs of relay ahead til this symbolic flame reaches the Olympic venue in Beijing. Personally, I'm waiting for televised coverage of the Mount Everest climb. Historic in so many ways.

The image in this post is my torch from the 1984 Olympic Torch Relay. The Relay traveled the United States, starting in New York City and ending at the Los Angeles Coliseum, traversing 33 states and Washington, DC. The torches (each runner keeps theirs) in the relay were only carried by runners on foot, covered more than 9,320 mi (15,000 km) and involved 3616 different runners, including 200 runners from the sponsoring company AT&T, and one runner from San Jose, CA who won her one kilometer leg in the San Jose Mercury (love that paper!) 10K road race. None of my memories in that kilometer, which I milked for every second I could, included protests, zealous security or left out media. If there was a protest somewhere, I missed it. The Olympics are a political event after all. After a much delayed start (actually scheduled for 8pm) due to the crowd who came to watch, I ran at midnight on a country road in bucolic Carmel Valley, CA. Friends ran beside me along with some AT&T employees, escort cars, and a few local police. I really felt I was part of the Olympic Torch ideal; I was "spreading the Olympic spirit, the message of peace and friendship" and helping to "ignite the passion of the people around the world." There was no stress. Just sheer joy! As I watch the relay via online video I only hope the runners have that same sense of Olympic spirit and joy as they dodge a multitude of distractions.

what (punctuation) sign are you?

This, evidently is the "punctuation" I was born under! Thanks Megan (at Read, Read, Read) for this fun look at ourselves.

You Are a Comma

You are open minded and extremely optimistic. You enjoy almost all facets of life. You can find the good in almost anything. You keep yourself busy with tons of friends, activities, and interests. You find it hard to turn down an opportunity, even if you are pressed for time. Your friends find you fascinating, charming, and easy to talk to. (But with so many competing interests, you friends do feel like you hardly have time for them.) You excel in: Inspiring people You get along best with: The Question Mark

What Punctuation Mark Are You?

third grade character -slice of life #2

Teaching good character traits is an important part of our district curriculum. In fact it's in our Strategic Governance Plan under Essential Life Skills. Our third graders are instructed in a set of lessons presented by our guidance counselors and those are reinforced in the classroom and home by teachers and families. First, both our guidance counselors are goddesses. Along with the usual support counselors provide, they are great teachers. They know how to activate schema and engage students through discussion, role-play, rehearsing, and writing. I saw this in action today.

The lesson was about perseverance. I was in and out a bit with teacher chores, but, I did see and hear the last ten minutes of the 30 minute lesson. Groups of three and four students scattered in various spots all over the classroom carpet were abuzz as they responded to a set of questions that challenged their thinking about what it meant to persevere. These open ended, higher level prompts challenged my own thinking as I listened surreptitiously to the calm, thoughtful, back and forth discussions inhabiting these groups of third grade students.

Seen and heard:

Q: Rome was not built in a day. What does this common saying say about the importance of perseverance? A: Rome had a lot of perseverance to build such a big city and empire. The Romans were so great. The empire took years to build but, the Romans stuck to their plans.

Q: Perseverance is a virtue. But are there times it is a mistake to persevere? A: If you are hurting yourself. If somebody is better than you at something and you are jealous and want to keep snapping back at them. When someone is annoying you, they shouldn't persevere with that behavior.

Q:When in your life have you just given up? How do you feel about giving up? A: I have never given up (then, from a classmate: "Well, if you ever did give up how do you think you would feel?") I feel dissappointed when I give up because I can't reach my goal. I couldn't accomplish my goals. I would be very unhappy to give up on things I'm trying to do. I would never have a chance to see some things happen.

Q: Has anything bad really ever happened to you or to someone close to you? How did you or that person cope with the situation? A: What is cope? (after "cope" is explained) When my goldfish died I was sad but I got over it by hugging my mom and thinking happy thoughts. My cousin had perseverance because she broke her arm and didn't give up. She was three years old. She just tried and tried to play hand games with her cousins until she could do it. She never complained.

Q: You have a friend that can't seem to win. She never seems to succeed. She is feeling blue. What can you say to motivate her to not give up? A: You can tell her something nice or give her advice like, "don't give up." You could tell her she's a special person.

Comments we can all live by.

today's staff meeting

We had a late breaking staff meeting this afternoon in the library. One of our very capable, highly respected assistant principals brought our school family together to make the announcement that the other very capable, highly respected, assistant principal is going to become a principal at a nearby elementary school in our district. We couldn't be happier for her even though it means we lose a quietly powerful leader who loves our kids and has a pretty good sense of humor. She had previously been a school principal and it was only a matter of time before that calling had to be served. We were very, very lucky to get her. Timing was right for her to come to our school when we needed an assistant principal. But there will be no crying in baseball or school about losing such a skilled administrator. This happens once in awhile to us.

I don't want to say we're used to it. I don't think anyone wants good people to go. Our last assistant principal also left to be a principal at a school that needed her. She has now spent the last few years helping to make good things happen and her school and staff are growing professionally. Before that we lost our beloved principal so she could be the Director of Elementary Instruction for our district. I guess that's a pretty good job to have. With over 135 elementary schools it's a big job. We can't think of a better person for that position. Sure we could whine, but we all, and I mean all, from teachers to instructional assistants to custodial staff to specialists, to volunteers, understand good citizens leave our school not to leave us but to do good things beyond our walls. Each of those educational leaders have been part of and contributed to positive transformations for staff and school. We're better with each departure in a weird sort of way. We know that and so, it's easy to say, "Good luck," We'll really miss you," "You will do great things in your new school," "Those kids and that staff are so lucky to get you," "Thank you for all you've done to help our students," "Thank you for helping me grow as a teacher," and mean it.