Teaching With Intention

Aloha friends.  I am excited to be participating in this summer's book study Teaching With Intention hosted by The Kindergarten Smorgasboard.  This week is Chapter 2 Beliefs and Practices. This weeks hosts are Flying Into First, The Primary Gal and Mrs. Dailey's Classroom.

This chapter focuses on our ideal teaching practices and how students learn best.  Do you have a personal philosophy on teaching and learning?

Being in the classroom for over 20 years I have seen so many changes in education.  In college we were taught the holistic approach to teaching. Basals were bashed and we were to use only "real literature".  We learned thematic units were the way to integrate all subjects and cover our schools standards.

Over the years I have seen the educational pendulum swing in opposite directions and then come right back.  No matter what your admin or district throws your way you still need to have personal insight into how students learn best and how to teach them.

In this chapter Debbie Miller lists 6 things that guide her in teaching.

I whole heartedly agree with this. Your classroom needs to have a set place for
everything and students need to know where and how to access materials for learning.

I label everything and we work on routines from day 1 to make sure all items have a place and are replaced where they need to go.

My walls have lots of posters that we use everyday and throughout
the year along with anchor charts and student work.

We are such important role models! Students will pick up on our behaviors and emulate them from Day 1.  You lead by example.  If you focus on the negative so will they!  I work really hard at finding the positives in everything.  Somedays are easier than others.

I am pretty sure we all know this.  Some days you wonder why aren't they getting it?  If it's not engaging you will lose some of those kiddos.  It's definitely hard to have those active and engaging lessons all the time, but it's possible to tweak any lesson to make it more engaging.  Just working with a partner can help even the most reluctant learners.

This is something that I have worked on in the last few years.  I have done centers forever, but it was a lot of work on my part.  Once I read The Daily 5 I was hooked on the workshop method for Reading, Writing and Math!  It has helped so much and I know my students love it!

The following books really helped me to put this all in place.

We do this informally almost everyday.  You take mental notes all the time on how each child is doing.  Sara is always the first one done and Jessica may never finish.  But why?  It's not necessarily one is smarter than the other. There could just be different motivators for each child.  I try to do quick checks each day to see how and why my students are performing the way they are.  Bobby never finishes his work independently.  Is the work too hard?  How can I help and adjust my teaching strategies to get him to finish independently.  

This chapter continues on with putting your beliefs into your teaching practices and reflecting on them.  Debbie suggests writing them down.  Believe me this is so helpful! I started this blog 3 years ago and it has helped me to reflect so much on my teaching practices.  I go back and reread many of my posts and it inspires me to do more and keep learning.  Sharing ideas with others and reading other blogs has also helped me to reflect and improve.

In her final statements of this chapter Debbie mentions district mandates.  I hear complaints from so many teachers of how they can't teach the way they want because of what has been mandated.  This can really be hard and frustrating.  I love what she says " Take the high road. Don't let them defeat you. Do what you have to do; in the end no one can mandate how you feel about children."

How are you liking the book so far?  Next week is Chapter 3 Environment, Environment, Environment!  I will be hosting and I am really looking forward to sharing! See you then.

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The Daily 5 Chapter 2

It has been great to see so much interaction happening with this book study!
Today I am going over Chapter 2 which deals with the Foundation of The Daily 5.

The sisters go through the steps of setting a foundation for this program.

Like any good teaching you need to start from the bottom up, scaffolding if you will.  You can't start something new if a firm foundation isn't in place.

I think this was why I felt I could not fully implement all parts of the Daily 5 in my classroom this last year.  I really love that I can spend the time at the beginning of this year to do it!!

What goals do you have for your classroom as you work to implement the principles and foundations of the Daily 5 discussed in Chapter 2?

Okay so what are some things that are important to have in place?

Do you trust your students!?? I think this is a huge one for me.  I want things to be perfectly in order and go off without a hitch, but if I don't believe my students can do it, then they probably won't.

This is why I want to start building trust with my students from the moment they walk in the door.  I need to teach them explicitly what I want them to do, practice, praise, reteach if necessary, practice again and then let them go be independent learners.  We all know this doesn't happen over night and I need to remind myself to take baby steps.

You know as I read this section I realized I had some choices in my center activities, but I still had full control of how it all went down.  I really want to provide my kids with more choice this year.  My problem with this approach is What do I do if I have a student who only chooses to go to the same area each time??  How do I give them Choice, but not tell them where to go?  I am looking for ideas and more insight on this one, so I am fully armed and ready when we begin the year!

Okay this is one I know I can implement and am excited to do this year.  I really want to build a positive and caring classroom community this year.  I have gained so many wonderful ideas through virtual tours of everyone's classrooms.  I am implementing the Behavior Clip Chart this year! I love how it focuses on the positive kids and less on the negative.  I felt so awful this year many times that I didn't acknowledge those great kids who were so sweet and always did what they were supposed to be doing.  I spent way too much time with my group of rascals.  Along with the Clip Chart I am also adding the Bucket Fillers Chart.  I think this is such a fantastic way to help students gain self esteem and learn to think of others.  I find so many of my students think only within themselves and don't see the bigger picture.

With a great sense of community my students will be more aware of themselves and others around them. This would tie in directly to how a sense of community will make more responsible learners.

