Welcome Back!

What is one new thing you are planning to try this year?

End of the Year

It’s the end of the year!  Can you believe it? Last year I had the students write letters at the beginning of the year as a way to get to know them, and then had them write letters at the end of the year reflecting on 6^th grade.  I also had time for the students to make posters for the “future 6^th graders” giving them tips on how to succeed in 6^th grade. This year I feel like I ran out of time, so students will be finishing up our last unit, poetry, basically until the second to last day.  However, I still want to make sure I take time to say good-bye to the students and wish them the best for the summer and 7^th grade.

Just wondering if you do anything special in your own classroom for the end of the year?

Grading Practices - Always Evolving!

Hello Everyone!

I just finished reading A Repair Kit to Grading by Ken O'Connor. It has been a very rewarding book study for me. These are the big things I've taken away from it:

1.) Always accept late work and don't take off points. Kids that are behind easily get into "give up mode" when they know they aren't going to receive much credit for late assignments. While you need deadlines, if students talk to me and continue to show they understand the content, I will reward them with full credit.

2.) Don't grade participation, aesthetic concerns, or behavior. That doesn't show what they know! And some kids don't let grades control their behavior.

3.) Make good assessments. Make sure they are balanced and show what students know. This is tough, but the makes grading a more accurate indicator of what they know.

4.) Don't grade formative assessments. These are practice. In the future, any vocab quizzes I give will be graded but won't calculate into their final grade for the quarter.

My question to all of you... what are your grading practices like? What concerns do you have about grading?

Poems and Other Creative Assignments

I am so excited because in English we are creating poems right now, and while there are many requirements to these poems (they have to be quatrains and ballads), students are still able to be creative and play with language. I forgot how much fun it can be to listen to students as they discuss poem generation. Many students are coming in and saying things like "I wrote an awesome stanza last night, Ms. Goedtke!" and when they are talking to their partners, students are actually discussing how to improve rhythm and rhyme in their poems. I love that our fourth quarter in English focuses on creative work. I think it fits nicely with the Spring.

This also makes me wish there was a way to make researching and other writing as interesting and personal to students. We unpacked the research standard as a VT at the last VT meeting and are in the process of shaping our research to be based on a question. I am hoping that questioning will help students find the fun in research. But I wonder if there are other ways to pull that creative part of writing into more formulaic writing styles like essays and research papers.

Thoughts? Do you think that it is possible to adhere to more rigid writing styles (or other required projects or papers that are more rigid) and still have students excited about learning? How have you been able to do that in the classroom?

Professional Growth over the Summer

I just started thinking about my summer plans and the possibility of doing the SORLA workshops. I think it is so awesome that Shakopee reimburses for SORLA, and also may give a stipend? I feel really lucky to be in a district that is committed to professional growth. I am wondering what other people are doing over the summer to contribute to professional growth. I think it is really important to rest and relax, but this summer I would like to take more opportunity to expand myself with many different areas--especially since I will be teaching the more "junior high" grades--7-9. I keep thinking I need to be more trained with technology--Smartboard use, etc. Or maybe it is learning more techniques with classroom management designed for this specific age. Am interested in what people are doing . . .

Benefits of Book Study

I have been a part of the PLC book study group and I must say that I am enjoying it immensely. It is so interesting to read about what a PLC is supposed to be doing and compare it to what we are doing. I'm already trying as a PLC leader to implement some of the suggestions (like sharing positives at the beginnings of meetings and having a day to sort unit activities into keep, create, or toss categoreis) into my meetings. I am happy to see that the book is focusing on tangible suggestions rather than just talking philiosophically. I am hoping that next year I can start to shape the PLC into more of a action research based meeting rather than a curriculum writing meeting. But as we talk about constantly in our book studies, that means time to write curriculum outside of PLC. This is an interesting topic to struggle with and I am happy that we are getting the opportunity to think through the process of creating the PLC rather than simply being told what to do.

Is anyone else in a book study group? How is it going? What are you learning? What concepts do you struggle with?

Outside of the Classroom

Anybody have any strategies for EBD students? I actually don’t have any EBD students in the classroom setting, but I am a tennis coach and there is a player on the team who is EBD. There have been issues with this player listening and getting along with others.

Any suggestions that could transfer from the classroom onto the tennis court?