Book Club

We had a great book club meeting today about The Quirks. We got to skype with the author. She was fantastic! First she told us a little bit about the book and how she ended up writing it. I had given her a head's up about some of the questions and discussions I had had with students along the way - so she covered those things. We got to see pictures of her kids and art her kids have drawn. We got to see her dog. We got to see her office and the bookcase full of books she has written. We got to ask questions too. I think the kids could have continued talking to her for another hour. It was really great!


She asked us about the books we had read and we found out that she lives near Kate DiCamillo and they sometimes walk their dogs together. Amazing!!

Ski Days

We have just spent two days at Canada Olympic Park. It is quite an undertaking to take 250+ students skiing. Our gym teacher is amazing at organizing these things. Each year we have done it it seems to get smoother and smoother.

What I love best about those skiing days is seeing what kids say and write about it. For some of them these two days are the only days in the year that they ski. So many of them learn that they can do hard things. It is awesome.

Best Day Ever!

I have the begat day ever every month when I get to go pick up book club books. It is very exciting! I approach it just like Oprah does: You get a book! And you get a book! And you get a book!

Nothing is more fun than handing out books to everyone. There is a buzz in the air. This month we are very excited to connect through Twitter with the author of the book we are reading!

We tweeted this picture to her today:

We were just getting ready to go out for recess. A number of kids asked if they were allowed to take the books out and read at recess.

These are kids after my own heart!!

Celebrate This Week

Check out Ruthayreswrites.com for links to more great posts in what happened in the world of education this week.

It has been a wonderful week. My students are really getting into the swing of reading accountability. Most of them have a chapter book going every week. They no longer balk at writing about what they are reading. They are sharing books with one another. They are excited about book draws. It warms heart!!

We had a wonderful book club discussion this week. I wrote about it in the post should go on our schools new blog soon. We did a Skype type visit with another FFCA campus. It was a good learning experience. I can't wait to try it again!! I am really excited about our next book mostly because I was able to connect with the author on Twitter. I can't wait to have my students tweet her as they're reading all through the month.

One of my grade level teacher friends told me about a conversation she had with a parent. They said they've always battled with their son about reading at home. Since he has joined great three bookclub, he is excited about reading and they don't don't fight about him reading anymore! They are big fans of book club! Yea!! That warmed my heart! 

We had a really fun day with the high school. They came and did a 'commercial' for the musical they are performing. At the same time I was working in our classroom newsletter and included some information about the play. I googled articles about the value of theatre for children. It was quite inspiring. I am so glad that I work at a school that values the arts.

Friday was a PD day. I love PD days. This week we stayed at our own campus for PD. We were very busy all day discussing and reflecting on our new report card format, learning about iPads, planning for character lessons...and best of all, leaning from each other. We went from classroom to classroom and each teacher shared a best practice. What a brilliant bunch I work with. It was truly inspiring.

Prison Sentence

In our school kids get homework every day.

I know. I know. 

Lots of people could go on about why kids don't need homework.

Our philosophy is that it needs to be something they can do independently and should take 20-30 minutes. No big deal.

This past week we have had less homework because we have been having swimming lessons. It has caused us to change our schedule s bit and cut out some things. As a result, there has been a lighter load when it comes to homework.

Today I did to them, "I hope you have enjoyed this week because next week we are back to our routine."

One of my clever children blurted out, "Oh man! It feels like when you are finally out of jail and then someone sends you back again."

What??? Are you speaking from personal experience here, my dear??  LOL

Family Secrets

Recently, one of my students was telling me about a trip their family went on overseas.

"And my mom wanted to bring some seeds, but you're not allowed - so she HID them in our booster seats!"

Oh boy.

Bathroom Problems

While walking down the hall the other day, I heard a darling little voice from the boys washroom shout: You are NOT supposed to pee on the door!

.....do I have to stop and deal with this??? 

Picture Books

Today I read a few picture books to my class.

I told them how much I loved these stories....and I do.

I read them with great flair and drama.

I had them all listening intently.

At the end they broke out in applause.

Don't be confused. It wasn't applause for me. It was applause for the story. They were captivated by it.

They loved it too. 

I love my job.

Free Play and Holidays

We are just back from a week off - a new holiday to us called Fall Break.

Some people do a lot of complaining about fall break. They would rather have a week in the summer when the weather is nice. Some people went exciting places. Some stayed home.

