Working on the work

One of the best things about teaching at Chets Creek is the WOW days.  WOW stands for Working on the Work and four times a year, each grade level gets to spend an entire day just working together.  We don't do lesson plans because our amazing Resource Team takes the children for the entire day.  I'm not sure it's the Resource Team's favorite day - to have first graders for an entire day - but the kids really look forward to it and come back at the end of the day, raving about the experience.

As is the tradition, each day starts off with a demo teach.  A teacher volunteers to have all of her grade level watch her teach and then debrief the lesson.  The idea is to show something that colleagues can go right back the next day and teach in their own classrooms.  This week, my co-teacher, Tracy Ruark, who is the Science Lead for our grade level, got the call.  Science is not graded at first grade and in reality, there is no real accountability, except that you are suppose to teach it!  At our school, however, there is a real emphasis on Science at every grade level.  Tracy is part of a Science Council that meets regularly to look at Science horizontally.  They meet together to find additional Resources and labs, to read and study, and to work together to make Science through-the-grades more aligned.  So today, we got to see a lab and lesson in the larger unit of "The Earth's Surface."  Tracy is such a natural when it comes to Science,  Unlike so many of her primary colleagues, she has a love for Science and has background knowledge that enhances every discussion.  I feel so fortunate to teach with someone with such a gift.

Below are some of the pictures I snapped as our first grade colleagues talked with the students as they made aquifers with their partners during the lab portion of the lesson.  The students came back and discussed the results of the lab and then recorded in their Science notebooks.

 

 

After the lesson first grade teachers met together and debriefed the lesson.  Tracy made sure that each teacher had the background information and the supplies (bought out of her own pocket) to repeat the experience in their own classes.

After lunch we were treated to a debrief from our first grade Reading and Writing lead, Maria Mallon who had just returned from a Lucy Calkins' Workshop.  Our Principal funded teachers at every grade level to attend the one day seminar in Orlando, so that those teachers could come back and teach us the newest information hot off the press!  I guess we are just educational nerds, because we hung on her every word.  Besides just telling us, Maria had taken pages of meticulous notes and obviously had come home and enhanced her notes so that they would be understandable to each of us.  I know it wasn't like being right there, but it was the next best thing!

The day ended with Math lead Cheryl Dillard presenting a rekenreck training that had been designed by our own Assistant Principal Suzanne Shall and tweaked by Cheryl to meet our needs.  Although we have this Math tool in our classrooms, we don't use it as much as we should.  I, for one, shook off the dust, and had it out today using it while I was teaching a new Math game that we worked on yesterday at our WOW, "Close to 20."  Cheryl presented several Resources and new games that match exactly where our students are and what they need.  I couldn't wait to try them out today.  Cheryl made that especially easy because she had been to Office Max and had copies of the charts in larger sizes that we would need and had bought the wooden dice for us to make to play the game.  Therefore, I came in early to laminate my poster and the game was up and running this afternoon.

That's what I LOVE about this day.  It's a time to laugh and enjoy collegial conversation.  It's a time to ask questions.  But most of all, it's a time to learn. So much went into making our WOW day successful: Tracy being willing to find a new lab that met our standards on her own time and to buy supplies that would be needed for the entire grade level; our Principal funding Maria to spend a day with Lucy Calkins and then Maria coming home and spending countless hours on preparing notes that she could present to us;  Our Assistant Principal preparing a rekenrek training for principals in another state and teaching it to Cheryl so she could present the highlights to us and then Cheryl taking the best of Suzanne's work to craft it to meet our first grade needs and then going out and finding all the resources that we would need to come right back to our classes and be able to teach it the next day.  I know I have said it before, but I work with some incredible teachers!! 

Infomational Writing - the Second Bend

One the great things about life at Chets Creek is that we take professional development very seriously.  We often provide professional development on the clock but there is a non-negotiable expectation - you are expected to be engaged and to participate.  Last week first grade met for a day of professional development while our students were treated to a special all-Resource day.  The students really look forward to their special day, and for us, it means no lesson plans for subs!

