#SOL18: New Year’s Resolutions
Read.
Reread.
Re-reread.
Yes, New Year’s Resolutions on August 14th!
publicdomainpictures.net
What are YOUR Resolutions for the New School Year?
Where will you begin?
___ Online query (Facebook, twitter, instagram)
___ Professional Learning Community (Summer book study or Back to school updates)
___ Texts Read this Summer (180 Days, A Novel Approach, Kids First from Day 1, Engaging Children, Writers Read Better, Sparks in the Dark, To Know and Nurture a Reader, What’s the Best that Could Happen? Teach Like Yourself, What are you Grouping For?)
___ Blog posts ( TWT Blog Series – Dreaming Big in this Year’s Writing Workshop)
___ Personal mission/vision statement
___ Searching for a Fun, New, Community Building Activity
___ Other
Why does it matter?
Time is the most precious commodity in your classroom. How will your use of time reflect your priorities?
Rules? or Expectations?
Fun? or Meaningful?
“Will your students READ, WRITE, TALK, and THINK on Day 1? Day 2? Day 3? . . .
What will your students LEARN this year?
What processes will you put in place to help set the stage?”
YOU, the teacher
Not you, the entertainer
You, the teacher
Teaching
Growing and Learning
Reading
Writing
Thinking
Respectfully,
Thoughtfully,
Kindly,
Setting the Stage
Crafting Experiences
What is on your list of New School Year’s Resolutions?
What are your priorities?
Will you be the “best teacher” that you can be?
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Deb, Kathleen, Kelsey, Lanny, Melanie, and Stacey for this weekly forum. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here. 
For more information, this is the blog post I read before writing my post. Thanks for the inspiration, Mr. G: I might just teach
#SOL18: Time
The lyrics from the Byrds have been going through my brain lately as I’ve lost track of day and night, days, and now even weeks, and WOW, how did it get to be August?
“To everything (turn, turn, turn)
There is a season (turn, turn, turn)
And a time to every purpose, under heaven . . .” Video, 1965.
What does it take to be an award winner?
This song won a Grammy back in the 1960’s. Ah, yes, before many of you were born. So what is a classic? What is real? What needs to be repeated? What needs to be retired?
Cherish . . . and another tune instantly comes to mind.
Do I have songs on my brain?
Everything’s coming up roses and in verse!
There’s something about the JOYFULNESS of song!
I’m hopeful that the joyfulness in my life spills over to ensure that joyfulness is a part of every classroom this fall. Enthusiastic teachers. Refreshed. Relaxed. Rejuvenated.
Ready for challenges.
Ready to toil anew.
Ready to advocate for EVERY student.
Ready to lose your heart to that next room full of students!
And yet, every day the clock will continue! Can you find precious minutes for MORE reading and writing? Can you redistribute the time you have?
The students . . .
Excited students. Excited and eager for routines. Eager for learning. Eager to make a difference. Eager and enthusiastic to be back at school.
A time to be curious and focus on their brilliant minds and all the great things they do know. A time to think about next steps and small nudges of growth that will start spinning the success wheel.
Time shows what we value.
I love this quote from Ralph Fletcher.
“Time is a new kind of poverty. A schedule
that features daily writing communicates to
students: ‘Writing is one of my non-negotiables.
It’s too important for me to squeeze in
once in a blue moon’” (p. 45).
~ Ralph Fletcher
The Writing Teacher’s Companion
Scholastic, 2017.
What is on your daily schedule?
What are your non-negotiables?
How will we know?
And just to come to a full circle . . . “So what is a classic? What is real? What needs to be repeated? What needs to be retired?”
What is really necessary in your classroom?
What do students really need to learn?
How will you know?
Life is all about decisions. Time is in your favor. Many have just begun. Many begin soon. Others have about three weeks. How will you use every precious second in honor of worthwhile and necessary learning?
Before we can ask for MORE TIME, we must make sure that we use our existing time wisely!
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Deb, Kathleen, Kelsey, Lanny, Melanie, and Stacey for this weekly forum. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here.
#SOL18: It’s About Time!
The heat and summer weather continues but visions of classrooms are filling many heads as teachers and students begin the final stretch of “vacation” and “It’s the last time, I can . . . this summer” routines.
I attended a research round table at #ILA18 in Austin and posted the first side of the hand out from one 15 minute segment about Chapter 16, “It is About Time for Comprehensive Language Arts Instruction (We’ve Tried Everything Else!)” in this post.
This book.
487 pages.
I’m still reading.
How will those “8 Components” be implemented?
