SLICE 2014 - 7 of 31 When the sun comes out...

The sun came out big, bold, and bright today.
I opened both rows of blinds and let it shine right in.

I said goodbye to indoor recess Lego creations, one class was saving day after day.
I said goodbye to the cups of counting bears left over from a math game.
I said goodbye to a collection of content books that seemed to take forever to use with school cancellations. I said goodbye to collections from home we brought to use for content learning.
I said goodbye to dried splattered paint.
I said goodbye to random school library books we have used.

I said hello bird feeders, you need some food and out I went to welcome friends for us to view.
I said hello space on the window sill, you look inviting.
I said hello empty book display stands, you need something new.
I said hello outside recess.
I said hello ideas for planning found and printed to take home.

The sun came out big, bold, and bright today.
An invitation to use planning time wisely.

SLICE 2014 - 6 of 31 Well Worth It

We can email parents.  We can share our learning via websites.  We can write paper newsletters and send them home.  We can post learning to twitter.  We can create pinterest accounts to share information with parents.  We can make a phone call.  We have so many options to be in touch and communicate with parents and yet talking face to face always feels best.  

I've concluded meeting with two sets of families.  It was so nice to show them concrete evidence and talk about their child inside the classroom and outside the classroom.  I love hearing their insights and observations from home.  Most often it confirms the growth I am seeing in the classroom.  Sometimes it explains things about behaviors or struggles a child might be having.  

I also attended conferences tonight as a middle school parent.  I love hearing how she works at school and she's ready for high school.  I too learned things about my daughter I didn't know.  She is doing well in math but her teacher mentioned she never takes advantage of doing extra credit points by correcting her mistakes on a test.  This does seem a bit odd for any student. When I asked her why she doesn't do test corrections she replied with, "I don't believe in second chances. If I miss a problem, then I miss a problem."  I need to work on modeling or thinking about second chances with her.  Second chances can be a blessing or a gift.  Having two rounds of parent teacher conferences is like a second chance.  An opportunity to come together a second time to communicate, enjoy, and celebrate a child.  Well worth the time, energy, and effort.  

SLICE 2014 - 5 of 31 I Got Some Reading Advice

My fifth grader said tonight at bedtime, "Mom you need to do some loose reading."  I questioned, "loose reading?"  She replied with, "You read too many teaching books or books about food.  You know you are always learning. Learning books.  You'd really like this book."

She's currently reading the second book in the Michael Vey series by Richard Paul Evans and stalked classroom libraries at our school until she could find the second one.  I'm going to ponder her advice.  She is observant.

SLICE 2014 - 4 of 31 Dinner put on hold...

The yellow mailing envelope was calling my name.  It was even out of my sight, on the island while I was making stuffed shells for dinner.  Then I realized I couldn't remember placing an order this week.  Suddenly, the idea of not knowing what I ordered got the best of me and my spices had to wait a minute. I opened my yellow mailing envelope and discovered I did place an order, it was a pre-order which means today is a book birthday!  Happy Book Birthday to - the SCRAPS book by Lois Ehlert!  Now, my spices were on hold for much longer than a minute.  Good thing the shells had about 5 more minutes to boil and the homemade sauce that was frozen still needed to defrost on the stove.

Lois Ehlert begins her sharing with pieces from her childhood.  I loved a black and white photograph of her parents with this caption, "My mom and dad returning after hunting for wild asparagus."  People hunt for asparagus?  I want to know more.  She gives tribute to her mom for sharing her sewing supplies with her.  She gives tribute to her dad for sharing his woodshop with her.  One whole page is a photograph of her art table she used while growing up.  Next, she shares several stories about where her ideas come from.  Nuts to You! was conceived when I real squirrel came in her house.  Feathers for Lunch is based on a visit she had with her sister and her cat Bucky.  She even shares how she wrote this book from the cat's version first and then wrote a version from the owner's point of view.  She shares many interesting tidbits about her medium, collage.  She rubs a crayon over a grater add texture.  She makes collage sound so easy with every day materials.  Throughout the entire book there are collage examples from her books, labeled with tidbits of information.

When Lois graduated from art school she didn't make books right away.  She shares, "Everyone needs time to develop their dreams.  An egg in the nest doesn't become a bird overnight."  Who doesn't need this reminder, especially anyone working with children.  Then again at the end of the book she asks the reader if they want to know why she chose to be an artist.  Lois' reply, "I think maybe it's the other way around.  Art chose me."

