Label Maker is Back in Action!

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My office is organised.  Funny Story: I was chatting to my new Boss about text types and ensuring all teachers in the school are teaching the same test type and the same language.  I reached back to pull a folder of my shelf (the red one with the school text type guide) so I could show it to her.  It wasn't there.  My folders don't go on top of the shelves now.  The folders belong in the cupboard.  I put them there, you would think I would know where I put them.  

Although, if we follow that logic, then I would know where my prescriptions are!!! 

Welcome to Wednesday. 

For the first time in "like forever" I am going to share something about words, because it is Wednesday. 

I saw this on Pinterest and laughed out loud.  

Source

At school lately, we have been having a few conversations about "teaching spelling" and the importance of being realistic with our expectations.  Some are focused on test results and the concern that students who can't spell are not going to do well on their standardised test (because of course that is the only thing that is tested).  Others start by saying that they are really concerned about the students' writing and say that it is so difficult to read and end with a diatribe about shocking spelling errors.  Then we start talking about teacher literacy skills and people start talking about spelling "errors" which, let's face it, are probably typos.  

My point: when a child struggles to spell and they have been learning spelling words by rote and getting 10 out of 10 every week on their spelling tests.... something is not right.  When a child at the age of thirteen can not spell basic or "easy" words, telling them to "look it up" is probably not going to help.  If a child reaches high school and doesn't have a clear understanding of letter sound relationships they will need to fix far more than their "spelling" to become a functionally literate person in society.  

Yeah, this silly picture is funny.  So enjoy the LOL and move on. I just want to say, as a teacher of literacy:

 The irony, while hilarious, is beginning to irritate me.  

ten things I learned about...

Welcome to my new Tuesday column: 10 things I learned about... This week I am going to share a few random things.  Before I start my list I want to explain why I have decided to start a series of regular posts on this topic.  Life Long Learning is one of those "buzz" phrases that has been bandied about education circles in the last two decades or so.  Life Long Learning has been a focus of educators, or should I say, education policy/ curriculum writers, for a long time.  Educators are not just responsible for the day to day learning of their students while they are in the classroom, but they are charged with a greater goal.  The goal to make their kids passionate about education and self-directed, motivated learners.  Teachers are asked to not only teach their students to read and write, but, they are expected to teach children the skills required to learn independently well after they walk out the school gates.  

Sorry, I seem to have launched into a rant.  Rant over.  

I consider myself a Life Long Learner and while I seem skeptical, I believe it is important to continue learning.  We learn something new everyday.  We learn best when we reflect upon our experiences and actually record the new knowledge or skill we have learned that day.  So, that is the reason I have begun 10 things Tuesday.  Basically it is a learning journal.  

Every Tuesday I will list 10 things I have learned in the previous week. I will try to keep it under one topic each week, like teaching, children, Christianity, life, reading, music etc..  Sometimes it will just be random and fit into "this week" whereas other times it will spread over a long period of time but fit into one category. Okay, do we all understand where we are going?  Too bad, we are going there anyway.  Try to relax, you will enjoy the ride far more. 

Ten Things I learned about... 

(in no particular order)

1. Blogging has rules.  Rules are meant to be broken 

2. Hair grows back (click here to fully understand why this is funny)

3.Pinterest is addictive although far more educational than Facebook. 

4. You can hyperlink almost anything.

5.  Being aware of how you learn is powerful.

6. Understanding that everyone thinks differently and has their very own filter of experience and knowledge through which they see the world, is more powerful.

7. Patience is a virtue which cannot be simply granted like a wish.  Patience must be learned and enhanced through experience. 

8. Experience is a funny word if you use it often enough.

9. Every word is funny if you use it often enough.

10. Laughter really is the best medicine and it is free! 

What have you learned this week?

Promised book chat for NYR

Considering it is the National Year of Reading Down Under, I have been promising a regular book/ reading chat here at AGT.  Unfortunately, I have not been very "regular" in my reading conversations.  I will attempt to remedy that today through to the end of the year. 

We all know that I LOVE books.  Some people might say that I HEART books.  Some people might say that I LIKE books.  But the truth of the matter is, that I LOVE books.  There is nothing better than a book and infinite time to enjoy it.  Books are so wonderful that they have often been the catalyst for my solitude.  I would much prefer the company of a good book than the company of most people.  I would much rather snuggle up with a book in bed than go to a silly (and probably very loud) movie.  I have on a number of occasions, "missed my stop" because I was reading a book while riding on a bus or train.  Books are a huge part of my life.  In my humble opinion, the long and lovely relationship I have with books and reading, qualifies me to be the "expert" in this situation.  

