Making a Plan Makes a Difference

"Where does all of our money go?" That's the question my hubby and I kept asking ourselves a year ago when we were living paycheck to paycheck. Now, only a year later, we are able to live off of 75% of our income, have money saved for emergencies, and are even contributing to our retirement and the kids college funds. One thing made that difference: now we have a plan! Every month we take time to talk about our budget, write down a plan, and stick to it. This reminds me of the process that helps students become successful problem solvers.

Problem Solving involves LOTS of thinking and planning, and then a little bit of solving, and then hopefully some more thinking about reasonableness. We help our students when we spend time having them practice the thinking A LOT. Here are some ideas that I have seen that really help students:

• Think about important vocabulary from the standards, like joining, separating & comparing and composing & decomposing (even use motions to help them remember the meanings).

• After they are able to describe what is happening in the story (we are joining boys and girls to find total students), then talk about what operation goes with that vocab word. “If I'm joining would that be adding or subtracting?”
• Remove the numbers until kids have thought through the problem and are able to tell you a "word number sentence" (number of books on each shelf x the number of shelves = total books)
• Talk about the differences in the operations (Joining can be adding or multiplying, but I know to multiply when my groups have the same amount, or are equal.) and have them "DIG" on each operation.
• Subtraction is when you take things away from the total, or separate things. When I take cookies from the cookie jar, it has less cookies.
• Instead of only having students share different ways to solve a problem, see if they can share/explain how they knew what operation(s) to use and/or why an answer is reasonable or unreasonable.
• Have them find some text evidence to show how they know what to do and why their operation fits. (Example: it told us how many blue flowers and how many yellow flowers and it's asking for the total flowers, which tells me I am going to add them together to figure out how many yellow and blue flowers there are all together.)
• Justify for reasonableness: thinking after solving to make sure your answer makes sense is important. Kids struggle with this, so the more we practice, the better! A great way to do this is by using estimation (rounding or compatible numbers). It's also a great time to bring in a tool to help them think about reasonableness. For example, if I'm doing 24x8 I could think about money. 24 is really close to 25, which is the value of a quarter.  My answer should be around 200 because I know that 4 quarters equal $1 and 8 would equal $2, which is 200 cents.
• Model this thinking aloud (for understanding the problem, the operation, or reasonableness) when you are doing the "I Do" (mini-lesson) to give them ideas of how to think deeply about story problems.

Just remember to always value and encourage the time our students spend and NEED to make a plan! This up-front work will make all the difference!

 

Curing Cancer

Did anyone get to watch 60 minutes on Sunday night? Holy cow! It was completely fascinating!! Apparently at the Duke Cancer Research Center they are getting amazing results with their latest cancer treatment trial. The treatment consists of injecting the polio virus into brain tumors in order to remove the protective shield that causes the cancer to be invisible to the immune system. When the virus breaks down the shield, it awakens the body's immune system so that it begins to fight the cancer. Isn't that absolutely AMAZING!?!?

As I think about the level of thinking it would take to even begin to figure this out, I am reminded of the importance of our job as educators. We are invaluable in this world. Our job, I would argue, is of the utmost value and importance. As teachers, we mold little human lives. We mold them by modeling life. Modeling how to treat others with respect and love. Modeling how to handle every situation that may come their way. Modeling how to be a problem solver and a thinker. Who would have believed someone that said, "I think injecting polio into this cancer patient's brain tumor has a chance of curing them."? Not a soul in the world in which my generation was raised. Thinking back to my years growing up, I have to be honest. Growing up in a one-way philosophy educational generation was discouraging for me. I vividly remember my inability to show my knowledge and capability through choosing the "one right answer". I was one of those kids. One who frequently ALMOST had it, but not quite! One who didn't think quite like everyone else in the box. Oddly enough, I was usually pretty confident in my thinking and could provide adequate and even thought-provoking evidence when prompted. The problem was, I was just never prompted. Hence the reason I grew up believing the lies. The lie that I was dumb, as I felt defeated trying to train my brain to fit "in the box". The lie that I would always barely be mediocre despite hard-core effort. The lie that my evidence and thinking didn't matter. The lie that some people just got "it", and I would never be one of those people.  I now know that the sole person telling this lie was the same person looking back at me in the mirror. The dilemma was though, I didn't have the confidence to come to that realization until I entered adulthood. Having a career that not only accepts independent problem solvers, but heavily relies on them, has taught me that there is more than one way. Teaching on a growth-mindset campus has proven to me that my thinking, as well as ALL other's thinking, does matter and often times is another way to answer!