The day always starts with a demonstration lesson.  Maria Mallon hosted all 14 of us in her classroom for a Lucy-inspired (Lucy Calkins) lesson.  We are just beginning the second bend of Informational Writing.  Maria is our grade level lead so her job is to stay just a few lessons ahead of the pack so she can prepare us for what is to come.  She and Reading Coach Melanie Holtsman worked together to provide the perfect day.

The thing that always impresses me about Maria is that her classroom is just so joyful.  I can just imagine being a little first grader sitting on the floor at her feet.  I would believe every single thing she said!  She is so genuine and it just pulls you right in. I just feel good in her room. It just makes me smile.  Of course, there is also a lot of learning going on.  Her rituals and routines are such perfection that you feel like you want to rewind and figure out,  "How did she do that?"  The children transition with such ease.  On this day she transitioned with a song for fluency.  The kids went soundlessly to their seats on the floor and she started...  First she told them how incredible they were and how proud she was.  Then she launched into the gist of the lesson - which was about using all the tools in the room - the charts and rubrics and mentor texts and words around the room...  Then it was off to writing.  The children look like busy little bees.  Every single child is engaged in the process of writing and the only sounds you hear are productive conversations between partners. Maria does drive by conferences, walking around purposefully stopping to chat with a few students, asking purposeful questions and just generally supervising the flow of the workshop.  Before you know it, it's time to Close and the children quietly put all their supplies away and in a blink are back on the carpet.  When they are settled Maria reads the informational rubric and challenges the children to work toward the second grade standards.  You can see the excitement in their little bodies as they already begin to rise to the occasion.  I think I want to be a first grader again in Maria's class!

Then it's to the conference room where we debrief the lesson with Melanie, commenting on the things that we really liked in the lesson, asking Maria questions about things we still wonder about.  I think each of us questions how we  would do the same lesson and we make a mental list of things we want to try or change tomorrow.  That's what "starting with a demo" is all about.

Then it's to the work of the day.  As we wait for the Calkins Reading Units to be released this summer, we know we need to ramp up our reading instruction. Melanie digs in and begins to challenge us to push the continuum of thinking in our classrooms.  She frames the work that will be expected in second and third and fourth grade that is changing with the Common Core so that we begin to define a path from where we are to where we need to go.  Melanie doesn't give us the answers.  She doesn't spoon feed us but challenges us to think.  We don't need dummy-proof curriculums. We don't need scripted Core Curriculums but we do need teachers that think.  We need teachers who can look at the data, but so much more than that - teachers who can read the room, who KNOW their students as learners and from that wealth of information can take the standards and define the teaching that needs to be done. That's what will transforms education.

Working on the Work

Today was one of my favorite days.  It was a WOW day (a Working On the Work day), now referred to as PLC (Professional Learning Community)Days by the county.  Our children spend the day with our Resource teachers and we spend the day studying together.  We started off our WOW with a demo lesson by our Literacy lead, Maria Mallon.  All 14 of us loaded into Maria's room to watch her masterfully teach one of the new lessons from Lucy Calkins' new Units of Study for Teaching Writing.  We opened with narrative writing after the holiday and Maria demonstrated the 5th lesson, the last lesson in the first bend of the narrative genre.  I love watching a colleague work!  Maria masterfully taught the children how to use their pencil for reading and for writing.  She taught them to use the eraser end for "rereading your work and the point for writing new words" as the children co-wrote the beginning, middle and end of a story together about our trip to watch the Polar Express at the church next door.  Besides using a magic pencil  I also loved how she demonstrated using "writing in the air" as an active involvement.  Maria gave each student his or her own writing pencil and then had them use it to "pretend" write or "write in the air" a she wrote on the paper on the board.   Both of those tips - using a magic pencil and writing in the air - are things that we can teach in our classroom tomorrow.

Melanie Holtsman, our Literacy Coach, is the producer of our literacy professional development and she and Maria designed this learning opportunity together.  Melanie studied at Teachers' College last summer so she has been able to artfully incorporate pieces of that "Lucy" training into our professional development this year.  She shares some of her learning from the summer and from a recent day with Lucy with us, and the greater community at our school PD blog, Live from the Creek.  Check it out.  It's almost like being at Teachers' College!

