2020 Adventures Update!

It has been a LONG time since I have posted anything new and here are the reasons why:

1. What do you do when all your children are grown up and leave the house? Sell your house and take a leap of faith as you embark on your own new adventure! My husband and I decided to do just that. We sold our home in Wisconsin and moved to a small mountain town in Colorado. My husband decided to move from the classroom to administration and so we applied to a school in Colorado where we are surrounded by beautiful mountains and the best nature has. This brings me to number 2 reason!

2. Teach in a multi-age group in a grade level you have not taught before and create an Innovation Lab, bring flexible seating and personalized learning to a school that has not embarked on this ventures before at the elementary level. Wow! What a year of firsts. I was so busy writing grants, creating learning documents and trying out a variety of strategies, curriculums, and classroom management systems that I really lost track of time and never made it to my blog. What did I learn? I learned that you can bring what you have been doing and apply it to a new situation but that this requires you to make adaptations along the way. The students at my new school had never heard of Design Thinking, Project Based Learning, Makerspaces, or any of the items that would be part of that. Luckily we were 1:1 with iPads and it was a matter of starting with the basics. They learned fast and amazed me with their passion and what they made happen. From saving a cat named Baby from a tragic end, creating a morning concession stand to bring nutritious breakfast to all, 3D printing face mask straps for hospitals and other essential workers, to writing a book and having it on Amazon for sale we, did it all! Which brings me to number 3!

3. COVID-19 home learning! Even though I thought I knew a lot about technology and how to infuse it into classroom instruction I was not prepared for the sudden at home learning we were forced to do. The most challenging part of this was keeping my class feeling like we were connected. It was a learning experience for me that has made me a better teacher all around!

What are my goals now for the upcoming year? Since we are so uncertain of what the school year will look like as we progress through these uncertain times of the pandemic I want to make sure that my students are prepared for whatever may come. The plan right now is to start the school year with face to face instruction but we all know that may change. I will hit the year by building a strong community of connected learners and teach them how to use technology to stay that way. That has to be my first priority. Making connections and building relationships while teaching students how to maintain those relationships even if we can’t be at school together. My future posts will be about how to do that, what platforms I will use, and reflections on how that is going.

End of year reflection

It is now July and I have returned from an awesome family vacation to Alaska!  The picture to the right is my son and I.  It’s my first time on a small plane that lands in the ocean and I have to admit I am nervous (yes, I smile and often laugh when I am scared!) There is nothing like the excitement of doing something for the first time no matter how scary it is.  Personalized learning was no different!  I am ready to take a moment to reflect on last year’s journey down the personalized learning road.  I know my team learned much about ourselves, learning, and students.  I am going to start with the positives:

  1. Student Proficiency Profiles:  I loved them!  I do not think I have ever paid so much attention to the standards and where each student is at as I have this year using the Student Proficiency Profiles.  It was rewarding to see students take a more active interest in the Student Proficiency Profiles as well.  With our 4 scale grading system previously used both students and parents were often under the understanding that a 2 simply meant they had a little bit of catching up to do, not that they were behind grade level.  With the Student Proficiency Profiles families could clearly see what grade level they were working at.  This opened up many conversations between students, parents and teachers.
  2. SeeSaw:  We had students keep digital profiles of their work throughout the year.  I love the many uses SeeSaw provides with communicating with parents.  Not only did it provide evidence of their learning but ongoing conversations with families.  We also used the blogging portion of SeeSaw to connect with other schools.  I was not as happy with this and will go back to using Edublogs this upcoming year because I like the ability for students to have their own blog pages they customize.
  3. Personalized Learning Plans (PLP):  This is definitely a work in progress for me.  PLP’s are plans students can use to practice the standard they are working.  We utilized Google Slides for this.  There is a slide for each standard with links to websites that provide additional practice.  Students can do independent work at any time of day!  We have most of math done but am finding reading to be more challenging for a few reasons.  It is more difficult to find tutorials and practice materials online.
  4. Relationships:  There were both positives and negatives here.  Some of us felt that they struggled more to have a close knit group with the mixing up of students.  Since I was a new teacher to the school I felt like I developed more relationships than I would have.  I enjoyed getting to know more students at different ages and I loved working with my team of teachers!

The negatives are much less than the positives.  That should tell you how I feel about personalized learning!  As a group of teachers, students, and parents I can tell you that sometimes it was exhausting!

  1. There was lots of prep work, reflecting and modifying going on throughout the year.
  2. Communicating with families was more vital than ever and at times it was difficult to help them understand the new system of reporting student growth.
  3. Scheduling was a challenge to make the multi-age groups work.

In conclusion I would definitely say it was all worth it and I am looking forward to the upcoming year.  We are bringing in 4 additional teachers/classes.  Expanding this way is making it easier to group students.  I look forward to seeing how our program will grow this year!