Reeves-Hinger has changed my life for the good in so many ways. One of the best parts of our job as RH teachers is that we learn truths in our profession that we can often apply to our personal lives as well.  A giant scoop of hard work, a heap of resilience, and a pinch of a determination is the recipe for truth. This recipe excites the senses enough with a small taste of improvement, that it leaves a never-ending craving for progress. Some people define these ingredients as grit.

Grit is something inside you that drowns out the lies that you aren't good enough. Everyday I get to witness inspiring teachers using these same ingredients to cook up confident, persevering, problem-solving students. I believe with all my heart the direction we are headed is going to be ground breaking! We are not there YET, but we continuously work our way up that hill, one step at a time. Each step getting us closer to YES! Along the way (and I believe most importantly) we can ensure our students don't believe the lies, but instead know the recipe for truth. We can change lives now simply through ensuring our students know the truth and motivating them to be the best at whatever they choose to be in life! This encouragement paired with teaching them to problem solve as a valued thinker, could create a life-changing generation. Armed with these tools, who knows what this generation will be capable of...curing cancer may just be the tip of the iceberg!

Put Me In Coach!!!

Torture, defined by Gage (my 8 year old), is staying on the bench during the ending of the closest game of the season. He could hardly stand watching his team barely loose their only basketball game this year. I wouldn't really say he "sat" on the bench after fouling out...it looked more like he was dealing with ants in his pants as he attempted to keep off the court. His passion for the game paired with countless hours of practice to improve his skills gave him such an excitement to play! What he would have given for the coach to somehow turn around and say "get in there Gage!" My wish is that our RH students will feel the same excitement, pride and anxiousness to show off all they have learned when they take the STAAR this spring. More importantly, I pray that the same enthusiasm for learning continues their entire lives.

Just as teachers make all the difference in their student's years, coaches play an important role in their player's seasons. They have the ability to jump in, side by side with their players and help them improve their practice. Great coaches not only know how important it is to practice, but they make the most of it. Successful practices happen when coaches take time to learn what each player does well and praise them for that effort. Also, they focus on each individual's weaknesses, giving specific feedback and encouragement until they see growth to celebrate!  Practice doesn't make perfect, but practice does make progress. A coach knows how to prepare the team for the game and ensures that each team member is ready before throwing them out on a live court. Playing games over and over is not preparation for game...but lots of practice is. Assessing kids over and over is not preparation for a test or life-long learning...but lots of teaching and learning is. As teachers, it's our job to support our kids over and over through practice, without jumping right into assessment. In practice when we miss, foul, or throw the ball away, there is no penalty like in the game. Instead, these mistakes are followed by targeted advice and then "let's try it again!" to build stamina, skills and allow growth from mistakes. This strategy develops confident players who are prepared to play the game.  They aren't just equipped, but readily anxious to put their hours of sweaty, hard work to the "test". Fueled with the belief in their ability to learn, grow, even fail, they ultimately experience the pride of accomplishment from hard work paying off.  

Most importantly, a coach has the possibility to do much more than teach fundamental skills. An effective coach transforms their player's work ethic, beliefs, and goals, eventually affecting the rest of their lives.  Teachers have the equal opportunity to transform futures. In fact, I would bet that an overwhelming majority of coaches and teachers chose their career based on this very principle. This time of the year it is easy to forget that dream. It's easy to forgot the importance of practice, practice, practice. It's easy to forget to encourage, encourage, encourage. It's easy to slip into testing, testing, testing. It's easy to forget that there isn't only one right tool, one piece of proof, or one way to solve. It's easy to forget that STAAR is just a test. It's easy to forget that we are a part of molding small human beings. It's easy to forget that these little lives look to us to show them what life is about and how they should handle it. It's easy to forgot what's important.

As we are on the downhill slide of the year, let's remember to keep practicing and adjusting before we throw our players in the game! I am hopeful. Hopeful we will see our student's enthusiasm for learning shine through on the STAAR. Even more hopeful that we will remember why we do what we do. The MOST hopeful that we will influence the future by developing children that look at challenges in life and say "put me in coach, I'm ready to play!" 

Anchor It!

Anchor It!