Melanie always tries to have us experience something as a learner so that we feel comfortable incorporating it into our lessons.  Today she had us "write a story in the air" -  tell a true story from our childhood to a partner - thinking about the beginning, middle and end..  She suggested this as  way to have our students get ready to write.  In other words, instead of simply telling our students to "turn and talk" about what they are going to write, to actually have them tell their partner the story with a beginning, middle, and end to jumpstart their story writing.  Can't you just see how that would work?

After lunch together - we always order in to save time! - our Science lead Tracy Ruark took over for the last hour.  Tracy shared the content of boxes that were loaned to Chets by the Safari Club for us to use in Science.  We looked at pelts and skulls and I even learned about "scat" - felt like I'd visited Duck Dynasty!  The boxes also included books and lesson plans.  I know how much fun the teachers had with these items, so I can just imagine how the children will engage with them!  We ended by talking about Tracy's latest Science lab with Sound.

I LOVE the teachers I work with.  They are engaged.  They are never at a loss for questions and share an endless supply of creative ideas.  There is no questions that I will be a better teacher tomorrow because I shared time with them today!

TLN-PLN as PLC (Professional Learning Communities)

There has been a lot of talk recently about PLNs (Personal Learning Networks). I have been reading and listening, but not really thinking about how much this really has to do with ME. Right after coming off of my year traveling as Florida's Teacher of the Year, I was invited to join a listserve, TLN (Teacher Leadership Network), and they have been my PLN for years. TLN is made up of educators across the country - many are Nationally Board certified, many are former state and national teachers or the year, many are published, many are well-known in the field. They regularly invite new educators to join the group and I have been inspired by their expertise, energy and enthusiasm. TLN has evolved from a listserve to an interactive platform that is collaborative, allowing for conversation, questions, and projects. For several years now they have kept me informed and have pushed my thinking on a regular basis. If I needed to know about almost anything, I could post a question or my thoughts about a series of subjects I am interested in and get in deep, thoughtful responses. As the years have passed, I have felt like some of these educators that I have never met, have become good friends. When the idea that the world is flat became popular, I felt like I knew exactly what they were talking about because of this connectedness.

At the same time that I was growing through TLN, I began sharing an office with Melanie Holtsman, our Instructional Technologist, and Suzanne Shall, our Instructional Coach. Talk about learners! These are teachers who have a thirst for knowledge- who refuse to be satisfied and who are risk-takers. They had become involved with Twitter. I had listened to them for quite some time as they twittered back and forth between friends at school and across the world. Melanie is a Google Certified Teacher, so her network has become even more impressive of late. They have both tried to encourage me to get involved with Twitter, but... on a recent trip when I tweeted "Time for Ed" instead of "Time for bed!" and couldn't take it back (my husband of 39 years is Jim!), I decided that maybe this just wasn't the right medium for me! However, on Friday my thinking changed. I had been working for about a week on merging lots of different e-mails of book recommendations from our County Teachers of the Year. I had also been adding pictures of the book covers. I was in a time crunch. To make a long story short, I had added a recommendation that had corrupted the file. I went to school on Friday and asked if Melanie could help. She tried a few things, but basically said she didn't think it could be recovered. As a last resort, she offered to put it out on Twitter. Within two minutes she had two responses from two different people in other parts of the country describing how to fix the problem! Not that's what I call a PLN. That simple tweet saved me hours and hours of recreating a document!

Dont get me worng - I still LOVE TLN for its thoughtful, in depth discussions of issues that make me think, but I have come to believe that you just can't beat Twitter for a quick, concise response. Maybe I'll just have to visit "Ed" again!

New Teams

The roster for next year 2008-09 has been out for several weeks now. Planning for the new year actually starts at the Leadership table in early February, so by this time of year teachers know which grade they will be teaching next year, if they will be teaming and with whom, and where their new classroom will be. Last week we started getting the new teams together for a New Team PLC day. The new 1st grade team met this morning, just like every other grade level will meet. Each teacher began by introducing herself. This first grade team is especially strong with seven teachers looping up with their class from kindergarten, two teachers who will be remaining in 1st, two teachers who are coming down from a higher grade to first and one who interned at Chets Creek in first grade and will be a first year teacher. These are the teachers that I will travel with next year as I archive their year at the Creek.

