Sir Ken Robinson, Bring on the Learning Revolution!

Hello, followers (probably just my mom)! I'm not continuing the book study in this post. I will get to that later this week. Today, I am posting a reflection I wrote for a GATE class I am taking through UC Riverside Extension. It is in response to this excellent TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson, one of the most popular TED talks ever. A very inspirational talk. So, watch the video, read my response, and let me know what you think!

Sir Ken Robinson, “Bring on the Learning Revolution!” Response

            Though I cannot initiate a revolution from within my classroom walls, well, maybe I can. Every day, as I greet each student with a smile, a handshake, and a “good morning,” I remind my students and myself that today is a new and special day. I look into those children’s eyes, and I see eyes that hold dreams, eyes that are waiting, eyes that are trusting. Those children trust me to protect them, to nourish their minds, to excite their spirits, and to take care with their dreams.

As I listened to the close of Sir Ken Robinson’s inspirational and touching TED talk, I found myself immediately rewinding to listen to his last three lines again. And, then I rewound and listened again. And again. “…every day, everywhere, our children spread their dreams beneath our feet. And we should tread softly.”

I immediately thought of my own toddler at home and her daily quests to explore. She is fascinated by a bag of rice. She marvels at the squishy feel of a mandarin orange. She scrutinizes the ridges on a bottle cap. She analyzes my every motion and mimics without delay. She has no fear. She trusts me with her dreams.     

One day, my little girl will take those dreams and walk into a classroom, greet her teacher, and trust her teacher to protect and nourish those dreams. So, I thought about my students and their dreams, about how I can protect or trample their dreams, and how every day counts. Revolution starts with an individual, with a person’s soul expanding outward into the world. It is true that our industrial model of education can tend to alienate a person from their true selves, their true talents. I would like to say that I foresee in the near future a world, or at least an America, in which we can customize each person’s education. However, in all honesty, I can’t see that. I do, in fact, see many obstacles to this ideal- poverty, literacy, buy-in, to name a few. Though many believe home schooling, flipped classrooms, or MOOCs (massive open online courses) to be the answer, I’m not sure I see any solution other than, for now, an individual passion.

My individual passion is teaching gifted and talented students. My students have such amazing potential, and so many passions. So, what I take from this video for my own classroom is this: I need to do some work. I need to do the work of really getting to know my students. What excites them? What are they passionate about? What are their dreams? And then, I need to find ways (within the very rigid structure of all of the exterior pressures I face as a public school teacher) to allow those students’ passions and dreams to, at the very least, stay alive. And, if those dreams stay alive, I need to help my students pursue the skills necessary to go about living out those dreams and passions. It can be as simple as recommending a book for a student to read that may further his knowledge. Or it may be presenting a student with an independent study opportunity. It could also mean seeking out another teacher or person whose expertise may be better able to support that student’s needs. What I’m getting at is that I have power to do something to nurture my students’ dreams.

So, why can’t the revolution start with me? What if I reflect (as I am doing now), realize my own (very powerful) power, and change (even if just a little bit)? That smile, that hand shake, and that “good morning” will remind me that today is a new and special day, because today, after all, is the day that I will nourish dreams.

Book Study: Pathways to the Common Core

Today I will be starting my book study on Pathways to the Common Core by Calkins, Ehrenworth, and Lehman. Here is the link to the book on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Pathways-Common-Core-Accelerating-Achievement/dp/0325043558/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1378525857&sr=1-1&keywords=pathways+to+the+common+core.

I have just finished reading the book which took me about two weeks. I could have finished more quickly, but I wanted to take my time on each chapter to reflect. Honestly, it is a little overwhelming, too, because as I read, I was constantly thinking about my own school and how much work will truly be in store for us if we are to fully commit to the changes required in order to build Common Core fluent students. So, before I get into the specifics of each chapter and their major points, I want to dedicate this post to my overall reflections and personal points of interests- the things that I feel were most important for my situation as a teacher in the San Bernardino City Unified School District and as a GATE teacher, which is really a unique situation in and of itself. However, I hope my opinions can reach others still.

We GATE teachers are often referring the "Big Idea." For me, I walked away from the book feeling these were some of the Big Ideas:

1) Students will need 90 or more instructional minutes per day reading at their level with a focus on moving children up levels of text complexity. Not answering questions, not discussing, but just plain reading. The questions, discussions, collaborations, and creations are not to be forgotten though. In fact, they are quite vital, but teachers need to be careful to not think that students spending 90 minutes reading a text and answering text-dependent questions actually accounts for 90 minutes of READING time. You need to subtract the time they spent answering questions.

2) Students will need 60 minutes of instructional time in a writing workshop. Not answering questions, not necessarily daily writing prompts, but structured writing workshop time where teachers can help students develop their writing skills. So, if a daily writing prompt is in place, it better be structured, meaning teachers are teaching and facilitating a purpose and focus for that particular daily writing.

3) The narrative writing Common Core standards are far more complex and difficult than the '97 standards, but we need to prioritize argument and informational writing, while building on our skills of teaching narrative writing that many of us may already feel strong at. This is where my personal situation diverged a bit. Being in a district that uses Step Up to Writing, I personally feel as though I am stronger at teaching informative or explanatory writing already and will need to prioritize the narrative aspect because of how much more complex and difficult it is from the '97 standards.

