Saturday Sayings: Be Cousin Laurie

This is the time of year when I can find something inwardly frustrated about various issues I've consistently talked about with certain little people that really shouldn't be issues at this point in the ball game.  My inward dialogue sounds something like this...

• Seriously, troubles with b and d...still? (Then there's p and q and other random backwards letters.)

• Come on.  You know which way a 3 goes.  (Or a 5, 6, 7...)

• How many times have we talked about how writers and mathematicians aren't lazy?  If they make a mistake, they erase the wrong answer.  They don't just write the new over the old.  Sigh.

• This number is a 12.  Not 20, not even 21.  It's 12.

• Wuz - I think we learned that word in week three. 

This is the short list.  It's a good thing none of this ever leaves my mouth.

I have a cousin Laurie, and she has an elevated view of my abilities.  She's not shy about verbalizing them either.  I've known her to repeatedly brag: "She's the best singer I know."  "She's the best first grade teacher in the world."  And she's not about flattery.  Laurie really believes these things and a myriad of other ideas about me, regardless of the fact I don't see myself as anywhere near the ideal she sees. She's a cheerleader.  Everyone needs a cousin Laurie.

Recently I witnessed her boasting about me again.  I walked away with the realization that my job title is to be cousin Laurie to each of my students.  I should have an elevated view of their abilities.  I must see their strengths, work from their strengths, and never be shy about calling them out.  

This is my late-in-the-game pep talk.  As I draw to the end of the year, my inner dialogue is feeling the effects of almost nine months of teaching.  Not only am I battling the issues that certain students still struggle with, like the ones I mentioned above, but I'm affected by fatigue, lack of time, loose ends, a long to-do list, school business, a few not-up-to-par assessment results, etc.  It can be easy to forget my role as the cheerleader, the one who continues to call out the strengths of my students in every situation to the very last second of the game.  Here's to being cousin Laurie.

Saturday Sayings: Becoming

I'd love to perfect first grade, but knowing that's not remotely possible, I really am content with the knowledge that there will always be more to become.  Most of the time, like Regie, I welcome this fact.  Then there are the rare moments, like the one I'm in now, possibly induced by the most stressful and draining time of the year, where my ever-growing-must-improve-me list of better teaching practices can seem quite daunting.  Sometimes I just feel like a mediocre teacher disguised as an exceptional one.  I've pulled the wool over everyone's eyes, and they wrongly perceive me as better than I really am at this thing called teaching.  I say that not to induce an onslaught of pats on the back.  I say it because, well, I'm normal.  I struggle at times with myself and my weaknesses.  In hopes of not sounding too much like a pout pout fish though, on this 20th year of teaching, I do have so much to be thankful for.  In the midst of all the improvements on my wish list, I can't help but be so deeply grateful for 20 years of becoming that has brought me to this place.  I have come a long way.  The process isn't always comfortable, but I know it's worth it.

Saturday Sayings: A Fan of Independence

Three years ago one of my boys dropped his whiteboard marker under his desk and didn't know what to do about it.  Needless to say, I didn't recover it for him.  I'm such a fan of independent first graders and have been for years.  Janice Sullivan, one of my favorite mentors, told me ages ago never to do something for a child that they could do for themselves.  It's almost like she and Regie were comparing notes.

Unfortunately, I've noticed an increase in the number of helpless little ones who don't know how to do things for themselves.  I'm guessing they've been hanging out with well-meaning adults who do most everything for them.  The lunchroom alone is proof that this problem is on the rise. Not a day goes by that I don't see several milk bottles, bags of chips, and other miscellaneous items being held in the air, waiting for an adult to come to their rescue.  There are adults who run to and fro doing just that, but I am not that adult.  I'll either say, "You give it a go" or show them how to get started and then expect them to take over.  "Aren't you glad I didn't do that for you?  You would have never found out the amazing things you can do all by yourself."  And of course their proud smile sends the message that I was right.  (When it comes to the small plastic cups of fruit, it's a different story.  Those are hard for even me!)  I could go on with examples of the ways adults teach children to be dependent on them (even in the classroom) but in the end, I believe it's a great disservice that can eventually leak into the way children approach learning.  

Saturday Sayings: The 3 R's of Teaching

Simply put, reading + risking + reflecting = meaningful change.  I suppose we could call them the 3 R's of teaching.  Is this equation evident in our schools or better yet, in our own classrooms?

Reading - I don't believe Regie's referring to reading a teacher's manual.  (That's most likely not the kind of reading that results in meaningful change.)  She's fully aware of how busy we teachers are, but she also knows that books provide a valuable kind of professional development that should find its way into our lives.  The professional books on my shelves and the piles still needing my attention on my living room floor are significant contributors to my teaching pedagogy.  They've helped shape me into the teacher I am today and the one I'll be ten years from now as well.

Risking - This piece of the equation is so important.  On a personal level, I'm not a risk-taker.  I don't enjoy putting myself into the unknown.  As a teacher though, I've learned that playing it safe is detrimental to my professional development as well as the growth of the learners in my care.  When I take risks, I give myself permission to not have all the answers before I try something new.  If I wait for all the answers, I'll waste a lot of time and probably never try anyway.  The only way to find them is to jump right in and do.  When I take risks, I also typically discover that my kids can handle a whole lot more than I ever gave them credit for.  They benefit from my risk-taking.

Reflecting - I'm guessing this is the part of the equation that most teachers are comfortable doing already.  I believe that it's made all the more powerful when reading and risking are involved as well though.  

Meaningful Change - We've probably all experienced unmeaningful change.  (Yep, I made up that word.)  How often have you found yourself asking, "Now, why are we doing this?"  Maybe the CCSS fits in that category for some.  Maybe a district or state mandate has created change that was not meaningful.  Those things are at times out of our hands.  For me, most often meaningful change happens when I take professional development into my own hands.  I'm not satisfied with the teacher I am today, but I'm the only one who can change that.  I read.  I risk.  I reflect.  If Regie's right, and I think she is, that means I'm bound to change in meaningful ways.  

Saturday Sayings: Easy and Pleasurable

(More Saturday Sayings found by clicking above.)

Admittedly I don't understand all the ins and outs of what the Common Core refers to as text complexity, so I'm in no way attempting to argue the standards.  I don't have enough knowledge to do that.  On the contrary, I have a lot of respect for the Common Core and what it's attempting to do for education.  When I read this quote though, I was reminded of the importance of easy and pleasurable reading.  One of my literacy mentors, Janice Sullivan, planted this quote into my teaching pedagogy several years ago.  

A lot of easy reading makes reading easy.

This year my grade level team is passionately pursuing the goal of fluent, confident readers for all our kids.  I know.  Like, duh.  That should be a given, right?  And yes it is, but we're growing weary of not radically moving the kids who arrive on our doorstep already struggling and indeed improve but not enough.  We send them off to the next grade without becoming those fluent, confident readers we were hoping for. We're not entirely quite sure how to pull this off, but I'm pretty sure a lot of easy and pleasurable reading is a key factor.