The purpose of this day is for new teams to bond and to decide as a group what things they will all agree to do next year. We call these our non-negotiables. Teachers are reminded NOT to put anything on the list that they do not agree to do! Following is the agenda notes of the things that were discussed and agreed upon.

New First Grade Team Meeting (May 21, 2008)New 1st Grade Team: Randi Timmons and Cathy Daniels, Haley Alvarado and Meredy Mackiewicz, Debbie Harbour and Patty VanAlstyne, Maria Mallon and Cheryl Dillard, Toni Chant, Vicky Groves, Heather Correia, Chevaughn Sasso

Time for Subjects

2 ½ hour Literacy Block (includes Skills Block, Reading, & Writing)
1 hour Math Block
15 min. daily Science Block instruction plus hands-on on Long Wednesdays.

Social Studies & Science are integrated throughout the week
Math Counts & Calendar taught during the morning

Artifacts for Teachers and Students
Standards- It’s not important to post ALL of the standards, but rather coming up with a system to ensure that you are connecting the standard with the lesson so that students know and understand the connection. When asked, students should be able to articulate the standard they are working on in any Workshop.
Word Walls- Sight Word Word Wall, Vocabulary Word Wall, Word Family Word Wall, Science Word Wall, and Personal Word Walls in Writing Folders are all examples of the way word walls can be used and displayed. The purpose is to teach students how to utilize the word wall as a learning tool, rather than just having one posted in your room to be compliant.) Words should be added to these word walls and introduced to students throughout the year. Students should be able to articulate strategies for finding words on word walls that they do not know how to spell.
Portfolios/Individual Writing Folders-
Work-in-progress folders have already been ordered for the grade level. The first homework project is for students to take a piece of card stock to decorate with pictures and words. This serves as a “writing idea” menu for Writer’s Workshop.
Cumulative folders: Have a system to organize and show students’ daily work as evidence of daily Writer’s Workshop. Think of a system that works best for you. Work may be sent home but folders should always include enough work to show fluency and progress over time

Final year end portfolios: All final pieces of the portfolio should be kept in orange folders which can be found in the child’s cum folder.
Readers’ response- Decide on how you will be cataloging readers’ responses and what works for you and your kids (such as composition books, folder, etc.) Readers’ response is a primary focus in first grade.
Diagnostic "notebook"- Diagnostic notebook/ folders/ file system should include a tab for every child. It should include reading profile sheets, DIBELS and DRA documentation and the same type information for Math.
Readers’ and Writers’ “notebooks”- Some system should be in place to keep readers’ running records, benchmark tests, guided reading group work, anecdotal notes and also writers’ anecdotal notes.

Book of the Month: Have a place in which the book of the month is clearly displayed in your classroom. Must have a Book of the Month basket in your genre library which includes books from the previous and existing year that students have access to.

Standard Based Bulletin Boards: Of the 7 required standard-based bulletin boards, each first grade teacher will be responsible for one literacy, one math, one science, and the last one should be a work over time board. The remaining bulletin board content areas are for you to decide.

Standard Snapshots: This will be part of our early release days, discussing student samples and writing the snapshot. The topic for these snapshots will be decided ahead of time to give teachers time to collect adequate work samples. A piece of student work will be attached to the snapshot to go home.
Common Assessments: Comprehension common assessments in first grade are given after the first nine weeks. Specific test-taking strategies have been identified and common assessments written to roll out the comprehension piece in a direct, explicit manner.

Grade Level Homework: The Grade level will all do the same homework which will follow the Pacing Guide. Think carefully about adding extra homework! If adding extra homework gets to be a problem with comparison out in the community, you may have to get "add-on" homework approved.

Communication: Weekly Newsletters will be done by every teacher and will go out on Mondays! This is the best way to communicate with parents and let them have a look inside into the learning that is going on in your classroom.