New Year’s Goals!

It is now 2018 and like many others we are setting goals!  Setting goals and reflecting on them is my goal and I am sharing this with my students.  We are starting each week with goal setting and ending it with reflecting on those goals.  I see the need to have my students take responsibility for their learning and with that they need to learn how to look at their data, reflect on it, and make goals based on what they are learning about themselves!

My students are not natural reflectors or goal setters, many do not know what reflection means.  I found this out quickly when I came back to school after the Christmas break all fired up to set new goals and make them happen.  They were excited to look at their SPP’s (Student Proficiency Profiles) and talk with me about their goals for reading, math, writing and behavior.  Boy did they set high goals that first week!  They learned that they were not setting goals that were achievable and setting steps to accomplish them.  I showed them how to use tools such as Google Keep to make a checklist that can be shared and modeled how I use it.  We began revisiting our goals every Wednesday and sharing with a partner how we were doing in order to make us more accountable.  We also made a bulletin board with mini clipboards for each of us to post our goals and make them visible to all!

Enter…first report card time…

As we roll into the first report card session of the year I am finding that some things we have been doing as a Personalized Learning team have made this time easier and some things I had to really think hard about.  Here is the low down:

Easier:

  1. Having the Google spreadsheets (Student Proficiency Profiles) has made reporting the exact standards students are proficient to families, special education teachers, interventionists, administrators much easier!  All I have to do is share the link and they have access to it all!
  2. Students have a better knowledge of where they are at and where they need to go on a consistent basis because we have shared a link with them to view their profiles.  I really enjoy having conversations with them about their goals.

Things I had to really consider as we change over to Student Proficiency Profiles:

  1. In the past we have used a sliding rubric for our Fountas and Pinnell fluency reporting based on the 3 trimesters.  This made it a bit tricky on the Student Proficiency Profiles that only have levels that indicate each grade level.  I had to determine how this would transfer over to them when reporting it either as a D for developing or a P for proficient.  Here is a link for what I have come up with so far: Fountas and Pinnell Reading Reports
  2. We had to consider how we would communicate with families and how to interpret information concerning the Student Proficiency Profiles.  Families are unfamiliar with the format, levels and standards.  We had a meeting at the start of the year as well as conferences in October, but as we looked at data we realized that there were some differences in their Fountas and Pinnell fluency scores, MAP testing and state testing.  It did not always match up nice and neatly!  We composed a letter to families to help with this.

As we continue on this journey I will keep you updated on family reactions and feedback.  At conference time the feedback was very positive.  Parents felt that their children were more challenged and motivated.  Students gave positive feedback as well when asked how they felt personalized learning was going for them with comments about how they understood what levels they were at and what they needed to do to progress.

Personalized Learning Adventure begins…

 

The year has been so hectic that I have not been able to post anything new and that should give you a clue as to how my year has been!  Even though our team worked hard over the summer to prepare for our new adventure in multi age personalized learning we were not prepared!  I feel like a new teacher again and have put in many late nights at work.  The “I Love Lucy Candy Factory” video really depicts how my team is currently feeling!  We were a bit overconfident and once the year began “rolling” at full steam we realized that asking for help rather than trying to fix it all alone was the necessary choice.  Here are the challenges we are facing:

  1. Gathering materials for exit tickets for grades 1 through 6 (this is our starting point based our our testing).  We use exit tickets once a student has shown through practice that he/she is ready to demonstrate their learning.  I thought we had plenty of options for this but found out otherwise once the year began.  This has been a huge time consumer.  Searching, creating and evaluating materials has takes time and that is one thing that is in short supply.  As we move forward this year I would like to include more options for exit tickets including the option for students to create their own.
  2. Time to meet to analyze data, plan and modify our multi age groups.  Since our groups are fluid we need to continuously evaluate student progress to make sure they are in the correct groups.  We are short time to do this.  We have tried lunch hours and after school.  We are now going to begin meeting once a month from 2:45-4:00.  An aide will take our classes for 30 minutes to enable us to make this happen.
  3. Student learner profiles are still in progress.  I thought I would have these done by the end of September but have run into some snags.  I created Google forms to send out to students.  These were created in a Google Team drive with the thought of sharing not only the forms but the results.  Students could not take answer the questions on the forms unless I added them to the team drive or gave them editing rights.  After messing around with a bunch of settings I made a copy of the forms and put them in my drive and shared them that way.  Even then some students had problems and I ended up giving them a print version.  Nothing seems to create more chaos then technology glitches!
  4. Building relationships with twice as many students!  We have two switches during the school day, one for math and one for reading.  I teach two reading classes and no math.  My reading classes are the multi age ones and I now have twice as many students to build a relationship with and less time to do so.  Add this to the fact that I moved to a new building in our district this year and have no prior relationships with any students.  This created an unforeseen problem for me since I am used to our small country school and knowing all the students in the building.  Meeting with my team has helped to share information about students. I spend as much time as I can in the hallways between classes, lunchroom and after school in the library trying to get to know students.  I also started an after school robotics club to help me get to know more of the students.
  5. Establishing classroom procedures and expectations.  I went into this pilot of personalized learning knowing it would take longer to establish procedures and expectations but did not expect it to take nearly 8 weeks!  I am just now feeling like we are getting into a routine of how the classroom is run and the procedures for everything from how to practice for an exit ticket to how to find materials.  A large component of this is logins for the online learning resources we have.  The 2nd through 4th graders are first timers with one to one technology!

