Classroom Reveal!

This school year has hit me like a ton of bricks, but I'm going to do my utmost to stay up to date on here! There might be fewer posts, but I will do my best.

(I think that's my mantra for the year...do my best, don't sweat the rest.) 

Anyway, I did snap some pictures of my finished classroom before the kiddos arrived! I apologize for the blurriness, I actually brought my real camera to school but I was in a hurry and apparently I did a pitiful job. Ha. 

Bulletin board #1--learning materials

Bulletin board #2--morning meeting materials

The whole circle time area, complete with the Word Wall

We use that general area for our morning meeting, read alouds, and whole group learning. 

Focus wall, so parents can easily see exactly what we are working on!
This is also useful when I want the kids to be able to restate their objectives. =)

Learning centers, math and literacy. 

Our class library, which I spent hours organizing, labeling, and making generally pretty.
'Cause books are important.

The kiddos have since decorated those white magazine holders above the library--those are their book boxes, where they store "in progress" books. We also ditched (well, gave away) that brown table in the lower right hand corner, which made the space much more open and comfy. 

Whole room shot. I love those huge windows!

Teacher's desk area.

It took many hours to get to this point, but I'm so happy with the overall result! 

It's already interesting to note exactly how we use the room so far, and think about what might shift as the year progresses. This is my first permanent teaching position, and I keep having to remind myself that if it doesn't work, I can try something different next year! 

Author Study

Sorry for the long break in posts, guys! I started (well, resumed, after a long time) an after-school job in January, which leaves me with very little time in the evenings. Also, now that the days are longer and the weather is warmer, I'm spending more time doing things and being outside, and less time in front of my computer.

All excuses aside, I have a cool teachery thing for you! 

Last year in my second-grade class, I had a leveled reading group, compiled of students from across the grade. My crew were some of the high-fliers from the grade, so I was free to do some unit planning and curriculum creating. One of my favorite units was an Author Study of Patricia Polacco. 

The unit I did last year took us over a month of 30 minute lessons four days a week. This year, I am supporting a 2nd grade class in the afternoons and the teacher kindly offered to let me do something fun with a small group of students, so I'm recreating that Patricia Polacco unit, and I wanted to share it with you. 

I started off by giving the students (6 children, 4 girls and 2 boys) some background information on Patricia Polacco. You can go to her website for her full biography, but I just gave some basic facts--she is a prolific author and illustrator, she writes her own stories, retells folktales, and shares things from her own life in her writings and illustrations. 

The first book we read was Mrs. Katz and Tush. It's a great story, and a wonderful introduction to Ms. Polacco's writing and illustrating style. I asked the children to notice colors and patterns in the illustrations, and we talked about the types of characters in the book--namely, a child interacting with an older person. We also discussed the variety of religious backgrounds and skin colors in the book (Mrs. Katz is an older Jewish lady who befriends a young black boy). 

Next, we read Thank You, Mr. Falker, which is a story near and dear to pretty much every teacher ever. We had similar discussions as above, but including a discussion on learning disabilities and how we should approach differences in learning in ourselves and others. This is really valuable for students around 2nd grade, I believe, because they are becoming so acutely aware of who is different. Reassuring and imposing the belief that differences are ok is so important. At this point I also had the students make a T-chart about Patricia Polacco--one side was things they had learned about Ms. Polacco from her stories, and the other side was any connections, observations, or pattens they had noted while reading the first two books. 

This is where I got all teachery. The next two books in my mini-unit were Chicken Sunday and My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother. I divided my group into two sets of three students, and gave each group a pile of sticky notes and one of the books. I told them to picture-walk through their books, and jot down any questions they had or observations they made. I did ask them to keep their observations focused to the books at hand--any colors or patterns they recognized from other books, use of photographs in the illustrations, etc. This really served to pique their interest in what they were reading, as well as giving them purpose for the actual read-through since they wanted to answer their own questions. 

I asked the groups to write a 1-2 sentence summary--what they thought their book would be about based on their picture walk. Then, finally! Each group read their stories and I checked in (frequently--the groups sat at either end of a long table and I sat in the middle literally leaning back and forth between groups) to answer questions or help with sounding out tricky words. 