Kindergarten PLC April 2008

Kindergarten teachers met this week for their fourth full day of professional development. They began the day with a demonstration lesson in Math with a twist. Instead of watching one of their peers, they watched a 2nd grade teacher's lesson, Brook Brown, so that they could see where the pieces they are teaching now are going to fit as the children move forward. Michelle Ellis, Kindergarten Math Coach, debriefed with the group.

Teachers each brought a class set of response-to-literature final pieces. They read some of their higher pieces to each other so they could benchmark off each other's work and then were given time to analyze using a rubic to score their entire set of papers. As they had questions they read their papers to peers for a second opinion. This collegial conversation helped all teachers make sure they understand the rubric language.

Teachers also discussed students to be included in a special safety net for the remainder of the year taught by Maria Mallon. Teachers chose 12 students who are on the line between passing and failing for this last push.

The day continued with Randi Timmons, Elizabeth Conte and Rachael Happ sharing the work they have done with pattern books. Based on the work of First Grade Writers, this threesome completed this unit before the rest of the grade level. That put them in a position to share what they have learned. They shared the sequence of lessons that they taught, showed artifacts made with the children, read books that they used for specific patterns, discussed which patterns they taught and why, and shared student work. Front loading this information for the rest of the grade level relieved stress as teachers prepare for the "sprint to the end."

The final component of the day was professional development around poetry which is the last unit we will teach. To provide more structure we looked at the Poetry Unit (Kindergarten Unit #4) from the Denver Project which dovetails easily into our standards-based design. Teachers shared some of their favorite poetry books and some of the lessons they have used to successfully promote poetry. Several teachers talked about the poetry cafes that they used at the end of their poetry unit last year as a celebration.

All in all this day was about wrapping up lessons and previewing curriculum for the final nine weeks. It was a packed day but left teachers with a good idea of what is to come for the remainder of the year. Get ready, get set - GO!

Kindergarten PLC, 2007

This is the second Kindergarten WOW day of this year, a day where the Resource teachers take the entire grade level of children so that the Kindergarten teachers can get away for a full day of Professional Development. The day began with a demonstration lesson by Haley Alvarado. Haley demonstrated our first Social Studies lesson! While we have had many demonstrations of Writers' Workshop, Readers' Workshop, Skills Block, Science and Math over the years, we have never concentrated on Social Studies.

Haley's lesson began with a review of the chart that the students had made the day before as they had studied "Families." After she reviewed and connected today's lesson with the work the class had been doing together, she explained to the students how to make a family "glyph." After demonstrating the project and checking for comprehension, the children were assigned partners. Each child had to interview his partner and draw a glyph of the partner's family. This twist on the activity provided for practice in speaking and listening.

FAMILY GLYPH DIRECTIONS:
1.Draw a window for each brother or sister that you have. If you do not have any brothers or sisters, do not draw any windows.
2.If you live with your mom and dad, draw a red door. If you live with just your mom, draw a blue door or just your dad, draw a green door.
3.If your whole family lives in Jacksonville, draw a tree right next to your house. If anyone in your family lives in another state, draw a tree far away from your house.
4.If your family speaks another language, write a 2 on the front door. If your family speaks English only, write a 1 on the front door.

Maria Mallon jumps right in and works with a small group.

As the children dispersed to work on their glyphs, Kindergarten teachers joined the children at their tables to discuss the project with them. As children finished, partners were invited to use the document camera to display and explain their work to the class. At this point Haley helped the class interpret the data of each partnership. "Now if John has the number 2 on his door, what does that mean?" "It means that his family speaks two languages." "That's right, because we know that John's family speaks English and Spanish."

Students explain their work to the group

After the lesson, children joined their Resource while teachers joined together in the Conference Room to debrief the lesson. Teachers discussed many of the things they noticed and liked about Haley's lessons ("warm" comments) and there were MANY things to rave about. Then they moved to "cool" comments where they asked questions, got clarifications and discussed wonderings. One of the many things that the teachers discussed was just how you find time in such a crowded day for Social Studies. The consensus was that you have to be intentional about the lessons that you teach and you slip the Social Studies content into Readers', Writers' and Math - sometimes substituting a Social Studies lesson and sometimes just wrapping the content into the Workshop standards.

