We Learn

Children learn.  People learn.  At times we add roadblocks that make learning harder, but the bottom line is that children are born with the ability and desire to learn.  Watching a 6-18 month old child will prove this theory.  For babies it is simple, they want something and they will do what they can do get it. 

This morning, I was tying to get some work done, so I had my papers spread out of the footstool as my daughter played.  My daughter, who is 11 months old decided she wanted to get my papers (paper is a far better toy than anything you can get in a toy store.) I moved her saucer to block her path to the table.  I should have known this was not enough of a deterrent, but I thought my trick was enough. She figured out very quickly that she could climb on the bottom of the saucer to get to a gab between the chair and the table, which would allow her access to the papers.

This is learning.  This is problem solving.  This was figuring it out on her own.  This was wanting something and figuring out how to get it

All kids can learn.  The key is making it relevant to what they care about.  My daughter is constant proof that if it is something she wants, she will figure out a way to get it.  I struggle with where the line is in terms of responsibility between students and teachers when it comes to learning, but maybe we as teachers need to take more responsibility.  Are our lessons fun?  Are our lessons engaging?  Does the content matter?  Do we encourage kids to be smart or kids to work hard?  I am a firm believer a hard worker will beat out a smart kid in the end.

Learning is a lifelong skill that is vital to success.  Learning should be fun, it is an adventure.  It is our duty as educators to make sure that our students are lifelong learners.

Love

I work with a school full of women, most of whom are older than me and they all have children of their own.  The majority of them are in the age where they are too old to have babies and their children are too young to have babies (too old to be a new mom, too young to be a grandma.)  When I was pregnant last year I heard a lot about how they all loved babies and now that my daughter has spent time around them I know they were not joking about how much they love babies.  It took me a while to figure out how lucky I am to be surrounded by these people.

I am realizing as my daughter grows that we (and she) are blessed to be around a supportive network.  It really does take a village to raise a child.  I am still getting used to asking for help and asking for babysitters, but the truth is, it is nearly impossible to raise a child on your own.  I need help and I am fortunate to be surrounded by people who are willing to help.

I used to take it for granted, but I have realized that we are lucky.  My daughter is growing up surrounded by family and friends who love and care about her well-being.  She is blessed to go to an amazing daycare where Ms. Toni and the kids take great care of her.  The other kids at daycare give her kisses and tell her they love her when she leaves for the day.  She often comes to school events with my husband and I (we are both teachers) and she is always passed around and played with by our students and their parents.  Every child deserves this, but I realize as a teacher that not every child has this situation.  Humans need to be loved and cared for and children need this even more.  I am a firm believer that children cannot be loved too much (coddled yes, but that is a post for another day.)

I am grateful for the community and people I am surrounded by.  It is a wonderful feeling to know that my daughter is growing up with people who take care and worry about her.  Our schools need to remember this easy to forget aspect of life.  Students need to know that people care and love them.  It does not matter if they come from a great family or a challenging one.  Students who come from a challenging background need the love and positive attention even more and even those who come from the best background can use extra interactions from caring adults.

Some schools are already out for the summer and others will be finishing up in the next few weeks.  It's a crazy time for teachers and students, but remember what really matters.  The students who need love will ask for it in the worst ways.  Focus on relationships and show students that an adult cares for them.  You never know exactly what they go home to.

What We Need

This school year has been stressful and it has forced me to reflect on many aspects of my life and career. These are my reflections after a crazy week.

We need listening not lectures.

We need hugs not talking.

We need to play catch not video games.

We need to care not judge.

We need supporters not people to point out the challenges.

Life is about relationships. If we do not make these a priority we will discover later that we missed out on a wonderful opportunity. In the end it is not about money, accomplishments or things.

4th Grade Choices

Creating lessons for one of my fourth grade classes is a challenge. I was looking for ways to motivate all of them so I decided to give them the choice of what pieces to work on and which instrument to play them on. I have let them pick their piece before but never their instrument. Overall, it worked pretty well. It allowed all students to succeed and empowered them to pick the music/instrument that fit their strengths.

I created a sheet that listed the instrument choices and the pieces they could pick from. I also gave them room on the back to pick their own music.  They put a check mark in the corresponding box when they completed the piece and I put my initials in the box once they performed it for me.

Instrument Choice Sheet

One Third

This school year has solidified a concept for me.  When it comes to discipline, decisions or opinions: people will (almost always) fall into one of three categories.  One-third will do what they are expected to do just because.  One-third will do what they are expected to do if the reward is good enough and one-third doesn't really care unless the consequence is something they truly care about.  The number of students in each group may not be different, but in most cases, students will fit in one of these groups.

The longer I teach, the more I realize that this philosophy almost always works.

