A Day in Richmond

We spent a fabulous day soaking in new knowledge from Debbie Diller at her spring institute in Richmond, Virginia.  The day was focused on Adding Rigor to Middle Grade Workstations, and was held at the beautiful Jefferson Hotel. 

We learned and relearned so many valuable things from building classrooms to the five R's: routines, relationships, relevance, rigor, & reflection. She emphasized that building a classroom with high expectations first is key to establishing opportunities for small group instruction. We can do this by being clear about our schedule and objectives, nurturing independence, and "inspect what you expect" (following up on what your want to happen).

Today I re-learned that my "business is to meet the needs of my kids" and to keep standardized testing in perspective by "knowing my enemy." I also need to re-examine...who is doing all the work? I also re-learned that reflection is a step I cannot leave out. With the pressure of getting all the standards in before state testing, this seems to be the area that I struggle with most. I need to make time to ask: How did it go? What did I learn? Next time I will...

Lunch at Comfort: Cheryl ordered pimento chesse sandwich with fried green tomato and homemade chips & Mandy ordered roasted turkey sandwhich with apple mustard and mac and cheese. The restaurant was located close to VCU and completely adorable.

Supper at The Cheesecake Factory! Enough said...total calories for the day? They don't count on road trips, do they?

 

Our favorite quotes of the day:

"Think.  That's my curriculum for teaching reading."

"Do I need a level on every book?  Save your time & read a professional book."

"Assume nothing.  Model everything."

"You're always modeling, even if you don't know you are.  You're always modeling."

This Is Just to Say

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

~William Carlos Williams

This week I received a gift from my dear friend Mandy & was introduced to a collection of poems from Joyce Sidman's This Is Just to Say: Poems of Apology and Forgiveness. This anthology was written mostly by students inspired by Williams' poem. I was deeply moved by the honesty and genuiness of the apologies and responses. I was immediately hooked on the first poem by Thomas and his apology to Mrs. Garcia in the office for stealing the jelly doughnuts. I'm inspired!

f-r-e-n-z-y.

Choice Literacy featured an article a few weeks ago on open book clubs.  It didn't take long before Cheryl said she thought we should do one.  It didn't take me long (i.e. immediately) to agree.  We first considered inviting anyone who had read The Hunger Games, but thought that might limit the participation.  We wanted as many kids as possible to participate and began thinking of other books that a broader grade span of people had read.  Immediately the Skeleton Creek books came to mind.  These books have hooked in countless numbers of readers... our students, their friends, their younger siblings, other teachers.  We planned the blitz.
First, a mysterious poster appeared in the hallway inviting brave readers to a meeting.  Cheryl put the poster up almost two weeks ago, so we've endured lots of questions/harassment as to our involvement.  We tried to play it off like it wasn't us.  I'm not sure they believed that.

Next, "Joe Bush" began sending letters to our principal.  I wish I'd taken a picture of their faces!  It was great!
Finally, a special visitor pointed them to the real room for our meeting this morning...

We had 86 (!!!!!) kids show up!  We talked about our favorites parts & videos, gave away a copy of The Raven, & had them suggest names for our newly formed open book club.  We also introduced them to the new 3:15 stories.  Patrick, you are a genius.

We can't wait to do it again!  Who wouldn't love starting the day in a room filled to overflowing with kids excited to talk about books?

Swagger

Walking through the hallways this morning I was noticing how my students have grown since the beginning of the year. Middle school students are in constant flux, always changing. Seventh grade boys remind me of this poem:

Swagger

Swagger
thinks he's better,
turns his cap toward the back,
curls his lip, refuses to skip
or act like a kid.
Ever.
He's self-assured when he walks in,
full of nerve with a hint of sin,
with one hand in his pocket,
and shoulders square,
and if you don't like it, he doesn't care.
Somewhere between a strut and a stroll,
he's on a roll, his step in time
to a silent beat that says, "Bring it on,"
'cause he's all that
from his crown to his feet.

~Sara Holbrook

The poet says, "In a world of action and reaction, it seems as if words are an endangered species. More than ever we must, with relentless defiance continue to nurture our words, respect them as individuals, and handle them with care."

Sara Holbrook!

Our poetry project began this year by purchasing a copy of the anthology Seeing the Blue Between by Paul B. Janeczko for all of our 7th grade language arts students. Every week we've been focusing on a specific poet/writer's advice and selected poem. Our students have been soaking in poems everyday. Last week we were honored to host visiting poet, author, performer, and educator Sara Holbrook!

Sara worked with 7th graders on Tuesday crafting poems using extended metaphor, personification, and similes. She guided them through the art of performance poetry and prepared them for performing their poetry for family night. It was refreshing to see Sara not only share her poems, but also help students craft their own. She worked alongside them and helped them understand the "why" of poetry. We also selected 10 students to eat lunch with Sara. The students were hesistant to talk at first, but it didn't take them long to warm up and chat away! Our art teacher spent time over the past couple of weeks helping our students make paper and use it to make covers of handcrafted books. Students used these books to create collections of poems they've written all year. We were able to disply these at the family night event. We loved watching students share these special collections with their family and friends.

Wednesday morning, Sara presented vocabulary instruction to middle school teachers using her newest book High Definition. The rest of the day, she worked with 6th & 8th graders in their content area. Sixth graders used their upcoming social studies vocabulary words to write and present poems to reinforce learning in an authentic, meaningful way. Eighth graders wrote poems in their science class and presented them in class.

Favorite quotes of Sara's visit:

"words don't just lay down on the paper and behave themselves"

"the more you write, the more ideas will come up off the page"
"hear what others write... build a community of writers"
"as the boss of your own poem you get to decide how it is said"
"poetry gets us thinking about bigger ideas"
"ideas bubble up off the page as your pen flies across it"

Sara backed up everything we teach our students about writing everyday. It was a joy & honor to have her in our school for two days.

