I was struck this week by yet another article by and about a teacher who was giving up teaching. She described her frustration with students, parents, administrators, curriculum and reformers.  I could not deny her experience.  I have never walked in her shoes. I only wondered, Where are the articles entitled, “I love to teach and I WON’T quit”? and
Why are there so many articles with the angle of teacher bashing or teacher whining?

If anyone ever entered this profession with the idea that it was easy, I think that myth was dispelled quite quickly within their first year in a classroom.  Diane Ravitch reports that about 40% of teachers leave within the first five years of starting their job. Teaching is hard.  Teaching is demanding.  Teaching is frustrating.  Teaching is addicting.  Teaching is enlightening.  Teaching is exhilarating.  Teaching is rewarding.    I won’t begin to go into all the joys and heartaches that come with the territory.  It truly is a paradox.

So when I read these articles about teachers who have given up I don’t so much worry about them as much as the teacher who is hanging in there and might be on the verge of giving up. The ex-teacher has chosen a solution to his or her woes. I worry about the teacher who feels isolated, stressed and exhausted. I worry about teachers who don’t believe they can be creative or have fun anymore.  I worry about their students.

But worry isn’t enough.  Action is needed. A shoulder is needed.

BE A SHOULDER!

Be a shoulder to cry on when the stress of the day becomes too much.  We all have those days when a good cry cleanses the soul. There is  research out there to support the health benefits of crying.  Help a colleague relieve some stress with a metaphorical or literal shoulder to cry on.

Be a shoulder to lean on when you see a colleague that could use some support.  Offer encouragement, ideas, alternative perspectives, or a good ear.  Knowing you are not alone, that your experiences and reactions are normal, that there are others who are there for you can make an incredible difference in morale, in climate and in the emotional health of a school.

Be a shoulder to stand on.  Be the change you want to see in your world.  Be a role model to others for collaboration, creativity and collegiality.  Be an example to others on how to not only offer support, but ASK for support.  Show them that good teachers don’t just grin and bear it – they problem solve, they share, they cooperate.  Be a mentor to someone and share your experience and positive attitude.

It’s the start of a new year.  Look around your school community.  Does it need more shoulders?  Well, square your shoulders and be that shoulder! The next thing you know you’ll be standing shoulder to shoulder with other “shoulders”.  You might knock some chips off some shoulders,  you might experience less cold shoulders, you might need to look less over your shoulder,  you might lift a weight off some shoulders, and you’ll stand head and shoulders above those who merely complain.  Let’s put our shoulders to the wheel and we can create the climate we desire, the climate we deserve!

What’s on My Book Radar?

I am trying to keep up with the students in Augusta reading titles on the Maine Student Book Award project.  There are 40 books including nonfiction, poetry, graphic novels and chapter books. We are involved in contests to see who can read the most or all and vote for our favorite by April 1st.

Taking a break from the list I had to indulge in Kate DiCamillo’s latest and I wasn’t disappointed.  Her fearless use of delicious vocabulary and her whimsical tale of some well-crafted characters make this a new favorite.

I was also excited to get my hands on Neil Gaimond’s new story, which was quite a departure the other stories I’ve read from him.  A totally ridiculous plot line should pull in the most reluctant of readers.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK and STAY WARM wherever you are!

I really love this time of year.  Ordinary things take on a festive tone.  Anticipation, excitement and cheer fill many of our classrooms.  I like to tap into that energy with literacy ideas that may excite and invite our readers and writers to engage with books and stories.  Here are a few you might want to try…

ELF on a SHELF

That little pixie is ubiquitous!  My own children just missed this phase but I have plenty of friends who report out the adventures of “Shyla” or “Freddie” or “Buddy” the Elf, and the responses of their excited kiddos each morning.  Try bringing a little of that magic into your classroom.  If you have access to an Elf on the Shelf, you could have him show up with notes/letters each morning for a different student, or for the class.    Children could write back to “Buddy” and eagerly await responses.   Your students could write about the adventures of “Shyla” at night when the school is locked up.  Create a class book-  Mrs.’ Collection of Shyla Adventures.

SANTA MOUSE

If you’ve had enough with the Elf, you might try what 1^st grade teacher Maureen Cooper does with her students.  She reads Santa Mouse by Michael Brown and lets the students know that Santa Mouse will visit her classroom to leave a little present in each of the stockings (the students make their own stocking to hang) before the winter break. The students then have to write a letter to Santa Mouse telling him about themselves and let him know they can’t wait for him to come.  Her students are excited to come to school and eager to see what Santa Mouse brings.  Her students’ parents help with the stocking stuffers and she finds this to be a great ‘team’ effort-involving parents with the classroom.