It was interesting to talk to my students about fall break. Predictably, I had my students write in their journals about what they did during fall break. One thing I love about my class is they really don't hold back. If there is something they don't want to do or don't like they let me know right away. There was lots of whining and complaining and questions about how many sentences they had to write.

I figured it was time for a good talk. It seems that some kids, if they didn't go somewhere exotic, felt like they didn't do anything. My mind went back to an article I read recently on the importance of free play. 

http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/06/for-better-school-results-clear-the-schedule-and-let-kids-play/373144/

Staying home for a break really gives a kid the chance to figure out what they like to do and to make their own fun - a key to healthy development. We talked about the wonderful things about staying home.....time to do whatever you want (watch TV or Youtube, read, do Lego, stare out your window.....a favorite of many kids). We talked about going tobaganning. We talked about going to the mall (some love it and some, like me, hate it). Eventually, they all started to come on board. I tied it up with, "Besides, if the principal hears that we don't like fall break maybe he will decide we should just be in school instead." That clinched it. Suddenly everyone realized they had a wonderful fall break!

And the writing!!! I told them there was no way they could tell me how great fall break was in 5 sentences. I also told them I wasn't going to give them a number. Rather, they needed to write until they wrote enough that what they wrote would remind themselves when they read it again about how great fall break is.

And it sure is!

Service Projects

There is always something going on at our school.

We have one student who decided to shave her head for cancer. She raised money and plans to donate it to the children's hospital. Her goal was $500. She beat it and raised 5 times that!!

We are also collecting coats. They will be given to the Stampeders who will give them to people who can use them.

Now the grade fours are collecting socks to give to homeless. They are calling it Socktober.

These kids are amazing!!!

Cupcake Fairy

I was in Study Hall today when one of my favorite grade two students came along. I had a cupcake that I had scooped from the staff room. I didn't have time to eat it at lunch so I was carrying it. My favorite grade two student asked me where I got the cupcake. There was a bakery box at the back of theroom with more cupcakes (likely the birthday boy or girl had taken a couple to the staff room to share with teachers and the rest were in the  classroom). My guess is my favorite grade two student wanted one as well.

FGTS: Where'd you get that cupcake?
Me: I got it from the Cupcake Fairy.
FGTS: The Cupcake Fairy? What's that?
Various other children tell her: Don't believe her! She always teases.
Me: (whisper voice) It's actually true. Don't listen to those jaded Grade 3 students. You know how Santa visits all the good boys and girls?
FGTS: Yes
Me: Well, the Cupcake Fairy visits all the good teachers.
FGTS: Really?
Me: Absolutely

FGTS pauses and thinks.

FGTS: But Mrs. Brown (names are changed to protect the innocent) doesn't have one.
Me: (with an assuring nod) I know. I don't think we should talk about that.
FGTS: (wide-eyed) Oooohhh. I see.
Me: Mhm!

I'll have to be sure to carry cupcakes around more often so she is reminded that I'm a good teacher :)

Revealing Comprehension

I came across a great tweet this morning. Jennifer Britton said: Help students reveal their comprehension, not test it.

It sounds like she is at a conference (#TCRWP) and the keynote speaker is David Booth. I googled him and found all sorts of interesting resources. Time to go hunting for some of his jewels!

These little words were just what I needed as I read over my students Reading Response entries this morning. I got thinking about some of things we do as well as things we could be doing better in our classroom.  It is definitely a work in progress.

Ways to reveal comprehension:

1. Improve Listening Comprehension

Children learn by listening and listening is a skill that can be improved. It would be interesting to research to see the advantages children who are read to a lot have over those who have not been read to.

I am working on reading aloud to my students. I wonder if we write down the main events of what we read as we go, if that would help. Perhaps some children would benefit from having the main ideas from reading ahead of time. Perhaps we will work on this by doing some blogging. I don't want it to be too cumbersome. Reading should be enjoyable - but if a student isn't absorbing anything we are reading, then perhaps these kinds of activities will help.

2. Talk about Texts

There are so many ways we can share understanding from reading. Book talks, storytelling, writing, creating art from stories, blogging, etc. We need to do this more! My students will compose an entry once a week to share something about what they've been reading this week. We read Open Court stories daily and discuss them. We also have a chapter book going all the time that is being read aloud.

3. Encourage parents to read WITH their children at home.

Many think that once their children can read independently they don't need to read with them. I argue that children continue to benefit from reading with parents. Please read with your child every day! Great discussions will come out of the books you read. It will strengthen your relationship as well. I promise.

