Trust

Trust seems to be a huge factor in the happiness and success of relationships in people’s life. I think it is really important to show people you trust them especially if you see and work with them a lot. If you give a little then most people will prove they are also trustworthy. When working on a team it is important to build that trust and collaborate to make everyone’s job easier. I also think it is important to show students you trust them and allow them the opportunity to play out that trust and show you what they can do. I think people are inspired when you show them you trust them. They want to show you they are good also. As I look back on many times I have been worried I noticed the Universe has made things ok. I think I need to trust the Universe a little more because I tend to worry a lot more than I probably should because usually things tend to work out for the best, even if I can’t see it right away.

Triumphs and Troubles

Triumph: This past week one of my student's parents nominated me for a teacher award. It was really nice to hear how appreciated I was to her. She is a parent that hasn't had the best relationship with the school before but we connected early in the year and gained trust. Her daughter has a lot of trouble in school so since she has made a good connection she has been very supportive when it comes to dealing with behavior issues.



Trouble: This past week I was very sick. I had to miss two days. I feel like I have been gone a lot, mostly for trainings this year. It has been hard to be gone because I know my students don't get a whole lot out of a day when I am gone.

Technology Integration

Our students have become 21st century learners and have the world at their fingertips. As a teacher of those students it is my job to meet their needs by integrating the technology they will be using the rest of their lives. Technology should be use in the classroom because this is the place where students can safely make mistakes, learn how to effectively use technology to meet goals and to gain information. Technology can be used for collaboration, publication and so many other things.
 Through my experience in grad school, I was able to learn and try new technology tools in my classroom. Some have been very effective and I will continue to use them, and others didn't work for me this year. After I complete the program I will continue to implement new technology into my classroom. Something I have just started to play with is a flipped classroom structure. I'm hoping this structure will work for some of my lessons and I will continue to use it in the future. Learning about the SAMR model has helped me analyze technology and its effectiveness in the classroom. I will continue to use this model to choose tools that will be beneficial to my students.
I hope to continue to learn about new technology tools in different ways. An easy way to learn more is to observe and talk with other teachers. Through discussion in my building, watching blogs and following teachers on social media, I will have plenty of outlets for learning. I will also continue to use freetech4teachers.com since it is easy to use and has relevant information.

Tech Tool -Feb

This week I created a review assignment with Kahoot. This is a game like website where students answer questions that are up on the screen as fast as they can. They are awarded points for accuracy and speed. I created a game for our social studies unit on the New England Colonies. I included some facts we learned and new vocabulary we learned. Students played the game as a review for our test. Once I create the game students only need another device to get to the website and put in their game name. They loved the game and I didn't find too many that struggled with the speed.

Tech Tools- Feb 3-7

This week we were asked to try out Haiku Deck. After watching the tutorial I had a few ideas on how to implement this tool. I did not have time this week to have my students create one so I created one to show the students. I used the Haiku Deck to show pictures and short phrases about early American Colonial life. Based on the Haiku Deck they had to describe what life was like in Colonial times. I also made them explain their thinking and use examples from the Deck to "prove" their thinking. We are working on generalizations and inferencing so it fit perfectly with this skill.
I also used a new tech tool this week with one of my students. I saw on our tech spreadsheet an app called Dragon Dictation. This app allows you to talk into the microphone and the app types every word that you say. This is perfect for my students who is on an IEP for writing. Instead of writing his whole narrative story I had him speak into this app so it helps him write the rest of this story. He felt so much relief after I showed him this tool and was actually excited about a writing assignment for once this year. I haven't decided if I am going to have him write it out on paper after using the app or not but this will help him spell when he does have to write it out.

