Time for Meaningful Learning

I have seen this little message floating around social media and I can't even tell you how much I agree with it!

First, a little disclaimer:  I believe education is absolutely important. I think our kids still doing their e-learning/remote learning is so important to make sure they aren't losing skills. I think our teachers are still working to provide important opportunities for our students the best they can in these uncharted waters. I am not at all saying to dismiss student's school work!  

Second disclaimer: E-Learning is a struggle in our home for the little one (thank goodness the high schooler is independent and can manage her own learning). He is a social butterfly. He can hardly sit still and would love to just run around outside all day (shirtless) or jump and flip on the trampoline all day. He feels lonely and is missing all the social interactions. This mama has a full course load this semester and is scheduled to student teach in the fall, so the pressure is on full blast to not fail a course. Also, I love pinterest and ideally I would be the perfect pinterest mom. But truthfully, our house is loud and life is chaotic, I'm exhausted, have been rocking yoga pants and the messy (dirty) mom bun and I hope that writing this will also help me accomplish some of the preachy mom things below.

In case you don't know, I am in a teacher prep program.  Currently on my last prep course (woot woot) although I still some general and minor courses I'm also finishing up.

No matter the content that we are learning, our professors, our textbooks and any supplemental sources we are using stress that teaching should be engaging and meaningful.  Meaningful how?  Meaningful that it is connected to real-life situations that our children will use one day with the hopes that they can transfer what they learned inside the classroom to experiences outside of the classroom.  

When I look at this list by the unknown author, I see a list of things that are both engaging and/or meaningful.  Yes, students get summers off but how many parents are still working and children are home with older siblings, a babysitter or at summer camp?  Children don't often get the time these days to be bored.  And boredom leads to imaginative thoughts which lead to creativity and exploration!  (And hopefully some learning.)  

We are always in such a hurry, on the go, or distracted that how many parents have the chance to slow down and make those 1 on 1 connections?  How many have the time to teach their kids to help start the oven, or make the family's favorite dish or a favorite recipe?  How many are impatient due to the hectic lives we live and just do it all ourselves?  How many of us are in such a routine of cleaning and doing laundry that we don't slow down and teach our kids how to wash their own clothes?  These are life skills that we hardly have time to slow down and teach our own kids.  These are also skills that aren't taught in the classroom.  

What if we helped our kids to notice that you are sheltering in place and practicing social distancing to keep your families safe and healthy as well as keeping others healthy. We are already practicing selfless acts, why not explain this to them and help them develop empathetic thinking.  Why not tell them about the people who still have to go out into the real world to work.  The grocery store workers, the nurses, the doctors, paramedics, police officers, paramedics, and firemen.  Let's teach them about the importance of being a community worker and a real hero, and not just wanting to be a millionaire (insert sport) player when they grow up.

Lastly, let's make sure that they see that while their teachers are also at home, they are still lesson planning and making sure our students are getting learning in.  Let's help them see (and I hope you already do) that their teachers care immensely about OUR kids.   That they are still rooting and cheering them on from the sidelines, sending over those activities and finding meaningful, engaging content to help keep students (who are ALL on different playing fields by the way) from falling too far behind.

So keep your kids on task doing the best they can in school learning, but also let's appreciate all the other hands-on, real-life, meaningful and engaging things they are doing and learning aside from schoolwork. They will remember these times we are in forever. They may not remember the addition worksheets their teacher sent or the writing prompts, but they will remember that this is the time mom taught them how to bake. And this was the time that mom made them start washing their own laundry. And this was the time that although there were no assessments and no state testing, his teacher was still on the other side of the camera conducting zoom meetings and lessons and asking how they were.

Their teachers will get them on track next year. All our kids are in the same boat, they will all be a little behind academically. But let's get them ahead in life skills.

6+1 Writing Traits

The 6+1 Traits of Writing:

Trait #6 Conventions

Without realizing it, once you have mastered being an effective writer, the writing process includes many steps, traits and a chosen writing genre. When students are learning to become writers, teachers must spend time teaching all the aforementioned skills. The purpose of writing is so convey our ideas and the writing process is a tool that guides writers to work that is effective at doing this while ensuring the readers can also understand it.

