Caine's Arcade in the Library

I had a hard time deciding how to end my time with kids in the library. I am excited to go back to the classroom, but leaving Riverside and the people there was hard. I feel lucky to have been part of the Riverside community.   I thought back to my four years in the library.  I started off my time in the library thinking hard about the spaces for kids, reading and learning. And I redesigned various spaces several times based on evolving goals. I wanted the kids to see the library as a place for more than just checking out books. I wanted them to see it as an energizing place for learning, one that was full of tools and possibilities.  I had big yearly goals, visions for 21st Century Learners, visions based on professional reading and pieces I shared with kids to help expand their view of what the library could be.

I started my time in the library creating a space that welcomed kids and learning.  We shared great books and laughed together a lot. We learned about favorite authors, enjoyed surprise endings and read and read and read.  We added computers and iPads, iPods and ebook readers.  We learned that there were so many tools for learning as we spent time using building toys, games and cameras.  By the middle of this years, students were pretty independent.  They came to the library with an idea of how to spend their time. We usually started our time together with a book, a new website, a game or a new tool I wanted to share. Then kids could choose how to spend their learning time. It looked simple, but it took years to build an environment that welcomed this kind of learning.  I loved standing back and looking at the variety of things kids were doing.

So, as we moved into the last week of school, I couldn't decide how to end our time together.  My gut was to read a good book. How could I go wrong with that? But I wanted to give them more than that.  I knew that I wanted to give them 20 minutes of choice time during their last library class -- they had come to expect it and to use it well. It was important to them as learners and there were really no choices they could make that didn't support their learning in some way.

I finally decided to end the year with each class by sharing the video of Caine's Arcade. Our art teacher had shared it with me and it had inspired us both.  It seemed the perfect way to end the year and our four years together in the library.  Better than a book, it was a message that I thought matched all that I'd been trying to say with our work in the library over four years.




So, I shared the video in the first 10 minutes of our last library classes.  Kids were glued.  They didn't move or make a sound. They smiled as big as Caine smiled as they watched the customers appear in the video. And they were inspired.  I told them at the end of the movie, that I had picked this to show them to kick off their summer. That I hoped they had a summer filled with with reading and writing of course. But to also fill their summers with creating and making and playing.  I felt that it was the right message to end my time with these amazing kids, who I will miss incredibly.  I felt that it was a message I hoped they would remember, one that would inspire them somehow.

I have to say, the impact was immediate. I gave the children 20-25 minutes of choice time after the video. In almost every class, someone created something different BECAUSE they had watched the video. Kids who had been building with straws and connectors for weeks, created games for others to play with these same building tools. They began to look at the building toys with new eyes. Kids who often spent their time writing books, instead created menus for restaurants they planned to create over the summer.  Some students created extensive drawings of dollhouse furniture they might make or cardboard statues they envisioned.  It was amazing and it happened within minutes of watching the video.

I wanted the library to be about possibilities as learners and I hope that it was for many children.  I hope that something in Caine's Arcade helps them to understand that creativity matters and that they have the capacity to create amazing things and to have fun while doing it.

I knew the video would be powerful but didn't realize how powerful it would be. I may start my year in the classroom with the same video. The message it has for our children is a powerful one. It is a video that invites, inspires and validates. It is a video that gives me a vision for what learning is all about.

(Today, I received this link via Facebook from Riverside's amazing art teacher, Drew Jones.  Caine seems to be inspiring learners everywhere!)

Poetry Friday -- Rain

Flickr Creative Commons photo by kicksave2930

RAIN

It is finally raining.
After a long period
of unseasonable heat
and
unending dryness,
it is finally raining.

The relief
of the grass, the trees,
the native plants who are expected to survive
without extra watering
is nearly palpable.



Jack Black is helping Carol host the Poetry Friday roundup at Carol's Corner (and dug up back yard).

Coaches

I finished listening to The Art of Fielding (Chad Harbach) yesterday. I can't say I wound up loving it -- Harbach makes his characters weaken and fail until every last one of them is so low he/she can't go any lower -- but when I stopped at the bookstore to look up this quote, I was amazed to learn that it was his debut novel. That doesn't make up for what he did to some perfectly nice characters, but it does raise my opinion of his craft -- Harbach will be one to watch for in the future. The Art of Fielding is literary, academic, romantic (straight and gay), youth, aging, and baseball, baseball, baseball.