4. Increase Vocabulary

If students don't understand common words or juicier words, they get lost in the story. We will start working on this by working on the thesaurus that the students have in their writing binders.

On Writing

Wisdom from Katherine Applegate, author of The One and Only Ivan:

When you write something, your pencil is a magic wand.
Listen to your teacher, who will help you craft your spells.
Then listen to your magic heart, which will help you find your own special magic.

I need to put that on the wall in my classroom!

Classroom Goals

One of my professional development goals this year is to increase my classroom management skills. I am studying a book called CHAMPs to help me with that. One of the exercises it asks for is to identify major goals that summarize why being in my classroom will be a worthwhile experience for my students. So far, I have come up with four:

1. Develop independence. Around grade 3 children are starting to learn to look after some of their own responsibilities. I want to help them develop the skills they need to allow for independence. Learning to ensure you have all the things you need for a day at school or all the supplies you need for your homework is something children this age are learning to handle. I also want to help them develop the skills they need to problem solve when they run into issues, problems with friends. I also want them to learn to make a plan for a project and follow the intermediate steps they have established so they can complete a project on time.

2. Love learning. I try to be a role model in this area. I want to demonstrate an attitude that learning is fun and exciting.  I do this by continually evaluating the activities and lessons we focus on as well as ensure that I am always learning myself. We also focus in learning to use technology and social media to make learning efficient and interesting as well as to connect with the outside world. 

3. Foster positive relationships. Our class is a group of people that I plan to have a long term relationship with and I conduct myself in a way that will encourage that. I teach my students how to develop strong relationships.

4. Develop a love of reading. We focus on structures to support reading that they can continue long after grade three. During grade three I will challenge my students to take on the task of reading 40 chapter books (approximately one chapter book a week) and keep track of what they have read in their reading notebook.

5. Know how to be successful in school. We have guidelines for success we follow that help students succeed. We learn to prioritize and to accomplish tasks. If we do what is most important first we will have time to do the fun and frivolous too. 

Our guidelines for success are:                                   Our classroom rules are:

 

1. Always try.                                                              1. Arrive on time with all your materials.
2. Do your best                                                            2. Keep hands, feet and objects to yourself.
3. Be responsible                                                         3. Follow all directions immediately.
4. Treat everyone with respect.                                   4. Work during work times.
5. Cooperate with others

I would love to discuss this with other teachers. What are your goals for your class?

Thinking Moustache

Some people put on thinking caps. Others put on thinking moustaches.

Such a funny boy. Every time is said his name, he would respond in a deep raspy voice, "I'm Mr. BB today."

Best Homework Sentence of the Day!

I was madly going around the room correcting homework this morning, when I had to stop and smile because I was reminded of how wonderful these kids are.

Best sentence of the day:

A New Book Buzz is About!

We have ran a grade three book club at ou school for a number of years. We usually have around 40 kids who attend. It is loads of fun! When they move on to grade four they often mention that they really miss book club. It kills me! I would run a grade four club, except that I feel pretty maxed out.

This summer I ran into a fun idea called Battle of the Books. I brought it up with the grade four teachers and they decided to go for it. We have a group if teachers that met and we picked five books. The kids are to get into groups of four or five and read the books. Then in March we will have a Battle of the Books evening where we will be tested on our knowledge of the books. The kid are very excited about it. They have to find their own teacher sponsor so as they ran around today talking to teachers it was quite entertaining. 

I have a group already. We are going to get an Edmodo group going and get to work very soon. Let the reading begin!!!

Improving Reading Comprehension

Sometimes parents worry when their kids doesn't seem to enjoy or don't seem to comprehend the things that they read. I believe reading should be natural and enjoyable. If your child doesn't enjoy reading the best thing to do is to read with them. Snuggle up, make it special time. If they don't want to read to you, don't fuss. Read to them. Read chapter books together. Encourage them to take the book to school and read a chapter during DEAR time at school and read that chapter on your own. Talk about it later in the day and compare notes. Talking about it should be natural and fun.

"Were you surprised when...."
"My favorite part was...."
"Why do you think..."

They don't need to be grilled on what they read.

Think about how it is when you go to a movie. You don't say, "Okay, re-tell the move in your own words." Instead you talk about what your favorite parts were, how sad you were when something happened or how funny something else was.