We went to our building principal to ask for some ideas that would help us out.  Since our district is in a budget crisis we knew that anything that required money would not be an option.  We came up with having some meeting times at the end of the school day.  An aide will take our classes the last 30 minutes of the day and we will meet at the administration building from 2:45 to 4:00.  Leaving the building helps because we do not get so many interruptions.  We know that we would love to have even more time and are working on creative ways to find it.  I would love to hear of any suggestions other districts have tried and found successful!

How to stay organized with flexible seating

I have to admit that with flexible seating it was a challenge to keep myself and my students organized.  We started with placing shelving units at the ends of tables and students each had a container for their supplies as well as a cubby with pencil boxes.

Now we have common supplies for everything else such as pencils, rulers, dry erase markers, etc. Those are located in the middle of tables and refills are in clear storage boxes in the cabinets.  This eliminates many arguments over ownership of supplies (Jimmy has my pencil!  I can tell because of the teeth marks on it!).  I request that only plain pencils and blue pens are brought in.  All pencils, pens, erasers, scissors, glue, paper and colored pencils go into the common supplies.  If a student brings in a fancy pencil or pen I kindly ask them to take that special item home to use.  I want all our pens, pencils, and erasers to look the same and NOT be fancy.  I label everything so items are easily found and returned to the right spot!

I have students store their items in plastic totes or/and book tubs. For reading they use book tubs, writing they have long, narrow, clear plastic boxes and for math they have plastic boxes. At my old school they were stored on a shelf located in the hallway. At my new school they will be stored on shelves and in cabinets.  I also have clipboards for each student to hang work that they are proud of and would like to share.  We also put QR codes on them to share our blogs and digital work.  In the back of the room are mailboxes to keep items that will go home.  Writing boxes are stored in the back cabinets.

I do not have a traditional teacher desk.  This year my husband and I built a standing desk that is adjustable from countertop.  This will be where I meet with students to confer.  I keep my materials on hanging baskets attached to the wall and in a cabinet labeled, “Teacher Only”.    I also have an area that students gather as a class when we have a mini lesson, share out, and PBIS lessons.  Students are free to work there individually or in small groups as well.  This area has 4 couches and a rug.

I  created a recording booth from an old puppet show display.  This is where students can go if they need to record themselves in a more private setting or even just to work.  There is a small table and stool inside.

There is a green screen wall for students to use.  We have 1:1 iPads and use the app, Green Screen, by Do Ink.  I had a green screen cloth that I hung up but the painted wall is much more user friendly!

I have an area outside my classroom to display what I am reading and writing about.  We call it, “What’s on my nightstand”.  Many of these are great ideas from Kristin Ziemke!

The book shelves and cabinet in my room are magnetic as well as the whiteboard and these are handy to hang items up and use for students to plan their day or projects.  All tables in my room are painted with whiteboard paint for students to plan, work out problems and collaborate.  I try to make every available space one that students can use.

The biggest difference I noticed when going from a traditional classroom with student desks to flexible seating was the ownership and atmosphere in the room.  I have less behavior problems, students are more organized and we take pride in what we have created.  I feel good when I walk into my room!

 

My New Classroom make over!

After teaching at a small elementary school for over 20 years, I am making a move this upcoming year!  My district has 3 elementary buildings; 2 small rural and 1 larger one located in town.  I am moving to the larger building in town this year.  I made this decision for a variety of reasons and am excited to work on the pilot team for personalized learning!  More of that in future posts!

This post is about my room make over for flexible seating!  The first thing I had to do was empty the room and move all my furniture!  Here are some before and after pictures!

Teacher desk:  I did not want a traditional teacher desk.  I wanted a stand up desk that was adjustable where I could meet with students.

Since I do not want any traditional student desks I had to think about where I would meet with students as a whole group.  I moved out all the tables and moved in 4 couches and a rug.  These are located by the SMARTboard and a whiteboard.  I have other areas in the room where students can work at a variety tables ranging from standing, traditional round tables and coffee tables.

