I came across this gif and I couldn't help but giggle. And now I have that song by Rick Ross in my head, only with the words "everyday I'm rustlin'", on repeat. This is the time of year when I find myself driving in my minivan, probably driving to drop off a kid or pick up a kid or grocery shop or rush somewhere, and suddenly I see that the leaves have changed. It's been happening all around me everyday and suddenly, I finally notice it and it makes me pause. It's such a beautiful, incredible thing that nature does every year. But everyday, during this time of year, especially in schools, we are hustlin'. We feel the pressure to get through our lessons, we move from one activity to the next, we meet to talk about kids and review assessment data. We start our day and before we know we are driving home, and then we do it all over again the next day. But do we stop to actually notice what is happening all around us? We might have spent several weeks trying to teach routines, like kids rotating through different stations during math time. Have you stopped to watch during math time? You may notice that all of sudden...they are doing it. Or maybe you were working on building up reading stamina, and now, all of sudden, kids are reading independently for longer periods of time. Like the leaves changing colors all around us, it's a beautiful, incredible thing that happens with our students during this time of year. But we as educators, we are hustlin'. We have this urge to put our heads down and do the work, move through the unit, teach the lessons, get through the daily schedule. And that's not a bad thing. That is us doing our jobs. But if there is all hustle and no pause, you miss a lot of amazingness. We certainly took time this weekend to pause and not just notice the colors of the leaves, but we also stopped to see that they were now all covering our yard and driveway! So of course my kids took some time to rake the leaves into giant piles and jump into them. Weekends are full of hustle too, but it's good to stop and just jump in a giant pile of leaves every once in a while. How will you pause and notice the beautiful, incredible changes happening in front of you in your classrooms this week? I purchased a few books at the book fair that I am excited to begin reading. The first is a graphic novel that is a memoir called They Called Us Enemy. This is about the George Takei's story of being a Japanese American sent to a "relocation center." I also got Alan Gratz's new book titled Two Degrees. He always does such a great job writing about important historical fiction; in this book he focuses on climate change. I spent some time this weekend rereading a great resource book that a good friend of mine wrote called Layers of Learning. This awesome book is full of read alouds and how you can use them to have caring conversations. Let me know if you want to borrow it!
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'Tis the season for parent conferences. You've been doing everything you can to educate each child in your classroom, and now you have to figure out how to let parents know all about their child in 15 minutes face to face. Is that even possible? I would say no. Hopefully, parent conferences are not your only interactions with parents. Over time, parent conferences (and report cards) have stood out as the main communication with parents. We all know that's not true. But the reality is in a few weeks you have to try to paint the whole picture of each student for their parents...in about 15 minutes. Sorry if I am painting a bleak picture for you. But I know this is the reality you are all facing over the next few weeks. I remember those conference days all too well. It was like an assembly line, one parent in, one parent out, one parent in, one parent out. Never enough time to give my full attention to each parent and share what I wanted to share about their child. I was thinking about the next conference while I was in the middle of the current conference! So what is the best approach to parent conferences? First, I would say that you should have already been in contact with all of your parents in some way. You don't want your first interaction with a parent to be a rushed 15 minute conversation. Hopefully you were able to start the year with a positive phone call or email home for each child in your class. And then if you have had any concerns or information that you felt necessary to share with parents, then you have already done that. Second, I used to give out a little sheet before my conferences that simply asked parents what their concerns were or what they wanted to discuss. Some years I found that I was prepping lots of information about a child's reading abilities, when in actuality all the parent wanted to really talk about was how they were doing socially...were they making friends and interacting with peers? If you can give parents an opportunity to give you a heads up about what they want to focus on, you can save yourself a lot of preparation time. This could be a form that goes home or it could actually be a Google form that you send through email and then collect all the info in one place on line. It is helpful to know the agenda that parents are walking into the room with because it could be different than your agenda. I like the statement in the graphic above...let the parent set the tone. You can actually let the parents set that tone before the conference even starts if you gather info before the conference. Third, let it go. No, I don't mean start singing the Frozen song. I mean you need to accept that fact that you won't be able to cover everything that you may want to talk about in a 15 minute time slot. You definitely want to plan ahead and be mindful not to overload yourself with conversation topics. If you did not find out what the parent wants to talk about in advance, then ask them. It needs to be a conversation that they feel part of, not a one-sided, rapid-fire lecture from the teacher about their child. If you had planned to discuss three things and only get to discuss one, let it go. Don't let yourself get stressed about not being able to talk fast enough. Remember, the