I used to be a member of a SAGALA group.  SAGALA stands for Salvation Army Guard and Legion Activities and is basically a children and youth program run by the Salvos.  It is similar to scouts, guides, girls' brigade, boys' brigade etc etc in that children are grouped by age and meet once a week to participate in a range of activities.  Their participation teaches them skills and knowledge which they are "tested" on and they receive badges and awards.  What was the point in me telling you this?  Oh, that's right.  I once had to do a badge called "book lover" which I'm sure I don't have to explain.  My sister was helping me to check the requirements of the badge to see what I had done and what I needed to finish to earn the badge.  She told me to go and get all the books that I had read (cover to cover) in the last year.  I went to my room and the communal book shelves downstairs and I came back loaded with at least 50 books.  I dumped them on the couch beside her.  She looked at me in disbelief and asked, "you read all these books cover to cover?". I smiled, "Yep."  

My current job title of "Literacy Coach" involves a great deal of reading.  I love to read.  I have the privilege of recommending books for our school library to purchase.  I read to my students (this is rare in secondary school settings).  I talk to kids about books.  I make displays for the school library.  I read books that others have recommended.  I read books about reading books.  I teach kids how to read.  I help kids who can read a little bit, but struggle to understand what they are reading.  I help kids find books that they like to read.  I help teachers help their students.  I love my job.  I especially love the reading part of my job.  

I love books.  I love reading.  I love teaching other people how to read.  I love sharing books with others.  I love reading with others.  I love books.  

So, Monday's from now on, will be National Year of Reading Day.  You can look forward to news about NYR events throughout Australia.  I will tell you about some of my favourite books and authors.  I will tell you what is happening around my school in relation to NYR.  I will tell you about the joy of reading.  You will read about some truly great titles and find links to other blogs/ websites that revel in reading too.  

We have a date.  See you next Monday :)

PS. I will still post on other days and themes will vary as always.  But Mondays will be reserved for NYR.  

Writing and Sleeping and Planning

Oh My! 

What a day and a half!

My brain is still in overload mode.  I have so much that I’m supposed to be doing and I don’t know where to start… again. 

Instead of freaking out, I’m going to tell you about the excellent Professional Development Workshop that I attended yesterday. 

Seven Steps to Writing Success

I met Jen McVeity. We received a manual in the morning with instruction and information about teaching Persuasive Writing the "7 Steps Way".  Our National Testing program focuses on students writing a persuasive text, so everyone was very interested in this.  Some teachers (especially in primary school) struggle to teach this text type with students.  Personally, I really enjoy it.  Jen (our presenter and the author of 7 steps) then provided us with a booklet of notes (that she displayed on ppt as well) and activities for us to try.  Exciting! 

Then we hit the real stuff.  I just realised that my last paragraph broke all the rules I learned yesterday.  Oh well. 

We actually started at step two: sizzling starts (hook them with a bang).  This seems like, kind of a no-brainer. right? But how many of us are sick of reading the same "beginning" from our students and wonder why they don't try something else.  It seems that we (teachers) give kids a formula and give lots of ticks when the kids get the "structure" right.  This sounds like the right thing to do (and it is), but we don't go the next step.  Rules are made to be broken.  Teach them the structure and formula.  Then tell them that real writers break the rules, and show them how to do it.  Help them make it more interesting.  We model how to enter the classroom and we model correct structures and we need to model how to make us interested in their writing.  I think I will share more about this later.  

Then we go back to step one which is fairly logical... PLANNING.  Again this is about modelling.  We tell the kdis to plan, but we don't show them how.  We don't practice the skill.  We practice transitions from desks to carpet and back again.  We need to practice the transition between getting a writing task and doing the writing task.  What is this transition... it is the planning.  We need to show them how to plan, and give them strategies for planning.  Then we need to do it over and over and over again.  We need to do it until planning is second nature.  

I'm not going to tell you the other steps at this point... mainly because they are not my steps to tell. If you want more info about the steps, scroll back up and click the link.  

But, I will remind you about a fundamental of teaching practice.  DO IT AGAIN! Break the task (every task we want our students to perform) into BABY STEPS and then.... get them to do it OVER and OVER AGAIN! Each time they do it, we need to give them feedback.  Tell them what they did right, tell them what they did wrong AND how to fix it and encourage them to try it again.  

