February 1st is World Read Aloud Day! Of course if I had it my way everyday would be World Read Aloud Day. But I am glad that adults and kids across the globe will be engaging in read alouds this Wednesday. There are so many benefits to reading aloud to students. Besides promoting a love for books and reading, there are so many other great things that happen when we read aloud to our students. Reading aloud helps develop vocabulary and spelling skills. It also helps improve listening comprehension. Reading aloud gives us the opportunity to actually model thinking while reading; we help develop comprehension skills for our students when we stop during read alouds and think out loud about what we are reading. I always feel like read alouds help strengthen the community feel of your classroom. There is something magical that happens when kids gather together and listen to their teacher reading amazing stories to them. That was always one of my favorite parts of our daily routine in my classroom. Sadly, I am tied up in some meetings during the day on Wednesday, but I am still going to block off a few time slots where I would be available to come read to some classes. I am also recruiting some other adults to be available to read as well. Check out this Google doc and fill in your name if you want to have someone come read to your class! I also have student council members who said they would be interested in reading to kindergarten or 1st grade classrooms so I will add that option to the Google doc and work out a plan for 4th graders to come in and read a story. Because I am not available for part of the day, I have created a digital bookshelf where I have recorded several read alouds. I will share the digital bookshelf on Tuesday. Please feel free to share any of these with your students, but I also hope you will choose to read aloud to your class because a recording of a read aloud is definitely not the same as someone reading the book in person in the classroom. Check out this great resource that author Kate Messner posted on her site: WORLD READ ALOUD DAY IS FEBRUARY 1, 2023!The authors & illustrators listed have volunteered their time to read aloud to classrooms and libraries all over the world. These aren’t long, fancy presentations; a typical one might go like this:
Or you can check out this link to register for some live streaming read aloud events. Looking forward to lots of read aloud magic happening at Clough this week! I am almost done with Michelle Obama's book, The Light We Carry. I think I like it even more than her book Becoming! I am excited to start listening to one that was recommended to me by some of my writing friends. It's called Write For Your Life by Anna Quindlen. After reading the description of this book, I definitely knew I wanted to read it:
"Drawing on her personal experiences not just as a writer but as a mother and daughter, Quindlen makes the case that recording our daily lives in writing is essential. When we write we not only look, we see; we not only react but reflect. Writing gives you something to hold onto in a changing world. “To write the present,” Quindlen says, “is to believe in the future.”"
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I have been enjoying listening to Michelle Obama's new memoir, The Light We Carry, during my drive to and from school. I love that she is reading her book. It's like she's riding in the car with me and we are just have a conversation together, just me and my BFF Michelle. I am halfway through the book, but she basically had me at hello. Or at least, she had me at the first chapter, titled "The Power of Small." She talks about feeling overwhelmed and anxious during the pandemic and how knitting helped her to think small: "In knitting, when you create the first stitch of a new project, you cast on. When an item is finished, you bind it off. Both of these actions, I’ve found are incredibly satisfying — the bookends of something manageable and finite. They give me a sense of completion in a world that will always and forever feel chaotic and incomplete... Any time your circumstances start to feel all-consuming, I suggest you try going in the other direction — toward the small." After listening to Michelle coach me to recognize the power of small and after meeting with grade level teams last week, I have been thinking a lot about our focus on thinking small in the classroom, as in thinking about small group instruction. It was great to hear from several different teachers about how they have been working on running small groups during reading blocks. I heard teachers talk about how they really got a chance to know their students' needs and work on individualized goals as a result of meeting with them in small groups. And I also heard teachers say that once their class understood the routine, they didn't have an issue with students interrupting them while they were working with their small group. Even in kindergarten! It was great to be able to celebrate these small wins with teachers. What was even better was being able to celebrate big wins with student growth. We are seeing kindergarteners building their phonemic awareness skills and now beginning to blend sounds to read words. (And they are so proud of themselves!) All the way up to 4th grade where we are seeing students jumping up 4 or 5 reading levels because they are working hard in small groups with their classroom teachers and focused during their intervention small group work as well. Thinking small is paying off big time! You may or may not have heard the newest thing about AI, artificial intelligence? More at the high school level than elementary, teachers are weighing in about ChatGPT, an Artificial Intelligence program where you can give it a prompt and it will generate text for you. I am intrigued by this new program. I think it's something that we as educators need to understand and figure out how to teach with programs like this always being