Motivation

It is "holiday recess" (to be politically correct)...

and since we are in the midst of a blizzard I sat down to work on my lesson planning for the following week.

I opened my plan book to find a small piece of notebook paper that I quickly stuck in there while packing my stuff to leave for vacation.

The paper has a note on it that one of my students wrote and put on my desk before she left on our last day of school. It reads:

"Dear Miss Rosen,

I hope you have a Awesome Christmas and a good vacation!!!!

I'll see you when we get back (which will be in 2011) but I'll miss you!

Sincerely,

Student"

This little letter made me realize that although I desperately need this week long break from job-I really do love my hectic, challenging, exhausting, time consuming, wonderful job. And I am actually looking forward to seeing my students next week and listening to their stories from Christmas and vacation!

Also, while reading this note I am even more pleased that she used correct friendly letter format, spelled 'which' and 'sincerely' correctly, and has two paragraphs! We do need to work on using 'an' before words starting with vowels

! I definitely look at everything through a teacher lens now!

-Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing

A Christmas Present

Student: Ms. Sixth, when's your birthday?
Ms. Sixth: Not until May why?
Student: Oh man, you really need a new pencil sharpener, so I was going to get you one, but I don't think I can wait that long.

Ms. Sixth: So if I lived back in the day with the Egyptians I would only have about 8 more years left before I died!
Student: OMG you're only 22?!
Ms. Sixth: (in my head... gosh these 12 year olds are too fast with their math fact fluency)

I have a "store" where my students can spend the "dollars" they earn in class at the end of the week...
Student: I only need two more dollars then I can get my dad's Christmas present!
*I'm glad I can provide families their 2010 Christmas presents hahaha. This was one of the cutest things ever I must say.

-Sixth

Heading into the Holiday Season

We are quickly approaching the last week of school before Christmas vacation and it.is.crazy.

I have found myself totally not in the Christmas spirit. I am exhausted from work, I have no time to shop, and I am really dreading spending the small amount of money I've saved up thus far. I do not like malls to begin with and all those people and lines make me cringe, and even the Secret Santa swap we did at work turned out to not be very secret for me!

However, being a 4th grade teacher, I totally want to give my students that 'holiday feeling' that I can still remember from elementary school. I am trying my hardest to spread the holiday cheer during the school day, because to them, this really is the most wonderful time of the year (besides summer, of course)

I can say that my students will be giving their families gifts, much greater than the ones I am giving my family....I definitely put more thought, effort, time and money into their gifts than my own. I haven't decided if that is a good or bad thing.

However, myself and my other 4th grade counterpart deserve "Teacher of the Season" awards for what we were able to pull off! Our students are each memorizing a part of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas and we are presenting our poem to all the other grades on Thursday. That isn't even the cool part...we had each kid illustrate their part of the poem, then we scanned their pictures and their lines into iMovie, AND recorded their voices reading their lines. We put all the illustrations and voices together into an amazing video complete with an opening, ending credits, and background music from the Nutcracker AND to top it all off- we are burning a DVD of it for every student to take home to their families. Ta-da! An amazing gift, if I do say so myself!

In addition to that- I took (and printed out) all their pictures. Then I got them unfinished frames that we are going to decorate in school with lots of colorful fun crafty items and they will be able to take those home as well!

Are we learning a whole lot? Probably not. Are we having fun? For sure.

I did buy myself a very 'teachery' christmas outfit and some earrings...maybe THAT will get me into the Christmas Spirit!

Ready to take on the week and most definitely ready for the break that will follow it!!

-Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing.

Thanksgiving!

I am thankful that I have survived this far into the school year and made it to our first "break".

Heres to hoping these days off will allow me to return to school reenergized and ready to take on the next 3 and 1/2 crazy weeks until Christmas!

Class Meeting

Last Friday, I was lucky enough to have my angel of a literacy coach come into my classroom. She taught my class and I how to run a "class meeting" and changed our class forever.

Class Meeting
1. Give a compliment
2. Get a compliment.
3. Apologize.
4. Pass.

Thats it. You can do one of the four. We sat around the perimeter of my gorgeous rug and passed a dried up purple sponge around the circle. (It was the only thing I could find in my room to use as a "talking object.") As each student held the sponge, they made a choice to do one of the above. Some passed, none asked for a compliment, many gave compliments. It was such a positive moment packed with second grade emotion. One girl broke down into tears, complimenting her two best friends for being "some of the best friends she's ever had," another one of my boys got all choked up talking about his best friend too, another said she was sorry that her mom's friend had cancer, and yet another said she was sad that a local teenager had recently died. I almost lost it. How quickly I forget, between cups of coffee and hours of planning, that these kids are 7. And 8. That having a friend to play with everyday at recess can make or break their day. In that moment, some felt so much genuine love for their friends that tears came rolling while just thinking about how happy these people in their lives make them. Wow.