Persistence

Over the past few weeks I have definitely been challenged to stay persistent. It seems the busiest time of the year fell on these last few weeks. At school I had trainings, observations and meetings, oh yeah and teaching! Every moment that I wasn't doing those things I seemed to be doing grad work or making lists of all the things that need to get done. I've felt...OVERWHELMED! With persistence in mind I changed my outlook on a few of those things I was overwhelmed with. The think that kept me motivated was seeing the end in sight. I had a goal (either getting through observations, or grad work) and I knew that goal would be reached soon. I kept telling myself I can do this for a little while. I made my lists and stuck to my schedule- I used my snow days very purposefully and was able to get a lot accomplished and I was able to set smaller goals. I am so thankful to surround myself with people who understand and are positive because that has helped me stay positive as well. I will keep making my schedules and lists (because they keep me sane) and I know I will stay persistent with whatever comes at me next. Because I've been focused on this I didn't see myself getting too bogged down in the negative. I let myself think that for maybe a moment but then told myself to change my attitude. If I felt like I've hit my breaking point for the day I just went to bed (sometimes at 7:30) and started over the next day. Positive thinking will get me through!

Triumphs and Troubles

Triumph:
Over our 2 snow days off I made it a point to contact parents since it has been a while since I've sent them anything. I emailed or made contact with every parent in my classes. The response I got was great. They were very appreciative of the emails and update. One parent even sent an email to the principal telling them how appreciative they were with the contacts I've made. I will definitely keep up the parent contacts on a regular basis.

Trouble:
It seems to be that Sunday rolls around and I have at least 2 hours of grading to be done. It's been hard keeping up with grading on a timely manner this year even though that has been a goal of mine from day 1. Sometimes we correct things in class but I can't always do that. I want to give feedback and having 52 kids in math it's been hard to do that in a timely way.

Tech Tool

With the unexpected two days off of school I was able to play around with some tech tools I've been wanting to try. I signed up for a website called showbie (www.showbie.com). This website is like a dropbox where I can send my students attachments and they don't have to sign up with an email. It works like this: I signed up with my email and I create classes. Each class has a class code that I give to my students. They go to the website and put their name and the code and they can access what I've posted. I can post assignments and attach pdf, keynotes etc. The students can access whatever I post and then upload their work right to the folder.

I forsee myself posting articles or other pdfs and having students access it through showbie. Then they can open the pdf in adobe reader or noteability and write over it, take notes etc. Then they can turn in whatever they wrote on the pdf to showbie. With our copy budge limited I think this would be a great tool to share articles/files with my students. I also think they will be able to access and annotate more files than they were able to before. I signed myself up as a student as well just to practice and it was very simple to use. We have shared Ipads in 5th grade but I don't think that will be a problem since they have to login each time anyways. I am excited to try this new tool and I think my students will be able to access more learning tools.

Triumphs and Troubles

Triumph: Back to school for two days before another 2 days off from the cold was a success. The students were so well behaved and ready to work. It was great seeing them and I could tell they were ready to be back also. Although we needed to take a few more brain breaks than usual, we got a lot done those two days we were back. Hopefully the great behavior continues after 2 snow/cold days off!


Trouble: We are starting an intensive reading program during our WIN time. We are going to be grouping students by ability and picking a theme to create a unit around. I chose to focus on the Olympics. Although I am finding a lot of good supplemental articles and books it has been really hard to find an anchor text I could use for book groups. I was hoping to find 1-2 chapter books that were fiction that were Olympic or sports themed. I think I settled on a couple but I have to see if they are good read. Any ideas on sports related chapter books at a 5th grade level would be much appreciated!

Technology Week C

This week when students were done with their projects I had them try coggle ( http://coggle.it/). This is an online mind mapping tool. You do need an account but I had my students sign into my account so they were all saved under my name. Students were able to create a mind map of their choice this first time. Students had to think of a topic for the center and then coming off of that were items related. You can make it as big as you want with as many layers as you want. I can definitely see this being use for a brainstorming tool, organizing tool or collaboration tool. Multiple people can open up the same coggle and work on it at one time so you could incorporate group work with this. I hope to try it with more academic topics soon.

I've also been talking with another 5th grade teacher who has 1-1 Ipads in her room. Her and one of her students showed me 3 tools they use all the time. She said they are a must if I am going to use the Ipads more often. The first one is dropbox. She uploads pdfs, articles, worksheets etc to the dropbox and sends them to her students. Then her students log in and are able to pull up that sheet. If they need to write on that sheet they then open the sheet in adobe reader. The students are so quick to do this now it if a quick process. Then if they need to turn it in they open showbie (I think you need to go to the website and sign up for it). They can save their pdfs that they wrote on and upload them to showbie which sends it right to the teacher. This is a great way to save paper or to share items someone finds without printing everything. I can imagine scanning part of a book or paragraph and then having students use that in some way. These are all tools I will be looking into more.