The purpose as a writer is to convey your ideas and thoughts in a way that embodies one of four purposes, but also can be read and understood by the reader. The writing process, which is shown in the picture below is a tool that writers use to help guide them to their purpose. Students learn through meaningful and engaging activities.

However, there are also seven traits that writers must use to create effective writing.

Today we will take a closer look at trait #6, conventions. For those who haven’t taken a language arts class in some time, a refresher of the five elements of conventions are listed below. These are five elements that, as adults, we keep in mind almost every single time we do any form of writing. Two of the main purposes of using conventions in your writing are to do so as a courtesy to your readers, but also to ensure that your work can be read!

So how are conventions taught, assessed and included in the writing process?
One great way to teach conventions is through mini-lessons. Mini-lessons, as the name implies, are quick 10 minute lessons that allows teachers to narrow their focus on one skill. Once this element is taught, it can be practiced through engaging activities that are practical and meaningful. This writing element also is best taught during the editing stage of writing, which is talked about more below.

Ideas include:

• Introducing with a book, such as “Punctuation Takes a Vacation”
• Use of technological tools such as NoRedInk that give students practice
• Using air punctuation techniques, such as those shown here that teach and reinforce the use of conventions. 

When are conventions focused on in the writing process?
In our student’s day to day writing, we should have developmentally appropriate expectations for student’s use of conventions just as we would for any other aspect of their writing. However, when students are doing larger writing assignments, such as creating stories, informational texts or doing persuasive writing, the focus becomes less on conventions and more about the formation of the student’s ideas. Checking for capitulation, spelling, punctuation, grammar and paragraph formations aren’t examined and evaluated until the editing stage of the writing process!

Once the editing phase of writing starts, this is a great time to introduce the mini-lesson and give students examples of correct and incorrect usage.  A best practice in the classroom is to engage students with one another by doing partner checks. During partner checks in the editing phase, the goal is to ‘hunt’ out any errors.

A good tip to keep students on task for this without getting lost in the content of the writing was given by Professor Dr.  Lenarz. She suggests having students read the text backwards so their focus is looking for mistakes and it’ll be more difficult to actually read what is written.



Both students and teachers should incorporate the use of proofreading marks to make the editing process more streamlined, and every student understands what corrections need to be made. During the editing phase, students can also self-assess their work using the same proofreading marks and techniques.

How can teachers assess this specific element in a student’s writing? Should you assess handwriting abilities and neatness?
Of the 7 writing traits, convention usage is actually the only one that should have specific grade level accommodations and expectations.  Also, a student's handwriting abilities or the neatness of their handwriting shouldn't be accounted for in the assessment.

There are two types of assessments that teachers use in the classroom.  The first is a formative assessment and is done during the learning process, which in this case would be the writing process.  Teachers can perform formative assessments by walking around and observing students as they work.  They can also conference with students to check in on how their writing progress is coming along, if they are meeting benchmarks and identify areas of strength and weaknesses.

The second type of assessment is a summative assessment and is done at the end of a lesson or unit.  Summative assessments identify what students have learned.  Writing is most often assessed through the use of a rubric. Teachers will use rubrics that give a score for each of the writing traits that have been learned or able to be assessed. (Samples are below). In this case, the 5 conventions would be assessed as a whole, rather than individually looked at.

If the goal is to assess only conventions (or one of the other traits), then often times a more detailed rubric is used. For example, is assessing only conventions, a teacher could give a score for only capitalization, only punctuations and so on.

A best practice is to give students the rubric you will be planning to use as a teacher before their writing takes place so that they know exactly what you are looking for and assessing them on. There’s nothing worse than doing what you feel is your best work only to learn that you didn’t incorporate any of the skills the teacher was looking for.

Sample elementary writing rubrics:



Professor Dr. Lenarz was kind enough to provide pdf's of how these traits are integrated within the common core standards.  They can be found here, originally posted by Education Northwest.