In my dream classroom, I always knew that I wanted it to be positive and safe. A place where expectations are set high and kids try their best. It was at that moment that I realized that most of all, I want my kids to be kind to one another and know/appreciate the value of a compliment. The power of a postive attitude and how far you can get just on that alone. Class meeting. I'm pretty sure I can find 10 minutes in our day where everything stops and we think about the big picture. About life. About one another. Me and my 7 and 8 year olds....

Harry and Sixth

"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." ~J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, 1999, spoken by the character Albus Dumbledore

Although I wasn't able to go see Deathly Hallows at the midnight premiere on Thursday (I have a real job now with an early wake up call), I did sneak it in this Saturday. I was not disappointed. After investing so many years into reading the books and watching the movies, I think next year after Part II comes out I will feel a little sadness.. and probably reread them all over again to fill the void. It makes me so happy that these are books that not only I love, but make my students not want to put their books down during AR reading time. Books that we can have lengthy discussions about and relate most class activities back to. These books allow my students to make connections to what they're reading and give them a desire to dive into a book head first. The quote I used above I always relate to my students, but I think it can relate to anyone really. The power of a book never ceases to amaze me. -Sixth

Hello there! Second grade here....

Wowza. I CANNOT believe it is already November 14th. It feels like just yesterday it was the beginning of September and I was feeling like November was light years away (which explains the lack of posts...most of the time I am choosing between sleep and posting/reading/watching tv). I can honestly say that at this point, I am proud of myself. I have made it past the point of survival, and into the stage of reflection. It is wonderful. Most of my thinking now is: "Is this effective?" "How can I make this better?" "Am I ACTUALLY differentiating?" "How can I simplify my planning so that it doesn't take me HOURS?" and....believe it or not..."How can I put parent volunteers to good use?" (which has been a big fear of mine...having parents WATCH me teach!) Even just that I am asking myself these questions is a good thing for me. A few weeks ago, it was more like "Am I doing this right?" or "How do I even teach Science?" I am so psyched that I am now able to reflect and put my energies into making this better, which in turn means I can assume that I have a good foundation, which I do. My classroom is a safe place for kids to come and open their minds to learning. They know that only kinds words are exchanged- that everyone makes mistakes and most are worth forgiving. They try their best and fully understand and respect that "easy" isn't the same to everyone. I show them respect and treat them the way I want them to treat me, themselves, and their peers...and they do! If I were in second grade, I would want to be in my room :)

Today, I am in a good place. I am loving teaching. It is still VERY hard and trying at times, but it feels like within my career of teaching, I have gotten over the first hump and it feels amazing. I have been rereading a favorite book of mine and am fully re-inspired to do good things in my classroom...to go beyond just the textbook and explore some good creative, fun, exciting lessons....lessons that you are supposed to think you can do when you are a first year teacher....lessons that make the veterans think about their overly zealous first year of teaching :)

"Laughter Is The Best Medicine"

If you can't laugh at what the kid's say you can't get through your day.

My favorite "kid quote" of today:

In our vocabulary lesson- introducing our new words of the week.

Me: "Enigma. Enigma is something that is mysterious or hard to explain. Can anyone think of any examples of an enigma?"

Most students: "God" "Why the sky is blue" Where all the dinosaurs went"

One particular student: "Why you wear the same shoes every day"

Thank you for pointing that out. I explained: it's not an enigma- they are just really comfortable!

Celebrate the Small Moments

I found myself getting very frustrated with the behavior in my class this week.

I felt like we were back to day 1- not listening, not following directions, and doing a lotttt of talking.

I'm sure part of it had to do with the fact that I was sick and lost my voice so just talking was exhausting- and then trying to talk over 19 kids is even more tiring.

But then admist my frustration I started thinking about something I teach my kids everyday.

In our writing we are working on telling the stories of the "small moments" in our life. We really focus in on that one exciting thing that happened or that very one moment in a day rather than a loooong run on story about an entire trip to Disney World.

I realized that I need to start focusing on the "small moments" in my classroom. I need to start celebrating the little things they do that are great rather than perseverate on the moments when they are talking or not following directions.

I think reminding myself that in 4th grade when a child FINALLY made a lowercase 't' in the middle of the word, or finding a vocabulary word in their independent reading, or going to band practice for the first time, are the small moments that mean the most to them and that I need to acknowledge.

Making a goal to celebrate at least one small moment everyday! It is going to make them and I much happier!

-Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing

When Life Gives You Lemons....Make Lemonade!

It is amazing how a simple idea or fun activity can have the most meaning to the kids in your class.

Our principal started the "Principal's Principles" this week and each week there is a different theme/topic/character building trait that she discusses during morning announcements and we are expected to follow it up with a 5-10 minute discussion with the students. We were given a whole binder with discussion starters to follow along with.

This week we kicked it off with Having a Positive Attitude. I, personally, was pretty excited about this topic....so I took these discussions pretty seriously.

On Thursday we talked about the quote "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." However, it wasn't enough just to talk about it...we actually made lemonade!

(NOTE: If you want to get your kids excited about something- make lemonade!)