ADVENT CALENDAR

Instead of opening a door to pull out a candy treat, create an advent calendar that is loaded with story starters.  These could be ideas the teacher creates or finds, or you can invite students to create them and randomly assign them to a calendar date.  To keep the fun and enthusiasm for the month, don’t require lengthy full-length stories.  Make them quick writes that students have 10 minutes to write to and then some time to share.  Discuss how different or alike the stories are.  Create a collection of short stories from the best or those willing to take their piece to publication.

DEAR SANTA

Letters to Santa are often requests for gifts and goodies.  How about encouraging students to try their persuasive writing skills on an ‘authentic’ task?  Write a letter to persuade Santa why they should be on his NICE list and not his NAUGHTY list.  They should incorporate any elements of persuasive writing you have taught them, but a slant toward humor, rather than logic will probably prevail! Some fun website to check out are Santa’s Nice-o-Meter or Naughty or Nice

THE GIFT OF READING

One tradition I started with my own children when they were very young, that continues to this day is our Book-a-Day Christmas Gift.  Before December, I wrap up 25 Christmas/holiday books, some are new, and some are old favorites (one for each day leading up to Christmas).  Each night my kids get to choose one book to unwrap and have as a read aloud bedtime story.  This idea could work in the classroom as well.  Kids get excited trying to guess what the book might be and when it will be their turn to choose the book.

In the new year, a way to keep that excitement alive is to wrap up a book from a favorite author or illustrator for his/her birthday.  The class can celebrate that author by unwrapping and reading his/her book.  Click here for a  list of children’s book author birthdays.

NO LONGER WORDLESS

3^rd/4^th grade teacher Moe Heikkila invites her students to create the text for wordless picture books.   Though she doesn’t limit it to just the holidays, some great books for this might include The Snowman by Raymond Briggs, Carl’s Christmas by Alexandra Day, or A Wish for Elves by Mark Gonyea

WACKY CHRISTMAS CAROLS

If you are as musical as I am, you survived singing in the classroom by clinging to 4 simple words… “To the tune of____”  I relied on familiar tunes to help me quite a bit.  Why not rewrite some favorite Christmas tunes with a modern or humorist twist? Kids already have a mentor text in their classic variation on Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer!!  Another great mentor text might be Deck The Walls by Erin Dealey.  Perhaps with a little practice you could take your classroom’s show on the road!

What’s on my Book Radar!

Well, aside from some of the books referenced above, I love revisiting my favorite holiday books.  Christmas is like a time capsule, we pull out recipes, ornaments and books that have marked special holiday moments with family.  Rereading some of these books brings back a flood of memories of my children growing up.  I look forward to crawling back inside these books and reliving those memories.

Some newer titles that I have come across are sure to become favorites for many of our students or their parents.  Some are humorous, some sentimental…kind of like me!  Click on the covers below to enjoy a book trailer to help get you into the spirit of things.

HAPPY READING!

What are some of YOUR favorite holiday or Christmas literacy ideas?

I’d love to hear from you.  Feel free to leave a comment!

I just returned from NCTE 2013 a few days before Thanksgiving with much to be thankful for.  I felt so lifted by all of the presenters, authors, publishers, educators and colleagues that I encountered and talked with during the session.  My mind is still spinning as I try to distill some of the most salient thoughts into my  Top 5 Lessons that I took away from the conference.  Here are my thoughts at this moment in time:

5. Schools are communities

Our classrooms are communities of learners.  Communities are by definition a body of people with common interests and activities who share joint ownership or participation.  I think at some theoretical level I’ve always believed this, but my time at NCTE got me asking a lot of questions.

• What do we do as teachers do that helps to foster a learning community in our classrooms?  Do we approach it with intention or do we rely on luck and circumstance to transform our classrooms year after year?
• As teachers, do we consider ourselves learners as well or simply the dispensers of knowledge?
• How do we invite students to take a lead in their own learning and that of their classmates?
• Would I choose to move to this community?  Would I want my own child to ‘live’ in this community?

4. Choice is vital to engaging readers and writers.

Over the past few years we have done a lot to support students independent choice of ‘just right books’.  We’ve scaffolded their understanding of what it means to get books that are a good fit for decoding, comprehension, fluency, etc.  Children who can choose books that interest them will stick with them and connect with them. They will build stamina, acquire greater vocabulary and increase their comprehension more easily.

