Opening Chapter: Intro to Responsive Classroom

My third year of teaching has begun, and I've started a new adventure teaching a self-contained 6th grade. With that, I've learned many new skills and strategies.

We've, my 6th graders and I, have had a great start to our school year, and part of that is due to my introduction to Responsive Classroom. 

The goal of this classroom approach is to create a positive learning environment that encourages not only academic growth, but also social and emotional.

You can learn about this resource yourself on their website: https://www.responsiveclassroom.org/ 

The first expectation is to hold a morning meeting. There are four components to morning meeting:

1. A Morning Message displayed when the students enter the classroom to welcome them and possibly present them with a warm-up/review activity for the day.
2. In a circle, have students Greet each other. These can vary each day, sometimes serious and teaching them how to greet others formally or ask them to greet each other in accents.
3. Next, students have the opportunity to Share. This is very similar to what I knew as "Show and Tell" during my elementary days. My students sign up to share each morning. Most of them share important events that are happening in their lives. Other students are encouraged to ask questions or relate to the student sharing. The goal is to create an environment where students are comfortable and confident. They also hope that students learn to be empathetic. 
4. Then we do an Activity together. These can vary. Some may be educational and relate to current lessons, or they can simply be fun. My 6th graders love playing Simon Says; Do What I Said, Not What I Say; In the Club; or sing goofy songs together.
5. As a class, we return to the Morning Message. 

This is a fantastic start to our day, and I love that we always have a positive start to our day.  Here is a greeting activity that we sometimes do on Fridays. The students all put one shoe into the middle, and one student starts by grabbing a shoe, and they must guess until they find the owner. This is the person they greet, and that person then grabs a shoe. The last person greets whoever started.

The other great start to our year, recommended by Responsive Classroom, was to write our class rules together. We did this in steps throughout the first week of school.

          Day 1: We determined what our Hopes and Dreams, our goals, were for the school year.

          Day 2: We brainstormed what Rules and Expectations would be necessary for us to achieve our Hopes and Dreams.

          Day 3: We organized our rules into Three Categories, but I didn't tell the students what each of the categories were about. Then, as a class we had to summarize the group of words into a Rule/Expectation.

          Day 4: In small groups, my students create Displays of their rules to remind them of their expectations for the school year.

Here are the rules that my students wrote: 

Walking into our classroom, you might not know what these rules mean, so let me explain.

1. The Golden Rule: Respect Yourself and Others

2. The Silver Rule: Respect Property

3. The Bronze Rule: Respect Our Work

This is how my 6th graders summarized our rules.

The addition that I also practiced with this was the reading of RJ Palacio's Wonder. Here we were able to relate our rules to the characters in the story and how they might benefit from using our rules.

My students are in love with this novel! Some even ordered a copy from our Scholastic Book Order. 

What have you done to have a positive start to your school year?

Writing Lessons for Students and Teachers: Kelly Gallagher's "Write Like This"

Seventh grade students throughout the room are working on either handwritten or typed drafts of their research essays in Writers Workshop. Each student chose their own topic from a reliable news resource. On the white board is a list of students patiently waiting for Ms. Hansen to answer their queries.

Ms. Hansen: (restraining herself from pulling on her hair) Why is teaching writing so hard?

Franklin*: (laughs) I don't know, Ms. Hansen. Why do you teach it if it's hard?

Patricia*: But we're getting it! We will.

Ms. Hansen: (sign) The only way this will get easier is by practicing.

Franklin: Maybe it isn't teaching writing that's hard; maybe it's who you're teaching!

Ms. Hansen: Franklin.

Franklin: (with wide eyes) That's not what I meant! I meant this would be easier if we were, like, seniors.

Patricia: But it would be hard then if we didn't learn it now.

*Student names have been changed.

Teaching writing is hard. It is time consuming. It is energy draining. However, it is also an important life skill of communication that students will need in all their post-secondary endeavors, whether they choose to attend college, accept a job, take over the family business, or wherever their dreams take them.

Because teaching students to write is such an important skill, it requires us to teach authentic types of writing. I do know that there is a place for writing literary essays and book reviews, but what about the big R in the room? Relevance. Students need to see why writing is relevant, and this makes it authentic. 

Essential question: How is writing relevant to our students and their post-secondary lives?

As a language arts teacher, the list seems quite extensive. I have a favorite mini-lesson related to this that I used with seventh graders where they must discover how they would use writing and other forms of communication in their dream jobs, but I'll save that for another post.

How I started to see writing as relevant was through Kelly Gallagher's book Write Like This.

Published in 2011, I first purchased this book the summer of 2014 before my first year teaching, so some of you may already be well-aware of this treasure of a book. If not, I encourage you to invest. I love the library, but this is one to keep on your shelf.

I will be honest, I have been using this book for two full years, but I did not finish reading it entirely until June of this year. 

Teachers are busy, and reading an entire book just may not fit into our schedules. The introduction to this book provided excellent background that helped guide my use of it. Gallagher explains six purposes for writing, which teachers can quickly align with Common Core writing standards. 

He then explains each purpose individually with separate chapters. This is where you find the real gold: example writing assignments. For two years, I pulled mini and full lessons along with unit assignments from within this book without reading it entirely. This was an invaluable resource as a new writing teacher.

