First Steps ~ Moving Towards a Math Workshop

I recently finished reading Math Exchanges by Kassia Omohundro Wedekind, and experienced an awakening of sorts. I have met with two colleagues (who have read or will be reading Math Exchanges) and we are now ready to start making some changes to our math blocks to better meet the needs of our students. I have many ideas running through my head and so to help me organize my thoughts, I am just going to create a list of things I plan to change and/or try.

Before I begin, I should probably say that my school is an Everyday Math school. I do like Everyday Math but I often wish I had more flexibility with my time and I feel that my students need a deeper understanding of number sense and more problem solving. These are both present in Everyday Math but I think my students need more. I generally follow the Everyday Math program fairly closely but I want to have more of a workshop feel than I currently do. Everyday Math lessons follow a predictable format: mental math and reflexes, a whole group lesson, practice which can include independent work, partner work and games which is similar to a workshop model. After doing some thinking and talking with my teammates we decided that we can use most of these parts and create more of a workshop feel on our own. So we will still use Everyday Math but will begin to tweak things more and more as the year progresses.

Below are some of my ideas of things that I want to try and/or change.

• The first thing that I plan to do is to be more open to "going with the flow" of ideas that come up naturally in any math related discussion. I will not keep one eye on the clock and worry about "getting finished" on time. I will follow the students' thinking and have them share more with the rest of the class. This will help foster that workshop feeling that I am trying to create.
• The next thing that I want to add is to begin to use what Kassia Omohundro Wedekind calls Mathematician Statements. These statements are just lists of things that mathematician do. Some examples include: Mathematicians ask themselves questions and Mathematicians persevere. This will help to develop the workshop culture by labeling the actions that mathematicians do as they solve problems.
• I also plan to add small group meeting times or Math Exchanges to our day. I'll start with meeting with one small group each day towards the end of our math time. These groups will be heterogeneous and will change over time. My goals for the small group meetings are to be able to work more closely with students because they are in a smaller group, to have more time for students to share their ideas with each other, and to be able to gather data about how each student approaches problems and what they know and can do. I also hope that students will feel more comfortable sharing their thinking in a smaller group. 
• Another way that I plan to add more math to my day is to do some math during our morning meeting. I have two books that I am planning to use to help me with this. They are Doing Math in Morning Meeting by Andy Dousis and Margaret Berry Wilson and Number Sense Routines by Jessica Shumway.
• I will also use many of the ideas in Number Sense Routines to add to the mental math portion of the Everyday Math lesson. I have ten frames that I made years ago and haven't used much lately at all. I can't wait to dust them off.
• I also made many games that I read about in a book by Constance Kamii years ago. (I can no longer remember the name of that book.) I plan to use these along with other activities like counting collections (from Math Exchanges) to provide choices of things for students to work on while I meet with my small group each day.
• Keeping notes on student strengths and next steps will also be part of my small group time each day.
• Finally, I want to take Kassia Omohundro Wedekind's advice and teach my students to live like mathematicians. I want us to notice the math that is all around us all the time and to take the time to bring it up and talk about it.

So this is where I plan to start. I still hope to continue to move towards a more full-blown math workshop but I am starting here and will continue to revise as we move through the rest of the year.

Note to Self: This post is getting long but I wanted to add this note to myself about things to add to our math workshop later. Remember to think about how number talks can fit in and to add technology as one of the choices - things like explaining your thinking in a Voice Thread or in an app like Show Me or Screen Chomp on the iPad. Those can also be future posts.

Awakening

I have recently been experiencing an awakening of sorts. I teach first grade but that hasn't always been the case. I started my teaching career in middle school. I taught sixth grade my first year of teaching and then I was moved to eighth grade teaching Math and Algebra. I have to say that this wasn't my choice but I also must say that I ended up loving it. I taught middle school for 9 years and really became a "math person". I loved teaching math and helping students try to really understand math. I lived, breathed and dreamed math.

Fast forward to the present (skipping over several years of teaching 3rd, 4th and 5th grades) and I am where I have always wanted to be. First grade. One big difference between teaching middle school and elementary is that in elementary school you must focus on so many different content areas. I have to admit that I haven't been living, breathing and dreaming math while teaching first grade. I have really been focused on literacy. I have been working hard to create reading and writing workshops where I can meet with small groups and confer with individual students. I love doing this but recently something has been happening with my math teaching.

This summer I ordered a couple of professional books about teaching math and then after school started, I heard about another book, Math Exchanges by Kassia Omohundro Wedekind. I ordered that, too. I couldn't find the time to read them but the changes in my thinking were triggered. I started to really think about my math teaching and began to try to remember the things I truly believed about math and how students can best learn math. I knew that I needed to make some changes in my math teaching - especially in the area of having students think for themselves and solve mathematical problems. Then came the Math Exchanges blog tour and I jumped in. It was the final push that I needed to actually begin to read the books I had and get started with my changes.

While reading Math Exchanges, I started noticing student thinking more often in math and asking students to share their thinking - something that used to be second nature to me but that I had let fade away in first grade. One day we had a spontaneous discussion about whether zero was even or odd and I was hooked. I loved how my students were so excited to try and figure this out. They had a very heated but polite discussion about zero and eventually came to an agreement that zero was even based on the patterns they could see on a hundreds grid.

I have been able to finish reading Math Exchanges during my Fall Break and I have so many plans to change the way things work in our math block.  I still have more reading and learning to do but I can't wait to start making little changes each day - more to come about those changes in the next post. Thanks Kassia for spurring this math "awakening" in me.

Never Too Old for a Good Read Aloud

My daughter is in middle school and can read on her own but we still have a family read aloud time almost every day. We started when she was a baby, reading board books. One night her dad read to her and the next night I read to her. This pattern lasted for years. Recently it has changed to just her dad reading aloud to her each night but the dog and I still always listen in, too. I am not sure what brought about this change. It could be that she knows that I love to be read to also or it could be that her dad does a great job of reading aloud or it could be that she and I now have another way that we share books. She and I will read aloud a different book at some other time of day - she reads a while and then I read a while.

We have shared so many great books this way and can connect so many things from our daily life to the books we have read. I don't want these read aloud times to ever end. This made me remember reading about a father and daughter who had a "reading promise" and they ended up reading aloud every night from when the daughter was in fourth grade until she went to college. It made many news sources and the daughter has now written a book about it. I hope that our family can continue to read until our daughter finishes high school also.

Reading aloud is for everyone. The other night when my husband was reading from Clementine and the Family Meeting, the latest book in one of our favorite series, I was so touched by a passage he read that I was prompted to write this post. The passage was about a family meeting between Clementine, her little brother and her parents. The parents were sharing the news that the family was going to grow by adding a new baby. Clementine is not happy about this at first and says that the family "is moving too fast" and that they are "not ready". The passage that touched me was her mother's response:

"Oh, honey," my mom said. "Life is always moving too fast and we're never ready. That's how life is. But somehow that's just perfect."

I know that this passage will come up again in future conversations with our daughter. It will help us talk about how we all feel that things are moving too fast but that sometimes that is okay.

Reading aloud is a great way to bring up issues that can be challenging. We have read books about divorce, cerebral palsy, autism, financial difficulties, growing up, middle school, family relationships and more. It helps to have some of these topics brought up in a book so you can discuss them from a distance and not feel quite so personally involved.

I love to be read to and I think that many others do, too. Do you?

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.