created. I decided to play around with it and so I gave it the following prompt to help me write this blog post: write a blog post about the effectiveness of small group instruction with elementary students. Then I added that I wanted it to use a quote from Michelle Obama's new book. I have to say it was impressive to watch my screen fill with text in about 1 minute. Of course, apparently AI can't keep up with my reading because they used Michelle's other book, Becoming, which is not her newest book! But the program did come up with some valid points about small group instruction. But don't worry, I still plan to do my own writing on these posts, just might get some help from AI from time to time! I am including a video of my screen down below so you can see how fast this was written. Small Group Instruction: An Effective Way to Engage Elementary Students "When we give children the support they need to thrive, there is no limit to what they can achieve." - Michelle Obama, "Becoming" Small group instruction is a powerful tool for engaging and educating elementary students. By breaking students into small groups and providing targeted instruction, teachers are able to meet the diverse needs of their students and help them achieve their full potential. One of the key benefits of small group instruction is that it allows for differentiated instruction. Teachers are able to tailor their instruction to the specific needs of each group, ensuring that all students are receiving the support they need to succeed. For example, a teacher might work with a small group of advanced students on a challenging project, while simultaneously providing additional support to a group of struggling students. Another benefit of small group instruction is that it promotes collaboration and teamwork. By working in small groups, students learn how to work together to achieve a common goal. They also develop important social skills, such as communication and problem-solving, that will serve them well in the future. Small group instruction also allows teachers to provide more individualized attention to students. In a large class setting, it can be challenging for teachers to provide each student with the level of support they need. In a small group setting, however, teachers are able to give students the individual attention they need to succeed. In conclusion, small group instruction is an effective way to engage and educate elementary students. It allows for differentiated instruction, promotes collaboration and teamwork, and provides students with more individualized attention. As Michelle Obama reminds us, when we give children the support they need to thrive, there is no limit to what they can achieve. I am still enjoying listening to Michelle Obama's book, The Light We Carry. I also spent time reading more of the book Leading the Whole Teacher: Strategies for Supporting the Educators in Your School by my friend Allyson Apsey. And thanks to Amanda Farley for reminding me to pick back up a book I had started reading but had put down. I spent some time with Reader Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World this weekend. It's a little heavy because there's lots of discussion about the inner workings of the brain, but I do love that stuff!
During our last staff collaboration, I shared a video clip from Simon Sinek and we discussed the importance of remembering our why. We are at the halfway point of the year. It's a good time to reflect back on what we have accomplished so far and get ready for what the second half of the year will bring. It's also a great time to remember why we do what we do every day. Whether you have a rough day and need something to pick you up or you just want to start your day with positivity and gratitude, remembering why we are in the business of education and helping children grow should be a regular part of your practice. I collected the statements that you all shared and created our own poem similar to the one I read to you. Enjoy... Why I Teach My life has been centered around children I teach to make children feel special To make a difference, to inspire To feel alive I want to inspire others to discover and bring forth their own strengths I teach because I get to be inspired by others, and because this is the most interesting job to have I enjoy helping kids through tough problems. I teach to help kids understand their emotions To keep people healthy I teach to experience the “light bulb” moments To help kids remain healthy, safe and happy I teach because I was inspired by my third grade teacher, Mrs.Wandy I teach because I can't sit at a desk I teach to support the next generation of learners I teach because I like to help children It gives me joy to see them grow I love learning and I hope others will as well I teach because my mom was a 5th grade teacher and she inspired me I find happiness in seeing little “light bulbs” go off! I teach to share my lifelong love of reading I teach so that others can experience the adventures of reading too I knew I would hate watching a clock tick by all day I teach because I love school supplies My 4th grade teacher Mr. Crawford inspired me to be a teacher I teach to create relationships I teach to inspire a love of learning and a love of reading I teach to give kids the best parts of me I was a daydreamer in class. I was a struggling student. I love helping kids see their potential. I teach to see the smiles. I teach to stay humble, authentic and true to myself because kids say it as it is! I teach to put smiles on other’s faces, including my own. I teach to help others learn to love to learn. I teach to learn to love differences in others. I teach to help others know it’s ok to not be perfect, to be yourself. I teach to watch little minds grow. I teach to model positive relationships and mutual respect. I teach to help others feel included. I teach to see the expressions on a child’s face when they succeed. I get to instill the love of learning which doesn’t always have to be related to academics. I teach to share the beauty of words and books. To impact a life in a positive way. I teach because the art room was always a magic place for me. I love to instill a lot of creativity, thinking creatively and imagination and discovery. I teach to make a difference. I can try to make an impact in a child's life and try to be an influence to make a change for a student. I teach because I learned from my first and favorite teacher, my mom. I teach because I get to play! I learn everyday from my students. I love the “ah-ha” moments. 