"Fa la la la"...Now how many sides does this shape have?

After months of practicing, we held our Winter Concert on Friday. Finding out it was on a Friday night was a little disappointing, but it ended up being incredibly fun. During the chaos of school days, I often forget how adorable kids can be. Seeing them all dressed up (one student was in a tuxedo, one wore a kilt, my favorite outfit included a top hat) and filled with nerves about performing reminded me that I am lucky to spend my days with (mostly) sweet and innocent little kiddos.

On a different note, we just had our OAKS training. OAKS is Oregon's version of standard state testing. After reaching third grade, kids have to take the test yearly. This year our school wide goal is to drastically raise our sad math scores. This has meant a double dose of math daily on most days. Tuesday afternoons have turned into math test preparation, working on topics specifically found on the test. I typically find specific test preparation a waste of time (students will be prepared if they are being successfully taught throughout the year), but because we use direct instruction to teach math at our school, the kids are missing out on a lot of the math terminology used on the tests and students are working at their ability level, not necessarily their grade level. Tuesdays are used to teach our students their grade level standards and introduce test vocabulary.

Past Tuesdays have included fractions and subtraction with borrowing; this Tuesday we are working on geometry. The kids are scheduled to take the test in March and are able to take it twice (if they don't pass the first time). I will keep you posted on their progress. They are working incredibly hard and I hope it is reflected in their scores!

S.M.A.R.T goals and mean teachers

After the frightening experience of sitting down in front of four administrators and being evaluated on my teaching performance thus far, my school decided our next (end of the year) evaluations would be more of a personal, self-evaluation. The first step was a professional development on creating SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic time-sensitive) goals for our self. The point of this is to identify any weaknesses and create a specific plan to improve.

My first goal is to increase my positive interactions with students, in return making me happier at work. I decided to begin by creating a baseline; which will be done through an observation of myself teaching (either recording myself or having someone observe me) and tallying my positive interactions and my negative interactions. I will revisit this baseline continuously until the end of the year, hoping to see a decrease in the negative interactions and an increase in the positive ones.

After my baseline is established, the next steps to help me become a more positive teacher are to: research positive behavior approaches, rethink the positive behavior systems I already have in place and continue going to the gym before school at least three times a week (creating this balance has been helping with my mood tremendously).

This goal is important to me because it is very easy to focus on the "problem students" and deal with their behaviors negatively (raising your voice, taking away recess time, etc.). However, I know from school and experience the best way to shape these students' behaviors is to use positive behavior plans. For example, praising the students who ARE doing the right thing, making positive phone calls when a child is successful and providing students with coping strategies when they are having a rough time. I will write about my other SMART goals at a later time and will keep you posted on my progress!

Cheers to become a happier teacher :)

I know we don't have school today, but why?

I don't have a lot of free time in my teaching day, but I was determined to fit in some Martin Luther King Jr. history. Throughout graduate school, I read about the need to open up children's eyes to debate and the unfairness of the world; to give them the ability to think for themselves. But as I have been teaching, one rarely finds time to talk about the "important stuff".

I began by reading a really powerful book, My Uncle Martin's words for America, written from the perspective of Dr. King's niece. I naively assumed my students would be familiar with Dr. King, but although most knew we were off school on Monday, few actually knew why. It was really amazing to get kids talking about how "unfair" and "rude" it was to segregate. I had students speaking up, saying that if MLK Jr. hadn't changed things, certain kids wouldn't even be in our class.

I expanded the topic of civil rights to not only African Americans, but to all cultures, genders and ultimately people. I repeated the famous Martin Luther King Jr. quote, "An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" and we had an enlightening conversation about what it meant. It was so great seeing how riled up my kids got about the injustices of America.

To continue this topic, I am finishing my book tomorrow and am having the students pick one of three writing prompts (taken from the following blog:  The 2nd grade surpise), a letter to MLK Jr., "If you could ask MLK Jr. something, what would it be?" and "If I could change the World, I would...". I am excited to read their responses.

I got a job!

Hi all,

Amazingly enough, I received a full-time teaching job soon after graduating from Willamette University with my MAT. I say amazingly, not because I doubt my ability as a teacher, but I am realistic about the economy I am living in and am much appreciative of my position. I have been co-teaching 3rd grade at a charter school in East Portland for the past six months. Not surprisingly, I haven't had the time to begin blogging about my experience. So far things have been running fairly smoothly. Some highlights have been: succeeding at turning a difficult group (we teach all academic areas in small groups) into a very enjoyable part of my day, "building" brains in natural world, watching my kids participate in dance during rainy PE days (often in Oregon) and hosting a "minute to win it" party for the holidays. Some struggles have been: difficult academic groups, exercising my patience and a lack of time in the day to complete to do lists.

Please continue or begin reading along while I continue trying to improve as a teacher. 2012 was an exciting year filled with a lot of hard work; so far 2013 isn't proving to be much different!