parent conference should only be one small part of the home/school communication connection. I really like the statement above that says increase the role of the child, decrease the role of data. This doesn't mean that we are not looking at data to understand each kid; what it means is we need to make sure to keep the child at the forefront. They are more than the numbers and letters and spreadsheets that we have created. I don't want any parent to ever feel like their child is simply a bunch of assessment scores. I also like the thought above about focusing on where the students are going, not where they are. That will be your challenge to help parents think in that mindset, to think about how we are going to work together to move their child forward. Fourth, be sure and take notes. Parents may share information or ask for a follow up about something, and you are human...you should not think that you will remember what was said at a 5:30pm conference after you have 7 more conferences that follow that one. Take notes for yourself and then after conferences are all done and you give yourself some recovery time...like make sure to eat and sleep!...then go back to your notes and think about how you will use that information or how you will follow up with that parent in future communication. Fifth and final for now, remember that while you may have 20ish different sets of parents to meet with, each of those parents is only concerned about their one child. To the best you can, give them your undivided attention. If they see things differently than you, resist the urge to be defensive. Listen to what they have to say, and let them know that your number one job is to be there for their child. Even though you care about and are charged with supporting a whole class, their only interest is in their most prized possession, their child. In my experience with parents, I have learned that the biggest thing they want is for you to care about their child and for you to hear them. You are the child's teacher for one year. They are the child's teacher for a lifetime. And I really love number 7 on the graphic above..."give parents hope as they exit." If the end result from a conference with you is that parents feel hopeful and are partnered with you to help their child move forward and grow...I call that a win! Will all of the communication and connection with parents happen in one 15 minute conference? No. But hopefully you can strengthen your partnership with parents through conferences, and then think about how to keep that going through the whole year. Each of our students needs and deserves a team that is working together for them. It was a slow week for reading for me...lots of evening events meant that I was too tired to read. Hoping to get back into my regular reading habits this week! I did download some new books on Audible. I started listening to Jennifer Nielsen's newest book, Lines of Courage. She writes great historical fiction books and many of them were at the book fair. I also downloaded Street Data and am excited to dive into that one. So many of my principal friends recommended this book this summer to me so I am looking forward to learning from it.
Last week, I may or may not have added to my application for mom of the year by heading to the McDonald's drive through for dinner. And it might have been on Wellness Wednesday. (Yep, I feel your judging eyes reading this.) The line was backed up and by the time we finally got to the window to pick up our food, we still had to sit for a bit and wait for the precious chicken nuggets and fries. While I was waiting and staring out the window into the drive through window, I noticed the screen saver on the cash register. It was several screens of guidance for the McDonald's employees. I wasn't really paying attention to wait the screens said, until two headings caught my attention. The first one said "Get It Right." And there were some bullet point underneath about making sure to get the customer's order right, listen to the customer, pay attention to the orders on the screen, etc. The second heading said, "Make It Right." And the bulleted list underneath was all about if you didn't get the customer's order correct, then you needed to make sure to fix those mistakes. As I pulled away, I kept repeating those two phrases over and over in my head...get it right, make it right. And I couldn't help but think about how important those two phrases are in terms of us teaching kids. We have such an awesome responsibility. We are molding kids' brains. And being in an elementary school...we are responsible for teaching them to read. That's a big deal. I really do feel like we are on the same level as brain surgeons. Brain surgeons have to get it right. The tiniest step or precise cut in someone's brain can make major changes for that person's life. The human brain is an amazing thing. And just like brain surgeons, we have the ability to change the trajectory of a child's educational career. We have to get it right. I came across a research study from the University of Washington back in 2018. The title of the article caught my attention: "Teachers are Brain Engineers: UW Study Shows How Intensive Instruction Changes Brain Circuitry in Struggling Readers." This study used MRI measurements of the white matter of kids' brains before and after they had 8 weeks of specialized tutoring program focused on reading instruction. The study showed that not only did students' reading performance improve, but their neural circuitry in their brains strengthened! I loved the quote from the assistant professor involved, Jason Yeatman: “We were able to detect changes in brain connections within just a few weeks of beginning the intervention program. It’s under-appreciated that teachers are brain engineers who help kids build new brain circuits for important academic skills like reading.” You are truly brain engineers. Everyday you are changing kids' brains. That is a huge responsibility and we have to get it right. But I want to speak to the second sentence on the McDonald's screen...Make it right. For that phrase, I think about how there may have been steps put in place or