Happenings

I was talking with a colleague today about working with those children who are “gifted”. I use the term lightly, because being labeled “gifted” is all a matter of how well you do on the specific test the your school district chooses to use to identify those children who rise above the average standard. The ironic thing is that in one school district a child can be labeled as gifted, but when they move they are faced with having to test again and may not qualify on another district’s test. I suppose instead of our saying our discussion focused on the “gifted”, I really should say we were discussing the children who achieve higher than the grade level expectations. Are we meeting their needs or do they, in the long run, end up being punished as a result of their early achievements?

I can only use myself as an example. I was one of those children who excelled in reading (math…well that’s an entirely different story). In second grade I was reading at the level of a 5th grader, in 5th grade I was reading at the level of a 8th-9th grader. I attempted to read Watership Down as a 4th grader…notice the word attempted. As a 5th grader I found myself in detention all of the time because I would never have my summary for our reading group assignment written. As 6th grader I almost lost out of a local science competition because I just didn’t do my project.

Why didn’t I finish Watership Down when I was certainly capable of reading it? Why didn’t I just write the summaries in order to avoid detention? Why didn’t I just do the science project without having my G.A.T.E. teacher have to sit and walk me through it? Why? Simply put…I just didn’t know how!

No one ever taught me how to pace myself through a long, difficult chapter book…they just assumed because of my test scores that I knew how to do it intrinsically. No one ever taught me how to write a summary…they just assumed because of my test scores that I knew how to do it. No one ever taught me how to do a science experiment…they just assumed I knew how to do. No one ever taught me how! And what’s worse is that I didn’t have enough knowledge about what I didn’t know to realize that I should ask for help.

I think as educators we often assume that our students have a certain amount of background knowledge and as a result we don’t need to cover the minor details of any given topic. Either that, or we assume that our high achievers already know it, so we don’t need to remind them and instead focus on those kiddos that need a little bit more support. My own experience has taught me to assume that the children in my class know nothing…about anything…so that I can make sure they have all of the details they need to succeed at the work I give them. Nine times out of ten, those high achieving students already have the background knowledge they need…but there are those occasions when they don’t and even the simplest of explanations provides a “light bulb moment” for them. I’ve even heard them whispher “Oh….so that’s why…I never knew why I had to work it that way!”

I look now at the high achieving students in my class and I worry about them…will they be faced with the same experience at some point in their educational careers? Will they be left to figure it out on their own because “their test scores show they can do it”? Will they have to face failure and punishment because they didn’t know enough about what information they lack to realize that they should ask for help? Or will someone understand…will someone realize that even the “gifted” need to be taught the basics-they can only be high achievers if we teach them what it is they need to achieve.

What is a blog? That was the question I was faced with at the beginning of the year when I was approached with the idea of having my students start blogging. What would they write about? Would they enjoy it? How in the world could I connect it to my curriculum? When would I find the time? And most importantly would it be worthwhile?

As the year quickly comes to an end, I find myself reflecting back on the new things I’ve tried with my students. Blogging was perhaps the biggest undertaking that I found myself most unsure of at the beginning of the year. It has had it’s problems, difficulties, and challenges but overall I feel it has proven to be not only beneficial to the students but also extremely enjoyable (At times I find myself putting off, oh..say…lessons plans and grading because I just HAVE to respond to the kid’s blogs)!

Some of the challenges I have faced with blogging begin with time! I assumed early on that the kids would naturally be drawn to just the idea of blogging in the beginning and that would be motivation enough (it wasn’t). I discovered that when left to their own devices (”Post when you can…”) they RARELY did! It wasn’t until I specifically set a requirement in place that each child needed to post at least one blog a week that I saw an increase in participation. It still wasn’t enough though and some kids always seemed to find themselves scrambling on Friday afternoons to get their weekly blog posted. The posts really started to increase when I set aside a specific time for the children to blog during the week and even more so when we arranged to have the COWS every Friday afternoon to work on blogging.

Initially, I worried about whether or not the kids would be able to find enough topics to write about, yet they haven’t seemed to struggle with this aspect of blogging. One real hurdle, however, was comments! I truly underestimated the difficulty of providing a high quality comment to the students blogs. If I had trouble with it, it should come as no surprise how much trouble the kids had! It took several lessons (and even still frequent reminders) about what a good comment should include. Just like writer’s workshop, the kids have learned that you should comment on something positive about the entry before offering suggestions for improvement. We also tried to get the kids to see that you need to explain the reasoning for the suggestion so that the writer understands how their choices affected the reader’s ability to understand the piece.