"How can we make this simpler? Will our kids EVER get there? There are SO many holes!" these are a few of the things that have been running through our minds this year with the new Math standards. R-H is always up for a challenge...and this one seems to be a VERY large one! I have been racking my brain the past few weeks for something that may help our kids begin to understand at the level of these new standards (not to mention THEN taking them to the level of the process standards!). I started to think about things in my life that have been challenging and what has helped me succeed in those encounters.  I wanted to learn how to make my husband's family's famous home-made pumpkin rolls. I had to develop lessons with the process standards. Even when I was stuck teaching my son how to play the new, very complicated game my mom bought him. All of these things I eventually figured out, despite the initial thought that I would never get there. In fact, these are all things I can now do pretty quickly and even without a lot of extra time or thought now. How did I get there? Well, now that I think about it: it was all through an ANCHOR of some sort. A recipe, a flow chart, an instruction manual, or any other kind of “cheat sheet” that allowed me to get through it the first few times and then eventually learn how to do it independently. I wonder if we provided our kids some “ANCHORS” if it would help them rise to the challenge of the new standards? What if they had a poster that was created during the mini-lesson, or a chart in the room that we added new tools to as they were introduced, or even a Math journal where we helped them create their own manuals to refer to? We could even include our "concrete, pictorial and abstract" right there on the poster. Possibly it could be the model part of the mini-lesson (I do), or they could create posters in their groups during the learning application (we do), or what if we could even have them create something in their journals as a closure (you do). Which ever piece we use it for, I feel that the key will be that we come back to it and add pieces as we learn more and that we promote for the kids to actually USE it, over and over as a scaffold until they are ready for independence.   Would it make it easier?  I really don’t know the answer for sure, but based on my personal research I don’t think it would hurt! Maybe it’s worth a shot to give them some accessible “anchors” to help them teach themselves how to meet their challenges. As I was writing this post, I started noticing so many ANCHORS in classrooms around our building and thought it may be helpful to share some ideas:



Taking the Time to Ask and Listen

 

Walking into Gentrie's room exhausts me as she always finds a way to make a much larger mess than what one would expect possible in such a short amount of time! Today I came into a view even worse than the usual situation; I saw every blanket we have in the entire house covering every inch of her bedroom floor. On top, more play kitchen utensils then you have seen in your life! Although, "AHHH! Why do you always have to make such a mess, Gentrie?!" is what first came into my mind, I paused to breathe. Instead of yelling, getting upset, being annoyed or even asking her to start cleaning up that instant (these would be my gut reactions)...I decided to ask her a question, calmly. "Gentrie, what are you doing?" That's when her precious blue eyes, and jelly covered face looked up at me and said "Surprise!!! I made a picnic for you mommy! I love you!" Boy was I glad I didn't scream because I would have ruined it, while crushing the sweet heart of my baby girl. This was such a precious moment that I would have missed out on if I wouldn't have taken the time to ask and listen.

  It's SO hard to make the time to ask questions and really listen to kids, both at home and at school. At school, we feel pressured to "teach" them everything on the IFD, get grades, develop relationships, fill holes and gaps they have, prepare them for tests, and the list goes on and on. These things are like the "mess" that is so hard to look past!
    Many educators and administrators have been talking about the importance of higher-level questions. This got me thinking about how questioning correlates to formative assessment, specifically during the learning application. I had read an article last year that gave some really great open-ended questions to ask students. I wrote them on a little piece of paper and stuck them in my badge. This little "cheat sheet" has come in handy as I am discussing things with kids (any grade, any subject), particularly during the learning application. So often we talk about the "closure" as formative, which is a huge piece and highly important. But, I have come to realize that using these questions during the "we do" (learning application) part and really listening to the kids thinking is also a very important type of formative assessment. It often allows us to address misconceptions, teach it a different way and sometimes even extend it based upon their level of understanding. It's a BIG piece that helps us see why it's so important to have that part of the lesson be the longest (which is always a challenge for me!). And as an added bonus, we get to create those moments with our kids that help us develop relationships that truly make a difference in their lives. I hope I can make a habit of looking past the mess to ask and listen more often!

Here are the questions I wrote that day, along with a few more I "stole" from Ervin Knezek:

What do you think?

Why do you think that?

How do you know?

Can you tell me more?

How many ways can we…?

What if we…?

What happens if we change…?

I will stick a "cheat sheet" of these questions for you in your box!  I hope it's as helpful to you as it has been for me!
Happy Friday!

