Under Pressure

 I am feeling the pressure of starting a new school year. I will be the first to admit that much of this pressure I put on myself - trying to do too much. However, there is another very real pressure that is very important to me and that I feel very strongly about.

We do something called Listening Conferences at our school. These conferences are held before school starts and are just between teacher and parents. The rest of our conferences throughout the year are Student-Led so the students are present for those. Anyway, during Listening Conferences, we simply listen to parents talk about their child and their hopes and dreams for their child. These hopes and dreams lead to the type of pressure that I am referring to in this post.

I learn so much about what is important to each family as they talk about their hopes and dreams for the school year. I come away from the conferences feeling very good about all that I have learned about each child and their family. The pressure comes later when I am thinking about making an attempt to fulfill those hopes and dreams. All of the families start each new school year hoping that this year will be "the year" for their child. They hope that their child will reach their full developmental, academic, social, emotional and physical potential, that they will bond with their new teacher and that they will be happy and have a wonderful year.

These are the same things that we all want for our children but it is very intimidating to be the one charged with meeting those expectations. With class sizes growing every year - I have 28 students this year - the demands seem virtually impossible to meet. I know that I will do my best and this will be a good year for all of my students but I also know that there will be some needs that I just can't meet.

I am working on trying to balance my expectations of myself so that I have the energy and stamina to begin to meet all of these needs and keep that energy going throughout the year. I am going to try to stay focused on the child in front of me at the moment and not let myself be swallowed up in thinking about how many needs  there are to be met. What about you? How do you keep yourself from feeling overwhelmed by all the needs you are facing and that you need to try to meet?

Fall Voyage

The following post was also posted on my classroom blog for the parents of my students. It tells all about our Fall Voyage - why we went and what we did - along with photos.

Our Fall Voyage was a big success and lots of fun for all. (I am thinking that we should change the name to Summer Voyage because the weather was far more summer-like than fall-like.) Below is a slideshow of photos from our trip. If any chaperones have any great pictures that they would like to share, just send them to me and I will add them to this slideshow. Remember you can either just hit play and watch this slide show or you can use the arrows at the bottom of the pictures to move more quickly or to go backward and forwards. Have your child watch it with you so they can tell you all about each picture. Below the slideshow are some facts, stories, etc. about our trip.





Why do we have a Fall Voyage?

We have a Fall Voyage for many reasons.

• We take voyages to push students just a little bit out of their comfort zone. Real learning occurs when you are pushed out of your comfort zone and are challenged to try things you have not done before. For some first graders the biggest challenge is simply being away from home for a night and learning that they can trust other adults and themselves. For others the challenge is being responsible for themselves and their gear instead of counting on mom or dad to keep track of everything. Most are challenged some way by the activities of the voyage. They must learn to work together, show perseverance when trying to find solutions to challenging problems, push themselves physically, and start to show independence in an age-appropriate manner.
• I love the voyages because I get to see the students in a completely different environment and see other strengths that they have that might not show up in a classroom.
• The voyages are also a great place for the students to practice the character traits that we have been working so hard to learn in class. Students also bring back some of the confidence and new skills that they learned on the trip and are able to apply them to academic learning.
• We also all form tight bonds as a crew and are able to work very well together for the rest of the school year.

For a detailed description of the school’s philosophy for our Adventure Education trips, please see the Parent Handbook at the very bottom of the Adventure Education page of the Renaissance website.

What did we do at Camp Elim?

In addition to eating, sleeping, packing, unpacking and taking care of ourselves, we also had time for some learning and some fun. Listed below are the activities we did along with a very short description.


Initiatives (Problem Solving Challenges)
Bag It – This activity had us feeling objects in bags to try to figure out what they were without looking. We learned to use other senses rather than simply rely on sight to gather clues and make decisions. The best part of this activity for most students was that we did it in the teepee.

Mine, Mine, Mine – This activity was a trust walk with a twist. Students were blindfolded. The blindfolded students were led to a tree and they had to feel their tree and notice all of its features. Next the students were taken back to the meeting area and they removed their blindfolds. Then they had to go and find their tree only this time they were not wearing a blindfold. We also played another blindfold game at this station where students were "hunters and deer" and had to find each other or avoid each other.