Next, rather than doing a traditional jigsaw, I asked the groups to essentially play the game Two Truths and A Lie. The groups wrote down two true facts or events from their book, and one false statement. They swapped papers and books, and predicted which of the other group's statements were false. Finally, they read each other's books! They loved this--it made the second book like a treasure hunt, and the group that guessed correctly was so proud. I was also pleased because they were reading closely and staying focused. 

From here, we went back and added to our T-charts. The last part of this mini-unit was a journal entry. I asked three questions: 

1) Which of the books we read was your favorite? 

2) Give two reasons why it was your favorite. 

3) Write two things you learned about Patricia Polacco from that book. 

It was super fun, and the kids did really well. I'd highly recommend any of Ms. Polacco's books, for teachers or parents or students. She writes so brilliantly and so feelingly. One of my personal favorites is The Junkyard Wonders, but beware, it's a tearjerker. 

What children's books or authors do you love? 

Back to It!

(By the way, we've broken 5000 site visits! You guys rock! If you follow me using the link on the right-hand side of the page, it'll be easier than ever to know when I've updated!)



Labor Day weekend has come and gone, meaning that school is baaaack!



I can't decide if this is more "womp womp" or "woohoo!"



"Womp womp" because...well, I have to go back to work.



"Woohoo" because...I actually like my work!



My district wasn't able to offer me a teaching position for this school year (and last year's job as 2nd grade teacher was only a year-long gig). However, they have moved me from my old aide job in multiple disabilities to an aide job (in another elementary school) in learning support. This is kind of sad because I'll miss my friends and kiddos, but also really exciting because this position has more academic emphasis, and I'll get to work closely with students on their actual lessons.



I'm sure there will be plenty of posts to come on school and the cool things I get to do there. The learning support teachers I'm working with seem really great, and they expect me to not just shadow kids and help them when they need it, but to take an active role in helping these kids succeed. Since that's the stuff that kind of makes my job worthwhile, I'm super excited to jump in.



I'll keep you posted! How was your Labor Day weekend? Are you gearing up for anything new or exciting this fall?

Kindness Day

Something my 2nd grade level partners and I decided to do was to create an ABC Countdown to track the last 26 days of school for our students. It would offer some fun and interest to those last few days that draaaag like nothing else.

The challenge was to come up with something appealing to 8-year-olds (as opposed to 6-year-olds, where things like ABC Countdowns are the norm). 

We each put our own spin on a list, and today was Kindness Day. 

I was a little surprised at the resulting day. 

I started off the day by reading Kindness is Cooler, Mrs. Ruler! It was a silly, cute story that the kids really enjoyed. We discussed some of the acts of kindness from the story, and how we would apply them to our classroom. I challenged the kids to do as many acts of kindness as they could during the day, and I gave each one an index card to keep track. Anytime I noticed an act of kindness, they would earn a sticker. 

(Now, this is Kindness Day, not Competitive Kindness Day, so we didn't count the stickers or declare a winner. It was more a celebration of their actions.) 

The surprise? (For me at least?) 

They loved it. They couldn't get enough. They spent half their day doing kind things for me and for one another, and the other half reporting each other's acts of kindness and congratulating one another on their stickers. It made the day so pleasant, and I was thrilled to hand out probably close to two dozen stickers. 

The other surprise? 

Two of my students wrote me little notes thanking me for what I do, and I couldn't believe how much it meant to me. We only talked about kindness to peers, not necessarily to me, so it was really touching to have these two share their kindness with their little ol' teacher. 

I just may keep this going (minus the cards...just randomly hand out stickers for kindnesses). It could just make our last 15 days that much better! 

No Excuses, Just the Truth

I've been a little absent lately...no real excuses. I'm just tired, feeling burned-out, and lacking any inspiration whatsoever. I'd rather postpone writing than write worthless words.



Anyway, I'm down to something like 32 days of school and 4 more weeks of Sunday School. I'm almost cleared to teach summer school, but those days will be really laidback and end at 12:30, so...hardly counts in my book. No papers to grade, no math lessons to mull over, no research (except some extra awesome crafts), it'll be a comparative breeze.



