Monday, July 25, 2016

How to Grade for Learning

My district has been spending a great deal of time revamping, rethinking, and adjusting our current reporting system to parents.  I had the opportunity to work on work this with other second grade teachers across the district and am excited with the changes we are rolling out this fall.  We have made changes for teachers and we've made changes for parents.  These changes will help us all understand what students are learning and how students are progressing towards learning second grade content.  While at one of these district meetings I noticed a pile of professional books outside the door and got giddy when I learned these are up for grabs.  As I stood there, I learned How to Grade for Learning by Ken O'Connor was a book that guided much of the report card revamping, rethinking, and adjusting that had occurred before I joined the project.  I knew I wanted to read this book to help me understand the changes more to help my students but to also help my parents this coming school year. 



These are the nudges I found for the upcoming school year.

-write more things down, I can't remember everything

-be more intentional with linking assessments to learning standards

-do and keep track of informal communications

-do more informal communications, bring back the sending home a postcard to families

-use questions for student responses for summative assessments p79



These are some quotes that are sticking with me and might interest you in reading this book more.

-"Students - and parents - have been taught to overvalue grades.  Although it will not be easy, if teachers grade better, both may learn to value grades more appropriately."

-"it is extremely complicated."

-"use grading as an exercise in professional judgement to enhance learning."

-"Teachers use a wide variety of assessment methods, not all sources of information need to be included in grades.  They decide which sources of information to include based on the reliability and validity of the data nada the purpose of the assessment."

-"...the prime purpose of grades is recognized as communication, not competition, and determine students grades is based on a pedagogy that views the teacher's role as supporting learning and encouraging student success."

Saturday, July 23, 2016

Being Together - {Celebrate This Week}

Today I am celebrating being together.  I'm discovering when all five of us are together my heart is fuller and there's a sense of complete.  I feel lucky to have this week ahead of us.  No sports, no pets, no school, no camps, no friends, and no household chores.  New places to explore.  New things to observe.  New things to try.  Old things to enjoy.  I love pulling the girls away from their day to day lives that take them in different directions and watching them interact and enjoy each other; here's to a week of enjoying being together.


Thank you Ruth at Ruth Ayers Writes for encouraging us to find daily celebrations in our lives.  If you want to read more positive things stop by this week's post, Keep Celebrating.


SaveSave

Friday, July 22, 2016

Eating and Haiku - {Poetry Friday}




cascading water
over steady stones and moss
relaxation - bliss

@Mandy E. Robek 2016



I've been eyeing a local restaurant named, Haiku for quite some time and a few weeks ago I had dinner with my college daughter there.  Her best friend and roommate is working there so of course we had to go to support M!  Knowing M helped us out this evening because it wasn't too busy and her serving area had a table right next to this lovely outside center area.  M brought us post it notes and said everyone writes haikus and we hang them up.  I wish I had my notebook out and could share the process.  I really wanted to focus on the setting and nature, making several revisions and feeling disappointed when my syllables didn't quite work out.  If you are local, dinner was delicious!

Thank you to Chelanne at Books 4 Learning for hosting Poetry Friday this week!
SaveSave
SaveSave

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Building Teamwork with - UP THE CREEK by Nicholas Oldland

UP THE CREEK by Nicholas Oldland was a book I discovered this week at the pubic library and is perfect for community building.  I was drawn to it by the front cover.  Its summer and three characters a beaver, a moose, and a bear are in a canoe together.  This seems to be quite the unlikely combination to be canoeing together and I had to know more.  

Come to find out this canoe trip wasn't so peaceful looking at the beginning.  Each character had their own ideas which led to the canoe over turning, tipping up, and completely capsizing.  If you've ever canoed yourself with someone else you can appreciate the struggles for finding a paddling rhythm and sharing of the workload.  They have a few obstacles and each time there are further disagreements.  