🙂 I teach to help shape the lives of children. I feel like a child myself! I teach because I hated school as a kid and I didn't think it had to be that way. I teach because it is part of my heart. Since I had uninterrupted time to read while flying this weekend, I was able to start and finish a great new book over the weekend. I won a free copy of A Rover's Story by Jasmine Warga. I loved this book and would absolutely recommend it for a read aloud to 3rd or 4th graders. It's the story of a Mars rover and the author shares how a rover might think and talk. She mixes in some interesting facts about Mars and space exploration while also helping the reader understand human emotion...through the eyes of a robot. I have one copy of it if anyone wants to borrow it and I think I will order some more copies for us to have. I also started listening to Michelle Obama's new book, The Light We Carry. I love listening to her read her book...it's like she's with me on my drives to and from school.
New year means time to learn about new things. I was lucky enough to be involved with the formation of a literacy resource that was created a few years ago. It's called Bookelicious. When I heard what it was called, of course I was immediately interested! Bookelicious is a free online site, that's right I said free! The site focuses on connecting kids to books they want to read. One way they connect kids to books is through the use of "bookmojis." What's a bookmoji?! Remember when bitmojis became popular? People created their avatar version of themselves and used their bitmoji with lots of things. A bookmoji is similar...teachers and students can create their avatar and they include all kinds of their interests with it. For example, maybe you are someone who likes camping, ice hockey, and anything with unicorns. Once you select your likes and interests, Bookelicious then uses that information to find books that match you. Kids have so much fun creating their bookmojis, then the technology on the site works its magic to constantly be recommending books to kids based off of their interests. They Bookelicious is not a site where kids go to read the books, it's a site to build wish lists or to order books. One way I have used it in the past is to help kids build lists for summer reading. Kids add to their list and then they can print out a list or share it with parents. They can either look for the books at the public library or parents and teachers can order books through the site. I love that they create tons of themes that you can search books that way. The site also regularly changes their book topics that they are focused on. For example, right now when you go to the site it talks about how later this month is National Hat Day. When you click on the mascot Jazzy, the dog, it will take you to a curated list of books all having something to do with hats. They also have different collections you can search. You can search by grade, by interest, by collection, by theme. All kinds of ways to search books! Bookelicious also provides regular free professional development sessions. These are virtual events that usually happen in the evening. I have attended some that are with authors. It's so great to be able to connect with the different authors and learn more about their books and their writing. They also do various professional development topics related to literacy. Anyone can sign up and listen in! Denise, Brianna and I are part of something called The Principal's Clubhouse that is hosted by Bookelicious. We meet monthly and talk about literacy leadership in our schools. There are people from all over the country and we always get lots of great ideas from these meetings. And sometimes we win free books! Last week's meeting, both Brianna and I won some books by the author Jasmine Warga! I encourage you all to check out Bookelicious, create a free account, play around with creating your own bookmoji. If it's something you want to do with your class, we can talk to the tech team about adding it to Clever. And maybe we can do the fun idea that I learned from another principal...a guess the teacher bookmoji contest! Bookelicious is a new tool that can help us continue to foster a love of reading with our students. Check it out and get book-matched today! Information from the Inspired Learning Day Planning Committee: Inspired Learning Design Challenge Announcement The Inspired Learning Planning Team is excited to announce the MURSD Inspired Learning Design Challenge on Thursday, February 9th. Students will have the opportunity to take on the Zip Line Challenge, which will allow them to explore, apply, and reflect on their personal connection to the MURSD Portrait of a Learner through a hands-on, collaborative STEM challenge. Additional details will be shared in the coming weeks, including scheduling, student groupings, and a complete educator implementation plan. The team has been working hard to finalize the shared features of the challenge and plan for its success, meeting for the second time this past Friday to continue this important work. If you would like to get involved with implementing the Inspired Learning Design Challenge, please reach out to a member of the Inspired Learning Planning Committee at your school. We are grateful for your support and look forward to an engaging and enriching experience for our students!
