Endings and Beginnings

    So much has happened in the past week and I feel it’s my duty to update you. I got a Grade One LTO! Full year! At the school where I was a student teacher for three months! And where I volunteered full time for a year! (Can you tell I’m really excited?) Anyways, I had a good feeling about it after my interview, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up too high. Then, just a few days later, as I was in the car with my boyfriend, I checked my email and began squealing and jumping when I saw the job offer. It probably wasn’t the best timing since he was half way through an intersection, but you’d do the same, right?

    Since then, I’ve become obsessed with getting my classroom ready for next year. I took advantage of the 20% off sale at Scholar’s Choice and made a few purchases. Melissa and Stacia were also wonderful by pawning off some of their Grade One resources. They won’t need them anymore because they’re both moving up to Grade 2/3. I’ve spent my spare time creating assessment pages, making lists, and going through old computer files that have some great Grade One content that I can reuse next year.

    

    I wanted to keep the news on the down low at first because nothing was in writing, but as I walked down the hall the next day, 99% of the staff seemed to know. I’m so lucky to have been able to volunteer alongside such a supportive group of colleagues. It was easy to get frustrated and discouraged this past year and they were always there to offer their words of support and encouragement. They’re all so happy for me and I’m blessed to work alongside them this coming year.

    Before I can start in September, I had to say goodbye to the kids for the summer. It was a pretty emotional day, but I know I’ll see their lovely faces next year. After the kids went home, we dove into the professional development. Maybe it’s because I’m still new and keen, but I love PA days. I think we learn so much when we get together and reflect on our teaching and help each other improve and move forward. Stacia also organized the day and made it Survivor/The Amazing Race themed so it was a lot of fun. Afterwards, I got my timetable, signed my papers, and began to move all my stuff into my new classroom. As of right now, I can’t set it up because it has to be cleaned and the floors have to be waxed over the summer. It’s kind of a huge mess right now, but that will all change when I return in August to set up. 

The Goodbye/Congratulations cards my kids made me. Some of them included words of advice. One student wrote: “Congratulations Ms. Lawrence. Don’t forget to pack a lunch!” What would I do without them?

Melissa asked the kids to write down their most memorable moment this past year. This boy wrote his answer down and left it out for us to see. “When you and Mrs. Lorins [Lawrence] teaching math”. That’s when you know you’ve made a lasting impact on a child’s learning.

    Sometimes I look back to where I was at this time last year and I can’t believe how much things have changed. I don’t think I had been able to get into the mindset to believe that I would be here in June of 2013. I was a new grad, entering a world where there were literally no job postings in my school board. I was discouraged in so many ways, but I’m so happy I made the choices I did. Not everyone is able to spend a year volunteering on a full time basis. The support of my family and the school staff made it possible for me to do this and I don’t think I’d be where I am today without them.

    Last year, I had no idea I’d be back at the school. I was hoping I’d get onto the supply list and work like everyone else. I remember the kids all made me the cutest cards and I just sobbed because I didn’t think I’d see them again. The circumstances this past year in 2012/2013 were certainly bitter sweet. I didn’t get in with the board right way, but I got to see the kids all year once again. I wasn’t getting paid for my time at the school, but I volunteered and learned so much from the experience. Everything happens for a reason, and I feel so blessed to be where I am now and to be sharing it with those special people in my life. 

    I leave you with some pictures I took today before I left for the summer. Keep in mind, these are the “beginning” photos. You’ll have to wait a few months for the “after” shots to come.

The "Before" shot. Stay tuned for the "After" shot.

An overly happy Ms. Lawrence 

Assessment

    A lot has changed in the past decade in terms of assessing and evaluating in the classroom. When I was in school, I remember being assigned questions (usually from a textbook) and taking them up at the end of the class or the next day. I remember the teacher calling on students to call out the answer. Once someone said the right answer, we moved on. I didn’t think of it then, but looking back now, I bet there were a lot of kids that stayed quiet out of embarrassment because they still didn’t understand that method of arriving at the correct answer.

    Today, educators have come so far in how they assess and evaluate their students. Assessment is key for both the students and the teacher. Assessment is the ongoing collection of information indicating strengths, areas that need improvement, understanding, misconceptions, strategies used, questions asked, etc. Students use this feedback to help them understand exactly what they need to do to move forward and be successful.

