Progress Reports

It's Friday night. I'm sitting on the couch. I have graded some papers while watching some high school football and Blue Bloods tonight. I've also planned most of my week besides language arts. I know I'm going to teach simple and compound sentences next week, but I'm just not sure about how to do it yet. On Mo.nday, we're going to review for a social studies unit test over the Olmec, Mayan, and Aztec civilizations. I need to make some sort of review game. I'm thinking I need some sort of jeopardy game to review. We had a map test today over the countries of Central America. A couple of students bombed these 7 countries. It really behooves me how they did this. They had about 5 minutes 4 straight days to basically memorize the 7 countries while studying. We went over some sort of an acronym that they could use to help them remember the first letter of every country. We went in order from West to East. Goats (Guatemala) Bowl (Beliz) Every (El Salvador) Hour (Honduras) Near (Nicaragua) Crazy (Costa Rica) People (Panama). This saddens me that some of the students didn't do too well. What happened? I don't know.

In reading, we finally finished Tuck Everlasting. To demonstrate their learning and understanding of the book, the students had the opportunity to choose things off a menu. The menu was an idea from a fellow teacher. (Side note - Seriously, I can't tell you enough how awesome my team is.) The students seemed to really get involved into these projects. The only problem I ran into was that I would have to grade each of my students' projects. They each had to do 3 projects. 3 projects x 30 kids in a class x 2 classes = around 180 projects to grade. I didn't really think that though :) So, I let the students decide which one they think they did the best effort. I still need to grade these, along with their similarities and differences paper that they wrote comparing the book to the movie.

Other things I need to do is finish grading their biographies that they presented to the classes earlier this year, get my progress reports, data binders, and students' goals finished. I also need to have my S2S meetings with my students as we discuss their individual goals with me.

I'm so thankful for the people that I work with.

Till next time.

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Zoom Focus

Zoom Focus

This is a great, great read from Jon Gordon.

Zoom Focus

September 25th, 2011 Posted in General

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“Vision without Execution is hallucination” – Einstein

I believe every one of us has a desire to accomplish great things, to do something meaningful, to have an impact. Yet, so many of us don’t take the actions necessary to create the success we desire. Then there are others who are very busy taking actions but the actions have nothing to do with their vision and goals. They’ve become lost in the busyness of life.

In my work with sports teams, businesses and organizations I have found that the key to individual and team success is to Zoom Focus. Zoom Focus helps you turn ideas and goals into reality and results. Zoom Focus helps you focus on your priorities, execute, and create success. Zoom Focus helps you take daily steps towards your big picture vision.

Now more than ever it is a time for action. It is a time for getting things done. It is a time to tune out the distractions and the noise from the doomsdayers and the naysayers and focus on what truly matters and what truly will help us create success. In this spirit here are a few ways to put Zoom Focus to work for you and your team.

Create your Big Picture Vision – This might be a goal or a dream. It might be a project that needs to be completed or a sale you are trying to close. It might be a company objective or a team mission. It might be a book you want to write, an initiative to improve your community, or a championship you want to win. Identify your vision and then you’ll be ready to Zoom Focus and take the necessary actions to get you there.

Ask One Question – Each day when you wake up in the morning ask the question, “What are the three most important things I need to do today that will help me create the success I desire?” Then each day take action on those three things.

Tune out the Distractions – Turn off the television. Stop answering the phone. Don’t answer the email right now. Talk to your friend later. First, get things done. Execute, accomplish and then feel free to embrace the distractions.

Say No and Yes – My friend once told me, “If the devil can’t make you bad, he’ll make you busy.” He reminded me that we need to stop scattering our energy and wasting our time on trivial things that have nothing to do with our vision and goals and start saying yes to our priorities and to what truly matters. Each day we must make choices and those choices including saying “no” to people and opportunities so we can say “yes” to the work we are meant to do and the success we are meant to create.

Focus on Daily Improvement – I see it in sports all the time. Teams focus too much on winning the championship and forget to Zoom Focus each day in practice. They are outcome focused not process focused. The key is to focus on improving each day and take the necessary action steps. If you incrementally improve each day, each week, each month, each quarter by the end of the year you’ll see remarkable results and growth. When you Zoom Focus on the process the outcome takes care of itself.