Finally, there's an agreement. They agree to TEAMWORK and take each animal's strength to ride the rapids and return to shore.  This review does not do the humor justice. The humor is achieved by the wonderful pairing of words and illustrations by Nicholas Oldland.  I found myself smiling along the way a bit more and I can see younger students especially giggling with delight.  I also think this would be a great piece to discuss showing action via illustrations.  


Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Sewing Emergency - {Slice of Life}

Things have been going pretty smoothly with this years sewing project for 4H.  Judging is in 28 hours and we have a plan on how to wrap it up, without worry, and work in some normal events in our day. We need to put in an invisible zipper, a hem, and tweak the details.  Tweaking the details involves trimming any and all extra thread ends, basting stitches, and gathering stitches one might be able to see from the outside view.  Another thing we do to tweak the details is to iron it over and over again; pressing for success.  

Things are feeling pretty good until...we need an invisible zipper foot?  This is something we weren't anticipating but we were flexible and headed to the big chain fabric store.

I wanted to get there quickly.  I didn't want to show I was a little bit stressed so I tried to talk about other things.  I was driving my husband's car which turns differently than my van so the turn was a little quick.  I really don't like driving his car so I wanted to hide my frustration.  "Since this is a emergency, we need a siren."  She giggled and then I went a bit further.  "We then need a little needle and thread logo on the side of the car since it's a sewing emergency."  She giggled more and I forget the suggestions she offered but it made the air light for both of us.  I'm glad we were able to laugh while we were both a bit worried.



Reflection - I found myself wanting to tell more about our day and going back to the ending but reminded myself slices are moments and moments are small not a longer list of events or things.

Thank you to the Two Writing Teachers group for hosting our writing community and you can enjoy other slices from today by stopping by the link provided.  Thank you for stopping by.
SaveSave
SaveSave

Monday, July 18, 2016

A Mindset for Learning

As I was reading, A Mindset for Learning by Kristine Mraz and Christine Hertz I found myself wanting to take two actions before I was even half way through the book.  The first thing I wanted to do was to have W for another year.  He needs this book.  I needed this book to help him grow further.  We had a great year together, we worked a lot on persistence but I could of gone further with many of the suggestions offered in this book.  Another action I wanted to take and may still do before school starts, is to share this book with W's parents and his teacher next year.  I think this book should be in the hands of parents also.  It's not just a book for educators.  This is a book for anyone, young or old navigating life.




These are the nudges I found for the upcoming school year.

-Don't feel hurried to start school and miss getting to know my students.

-Write knowing tidbits about my new students down, I can't remember everything.

-Focus on the stances for learning early has a whole class and not just when needed for those in need.

-Value self-talk and listen more intently to self-talk.

-Make reminder charts/tools for individuals to foster independence.



These are some quotes that are sticking with me and might interest you in looking at this book more.

- Talking about getting to know your students.  "Rather, it must extend throughout the year and drive our planning, our teaching, and our very interaction with each child."

-"Resilience is important in our day-to-day lives, but it is essential to learning.  Resilience is what allows one to be persistent."

-"To help children build these stances, you may first want to ask them to apply them in areas of the day that are somewhat familiar to and "easy" for children in order to avoid draining their "willpower tank" too quickly."

-"When we harness the power of that voice, our life becomes more intentional and more under our own control."

-"Finding the positive spin does not mean that everything becomes the best ever; rather, it means we acknowledge negative feelings and help children move past them into productive actions."


Saturday, July 16, 2016

Thank You - {Celebrate This Week}

If you are stopping by this new space today, I just wanted to say thank you for taking the time.  I hope you will stop back by and enjoy this journey with me.

Thank you Ruth at Ruth Ayers Writes for encouraging us to find daily celebrations in our lives.  If you want to read more positive things stop by this week's post, Family Life.

Redesigned and a New Blog - {Celebrate This Week}

Phew!  It's been quite the week thinking about goals, purpose, design, space, and writing.  I've wrestled, yes literally with Blogger about layout and images.  I've played around, made mistakes, called in some support, and preserved.  I've studied mentor blogs and thought a lot about less is more and white space.  You will find current lists for Places I Go for Guidance and Places I Go for Inspiration.  Today I'm celebrating redesigning this space and creating a new writing space!