Marzano Classroom Management

After reading Marzano's Classroom Management chapter I chose two goals to work on regarding management. As a school we have been working on using learning goals and rubrics for lessons. I have also been using rubrics for behavior and management as well. If we are going to be working in a group I use the learning goal as our target and then together we usually create a behavior rubric for what our group should be doing. Usually I say "what should your group be doing if you are going to meet this goal?" They are quick to come up with ideas. We use our grading E, M, P, DN scale to rate their behavior. Usually I only fill out the E and M parts of the rubric because I expect they are at that level. Ideas that would go on the rubric would be help others in your group or share ideas and listen.  At then end they can give themselves a P if they did not meet those expectations. This allows some balance in dominance vs cooperation which Marzano talked about. Students are involved in the process and set their own goals for behavior some times using this system (pg 100).

Another goal I had was creating a procedure for homework that is consistent. I felt like I did something different every day with homework. Sometimes they would turn it in to the inbox, sometimes they kept it, sometimes I didn't even go over it that day. Last week I tried to be more consistent and create a routine we could all get use to. If there was homework I would have them pull it out at the beginning of that class (math or reading). That way I will make sure I can check to see who has it done and go over it and give feedback right away. I found if they just put it in the inbox I would not get to it for a couple days and the students wouldn't know if they did it correct in a timely manner. I'm hoping to get this routine down to about the first 5-7 minutes of the class and check their homework, go over a couple answers and then turn it in so I can keep track of who has it done and the students get feedback right away. Marzano stresses the importance of creating routines for everyday activities so the students and the classroom as a whole is productive and orderly (pg 89).

Marzano strategies

This week in math we created a study guide with notes on types of triangles. We did a group talk about triangles at first then we listed some of the names of triangles. We then took notes on classifying each triangle and drew an example. We then did lab sheets and book pages and the students could use their notes. I think the only reason why the note were so beneficial was because they actually used them while they were doing independent work. I know there have been times when we have taken notes but then never came back to them. I intend on using these notes again so they are beneficial to the kids.

I also worked on non linguistic representation. This week we are studying the prefixes mono bi and uni. I gave the student two words that have those prefixes. They had to look up the definition and then create a picture that represented the word. For some students this was very hard because some of the words were difficult to represent with a picture. The pictures they came up with were really creative. They explanations they had to go with their pictures showed me they really thought about the word. I also used non-linguistic representation in math class. We were reviewing geometry words. They had to create those words (quadrilateral etc) with their bodies. You could see them really thinking about how to move their bodies to make those shapes. It also showed me right away if they remembered what the words meant.

I'm still working on the homework and feedback. Today I made sure we corrected the homework we did the night before so they could get feedback. I think the feedback was good for them to have but the struggle I have is how long it takes to correct. It goes into our lesson time so maybe I could think of a way they could correct it on their own or when they are done with their work.

Triumphs and troubles

Triumph: conferences were a success! I had a lot of positive interactions with parents and many had good things to say about the year. I knew I had to be prepared with things the students were doing well and things they need to work on. I was very happy with how they went and it feels good to be on the same page.

Troubles: this is my first year teaching 5th grade and I feel like I can't plan far ahead because I don't know what's coming up next and there is only enough time to prepare for about 1 week at a time. I know next year will be better since I will have taught the curriculum already so I have to keep reminding myself that if I can't plan for longer time chunks that is ok.

Marzano Effective Teaching Strategies

While reading the chapter on instructional strategies there were a few ideas that surprised me. The first idea that really stuck out to me was how effective tutoring was on the Hattie table. I wouldn’t have thought of this being that effective. After thinking about it I could see it being effective especially if it is one on one tutoring. They are getting extra practice at their level. I was also surprised to see how effective homework is. This is such a controversial topic and this is my first year using homework routinely. I think I need to make sure they get feedback every time to make it really meaningful. I was not surprised to see similarities and differences being one of the most effective strategies on Marzano’s table. This concept involves kids thinking deeply and making connections to what they read. I can understand why this is so effective. I was a little surprised to see how high note taking and summarizing was on the list. I think this is something that doesn’t get used as much especially in the lower grades, instead I think we just get right into the doing.

