Third Grade Common Core

The Third Grade Common Core Workbook  is here!  After spending some time reviewing the new CCSS in depth and attending a few trainings, it is so nice to have these as a base to get started in this new direction.  This book covers the the new Common Core State Standards through activities and then some worksheet practice.  Here is a sample.  My district will not be starting with the CCSS for another year but I plan on getting started now.  Good luck teachers.  we can do this!

Second Grade Common Core

Yay!  The Second Grade Common Core Workbook  is here!  If it is anything like the first grade workbook, it will be a very valuable tool for my classroom.  It address the the new Common Core State Standards through activities and then some worksheet practice.  My district hasn't adopted the new Common Core standards yet, but it is coming.  I hope to start incorporating these activities in now so that when the district does roll out the CCSS I will be ready!

First Grade Common Core

First Grade teachers:  This looks awesome! This saw the link to this new CCSS book on the Have Fun Teaching FB page.  With the new CCSS coming this looks as if it will be a great resource.  As a second grade teacher, I really want the 2nd grade CCSS book but, I have plenty of little ones who are behind and I think this will be a great help  Check it out...

.http://corecommonstandards.com/core-curriculum/first-grade-common-core-workbook/

Strike

I have spent the better part of today and some of yesterday working on lesson plans and creating lessons for the Promethean Board to use with my students this coming week.  All of this is done willingly on my part.  I want to be well prepared for my students.  I want to provide good, first instruction for them.  As I was correcting tests this weekend, I was rewarded with pleasant surprises.  The majority of my students are really mastering what is being taught.  My second graders can write!  They are at such a good place now that I can probably go further with them than I can with most classes that I have had.  I even had some funny free response answers on the science test.

This evening, I opened Facebook to see the news of Chicago's Teacher Union Strike.  Now, it seems, that Emanuel is threatening to take legal action.  I made the mistake of reading the comments section. They were just awful, hateful and uninformed.  Once again, teachers are being bashed publicly by people who have no idea as to what happens in the classroom and in the school system.  According to these people, we teachers are lazy, should be damn thankful that we even have a job, don't really work that much, have it easy, etc.  I wonder how many of these commenters work outside of their regular job hours without pay?  How many of them have to run a classroom on little or no supplies, and might have to even (gasp) buy their own materials?  How many of them have to deal with children who are drug babies, work with children (families) in major crisis?  How many of these people are responsible for ensuring a year's growth at grade level regardless of entrance level, language proficiency, learning handicaps, physical handicaps, and more.  How many of these people are evaluated on a weekly, monthly basis, as teachers are?  How many have more work piled on them when their pay is being cut due to budgets?  I could go on and on....

This week I overheard an interesting argument with regard to basing teacher pay on test scores.  Someone asked if we should start basing doctor pay on patient status.  How many doctors can ensure that their patients won't be overweight, diabetic, etc?  Doctors are in control over very little of what their patients do with their lives when they leave their offices.  Teachers have very little control on outside factors as well.

 If I were to get 20 English only students all from stable homes of literate families that were all performing at grade level, I could move them all to at least the next grade level by the end of the year.  If I don't, I am doing something wrong.  (By the way, I am lucky because I only have 20.  Most teachers these days are at 30)  My class roster has never looked like that though.  I usually have at least 75% English learners across the spectrum in language proficiency.  At least 3 or 4 have some kind of learning handicap which has most likely not yet been identified so I have to struggle with the system to get them in for help.  All of the students in my class are living in poverty but a handful are in serious poverty.  Then there are the drug families, the gang families, the kids that move around from school to school due work or legal status, etc. It is tough. I work hard for each of these kids though and I do my best to get them all up a year in growth from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

I guess I could go to an easier school, one on the "good" part of town.  That would be a bit easier.  I would still have to deal with the sometimes tough district demands but I would have students that were, for the most part, at grade level and without as many issues.  I choose however to stay at my school.  I choose the needy kids.  These are the kids that need a lot of attention.  These are the kids, and families, that are, for the most part, so very thankful for any kind of help or little treat I might give them.  This is the place where I can feel like I make a difference, even if it doesn't always show up on a state test score.

So...back to the strike in Chicago.  I will need to remember to not let the comments from those against the strike get me down.  I stand with the teachers in Chicago.  Good luck to them.  Good luck to all of us teachers who are facing our own battles, even if we are not on the front lines, as our brothers and sisters in Chicago are.  Si se puede!

Spirit and Change

I never really felt like I fit in when I was in high school.  I remember having friends, going to football games, etc but I don't remember feeling excited to be in high school.

My 14 year old started high school last month.  I worried for her.  I worried that she would go through the same teenage adjustments I went through.  The first two weeks were challenging, but now, she seems to really enjoy herself.