Unnature Trail – This was a hike with a twist. We had to go on a short hike and along the way find items that were hidden along the trail that should not be there. Some items were very easy to find and other were very difficult. We had to really use our skills of observation to find things. This is when we saw a bear (teddy bear) in the woods. Many of the kids couldn’t wait to tell their parents that they saw a bear in the woods.

Stepping Stones - For this activity a grid of stones was laid out. Students had to figure out the correct path to navigate from one side to the other. This activity took lots of trial and error and lots of patience.

Recreational Activities
Craft – We created space monsters during this recreational activity. We got to use many materials including paint. Our finished products are at school. Thanks to Mr. Dan for transporting them all back for us.

Hike – On this hike our guide pointed out various plants and animals. We were particularly fascinated with the woodpecker homes and the burned areas.

Obstacle Course – This was a huge hit with all of the kids. There were many physical challenges at this station. I don't have pictures because I needed to be at a different station during this time. If any chaperones have photos of this and send them to me I will share them with you.

Solo Hike – This was a short walk with a stop for a little solo time to reflect on the voyage. The kids chose spots within a set boundary and they sat by themselves just thinking and looking around or writing or drawing in their Camp Elim journals. Ask your child to show you his or her journal so you can read some of their thoughts about the trip or see some drawings that they made.


Other Items

We had a big campfire and the chaperones were all a part of it. Two parents, Mr. Joe and Ms. Heather, were involved in a skit that led to many giggles and belly laughs. All of the other parents had knock knock jokes and other jokes to share with the kids. We also did the old campfire standard - we sang "I'm Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee".  Apparently some of the boys were writing their own version of this during journal time before bed. You will have to ask the male chaperones for the details.

The meals were very good. For dinner we had barbeque chicken, green beans,potato salad and jello. We had mint chocolate chip ice cream cake for dessert. For breakfast we had pancakes and sausage. There was also a breakfast bar with fruit, granola, oatmeal and hard boiled eggs. Then for lunch we had sloppy joes, french fries, carrots and water melon with rice krispy treats for dessert.

The kids kept all of the adults smiling with their very cute comments. Just a few examples:

• When our hiking guide picked a weed to show us, one student asked if his boss knew that he was doing that. 
• The students were very worried on the bus ride up that the bus might run out of gas.
• While on the hike students kept asking if we were lost even when the camp was clearly visible.
• One student's mom told her to be sure to spin on the tire swing because it was healthy for her. (Okay, so that is not true but it was an attempt to get to spin on the tire swing because we were limiting time on the tire swing because the spinning made kids too dizzy.)

There are many more but I can't remember them all. I am hoping that the chaperones will share some cute stories in the comments of this post.

It really was a wonderful trip. Thanks again to all of the chaperones who gave so generously of their time. Chaperoning is just like parenting or teaching – the toughest job you will ever love.

Teach with Your Strengths

I have been in school with students for eight days now. The dust is just beginning to settle from all of the beginning of the year craziness. One of those beginning of the year things on my "to do" list was to meet with my principal to discuss my goal(s) for this year.

Prior to our meeting, I thought and thought about what I wanted my goal to be this year. I did what came naturally to me (unfortunately) and went straight to what I thought was my weakness as a teacher. I know that I am good at many things as a teacher but I also know that the area I could most use improvement in would be in assessment.  I thought about it a lot but I really didn't like that as a goal. It sounded so dry and boring. Finally I told myself to just grow up and do it.

I went into the meeting with my principal and told her my goal would be on assessment but that I hadn't narrowed it down yet. I also told her that I wasn't very excited about it but knew that was what I most needed to work on. She looked right at me and said that assessment could not be my goal. I was puzzled but kept listening. She said that she wanted us to be excited about our goal and that we should teach with our strengths. So we talked a while longer and came up with the goal of working on developing my PLN and helping other staff members do the same. Now this was something that I was very excited about doing and could really see as a very valuable way to spend my time. My principal said that we would all still work on assessment as a staff but that she really wanted us to have "juicy" goals that would propel us forward and she wants us to lead with our strengths. I was very happy as I left her office.