Well, that was side two of the handout and some brief discussion. This post is going to focus on just three of the 8 sections on implementation. (The numbering is mine so that I could keep the sections in order.)
The first implementation I am highlighting was the first on the page.
- Make Time for Self-Selected Reading and Teacher Read-aloud
- Replace “morning work” with self-selected reading
- Reduce time for “packing up” and end the day with self-selected reading
- Read aloud to children during “snack time”
- Read topic-related books and magazine articles aloud in subject areas
Four different options for “making time” were listed.
Will one of those work for you? Which one? More than one?
If your students need to increase their reading volume, time is an issue. How can you ensure that they will have more time to read? What is within your control? How are your priorities visible for yourself, your students, and your entire learning community?
The second implementation:
4. Teach Handwriting along with High-Frequency Words
- Focus students on each letter during high-frequency word learning by integrating it with handwriting instruction
Sight Words? High-Frequency Words?
What are you having students learn and why?
How will you know that students have learned the words?
I’m a believer that sight words are “known” when they are used and spelled correctly in writing. Not just the quick, fast recognition for reading but also the accurate recall and correct spelling when the words are written. Part of the practice to get the word into long-term memory can be handwriting. What a win/win for students!
And what a way to achieve my goal: No more students spelling “said” as /sed/ because that is the way it sounds!!!
And for today, the final and perhaps most important recommendation . . .
8. Stop Doing Things We Know Don’t Matter
- Stop doing activities, skills or lessons in traditional grammar
- Stop teaching cursive handwriting
- Stop teaching dictionary location skills
This last section is probably the most critical in my thinking. Why on earth do we keep doing “stuff” that we know either a) is not effective? or b) does not matter?
Here’s the link to the document (both pages).
How will this inform your instruction?
What conversations do you need to have prior to sweeping changes?
How will you know if you are using time wisely?
How will you continue to “check in” on your own use of time?
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Deb, Kathleen, Kelsey, Lanny, Melanie, and Stacey for this weekly forum. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here.
#SOL18: THANKFUL
Joyful
Pleased
Relieved
Blog post # 603 – Cause to celebrate?
Yes, but . . .
End of June
End of July
Ready to acknowledge waning of summer
August break – Nothing planned – Cause to celebrate?
Yes, but . . .
Rainy day
Computer log in would not cooperate
Tasks to complete
Deadline met – Cause to celebrate?
Yes, but . . .
Plans made
Flight, hotel, and rental car,
One phone message
All plans scrapped – Cause to celebrate?
Yes, grandson # 2 is home with 2 parents, 1 Big Brother, 2 pups and 2 grandmothers!
Oh, HAPPY DAYS!
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Deb, Kathleen, Kelsey, Lanny, Melanie, and Stacey for this weekly forum. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here.
#SOL18: Why?
My #OLW stood me in great steed this weekend at #ILA18.
So much to see . . .
So much to do . . .
So much to learn . . .
But What’s the Point?
Back in the Dark Ages,
In the late 2oth Century!
I remember the value placed on
Whole-Part-Whole in education.
The goal was always LEARNING!
The intent was for ALL to be LEARNING!
Students
Teachers
ALL!
After #ILA18 I feel that many empowered teachers have been set free in the universe to “change the world” and continue learning. We haven’t learned it all. There is a real need to continue to grow and build our knowledge base.
And that brings me to one of my Sunday sessions. We were learning about the Handbook of Research on Teaching the English Language Arts (4th edition) under the leadership of Diane Lapp and Douglas Fisher. It has 18 chapters. Chapters that could be used in schools for professional development.
18 Must Reads.
18 Invitational Conversations.
Exploring the tight connections between research and best supported practice that promotes literacy for every learner.
This was not a book available to purchase in the Exhibit Hall.
But could it? Dare it be a lens to consider best practices? A lens to consider What? How? or even WHY we do what we do in instruction?
In its entirety this is one side of a handout from a round table at that session . . .
Chapter 16
8 Essential Components of Comprehensive Language Arts Instruction.
Any surprises for you?
As I reviewed the list, I found it quite interesting that this list of components included nine, or exactly half of the chapters. Curiosity, of course, won out. What on earth could the other nine chapters be about if this is “the list of components for instruction” and if THIS is the book for teachers to study.
So I was off researching.
In a classroom, I would have been in major trouble because I was on my computer and might have appeared to NOT be on task. But I was in search of more information. What is the other half of this book about? This book we should study? This book we should use? This 499 page book!
This post is titled “Why?” not to just allow me to pose my own questions but also to perhaps begin to develop some of my own theories. Why these eight components? Why do two of the eight (25%) not have chapter resources supporting them?
WHY?