The different purposes for writing are worded in an authentic manner, not just the standard "creative," "informative," and "argumentative" that we often see in our standards. The variety of language and also the different organization and format of the assignments presented throughout seem more realistic not only to students, but also to me as a teacher.

Here is an example of my annotations from when I first purchased the book: 

Unfortunately, these notes are not descriptive, so I found myself still rifling through extra pages before finding what I needed for the week. When I decided to read the book in it's entirety, I created a digital Table of Contents/T-Chart for my notes:

I cannot wait to see how helpful these notes are in the upcoming years!

Need help organizing your notes? Here's a blank digital copy for you! It's a Google Doc, so make a copy and annotate away!

What invaluable resources do you have for teaching writing?

Afford a Wedding as a Teacher

The past couple of months have been a whirlwind with teaching, resigning, moving, creating a new home, and getting married. As we say in Minnesota, "Oofda!"

Life is good, and all these changes have been a success.

Planning a wedding can be stressful, especially on the pocketbook. As teachers, we tend to be thrifty, so let me share with you a few ways that my fiance and I paid for a wedding on a teacher's budget.

Always talk to the people around you, especially other teachers. They are a talented group of people who also have time for other hobbies during the summer months.

Venues
Are you a member of a church? Consider having your ceremony there and the reception somewhere else.

Consider community centers. We were married in a rural area, and the community center rental included tables and chairs for a price below our expectations.

Photo credit: A&E Photography of Moorhead, MN

Catering
It is possible to do it yourself! With a little help from good friends. But this can be intimidating...

If you don't want to do it yourself, talk to your church. There are talented people there who plan and host large meals as fundraisers and celebrations. 

My mother took care of all the catering by talking to our local grocery store and using church recipes for mashed potatoes (my father had strong opinions about REAL potatoes) and corn. She purchased everything in bulk from the grocery store.

The day of the wedding, we asked some family friends who weren't invited to the wedding (because a guest list can only include so many) to watch the food in the cookers.

Cupcakes 
These are expensive! We price-checked at several locations and couldn't believe the cost. So what did we do? Made them ourselves!

The cupcake itself can be frozen without becoming dry. We made them two weeks before the wedding and froze them. Two days before the wedding, we took them out to thaw. The day before the wedding, my superwoman mother frosted all of them. You can plan about 1.5 cupcakes per guest. We planned for 2 per guest, and we had leftovers!

Photo credit: A&E Photography of Moorhead, MN

Decorations
Do you like rustic? Find photos of decorations that you love on Pinterest, and take them with you to thrift stores, antique stores, and flea markets. It is a great adventure for a Saturday!

Do you like lights? Stock up right after Christmas. They're on sale and you can buy the large rolls. This easily adds sparkle to a community center.

Photo credit: A&E Photography of Moorhead, MN

Flowers
Unless you adore fresh floral arrangements, keep your flowers to a minimum. Order bouquets for the bridesmaids, boutonnieres for parents, grandparents, readers, hosts, and hostesses.

Photographer
Do you want to help a student? Hire a photography student from the local college or university. They will have new ideas and can build a portfolio. They can even rent camera lenses from online!

Music
Are you close to a music teacher in your school? Odds are they have a passion for performance.

A huge help is to get to know the other teachers at your school! Many of them have other talents that they use during the summer and would be happy to help you out!

Don't forget to take time to enjoy the important moments in life as you plan your best day.

Happy Folder: A Teacher Must

The unfortunate truth is that as teachers have days where we feel defeated. Maybe a brilliant lesson didn't turn out right. Maybe a student acted inappropriately. Maybe we are tired and looking for a break. As teachers, a lot happens in our classrooms that we cannot always control, but just like we remind our students, we control our responses.

As my classmates and I were about to embark on a right of passage, student teaching, we had a college professor who told us to create a "happy folder." She told us it did not have to be fancy, but a folder for us to place "happy memories" such as a thank you from a student, a drawing, a note from a fellow teacher, or anything that reminded us why we joined the profession of teaching.

For the last two years, I have utilized my happy folder frequently, whether adding memories or cheering me up. At the end of the year, when students are ready to be done, it truly helps me reflect on the positive influence we teachers have on our students.

In the last two and a half years, I have letters, thank you's, pictures, and poems in my binder.

Some of my favorite highlights in my binder: (Yes, I take photos of some items just to keep in my binder!)

• A reminder of supportive administration, and all we can do as a team!

• A prom invite, because we (advisors & the junior class) pulled it off and the students had a blast!
• Photos of reading to students
• Photos of my 8th grade basketball teams and my track teams
• A student literacy essay where he describes how his favorite English teacher encouraged and inspired him

And some things that just make me giggle:

• This myth inspired monster my student insisted I have!
• An overheard comment: "I need, like, six brownies to keep from being anorexic."
• 

Unfortunately, I will not be with this same group of students next year, so I've also had to include some farewell notes and generous gifts:

• This one melted my heart...they did understand the poem and apply it to their own lives!

• This student gave me the first three books in the series, because she had to make sure I read them, even if I'm teaching somewhere else.

• What teacher doesn't appreciate when their students give them a little extra sugar?

• This student remembered that roses are my favorite. Can kids get any sweeter?

After all, we choose our own attitudes, and I—for one—know that I am a better teacher when I'm optimistic and energized. This happy folder helps me do this.

What do you do to stay positive? How do you choose happiness?