Summer Celebrations

Three weeks into summer, and I am loving every moment of it. The season of summer is not my favorite. I am not a hot weather type of gal. But with the warmer temperatures, I have several favorite activities and at the top of my list is gardening. 

Our vegetable garden has ebbed and flowed over the years. We have had way too big and way too small as Goldilocks would say.  Choosing plants and the right quantity has been a challenge too. I love to share our produce with neighbors which makes weeding the gardening palatable. My celebration this year is dividing the garden into fourths and choosing a wider variety of plants. 

Flower gardening is my passion and a little secret is I'm on a mission to raise beautiful flowers cheaply.  Sounds crazy but I have switched almost all of our flower beds to perennials which I purchase at the end of a season usually 75% off and plant a dead bush waiting for it to burst open in the spring.  This year I have planted more seeds because I am anxiously waiting for a wider variety of cut flowers. 

Finally I celebrate my passion for reading! I am a reader and summer is my time for preparing for Newberry Club 2018.  I saw this photo "I love my library." that Peter Reynolds created, and I ordered one for my classroom. Perfect opener to conversations in the fall.  My two favorite books of the summer: Train I Ride and Lucky Broken Girl. 

Reserve them now at your local library. 

I hope everyone is having a wonderful start to summer and your finding time to enjoy your favorite hobbies. I am sad I'm missing Allwrite this weekend and I am thankful for all the tweets to help me stay connected. Congrats to Ruth for an amazing conference.  I'm happy to link up with my Saturday celebration friends. 

Celebrating: Presence and Presents

It’s easy to get wound up like a ball of yarn during this time of year.  6 days of state testing, more district tests and knowing there are only 27 days of school left until summer.  One aspect that I love about getting older is perspective.   I clung onto my OLW (quest) and as each month passes I realize that my quest has been to dig deeply and continue to learn some of life’s grand lessons.

This week my celebration is about presence and presents.

Presence is defined “being in a place at a certain time” I am learning that presence is my learning target. Learners have several learning targets throughout a school day; however, I have one learning to be in a place at a certain time.   It’s been a week of learning for me. Challenges I have faced where I had to choose to step back and pause, go eat my lunch prior to having a conversation, and finally taking deep breaths when asked the same question 58 times.   I am thankful when I purposefully choose to be in the presence.

Presents are defined “something you give to somebody” My thinking about presents have changed with my age also.  I enjoy giving presents at the unexpected moments.  Finding something at special store and knowing that I have it in my drop drawer at home when I need it.  Leaving presents on someone’s desk without a card is my new favorite choice.  This concept started for me with Sandy Hook Elementary. I watched 60 Minutes this past Sunday, and it’s been four years, and I still wept as I listened to the parents.  This week I had a celebration in our school library.  A first grader brought her new book in and I was looking for books.  I paused and looked at the book which was almost as big as she was and I asked her about it.  She shared her favorite pages and facts.  Connecting over books is the best present of all.  Thanks to Ruth for encouraging us to celebrate every Saturday. 

I never knew until this post that both words are
next to each other in the dictionary. I believe they
are connected. 

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Celebrating: 28 Years of Teaching

I'm celebrating 28 years of teaching and the confidence to stand on my own two feet. I'm celebrating choosing to keep my #OLW quest for another year and not giving up on it because I knew that I was going to have more opportunities to follow my quest this school year.  It feels good when you write a blog post on Friday night, and you can look back over your school week and know that there were several amazing opportunities for the learners in Room 234.  State testing is looming around the corner and starts this week, but I didn't change my thinking and definitely didn't change my lesson plans.  I stayed the course and everyone in our class will be ready for ELA test next week because they are all readers and writers.  All of us have the confidence that we need to stay focused on strong literacy instruction along with continuing to to read thoughtful and amazing books.  I celebrate 28 years of teaching and the confidence to stand on my own two feet. Thanks to Ruth for encouraging us to celebrate throughout the week.  I'm excited to read other celebrations from the week. 

The mathematicians were hired for the week to work at Carter Candy Company. They spent two days building containers to hold 24 boxes of chocolate. There were six different combinations.  On Friday, they are trying to figure out which container will work best for shipping the chocolates.  I am celebrating 21learners who are all working together to try and problem solve.  I am celebrating how several students used different strategies and were able to share their thinking.  After all life is a box of chocolates.

Celebrating Being on my Quest

I held onto my OLW - quest for 2017.  I knew that I wasn't finished with the journey that I would be on to as I continue as a student of writing.   I am excited to be celebrating Ruth's writing courses.  She hooked me when I watched her first video and she discussed how overwhelmed she was with grading 100 writing assignments. I've read several different articles about becoming a stronger teacher of writing, and for now,  I have a system that is working for me.  I am quite excited about it because it's manageable which is the key to implementation.

Collaboration:  During our workshop, we discussed what were the key components that everyone focused on while writing their informational essay.  My writers came up with a list of five. Done, simple,  and most importantly easy to assess.

• strong opening (lead)
• content specific vocabulary
• body - flow and stronger sentences
• choosing important evidence
• strong closing (wrap it up)

Grading:  I have 26 writers in my class this year, and I read and evaluated 6 a night which I could manage.  I had a goal, and I succeeded. I only graded for the five components and wrote down notes for each writer, so I could gather information to inform next week's instruction.

Grouping:  On the fifth night, I looked for patterns which would be a an important review for mini lessons.  I have read several articles about writing partners, and intentional talk.  

I've had some time to reflect on this process, and I am celebrating my quest for being a stronger teacher as well as implementing several ideas that Ruth has shared with us.  I am anxious to return to school on Tuesday and share the plan for the week with my writers.  Thanks friends for sharing in this week's celebration and continuing on my quest with me.  

This warmed my heart as I read Tara's comment.
I am thankful to have friends like Ruth and Tara to lead
me as a writer. 

Slice of Life: EnJOYing the Process

Slice of Life as defined by me is when I share small moments not always about my life as a teacher (which is a majority of my blog) but my life beyond education.  I am not sure why I see slices differently. Often I write slices in my notebooks or compose in my head, but I typically don't publish them. 

I believe that's why I chose to hang on my OLW: quest from 2016 you can read here why I made this decision. Our 2017 sermon series at church is entitled “Starting Something New.”  Last week’s sermon was about enjoying the process and not getting so wrapped up in the end result.  I listened intently and reflected about my OLW quest. Pondering about the process of being on a quest?  As I reflect on the steps I took to achieve a goal, most of the time this is where I learned the most about myself. The moments in the process that I didn't see coming. Those moments when I was unsure of which way to turn.  I don’t like to change directions unless I know the reason why. I am hesitant to switch my path once I have figured out which one I am going. But I have learned through life experiences, that my quest is not my journey alone. I am not an island.  I always turn to my family, friends, and prayer.  I am working on enJOYying the process and trying hard not to focus always on the end result. I am excited to be joining the slicing community. Perhaps it's another part of my quest.