What are the “Whys?” that are circling in your brain?
What format will the chapter take?
Will there be recommendations of “amounts of time” per component?
Will there be “recommendations of additional resources”?
Were any teachers involved in updating this handbook?
Is there any support for how to put these 8 components into action?
Or how to “know” when the components are all aligned?
Will this text continue to treat each component as a separate silo? What about the reciprocity of reading and writing? How will we grow readers and writers?
Why this text now?
What’s so compelling about this text, right now, that this book should be a part of a district’s professional development?
It was a pleasure to hear much rich conversation around real reading and writing at #ILA18. Real, rich, robust reading that is NOT about single standard instruction or assessment. It’s actually quite refreshing to go back to the “Whole” of language arts instruction in reading, writing, speaking and listening that moves stedents to take action in the real world.
Doing school must end. It’s time to capitalize on any instruction that promotes high learning and engagement that challenges students without mind-numbing page after page of annotation, Cornell notes, and skills-based minute particles that can easily be googled. Why do adults think these decisions can be made without broader input from our communities?
If the whole is our entire language arts program
and the part is the eight components,
what “WHY?s” will you need answered before you can implement these 8 components?
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Deb, Kathleen, Kelsey, Lanny, Melanie, and Stacey for this weekly forum. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here.
#ILA18: Sunday
Day 2
Joy
Friends
Breakfast
Sessions
Meeting face to face
Talking
Laughing
Learning
Dinner
Chatting
Chatting
Chatting
So blessed to have this time . . .
So important to make the time . . .
So important to say, “Thanks, Friends! ILA was so much fun together!”
Curious: Mostly about the Pairs
Kari and Christina
“We believe every child deserves a teacher committed to conferring. That work is within the reach of every teacher.”
Be there. Perfect place to be. Next month, next year – grow your practice. – Kari Yates and Christina Nosek
To find out more, link to their blog here.
Or Facebook here.
On twitter:
“Intentional language choices that include systematic thinking about how to support a reader.
Figuring it out.
Celebrating.
Nudging.
Reminding.” – Kari Yates and Christina Nosek
Their book . . .
Ellin and Debbie
Two weeks until Debbie Miller’s new book is released.
Reviewing our use of time in workshop. . . This is the “Lift Off”.
Ellin . . . brought her new book to life!
Engagement . . . not compliance, not time on task, participation, nor motivation.
Read more here.
Rose and Lynne
In a one hour session, demonstration, practice writing off a mentor text, revising, AND a video from a classroom. Well done, Rose and Lynne. So many great ideas!
Research
This book . . .
And those that were missed . . .
Just a few quotes borrowed from Twitter . . . from all the cool kids tweeting . . .
“Kylene Beers & Bob Probst say to revise reading TODAY so that more kids engage with reading, we need to do four things in our classrooms: fewer strategies, more volume, more talk, more rereading. #ILA18 ” – Penny Kittle
“Had a wonderful #ILA2018 because of the teachers who stopped me in the halls to chat, meeting colleagues who care about children, making new friends! Relationships matter!” – Laura Robb
“When a kid has the sniffles, we give them OJ & a healthy breakfast. We don’t rush to the ER. When they fall below benchmark in rdg, we send them out for an ER type intervention. How bout handing them a book? @AnnieTWard #ILA18 #fromstrivingtothriving #scholasticteach” – Stephanie Harvey
“@ProfessorNana Thanks for reminding us to feed kid books. Thinking a lot about edge time, priority time, and class time. #ILA2018” – Tenille Shade
Sunday, Fun Day!
How did you spend your Sunday?
#ILA18
Dear Austin,
Thank you for the amazing warm welcome, a supportive place to celebrate with friends, the learning, and the many great dining adventures.
Love,
#ILA Attendees
Spontaneous combustion of tortilla chips . . . Austin, Texas news . . . here
Celebrations . . .
Celebrating meeting so many in our #G2Great family as well as friends near and far.
A book birthday.
A real live face to face birthday!
With friends
With friends from afar. . . FB Live (Julieanne & Justin) Facetime (Kitty & Justin)
With friends we have known for years are are just now meeting IRL (in real life)
Our Montana connections!
The learning . . .
From the President of ILA, Doug Fisher . . .
and not because of zip code!
From Cornelius Minor
“Being nice in the face of oppression is not enough. Nice does not create change. Kindness does. Kindness means I care enough about you to call you out.”
For more from the keynote – see Mary Howard’s facebook post here.
From Courtney
We don’t know what we don’t know.
Trust the wisdom of our children.
Ask them.
From Jess
Check the language you use.
Who does not fit in?
How can I be more inclusive?