References:

Writing process graphic:  Pumped for Learning

Primary Grade Writing Rubric:  Teachers Pay Teachers

My Tech Growth over 6 Weeks

Six weeks ago I started a Technology in Education class.  I thought I was pretty tech savvy compared to most people (ahem my age) because I was already using Google Drive, docs and sheets, social media networks and had the beginnings of a PLN.  I had a pretty organized drive and was familiar with some of the ways that students used technology and the Googles in the classroom.  Then, I remember my professor opening up our class module prior to our first meeting and as I looked through the list of projects and things we would be working on I was both overwhelmed and realized I had little knowledge about all the advancements technology had in not only education but the world around us!

There have been several mind-blowing, aha! moments while in this class, and to be honest this has been one of my favorite classes!  I absolutely have loved learning all the ways that students can not only collaborate with each other, but with their teachers as well.  I think that it's amazing that we have gotten to a point where each child can have their voice heard and can give input, even if they are the shy, quiet students.  Using websites such as Flip Grid and Voice Thread help to enable this.  By using these two sites weekly with my peers, I have seen how students can learn from one another on these platforms.

Everything Google related has been fun to learn.  I have already started using and incorporating the different extensions and apps in my everyday life!  Just before I wrote this we looked at Google Keep.  I don't know if others in my class got excited about learning about this app, but as a busy mom who runs a household and manages multiple lives, I feel like it has been life changing to learn!  I love how everything is connected and in one spot.  It has been so easy to work on stuff at home, tuck it away in my drive and be able to continue my work at Starbucks or on my phone while waiting for my kids to get out of school.

I have not only grown professionally by learning all these new and exciting ways to physically use technology but also by growing my PLN on Twitter!  It is absolutely amazing the network of interactive, inspiring and motivating educators that I can gain knowledge and insight from everyday as a preservice educator.

Fortunately, my professor has been amazing and has easily walked us through everything we now know.  Not only that, but she has given examples of how each thing we were learning is used in her classroom or could be used in the classroom.  I can't wait to be able to use this fun technology in my classroom, and excited to see all the various, new apps and sites that will be rolled out once I enter the education field!

Those Who Inspire

Through my college experience, I have been given the same writing prompt four times now, asking me to write about the teacher I had growing up that inspired me to become a teacher as well.  Each of the four times I wrote about the same high school teacher I had. While this essay has been a great opportunity to reflect and set the baseline for my own standards as a future educator, what has been more influential on my personal and professional growth is the educators that I am currently surrounded with. They have been such an inspiration that I have risen the bar on my self tenfold (at least). I have been able to mold how I want to be as a teacher by the example that others have set.

One of my best girlfriends is a high school teacher and has been not only a huge supporter of mine since I started school but also a wonderful mentor! Besides teaching math and computer sciences, her experience also includes running a freshman mentoring program and being a dean.  In my first Intro to Education class I had to interview a teacher, and since I was taking the course over the summer she happily obliged to be my subject. She gave me such valuable information that was almost the opposite of everything I had known about teaching at the time. Since then she has really opened my eyes about topics such as common core math and standards-based grading. My experience, knowledge, and opinion of such topics at that time had been limited to what I heard in the mom community, so to hear from an educator the pros and cons to these, as well as the implication on student's learning had been so beneficial. One of the greatest ways she has helped me was to really help me see how amazing, talented and hardworking the majority of our youth is. Not that I had really doubted this, but when you constantly hear the negatives of this 'millennial generation' and the current social media challenges that are taking place (for example the Tide pod challenge) its easy to get sucked up in the biased viewpoints and not realize that this negative spotlight is only highlighting a small population.

My daughter is an eighth grader and cheerleader.  I have seen her cheerleading coach dedicate nine months of her life to her team- including summer practices, practices five days a week after school, weekend competitions, multiple basketball games each week and overnight state trips. (On top of her full time teaching job!) She has led them to be one of the top teams in the state and has provided so many experiences that many junior high girls will never have. She has not only taught the girls the skills required to be a good cheerleader, but she has shown them what hard work, dedication, and teamwork looks like. Over the past two years, my daughter has built her confidence, gained new friendships and a nice handful of medals and trophies. These are soft and indispensable life skills that without her coach's passion may not have been taught.