I thought this was a good quote for teachers, and for a certain blog partner turned runner:

"He already knew he could coach. All you had to do was look at each of your players and ask yourself: What story does this guy wish someone would tell him about himself? And then you told the guy that story. You told it with a hint of doom. You included his flaws. You emphasized the obstacles that could prevent him from succeeding. That was what made the story epic: the player, the hero, had to suffer mightily en route to his final triumph. Schwartz knew that people loved to suffer, as long as the suffering made sense. Everybody suffered. The key was to choose the form of your suffering. Most people couldn't do this alone; they needed a coach. A good coach made you suffer in a way that suited you. A bad coach made everyone suffer in the same way, and so was more like a torturer." (chapter 19)

IT'S MONDAY! What Are You Reading?

I haven't read a lot this week but I with the last day of school quickly approaching, I am thinking ahead to my summer reading. Going back into the classroom, I want to catch up on some professional reading and do some focused thinking over the summer. So today's post is not so much about what I'm reading but more about what I WILL be reading soon:-)

I love to teach math. People know me as a literacy person but math is kind of more my thing. I am really a math girl--love math and love to watch kids make sense of it.  So, I am excited to get back to teaching math.  I have three books on my list related to math teaching.

NUMBER TALKS by Sherry Parish is one that lots of teachers in our district are talking about. It is new to me and it looks fabulous. Looking forward to thinking about new ways to help kids make sense of number.

MATH EXCHANGES by Kassia Omohundro Wedekind is one I skimmed when it came out but didn't dig into like I will this summer. Even though this book is focused on primary math instruction, I know it has lots of implications for older kids.  I interviewed Kassia for a Choice Literacy podcast and was so inspired by all she had to say. Really excited to revisit this book with a classroom in mind.

SMALL STEPS, BIG CHANGES by Chris Confer and Marco Ramirez is one I just happened to see on the Stenhouse website. It looks to be one with important insights for transforming math instruction. Love that kind of thinking. (You can preview this entire text online at Stenhouse.)

I want to reread OPENING MINDS by Peter Johnston. I loved this book when I read it earlier this year but I want to start the school year off with it fresh in my mind.

MANY TEXTS, MANY VOICES by Penny Silvers and Mary Shorey is one that I am extra excited about.  Literacy, Social Justice, Digital Age--love the way these three things come together in the description of this book. I can't wait to read the stories of this teacher and her students. You can preview this entire book online at Stenhouse.

PROJECT BASED LEARNING IN THE ELEMENTARY GRADES from the Buck Institute is one I want to read to think about how to better think about projects in a standards-based age. I was hoping to take a workshop in our district on the topic but really didn't have the time so I thought I'd fit the book into my summer reading.

I read the first edition of I SEE WHAT YOU MEAN by Steve Moline that was published YEARS ago--before anyone was really talking about visual literacy. And it was brilliant.  So I am excited to read this new edition and Moline's new thinking around a topic that has become even more important in the last few years. I think this will help me think through visual literacy across content areas.

I also want to read the new edition of LIVING THE QUESTIONS by Ruth Shagoury and Brenda Miller Power. I loved the first edition of this book and can't wait to read their new thinking on the ways we live in our classrooms.

I'm a huge Penny Kittle fan and have not read her book, PUBLIC TEACHING: ONE KID AT A TIME. I keep hearing about it a a great summer read and it looks like one that will energize me to start the year grounded.

Finally, I'd like to do some reading around Common Core and PATHWAYS TO THE COMMON CORE by Lucy Calkins seems perfect. I like Calkins' thinking around the CC issues and am looking forward to reading her ideas about how best to implement.

Hmmmm. That's a lot of books.  But I am hoping to dig into each of them sometime this summer!

Thanks for Jen and Kellee at Teach Mentor Texts for hosting IT'S MONDAY! WHAT ARE YOU READING! Visit their blog to see what others are reading this week:-)

WUMBERS by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld

I was thrilled to receive a review copy of WUMBERS from Chronicle Books. I am a huge Amy Krouse Rosenthal fan and love the fun that she has with words. The heading of the press release says, "GR8 NEW BOOK IS 1DERFULLY SILLY".  The entire book is told using numbers as parts of words as in the press release heading.  Each page sets the scene and the words and numbers work together to tell the story.  Reading the book feels like solving a riddle and I can see kids having a great time playing with this kind of writing once they read this book.  The author/illustrator team say that the book was inspired by William Steig's C D B! book so it would be fun to pair these. This seems like a great time for a book like this because kids see so much of this kind of word play in their lives with texting, Twitter, etc.

One of my favorite parts of this book are the endpages. There are several talking bubbles with questions for readers using numbers/words to ask the questions. For example, one of my favorites is, "Are you usually prompt or do you 10d 2 be l8 and keep others w8ing?"  Even the dedication, the author bios and the title page include fun with word/number combinations!