After the lesson, Kindergarten teachers organized their Pow Wow notebooks with a conversation around professional behavior and responsibility.

The teacher did a "board walk." Each teacher reviewed a bulletin board of another teacher with a partner and brought their compliments and questions to the table. The consensus was that we appreciate the opportunity to take risks with our bulletin boards, because we believe that being valued as risk-takers has moved our work forward.

Finally teachers brought procedural student work to the table. Using the Instructions Rubric, they divided into partners to discuss and score the work.

All in all, it was a very productive day including lunch off the school grounds - a little time for fellowship! This is a talented, focused group of teachers who knows no limits!

Field Trip: Pow Wow

Like all schools, Chets Creek Kindergarten includes field experiences in its learning opportunities. The first such experience this year for kindergartners was at the FCCJ Theatre where students had an opportunity to watch Native Americans dance and sing. Some of the children were riding the bus for the first time or sitting in a theatre for a live performance for the first time. The kindergartner sitting next to me wanted to know when we were going to get popcorn when we first sat down in the theatre! However, the actual information of this field trip is most important to this group of youngsters because they will soon be deeply involved in a Native American unit and will refer back to the music and dancing that they heard today over and over.
About six years ago Kindergarten teachers became uncomfortable with their generic "Indian" Pow Wow celebration around Thanksgiving where all the little "Indians" wore brown pillowcase garb with feathers and pounded homemade drums. The teachers began researching Native American tribes as a professional learning community and decided that each class would research a specific tribe and bring those traditions to our annual Pow Wow celebration. That decision to bring more authentic experiences to our children led to the field trip today. Today the students got their first taste of what a Pow Wow looks like and sounds like. As always, when we begin this unit of study, I am impressed with the teachers willingness to go the extra mile to teach our youngest children how to research and how much they care about getting the "real" information. I am also impressed with the Native Americans' deep spiritual connection with the Earth and their understanding that they are stewards of our natural resources. This year their message particularly resonates with our Kindergarten.

A Day with the Kindergarten PLC

Each Wednesday a grade level is freed of teaching responsibility for the day to participate in professional development. The students are entertained by the Resource Team as they rotate every 30 minutes through each Resource (PE, Music, Art, Technology, Science, Character Education). I'm not sure that all of the Resource teachers look forward to their first Kindergarten PLC day - which means kindergarten ALL day - but I understand this past PLC day was the best kindergarten first PLC day ever! It took us a while to develop the rituals and routines to make this first day a success, but now, we've done it!!

The teacher's day always begins with a demonstration lesson. After the demo, the team meets back together.  This time Haley Alvarado led the team in a debrief of the lesson. She began by asking Maria to reflect on her lesson. Maria shared the things that went well and offered some simple changes that she would make next time. Then the team listed "warm" comments which included "noticings" - those things that they loved, the things that were standard driven, the things that they each want to incorporate into their own lessons tomorrow. Then came "cool" comments which are "wonderings" - questions that they still had, clarifications. The demo was such a success because every single teacher left reflecting on her own Skills Block and seeing things that she could change or incorporate. This demo lesson will be followed by a "show and tell" at the next Teacher Meeting next week where each teacher will bring one favorite Skills Block activity to share.

The demo/ debrief was followed by the Team revising and editing their Star Vocabulary Unit. All of the teachers have been teaching the unit since school started and were now ready to edit the first five units/ books. They now have the experience with their children to see what worked and what didn't. After some general discussion, the teachers divided into pairs and each pair revised and edited a single unit/ book. Below are photos of the teachers as they worked with partners. This group of teachers is truly a professional learning community. As they interact you can see their enthusiasm and their genuine respect for each other. It was a GREAT day!

Star Vocabulary

Kindergarten teachers formed their own professional learning community and have been working on their own Vocabulary unit over the summer. The Vocabulary Study corresponds with literature that they typically introduce in Kindergarten. You will recognize each of these well-loved stories! Below is the words that will be taught for each book.