Blogging has also transfered into our Writer’s Workshop as well. I make it a point to respond to as many of the kids blogs as I can. They love receiving comments on their entries. I was surprised to see them start commenting to each others blogs using the same terminology that I was in my comments. That terminology then began transferring into the response groups during Writer’s Workshop as well. I giggle everytime I hear one of them say to another “You’re hot spot needs to be stretched out more” or “that language is very powerful!” and I have to ask myself just whose blog I posted that comment on anyway!

As the year quickly comes to an end, I find myself struggling with the idea that my “bloggers” will no longer be mine…and so have they. Several children have asked me if they will get to blog in 5th grade…and what if they don’t? I promised them that their blogs will be available for them and someone (myself, Mr. Mattson, their 5th grade teachers) will find the time to approve their posts and comment back to them.

I feel that blogging has given myself and the children a true purpose to our writing this year. It’s authentic-we are not just writing for a test, we are not just writing because it’s Writer’s Workshop and that’s what we do, we are not just writing and stuffing a published piece in a folder to sit there until the end of the year…we are writing because there are real people out there who are reading what we have to say and sharing with us what they think about it! I believe it has taken my students’ writing abilities up a notch and I definitely want to find a way to incorporate it into my writing program next year as well.

Has blogging been worthwhile…what do you think boys and girls? Check here to see their opinions!

I just finished reading an responding to the first round of published writing pieces for my class that was prompt based. Wow, what a tough job. It’s amazing how I can sit and read each piece, knowing where the child has come from in terms of their writing ability and feel so proud of what they are doing with their words. Then, I look at the state rubric, or I ask a fellow colleague and it never fails that I find more weaknesses in their writing than strengths. I suppose it’s simply a product of our current culture of assessment that we can’t celebrate tiny steps forward, but instead we expect all of the children to write at the same level for the state test. So instead of praising the compositional risks taken in an attempt to be more creative, I am reminding my children to “stay focussed and address the prompt”. YUCK! I understand that we have to “prove” that the children are learning, I understand that we have to hold teachers accountable, I understand that we have to test every child in the state the exact same way in order to have valid results. What I don’t understand is how we can take something as subjective as writing, especially writing from 9 and 10 year olds and “grade” it as of all of the children come from a level playing field. Beauty (or in this case skill) is most certainly in the eye of the beholder. I don’t care to read, certain authors, and if I had to score them on the rubric I would certainly give them a low grade. Does that mean they are bad samples of writing? NO! It only means that in my eyes they aren’t high quality. But who is to say that my “eyes” are right or wrong? Other people may find the writing fascinating and inspiring.

I don’t mind the assessing of the skills so much, I just wish there was more objective way to go about doing it.

School starts next week for teachers and the 27th for the kids.  My room is ready (thanks to my hubby & kids…they really helped out a lot this year) although I keep coming up with things for my husband to do to improve it so I’m sure he’ll be glad when there are finally kids in the room and I can’t make any more major changes.  I did a presentation today for some of the new teachers in the district-I’m glad I was able to share some ideas with them that might make the beginning of their first year a bit easier!  The rest of  this week will be busy still-2 meetings on Wednesday, the kids have appointments on Thursday & I have a grade level meeting to start discussing scheduling, and Friday…hey wait a minute…I don’t have ANYTHING I have to do on Friday-YEAH!  It’ll be a great opportunity to rest-it seems like this summer has been so busy what with our family trip and planning/going on  the girl scout trip (note to self-girl scout trips are a lot of work!) and then moving and preparing my classroom-I’m already tired.  I don’t want to start out the school year exhausted but it seems thats the direction I’m heading.  Fatigue is definitely an issue for me-I’ve got to find a way to rest before the kids start school or else it’s going to be a LONG first semester!  Maybe I need a weekend away…nah-I’d have to plan that and it’d would drain me even more!

As I sat down and looked at my calendar today, I came to the sad realization that my summer is indeed over. Between doctor’s appointments, trainings and inservices, working in my classroom, and so on there isn’t a single weekday left where I don’t have something to do. I hate to leave behind the somewhat lazy days of summer, I am however truly looking forward to this school year. I will be back with my kids from last year…our class is looping to 4th grade together and I’m very excited to get the year going as soon as possible. There are so many benefits to staying together as a group-for one, I already know each of my student’s strengths and weaknesses, where they are coming from, and how fast I can take them to where they need to be. I will indeed know exactly what they were taught last year-so there will be no excuses or “Our teacher didn’t tell us that last year”. I am excited about the new places we will be able to “go” this year…new thoughts and ideas, new technology experiences, new skills to be mastered. So all in all, while I’m a bit disappointed that my “long” summer is rapidly coming to an end, I’m anxious for the new experiences that the school year will bring!