Besides these wonderful women have been all the phenomenal educators that I have met and gotten to know through my children's schools (which I talked about more here). I have seen firsthand the educators (many of whom have their own families at home) giving up their extra time once the school day is over to run clubs and activities, tutor, and coach sports teams. They are the ones who show up at 7:30 am to give band instruction and stay later in the evening for chorus practices.  They spend their Thursday nights scooping ice cream at PTO events, Friday nights running junior high activity nights, Saturdays volunteering at community events held at their school and Sundays attending cub scout banquets to watch their students move up in rank. The educators who know that school isn't just for academics but experiences, character development and the second home to many students who need it. The ones who make connections with their students, take an interest in them and be proud of all their accomplishments still years after they have left their classroom.  I have seen the teachers who respond to my emails at 9pm and the ones who only speak positively of their students. The teachers who don't give up on the challenging students and the ones who are absolutely exhausted by their special needs students but still show them the compassion and love they deserve.

So while I have written multiple times about the one teacher that inspired me in high school, it has been all these other wonderful educators that I have had the pleasure to know that have kept me inspired and have helped with my own growth. They are the ones who are the epitome of what a teacher looks like and have made me confident that I am entering the right career. I am appreciative not only for how they have helped my own development but how they continuously, day in and day out, make an impact on the lives of their students.  They go unrecognized and unappreciated for all their hard work but every day they give their students their very best.

The Power of Social Media

This week for class we were told to notice one thing on social media and share the story it told and the impact that it made.  Maybe I was looking a little too hard to find just one thing, that perfect thing that stuck out, because I didn't find just one thing.  I found numerous posts, articles and contributions to a shared narrative.  I have deliberately chosen to make it so that my social media accounts are flooded with positivity, inspiration, motivation and learning opportunities to help my own personal and professional growth. 

I had trouble finding just one thing to share because I find the majority of what I see on my accounts (Instagram and Twitter) to be meaningful.  Twitter is primarily my personal learning network of teachers, administrators, school districts and relevant educational resources.  As I am just in the beginning of my journey to becoming an educator, I have found so much relevant and useful information on this platform!  I also have been thrilled to find so many others in the field that seem to share the enthusiastic and passionate attitude towards not just teaching but also to our children.  One of the greatest take-aways I have gotten on Twitter recently is all the ways classrooms use Flip Grid!  I have really enjoyed seeing this tool, that I just recently learned about, used in a various number of ways in schools and the excited students who are partaking in the activities.

I have dedicated my Instagram account to positive and inspirational quotes, fitness personnel, my favorite bands and a handful of friends.  I like to see all the good that life has to offer, and as naive as it is, block out all the negativity.  I choose to keep myself surrounded with those who will lift me and inspire me, keep me motivated and chasing my goals and dreams in life.  My sister in law recently passed away after a quick and aggressive cancer battle, leaving behind her husband and four young boys.  Beyond the pain of the loss of her passing, it left me feeling so grateful and fortunate that I still get to be here while realizing how precious life is.  I have been intentionally trying to share one positive quote in my story every day that not only helps to keep me grounded but in hopes that it helps somebody else who needs it.

As silly as it may sound, to be intentional about the content I surround myself with has been almost life changing!  This is why I struggled to really find just one thing to share this week!



 

Flipped Learning

My own personal learning style and preference really just depends on the class and the material that I am studying.  I cannot just sit and read a text book, so in this context audio learning is where I really benefit.  I'm also a visual and kinesthetic learner, especially when it comes to anything science related!  Just reading about processes seems foreign to me, I have to see it taking place in real world context!  I am curious and excited to learn about flipped learning and see how it works in the classroom.  If you aren't familiar with flipped learning, it is where the teacher assigns a video or an article for the students to watch or read at home.  The next day in the classroom, the students discuss what they have learned at home the previous night and do activities or work with this topic.  So rather than doing a lesson in school and corresponding homework at home, this is where the learning is literally flipped.

While I currently have no experience with flipped learning, I think that it is something I would both enjoy and see benefit in.  I like the idea of going back and watching a lecture or rewinding back if I missed something or just need to hear the information again. Given the learning styles that work best for me, given a video to watch instead of text to read or a worksheet to complete seems appealing as well.   We already know that kids spend a lot of time watching tv or on youtube, so I would think that they would be more likely to watch a video or lecture instead of doing traditional homework assignments.  Flipped learning is something that I think I would love to incorporate into my own classroom!

