Checking In: One week of relationship building.

How is everyone doing with building those relationships?  We are one week into school now, so here are some of the activities we have done to start the year.

At lunch today I went table by table.  I  said each student's name and if I didn't know it or remember it, I asked their name. It became a game with them, with many  of them hoping I'd get it wrong (some of them  got their wish...)  I'll head  to lunch again Thursday and quiz myself on the students that I missed.

This is a great way to show them application of study skills: practice, get some wrong, focus on the ones you got wrong, practice again, repeat as necessary... keep practicing.

In science  we practiced the art of "observation" vs. "inferences."  My co-teacher developed this idea for Social Studies and adapted it to Science.  It is pretty brilliant...

Students were given envelopes filled with personal effects from my past. These included a train schedule, a class photo of me with my first students (dated sometime last century,)  some hockey cards, and a number of other items. These items were broken into four envelopes.

What the heck is this thing?

On top of these four envelopes, students also got to investigate two personal spaces: My desk and my car. Now, let me ask you. When was the last time you let students go through your desk? Would you let them?

Here is what my students discovered: I like snacks. and tea. a lot. In fact one drawer was FULL of these things. They saw lots of Rubik's cubes and NASA items. They saw a $1 bill in my top drawer. There were pens, pencils, former students' work, and lots of chocolate. And yes, that $1 bill was still in my desk at the end of the activity.

My car was less exciting, but they were all curious about my 'mascots.'  On my dashboard I have Pain & Panic (from Disney's Hercules), White Rabbit (from Alice in Wonderland), a small rubber duck, and a children's block.

Ideally in the following days the students will have to build as much of my life story as they can: Where have I lived? Who is in my family? What are my hobbies? How far back in my life  can you go? Why can't you go back further? Can you finally figure out how old I am? Why did I chose to keep those things in the car?

As the year progresses, we will connect this activity to many of the scientific concepts we will be studying: geological time scales, Earth's changing features, fault lines, and more.

I hope everyone's first few days have been wonderful.  I'd love to hear how things are going!

Getting Started On The Right Foot

As I get ready to start my school year, I found myself reflecting on some of the skills and strategies that lead to a strong start.  Now, as you read them I know you'll think that since I'm writing it, I must be great at these skills. Hardly. These are the ones that I know are important for both short and long term success in a year, but many of them are ones I struggle with enacting.

Now this list is in no way fully comprehensive. There are many thoughts I had that would be important, but for me these are the ones I need to remember to put into practice.  These are presented in no particular order.... except this one:

LEARN YOUR STUDENT'S NAMES. 

Nothing on this list can help you have a more successful start and finish to a year than this.  You will be asking your students to get out of their comfort zone on a very regular basis. They need to trust they will be safe. Nothing breaks that trust more than saying "hey... um... you." There are many layers to emotional safety, but none are higher than you knowing that child's name. "Hey you, the volleyball player that likes MCR" is really not as effective as "Hey, Sasha! What was the name of the band you were talking about last week?"

Practice their names. Say them correctly; ask if you are unsure. Don't give them a nickname because "the name is too hard to say" or "too tricky to remember."  Challenge them to quiz you in the halls and at lunch. Give them a high five when you get it right. Give them a high five when they have to correct you.

Learn. Their. Names.

Establish procedures and protocols in your classroom.

If you have particular ways to hand in work, check in assignments, enter the room, or ask to use the restroom, make sure they know them. Practice these in detail the first few days. Explain them as expectations, not as discussion points.  If the procedure is important to you, stop class when it isn't followed.

Contact your families

As early as you can in the year, contact the families of all of your students. Call, e-mail, send a letter home. Whatever works best for your situation. Let them know how happy you are that their child is in your room. Let them know how well they are adjusting to their new grade/classroom/school. Invite them to contact you should they have questions or concerns. That one call or e-mail makes trickier conversations later in the year go much easier.

Schedule you time

The school year is a marathon, not a sprint. You need aid stations to get through it. Whether time is spent reading (for pleasure, not professional development), hanging out with friends (and not talking about lessons or students), blogging (about things other than work), Netflix... whatever. Find time for non-work-anything activities. No e-mail, updating grade books, looking at student work, or focusing on lessons. Schedule 'you time' on your google calendar. Make it sacrosanct.

Be kind to yourself 

Give yourself some grace. We preach to students that mistakes are expected. We tell them it's ok to misunderstand directions. We encourage them to push their limit knowing they'll fall along the way. We tell them "you're just doing this for the first time, of course you'll make a mistake!" Well, this is the first time you're teaching this curriculum to these specific students. If it is ok for them to make mistakes, it's ok for you to make mistakes as well.

Reflect

But focus on the positives. Ask yourself, "What went well about my day?" before you get into, "what would I have changed?" SO often as educators we focus on the one group that didn't get the concept, the one student that caused a disruption, or the one part of the lesson that bombed. Start with positives. Then, anytime you reflect on a negative say, "yup, but (this) and (this) went well."


There are many many more thoughts on my mind that could be on this list.  I'm curious what would you add? Leave a comment below about something that I missed that is on your essentials list!

The Most Important Classroom Supply

A very good friend of mine is going to be returning to the classroom after a number of years away. She was amazed at all the changes within the classroom and posted a question for her friends on Facebook:

Teacher friends I need to know must haves for the classroom. All of my supplies are in transit and I will be setting up my 4th grade classroom in a week!

She received the expected responses: whiteboards and markers, paper, pencils... Some responses got a little deeper and realistic: lunch money for kids that don't have it, some breakfast snacks, playground balls.

Where do all of these supplies come from?  According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 94% of teachers purchase supplies for their own classroom. The age of the students, the average student's family income, location in the country, rural, urban - none of those impact that statistic. The average amount spent? Between $450 and $550 per teacher.  Multiply that by 3.7 million teachers in America and you get $1.85 billion spent by teachers out of their own pockets for the 2019-2020 school year,

Many teachers have resorted to doing crowdfunding, such as gofundme.org or #ClearTheList, to help defray some of these costs.  But now, districts are starting to restrict these options.  A few teachers that I know locally have been told they may not do any sort of crowdfunding for their classroom and more globally through Ohio districts are wary about the risks of this income, specifically the concern of how it might be spent and who owns the supplies should the teacher leave the classroom.

This leads to my thought on classroom supplies...  My response to my friend's post was somewhat different than the others:

"For me it isn't the 'stuff' - it is the presentation and passion - integrate the math with the writing. show how social studies is impacted by science. Show them how they are important to the community. Show them that they are loved. You have so much empathy and compassion. Bring that and everything else will fall into place."

I am not saying that a classroom can survive on passion alone. A classroom needs supplies - notebooks, pencils, paper, and novels (yes novels, even in math class) are just the basics. However, even the best supplied classroom - one with a full stock of interactive notebooks, properly labeled binders, post-its, standing desks, and a 1:1 iPad program - will not succeed unless the teacher is trained and passionate.  How I interact with my students is far more important than any type of physical supply you can put in my room.

To all of the teachers that are starting up in the next few weeks - good luck, enjoy building those relationships with the students, and remember the kids that need you the most are the ones that may show it the least.

The teacher is the most important resource in any learning environment.