Day 1 of summer school

Summer school is only a total of 16 days and only 3.5 hours of instruction each day.  Today was spent assessing for most of the time.  I did find time at the end of the day to go over the rules, scoreboard, class/yes, and hands and eyes.  It will take them a little bit to get into the routine.  They were doing pretty well with Class/Yes though.  I think they were a bit shy - poor kids have not been in school for a month and they return to a crazy teacher yelling "OH YEAH" and hopping around the classroom.  I did have them teach a partner the rules too. I didn't use the term "mirror" but I did use gestures as I taught much more naturally than I did when I was first starting WBT.  I can't think of a better way to maximize the small amount of instruction time than using WBT.  The first day is usually so chaotic but today was a breeze!

Summer School

My summer school job is a dream job!  It's a Literacy Academy; it's a grant funded program for struggling readers, specifically our "bubble" kids.  It's a 4 week program, M-Th, 9 am - 1pm.  As the name suggests we teach literacy; and that's it!  We do have a chunk of time carved out that we may teach literacy across the content areas if we choose.  I have chosen to do a little of the science/social studies connections in our Houghton Mifflin guides that we don't usually get to during the school year, but I am also including a community service project that we will work on a couple of days a week and journal about once a week.  I'm super excited to see where the kids will take this project.

As I mentioned in my last post I am only planning on doing the "first steps" to WBT.  I might add some brain toys in here and there but I am still new to braintoys so it will be pretty basic.  Our summer school (which is only 2nd and 3rd graders) will be using a school wide Positive Behavior Instructional Support system (PBIS) to increase student engagement as well as an incentive for school wide behavior in the shared common spaces such as the hallway, cafeteria and playground. 

I will be sad to be leaving my baby girl after spending a month with her at home watching her grow and develop (she is 9.5 months and started crawling a couple of weeks ago) but I am super excited to watch a group of struggling readers transform in the period of just four weeks! 

I will have the parents sign a media release and hopefully post a video within the new few weeks.  One great thing about summer school is how much more importance is placed on  professional learning communities; there is a teacher who was hired for the sole purpose of being a floater teacher so classroom teachers can observe others in action.  What a great way for me to spread WBT and to absorb new strategies from my colleagues.

And I'm Back!

School ended in mid June here in Oregon.  My parents went out of town, thus leaving me to dog, house, and grandma-sit for nine days.  During this time I wasn’t able to get back into my school because I was TOO busy!  Now, I have been visiting my new 3^rd grade classroom an hour or so a day, unpacking boxes.
For those of you who may remember, I taught kindergarten the past two years and I’m MOVIN’ ON UP…to third grade!  I’ve been trying to figure out how to decorate my class.  Well, I figured it out.  It will be like HOME!  I’m going for an Americana type atmosphere so kids feel comfortable in their learning environment.
I haven’t made any real progress with WBT, other than THINKING about my bulletin boards, my timers, the power pix, and so forth, but I’m just happy my new room is no longer stacked sky high in boxes.
The school year will start in early September.  However, I will teach 1^st grade for a month during summer school starting in a couple of weeks.  I will definitely use the 1^st steps of WBT during summer school, and the routines and procedures.  I look forward to next week when I can sit down and really plan and prep how WBT will look for a month of summer school as well as how I will begin my year as a 3^rd grade teacher.  Busy summer ahead….

Buh-bye Kindergarten - HELLO 3rd grade!

We found out our teaching assignments for next year.  I have been asking to get out of kindergarten and it happened!  There will be a lot of changes at my school and I'm so excited to be with a group of 3rd graders when I begin implementing WBT from day 1.  I know they will THRIVE on it.  I have a LOT to do this summer to prepare.  Can't wait!

The countdown begins

And so it begins - 10.5 days left of school.  My school's population is such that the anxiousness of summer has less to do with excitement of being out of school and free from reading, math, and writing, but more to do with the scariness of not having a daily routine, not having someone to fix them lunch (if there is enough food at home for lunch), somewhere safe to play, or electricity to run their appliances.  I am really working on positive reinforcement these next 10 days and when a kid breaks a rule being really mindful of having them practice a rule to help themselves, not because they're "in trouble". 

On another note, I've started my summer "WBT to do" list.  I'm sure as the summer goes on my list will grow as I read more and more.

Happy end of the year my WBT friends!

THANK YOU!

I received some encouraging and supportive responses to my last post.  It is so nice to feel part of a team.  THANK YOU!

To update - things went UP hill after that post.  I went to school with a postive mind set and gave my kids a hug as they walked into the room.  Instead of having time outs where the class puts their head on their desks for a minute in complete silence, I had the class repeat just ONE rule, whichever the class as a whole was breaking, and I had them practice it perfectly - no half hearted hand raising or mumbling.  I really think it worked.

My scoreboard reward was sitting with the kids at lunch.  Normally I eat in the staff room and we have lunch room monitors.  I sat in the cafeteria with the kids and they LOVED it - and of course, so did I.  Next week I will play at recess with them if they win.  Can't wait for them to win so I can play with them. =)

Thanks again, WBT friends!

Lost it!

If I'm going to be completely honest in this blog I have to admit that I screamed at my class yesterday.  Of course I'm embarrassed and ashamed.  Part of it is due to how the classroom is structured with our ELMO (like an overhead projector).  It's by the door, NOT in front of the class.  I often work from the whiteboard with our worksheet or whatever displayed onto the board.  However, when I want to show my class something and manipulate objects like I did during the math lesson I have to stand at the corner of the room which does not help at all.  Mind you, math is at the END of the day, after lunch, specials, language and snack.  AND yesterday was one of the first warm days in Oregon in a long time!  All day long, and especially through math, kids just kept talking and talking and talking when I was talking.
During 1st recess at 9:30 I was cool, calm, and matter of fact about it.  SEVEN of my 28 kids spent 2 - 3 minutes practicing a rule.  I told them not to worry about it they would remember next time.  I had SEVERAL of those same kids during different parts of the day who were reciting rules again...and again!

To make matters worse I have three kids with a communication disorder and the aid who is in charge of two of them was out sick and her position didn't fill!  These kids are pulled out for about 75% of the day to have 1:2 instruction.

During a brief 'time out' while the kids had their heads down a LOT of the kids were playing with the velcro from their name tags.  Next thing I know I'm taking all of their name tags off and throwing them in the garbage.

I just WISH I had started WBT so much earlier than the last week of March.  I plan to use this summer to plan, prepare, and study WBT as much as I can!!!

Not ot mention, as the year closes, the kindergarten assessment packet is HUGE, so there are plenty of unstructured times while I'm trying to assess.

Will hope, pray, and PREPARE better for today.