So, to get this detailed book information to share with you I did have to spend more time with the book than making my spices wait another five minutes.  I think everyone should own this fun, beautiful, informative auto biography.  This book makes me want to go to school tomorrow and launch a whole great big author study on Lois Ehlert.  We can be just like Lois.  Sketching, planning, observing and creating with materials.

SLICE 2014 - 3 of 31 A Writing Hum

Everyone is writing.  Everyone is focused.  There is a writing hum in the air of room 104 today.  How did we get there?  What's different about today than in the past two months?  The weather hasn't changed!  It's still freezing outside, new snow is on the ground, indoor recess was just before lunch, and it's March 3. We can keep hoping for an early spring outside but I think I witnessed a bit of spring inside today during writing workshop.  Again I ask, what's different about today than in the past two months?  

We had a consistent attendance pattern last week, finally.  I stepped away from a new teaching resource.  I used data from a recent on demand writing assessment and saw all of my students need to work on mechanics and conventions in their own writing.  I took a lesson idea from this new teaching resource and instead of doing it in just one day, I've spread it out over three days.

I started our time together today looking at student writing from last week and having the students share what they notice these writers did well.  We then made an anchor chart What Makes Writing Easy to Read to make our thinking visible and easy to refer to.  We organized our writing folders.  We had just sent home old pieces and had a few new pieces from last week.  We decided which pieces were done and would go on the red dot side.   We then decided which still needed to be worked on and placed them on the green dot side.

I haven't been able to get to the copier to copy and produce little booklets, so we are using single sheets for writing. Maybe the shorter pieces are letting us focus more on the all the tasks a writer needs to think about. Maybe it's not guiding their writing topics and feeling a sense of choice was important to them.  We just got tongue depressors to use as spacer sticks and we think they are pretty fun to use.  It's magical how these have helped spaces appear in everyone's writing.  Before going to write independently, we talked about what writing workshop sounds like and could look like.  I mentioned we would share and look at more pieces of student work at the end of our writing time.

Off they went, gathered their illustration tools and paper if needed.  Five and six year olds love to talk as they work but today, they all worked truly independently on their own.  I think all of these things were little seeds that different student's collected, sprouting a writing hum we all enjoyed.  A hum that sprouted and fostered writers.

                                   

SLICE 2014 - 2 of 31 Stealing is Okay!

Stealing is okay in life, is an unexpected lesson I watched my daughter learn in basketball this season and I didn't know it until last night.  After our second game, we gathered with families for pizza and good cheer.  We were headed to the championship game, Sunday afternoon.  One of the coaches asked B, "How many steals did you have today?"  She told him 3.  He was grinning ear to ear and went on to tell her tomorrow's goal would be 4.  I've seen her fight for the ball a lot this season.  Her face becomes very determined, not to be confused with angry or mad when someone tries to grab the ball away from her.  She often keeps the ball and either passes it or dribbles it down the court.  I've seen her take the ball away from the opposing team, but didn't realize this was a focus for her.  Today as I watched the championship game , I realized of course stealing is important!  It changes the possession of the ball and gives the team more opportunities to hopefully score.  As she made her first steal, the crowd cheered and her coach was yelling, "B - that's 1."  I think if she had gotten more steals, he would of kept shouting out her stats to her.  It's good to know your stats and keep working on a goal.  Sometimes, our goals aren't met.  Sometimes our goals change mid stream and sometimes our goals are surpassed.  B didn't get 4 steals today.  She played hard and had fun.  She scored one basket and made one free throw.  She did win the championship game with her team and until next season, stealing is not okay in life.

SLICE 2014 - 1 of 31 Possibilities

Possiblities.  Today is the first of March and I'm excited to be slicing.  I tried to capture possibilities throughout my day.  It's possible to get back on track and begin my days by walking my dogs.  So, I did and twenty degrees felt like a heat wave here in Ohio.  It's possible my fifth grader could win her first basketball game and have a second game today.  She did.  It's possible to go grocery shopping for lunch, turn it in to groceries for the week and check it off my list.  It's possible to take the Christmas lights down when the temperatures are 46 degrees.  It's possible to discover little sprouts of daffodils and iris in my garden.  It's possible spring is on it's way.  It's possible the weather man is right and if my groceries are bought then maybe I should help the birds and squirrels and put some food out for them.  It's possible my daughter will win her second basketball game and go to the championship game Sunday.  She did.  It's possible to gather with her team afterwards and make new friends while enjoying pizza and good food.  It's possible the weatherman is wrong about their forecast and there will be no major storm here by morning.  My slice of life is going to welcome and encourage possiblities.  Thank you for sharing it with me.