As with anything, there are a few cons to flipped learning.  First of all, we already know that kids don't like doing homework, and those who struggle in school are usually the ones who consistently have missing work from failure of doing it.  For these students, they probably will not watch the video and will be unprepared for the day's assignment.  This will contribute to inefficient use of classroom time for them and the risk of falling further behind.

Then I'm thinking about the kids who are less fortunate and may not have the internet at home or a device to watch the video.  Although most of us have smartphones, if parents aren't valuing education then there is probably a greater chance that these students will not be prepared for class.  While it's easy to ask them to go to the local library or coffee shop, this isn't always practical, and again may require parent support that isn't there.

Lastly,  I have to wonder how this will affect children with learning disabilities.  Although it is just watching a video, will they fully grasp the information that is being given to them and be able to complete classwork?  I'm sure that the many schools that are using this learning method have accommodations and plans in place, but I would be interested in finding out more about how this affects those students.

School Report Cards

Every year the Illinois State Board of Education provides a school report card for every single school in the state.  The public can find a ton of data on the report cards; the demographic breakdown, the number of days school was in session, class sizes, student to teacher ratios, revenue sources, average teacher salary, and academic performance.  Overall, if you were interested in any of this information, this is the perfect resource and it's easy to find!

However, my problem with it is that this often is the way that schools are judged if they are 'good' or not.  While it's easy to look on a piece of paper and see that test scores are slightly below the state average, you really are only getting a glimpse of the whole story.  I know people who have reviewed these report cards in deciding between public school and private school or where they should move to, and labeled a school as 'bad' because the numbers seem as if they reflect this.  But where the problem lays is that this is absolutely not an indicator of how every child performs or will perform.  What you don't see on the report card is what is really happening both inside and outside of the classroom.  You don't see all the growth and progress each individual student is making, you don't see the school culture and whether or not there are good teachers or bad teachers in the classroom.  You don't see the teachers spending their weekends working on lesson plans and grading assignments, nor do you see them in the classroom from before the sun rises til after is sets on this report card.

There is so much data that shows both how parental involvement and social-economic levels affect children's learning yet this isn't reflected in a school's report card.  The way a school fosters student social-emotional development isn't reflected.  The number of clubs and extra-curricular activities that are offered to students isn't shown on here.  Nor is how progressive and technologically competitive a school is.  The report card doesn't show how passionate the administrators are, how they know almost every single student's name (seriously in a school of over 600), will quickly respond to parent's emails no matter the time of day and will sit on the office floor to help console and calm a student who is having a meltdown.  It's not going to tell you if the students are happy and thriving and being motivated and pushed to meet their full potential.  It doesn't show you what opportunities the school provides that others don't.

My own personal experience with a school that looks like it doesn't perform as highly as it could is that I have an eighth-grade daughter who has had a ton of success during her academic career.  She is currently in honors classes and has been accepted to all honors in high school next year.  She cheers for her junior high's cheerleading squad and they are one of the top teams in the state.  The sports teams are always at the top of their division and as I am typing this the basketball team is preparing for their first playoff game, after being undefeated this season.  My daughter has had some of the most wonderful, compassionate, hard-working teachers you will ever meet, and the administrators constantly blow me away with how involved and caring they are with all the students.  Our district is a one-on-one district, with each student in K-2 having iPads and 3-8 having Chromebooks.  We have active parent groups that provide events and financial support to the schools to help with technology, supplies, assemblies and anything else that is needed.  My son, who is in first grade, is in a two-way immersion Spanish program that is unique to the area.  By the time he enters high school, he should be bilingual and bi-literate.  Our library is fully stocked, our physical education teachers teach CrossFit and have an equipment closet that many schools can only dream of and there's never a shortage of balls, chalk and jump ropes on the playground at recess.  Both my kids are extremely comfortable in their environments, have many friends and fully trust that they could turn to their teachers if they ever needed anything.  I could go on and on, but I think you get the point.

So my advice to everyone is that you simply can't judge a school by a piece of paper.  You can't disregard all the hard work by the teachers and students alike.  Yes, academic success is without a doubt important, however, so are all the other ways of developing the whole child.

Here is the link for the school my son attends and I sub at:
Stony Creek Elementary School's State Report Card 2017-2018