As I walked back to my room though, I began to wonder about my own thinking. My goal last year had been to help each student lead with their strengths and passions and not to dwell on their weaknesses. (Post about that here.) I know all the reasons why this is good practice. I do not want students to feel like school is the place where they only notice what you do not do well and make you do it over and over until you get better. I know that passion and excitement bring about motivation and a desire to learn more. I know that we need to see the strengths and passions of others in order to understand our strengths as a community. I feel like I do a good job of building on students' strengths and noticing what they can do. What surprised me was that I did not apply this to my own learning at all. I see now that I still have more work to do on shifting my mindset to one that builds on strengths - including my own.

Walk-Aways

This week we are talking about the third and final section of Conferring by Patrick Allen. Laura Komos is hosting the conversation this week on her blog, Our Camp Read-A-Lot. Be sure to stop by and check out the whole conversation or leave a comment with your ideas. If you are just joining us be sure to check out our earlier conversations about Part 1 and Part 2 of the book.

In this section, Patrick Allen talks about walk-aways or the things he wants his students to have as they walk away from a conference. So for this final post on Conferring, I think I will share my walk-aways from reading this book and participating in this blog book chat.

Walk-Aways

• First and foremost, I need to decide what notes I want to take at each conference so that I can spend my time listening to a student during a conference rather than thinking about what notes I might take.
• I am currently doing a modified type of guided reading group with my students. After a book introduction and/or a quick lesson I move around the table to read with each student. I have been making these quick reading times with the students have more of a conference feel than a guided reading feel and I want to continue and improve upon that. I am not sure which of Patrick's categories this fits under - Capital G Guided Reading or small g guided reading. It may be closer to small g guided reading. This will be in addition to my regular conferring during independent reading.
• I have been experimenting with Evernote on the iPad and think that I might be able to use that for my notes. I will need some additional type of form to keep track of when and how often I confer with each student but that can be in Evernote, too.
• I want to remember to leave my students with a walk-away of their own after each conference. The few times that a student and I have been very explicit about their new plan or goal, it has been very successful. First graders love to try new things and they are open to suggestions from me. I need to end each conference with a "P" - plan, progress or purpose. I need to make sure this is in my notes so I can follow up with the student later.
• It is important to keep in mind that "laughter is a natural sign of inferring". (p. 167)
• So many of the "Conferring Ain't Easy" premises struck me and are things that I need to keep at the front of my mind as I confer. These include: Conferring is Teaching, Not Fault Finding, Shut Up and Listen, Nudge Thinking Deeper, My Knees Are Killing Me and You Need a Mint. The first three are the ones that will help me change the substance of my conferences while the last two will help me make conferring more comfortable for everyone involved.

My first day of school with students is two weeks from today and I feel like I have a great plan in place to make some significant changes in my reading (and writing and math) conferences. Thanks, Patrick, for writing Conferring and giving us all so much to think about.

Components of Conferring "Conferring" Blog Bookchat ~ Part 2

We are in the middle of our discussion of "Conferring" by Patrick Allen. Last week we discussed the learning environment necessary to be successful with conferring with students. It has been very interesting to read all of the various reflections and think about all of the different viewpoints. Thanks to all who have joined the discussion. This week we will talk about the various components of conferring. You can join in this conversation, too. Here's how:

1. Leave a comment at the end of this post.
2. Write a post about your reflections, and place your link in the comments below. I will then update this post to include a link your blog.
3. Comment on Twitter using the hashtag #cyberPD.
4. Visit other blog reflections and comment.

I was very anxious to read this section of the book because I wanted to really learn more about the ins and outs of conferring. While I did pick up some new ideas, I think the most important thing I gained was a sense that maybe I am better at conferring than I give myself credit for. I always feel like I should be doing more with each conference than I currently am. Reading this section made me really think about how beneficial it is for students to do less but to think about it more deeply.

Reading the conference scripts in this section made me reflect on exactly what my purpose is when conferring with a student. I have decided that the main purpose is to notice where the student is and help them grow a bit in their thinking. I often felt like since I couldn't meet with each student every day that I needed to make the most of this short time with them and pack as much as possible into the conference. I will be trying to slow myself down during my conferences in the future and focusing on one thing at a time.