So Ralph Fletcher posited, “What about the power of a ‘Just Right Topic’? When kids find a topic they really care about, that they know a lot about, they can really write well about it.”  That seems so simple, and it makes so much sense.  How often have teachers redirected students from topics because they have already written about that, or because they are topics that we don’t find appropriate (I am not talking vulgar or hurtful)?

If a child has written about his video game as an expository, “how to”, why not let him write a review of his video game, or a fantasy about his video game, or a narrative about his video game, or research the backstory of his video game.   A topic can be recycled with a variety of purposes.

3. Read like a wolf eats.

If you want to get better as a reader…READ.  Sounds simple, but how much of the school day are kids actively engaged, I’m talking Face-In-Book with reading?   When I asked Donalyn Miller for some words of advice for my teaching friends she shared Gary Paulsen’s words with me READ LIKE A WOLF EATS.  You can picture that, can’t you? It leaves a powerful image in your mind.  Do we set up classroom environments that let our children read like an eating wolf?  Do we let them become engrossed and immersed in books until they are satiated or do we let them nibble here and there?

Do we as teachers, practice what we preach?  Do we read?  Do we share our reading lives with our students?  Do we discuss our interests, struggles and opinions with our students?  Do we have a passion for reading that our students cannot ignore?

Devour books with and in front of your students. Be the alpha of your pack of readers.

2. Ask yourself what is YOUR core?

Lester Laminack expressed to me, “Right now everyone is scared to death of what is happening in the common Core.  I would like to encourage you to look inside yourself, figure out what is YOUR core and teach from that.  Teach from your heart.”

 Now, I cannot believe he means for us to ignore standards and do whatever we feel like.  I think he is challenging us to stay true to what brought us into teaching, what feeds us as we work with our students, and listen to what our heart tells us is best for our students as interpret the Common Core and implement standards into our OWN teaching.

As Lucy Calkins shared last week,  “What I have done in all my years, is to take the winds that are blowing, and figure out how to let my sail out and use those winds to go where I want to go anyhow. The Common Core are very strong winds.”  So as we ask ourselves what OUR core is, we are letting our sail out and using the winds of the Common Core to take us where our heart is guiding us.

When is the last time (beyond a job interview) that we have thought about our Core.  What do we believe about teaching and learning?  What does our heart tell us?  Maybe we need to ask ourselves again.  And then stay true to that  core.  We are the interpreters of the Common Core for our students.  We are the artists of that medium.

1. Listen

The most profound message for me at NCTE 2013 was truly the simplest.  Listen.

It was at a Heinemann breakfast honoring Donald Graves that we saw archived footage of the master working with students during writing.  What he demonstrated very clearly, was the power of our silence.  The time we give students to think, share and talk while we listen is potent.  They are able to better shape their own thoughts, reflect on their own words, respond to their peers and reach their own conclusions and insights.

Now he didn’t simply assign a task and then sit back.  He set up the conditions so that students did the lions’ share of the work.  He would ask what Kylene Beers termed, ‘dialogic questions’, ones in which the teacher did not already know the answer.  Ones in which there is NO right answer.  He then let them discuss and reflect.  He gave them time to do this without undo influence.  The results were staggering conversations and revelations about writing and thinking that surprised many of us.

And so a challenge for myself was to come back to school and hone my listening skills, not just with students though, with my colleagues as well.  My silence invites their participation in the conversation,  values what they have to say without my ‘spin’ and allows me to learn as well.

slow down.  embrace silence.   and then listen.

I think we’ll be amazed at the results.

What’s on my Book Radar!

Inspired by Donald Graves, I was eager to revisit this book.  The premise is that Donald interviewed teachers for eighteen months asking, “What gives you energy, what takes energy away, and what, for you, is a waste of time?”  He then analyzed how highly effective teachers deal with the demands of teaching and offers some techniques that offer encouragement and strategies for one of the most rewarding, but equally draining careers out there ~ teaching!

A new first grade teacher in our district introduced me to this little gem this week and I LOVED it right away.  Cleverly written, heartwarming message about acceptance and coming into your own.  Great for a mentor text on punctuation but also for encouraging us to embrace our differences for the gifts they really are.

Would love to hear some take -aways and tips from other NCTE attendees or from other inspired teachers as well! Have a great week.