Some of you are saying... der M... but some of you are going .... AAAHHHh I knew that, but I forgot that.  This fundamental of teaching can be applied to everything we do.  Chunk, Teach, then Practice routines and behaviour systems.  Chunk, Teach, Practice; algorithms, spelling, writing, reading, drawing, ruling a margin, setting out the book, working alone, working in groups, throwing a ball, catching a ball, sharing with friends... etc etc etc 

If you are having difficulty teaching something.... go back to the most basic of basics.  Chunk the task/skill into every little step involved.  Can your students do this step? Have they done it before? Teach each step.  Practice each step on its own and then together with the other steps.  

In her workshop, Jen talks specifically about teaching writing.  My sharing is just  my interpretation of it.  I'm sharing what was going through my head as I listened and wrote notes and tried activities.  Also, we often teach the small steps but then we jump straight to do the big task. We skip the part about helping the kids put all the pieces back together.  It is the putting it together, that is so important.  

If you are not a teacher... or you are not interested in Teaching... sorry.  I promise I will write about something else one day.  But today, it is about this.  

:) M

My Label Maker ran out of tape!!!

It is a disaster!!!  I was right in the middle of labelling my new paper sorter too.  :( 

I was determined to get the office sorted today and I did it!  Even though I will need to catch up on the labels!  (ggrr)

Miss Smith came to school with me on Friday and helped get me started.... let's face it, she did a huge chunk of the heavy lifting for me.  

She got me started by pulling everything out of the cupboard (which was a bit of a mess) and sorting through everything.  I asked her to make two piles of folders (one for folders that were empty and one for all the others).  Then storage boxes that were filled went in one pile while empty storage boxes went in another.  Any loose paper work was then sorted into three piles.  First: worksheets/ printables/ copies/ booklets.  Second: Scary Teacher Paperwork (Miss S is not a teacher, so this was the best way to describe it to her).  Third: student work.  

Miss Smith did such a great job and I was ecstatic when I came back from a class to find my paperwork piles labelled with post-it notes.  She also sorted through my desk by piling up all the stationery products in one pile and the folders/ paperwork in another.  

This made it so much easier for me to tackle each of the paperwork piles.  I love Miss Smith.  After I sorted paperwork to be filed, Miss Smith filed it for me and then we put everything back in the cupboard in a much more orderly fashion.  

I took some advice from the Clutter Free Classroom to make a plan.  My main goal today was to get my desk cleared and functional again.  I purchased some new storage and had it in the corner so I had a place for everything as I needed it.  Admittedly, I am still using containers and folders that are recycled and left over from other places I’ve been.  While it would be nice to cull everything and buy brand new folders and shelves and containers so that everything is the same size and shape and colour, I can’t justify the expense.  So, for now, I will manage with what I have and purchase new items as I go.  Eventually I will get there.  

what used to pass as a tidy desk... still kinda scary.

Today I fixed up the desk and I have a few photos for you.  I don't have many "befores"….  sorry.  

This one looks okay, but you can see in the background how haphazard everything was in the cupboard.  

This is how the cupboard looks now.  :) 

At the bottom of the shelf are folders which house student records and teacher reference materials.   The stacked plastic crates are filled with resources and teacher stuff from previous years.  One of the stacks has empty/ partially filled crates for future storage.  

Here is my desk now! 

I cleared all the stationery into the drawers.  One (or two) of each  of the essentials are in the top drawer and extras are in the file cabinet beside my desk.  You can see I have a cup of pens on my desk. (CFC might frown at me, but I think I have done well) 

My planning and administration folders are in the full magazine box to the left and note books are in the blue one beside it.  I don't have anything in the grey one yet, but I will probably have a use for it by the end of the week.  

The four tier tray tower to the left are empty except for the top which has my photocopying folder and clipboard.  This was a dumping ground for paperwork in the past.  I did have them labelled: in, to do, to read, to file.  Then I had them labelled: Literacy Coaching, LNP year 8 (one subject I manage), LNP year 9 (the other subject I manage) and Scrap paper.  That did not work! 

I am thinking of using days of the week... I only go to school 4 days a week, so it will work just right, for now.  

The second draw you can see has my two bestest friends: chocolate and my label maker!
Of course there are the band aids, antibacterial and tissues, the case has "lady things" in it.
There are batteries, sticky velcro and a few other bits and pieces.  

Well, that's that then.  I hope you are proud of me.  I am.  

My  Teaching Partner, K, said I was so cute taking photos this afternoon and she was very proud of me.  I feel cleansed and refreshed.  Let's hope the feeling hangs around for a while.  

I am going to a writing workshop tomorrow (how to teach writing).  TPK is more excited than me and she isn't even going.  Poor Luv.   I'll let you know what the food is like.  LOL 

;) M