The other topic that I was very anxious to learn about was note-taking and/or record keeping. I, too, have used many, many different types of record keeping but I noticed that I really didn't refer back to my notes. After reading the section Conferring Versus Collecting (pages 107 and 108), I realized that I need to stop taking notes just to have notes and that I need to think about exactly what information I would actually use if I recorded it. I haven't quite figured this out yet but I know that I will be thinking about it a lot as we get closer to those first few days of school.

One thing that I have noticed about my conferring in the past was that when I did get frustrated with my various note-taking systems and just gave up on them, my actual conferring was better. I wasn't distracting myself with thinking about what I was going to write down at the end of this conference. I think that if I create a plan or list of notes that I will actually use, it will also free me up to really listen to the student I am conferring with and not be collecting a series of notes that I won't use. So before my first conference this year I need to generate that list so my students will get my full attention.

One quote from this section that I just loved and I think pretty much says it all (for me) was by Bev Bos:

What your children take home in their hearts is far more important than what they take home in their hands. (p. 139)

Today's Discussion

• Karen from Literate Lives notices in her post, Conferring reflection - Part 2, that the book Conferring is so comfortable and easy to read that it is almost like having a personal conversation with Patrick Allen. She also notes how important it is to have another teacher you can talk to about how your conferring is going.
• We are so happy that Deb Frazier of Primary Perspective is able to join us for this discussion. Deb shares with us her note-taking system and lets us know what she has learned and will be adding to her system to make it work better for her in her post, Conferring The Keystone of Reader's Workshop ~ Part 2.
• Tony Keefer from atychiphobia was able to skillfully connect Patrick Allen with the punk rock group The Ramones in his reflection, Learn to Listen: #cyberPD. You will need to check this out to see for yourself but I will let you in on the secret that it is all about the importance of listening.
• In Conferring: Improving Conversations with Readers, Cathy Mere from Reflect and Refine: Building a Learning Community begins at the beginning by sharing with us how her Reader's' Workshop is structured. She then talks about the reasons for conferring, the challenges of conferring and her plan for conferring in the future.
• Laura Komos, from Our Camp-Read-A-Lot, reflects on the language we use with students when we confer with students in her post, An Open Mind and a Listening Ear - Conferring Part 2. She also hops up on her soap box for a rant that we can all appreciate.
• The "D word, data" and the "C word, children" are the focus of Shelley Carter's post, Reflections on Conferring - Part 2, on her blog Thoughts of a Teacher. Shelley wants her conferences with students to center on the "C word, children".
• Barbara's post, Reflection... Conferring The Keystone of Reader's Workshop: Part 2 (Rigor) on her blog,  Love to Teach Reading and Writing is all about rigor. Barbara shares her plan for how she will promote rigor in her classroom this year.
• On her blog, Reading Amid the Chaos, Chris talks about how we as teachers need to "shut up and listen" in her post, Nurturing and listening to our reading apprentices. She points out that the things we learn when we listen to our students speak are the things that are great to share with their parents.
• Julie from Raising Readers and Writers, discusses the struggles that we can face when trying to find a system to keep track of our conference notes in her post, Cyber PD Conferring: The Keystone of Reader's Workshop. She reminds us to be patient and willing to tweak our system until we find the one that works for us.
• Carol talks about sharing our theoretical grounding with other teachers in her post, Conferring Cyberclub - Part 2 at Carol's Corner. She also makes a very good point that the type of listening we do in a conference with a student is the same type of listening we should do as parents.
• In her post Conferring: The Keystone of Reader's Workshop Part 2, Mandy from Enjoy and Embrace Learning shares with us her thinking about the challenges of implementing any type of conferring in kindergarten. She is taking on the challenge and creating a new system of note-taking to help her along the way.
• Michelle, from Literacy Learning Zone, tells us that she feels that her reading conferences in the past would sometimes "just skim the surface like a rock skipping across the pond" in her post, Cyber PD: Conferring - Part 2. She then lets us all in on her 5 conferring goals for the upcoming year.
• In her post, Conferring Part II Reflection, Nicole from Nicole's Book Nook, shares how reading Part 2 helped "clear up" her thinking about conferring in kindergarten. She also mentions that some of her new goals for conferring are some of the same things that she has been working on during other parts of her day.