In the meantime, I do want to share a project that I completed at school recently! Our district utilizes RTII (Response to Instruction and Intervention) which is a great program that essentially looks like good, old-fashioned reading groups. The pedagogical idea is that when students are grouped for a portion of the day based on ability, we as teachers are able to target strengths and weaknesses, build necessary skills through carefully differentiated instruction, and maximize growth and learning.



Exciting stuff.



(Really, actually. This stuff lights my fire.)



Anyway, out of the whole second grade I teach the highest level readers for 30 minutes each morning (thanks to our great district, very few of our students are actually below grade benchmarks, but I work on some higher-level thinking skills). As such, I have a lot of flexibility and I've had a lot of fun designing my own curriculum for this group.



You know, because I don't have enough to do as a first-year teacher.



My most recent project has been an author study of one of my favorites--Patricia Polacco. She's an awesome and incredibly talented author and illustrator, and we've had a blast reading her books. We've discussed themes, genres, and made lots of connections between her texts. One of my favorite things about Ms. Polacco is that she injects so much of herself into her books, and so many of her stories have at least autobiographical elements, if not being totally based on her life.

Patricia Polacco's Official Website

As such, our culminating project was to skim through the books we'd read (complete list below) and glean information about her life completely from her books. We'd done other research on her life, but we put together this awesome timeline just based on her stories.

The kids really enjoyed this project. They loved digging through the books for factual information, and we got to practice our sequencing, comprehension, making connections, and main idea all in the bargain.



Now...just 32 days to go!

Dinos + A Long Weekend

Since December, we've been working on dinosaurs at school. It's totally fun, we're reading lots of interesting books about it and studying extinction theories, jobs that go with prehistoric study, and all kinds of cool stuff.


Naturally, I'm doing a lot of research on my own so that I can adequately teach the material.



Also naturally, this is totally awesome.



For example, did you know that there are actual dinosaur mummies where the skin and scales fossilized along with the bones, so we can get a real understand of what their skin was like?



And did you know that if you buy the whole Pangaea theory (the idea that at one point in time the continents were all connected and over time they split apart, and water shifted to finally create the continents and bodies of water we know now) then there's this really interesting theory that dinosaurs carried diseases to one another? The idea concludes that, much like Native Americans were decimated by European diseases, dinosaurs were wiped out by varying germs. Fascinating, right?



Yeah. I'm a nerd. Is anyone still actually surprised by this information?



On another note, I had a lovely, long, three-day weekend this week. We had off for MLK Day today, and we slept late, took Lily to the pet store, and went to the Philly auto show. The only downside is a nagging case of sinus pressure. I'm not surprised--we have so many bugs going through school, viruses that are knocking out veteran teachers, that I was fully expecting to get sick at some point this spring.


That being said, these sinus colds are really getting old. I mean, I know I should be grateful to not have the flu or some such horrible illness where I'm puking my guts out every 45 minutes....but I'm not.



Go figure.



See, these sinus things wear me out and make me so miserable (I get the whole pressure+sneezing+watery eyes+headaches shebang) that it's utter torture to focus on anything, never mind running a class of 19 students (I know, I'm such a trooper, aren't I?). I would almost rather get something legit so I can call out of work and feel justified lying around like a mopey baby.



As it is, I just feel guilty. And sick.



But at least I'm not puking!

The Turkey Trot

(Yet another school post...get used to it, folks. My mom asked me what I wanted for Christmas and my immediate response was "teacher stuff."


Her immediate response? "Absolutely not."


This is what moms are for.)



Anyway, last week was American Education Week. Much to my (superintendent's) chagrin, I don't really know what that means. What I do know is that it means my week is crazier than usual.



Which, if you know me, is kind of saying something.



It was great for the kids. We had parent visits, a town meeting (the whole school meets to catch up on goings-on and celebrate achievements), a kindergarten play, and Friday morning, the Turkey Trot.



The Turkey Trot is really a great thing. It's a fundraiser for muscular dystrophy, (wow, it just took me three tries to type "dystrophy"), a disease that afflicts two FWES alumni. The Turkey Trot was established in their honor, and it's a school tradition.