We decided that every time someone in my class had a negative attitude we would add more lemons (to make it more sour) and every time someone had a positive attitude we would add more sugar (to make it more sweet)....at the end of the day we'd try our lemonade and we would be able to see how our day went.

I can't even explain how excited and motivated my kids were to have sweet lemonade at the end of the day. And lucky for me I had Open House the same night and our parents got to try our "Positive Attitude Lemonade" so they could 'taste' how our day went!

I have to say....I started with a very 'lemon' Monday and ended the week with lots of lemonade!

-Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing

Addicted...

You know you're a NEW teacher when...

...you ASK your reading specialist for some "good books and videos" on guided reading, are legitimately thankful when she gives you some to take home, and then proceed to PLAN (and actually be excited) to watch them on your Saturday night.

...or maybe its the laying-on-the-comfy-couch, relaxing, no-alarm-set-for-the-morning part that's exciting to look forward to...

Anywho, no joke, this is what I did this weekend. The reason being, I am having a tough time differentiating and finding meaningful lessons with rich literature in the traditional anthologies. They are just so...blah. I am so intrigued by the concept of work boards, stations, and guided reading, the students' main source of reading instruction being done independently. My school gave me a GREAT book called "Spaces and Places: Designing Classrooms for Literacy" by Debbie Diller.

Inside are lots of pictures showing what a well set up classroom looks like and how greatly it impacts the success of your reading lessons. I am hooked. All I can think about now is how I can set up my room to MAXIMIZE the amount of learning that can go on simultaneously in our room! The only problem is that I am a new teacher and I have inherited such a hodge-podge of random furniture that its going to be tough to have a nicely cornered library on bookshelves...seeing as I don't ACTUALLY have bookshelves. I am determined though and luckily my mentor just happens to be one of the reading specialists in the school. I am thinking that taking full advantage of my resources is going to be the secret to my success. I have a PD this week that is actually based off of Diller's book. How perfect! (That's another one...you know you're a NEW teacher when...you're actually excited for professional development.)

Plus, I am in the midst of decorating and redesigning my new place. (I'm a big girl now...gotta have a big girl house to match the big girl job!) Many trips to Target later, it is coming together. I am excited to move onto bigger and better things...ie my classroom :) I love the idea of a well decorated and thoughtfully laid out classroom (mostly because mine is SO not). I can just picture it...a room with defined centers, working traffic patterns, and a definite color scheme. So far, I've got the color scheme chosen (based around my fave color, teal, of course). I am thinking that I am up for the challenge...we'll see!

You know you're a teacher when...

You know you're a teacher when... you add a 'books' category into your excel budget spreadsheet. (Also when you have an actual budget, sigh... real world.) Yes I just purchased 10 copies of The BFG through scholastic ($1 a piece, you can't beat it). The four newspapery scholastic pages were exciting to me as a child and still bring the same excitement today!

Do You Dream?

Opening Day 2010 from Dan Riley on Vimeo.

Top Five

Sixth Here...

After surviving 6 days with my 6th graders and brinking on the start of my first full week, here are some reflections I have about teaching 6th grade special ed so far.

1. They aren't as big as I thought. In my mind I had towering giants with lots of hormonal attitude seeping out of their skin sitting in my classroom. In reality they are like my first graders from last year with a bigger vocabulary and more stories to tell. They're still worried about being late to class and if they'll be able to get to their locker without missing the bus.

2. It's okay to ask questions, and to ask them frequently. Something new comes up on an hourly basis that I either don't know the answer too (like how to direct a student to the band room) or that I don't know how to do (like use the 'cold' laminator *a laminator that doesn't heat up*.. I know right? I didn't know they existed either.) Someone in the near vicinity will usually know the answer or direct you to someone who does. You look sillier trying to shove your pretty new poster through the laminator for a half hour than just asking someone near you.

3. Fake it til you make it. My instructional assistant told me the other day that she had no idea I was a first year teacher. This gave me great ease and also taught me that my acting classes I took back in elementary school are paying off ten years later. I look young, especially compared to the other teachers on my team and feel like the newbie in the lunch room, but at least I look like I've got it together!

4. Most of the time I feel like I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off just trying to get by, but on the outside it seems that I can keep my poker face on. Lady Gaga would be proud.

5. My take on my students has changed every day. As time passes I'm beginning to understand them better and see what will and won't work when teaching them. The honeymoon is starting to wind down but I'm ready for next 10 month journey!

"Get the Scoop" on my "Busy Bees"

Before I could even think about curriculum, planning, assessment, or classroom rules I spent an entire two weeks just setting up the physical space of my classroom.

Bulletin Boards were on the top of the list to get completed and more importantly...to look really cute.

I have to say I am pretty pleased with the way they have turned out. And I figured...if I don't actually have anything to teach my students when they start school tomorrow- at least my room will look good!

Heres to hoping I survive my first day,

-Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing

Welcome

Hello and welcome to Second, Fourth and Sixth! We are three recent college graduates who have landed our first teaching jobs in second, fourth and sixth grade. Follow us on our journey through the ups, the downs and the laughs in our first year of teaching!