That's how we should talk about books. Reading doesn't always have to be an academic and assessment riddled experience.

Did I mention that if your child doesn't like reading, you need to make a concerted effort to read with them? It is critical!

Terry Fox Run

What a great day! Today we bussed all our kids along with all the kids from the north east elementary school over to the middle school for the Terry Fox Run. It was very exciting! There were about 1100 people there. Quite a crowd!!

My crazy friend, Pat

We were supposed to write the name of someone we would be running for. Some of my students couldn't think if anyone so I told them that my dad passed away from cancer and they could put him on their tag. It eared up when I told me about it, and then to see those kids running with his name in their tag did it to me again.

I wonder when I will be able to talk about cancer and my dad without tearing up.

Apparently not quite yet.

Author Visit Coming Up!

They say the early bird gets the worm. I am the epitome of the early bird. Sometimes working late gets one the goods too!

I got an email after school today from the people at Wordfest. It seems that one of the authors, Dennis Lee, must have had some cancellations as they sent out an email saying he had some openings for school visits. I emailed my grade level team to see if they would be interested and I emailed my admin team to see if it would even be possible to have Dennis Lee in. We went back and forth and finally decided to book it!!

I am so excited to have Dennis Lee visit our school!! Now we have some work to do to get ready!

Skip counting

JUMP math is awesome for games. We played a skip counting game today that we just can't seem to get enough of! This game makes for awesome practice. We played that the first person to get to 100 wins.

....I've never had kids  get so excited about skip counting!

Crazy for DEAR Time

DEAR time has been a bit of a challenge this year. My class seems to think it's time to use to finish up work, go to the bathroom, talk to their friends....anything but read!!

I've been thinking and thinking about how to fix this. I decided enthusiasm is what I'd try first. Sometimes I think getting kids to read is as much sales pitch as it is helping them develop reading skills.

Today when I met them outside after recess I said, "You're not going to believe what I have! When we go inside go quickly to your desks and I will tell you!"

I introduced them to Shel Silverstein this morning and at lunch I went over to our school library and got a bunch more poetry books. While I was there I noticed a full shelf of Babymouse books, so I decided to grab those too.

I told them how awesome Babymouse is. I clarified that it isn't just for girls (in case some were worried about the abundance of pink!) and we watched a book trailer:




Then we went crazy reading!!

DEAR time ended up being way too short!

Day 1 We're back!

It happens every year. Summer just flies by. We are back at it.

New bulletin boards to put up
Binders to clean up
Year long plans to adjust
Friendships to renew

I love summer. But it is great to be back as well.

The End

The desks are cleaned out.

The awards have been handed out.

Hugs have been shared.

It's awfully lonely in here.

Oh how I will miss them.

Farewell

We will miss you DB!!

Transition Videos

We made transition videos today. Students planned what they would say by writing in their journals. They used sentence starters that we put on the smart board as a basis and added other details they felt were important.

It was a great exercise to think about how we learn best. We talked about the things that it took me some time to figure out about students in our class. We also discussed what things are special about us. Some of us think a lot before we talk, some think while they are talking. One student said he learned this year that he learned that some people think he is arguing when he really thinks he is just telling someone his ideas. One student said he is trying to learn more English vocabulary and wanted his teacher to know that sometimes English is difficult for him. They talked about what they liked best about school in gr. 3 and what they hope for next year.

This is going to be a real great tool for teachers next year! Now I just need to get the teacher's of the students I will have next year to do this too!

Book Club Gala Awards Night

We had a fabulous night tonight! We had our awards night for the books we read this year. Best Character, Best Illustrator, Best Cliff Hanger, Best Villain and Best Overall Book of the Year were the categories.

We had finger food and mingled, gave awards, watched the book trailers kids made for the awards, and had some marvelous discussions about books. Definitely a do-again activity!!

 

I really needed to take more pictures though!

Kindergarten Readers Extraordinaire!

Our kindergarten kids came into our class today to read us some stories. Man, are they ever good readers!! We are so proud of them!

It was also very rewarding for me to see my grade 3 students read so well with them. We really worked hard this year on learning to snuggle up together so everyone can see the book, be sure we are listening, and give good feedback by helping sound out words and give compliments. Throughout the year, with our grade one buddies, we often had to review these things. Today everyone fell right into place, found good spots to read, and were very encouraging with their partners.

It warmed my heart!!

