Our Sensory Path

Last spring or summer I saw a video on Facebook of a little person hopping his way along a colorful and creative path down a school hallway. The more I thought about it and the more I saw it reposted, the more I knew it was something that  my school needed. "We should do this," recently turned into "Can I do this?" and my principal gave me the thumbs up to take it on. 

I basically mapped out the path from the video I saw from Facebook on a piece of paper, which saved me a whole lot of creative thinking time. We only have one hallway in our school, and I can't imagine trying to walk my students to music or library in any kind of orderly fashion with a sensory path on the floor, so we put our path on the playground. Plus, all students can access it during recess time. I grabbed three teacher friends and this morning in about 2 1/2 hours we made it happen. I rolled. My friends followed and touched up my lines.

I think our students will love it. I can already imagine taking my whole class outside for a brain break. I also hope the path becomes a welcome break for those individual students who need a quick getaway from the world.

Grab some paint. Grab some friends, and you can have your own sensory path too!

P.S. FWI: It really wasn't that hard. I simply drew a map on a piece of paper. Then I used a small roller to roll it onto the ground. No taping or drawing the plan on the ground first required. (It helps that I have a very steady hand.)

Kristine and Christine

This post is a mishmash of resources that represent where my heart and head are right now in year 25 of my career. It's embarrassing and overwhelming to admit, but I've read some things in the last few months that have revealed some significant holes in my practice. Have I really been doing it all wrong all these years? Maybe I'm being slightly dramatic, but it's just confirmation that I must continually be a better version of myself. I'm confident the tools I'm about to share are going to help me get there.

Resource #1:
If you teach elementary children, read Kids 1st From Day One. Don't wait until your next break. Read it now. It is literally life-changing. I should probably reread certain sections of it before going to bed each night until the ideas become second nature. It's that good.

Resource #2:
Read this short post, Life After Clip Charts, by Kristine Mraz, co-author of the book you're going to read soon. I've never used clip charts, yet found this post to be another text that needs to be part of my nightly reading. She's challenged me to think about what I believe and to look closely at the practices that simply don't match up. Ouch.

Resource #3:
Read this post, Three Essential Social-Emotional Practices for the New School Year, by Christine Hertz, also co-author of your future favorite book ever. This post is meant to follow up Kristine Mraz's post, so do read them in order. It's enlightening, practical, and necessary and is already affecting my lesson plans for Tuesday.

Resource #4:
The first of Christine Hertz' three essential social-emotional practices is how to build awareness in our students of their social-emotional needs. The first step to building awareness is teaching children about their brains. She refers to Daniel Siegal's hand model. In Kids 1st From Day One, Kristine and Christine also talk about Siegal's analogy of the upstairs and downstairs brain. Both the hand model and brain analogy are concepts I want my students to know and understand sooner than later. So I've written two mini-lessons based on the resources mentioned. I want to offer them to you here. I'm not sharing because I think they're all that great. I haven't even taught them yet, and they're likely to need revision. I'm sharing because I think Kristine and Christine's work needs to influence more people. Period.

These two teachers and authors understand children in a way that inspires me. I'm humbled by their work and can only hope that my practice develops as a result of their influence. Please do take the time to seek out their wisdom. I think you will find their thoughts enlightening and worth your while.

Saturday Sayings: Three Questions

This summer I heard pro golfer, Ben Crane, talk about his daily reflective practice on a podcast I listen to. Without fail, he asks himself the following three questions.

1. What went well?
2. What did I learn?
3. What will I do about what I learned?

I couldn't help but make connections to my life as a teacher. I have this bad habit of allowing the tough moments of my day to play over and over in my head on my way home from school. It's amazing how many times I can relive the worst part(s) of my day in 15 minutes and yet find absolutely no peace or solution to my problems. After hearing Ben talk about his three questions, I was convinced his daily reflective practice would be much more productive than mine.  

Question number one forces me to celebrate first. At the end of a tough day, sometimes the last thing I have mental energy for is acknowledging the good. When in actuality, the best thing I can do for myself is reflect on what went well. 

Question two is phrased in a way that forces me to attack issues with a different mindset. What went wrong? vs. What did I learn? are two very different questions that require very different responses. Ben's question offers an opportunity for growth instead of despair.

Question three puts me in solution-mode. I have a plan for what I can do differently heading into the next day. My plan might not be guaranteed to work, but at least I have one. And maybe even more importantly, I have hope. 