Example One: Classroom Tickets
One group of students will act correctly regardless.  One group of students will act correctly because they want tickets or are afraid of losing tickets.  The last group of students will only behave correctly if the punishment is deemed  bad enough.  I have had students tell me on many occasions it is alright if they get in trouble because they are on green.

Example Two:  Reading Rewards
One group of students will read because they love to read.  One group of students will read if they really want that pizza or reward.  The last group will probably not read regardless of the reward.  This may be because they don't like reading or because there is no one at home to make sure they read each night.

Our goal should be to encourage students to want to do and be their best.  Regardless of the reward or punishment.  "Real" life does not always have clear cut rewards and punishments.  We need to prepare our students for this life.

Sunday Thoughts

1. Often misbehavior is tied to a fear of failure.
2. Fear of failure is a learned behavior.
3. students need to be excited to learn and grow.
4. Schools need to work as a building to create a culture.
5. A positive school wide culture is more successful than individual classroom cultures.
6. We learn by doing.  Students need to spend time actively doing things.
7. Tests can show you what students have mastered and what they still need to work on.
8. Tests are only valuable if we use that information to improve instruction.
9. People deserve to feel valued and appreciated.
10. The reasons for your actions and how others interpret your actions may be very different.
11. Communication is key.
12. Always focus on relationships.
13. The goal of disciple is to fix behavior not punish.
14. Students will feed off of a teachers energy or lack of energy.
15. Teachers set the tone.
16. It's not about being easy.
17. You will rarely know the whole story.
18. Some will find a generic thank you insulting.
19. Think before you speak.
20. Spend 1:1 time with as many of your students as you can each day.
21. Don't let the 5% take your energy away from the 95%.
22. Set and keep a high expectation.

Happy

I was looking for a second pop tune for my fourth graders to play on recorder for Grandparent's Day.  I searched YouTube and found a video of the song Happy for recorder and orff instruments.  I had all of my students learn the recorder part and then we seperated and learned the other parts. 

Recorder
EEG AA BGE AAAA GA

Orff 
1111 2222 11121

Notes 1: ACE
Notes 2: GBD
*I am a percussionist so I taught my students how to hold three mallets.  Some players just played one or two notes and a few played all three notes.

Drums
High Hat
Snare Drum

Crazy Train

A few weeks ago, one of my coworkers shared a video with me on Facebook.  I decided to have one of my fourth grader classes try it for their performance during Grandparent's Day.  It ended up turning out awesome and I was very proud of my students.  It was challenging, but they enjoyed working on it and they played really well together.

We cut down the piece and only learned the melody riff.  We had a drum part, the bass riff and the melody riff.  We had to learn it in a short amount of time so students did not get the opportunity to learn all of the parts.  The three parts offered all my students the opportunity to shine.  The students who felt comfortable being the lead could learn the melody and the students who are more shy could play drums or booms.

Parts

Boomwhackers

Part 1:  Note-E, Rhythm- Ti Ti (Measure 1, Beat 1)

Part 2:  Notes-D & B (B is the lowest), Rhythm- Ti Ti (Measure 2, Beat 1 & 3)

Orff

Bass Riff

EE  

DD  BB

Melody Riff (E is the lowest note)

EEBE  CEBE  AGF#G  AG#FE

Drums

One of my students knows how to play a rock beat on a drum set, so I had him play the high hat and snare drum part.  I had other students play a hand drum on African drums.

Ashton Gazette: Week Six

The AFC Lady Raiders started the week by hosting Freeport Aquin on Senior Night.  SM and LM celebrated their last home game of the season by helping the Lady Raiders defeat Aquin 2-1.  Aquin held a 1-0 lead until the sixth inning.  CK led off the bottom of the sixth with a triple and reached home on a pass ball to tie the score at one.  In the bottom of the seventh, CH reached on a walk and scored the game winning run on a two out double by LM.  CK led the Lady Raiders with two hits and CH and LM each added one hit.  On Thursday, the Lady Raiders traveled to Freeport to attempt the season Sweep of Aquin.  AFC had a rough first inning and Aquin took a 3-0 lead in the first and add another run in the third inning.  The Lady Raiders were held scoreless until the fifth inning.  LM started the inning with a single, BG added another single and both scored on a single by LM.  CK hit a three run home run to give the Lady Raiders a 5-4 lead.  AFC took advantage of two Aquin errors in the sixth inning and added one more run to their lead.  The Lady Raiders completed the season sweep of Aquin by defeating them 6-4.  Seven players had hits for AFC: CK, AW, BG, SM, LM, LM and CH.  The Lady Raiders finished their week by traveling to conference leading Dakota.  AFC started the game by scoring four runs and added two more in the second before being  shut out for the rest of the game.  Dakota took advantage of nineteen hits to score seventeen runs to defeat the Lady Raiders in five innings.  BG, LM and CK each had two hits and SM, LM and CH each added a hit.  The Lady Raiders are now 13-12 overall and 7-8 in conference.  AFC will finish the regular season next week with games against Pecatonica and Somanauk.  They will travel to Fulton for regionals on Tuesday, May 19th for their first round game against Sterling Newman.

