Time to Fly

I've been starring at this blank "new post" screen for 20 minutes now. Actually, this is the third time I have sat down to attempt to write this last day of school post. It's hard for me to put into words how this year and these particular 19 students have touched my life. Those who know me well have heard many of the struggles and frustrations I have experienced over the past three years of teaching in my particular school setting. My emotions have certainly gotten the best of me on more then one occasion. There were times where I thought for sure that I was in the wrong profession or that I had to find a way out. I even tried to find a way at the end of last school year. Thank goodness I chose to stick it out. This past year was a true sign that I was supposed to stay at my school to teach these children and have the amazing experiences that I know I'll never forget.

When I created this blog, I hoped to reach other new teachers and share my frustrations and learning experiences teaching in an inner city school. Quite honestly I was at a low point professionally and finding the blogging world gave me a glimpse of what else was out there. I thought I could share my experiences in an urban setting. I'm so glad I started this blog because tonight I can honestly say I am in the right profession and I love what I do. I know when I have to leave my school next year and move on to the next adventure with my husband, that I will deeply miss and never forget the students, friends, and colleagues I have come to love in Richmond.

Two years ago, I attended a city-wide staff development session by an extraordinary third grade teacher in our district. Her session was so good, no one wanted to leave and we turned it into a double session. She spoke on writer's workshop and creating a writing community where children feel safe. It was such a captivating experience to see one of our own sharing her love of teaching "our" children. This same teacher recently wrote a beautiful piece in our local paper (check it out here). In the article she talks about the struggles of school reform and how to balance a decreasing budget with children's best interests. She writes,

"Here is the truth: Every child deserves a good teacher and a reasonable class size that supports and encourages his or her class participation. We can teach our children to flap their wings, but conditions have to be just right for them to fly. Public education is a precious part of our nation's infrastructure. It has been built twig by twig and is in constant need of repair, refining, revision and, yes, reform. True reform, like education, is a real-time miracle that cannot be rushed. It isn't that we've gotten it wrong. It is that we are still working on getting it right. Miracle and fragility walk hand in hand. Good teachers (and there are plenty) guard the fragility and bet on the miracle. This is the week that I celebrate the 19 miracles before me, my students. On Friday I will say good-bye to each of them. I have loved being their teacher, and I will miss each of them. Experience has taught me this: I will also love watching them soar."

I really can't say it any better then that. I have loved watching my students grow and learn. I know I have grown and learned personally and professionally by being their teacher. They have helped me understand what it means to be a public school teacher and what an important vocation it truly is. I can't imagine doing anything else. 

Things That Are Working...(End of the Year Edition)

It is truly humbling to think about how far I've come since my first year of teaching first grade at this school. A "wise owl" (veteran teacher) once told me the best thing I could do the last weeks of school was to keep to my schedule. That seems like simple advice, but it is not as easy as it sounds. Of course there are all those pop-up assemblies and special activities that are out of your control...but for the most part it is completely up to the classroom teacher to maintain control and expectations in his or her classroom. As much as I would like to stay out and play for an hour, it sends a message to my students that I am relinquishing control, and with this group of students that can be a dangerous signal to send.

Last week we had a few terrible days. By Thursday I couldn't take another negative report upon picking up my children from resource. A light bulb literally went off in my head. I bounded across the room and rummaged through my sticker box until I found a pack of reward cards I had been hanging onto since my first year of teaching. I waved them in front of my kids, who are now looking at me like I'm crazy. I explained that if they wanted to attend the First Grade Parent Appreciation Ice Cream Social then they would have to earn their way...and so became the ICE CREAM TICKET. The greatest invention I've come up with for the end of the year, yet so simple. Every time I say, "take out your ice cream ticket" it instantly calms and quiets my class, even my most challenging students. It's funny how sometimes the most effective solutions are actually quite simple, it just takes commitment and effort to follow through.

Our best friend right now!

Arrr! A look at our week as a pirate...

Last week we finished up our Pirate Unit. I know this is a popular first grade unit this time of year, and we enjoyed it very much! Here are a few pictures from our adventures... our poem, "My Brother is a Pirate" by Helen Reilly, for the week was a hit. Poetry Center is one of the work stations I am constantly trying to tweak. I'm glad I did a poetry unit in writer's workshop because I think it gave more meaning to this work station. The activity for this poem was to read it with a partner and then draw what they "visualized" in their head while reading and listening to the poem.

 

My other favorite activity from this week was our Grow A Pirate kit. A co-worker gave this little guy to me as a gift months ago and he had been sitting in my desk drawer awaiting his debut. We combined scientific inquiry and measurement standards by hypothesizing what would happen when we plopped him in the water. Since most students predicted he would grow, we thought it would be a good idea to measure him. Paper clips are our favorite non-standard measurement unit. Next year I think I'll make a cute worksheet for students to make predictions and record observations.