4) Higher-order comprehension instruction is a biggie. This is where I felt a little like I may be on track already as, teaching a GATE class, I am used to using the Prompts of Depth and Complexity (Kaplan) throughout my daily instruction, as well as structures for helping students to think more critically and creatively (e.g, SCAMPER). Webb's Depth of Knowledge seems to be trending over Bloom's as well.

5) We need to increase cross-curricular, analytical nonfiction reading. Another idea that I know most teachers in our district, GATE or not, have bought into and committed to already! 

6) Teacher-created, informative, instructive, easy-to-deliver, performance, low-stakes (not the high-stakes, multiple choice, pass or die kind of) assessments will be crucial to gauge student progress and teacher success.

So, those are the big ideas I came away with. In my next post, I will dive into the reading standards and flesh out my Big Idea #1- All About Reading!

Pathways to the Common Core: Accelerating Achievement

That is the title of the book I am zooming through, and I am so glad I picked it up. I thought I had an idea of what Common Core was all about, but this book is really putting me in my place! Calkins, Ehrenworth, and Lehman are showing a true insight into what it will take to turn schools, teachers, and most importantly, students on the path of achievement through the CCSS. What I am glad about is that my background as a GATE teacher will really prove to be helpful as we make this important transition. I highly suggest reading this book if you are a teacher or school leader looking into implementing Common Core into your schools. Over my next few posts, I will break down some of Calkins, Ehrenworth, and Lehman's main points, so we can get a foothold and find a way to set a path down this exciting journey! Stay tuned!

End of Year Summary, part 1

Oops! It has been way too long since I have blogged! I had wanted to blog regularly this school year about the types of activities I do with my students in a GATE classroom, however, I just wasn't able to fit it into my regular schedule. With our district transitioning into Common Core next year, I do hope to fit blogging into my schedule, so here's to next year! In the meantime, our current school year is not quite over, so I am going to summarize this year's many events in my classroom:

1) Firstly, interactive notebooking did not pan out. I found it to be much too time consuming, and it just didn't fit with my style of teaching. I do plan on having my students keep an ongoing writing portfolio/notebook next year, so that is something to look forward to.

2) My Olympics unit did end well. My students loved learning about the history of the Olympics, ancient Greece, and London. They all wrote structured informational paragraphs about what they learned during the unit. They also turned their writing into a word cloud, which looked nice on the writing wall. They really loved the picture books I incorporated into the unit about Wilma Rudolph and Michael Phelps. The actual Olympics took place while we were off track (we are a year-round school), so it was nice for the kids to report back on their viewing of the games once we returned on track.

3) When we returned on track, we did a fun writing project called A Day in My Life. It was a photo narrative which we published using Microsoft PowerPoint. I basically took pictures of the students using my iPhone and uploaded the pictures to ypix.me. I took pictures of them throughout the day (doing Morning Work, working on the Problem of the Day, at recess and lunch, during chess time, during Literature Circles, at the school library, etc.) and they chose six pictures they like to help narrate what a day in their life is like. I also invited parents to send in pictures of the kids doing something they like to do after school. Once the students worked through the steps of the writing process independently, I helped them do a final revise and edit, and they published on PowerPoint by downloading the pictures from the ypix.me website and inputting them into their PowerPoints.

4) Speaking of the kids working through the steps of the writing process, I use a clip chart in my class that is pivotal to my writing instruction. The kids start with their clips on Prewriting, which is a graphic organizer designed to help brainstorm and organize ideas according to the writing prompt. The kids move their clips to First Draft when they finish their Prewriting. Then, they move their clip to Revise, which includes a checklist and activities to help them revise depending on the language skills I want them to focus on (verb tense, pronoun agreement, active verbs, prepositional phrases, etc). Then, they move their clip to Peer Edit. At this step, they put their clip on somebody else's clip to show that they are partnering with another student. Then, they continue moving their clips down as they work to Second Draft, Teacher Conferencing, and Publish. I use this for a monthly writing projects to help move things along smoothly and give me a rough estimate of how the kids are progressing.

5) Next, I have specific 20 minute block every day that I reserve for Teacher Read Aloud. I don't compromise on this time, as I am a firm believer that teacher's reading aloud is a crucial part of reading instruction. It allows for teachers to give access to higher level reading material as students' listening comprehension is usually a grade level or two above their independent reading level. Plus, it is a fun and relaxing way for students to get involved in the reading process as there is no pressure for students to decode difficult words, breakdown unknown vocabulary, or unravel complicated themes. I always go back and discuss these things after I read through the portion for the day. Many students have never completed a novel before they get to my class (which is sad), but the students end up feeling so accomplished by me reading them an entire novel, that they usually clap at the end of the book. I have seen kids cry at the end. I have seen kids want more. I always see kids immediately check out the book and start re-reading it on their own. I see kids finding more books by the same author. As I said, I a firm believer in the power of the teacher read aloud. I always choose books that I know the students can emotionally connect to, and I always choose books by prolific authors, so that students can find more books by the same author. Here are the books I have read aloud this year: Charlotte's Web by E. B. White; Because of Winn-Dixie, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, and The Tale of Despereaux all by Kate DiCamillo; The BFG, Matilda, and The Witches all by Roald Dahl; The 39 Clues: The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan; and numerous titles of Choose Your Own Adventure stories by numerous authors. The reason why I read Choose Your Own Adventure novels is because I love that it teaches what second person perspective is (and it leads into my teaching of all points of views), and I have the kids write their own Choose Your Own Adventure story as an end of the year writing project.

Well, the baby is waking from her nap, so I will continue my summaries at a later time!