So on my way home from school, I've been thinking my way through these questions, followed up by writing my answers in a journal before going to bed. I'll admit day seven's commute was a challenging one. The questions were pushed aside by the competing thoughts in my head. I will though get my answers written before returning to school on Tuesday, because this teacher needs to celebrate, learn, and plan for how to push towards excellence, one day at a time.

What questions are on your list?

Recess Workshop

Recess "workshops" are one of the many new things I'm trying out this year. I wish something like this had come my way before year 25. It's kind of brilliant.

This summer I read Purposeful Play by Kristine Mraz, Alison Porcelli, and Cheryl Tyler. They recommend setting aside time for an additional period of recess where the teacher teaches a mini-lesson, the kids go play with that lesson's focus in mind while the teacher monitors, and then the class shares afterwards. 

I'm using the book's ideas a guide... 

On day one we learned that we all have feelings that make our faces and bodies look certain ways. This chart comes directly from the book. 

On day two we learned that faces and bodies tell us how other people are feeling. We use that information to help us act differently. Again, I borrowed (and slightly modified) the chart below from the book. We sorted pictures and talked about how a person's face and body show us if that person is fine with how we're playing or if we need to stop.

There's more to come, but I wanted to share the beginnings of what we've been up to. I know it will take a lot of repetition, practice, role playing, etc. but I do believe this kind of intentional teaching will help kids not only on the playground but in life. I'm excited to see where this goes.

The First 20 Minutes

Mrs. Barker sends me the best kids in the whole school.

I loved you before you even showed up.

I'm surrounded by greatness.

Within the first 20 minutes of the first day of school my students have heard me say these significant words about them. I hope these words set the tone for the classroom I have visions about long before I've met the little people are on my roster. Calling out the greatness in the room before I've even seen the hand I'm dealt is an intentional move. 

They are words I'll repeat often, not only during the first few days of school, but right up until the very end. But in order to help my new friends remember these momentous words even on day one, I say each important statement with an intentionally chosen object in hand. I actually pull them out of a bag, because bags make everything more exciting in first grade.

 Mrs. Barker sends me the best kids in the whole school.

 I loved you before you even showed up.

 I'm surrounded by greatness.

By the end of the first day of school, my young friends can recite the meaning of each object. (I like to imagine the possible conversations at home that night. Guess what Miss McMorrow told us today?) The ease with which my students can remember my words reminds me to thoughtfully consider strategies for making my teaching stick, and an intentionally chosen object can certainly do the hard work for me. 

Words are powerful, and it's never too early in the year to say what matters most. Every teacher has a surplus of things that could be said during the first 20 minutes of school. Why not choose the most important ones first? 

To sum up, intentionally choose your message and purposefully make your words hard to forget. I'm not sure there's any better way to start the year.

Character Speaks Podcast

My teacher world sure grew when I started this blog. Even though I've never met a single one of them, I find it pretty cool that I have blogging teacher buddies from all over the country. Barbara Gruener from The Corner on Character is one of those friends. When I reminisce about how amazing it would be to have a counselor at my school, I think of Barbara. She's definitely the standard. 

She recently started a podcast called Character Speaks, and she and I spent 30 minutes chatting about some of the ways I teach to the heart, not just the head in my classroom. I'd be honored if you listened in. I know Barbara would as well.

Enjoy.

Saturday Sayings: In the Margin

School starts in exactly six days, which reflects why I've spent the last week furiously creating a comfortable and welcoming space for 23 new first graders. With that huge task crossed off my list, this morning I found myself ready to ponder lesson plans. As I opened up last year's plans to the first week of school, I was greeted with a list typed in the margin: "Things I Say." Reading through my list left me feeling not only inspired, but greatly satisfied.

I believe effective teachers are well planned. They don't show up on day one or 100 unprepared. They plan spaces, materials, activities, and lessons - all essential tools for a powerful learning environment. But what about words? I'm convinced effective teachers are intentional and strategic planners of words, which I will argue are just as important as all the other areas we plan for.

Words wield a powerful influence, and it's obvious from Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram that they're on the minds of teachers everywhere as they prepare themselves for a new and fresh opportunity to literally transform the lives of students. I might suggest that we find ways to document those words and hold ourselves accountable for saying them...repeatedly. 

With satisfaction, I added "Things I Say" to the margin of this year's first week of plans. I even added a few new things I intend to speak into the atmosphere. I'm bound and determined that my words will make a difference.

What's in your margin?