I'm Writing Too

As ‘bell work’ my students complete a DLR. After independent reading time we correct them together. These five minutes often give me valuable insight into skills that need to be taught, re-taught, or emphasized. Today, as we looked at a dictionary guide word question, I realized something.

It was not the fact the several students had no strategies for identifying what words would fall on a page in the dictionary.

It wasn’t that some of them still need to have the alphabet written out, or sing it to themselves, in order to remember the order.

It wasn’t that some of them would rather guess than take the time to do their best work.

All of the above are true, but my realization was that my daughter, at nearly four, will never have a question like this on a test (or at least she shouldn’t).

Why is that?

She will never use a dictionary in book form, most likely. For her a dictionary will be an electronic resource therefore her dictionary searching skills will look very different.

What realizations have you had recently? How do you see learning (and testing) changing for the next generation?

Next week our school is trying an experiment. In Honor of Earth Day the photo copy machines are being shut down, for the week, and everyone is being asked to try and go paperless.

There have been statistics shared regarding how many copies have been made, both as a school and individually, this year. The rationale has been presented. Now the challenge is nearly upon us.

If this were asked of you, what would you do?

There seem to be two approaches at our school. One is to give this challenge a try while the other is trying to get everything copied ahead of time.

Three cheers to those who give it a try. I gave it a try a few years ago and nowI run a nearly paperless class.

There are two instances that I still rely on paper.

If I know I am going to have a substitute I might give them a back up plan since not everyone is as comfortable with the technology we use in my room. For example, during our persuasive writing unit there were two pieces of student writing we were using as mentor texts to look at the craft of persuasion writing. I was traveling for a conference so instead of having them only available as Google Docs I printed them out.

I also have a paper, self-evaluation rubric I have the students fill out a couple of times each quarter. This amounts to 1/3 of a page, per student, per quarter. I tried to do this electronically, but inevitably the internet would go down when I needed access to the documentation. I have found that giving in to this one, small paper task has huge advantages, so I continue. Next week is only week two of the quarter and I won’t need it anyway.

What about you? Could you do it, at least for a week?

I would guess that many, if not most, of us teach language arts through the workshop model. I had a math colleague come back from a class with Erma Anderson asking if I could tell her more about the workshop model. Erma had been talking about how math was heading in the same direction. 

I had never thought about it before, but that really is how I teach math as well – a mini lesson, time for them to work through concepts at their own pace while I confer with them as individuals or in small groups, reflecting on their learning, and a time to share what they have learned.

Anyone else see the connection?

I have been gone for over a week now. For G we have realized that ‘out of sight’ is more likely to lead to ‘out of mind’, which makes the week go more smoothly. I did talk with her twice last weekend and this morning (her ‘Friday’ night) she had asked if she could talk with me. I was thrilled. I miss her and was very happy to see her smiling face. She lit up when I came on the screen. (Skype is a wonderful thing.) We talked and made faces for a few minutes, the faces punctuated by peals of laughter, true music to my heart. She then stopped talking, but didn’t want me to hang up. J and I talked for a while and she stayed near by, but played a game on her own. Every time I suggested that she could hang up she would object. I finally clued in that just hearing the two of us talking near her was comforting and ‘normal’. She showed me the Mothers Day card she made for me (tomorrow is Mothers Day in the Arab world). I got to join in the blessing before dinner and sit at the table with her while she ate. Ah, to virtual parenting. It was eventually time for her to get into jammies and start the process of heading to bed. She didn’t want to give up any of the good stuff before bed so reluctantly told me good-bye (and subsequently pressing the red button, one of her favorite features of Skype – getting to ‘hang up’ herself). I miss her bunches and am thankful for the ability to be virtual mommy for an hour.

Everyone stop and think. How many positions are there that you and your spouse sit in on one another’s interviews?

I can only think of two; co-pastors and international educators. (If you think of another one, please add it in the comments.)

Those of you international educators may not realize how unusual it is. I don’t usually think twice about it, but it is the end of the hiring season for those of us who work in international schools and as good as time as any to reflect on this interesting phenomenon.

I was recently talking with a colleague who had been to a job fair. This was their first time looking for jobs since they had been married. Since they teach different subjects, at different age levels than one another, the questions that the other person was asked didn’t necessarily fall into their own privy of experience. They left the interview both wondering what the interviewer had been talking about and having no clue if their spouse had answered the questions well or not.

Hearing them share their experience I realized how unusual it is, this sitting through your spouse’s interview.

When you quickly have a job offer, or several, it may not cross your mind either. But, what if the hiring season progresses and you continue to interview, but do not receive job offers? Do you start to doubt your own ability, or your that of your spouse?

What about having a spouse who is fabulous at their job, but doesn’t interview particularly well? You are in the room, and as a question is directed to them, do you wish you could use ESP to nudge them along? What about a spouse who is an inspiring educator, but when it comes to an interview situation the verbal fillers start to take over?

When I stop and think about how unusual it is to interview with your spouse, each for your own job, it is amazing that we still love our spouse and look forward to the next adventure!

(BTW – Now that my spouse is an administrator most of the interviews I am not even a part of. I sit in another room and pray.)

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 My time with CoETaIL has lead to this, Course 5. While I have another month to ponder what I will do for my final project, my initial considerations all get me hung up at the idea of it having to reach the “Redefinition” level of technology.

I have been looking at how to change what and how I teach, in order to utilize technology, for the past year and a half. I keep lists of ideas, jotting things down as I think of them. Perhaps I have done something one way and in the midst of it thought of another option. Maybe I was inspired by a blog post I read or someone’s tweet. It may be that a particular lesson is not engaging my students and I want to think about ways to hook them. Whatever the reason may be, I add my thoughts to my list.

Now that I need to start to narrow down what I will focus on for Course 5 I am pouring over my list. I feel like every ‘great’ idea I have down is actually doing something old in a new way. (I wrote about this idea here.) Good thing there is still loads of time for fine tuning!

My two most compelling ideas are:

“How To” Books
This would be another step in our Informational Text unit. Right now students are in the middle of writing an Informational Text picture book that we will share with the appropriate elementary grade level. Even though they are using technology to research, and are learning about Creative Commons in order to determine if they want to create the own or legally use someone else’s illustration, the book will ultimately be a printed book for the shelves of the elementary school. This addition would be to write a “How To” ‘book’. They could choose any digital platform they they think would be the best tool to deliver their content.

Reflection of Literary Analysis
My final unit will be about Literary Analysis. What if I added a digital processing/reflection piece? They would be able to choose the tool(s) they thought best showed their process and thinking along the way. I like that it would not be just their reflection at the end, but a journey with them through the unit. This digital piece could then be shared with their parents during their student-led conference.

So, I will proceed with caution. It is not just me on this journey, but the 86 students in sixth grade as well. I am sure it will be an exciting ride!