The strategies I want to implement more in my classroom over the next few weeks are:

1. Summarizing and note taking

2. Homework and practice

3. Nonlinguistic representation

Technology Implementation

Over the last 2 weeks I have been implementing and trying out a few new technology resources. We have been studying how to use questions during reading. After a few days I had students create an educreations video on how and why good readers question while they read. After practicing the students created their own video. This was definitely a learning experience. Some of the videos turned out great and it was good to see them modeling how to question using their book. A few struggles we had were you can't redo a recording if you mess up. Also, you can't save a presentation and come back to it and edit. If I used this app again I would use it to have students explain how to do a problem or how to do something. It is great for short clips and modeling something.

I also implemented edmodo this week. I just introduced it to my students but most of them have used it before in our media class. They were so excited to use it in our homeroom and they were all really engaged. I only posted one question for them to respond to. I told them to respond to the question and to one other person. I also posted a short quiz on questioning. I can tell this is going to be a great tool to use. The students were already interacting with each other and looking at what others posted. This could be a great collaboration tool. I can have students upload assignments, take quizzes, post reflections, etc. The best thing about implementing technology is to first play around with it with my students. Most of them can teach each other or even me how to do some things. Going into it knowing that we will be teaching each other allows me to be pretty calm and open about using new technology. Every time I introduce something new I usually have an assignment that doesn't involve a whole lot of instruction and new learning so we can try it out and focus on the technology.

Presence

Being present as a teacher means I am open ideas, opinions and topics. I listen and gather information about things before I make up my own view. In order to be a present learner or teacher I need to see struggles and difficulties as an opportunity to do something about them. Instead of dwelling or complaining about a problem I find ways to fix it. I try new things and own up to my mistakes.

I feel presence is apparent in my teaching everyday. Students are welcomed to share their ideas in our classroom on how things should work. We do a lot of group work and collaboration for problem solving and we encourage different ways of solving problems. I am always adapting my lessons and activities based on what my students need and although I like structure, I am flexible with in allowing activities to take their own shape. We do a lot of reflection in our room about the positives of our lessons or behavior. Students are expected to reflect on their own learning and participation.

Marzano Teacher Factors

Teacher factors:

·      Continue learning and trying best practice.

·      Passion and care for the students and the job

·      Building relationships with students

·      Adjusts teaching to what the students need

Marzano

·      Instructional strategies

·      Classroom management

·      Classroom curriculum design

a) Which factors matched what you predicted? b) Which factors didn’t match?  Which ones did you miss? Which ones did you include that weren’t in his list?  Why do you think that is?  Make sense of those differences.

            A few of the factors that I predicted matched what Marzano says are the teacher level factors. We both agreed that best practice and instructional strategies are important for student learning. I’m not sure if management would include student relationships but I am surprised he didn’t talk more about building relationships. This also ties into children’s learning principals and how they need to know what the routines are and feel safe.  I didn’t really think of putting classroom curriculum design in with teacher level factors but I could see how it could fit. Even if there was an agreed upon curriculum all teachers don’t teach it the same or to the same rigor. It would be interesting to read more about grouping procedures/ teacher behaviors that Creemers said was an effective factor and why he put that as number one.

Technology

After reading about Project Red I have set a few goals for myself and the implementation of technology in my classroom. Thankfully I have pretty good access to technology if I need it. We have school Ipads and multiple computer labs. My new goal is to implement technology at least two times a week (I know it says daily technology leads to success but I'm starting small). My other goal is to use technology as a collaboration tool for my students. I'm thinking of using Edmodo more since my students already know how to use that. I'm hoping to have a place for discussion and idea sharing for my homeroom students. Whatever I do with technology I want to make sure I am not just substituting and using it for something they could already do on their own (cut and paste or word processing).

Triumphs and Troubles...