Forming with Formative

Why do we always forget what the first 2 weeks of school are like? Maybe it's like childbirth, the sleepless nights of having a newborn, and the joys of parenting a 2-3 year old...God blurs our memory so that we will be sure and do it again! The past two weeks have been a whirlwind!! Despite my best intentions and efforts, these weeks have been very far from my perfected plans! Forgetting about and then showing up 30 minutes late to football practice with a very upset 8 year old, arriving a week early to Awanas, and managing to make all 3 kids cry hysterically within the same 2 minutes: this is just a glimpse into my week.  One night as I rushed to the store for dinner groceries, I got a little ANXIOUS and thought..."I don't need to make a list. I'm sure I will remember everything I need!" Of course, I got home with only 5 of the 7 items I needed for supper! It got me thinking about formative assessment and the beginning of the year. As I helped a sweet friend get her brand new class up and going, I was reminded about how hard starting a classroom is each year. The pressure to dive straight into the curriculum is hanging over our heads, we are barely staying afloat, and the to-do list continues to grow with very few things being checked off. Not to mention, our bodies have reached complete EXHAUSTION!!! What happened to summer!?! As tempting as it was to cram in that next lesson, I had to stop and remind myself how important it is to "create my list before running to the store". Sure, at the time it seems like I'm saving time grabbing groceries, and skipping a step to have dinner on the table a little sooner. It's only when I notice the missing ingredients that I come to the realization that I have actually made the simple task of making dinner that much harder and more time-consuming! I wonder "Why didn't I just make the list so I could be in my pajamas cooking, and not dragging a fussy 2 year old, exhausted 5 year old and annoyed 8 year old BACK to Wal-Mart!?!?" All of that to say, we:

GO SLOW NOW, so we can GO FAST LATER

Those things that seem so simple but eat at your time, like:

• remembering to signal kids and WAIT until you have everyone's attention before starting
• thanking them for their undivided attention
• practicing, practicing, practicing over and over again until kids have it down completely
• taking time to create clear expectations and procedures
• overly noticing positive behaviors
• having them "try again" if it's not perfect, and then "trying again" and "again" until it meets highest expectations
• picking and mastering a few cooperative learning strategies that can be your "go to"
• ensuring every student knows their expectations throughout the day, including TRANSITIONS (in and out of the classroom)
• *****DEVELOPING RELATIONSHIPS!!!

These things are actually MORE important than any curriculum, especially right now. We all know that, so WHY is it so hard to STOP and formatively assess how they are doing with these behaviors and expectations? WHY does it feel like our clock is ticking away?!? WHY did we plan so much for this week?!?! I felt these struggles this week, as I am sure many of you did! After reflecting, I think we there is one word to describe it: ANXIOUS. So, as I was attempting to hone in on the above list, I had to breath and remind myself that if I didn't "make the list now", then it would be wasting time later going back to "get the ingredients" I forgot!
Therefore, as we focus on formative assessment this year at RH, let's start with
FORMING our classroom through FORMATIVE...

ASSESSING              REFLECTING               ADJUSTING

that is focused on making sure our classroom culture, environment and expectations are exactly where we want them! It will save you "a trip to the store" later!

Pulling it All Together

Our intervention team, administration and teachers have had lots of inquiries about Reciprocal Teaching this summer. At RH this year we saw a very positive difference in our student's comprehension skills when they became familiar with this strategy.
First of all, I want to point out that this is not "one more thing" or "something NEW". This comprehension strategy is found right in your IFD in the TEKS. Reciprocal Teaching just suggests that you put the standards together to get students to use multiple comprehension skills all at once. So, really it's just putting all of the Fig 19 standards together (just like so often the spaghetti of ELA brings many standards into play at once). Basically, Reciprocal Teaching is just a fancy name for doing just that. In fact, when looking at the processes, Ervin Knezek promotes this in ALL subject areas: USE AS MANY PROCESS STANDARDS AS POSSIBLE.

We have gathered and posted lots of resources about "The Fantastic/Fab 4" (Reciprocal Teaching), so I thought it may be helpful to put all of the resources together for campuses/teachers that are interested in learning more.

To save you some time from searching the archives of the blog, here are links to the previous posts on this topic:

http://www.rhscramble.blogspot.com/2013/08/reciprocal-teaching-after-looking-at.html

http://www.rhscramble.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-fab-four.html

http://www.rhscramble.blogspot.com/2013/11/reciprocal-teaching-continued.html

This is a video of a book club conducted by our AMAZING interventionist, Leslie Stoker, with a group of 4th graders. This gives you a good picture of what level of conversation students familiar with this strategy are able to have. Thanks Leslie for allowing us to share and learn from you!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k23R1wzCY4