Dublin

Mandy and I were excited to have the opportunity to share some things that are going on in own classrooms at the Dublin Literacy Conference in Dublin, OH. "Literacy Stations in Middle Grades" was not only fun to create & present, but it was also encouraging to hear such positive responses from the participants. During this session, we shared how literacy stations run in our classrooms with our students. We were able to share sample stations, ideas for managing the stations, and correlation with curriculum standards.
We both use workstations in our classrooms. We believe strongly in them and their ability to provide students with additional independent practice with skills and strategies, provide time for reading/writing conferences, and provide opportunites to work with small groups. Inspired by Debbie Diller's, Practice with Purpose, we used the interests and needs of our students to develop additional stations to our classrooms.

COMIC STATION: gives students an oppotunity to explore another genre for reading and writing. Students can create their own comic online, read graphic novels, use inferring skills to make meaning of comics, or locate comics in newspapers. Many curriculum standards can be addressed using the activities in this station.
FAIRY TALE STATION: gives students an opportunity to explore a fun genre on a regular basis. Students can compare and contrast fractured fairy tales, write their own fairy tale, write a poem about a charater or theme, or create a wanted posted for one of the villians in their favorite tale. We toted several examples from one of our favorite collections to offer examples of books and activities in this station.
BOOK MAKING STATION: allows students another format for publishing their writing. Several online sites describe different styles of bookmaking that students can choose. One great site can be viewed at the following link: book making. We shared examples of supplies included in our book making stations, as well as, examples of student work.
TRAVEL STATION: allows students to explore different areas of interest in the world. This is a favorite! In this station, students can plan a trip, learn about a new place, explore atlases/maps, or use math skills by choosing items from restaurant menus. The best thing about creating this station is that 99% of the items in this station can be gathered for free! Take-out menus, brochures from welcome centers, maps, informational articles from museums/national parks, etc.

We were able to soak in an almost overwhelming amount of information in other sessions we attended yesterday! We are still letting it all soak in & are working on sharing that information. The conference was amazing! Thanks for all the hard work from the organizers and fellow presenters! We are already looking forward to next year.

Happiness.

As I was packing up to leave school one afternoon this week I was hit with this feeling of happiness & contentment with what I get to do everyday.  Even though this week seemed never-ending (first full week since before Thanksgiving because of snow!), it was a really good week.  Really good.  These are the highlights that made me happy:
*Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed by Mo Willems.  What Mo book can't spread a little happiness, right?  I read this to my 5th graders.  The way Mo began & ended the book popped out to them.  "Well, you know could always try that, right?"  That was all it took!  Away they went to craft the MOST amazing beginnings and creative stories they've written all year.  It made me happy.

*Inside the Slidy Diner by Laurel Snyder.  I shared this book for the first time with my 5th graders this week.  All I'm going to say is this... we read it right before lunch... 6 of the 7 students were boys... it grossed them out & they were disturbed that I read it before they ate!  Gotta love that!

*Cesar Takes a Break by Susan Collins Thoms.  Again, with the 5^th graders.  Thanks to Cesar we have a new phrase… “puddle of sadness”… we used it all week!

*Everyday this week I heard this after independent reading & writing time…  “Can’t we just do this all day?”  I really think they’ve missed this time!

*Ordering books.  Several teachers at school got to spend some of our Title funds on ordering books.  Ordering books is fun… ordering books on someone else’s dime is even better. 

* Planning trips.  Cheryl & I are gearing up 2 trips.  First to the Dublin Literacy Conference on February 26^th.  We found out this week we are also going to be able to attend a Debbie Diller Institute on 3 – 6 literacy stations in Richmond, VA. 

*The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller.  Cheryl & I are leading a study group of this book at school.  Our first meeting was Thursday.  We (& our school administrators) LOVE this book!  We were curious to see if everyone else did.  Unfortunately, I think the verdict is still out for some of them… fortunately, we were pleasantly surprised at some of the discussion.  We can’t wait to meet next time and hear what others in our school are doing to prioritize reading in their own lives & the lives of their students.

*Author visits.  Kimberly Brubaker Bradley has spent several days working with our K – 5 students.  Tuesday she gave a talk during our PTO meeting. One of her quotes: "Not everyone wants to be a NASCAR driver, but everyone wants their driver's license. We all won't end up being authors, but we all must learn to write to be sucessful in life!" Who doesn’t get happy about author visits?

*My desk.  This is a strange one, but bear with me!  I’ve been in the middle of Title I monitoring for months.  Everything is due next week, so this week I was wrapping everything up.  That meant I got to remove LOTS of paper piles from my desk.  I also put some of said piles into a neatly organized notebook (which makes my heart smile all by itself!!).  SO, it was right after the study group meeting, I was gathering up my stuff, & realized… my desk was neat and clean!  No clutter!  With a sigh, this allowed me to stand and soak in how much I love my class and my school.  As I looked around I saw the evidence of what we’ve worked on all week… stacks of books they’ve put out for research, writing drafts still by the computer, graphic novels they are using as mentors, scraps of paper from making books… all of it was a scene that made me happy & content.

*Cheryl.  She is who supports me.  She is who motivates me.  She is my book gal.  She makes me happy.

So, those are a few things that made me happy during this 5 day week.  This morning I (mbheartsbooks) created a Twitter account… I  hope that will add to the happiness & not scare me too much!  Cheryl (annrich7) has also signed up.  Follow us!  We're excited about all the possiblities this will offer for networking and continuing to learn from those we admire!