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40 Alternative Assessments for Learning | TeachHUB

40 Alternative Assessments for Learning | TeachHUB

I thought this was really cool!

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Update

I'm sitting here on a Sunday night on the couch watching TV with my wife as she is eating ramen noodles. I'm prepared for tomorrow besides running some copies in the morning before school. It feels good. I spent some time with my family this weekend, which was nice also. It's starting to feel like fall, which is my favorite part of the year. Mainly because of the cool weather, but also because of the colors. I don't like hot weather at all. I sweat a lot. I get miserable. I like sitting around a fire on a chilled night. 

Anyway, moving on to things educationally related. I feel that I am settling into my role this year and it's feeling nice. A lot of the people that know me ask how I like my job and the only thing that I can say is "Great!" and that I am really enjoying my students and working with the other 6th grade team teachers. I feel very comfortable with them and it feels like we have known each other for a long time. The best part is that they share these amazing projects/menus/resources with me just because they want to and they want our team to be successful. I use a lot of their stuff and tweak it a little to my liking. I try to share when I think I have something good to share, but their giving is a lot more than my giving right now. I hope that one day I can give back to others as much as they have helped me. 

In reading, we're finishing up Tuck Everlasting. I'm excited to see what my students have come up with to share about their understanding of characters, theme, and setting. They were given a menu to pick projects from. (Side note-another amazing thing I got from my team.) I have seen some of them so far and they are looking really great and are showing good evidence of understanding. I think we'll do a gallery walk of all the projects to showcase all the work. I need to make sure I bring my camera that day. We're then going to do some things on understanding context clues and some Scope Magazine activities to finish out the week as we take a break from novels.

In social studies, we just finished a little unit on culture. It's something that we'll refer back to constantly throughout the year. The students did well on their vocab test over the terms. We did a "Write It, Draw It, Define It" activity and vocabulary dominoes on the vocabulary words. We're going to be starting a unit on Mexico and Central America...the Mayas, the Incas, the Olmecs, etc. 

In ending this week, I had something told to me that has really lifted my spirits. One of the students in my class has a relative that lives next door to her that I see pretty occasionally because she works with my wife. I was asking her how the student in my class is liking/enjoying school. She says that she is really enjoying it and she says that she is learning a lot. The best thing that she said is that even though we are having a lot of fun, we are learning too. This makes me feel great!!! It's not the fact that she is enjoying school, but the fact that she knows that she is learning things, while at the same time having fun. She seems to enjoy all the projects and learning activities that we do, but I'm more impressed that she understands that she is learning through the activities that we are doing and that school and learning can be fun and not just boring. 

I'm leaving you (I'm acting like someone actually reads this, hehe) this week with a quote I found - 

‎"The object of teaching a child is to enable him to get along without his teacher." Elbert Hubbard - I feel that this is something that I strive to do. If a student can be taught how to learn on his own then the possibility of gaining knowledge is infinite. 

Have a good week! 

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Week 3 Down

We finished up this week talking about literary devices and making posters that will be displayed in the room. I feel there needs to be a little more teaching about them for the students to show mastery of them.
In Social Studies we took a quiz/test over latitude and latitude. I feel most of the students did very well on this and can now find things on a map. I had a lot of students absent of Friday so I'll have them make up their tests on Tuesday.

If felt good to have a day off on Monday since it was Labor Day. I took some time to relax this weekend. Did some grading and got caught up for the most part.
I have a meeting with the principal this week to talk about my quality in the classroom and to set some goals for this year. I need to take some time to do this anyway because without goals, I have no direction and I'll end up spinning in circles.
On Saturday, I was able to see my Hoosiers play Ball State in Lucas Oil Stadium. I was pretty disappointed in the execution of a lot of things. I think they'll get better, but I was hoping for a better bright spot.
Here's to a good week of learning and excitement of a 4-Day week.

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2 Weeks In

It's Saturday morning. I was trying to sleep in a little. Alas, that did not work. I woke up at my normal time. So I've decided to blog. My first 2 weeks has been great. I have laughed constantly working with my team. I am totally enjoying going to school everyday.