 There are so many great books to read during a pirate unit. My favorite is the Pirate Cruncher by Johny Duddle. The details in the pictures are amazing and it really makes the children use those critical thinking skills. We read it 3 times this week and had lots of things we wondered about, especially after the first read. I made this quick pirate ship for students to stick their "I wonder..." statements too. We talked about what to do if you have questions about a book and this discussion lead to us reading the book 2 more times. It was a great lesson in how important it is to read books more then once.

On Thursday we had a visit from our Book Fairy who read a pirate book and taught us how to talk like a pirate. I'm so angry I didn't take a picture of her because her costume was the real deal, fairy wings and all. The children also got to dress up. They loved their little pirate hats we made. I just had to capture this moment of two of my reluctant readers totally immersed in their reading. I couldn't even fuss at the one sitting on the bookshelf because he was too focused on his book!

The View From Our Window

Phew... what a week!The highlight of our week was getting this new bird feeder put up outside our class window. I suppose I will be investing in a Virginia bird book because the kids are totally fascinated by the bird feeder. At one point we were all sitting on the carpet doing some word work when all of a sudden the children all started pointing to the window. A squirrel was robbing the bird feeder! We watched him as he ate the little bits of seed and jumped down from the perch. 

Who knew how exciting a bird feeder could be! 

Also I am LOVING my new blog design by SimplyYoursDesigns!

How To Plan a Successful Family Science Night

Somehow I inherited the role of science lead teacher at my school. I have to admit at first I was just taking on the job because I was asked to and I felt I wanted to get more involved in my school. Never would I have thought that this role would become one that I feel strongest about. Two of the biggest responsibilities I have are planning a family science night and the science fair. Luckily, I attended a very helpful session at the NSTA conference, entitled "Science Rocks & Rules: A Science Family Night How To" by M. Brouwer and K. Walther. Here are some highlights from their session that I thought were helpful:

Science Vocabulary Rings

• Start early! Never underestimate how much time it will take to plan a successful family event. Put the date on the calendar at the start of the school year. Sure it is possible to throw something together in a week or two, but it won't be the quality event it could be. When I saw what these two science teachers have accomplished at their school, I realized how much more I could be doing with our family science night.
• Think about limiting the science night to a certain grade level. The presenters' science night was only for 4th grade students. Think about the level of participation you expect to have and decide if it is worthwhile to limit the event or just invite the whole school. Personally, it makes more sense for our school to hold a school-wide event.
• Apply for a grant. Need funding? Think about getting a grant to fund the science night. A lot of the initial supplies you will purchase can be used over and over. Buy them the first year, store each station in a tub, and replenish each year.
• Think about take-home items. The presenters had these cute rings (see above). When the students arrived they got a zip lock bag with a pencil, the ring, and the "Welcome to Science Family Night" card. As they went around to each activity, the collected a science vocab card that went along with that particular activity. At the end of the night each student had a ring full of scientific vocabulary words. I love this idea! If you have parent volunteers they could cut the cards ahead of time and this would be a relatively inexpensive take-home favor.
• Think about getting help from high school or middle school students who enjoy science. Why not get volunteers to man that stations so you can be free to float around? It's best to ask for students who want to help, rather then offering extra credit or requiring students to help. I think this is a great idea because there are always students who will want to come back and help their elementary school.
• Have a t-shirt design contest. The presenters have students design ideas for t-shirts and then sell the shirts before and after the event. What a great way to foster community excitement about this event. 



Brouwer & Walther's science night t-shirts!

• Have some type of science give away. The presenters use Steve Spangler's test tube science experiments. These are pricey, but if you having funding I think it is a great idea to get kids excited about science at home. You could put them in each student's zip lock bag. Check them out here.

I love the idea of having an open-house style night with stations where student volunteers help younger students complete each activity. Here are some possible ideas for stations:

Oobleck

Bouncing Bubbles

Kooky Pencils

 Invincible Balloons

Teaching Students CER (Claim, Evidence, Reasoning)

Two of the most fascinating and useful sessions that I attended had to do with the CER framwork, which stands for Claims, Evidence and Reasoning. I hadn't heard of this framework but now I can't wait to start incorporating it into my science units, as well as sharing it with the upper elementary science teachers. CER works very well if you are already using science notebooks. It is a way to get students to think about their scientific inquiries or projects and support their conclusions. It just makes sense to me. Why shouldn't we be explicitly teaching our elementary students to argue their point and back it up with evidence? According to the presenters (K. McNeill from Boston College and P. Pelletier from Boston Public Schools), the reasoning piece typically is not introduced until 3rd grade, but they did showcase how second graders completed a worksheet with the just the claims and evidence pieces.