You're Due

Many of the girls on my softball team chant this as encouragement when one of their teammates is up to bat.  It is one of their chants that annoys me to my core.  I see a few things wrong with the idea of "You're Due" (unless you are 39 weeks pregnant.)  I understand that they mean it to be encouraging, but in my opinion, it says a lot about their values (even if they just say it because they have grown up hearing it.)

"You're Due"

My first problem with this statement is it sounds like I deserve something, I deserve to get a hit.  We live in a culture that is filled with people who feel entitled.  The truth is we don't deserve anything.  This may sound harsh, but think about the opposite.  If I deserve something, does that mean that someone who was born in a third world country "deserves" to live an incredibly challenging life in harsh conditions?  What did I do to "deserve" to be born in the United States where I have access to clean drinking water, public education and resources galore?  No one is entitled to get a hit.  Maybe the pitcher you are faces is entitled to get a strike out.  The only thing we deserve each day is to be treated with respect and kindness.

My second problem with this statement is it assumes we should see a positive result because we have endured a challenge.  You don't deserve a hit more than anyone else on the field and you don't deserve to win more than anyone else.  

My final problem with this statement is it focuses on past results.  We need to learn from our past results and use this information to grow.  We don't deserve positive results, but we can work hard to ensure we can compete better. 

What areas of your life have you lived with a "I'm Due" mentality?  I know I have lived my life feeling entitled at times.  I deserve a job, I deserve a house.  It can be a hard mentality to break, but I believe this thought pattern only brings stress and frustration. 

Who Am I...

My district is undergoing realignment and budget cuts which has led to music and art being cut from 80 minutes a week to 30.  This has forced me to reflect on who I am and what I am doing.  I realized that I identify myself as a teacher and it makes up a large percentage of my identity. 

During a recent conversation with a former coworker (who I look up to as a mentor), I mentioned that I need to not let being a teacher be my identity and how I saw this as a negative thing.  She was slightly confused as to why this was a bad thing and told me that for some people being a teacher is what they were born to do.  Therefore I should not feel bad for identifying myself as a teacher.  She also reminded me that life comes with changes and taking a year or two away from the classroom (to focus on being a mom) does not mean I will never teach again.

I am a mom/wife/sister/daughter/teacher/coach/musician/athlete/Christian.  I am many things, but the one thing that I see as my identity (besides my faith) is that I am a teacher.  During the time I thought this was taken away from me (after being notified of my RIF status), I felt lost.  Who am I if I am not teaching?  The progress has been slow, but I think I have come to a spot where I am comfortable with the options that lay before me.

Over the past few weeks I have come to terms with the fact that I see myself as a teacher and I am ok with this.  I realize that I am more than "just" a teacher.  I have also worked through the idea of me not being a teacher for a while or being a different kind of teacher.

Life will change your thinking if you allow it.

Ashton Gazette: Week Four

The Lady Raiders kicked off week four of their season by defeating Dakota 13-10.  LM led AFC with three hit and three RBIs.  SM and MP both added two RBIs.  The Lady Raiders took advantage of nine walks and two errors by Dakota to move runners into scoring position.  On Tuesday, the Lady Raiders hosted Forreston/Polo.  Forreston/Polo forced five errors and had nine hits.  AFC was silenced until the sixth inning when they scored two runs.  They were defeated by a final score of four to two.  LM led the Lady Raiders with two hits and an RBI.  AW, LM and SM also had hits for AFC.  Forreston/Polo completed the season sweep on Thursday by defeating AFC 10 to 1.  BG led the Lady Raiders off by reaching first on a bunt and was batted in on a triple by CH.  The Lady Raiders managed five more hits but were unable to score another run.  CH led the Lady Raiders with three hits.  BG, AW, LM and CK also had hits for AFC.  AFC finished the week with hot bats against West Carroll.  They had a season high sixteen hits and defeated West Carroll 9-5.  All nine players for AFC had a hit. CK and CH led the Lady Raiders with three hits each.  LM, AW and BG all had two hits.  LM, SS and CH each had two RBIs. The Lady Raiders finished the week 2-2, bringing their overall record to 8-8 and 5-5 in conference.

Student Objectives 4/27/2015