lessons used or intervention groups created that didn't help us get it right. I keep thinking about some of the great initial conversations we started to have with each grade level last week during data meetings. Statements were made like...we taught that, we focused on that, we did that. And then questions followed like...but why did those results show or how come they didn't get it? Now is our chance to make it right. As brain engineers, we need to be continually evaluating and re-evaluating what we are doing, how we are doing it, and what results we are getting...or not getting. While the study mentioned above involved students receiving individualized instruction, Yeatman shared, "Teachers have the potential to develop their students’ brains, regardless of whether they have the resources to provide individualized instruction for each student in their class." Last week and this week we are looking at our literacy data for several reasons. One reason is to help teachers think about their reading instruction and think about instructional groups. Another reason is to think about and plan for Title 1 groups and other intervention groups with the tutors. Looking at how intervention groups happened in the past and looking at our data...it would suggest that we haven't been getting it right. So now is the time to make it right. Across all of the grades we have lots of potential for amazing growth to happen. We just need to be open to thinking differently about how we have done things. We are brain engineers. We have an awesome responsibility to mold and change and create neural connections. We have to get it right. And when we don't get it right, we must make it right. Are you ready to rewire kids' brains with me?! I finished listening to Where the Crawdads Sing and finished reading Attack of the Black Rectangles, two different but equally enjoyable books. I started listening to a memoir on Audible called Poet Warrior, written by the first Native American poet laureate Joy Harjo. I also started reading Katie Couric's memoir titled Going There. And I am enjoying reading and learning from the book Your Students, My Students, Our Students.
October is a month full of special days and important topics to focus on. First, did you know that October is National Bullying Prevention Month? I am excited that the specialists will be starting to spend several weeks focusing on a specific core value. And the core value we will be talking about over the next few weeks is...ACCEPTANCE. This is such an important topic to discuss with kids, and it's an important skill to help with bullying prevention. Did you also know that October 10th is World Inclusion Day? Check out this website for more information about the non-profit that started this special day along with ways to show inclusion. I recently learned of another special day in October. October 20th is National Youth Confidence Day. From their website: "It’s a day to celebrate the potential of young people, their accomplishments, energy, and spirit. The aim is to instill confidence into them and continue to help them grow into successful adults." Our awesome PTO is planning to write some confidence boosting messages in chalk for students to see when they arrive in the morning on the 20th. I have begun to to post some positive messages in the bathrooms and will continue to add more throughout the month. I have celebrated another special day during this month in other schools and would love for us to celebrate it at Clough. It's called Positive Post It Day. I will drop a video down below that tells about the student who created this event. Maybe we plan to do it on Oct 20th, the same day as National Youth Confidence Day? Students and staff are encouraged to write positive messages on post it notes and display them around the school. You can give them to specific people or you can simply write them to anyone and post them anywhere in the school. All of these days seem to fit perfectly with our focus on ACCEPTANCE during KCR time over the next few weeks. While it is good that we have these blocks of time to teach kids about acceptance, only talking about it during KCR time will not send the message that this is something that is important for us as a whole school. The specialists will share with you information about the activities and discussions that happen. I have lots of great book recommendations for read alouds related to acceptance. I will also be sharing messages about acceptance during morning announcements. And I will share information with parents as well so they can continue the discussions at home. Sadly, we have already had several incidents during this school year where students have used hurtful words towards peers, have called out others for being different from them. Everyone needs to be talking more about what acceptance means to them, what we can do to model acceptance in our school, and why acceptance is such an important and difficult conversation topic in today's world. While it's great that we have all these special days and a whole month about bullying prevention...we really should not need calendar days or months to remind us about being accepting and being inclusive. Someday I hope we won't need to celebrate specials days to remind us all to accept people who are different from us. I hope we won't need national days for everyone to feel welcomed and that they belong. We won't need them because it will be just what we do, every day of every month, all year long. I am in the middle of listening to Where the Crawdads Sing and find myself anxiously waiting until my next car ride so I can listen to more of it! I also started a new book this weekend that I can't seem to put down. It's called Attack of the Black Rectangles. The story is about a class of 6th graders who are discovering that their town has a lot of rules and even parts of the books they are reading are beginning to be censored. The students are not ok with this...can't wait to read more about how they protest this censorship. With Indigenous Day just happening and Thanksgiving coming up, I read a new picture book that is a celebration of the land and a tribute to the Tlingit tribe.