However, in practical terms, it means giving up your Friday morning to "trot" two miles around the neighborhood.



500 children. Just imagine with me, if you will.



The whole school, staff, PTA, and other dedicated parents gathered in the gymnasium for the Hop-a-thon, a one-minute hopping spree to kick off the Turkey Trot. Then the 5th graders file out and walk the two-mile loop. Then the 4th grade, the 3rd, and onward down (really a good plan if you consider the strides and speed of fifth graders versus kindergarteners).



Each turning point or corner of the route is manned by PTA and other parent volunteers. Parents walk with their children's classes, some for the whole trot, and others for portions. One kind parent handed me a cup of coffee along the way, and everyone was very excited.



I was about to have a stroke. Coffee was entirely unnecessary, I was so wired.



Please understand, I've worked with kids my whole life. I spent four years as a paid camp counselor, and probably four more years volunteering at VBS camps. I'm no stranger to the chaos of unbounded children. I've done field trips to Dorney Park and Phillies' games.



That being said, nothing nothing NOTHING compares to the pure and utter terror of being solely responsible for the care and well-being of 19 rambunctious second-graders, and having so little control over the situation.



Pretty sure I counted those 19 noses about 14 times.



One of my room parents was there (bless her heart) and she laughed every time she watched me whirl around, frantically checking for my students.



Good news: I didn't lose anyone!!



Bad news: I'm pretty sure I'll be sprouting some gray hairs shortly. Four or five of my boys kept "trying to get lost" and scampering ahead. And of course, with parents around, you can't exactly play mean teacher.



Other news: the only terror left is for the turkeys.

There Is Always More

My best friend, a fellow elementary teacher, has said to me more times than I can remember, "there is always more you could do."



I don't think I truly understood what she meant until today.

That's her on the left. Sorry, she's taken (and not by me!).

Any teacher worth her (or his) salt knows that you're never done learning, adapting, adjusting, tweaking, and changing. It's part of being a good teacher. That lesson could always be better if, those worksheets could have been clearer if, that activity could have been more engaging if...



If, if if.



Today I realized that for all the improving I have to do as a teacher (and lemme tell you, when I come into my own and really settle into a class, I'm gonna be totally kickass. This is the greatest job in the world, and I full plan to own it) I have a million and one little and big things always plaguing me.



Completed work to be filed, updates to be emailed, new work to be sorted, posters to make, projects to arrange, centers to organize and improve, art to hang and take down and rehang, homework and tests to grade, grades to enter on paper and online, Scholastic book orders to fold and send home...

Seriously, this list could go on for pages.



But at some point, I have to realize that I'm done. My day starts at 6:15, and magically it's one of those points in my REM cycle when I can jump out of bed and start powering along. I get to school by 7:15, the kids arrive around 8:30. I work straight through my lunch, eating at my desk, and the only socialization I achieve is asking one of my grade level partners for help with something.



Kids leave around 3:45 (hallelujah) and I can clean and straighten my classroom for the next day, write out the schedule on the blackboard, morning message on the white board, and make sure all my worksheets, projects, and supplies are lined up and ready to go for the morning. I make plans and posters and copies, and I email parents and staff members. I organize paperwork, switch out completed units for new material, and try to get ahead by researching games, activities, worksheets and bulletin boards for the future.

Are you tired yet? I am.


Throughout the day, I'm constantly on my feet. I hear "Mrs. Henrich!" about eight trillion times, get thirty-four pats on the back (or hip, which never ceases to amuse me), repeat directions about ten times, hear 8456 tattles, and every time I pause to check my email because I see a parent's name pop up in my inbox, I'm interrupted by an "I don't get it."



Now please don't take this to mean that I don't absolutely love my job. For all its overwhelmingness, all its busyness and multitasking and never getting a break, I adore it. But I finally understand what my friend meant.



When 5 PM rolls around, and I've been in my classroom for more or less 10 hours straight, I look at that pile of papers to be graded, that stack of completed work that needs to be filed, that math center that isn't quite ready....

Writing center fail. Still not quite ready. 

And I go home.



There's always more to do. I could always stay another hour. It will never be finished.