Yesterday afternoon i got a fast and furious text from the girl asking me if she could hang out with some girls and make spirit tutus for the rally on Friday.  My first thought was "tutus?"  This from a girl who hates to wear girly stuff?  My second thought was anything to make her feel like she fits in.  So, after $30 of sparkly tulle and other necessary items were purchased, I took her to hang out with the girls.  She had a blast.  Today, she was nervous to go to school in her spirit gear so she brought it along to change in to , just in case the other kids didn't wear theirs.  As we pulled up to school we saw lots of spirit!

This evening, she has a friend over spending the night.  For the first hour or so that I was home, the only thing I heard around the house was fight songs.  The girls were dancing and singing and still full of spirit from the school rally.  I took the girls on a quick trip to the grocery store where they continued their cheers and dances.  It was a hoot!

I am so glad that my daughter has found her way.  I am so glad that she is confident, happy and well adjusted.  I am glad that she is not the quiet, unsure, worried mouse that I was in high school.

I am a happy mom.

Prayer in School

Every morning I like to visually check in with each of my 20 students. I can get so busy with teaching, paperwork and whatever else I need to attend to that sometimes, I may not get to check in with each child. It is really important to check in with each kid. Doing this allows me to get to know each child a bit more and it alerts me to problems/issues I may need to address concerning that child. (vision, home problems, test anxiety, etc.)

Today was the first day of state testing. Before the kids took the test today I passed out "brain food" and let the kids talk with their neighbors and relax a bit. As they ate and chatted, I scanned the room to check in with them. As most of my students were laughing, talking and comparing snacks, one of my boys was in a quiet trance staring at his hands. I was curious as to what he was looking at in his hands. This student performs very high on all academic tasks and I wondered if he had written a list of things he wanted to make sure to remember for the test.

I walked up behind him and I saw that he had three tiny cards in his hands. They were prayer cards. One was a prayer for the day. Another was a prayer for school. The third card, the one he was intently reading was a prayer for students. I watched the student until he looked as if he was done with his prayer (he was reading silently) and then I talked to him about it. He told me that his parents gave them to him and he wanted to make sure that he prayed before the test.
The student then put the cards away in his backpack, opened up his snack and joined the rest of the group in conversation and pre-test giggles.

This scenario from my classroom made me think of the people who are fighting for prayer to be a mandated part of the school day. One of their biggest arguments is that prayer has been taken away from the children. I say prayer has always been in school and will continue for those who choose to do it. My student proved this today. He felt the need to pray, he did so without disturbing anyone else, he didn't ask anyone to join him and then he went on about his business.

I am not one to pray in public. Truth be told, I am not really one to pray in private either. What I saw my student do today though touched me deeply. I thought it was a very sweet thing to do, it was very meaningful to my student and I knew it set him off on the right foot for his test and for the day.

Random Notes on a Roster

Been a long time since I have blogged....sigh...Facebook has taken over my internet life!

School starts on Tuesday. Right now I should be setting up my classroom. Instead, I am studying my class roster. I can learn a great many things from this simple list. I classify the notes into good news, possibly challenging news and "hmm". Here are some of those things:

Good news:
1) I have 20 students. This is great because i will start out with a full class. If I am lucky, I will keep the same 20 throughout the year.

2) 9 girls, 11 boys. Pretty even.

3) 18 out of my 20 are 7 or 8 yrs old. WOO HOO! 2 are still 6. What a difference it makes to have kids start second grade at 7 yrs. I am already exhaling. YES!

4) Only one of my students has a "behavior record."

5) 4 of my new students are siblings of former students. I think I have held them all as babies when they were born. How many teachers can say that about their students? How cool is that? I love working at a school for a long period of time. You get to know the familes, form relationships with them and watch the children grow and flourish. Very, very rewarding!

Possible Challenges:
1) 13 English Learners. 7 of those at the intermediate level, 4 at beginning or early intermediate and one ad early advanced. a little bit of a spread but for the most part close together in english proficiency. This year i have 7 English Only kids. This is the largest group I have ever had. They are the biggest challenge. Despite the fact that they are labeled English Only, you can never assume that they are truly proficient in English. These kids are usually the ones who are low readers or are really English Learners but their parents have not identified them as such, so legally, they don't get the specialized services.

2) One student has a chronic lice problem. Aside from the health issues, lice problems = attendance problems. I will have to handle that right away. Educate the parents.

3) One of my students has a behavior record. LOTS of hitting and kicking and toilet flooding. I will have to take care of that one RIGHT AWAY!

Hmmm:
1) I have a Sabina in my class. She will probably be my first and last Sabina ever!

I think this will be a good year. Three cheers for the 2009/2010 school year!