 In this month's issue of Science & Children (an NSTA publication), the feature article is titled "Engaging Students in Scientific Practices of Explanation and Arguementation." It goes on to to explain how we must move away from teaching each scientific concept in isolation and instead provide students with a framework to discuss and apply how core areas of science are related. Using the CER framework is one way to support students in developing theses critical thinking skills, which in turn can be applied across subject areas. Just think how being able to make an argument in science would help a student with a reader's response or a word problem in math.

Student generate chart describing the 3 parts of scientific exploration.

The second presentation was perhaps the best that I attended because it was so practical. A team of teachers ranging from K-4th grade discussed how they use claim and evidence structure in their science lessons. I saw how they took the very research that McNeill and Pelletier discussed in their session and applied it to all levels of elementary grades. The best part of their presentation is that they shared actual videos of them using this technique in their classrooms. Each teacher also brought their graphic organizers from the lesson for us to see.

All of the pictures below were part of the presentation entitled, "My worm likes the dark because it ran from my flashlight" - Young Scientists Make Claims Bases on Evidence. Presenter(s): Jessica L. Cowan (Gray's Woods Elementary School: Port Matilda, PA); Kimber Hershberger (Radio Park Elementary School: State College, PA); Judi Kur (State College Area School District: State College, PA)



Kindergarten Example: I Know, I Think, I see, I wonder



This was third grade example. Notice the addition of "Scientific Principles and Words."

Each of the teacher presenters went through a specific inquiry project that they have done in their classrooms. I was impressed with their ability to get kindergarten students to sit in a circle and have a discussion with their science notebooks in hand. Maybe you are reading this and you have expereince with with getting students to construct arguments and evidence-based claims...I'm curious what you think. To me these sessions were a huge wake up call to me that I have not been teaching inquiry-based science. And it has nothing to do with time constraints. It is possible to make this framework fit, regardless on how much time you have to teach science. CER and other similar frameworks will improve your students critical thinking skills, which we all know is a very important aspect to preparing students to be successful members of society.


I just ordered this book, written by some of the authors from the above presentation. Check it out!



Appreciating Children's Scientific Interests

As promised here is the first official post on the most helpful and captivating portions of my recent trip to the NSTA (National Science Teacher's Association) Convention in Indianapolis this past week. Over the next week or so I am going to be reporting on some of my favorite sessions and "aha" moments. I will also be documenting how I am bringing some of these new ideas into my classroom.

I have already experienced the frustrating realization that creating change in any classroom can be a daunting and overwhelming task, never mind trying to create change throughout an entire school. However, with that said I feel that I have already made a pivotal change in the way I think about my science instruction. I now think about weaving science in all day long. I have a greater appreciation for the child who found a piece of a bee hive on the playground; I actually said yes when the students asked me if we could check on the corn we planted a few weeks ago even though recess was over and it wasn't in my plans; we took out the magnifying glasses during writing time and made observations so we could write nonfiction. So perhaps it is possible to implement new ideas right away and even more importantly it is possible to re-frame the way you interact with children and think about their experiences throughout the day.

One of the first sessions I attended was called "Developing Literacy, Math, Science, and Social Studies school-readiness skills in early childhood education." The presenters discussed how they used local wildlife and farm animals to foster that nature of science in young children. They had a grant to help fund some of the outreach programs that they organized for preschoolers and parents; however, with or without grant money it is possible for early childhood teachers to use their surroundings to spark students interest in their world. Working in an inner city I have fallen into a habit of thinking that my students don't think about their surroundings because we lack a rich background in which to explore. NOT TRUE! This presentation focused on birds and how to lead an inquiry project on local birds that you would see around your school. I have three take aways from this presentation:

 1. This lovely homemade whiteboard made out of tagboard and plastic sheet protector. They are so much easier to pass out and store compared to those heavy lap-sized whiteboards. Here we were using them for a simple Venn Diagram sort.

2. The other great resource I was introduced to were the Baby Einstein Animal Discovery Cards. These cards have beautiful, high-impact photographs of various animals on the front and a brief description on the back...perfect for beginning readers. I also like how large the cards are. They would be a great tool to kick off an animal unit by discussing student observations.

3. I am kicking myself for not taking a quick picture of the last activity these presenters shared. They had 8-10 plastic tubs with various materials in them. Then next to each tub were different types of utensils and "stabbers." The activity was modeled around different kinds of beaks and how they are designed to pick up various kinds of food. Students could experiment with each utensil and make observations and conclusions about what they found. This was a very high interest inquiry project even for adults!

Last, while I'm on the topic of early childhood science, I picked up this fantastic resource at the convention book store. It is a refreshing collection of articles about teacher's research in the area of early childhood science. I have flown through it. Check it out here!