Racz-Kids

Today I introduced my students to Racz Kids. They love it.

Things I learned: 

- earning points is a lot more motivating than a mark on a comprehension quiz

- kids will read and answer questions endlessly when it is on a fun website

- the website gives great reports. They are detailed and they give you information about where students are having trouble.

I have long been a believer that kids should read real books. However, I think this is a great tool, especially for kids who are not quite into chapter books yet or who need extra practice with comprehension.

I Am.....

Our character committee came up with a brilliant idea. They wanted the children to focus on their many strengths. We made lists of our strengths, and helped each other with adding a few more. Now we are making I Am t-shirts to wear on one of our fun days next week.

Can't wait!

We had some interesting conversations when we started this project. Some of the children were worried it would look like they were bragging to put some of the words on their t-shirts. They eventually did come around to the idea that it is okay to be proud of what we are good at.

 

Censorship

Today, during Reading Buddies, a censorship momentum started. Guinesses Book of World Records has always been a popular read in my classroom. This year my kids think they are inappropriate though. I told them I wasn't entirely sure I agreed that they were inappropriate and asked them to sticky the inappropriate pages. A frenzy of stickie use began!!

Not even sure how to go about teaching a lesson on censorship in Gr. 3!!

Last of the PATs

Our province does standardized testing, however, they are phasing out the current testing practices. This is the last year for Gr. 3 PATs. We have written the first PAT, which focuses on creative writing. The majority of our writing program focuses on teaching students how to write a good story. We teach them a formula, and it works really well. While I think it has been to have such a laser sharp focus, it will be nice to have a little more opportunity to expand into other types of writing. I am not totally convinced that teaching children to write narrative stories is the most important writing they can do.

Today we did the second language arts PAT: comprehension. I hoped it would be more of a breeze for my students. It was quite a challenge though. I think there is a real skill in creating a multiple choice test that really gives good information about where students weaknesses are. The test we did today was a good one, I would say. It really got me thinking about what I can do to help students' comprehension improve. There is no simple formula.

Next year, we will be doing assessments in the beginning of the year. This change is focused on identifying where student's are at early on so that we can tailor our teaching to their strengths and weaknesses. In theory, it is a great idea. I hope it ends up being as successful as the sales pitch would have us believe.

One thing is for sure, next year I plan to do more read alouds, try to meet more reading needs through 

Book Club, and definitely be very purposeful in working to improve students' reading.

More is Caught Than Taught

I am a reformed defaced. In university, I loved to look through my books with all my notes in the margins. I can hardly read without writing.

Now that I have become a public library user to such an extreme I have had to change my ways (or subject myself to the wrath of librarians.....who wants that?!) 

The solution has been stickies. I put a few stickies in the front cover, and with pencil in hand, I am good to go.

Apparently my students have noticed. Look what I discovered today:

I guess it is true. Sometimes more is caught than taught!

Reading Celebration

After Spring Break, we set a goal in in our class to read 160 books before the end of the school year. To do that, each student would have to read a chapter book each week.

We reached our goal, with three weeks of school left! We plan to keep going and see how far past the goal we can get. However, in the meantime, we really needed to celebrate! When we set the goal, the students said they wanted to have a potluck. We just finished doing a novel study, Stuart Little. We decided to combine out pot luck with watching the movie, Stuart Little. 

 

We had a fabulous celebration today. Everyone was very excited to tell others in the school about our accomplishment. 

 

The students all wore labels that said things like:

 

·         Ask me why I love the number 160.

·         Did you know that some people thought we couldn’t do it?

·         Ask me how we reached our reading goal in 3A!

·         Ask me how many books our class read since Spring Break!

 

Our assistant principal stopped by in the morning during our spelling test and we shared our news with her. She was stunned…and made sure she stopped by for the party. Some of the children even went to our principal's office later in the day on their own to tell her about our accomplishment. She came to our celebration and brought BIG stickers for everyone and told them how proud she is of them. It caused their chests to swell with pride!

 

I'm so proud of our parents for the support they give with reading at home. Their encouragement and support really makes a big difference. They are becoming fabulous readers! I’m very proud of them.

Math Fun Day

My math students earned a reward today. We made a list of things they might like to do and then voted on how we should spend our fun day. iPads were the winner. I asked them to make a word problem using comic life or create a math story in book creator. They all got right to it and worked feverishly for the hour. Everyone created something unique. Definitely an hour well spent!