Caps for Sale (see activity to the right)
disturb – ordinary – imitate – refreshed – upset – mischievous
 
Three Billy Goats Gruffmeadow – gobble – villain – creak – hooves – cunning

Where the Wild Things Are
private – tame – adventure – frighten – rumpus – longing

Goldilocks and the Three Bearstempting – gruff – enraged – necessary – shrill - terrified

Harry, the Dirty Dogclever – dashed – disguise – furiously – lovingly – adventurous

Red Riding Hoodconsiderate, delighted, devious., horrid, alarmed, naive

A Pocket for Corduroypatiently –– hesitating – dilemma –– tumbled – damp – sidetracked

Peter’s Chairfussing – rascal – jealous – arranged – cradle – cooperate
 
Mop Top
soaring - floppy - stubborn - vacant - stumbled - thrilled

Frederick
abandon – gather – daydream – anxious – blush – comfort

The Little Red Hen
eager – scampered – selfish – ripe – cozy – lazy

Jack and the Beanstalkprecious - nonsense - underhanded - cackle - tidy - panic

The Gingerbread Boy
crumble – strut – sly – sniff – proud - curious

Big Alrescue – tangled –– enormous - clumsy – fierce –daring

Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel
cellar – skyscraper – efficient – settled – straightened – resourceful

The lessons for the vocabulary are based on suggested vocabulary activities from Beck and McKeoen's Bringing Words to Life. All Chets Creek Kindergarten teachers will be using the unit as an integrated part of their Skills Block. Much of our professional development this first half of the year will be bringing experiences with the vocabulary activities back to the table each week so that we can discuss and edit the unit to lift it to the next level.

PLC...and the beat goes on...

Our Summer PLC (Professional Learning Community) met again today. Six kindergarten teachers continue to study vocabulary and write activities around their favorite read-alouds that they will field test next year. Haley Alvarado displayed her work today so that we could all discuss activities and make suggestions. As we already knew, six heads are so much better than one! The only problem, of course, is that collaboration is much more time-consuming that working alone. After we discussed, clarified, and brainstormed, we will once again work alone to make the best use of limited time, coming back together as we complete more of the work. Debbie Harbour would really like for us to have pictures for each of the words, which makes sense as we think about all of our learners. She has been searching the web for just the right pictures. It's not unusual in this group for someone to have an idea and be willing to do the work to make it happen.

What is so inspiring about this work is that it's easier when we work together. It is helping each of us learn more about vocabulary which is turn will make each of us a better teacher next year. This is a group that has been learning together for a while so this is a trusting, safe place to learn. It's okay to say that you don't know or you don't understand. It's okay to ask for help. It's okay to really like working because you are passionate about getting better so that your students get the best possible you that you can be. I guess what I love the most about this group is that they are each trying to be the teacher that they would want their own child to have. It doesn't get any better than that!

Summer happenings

Kindergarten teachers do not sleep in the summer. They certainly enjoy the break, but there is a group of six teachers at Chets Creek (Haley Alvarado, Elizabeth Conte, Randi Timmons, Debbie Harbour, Maria Mallon and me) that have been inspired by Maria Mallon to work on a vocabulary unit that uses the work of Beck and McKeown to infuse vocabulary strategies into a a set of read aloud books that they all use in kindergarten. They have looked at Beck and McKeown's Text Talk and also at the America's Choice vocabulary units. This is a group of "looping" teachers who make the kindergarten-first grade loop year after year. This next year they will be back in kindergarten. They have formed their own professional learning community. It was Maria's brain child last year that they use their kindergarten "Star Books" (read aloud books) to develop vocabulary. They have each taken 2-3 book titles and have committed to writing activities that will be shared and then revised by them all next year. They have been meeting for half a year - studying together and working out the division of labor and the framework for the lessons. They have chosen six "tier two" words for each of the books, four words that are used in the book and two that are inferred for each book. I have just finished a template for the activities and they will be working on the activities independently until we all meet together in mid-June to share our work. As the work becomes available, they will share it on this web site. Others may want to try their draft activities and are welcome to comment as the manuscript changes and improves with use.

This is really a professional learning community at its best. Teachers who come together because they want to learn from each other. Teachers who push each other to be better than any of them could be independently. Stay tuned to see how it all turns out.