Located on the other side of the red couche is a class library.  In this picture it is not organized yet so I will update you once the books are all placed in bins according to genre.  There are areas where students may stand to work, sit on stools or rugs with coffee tables or lap tables, and a couple of traditional height tables with chairs.  The key is variety.

Once my students have started the school year and we have made the room our own by changing it based upon student input I will update you!

Flexible Seating

I recently was posting in the awesome Innovative Teaching Academy I am currently involved in about the learning spaces I work in.  My experience with my classroom transformation has been going on for about 4 years.  It all began when I got tired of telling students to sit on their pockets so they wouldn’t fall back and hit their heads.  I started asking them questions about how we could solve this problem.  I started watching their reactions as I began to bring in items like bean bags and rugs.  Guess what?  When given the choice as to where to sit not one of my students ever chose to sit at their desk rather than a bean bag.  More often than not, they would fight over who got to sit in the bean bags!  This will be a series of posts so stay tuned for more!

Student voice is so important to the whole process. My classroom changes every year because my students decide what works best for them.  One of the first questions I ask my students when they start the school year is, “When you read, write or create something where do you work best? Where are you the most comfortable? Where do you go to focus and concentrate? Where do you go to collaborate? We have many discussions about this and share stories. Let’s face it, right now I am working on my couch with my laptop on my lap, the T.V. in the background and the boys playing a game downstairs. But I share stories of how sometimes I really need the T.V. off and to be alone in my room to really concentrate on what I am reading. These discussions lead us to designing our classroom. My room is never the same each year though I do have the couches (which came into play 2 years ago when I only had one couch and the kids convinced me we really needed 4), the tables that ended up being painted with whiteboard paint and of course the bearded dragon we wrote a grant for a year ago. It changes when we decide that we need to organize materials better or have different work spaces. I am lucky to have a principal that loves change as much as I do!

When other teachers make comments about how students will ruin furniture that isn’t completely some sort of plastic that can be wiped clean and don’t I worry about lice, I share how my students have ownership over their classroom, that they get upset if visitors come into our room and leave any sort of mess! Sure I worry about lice, but no more than I did the past 16 years before I had flexible seating. Teachers ask, what about where all their stuff will go if you do not have desks? I do not have a teacher desk either. The students and I talk about the best ways to organize our materials and most of them are community supplies that belong to everyone rather than each student having their own pencil box full of stuff. I wish I had taken photos of the past 4 years of this transformation because it certainly did not happen in one year. I went from some student desks mixed with round tables to no student desks and rectangle tables to no rectangles tables but round tables mixed with some bean bags and coffee tables to only a couple of tables mixed with chairs, a couch and coffee tables to what I have now.

I was the first to start in our small elementary school. As of last school year not one teacher had student desks in her room. I am making a move to the larger elementary building in our district to be a part of our Personalized Learning pilot group (we have 3 elementary buildings). As I was setting up my new classroom I was reminded of the days when students, staff, and parents would stop by and say things like, “Is this a new teacher’s lounge? Where are the desks?” And guess what? A few staff members have asked questions about flexible seating and where did I get mine. They are now shopping, bringing in their treasures to show me, full of excitement….

This year’s goal!

Each year I set a goal for myself.  This year it is to take Personalized Learning to a new level at my school.  I am part of a team that will pilot a multi age, 2nd through 5th grade, group.  We will mix our students up for math and literacy, having our grade level homerooms for writing, science, and social studies.  We will use a different report card that is customized for each student based on the standards rather than what the rest of the district is using, Skyward reporting.  We are working to have common classroom management procedures in place so when our students are mixed up they all have the same expectations.  PBIS supports this and is something our district uses.  Stay tuned for this great adventure!

 

 

Hello World, Welcome to my first post!

I have started approximately 4 different blogs and have struggled when it came to sharing them with the world.  I mean, who am I to think that what I have to say is so spectacular that anyone else would want to read about it?

This thinking has kept me safe and private, out of the arena of worldwide sharing, and made me simply a blog stalker rather than active participant.  This thinking has also kept me from connecting with other educators.  This thinking is what I am going to change today.

It has been a long road to get to this point.  I DO share what I do with my close set of coworkers and team members at my school.  That is pretty safe.  I WANTED to share my thoughts and thinking when I went on my Fund For Teachers trip and met wonderful educators such as Stephanie Harvey and Kristin Ziemke (In my mind all I could think of was, “How could I possibly compare?!?).  What held me back was the fear that I really didn’t have anything earth shattering to share.  I have finally decided that sharing this fear is something others need to hear so they can get passed it and begin to share and connect.

There.  I have said it.  I own it.  Now let’s move forward!