    Assessment is also beneficial to the teacher because it is very telling in regards to the students’ abilities. There are three kinds of assessment: Assessment for learning (diagnostic); Assessment as learning (formative); Assessment of learning (summative). The terms in parentheses are there because those are the “old” terms we used when discussing assessment. I’m sure I’m not the only one who catches themselves still using them every now and then. It’s important to do an assessment for learning to determine each child’s abilities. Everyone’s abilities differ, as do their learning styles. This assessment will help you see where the class is at and what you will need to teach them. The assessment as learning is, in my opinion, the most crucial and most often used form of assessment because it is the ongoing tracking of student progress. Each time your students complete a task, you, the teacher, are always monitoring, questioning, taking notes, etc. Essentially, you are documenting what you observe. This massive collection will bring you to a firm decision when doing an assessment of learning. I can remember doing a final unit test and whatever that mark was, that was the one going on my report card. Assessment needs to be treated as a journey; you need to look at all the notes you have made while you were assessing as learning and look at the formal descriptive feedback you created mid-unit. The summative task is a nice way to bring everything together and see how the students can apply what they have learned; but everyone has off days and one single assessment can’t fairly be used as a final assessment. An evaluation is a final mark or value that looks at the student’s progress and abilities at the end of a unit. This means that in order to give a final grade, the teacher must look at the progress made throughout the unit to make an informed decision.

    I love this way of teaching and assessing but I know that if it is new to me, it’s going to be new to parents. It’s important to keep parents informed so that they do not panic when they aren’t getting marked work back all the time, or they don’t see traditional tests coming home. I created this newsletter as an assignment but I designed it so that I would actually use it in my own classroom. I think it’s written in family-friendly language so that parents have a good understanding about how their children will be assessed and evaluated in the classroom.

    While we’re talking about assessment, I thought I’d share with you my assessment tracking sheet I use when I pace the room and conference with students. This works well with pairs due to the number of boxes, which is fine because I often assess this way when the children work in pairs. Having a list of expected strategies makes it really easy to just jot down the observation as a code, rather than write everything out. Going in with an anticipated outcome makes assessing much easier! Click the picture to get a free copy!

Setting the Classroom Climate

    I’m sure you’ve had your fair share of bad days. Have you ever had a bad week? A bad month? A bad year? 2012 was a tough and challenging year for me, for many reasons I won’t mention here. My goal is to make you smile and feel happy, not to bum you out. Anyways, the classroom was my happy place. It was the one place where I felt relaxed and “just right”. I thought I was doing a great job at masking all the other stresses in my life, but it was starting to seep through and make an appearance. I guess I had a day where I just wasn’t myself and as hard as I tried to mask it, my bad mood was taking over. I have never once, ever yelled or lost my temper with a student or a class. Sure, I use a stern voice if I’m displeased, but I never expose a bad temper. That’s just not who I am. I don’t really get mad. My associate teacher, Melissa, who happened to naturally take on a second role as my “therapist”, sensed that I was having a tough day. She gave me a hug and a piece of paper. This is what it said:

    It really opened my eyes to the fact that children pick up on their teacher’s moods. I knew I had the right to feel the way I was feeling; you’re not supposed to be happy and perky all the time. Life has its ups and downs and I was battling the down. “Leave your problems on the other side of the door” is something I had heard over and over again in all sorts of situations. It’s not always as easy as it seems. From that day on, I really focused on leaving the stress behind and just enjoying myself and the kids in the one place where I am in my element. Some people shop, some people sleep, and others exercise to rid their lives of stress. For the stresses I can’t get rid of, I turn to teaching--planning, marking, creating--to enter a place of harmony. A bad mood can be infectious. Don’t let it spread to and taint the beautiful happiness of a child. Make sure their classroom is a place of happiness and comfort as much as it is yours.

The Recycled Orchestra

    Earlier today I received an email from my mom with an amazing link attached. It was a video of children who live in Cateura, Paraguay. It’s a small village, known as the slums and it’s build on a landfill. Many families work at this landfill and decided to use the trash to build recycled instruments. It’s amazing what these people were able to accomplish. In the video, you will learn that a violin is worth more than a house in Paraguay. So it’s pretty remarkable that there is such a large group of children with access to recycled instruments that sound as beautiful as professionally made pieces, typically costing thousands of dollars. The community formed a recycled orchestra called, The Landfill Harmonic Orchestra, where every musician plays a recycled instrument.

    I thought this would be a great video to use in a music unit where the students explore different cultures. Especially in grades five and six, the study of musical culture is very broad and it would be a lot of fun to look at how this initiative has changed and impacted the community of Cateura. As an extension, you could also have your students make their own instruments out of recycled materials. If you’re exceptionally talented, maybe you’ll be able to figure out a way to get the creations to work properly. If not, I wouldn’t worry. Just making the instruments to create that connection would be enough to create a really engaging lesson.

    Click on the picture below to be redirected to the video. I hope you’ll feel as moved and inspired as I was.