Triumph:
Last week we did a compare and contrast writing assignment for our unit 1 Social Studies. I think because I gave the students the rubric and expectations first, the quality of work I had turned in was better. I was so impressed with their writing and ideas! I also made some phone calls home this week just to check in with some parents. They were so appreciative and supportive and were very happy to hear from me. It felt good to be supported and it just reminded me that communication with parents is important and not to wait too long to get them involved.

Trouble:
I'm struggling with grading. We are in a transition year and we have moved to standards based grading. I really like standards based grading and it is what I have done for the past 4 years. I struggle because half of my team still uses the old grading and it's hard for them to make that transition. They are grading all the daily work assignments with the old grading and it's making the connection between the two difficult. I want to follow what the rest of the team is doing but it's making grading harder...

Best of times...

Best of Times/Worst of Times

I think right now we are in a transition period in education. Students have every fact available at their fingertips…so where does that leave the teacher? As teachers we grew up in a different world (yes even us young teachers). There is a huge shift right now and we are finding that “traditional” learning where the teacher lectures, models and then the students practice is heading out the door. Teachers are becoming more of a guide and helper who are now teaching students to problem solve and be independent thinkers. This shift is creating problems where the students learning styles are not being met with traditional teaching.

It is the best of times for some of those same reasons. Students are able to access so much information and have the ability to communicate with anyone in the world. Students are becoming tech savy and are able to problem solve on their own by using their resources. There are so many educational resources that are being created daily that are engaging and great for individual learning styles.

Marzano agreed with the idea that our education system doesn’t always meet the needs of individual learning styles. Teachers may make differentiated lessons but the state still requires students to take state tests where every student needs to perform in the same way. He also pointed out that it is the worst of times because the system focuses on teaching the facts and lacks problem solving opportunities.

The point that really made me question his resources and ideas was when he quoted the reports about 12^th grade students not performing well compared to other countries. I want to know if other countries require their students to stay in school until 12^th grade. If not, you are only comparing students from our country who have to go to school until 12^th grade, to students who want to be or can afford to in those other countries which can make a huge difference in their data. He goes on to say that basically you can make data say whatever you want to which is similar to my thoughts above.

It was interesting to read about the school factors. I agree with each of those factors and I like the way he organized them into similarities. I could think of times when my school has had some of those expectations and the positive outcomes they have had. It also made me think of times when those expectations were not strong in our school and the struggles it brought with. Because I’ve seen leadership come and go I was interested in his view on what a strong leader is. When he listed what a good leader does it made me think of those leaders who were strong and did great things for our school. My district now also is huge on curriculum and rigor, which I was really intimidated by at first, but I can see the positive impact is has on students and the expectations teachers have for students.

            A viable curriculum has been talked about for many years in my new district. I think my old district lacked a plan and every teacher seemed to do their own thing. I don’t think we will ever be teaching the exact same thing every day but I also think we shouldn’t have to, it should be based on our kids. Our district worked very hard to align our curriculum with the standards and we created common assessments so at least we all knew to what rigor to teach and what would  be on the assessments. We are still in the process of doing this but our grade level seems to have a similar vision and plan as a whole which helps eliminate the holes in learning. I also agree with the time factor that Marzano addresses. There is no way to teach everything we are expected to. Our district got together across grade levels and came up with “essential outcomes” which combine or reorganize the standards into a more timely plan. I think this helps teachers know what we can teach in depth but still know the kids won’t miss anything because they will get it in other grades.

            While reading about the goal setting factor I found myself agreeing with Marzano about the powerful impact it has. What got me thinking was the part about common goals. In the past our school has set goals (actually the principal has) but rarely was there any teacher input for an all school goal. I think it would be powerful to involve all the teachers and agree on a common goal for the school. This would make the teachers feel involved and take some ownership in bigger goals. I also agree that goals need feedback. If there is no follow through or reflection with goals then there is no reason to want to achieve them.

            Family involvement, classroom environment and staff climate all set the tone for successful schools. I have seen the importance of family involvement and the values families instill in their students. I think some of this is cultural and we have to learn how families interact with the school based on their values. Either way students who have a supportive family have success in school. The school environment and staff interactions also impact the success. All of these factors makes sense when using them to calculate the success of a school. If one piece is missing I think it has an affect on other factors of the school.