I love the whole idea of this book and can't wait to share it with kids. I'll keep it with my word play books but I think it will be a good one to use early in the school year when we are learning about keeping a writer's notebook. Playing with words like this is a fun thing that I think lots of kids might want to try if given the invitation.  It will be fun to see what they come up with!

Poetry Friday: The Last PF of the School Year

The Late Bird
by Greg Pincus (of the blog, Gottabook)
available for your Kindle or Kindle app

My class is going to have an EXTRA special last Poetry Friday of the school year today. Greg Pincus is coming to visit, all the way from California...via Skype!

To get ready for Greg's visit, we've been reading his poems together with my iPad connected to the SmartBoard, and in small groups on some of the school's iPads.

After I walked them through the punny logic of poems like "The End" and "Book Report on the Thesaurus" they were all primed to groan on their own (or say, "OH!!!") at the end of "Unfair" and "The Biking Blues."

When they set off on their own with the poems, I had to give some occasional help -- reminding them to use the Kindle's dictionary when they didn't know the word "cruciferous" in "Broccoli and Cauliflower," reminding them to go back and look at the title to make meaning in "The Lament of Thursday the 12th."

But I knew they were really learning to navigate Greg's style when a boy delightedly showed me the math problem hidden in "A Doubleheader Sweep" and I had to admit that I had completely missed it!

A Doubleheader Sweep

won + won = too much fun.

(Get it? 1+1=2?? Yeah. My turn to groan.)

If you have access to Kindles or the Kindle app on any devices in your classroom (best in 4th grade and up, because that's when they are really starting to be able to navigate puns), I highly recommend Greg's collection of poems. 

Happy Last Friday of the School Year! (Only three more days after today!!!)

Linda has the Poetry Friday roundup today at TeacherDance.

Balance

by Hugh MacLeod at Gapingvoid.com

Adjusting to a New Teacher

Flickr Creative Commons Photo by Freefotouk

Our beloved Sunday water aerobics instructor was replaced recently. The class is having a hard time adjusting to the new instructor. She uses a different set of moves and it's hard to hear her instructions. She has dismissed one of my favorite moves, saying that it goes against the guidelines of <insert unknown acronym>.

I've been thinking a lot these past few weeks about what it's like for our students every fall as they adjust to new teachers and what we can do help them start thinking about what to expect and how to deal with the changes. Things we can do this spring while our students are still a part of our close-knit, safe and predictable classroom communities include:

• Talk about changes they've undergone in the past. List the positives of change along with the negatives. 

• Think about what they've learned from favorite teachers. Remind them that when you move from teacher to teacher, you carry them all with you -- you never really leave a favorite teacher behind.

We can encourage our students to

• Be patient. Give the new teacher a chance. 

• Be an independent learner. (For our children, this might mean reinforcing the importance of the learning they do on their own at home after school and on weekends and holidays. For me, it has meant abandoning the water aerobics class in favor of my own self-styled hour of water exercise. It feels good to swim laps again, and to decide for myself what arm, leg, and core exercises I'll do and for how long.)

In the fall...(I can't believe I just wrote that! We have only 6 days of school left before the much-needed summer break, and I'm thinking about next fall!!!)...In the fall, when I greet a new group of students, I'll try to be even more aware of the adjustments they are going through as we figure each other out. I'll try to remember to

• Ask for their input as we establish routines and norms and make the classroom ours. 

• Have them tell me the things they loved about teachers in the past...not that I could make any promises that I would be just like them, but so that we can explore my similarities and differences to their former teachers. 

• Be gentle as I guide them in their learning so that I don't completely contradict or disregard what another teacher taught them, but rather show them how learning is layered, and how the new learning they do with me will be added to, but will not replace their previous learning.

WHAT READERS REALLY DO: TEACHING THE PROCESS OF MEANING MAKING

I read the book WHAT READERS REALLY DO by Dorothy Barnhouse and Vicki Vinton a few weeks ago. It was a great read and one that I highly recommend as a summer professional read.  This is one of those books I wish I had written. The premise of the book is that we need to teach young readers the process of thinking deeply about a text--not teach them to think what we think about a book.

A big part of the book is that as teachers, we need to be readers ourselves. That being a reader is the biggest thing that will impact our teaching because it will allow us to make our process of meaning making visible for our students.  The authors say, "What's needed is a willingness to peer into the recesses of our own reader's mind, attending to the work we do internally that frequently goes unnoticed or happens so quickly that it feels automatic." The rest of the book really tries to make visible, the things we do as readers that help us make meaning along the way and to think about how to make that visible to children.