My students took a beginning of the year reading inventory test earlier in the week. I finally got a chance to look at their scores. Some of their scores surprised me one way (good) or another (lower than expected). But once I was able to see their scores, some of my questions were answered. Knowing their scores, I feel I am better able to meet their needs as learners. I think that last sentence sounds a bit cliche' and overused, but it is true. I think of those types of tests as tools to inform my teaching. 

In reading, we're reading as a class Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt. I'm liking it. I also think the kids are really enjoying it and are engaging in meaningful conversations about the book during discussion time. The students are filling out a packet as we read through the book. 

In social studies, we finished up our section on Canada. I'm not going to lie, I learned a lot about Canada during these weeks. We ended the week with a map multiple choice test over the provinces and territories. I have not graded them, but I think they will all do well. We're going to start latitude and longitude/GPS and GIS on Monday.

In language arts, the students have interviewed a student from a different room and will be writing biographies about them. I'm interested to see where they take these. We did go over some clever beginnings to use instead of the boring "Hi. I interviewed ________. Their favorite things are (insert blah, blah, blah here)." I need to make up my personal editing sheets and my peer editing sheets for them to use when editing. 

Keeping it real - we do a lot of group work, paired work, etc. I asked them why they think we work in groups and this was some of their responses - "It helps us to work on teams with others because when we grow up we'll have to do that." "So we cooperate with everyone." "That way we can share ideas with others so we understand better." "Maybe we came up with close to the same answers, but someone has a different view on it and it might change the way we thought about it." etc. etc. I wondered if they had had this questioning before or not, but it doesn't really matter because they understand the value of learning from others. The only problems I have is when they want to work with others that kind of hinder their educational process. :) So I just modify groups, or give stipulations on what type of groups you can have. (not all boy groups or all girl groups, give an appointment sheet of specific times and who they can meet with, etc, etc). 

Things to work on...

• Every student responses - I tend to ask something. 4-5 students raise their hands. Those kids are the only ones engaged and thinking. I need to work on this. It's more of a habit type thing, but it can definitely be improved so that everyone student is engaged in the learning. (think, pair, share type stuff, 20 seconds to tell  your partner what you think about something, etc)
• Making things meaningful. I needed a 5 minute time filler after we finished our map test on a Friday afternoon until we switched classes with my partners classroom for my students' science lesson. It was a quick thing/activity on Canadianisms. The kids thought it was interesting, but they probably didn't learn much and it probably wasn't too standards-based. 
• Planning - plan ahead, plan extra, be prepared daily.
• Getting up my goals on the bulletin board so the students know what they are working towards
• My personal/professional goals for this school year and my meeting with the principal about them. 
• Putting together my and the students' data binders. 

Can't believe it's been 2 weeks in. It's flown by. My motto for this year I think is going to be.

Where are we going? How are we going to get there? What is the best way that students are going to learn the material? What am I going to do to improve next time?

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First Week Finished

It's Sunday night. I'm prepared for Monday. This last week has been so exciting for me. I have learned all my students' names and a lot of things about them. I am really enjoying myself. The support that I have behind me is absolutely tremendous. To be given a curriculum guide that has already been laid out for me has been a great help. I know what I need to be teaching around a certain time. It really helps with planning and preparing for classes.
A couple of things I need to improve -

1. Organization - I need to get things in folders and filed away
2. Procrastination - This will probably always be on my list of things to improve just because it's just me I guess. 
3. Think about the future more. Like - where we are going, when we are doing it, how are we going to get there.

I wouldn't be where I am without the help of those around me. Everyone walks on the shoulders of those who come before us or work beside us. I have been taken under the wing of amazing people. I just hope I am able to give as much back as they have given me.
Well, here we go onto week 2, where the real learning and teaching is going to take place. 

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One Week

I have one week until my school starts. I have been through orientation at my school and have met my teaching partner. I'm excited to work with him. I'm thrilled to work with the rest of team also.
Here's a picture of my room without anything done to it.

Here we go! Let the decorating and planning begin!!!