Listen, Research, Self examine.
Also – look at the books you have out when parents and students arrive. Do they see themselves in your classroom?
From Kate
Learn more than you can do. Keep learning.
Keep your head and heart ahead of your actions.
From Kim Yaris and Jan Burkins
“What’s more important than text level when considering text selection by teachers?1) Student Identity,
2) Joy,
3) Reading Process,
4) Depth of Thought
From Reading Wellness
A weight lifting metaphor
3# = light effort- People magazine
5# = A Kitchen House – Kathleen Grissom
8# = Where good ideas come from – Steven Johnson
10# = Theoretical Models and Processes of Reading – Alverman
Why is this not the same for our students?
Dining
Recommendations from the locals . . . Thank you, Terry and Clare. We loved Uncle Julio’s.
And then pure decadence.
Banana Foster Bread Pudding.
Melt in your mouth.
Not Soggy.
Pure scrumptiousness!
How was your Saturday?
#SOL18: Summer Vacation
July
Hot days
Rising Steady HIGH humidity
Corn on the cob
That first BLT
Already anticipating
That dreaded question . . .
“How did you spend your summer vacation?”
Book Club 1: 4 books scheduled . . . just finished book 3
Book Club 2: Writing about Reading . . . jotting, writing long, trying to create visuals
Book Club 3: Rereading, jotting, applying, thinking, and writing
Writing Project 1: Notes, resources, writing, writing, writing
Writing Project 2: Daily writing, reading, and responding
Online Writing Class: Video and writing
Online Writing Class: Daily checking in
Summer Class 1: Teaching
Summer Class 2: Developing
When does vacation start?
And what did I forget?
Treading Water . . .
Hanging On . . .
Typical Summertime Fun!
What does your summer fun look like?
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Deb, Kathleen, Kelsey, Lanny, Melanie, and Stacey for this weekly forum. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here.
I totally forgot it was Tuesday and Slice of Life! This was my 10 minute flash draft this morning.
Because
10 minutes
No more room in the schedule
The clock is ticking
On my summer work vacation!!!
#CyberPD: Being the Change
To read.
Surface Learning
To absorb and think about applying.
Deep Learning
To really consider the impact of my own words and the power of my actions, thoughts, and words.
Transfer Learning
We have a phrase in Iowa. It’s “Iowa Nice.” When are we “too nice” and when do we need to stop and consider the impact of our words? When do we need to step out of our comfort zone? Some issues seem easier to advocate for? Is that my background? Or just my comfort level?
I wrote about this book just two short months ago before the #G2Great chat with author Sara Ahmed. It feels like more than two months. So many changes . . . locally, nationally, and internationally.
I’m rereading it now for #cyberPD . . . just one of several book clubs that I am currently in. As I thought about “What” to write, it dawned on me.
I read it.
But I didn’t really think it was “about me”.
Being the Change!
I acknowledged my background
And checked it off my list.
Back to the drawing board.
Rereading.
Digging deeper.
Not just doing.
But thinking.
And reading.
And writing.
And determining what actions I need to take.
How will others know this is important to me?
What does it mean to “see the humanity” and to “activate your empathy”?
How do I remove the “us” and “them” from my vocabulary?
Paying lip service is not good enough.
Nodding my head is not good enough.
I must do better. It requires change.
Mea Culpa!
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Deb, Kathleen, Kelsey, Lanny, Melanie, and Stacey for this weekly forum. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here.
#SOL18: #OLW
After a quick search, I found that last year’s check-in on my One Little Word (#OLW) was mid-July so I’m pretty much on target again. July. Summer. Heat. A time to reflect.
Where has “curious” taken me this year?
Paying attention.
Listening.
Watching.
Reading.
Writing.
Thinking.
Curious and Learning
Most recently:
Iowa Reading Association and
#TCRWP
Front row learner
Book Clubs
#BookLove, #CyberPD, and more
Curious and Joyful
Graduations
Near and Far
Birthdays
With Family
With Friends
And special serenades
Curious and Fun
Ladies Football Academy
With my sister
And finding cousins along the way
Teaching
Consulting
PD Prep
Reading, Writing, and Blogging
Curious and Books
A Novel Approach
Literacy Essentials
It’s All About the Books
180 Days
To Know and Nurture a Reader
Engaging Children
Embarrassment
Kids 1st From Day One
Brave Leadership
Being the Change
Megabook of Fluency
Reclaiming the Principalship
What are you curious about?
How is your #OLW?
Have you checked in lately?
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Deb, Kathleen, Kelsey, Lanny, Melanie, and Stacey for this weekly forum. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here.