The beginning of the book focuses on the importance of helping students achieve agency and independence. There is a section I love on Reframing Strategies as Tools, Not Products.  And they talk about the importance and noticing and naming for students.

Here are some favorite ideas from the book:

"We Build the Lessons Around our Assessment of the Demands of the Text."

"We Enter Stories Knowing that the Particulars Will Yield Universal Understandings"

"What these students have taught us is that when they are assured that a teacher is not looking for a particular answer but rather looking for thinking--when they come to trust that we are not hoarding the answers, waiting to spring them on the students like a trap, but instead truly valuing their thinking--they will rise to the occasion. Teaching students the power of constructing something with what they notice teaches students to be strategic.  In turn, we, as teachers, need to be strategic, making sure that the reading opportunities we provide give students the time and space they need to develop and grow their thinking." (p. 132)

"We try to scaffold deep thinking rather than prompt it."  (p. 132)

"We know there is not a single way to build a final understanding."  (p. 150)

"Rather than teach students to identify literary elements, we help them see how writers and readers use those elements to apprehend meaning."  (p. 167)

The book shares student conversations, lesson ideas and other thinking about how to really empower students to make meaning. The authors show us tools to help students do that so it is a great combination of the thinking as well as the practice needed.

This book brought a lot of my thinking together--thinking that I hadn't quite been able to articulate.  It was the perfect book for me as I get ready to go back to the classroom--thinking about building agency and independence in readers.  I think this book also helped me think through the Common Core talk about close reading and text complexity. One of my favorite new books on literacy instruction!

Teachers as Readers (and Runners...)

Mary Lee, Me, Meredith and McKenzie --(I learned about Team Sparkle Skirts at 365 Days of Awesome.)

I have always believed that teachers need to be readers. I know for myself, being a reader is important for so many reasons--I can better recommend books to kids. I know what it is like to love a book so much that it is hard to read anything afterwards. I can understand the decision-making that goes into abandoning a book. I teach differently because I am a reader and I read differently because I am a teacher of reading.  Every day, my life as a reader impacts my teaching life.

I was reminded about the importance of Teacher as Reader during my work toward running a 5K over the last few months. If you've been following my slow, but steady progress on my Reading Teachers Running blog, you know this has been a long road.  I don't consider myself a runner but I did run (mostly) a 5K on Saturday.  And, as always happens with me and fitness goals, I learned a lot about my life as a teacher in the process.

I started out wishing I was a runner as I often do when I decided to write about it in  a post for the Nerdy Book Club.  As I was writing it, I realized that I had not really given running my all.  I mean I wanted to run and I read a lot about it but I didn't really set myself up for success in running. So, after writing that post, I realized I needed to get some help. I had tried published Couch to 5K programs but they never seemed quite right. I knew I needed someone who could really help me meet my goal, someone who was a coach and a runner. Someone who could TEACH me how to be a runner.  I hired a running coach that I found online. Tonia at TMB Endurance Training who I found on a blog I love 365 Days of Awesome.  I decided to hire her to write a plan for me and to coach me for the 16 weeks.

My friends who have seen me start and stop many exercise programs over the years, were quite amused at this decision.  No one was quite sure how someone could coach me without being here. How could I learn from someone online? If she was just going to say, "Finish strong!", anyone could do that.  I couldn't really put my finger on it at the beginning but I knew that hiring Tonia was one of the best decisions I'd made.

Tonia helped me in a way that my local non-running friends could not. She did tell me things like "finish strong" but she also helped me through lots of challenges.  And I trusted her because she was a runner herself. I knew when I just needed a pep talk from my friends and I knew when I really needed information about where to go next in my running.  Before Tonia wrote my personalized plan, she sent me an extensive interview and then scheduled a 30 minute phone conference with me. She learned all she could about me and my needs, my lifestyle and my goals. Then she created a plan based on all she knew. Each week, we chatted a few times a week to check in. I asked questions, she sent reminders, etc. And I finished the 16 week training plan and ran the 5K.

I could not have done this without the many cheeerleaders I had along the way-there are too many to name because I am lucky in life to have lots of friends and cheerleaders. But, I could also not have done this without an expert to support me along the way. I have always had cheerleaders to support me, but to run, I needed someone who was a runner and also knew how to coach and how to meet the needs of me, an individual.