Brene Brown is one of my edu-rockstar heroes. Have you read any of her books? Or listened to her speak? Or heard her interviewed on a podcast? Dare To Lead is one of my favorite books written by her. I may or may not have read that one a few times. I love the quote I posted above. And I think it's the perfect time to share it with you as we get ready for some collaboration as a staff this week and as we begin to look at the assessment data that we have been gathering during the first few weeks of school. You are just beginning to learn who I am and the type of instructional leader I try to be. And I am learning who you all are as educators and teacher leaders. We have started to have discussions in small groups or one on one or as a whole group about instruction, assessments, goals, learning, and sometimes just life in general. We each bring different strengths and skills to the table. That's what I love about leading a school full of educators. In order to help each other grow and to help our students grow, I believe it requires us to be vulnerable. When I read the above quote in Brene's book, I immediately fell in love with the thought of "rumbling with vulnerability." While fall weather makes me think about being comfy and cozy on the couch with a hot tea and a good book, rumbling with vulnerability means fall is also the time of year to step out of my comfort zone and push myself. To take risks. To be uncertain. To take a chance and be emotionally exposed. Some people might think of vulnerability as weakness. Like Brene Brown, I think being vulnerable is actually the most courageous thing we can do. So I choose to not shy away from vulnerability. I choose to rumble with it! As Brene says above, we will need to be inquisitive and curious, looking at our assessments of our students and our teaching and asking questions. It will sometimes look and feel messy, but we have to stick with it. Sometimes we will need to step away, take a break, and then come back to it. And this is a big one... be fearless. We are human, we take things personally. We don't like admitting our mistakes or our failures. But we need to own our part. I am hoping we can help each other with that. When I saw that students didn't do well with a certain skill or standard or students performed poorly on an assessment, as a teacher, I felt like I failed them. But it didn't do me any good to get discouraged or feel embarrassed. I had to be fearless. Accept and own my part and change my practice for my students. And then my favorite part of the above quote..."to listen with the same passion with which we want to be heard." Wow. that's a skill I keep working on. I know I can speak up with confidence and passion, but I always need to get better about passionately listening to those around me. Are you ready to lean in with me? Are you ready to roll up your sleeves and persevere through some messy problem solving? Are you ready to be curious and fearless? Are you ready to listen to each other, grow each other, be seen, be heard? Are you ready to vulnerable for all of our kids? Then I say... I started reading Katherine Applegate's newest book, Odder. It's a book written in verse about an otter named Odder. If you have read any of her other books, like The One and Only Ivan or Wishtree or Crenshaw, then you know that her books are amazing so I am sure this one will be a good read. I am behind the eight ball on this one, but I finally started listening to Where the Crawdads Sing. Everyone has told me it's such a great book, and now that the movie is out too, I definitely know I need to listen to this one. I enjoyed reading the book Room for Everyone to our 2nd grade EL students, a great multi-cultural text that reminds us about the importance of kindness.
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