The Schedule of our Discussion:

July 6th
Part 1: What Brings About a Good Conference, Anyway?
Hosted by Cathy Mere at Reflect and Refine: Building a Learning Community

July 13th
Part 2: What are the Essential Components of Conferring?
Hosted by me at My Primary Passion

July 20th
Part 3: What Emerges from Our Reading Conferences?
Hosted by Laura Komos at Camp Read-A-Lot

To Be Announced
Twitter Chat

Blog Bookchat ~ Conferring Part 1

Today, our Blog Bookchat discussion is focused on Part 1 of Conferring by Patrick Allen. Part 1 consists of three chapters - the first is about "counterfeit beliefs" surrounding conferring, the second is about goals for conferring and the third is about building an environment that supports conferring. There is a lot to think about in these three chapters but two things really struck me as I was reading.

The first thing that struck me was that while I don't consciously have any of the "counterfeit beliefs" about conferring now, I have had issues with some of them in the past. The items from the list that caused me to rethink my conferring plans were:

If I don't meet with every student every day, I'm not doing a good job.

I need to confer with every student the same number of times for the same amount of time each week.

I feel like conferring or any type of one-on-one instructional interaction with students is among the best practices in education. I know that I can't meet with every student every day but I still want to (even in the face of increasing class size). So since I use conferring in reading, writing and math I try to confer with different students in each content area each day. I still don't meet with every student every day but at the end of the day I have conferred with a significant number of students. Those personal interactions are important to the students so while I don't worry about the number of minutes or number of times I meet with a student each day or week. I do need to make sure that I am at least checking in with each student frequently so that they feel like a valued member of our learning community.

The other part of this first section of the book that caused me to really stop and think was the chapter on building an environment for conferring. I think all of the ashlars (pillars of support) that Patrick Allen mentions in this chapter are very important. He asked us to consider what our own ashlars would be and I think that I would add asking students to learn about what others are passionate about or what strengths others have. I think knowing this really encourages deeper understanding of the idea that we are all different types of learners and readers. It also helps them be able to have conversations with each other about the kinds of reading that they are doing and why they are making the choices they are making. This could probably fit in with Patrick's first ashlar of having a sense of trust, respect and tone, but I also think it is important enough that it could be separated out.

I am really looking forward to reading Part 2 of the book about components of conferring. The content of my conferences is where I really need to do some thinking, refining and revising.

This week's Blog Bookchat is being hosted by Cathy Mere at Reflect and Refine: Building a Learning Community so you should head on over there to join the conversation.

The schedule for the rest of the Blog Bookchat is:

July 13th
Part 2: What are the Essential Components of Conferring?
Hosted by me at My Primary Passion

July 20th
Part 3: What Emerges from Our Reading Conferences?
Hosted by Laura Komos at Camp Read-A-Lot

July 21st
Twitter Chat
This will be a conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #cyberPD

Blog Bookchat

I have been chatting on Twitter with Cathy Mere and Laura Komos. We were tweeting and blogging about what professional reading we are planning to do this summer. Cathy noticed that we all had Conferring by Patrick Allen in our pile of books to read and suggested that we chat as we read. This led to the idea of hosting a Blog Bookchat so that we could expand the conversation and ask others to join us. So today we are kicking off our Blog Bookchat on Conferrring.

The book is divided into three parts and we thought we could all post our thoughts, ideas and conversations over the next three Wednesdays. Here is the schedule:

July 6th
Part 1: What Brings About a Good Conference, Anyway?
Hosted by Cathy Mere at Reflect and Refine: Building a Learning Community

July 13th
Part 2: What are the Essential Components of Conferring?
Hosted by me at My Primary Passion

July 20th
Part 3: What Emerges from Our Reading Conferences?
Hosted by Laura Komos at Camp Read-A-Lot

July 21st
Twitter Chat
This will be a conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #cyberPD

You can join us by blogging your thoughts about the book and adding a comment to the host blog with a link to your blog. Or you can just add your thoughts and ideas directly as a comment on the host blog. You can also use the hashtag #cyberPD on Twitter and comment as we go. We are looking forward to learning more about making conferring with our students more meaningful in our reading and writing workshops. Come and join us for some do-it-yourself professional development.