I so miss the days when I could lay around leisurely and read…all day if I wanted to! That hasn’t happened in such a LONG time! I always begin the summer with the intention of reading several great books-but this summer I’m having a hard time making it through even one. Not for the reasons you might think though. This summer I’m reading Marley and Me. For those of you who don’t know me that well, I have a soft spot in my heart for dogs, especially big dopey dogs who get into trouble. I’ve owned them and loved them for most of my life. Marley and Me is the story of just such a dog. A dog who creates havoc simply by entering a room, but who never the less is loved and adored by humans who appear to be completely oblivious to his character flaws! It’s a fantastic book! I have laughed, cried, sympathized (with both the humans and the dog!), made personal connections, and on and on. So why, you ask, if it’s such a great book, can’t I finish it? Well, it’s not for the reasons you may think. It’s not about the time, it’s not about a lack of interest. Truth be told, I’m afraid to finish it. If I finish the story, I will be reminded that even the funniest, orneriest, most obnoxious yet lovable animals don’t hang around forever. You see, I only have two chapters left…and in those two chapters I know there will be a sad ending to the story…an ending that I have lived through too many times to count, an ending that brings tears to my eyes just by thinking about it. An ending that I don’t want to see come. Can’t I stop here and remember Marley as a vivacious dog? Do I have to finish the book? Can I bring myself to do it? I’m not sure…it hits awfully close to home.

One thing I have tried to avoid in myself and my kids is to NOT become a slave to technology and all of it’s “gadgets”. That’s the reason why 9 times out of 10 you won’t be able to reach me on my cell phone because I can’t seem to remember to turn the darn thing on or to even charge it for that matter! That’s one of the reason why I’ve avoided the numerous hand-held gaming devices for as long as I could. That is until recently…I gave in last Christmas & got the kids (and my husband) a PS2…we don’t have too many games for it though, and the one the kids use the most I actually like as well (DDR) because it’s good exercise (and fun!!!!). Well, a few weeks ago my kids (and husband again) convinced me that the kids needed Nintendo DS Lites for our upcoming trip (and the future road trips we always take). I held out as long as I could until I was ultimately defeated by the three “gamers”. I really struggled with myself on this one. After all, as a teacher I know that when the kids have more electronic gadgets to play with they are less likely to sit down and read. But in reality, my kids don’t do a lot of that anyway-much to my dismay! So in a last ditch effort to encourage more summer reading I decided I’d hold the DS’s HOSTAGE! I told the kids as we walked out of the store that “A chapter a day gets them the DS to play!”…bribery I know…but it’s working! My daughter is about halfway through her Harry Potter book now & my son is getting up in the morning and reading before he ever even asks to watch TV. WOW! They even agreed that they couldn’t have new games until they had finished their chapter books. So, I guess the realization that I have come to is that in today’s electronically centered society…I can’t keep my kids from wanting the latest trendy object…but I guess that’s not so bad if I can find a way to make it work in a positive way for me…err….them I mean!

On Thursday I will be taking my 10 girl scouts on their first trip…it’s a mother-daughter trip but it will be the first time we leave town for more than a day trip together. Anyone who knows me well, knows that I’m a bit obsessive when it comes to organizing (not that you can tell from the appearance of my classroom right now), so this trip has provided me an opportunity to really test those organizational skills. I can’t believe how much information there is to organize and share with the group-how many details there are to be taken care of, and how worried I am that something will go wrong. The weather hasn’t been cooperating much lately either…not only here in El Paso (what was up with that downpour today????) but it’s been raining in San Antonio & Houston as well. The forecast for Friday in San Antonio is 30% chance of rain…that’s the day we are going to Sea World so I really really hope the forecast is wrong. Funny, it seems like the weatherman is always wrong…except when something important is riding on the there being good weather and then the forecast usually turns out to be accurate!

Anyhow, Seaworld itself isn’t a new experience for most of my girls, but we will be taking them to the Alamo as well, and then on to a scout camp in at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. That should be fun as it is someplace that none of us has ever been!

I just hope that the weather cooperates!

Another something new for me today. It seems like this summer is all about learning new things in technology. But I am having fun with it.