AND THAT IS OK.



Hold onto your hats, people, because this may be the biggest lesson of my life.



When 5:00 shows up on my watch, and I know that when I get home I have to walk the dog, and make dinner, and fold the laundry that's been sitting in the hamper for six days, and oh, it'd be nice to spend some time with my husband....I can leave. And it doesn't make me lazy or a bad teacher, and I don't have to compare myself to the other teachers who don't leave until 8 PM.



I'm sure there will be nights when I don't leave until 8 PM. And there will be days when I leave at 4:30. And you know what? The amount of work will never really change. It will be there when I come back at 7 AM the next day.



And that's ok.

Last Days

Yesterday was my last day of student teaching.


Cue the dramatic music.


I actually wan't that emotional while I was at school, but I'm still feeling kinda sad. It was a lot of time and effort, and I really loved the class. BUT! I already have plans to go back and visit, and I'm furiously beginning my job search. Because I want my own classroom. One that I can keep for more than 12 weeks.


But until that begins, here are some snapshots from my last days at Jarrettown:

 Snowman poems--we did a brief study of shapes, and then we sponge painted snowman using different shapes (triangle snowmen, star snowman, etc) and the kids wrote "poems" using describing words.

 My last bulletin board:

 The kids decorated the snowman and we cut out snowflakes from coffee filters (also using shapes!)


And, finally, they threw me an adorable little party yesterday afternoon.

There was a cake, but I didn't get any pre-cut pictures. The kids devoured it and promptly began bouncing off the walls. Our room mother, who is an incredibly sweet lady and is truly excellent at her job, was fine with the kids eating a slice of cake, two or three cookies, and a Capri Sun juice.


0_0


Just picture it.


Anyways, it was very fun. They all decorated the banner and my lovely new teacher bag has all their handprints (signed, of course--who doesn't love kindergartener handwriting?!), and the parents chipped in for some sweet gifts (flashcards, Becker store gift card, etc).


So all in all, it was a great experience and I'm ready for the next adventure. 6th grade class in a mostly Hispanic charter school? (read: job posted online that I will probably never have, but will pursue aggressively nonetheless) Bring it!

Half-Day Happenings

Today was a teacher inservice day, and since I'm enjoying the only pure benefit of being a student teacher (I don't have to attend all the inservices!) I had a half day. This morning I went with two other kindergarten teachers from my school to visit Lower Gwynedd Elementary School. It was really neat, Wissahickon is a great (very affluent) district, and the elementary school definitely reflected that. We saw some awesome writing conferences and literacy stations, and of course, observed some fun fillers and energizers. As anyone who has ever been in charge of children knows, it's always good to have some tricks up your sleeve for killing those last five minutes, or refocusing the children in a positive way. My favorite activity of the morning was a sight word activity. You know all those little words that aren't quite phonetic (sound like they're spelled) and come up ALL the time in reading? Words like the, she, it, am, and, etc. The students made cards for themselves with all their sight words, and then laid them out on the floor. They threw bean bags onto the cards and then spelled and said aloud the word the bag landed on. So cool, and such good practice.

I ran a couple errands after my visit, and then came home, because I had work to do. Cat lent me her mother's mini steam cleaner, and I had a date with my area rug. Lily is probably 99% housebroken, but those little accidents are ridiculously hard to get out of the rug. Plus we are the third owners of this rug, so there's no saying how long the dirt has been there.

First I moved the (freakin heavy) marble coffee table off of the carpet. It's a ginormous hunk of pure marble, thankfully in two pieces, but it disguises the fact that our rug is really too small for our living room.

As I said, Cat lent me her mother's steam cleaner. It took me a while to figure out how to use it, and I didn't have the appropriate soap, but warm water with a little baking soda did the trick.

It took ages, and a break in the middle to take the dog out, but finally I was left with:

and (brace yourselves, oh weak of stomach):

The rug is only 5x7, so it wasn't a ton of space to clean, but geez oh man that's a lot of dirt.

Finally, it was time for some Lily snuggles.

What a cutie. I don't think she really enjoyed the process, nor does she appreciate the end result. Oh well.