I started this blog, Enjoy and Embrace Learning in 2008 when I switched grade levels from third to kindergarten.  Franki Sibberson and I were together during a Literacy Connection workshop where I was predicting this grade level switch was coming.  In Franki's usual encouraging way, she suggested a blog to document and share my transition.  That is how Enjoy and Embrace Learning began where I enjoy sharing books and things related to my classroom.

Recently, I started to feel a nudge to create a space where I could organize my thoughts and blogposts focused more on being a writer.  I try to participate in the slice of life weekly posts and for a few years have done the Slice of Life Challenge for a whole month several times.  I love the feel of these posts for a whole month together and often don't post anything else because I feel it would break up the rhythm of how the blog is viewed and read.  I've also enjoyed reading blogs with a slice of life or poetry or celebration focus.  My previous post in these three areas have been moved to Enjoy and Embrace Writing for consistency and possibilities.  

I hope you will visit both blogs physically and just say ohhh and ahhh.  I'll feel the vibes through the rays of sunshine today.  I have the blogs linked to each other via a tab at the top.  Also, if you have Enjoy and Embrace Learning showing up in your blog reader or inbox, please consider adding Enjoy and Embrace Writing, there are links to do that in the sidebar on the right.  

Thank you Ruth at Ruth Ayers Writes for encouraging us to find daily celebrations in our lives.  If you want to read more positive things stop by this week's post, Family Life.

Sunday, July 10, 2016

Picture Book 10 for 10 is Coming!

                                                                        

Savoring
Soaking it up
Skipping along 
Summer

There's a new Voxer
Cathy checking in
Predicting my summer projects
Sharing her pd experiences

Then 
She shares the zinger
Sunday is July 10th
Picture book 10 for 10 is coming!


I knew it was coming earlier in the week but then I easily went back to savoring, soaking it up, skipping along, and my current summer plans.  Too be quite honest, even after agreeing to do a launch post today, I woke up and went - Oh, no!  - I didn't get that done and I was out the door to two of the most exciting softball games of the season.  While I was on the field, I read Cathy's post and decided it would be better if I shared mine tonight for our evening readers and twitter friends.  

I hope you will consider joining us.  We started this project because I was reading all of her fabulous suggestions in her book, More Than Guided Reading and wrote my reflections, which connected us.  I thought I had struck gold when she left a comment on my blog and today I still think I struck gold.  We love to brainstorm ideas, listen to each other, and then push each other for various little projects and presentations.  Sometimes I laugh and chuckle at her suggestions because she always has many but in the end, we come up with some good ideas like this one.  

We are thrilled so many people join us.  It increases the positive energy of a new school year.  It brings educators together around something positive and encourages sharing.  



Here's some tidbits for joining us.


  1. Grab a Badge (I like to select the image and save image as...)
  2. Join the #pb10for10 Google Community
  3. Choose Your Favorites:  All you need to do is choose ten picture books you cannot live without for whatever reason.  In the first days of this event, everyone shared their ten very favorite titles.  This still works.  You will notice, however, that many past participants choose some type of theme to determine their selections.  We'll leave this up to you.
  4. Narrow Your List to Ten:  It isn't easy, is it?  We've seen some crafty ways to get around that number, but really ten is plenty. 
  5. Write Your August 10th Post:  Write a post about the ten books you cannot live without.  Share your post on August 10th and link it to the Picture Book 10 for 10 Community.  
  6. No Blog?  No Problem:  If you don't have a blog, this might be the perfect time to start one --- or there are a million digital ways to join (see post below).  Of course, now with the Google Community it is quite easy to just post your favorites directly into the community without a blog.  We will also be tweeting from the #pb10for10 hashtag.
  7. Comment:  On August 10th (and maybe for a week --- there are a lot of posts) take some time to read posts from other participants.  Please comment on at least three.


Please share our event with all of your friends and encourage them to join us.