Clough Team Members Brianna Zalusky Evan Hanson Memorial Team Members Lauren Chuk Amy Henderson Molly Smith Miscoe Team Members Nick Cuomo Maria Desruisseaux Chris Massey Nipmuc Team Members John Clements Shelley Cook Leigh-ann Miklavic Mary Anne Moran Looking forward to the new year also means time to look back and reflect on the previous year. Some days, last year, and all things that came along with "coming out of a pandemic" seems so long ago. Other days...the objects in last year's rearview mirror seem closer than they appear. I do believe that looking back on the year, reflecting, is always a good way to get yourself ready for the year ahead, to get yourself in a better mindset for the future. I came across a podcast that had some great reflection questions. I am hoping that taking the time to think about these questions, maybe write down the answers to some, or have a conversation with a peer about them...that will help us reflect and keep moving forward this year. Here are the reflection questions... What made you feel most happy this year? What made you unhappy this year? What was the biggest lesson you learned this past year? What do you wish you would have done more of this year? What's something you want to do less of next year? What was your biggest success this year? When was a moment you failed this year? What is something you want to learn next year? What is your favorite way to refuel? (Podcast:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/9-powerful-reflection-questions-for-2021/id1450994021?i=1000546010728) Speaking of reflection, let's take a minute to reflect on why data (all kinds of data) is such an important tool for us as educators. Before the break you might have seen this post in Dr. Cohen's update... Using Data Across MURSD: All across MURSD we see educators talking about and using data to better understand, support and engage our students and guide our Tier I efforts. We see it at Nipmuc with educators reviewing our recent Panorama SEL survey data. We see it at Miscoe as grade-level teams engage in data inquiry using "street data" to identify common areas of growth in literacy, and coordinate with each other to try new ways of teaching writing skills. We see it at the elementary schools as grade-level teams use iReady and DIBELS to make sense of how students are making progress towards grade-level standards. At each school our Systemic Student Support (S3) teams are working together to identify the kinds of data we want to routinely collect and examine to best understand the whole child. Why is data such a powerful tool in your role and in your school? We'd love to hear from all of you on this as we work to articulate our vision and beliefs about the importance of using data to empower all learners to thrive. Respond to this one-question mentimeter to share your thoughts. You can see others thoughts in the embedded graphic on Dr. Cohen's blog from before the break. For those who prefer the simplicity of a google form here is the same response question in a form: Here is the link. I definitely used this break to recover, relax, and spend time with my family. I also spent some time reading. I started rereading one of my all time favorite new chapter books called The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise. It truly is such a great book...4th grade you might be interested in it as a read aloud! During the new year, my goal is to get back into a better habit of writing, so I picked up some of my writing books again to skim through for inspiration. I actually have a goal of writing a book, possibly about writing, possibly about leadership. And the number one thing is I need to just simply write. Reading other people's writing about writing is motivating me! One book is called Why They Can't Write and the other one is called Joy Write.
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