I realized early in the training, that Tonia was setting me up for a life of running. She was building things into my week (short runs and long runs) that seemed silly when I was only running 30 seconds at a time. But the habit of knowing there is a long run every week matters.  She knew when to tell me to listen to my body and take the day off and when to push through. She let me know about her bad runs when I had a run that just didn't work. She knew when the thing holding me back was my confidence and not my ability. She knew all of this because she was a runner and she could use her expertise as both a runner and a coach to get me to the next level.

The thing is, the people who run, and share their stories honestly have helped me get through my own challenges.  There were lots of runners who taught me lots along the way. My friend Lynsey told me early on that "the first mile is always hard". It was a hard thing to hear when I couldn't possibly run close to a mile, but her words have helped me ever since I've passed that first mile run. Now I know that the first several minutes are harder and then I get into some kind of flow. Without Lynsey, a serious runner, giving me that piece of advice, I may have just thought running was only hard for me at the beginning. Understanding that the start of runs were hard for her made a difference to me. She was also the one that suggested I get an armband for my iphone because carrying it my hand could throw off my balance and give me one more thing to worry about while running.  I trusted her to help me because she is a runner.

Jen was kind enough to teach me early on that speed doesn't matter so much and that lots of runners start slow.

I loved reading Dorothy's post about the Boston Marathon: Mile by Mile. She is one of my running idols and I knew how much the marathon meant to her because I read her blog religiously. It got me through many weeks of my running.  The thought that she could struggle with any running event and be so honest about it was huge for me.  Her story reminds me not to quit, even when I have to pause and take a breath. That my attitude is really my big problem as it was hers on that day. That I am not struggling because I am not good at this but every runner has good and bad run days, no matter where they are in their journey.  And reading an interview with Dorothy this week, I learned that she didn't love running right away.  I am amazed by this fact and it helped me this week, when I did not love running. Hearing that this runner did not love running at first gave me a bit of hope...  I was just as relieved to read Heather's post on 365 Days of Awesome this week. She has had a bad few weeks of running and she is honest about sharing.  But she isn't quitting because the running isn't going well.  I trusted these stories because these girls are runners.

And there are Sarah and Dimity at Another Mother Runner who willingly share their stories and the stories of others so that we can all find what works for us. I learn from every mother whose story they share and their two books RUN LIKE A MOTHER and TRAIN LIKE A MOTHER helped me through these 16 weeks of running. The constant support of such knowledgable people mattered. They were runners and they know the challenges of fitting running into a full life.  I trust them completely because they run.

And Meredith is just a year or two ahead of me as a runner. She ran her first 5K last year and I was there to cheer her on. But she ran next to me for the full 5K on Saturday.  When she told me to keep going, I knew that it was more than cheering--she knew from experience that I'd be happier if I didn't stop. She knew that it was hard because she had experienced her first race so recently. And my virtual running partner, Katherine, texted me throughout the week. She had worked with Tonia and had run her 5K the week before. She knew what I would experience.  I trusted them because they run.

Mary Lee's husband, A.J. gave me last minute tips on navigating the crowd and the course on the morning of the race. I listened to him and trusted him because he is a runner.

So, back to my lesson about teaching.  It definitely took a village to get me to the 5K. It took cheerleaders and friends, but more importantly, it took runners. Runners who were willing to help me, to teach me and to invite me into the world of runners.  The online bloggers who I do not "know" and probably never will were critical to my learning because they are runners. I trusted my coach because she was a runner. And all of the advice and tips I got along the way mattered because the people who gave them had at one point experienced what I was experiencing. I trusted them because they had the experience and because they understood what I was going through.

How can our students trust us as teachers of reading if we are not readers ourselves? How can we talk authentically with kids about books if we are not truly interested in reading them. How can we help them through challenges and help them move forward if we have never experienced what they are experiencing?  Yes, our kids need cheerleaders--they need people who love and support them in all that they do. But they also need teachers, teachers who read. Teachers who they can trust to teach them about reading because they are readers themselves.

It definitely took a village to get me to the 5K and I imagine the village of support will need to continue as I continue running. I DEFINITELY need cheerleaders. I could not really live my life without them. My friends are amazing people. But as a runner, I need more than cheerleaders, I needed teachers. I needed teachers who not only cheer me on but teach me what it is to be a runner.  I plan to hire Tonia again soon to help me with whatever running goal I come up with next.  I know I will need more than cheerleaders if I want to move forward again.

I stood on the sidelines of the running community for a very long time.  It wasn't until I found experts to learn from, experts who had been through what I was going through, that I could get through those first few weeks successfully.

As I wrote in my Nerdy Book Club post in January, there are so many children standing on the edges of the Nerdy Book Club, wanting to be part of this reading club. These kids deserve teachers who read.