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How Precious Life Is

As I'm finishing up my last week at work, I'm grateful for the fellow employees that I interact with on a daily basis. I'm grateful for the hard work that they do in producing screen printed/embroidery garments and making my separations look good. For the most part I work with about 10 people in the "office," but I interact with around 40 people a day. They range from embroiderers, film cutters, screen retensioners, screen burners, printers, shippers, catchers, off loaders, and many more. One of the neatest things about screen printing is that every step along the process is dependent on the others to do their job.  The accountability factor is definitely there. If you don't do your job, the rest of the process goes down the drain. My job as a separator is key to getting things right the first time, so we don't have to go back and redo some things after it's already been set up on press. It feels like a team. Even though this is my last week there I have learned not only about work, but more than anything I learned about life.
One thing I learned is that there is more important things than work. I like to work. I like my job. I like the people I work with. I like my wife better though and spending time with her is more important than work. With my job, I can pretty much leave work at work. When I come home, I don't have to think about it. I typically leave home at around 7:45 and I get home around 6:30. They can be long days. Some days are longer than that, others are tad bit shorter, but I like being at home with my wife more.
I learned about trust. Gary, the production manager, put a lot of trust in me to carry the work load. I always felt like he had my back, even if something wasn't perfect. We would work towards solutions instead of complaining about it. I learned a lot from him as I would always be asking him a lot of questions.
I learned how to talk with people. I know this sounds weird, but I had to meet a lot of people and interact with a lot of people. I learned how to have meaningful conversations with them.
I learned that everyone has dreams. Some people never get an opportunity to reach them. Some people get lucky and get an opportunity to follow and reach them. I can't believe the support I received in return from my coworkers when I told them I was going to be teaching. Most of them were so incredibly happy for me. Some shared with me the their dream and what they wanted to do with their life. I'm not sure how everyone working there ended up there, but I don't think most of them started on their journey when they were in high school and said "I want to burn screens when I grow up." We all ended up their through one way or another. Some of them will probably be there for a long time. Is this bad? Of course not. Like I said earlier, work is work. I like my family more.  When one of my coworkers said that an English teacher he had in high school told him he should become a teacher and that was something he always wanted to do, but he never pursued it, I felt horrible for him. Here I am, getting an opportunity to teach and do something that I want to do, while he is working in an 120 degree heat index room mixing up some ink. He says he wants to pursue education. I told him he should at least try. Get your prereqs done. Do it. Today is always the right time to follow a dream.
All this kind of needs to be summed up as Make An Impact, Make a Difference, or Add Value to Others.
The title of this post is "How Precious Life Is." I haven't talked much about it, but I'm circling back. Another coworker told me this week his best friend had passed away the night before. His exact words was "He's been my best friend since we were in diapers." Man, I felt horrible for him. He was really down, just as anyone would be who lost his best friend. So, this is how I got on this preciousness of life topic. The guy wasn't very old. He was in his low 20s. How precious is life and time?! What type of things should we pass on to others? How quickly can someone's life pass by! We're not on this earth a very long time, but we're here long enough to make a difference in the lives of others. I hope I can do that.

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New Job

Update!!
I recently have been offered and accepted a position teaching 6th grade! I'm totally pumped and excited about this opportunity and am looking forward to working with some great teachers and individuals. I feel blessed beyond measure for the work that God is doing in my wife and I's lives right now. During the time between finishing up my maternity leave and accepting this new offer I was blessed with a job that could pay our bills. I worked as a screen print production artist at a large contract printer. I have background in design and screen printing that I gained from working at a screen print and awards business while I was going to school to become a teacher.  I need to start planning for the upcoming year. I need to see my room and start getting some stuff for it. I need to start thinking about materials I will need. Some of these questions will be answered in the coming week because we are getting together as a team with the principal and going over teaching responsibilities for the upcoming year. I'm intrigued about my teaching partner and getting to meet him.  I'm looking forward to this year and finally settling down into my own classroom.

Among other news. My wife and I are also photographers who focus mostly on weddings and senior portraits and last night we had the opportunity to shoot one of my college classmate's wedding and got to see a lot of my old classmates and friends. I can't believe it has been 4 years since we all met and 2 years since we graduated together. Some of us have not went into education full-time and some of us have not, blazing their own trails. The job market for teachers in Indiana is not too hot currently and I feel incredibly lucky to have received an offer.

I'm looking forward to this year.

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