I know I often start to teach something and realize that  I have not explained why we are doing this.  Why do you read to yourself?  Why do you want to read to someone?  Why do you want to listen to reading?  This seems so simple, but this made a lot of sense to me and I want to make sure I do this more often in my class.  I need to hook my students in and let them know this is for them and they need to WANT to do their work.

This is such a simple concept. It was kind of like "Why haven't I always done this?" I love the example that Gail gives in the book about getting back in shape.  This year in my class we slowly built up our Read To Self Stamina. First we did a few minutes, then it went up slowly, but pretty soon my guys were reading for 20 and 30 minutes!! 

I love this one!!  I really want to be able to step back and watch my kids hard at work.  With my own two children I was always hovering and they learned to depend on me for everything!!  I have slowly put the responsibilty back on them and they are learning how to do things on their own.  I want to start off giving my students the responsibilty to be independent learners, show them exactly what I expect and just get out of the way!! (I think I need to teach this to some of my parents...)

What support do I need to do this??

Well right now I feel like I have tons of support from everyone doing this book study!!  However here are a few concerns:

Again, how do I give my students choices, but make sure they are doing everything they need to?

Did you inform your administrator that you are using Daily 5 or did you just do it?

Do you involve your parents in the process?

Well I don't have any  freebies yet, but stop by and visit our host Nicole.  She has a great Stamina chart for you!!

I look forward to reading everyone's ideas and feelings on this chapter!

Don't forget to link up!!

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Daily 5 Book Study

Aloha!  I want to thank everyone for stopping by and taking a virtual vacation with me.  It really is fun to share my little part of the world with you. Today I am taking a break from the sun and happily joining in on  Chapter 1 of the Daily 5 book study, hosted by Mel D. at Suesstastic Classroom Inspirations and Nicole at Teaching With Style.

I found out about the Daily 5 from everything I was seeing on Pinterest. I was curious and it led me to so many great blogs and ideas, that I ordered it immediately.  It has been an amazing resource for me and I am so happy to be able to share out some ideas and find out what everyone else is doing in their classrooms.

I actually started my Daily 5 journey back in January when I discovered the book.  I read it quickly and then reread it.  Such simple ideas to make my teaching easier and more productive.  I couldn't wait to get started.

Chapter 1 takes us through the evolution of our teaching style.  The authors discuss how they went from full teacher control of the classroom to giving more choices to their students and releasing some of that power.

I know this sounds scary.  How many of you want to give your kids all those choices? I envision mass chaos in the classroom doing this! I fully admit to being a Control Freak!

 But as you read on and begin to implement these ideas you really do see children taking ownership and becoming more responsible for themselves and their peers!

These are some excellent questions to help you get started on your journey:

1. On pages 4-6 the author's present 2 different pictures for their classrooms.  In thinking about and reflecting on you own practice, how would you characterize your literacy block?  Does it look more like the 1st or 2nd scenario, or is it somewhere in between?  How will you change it?

In my classroom I use centers during my main literacy block.  Each child rotates through a set schedule while I meet with a particular group.  I was in full control of this.  I had a scheduling map, certain centers, and who was in each group.  Again, control freak.  The kids loved most of the centers, but I was always getting up and talking to someone or answering questions, or helping with the computer or..... I was maybe getting in a quality 10 minutes with my guided reading group. Sounds like the first scenario in the book. 

Okay so I want to give my students more control, but how?  A phrase you will learn in this book is-"Building Stamina". Building stamina is giving your students time to practice and add a little more each time.  The sisters take you step by step on how to give your students that control and let you work more efficiently.  "Work smarter, not harder!"

I am so excited to begin my year slowly building stamina with my students and teaching them explicitly how they should be working in the classroom during our literacy time.  This takes time, and you need to go through the process for this to work, but it pays off in the end!

2.  The typical teacher is very busy having students do lots of different activities. How is what you are having students do now in your classroom creating quality readers and writers?

This is such a powerful question to make you reflect on what is happening in your classroom.  I know I have all these cute centers set up and it looks wonderful, but what are they really gaining from these activities?  Is filling out that worksheet helping them to become indpendent learners or did they just copy from their partner?  If Johnny is really engaged in reading why did he just get up to go to the bathroom for the 3rd time? 
I had to really look hard at my class and be honest with myself.  Some of my students were fully engaged and many of them were off task...alot!  How do I get them to stay on task and engaged when I am not hovering?  The next few chapters will get more into this:)

3.  What sets the Daily 5 structure apart from what you are doing in your classroom?

I think the main thing again for me is the independence of your students.  The more control you have in your classroom, the less independence children develop.  If you want your students to take control of their learning, you have to give them some choices.  What's great about the Daily 5 is that it gives choices within limits.

Daily 5 Structure:

Read To Yourself

Read To Someone

Work on Writing

Listen to Reading

Spelling/ Word Work

In my literacy block I usually had 6-8 centers going at once.  Students were all over the place.  They couldn't remember what each center was and they spent so much time transitioning, that their time for reading and writing was greatly diminished.  By setting up, teaching the structure and giving your students time to practice these skills, the on task time will greatly increase.

There is so much to explore and I look forward to delving into the next chapters for more in depth ideas and ways to get started.

If you would like to link up and share out your ideas or your reservations sign up below:)

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