SOL: So that's what it's like...

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Last Friday, I was on my way to my intervention group when I passed by a first grade classroom and the bathroom across the hall. One of our first grade teachers, Ms. L, asked if I was busy, because one of her students, M, was having a meltdown in the bathroom. I told her I was on my way to my group, but that maybe I could coax M out of the bathroom and get her to come with me.

Ms. L said okay, so I did, and M did.

All down the hall, M cried. Loudly, no tears, but loudly wailing. I got her into the conference room where we have our group, had her sit down, and talked to her briefly as my fourth and fifth graders arrived.

She did not want to hear what I had to say! Now, I don't have lots of experience with first grade meltdowns as my prior ten years were at the middle school (although there are many similiarities!) so at one point I had said something like, "M, you are crying but there are no tears. I know you can stop so we can talk!"

And then, like a champ of weeping, she produced the read deal, almost on command. I was actually kinda impressed...and then pretty annoyed.

The wailing continued so I asked my kiddos to start reading their book from yesterday and I took her in the hall. She continued to cry. I continued to talk.

M: I want to see my brother!
Me: I can't take you to the middle school if you are crying this loudly!
M: <between wails> I had a bad day, I want a hug from my brother!
Me: Well if you could try and stop crying, then we could talk about going to see him.
M: But I lost the race, I just need my brother.
Me: Well, we don't get what we want by crying. So, if you could stop crying first, then you could hear a story from one of my friends in the group, and then we could sneak over to see your brother. But you have. to. stop. crying.
M: <silence>

The source of her sorrow? She raced her neighbor in her front yard before she came to school and lost, and now all she wanted was a hug from her brother (who is a sixth grader in the middle school, which is attached to our elementary school). 

So, I got her to calm down, got her in the room, B read her a story, and then I took her over to the middle school. As we walked by the tall lockers, almost twice her height, she took my hand. The crying had subsided, and she patiently awaited the moment when she would see big brother.

Unfortunately, he was in science and they had been outside. So, I told her we had to go back to first grade, but maybe we could try again in another hour. As those very words left my mouth.... magic happened.

As we walked back by the foyer that led to the door to our building, big brother's science class was coming inside. I called to their teacher, and as I asked where her brother was, M had already spotted him and was in a warm embrace before I could get the words out. Relief and a smile washed over her face, and one minute later, she reached for my hand, ready to begin her day.

I don't have any kids of my own yet, but making M feel better with a hug from her brother and then having her reach for my hand as we walked back to class: that's gotta be pretty close.

Such a sweet, sweet moment, and while there are many of those (in very different ways) in middle school, this is on that I'd never had experienced if I never would have tried something new at an elementary school. Definitely a highlight of my week last week!

Parents: It's like this, only better....right?

Have a great night!

Louder Than a Bomb

Ohhhh Twitter. You take hours of my time, but then I find gems like this:

and I am reminded just how powerful the thoughts of our youth can be.

These are Young Chicago Authors, participating in the Louder Than A Bomb poetry slam. I was all excited thinking maybe it was still going on and that I could go see one. But...it ended last month, so I have to wait a year.

April is National Poetry Month! Have you done any poetry with your kiddos? If I was still in middle, I would totally share this video clip with them. How can you not be inspired?

Actually, this week, I was reading poetry with my second graders. They wanted to rap the poems - they kept doing it as we read together, so, I did what any good teacher would do - I followed their lead. I told them that they should rap the lines of the poem. At first, I don't think they believed that it was so, but after we practiced a few times, I got this. (Sorry I couldn't embed it!)

I mean, kids want to write and perform like the Young Chicago Authors, so why wouldn't we follow that interest and desire to do so?

This April, give your students great mentor texts of poetry. Encourage them to put their ideas on paper, tell their stories, and grow their poems through the process of revision. We can give them an authentic audience, their classmates, to hear their ideas. This is what writing is all about!

And then this summer, my teacher friends....anyone interested in doing a summer writing institute with Young Chicago Authors? It's $150 for three days and I'd love to do it with a friend! Check out the deets here!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Five for Friday!

What's up everyone? Did you have an amazing week? I did....and the weather was beautiful today here in Chicago!

Today I'm linking up again with Doodle Bugs for their weekly Five for Friday. Here are the top five things that made my week!

Active Engagement Cards

When I had my own classroom, I had the colored post-its with the numbers taped to the kiddo's desks. That way I could instruct them in what order to take turns (orange first, then yellow, blue...etc) and also call on students randomly by drawing numbered sticks. I could also group them by color - all pinks meet together at table 1, oranges at table 2...etc. Now that I don't have my own classroom, I finally figured out that I could just make cards to pass out to the classes I coteach in for the same purpose.

On the back of the card are stickers - this is just another random grouping configuration. The colored numbers work at tables, but the stickers are used when kids need to get up, walk around a little, and form groups of three. So I'll say, "look at the sticker on the back of your card and find your partners to discuss ___."

Just a way to force equalized participation and I'm so glad I have my engagement cards back in my life!

Hands up - Stand up - Pair up & Heads Together

I taught close reading in fifth grade all week - here are two pairs of kiddos meeting together to share their summaries of our article. To find their pair, students stand up, walk around the room with their hands up, (do a high-five when they find their partners) and pair up. Then, the boys shared their summaries, and decided if they included all important information.

We also talked about where our eyes should be - on the card, and it would probably be good to have heads together - that would show we're all thinking about what is being read.

We have to have students engaged for student achievement to increase - two ways here to get that done and get kids up and moving around!

Why is phonics so...fun?

During our RtI group this week, we did some word study around syllables and whether or make the vowels long or short. I find this so interesting, and even better when the kids are like, "Ms. Brezek, I just don't get it!" But then, after we do a few more, it clicks and then they do get it. And...then they can explain it to one another. Kinda nerdy, but I heart phonics rules!

Pranks

This boy is a third grader in the class across the hall from me. He's such a great kiddo, and at the end of last week, as a joke after school when he was running laps in fitness club, he wiped his hand on me saying he was all sweaty (in reality, he put his hand in the water fountain!) He laughed and laughed, and I told him, "Don't you worry, K, I'm going to get you back!"

Maybe two days after that, he jumped out from behind a corner and scared me. So that was that. I had to get him back!

This morning, I asked his teachers if I could empty his locker into a box and keep it in my room. They laughed and said, "Yeah, maybe then he can clean it out!" So I did, but when he came to school, it was so anti-climactic! He didn't even notice - just put his coat, and backpack, and gym shoes away and went to class. I stopped by and asked his teacher if he said anything, and they said no. So she asked him to go get his science book. He came back in and said, "Ms. B - It's not in there. I don't have a science book!" Still...he had no idea.

A few hours later, I stopped by his locker and moved his stuff around - hung one of his shoes from the hook, put his He-Man in the other shoe, moved his backpack. Then...the next time he went to his locker, he (finally) noticed. "Ms. B! Something's wrong with my locker! My stuff is all moved around!"

She replied, and I can hear this conversation unfolding as I am sitting in my office working on an anchor chart, "K, do you think someone is messing with you?"

And I can just see it: he face lights up with recognition, as if a lightbulb is lighting up above his head. "Ms. Brezek," and a smile washes over his face.

He comes over to my office and asks me and I act like I know nothing at first, but then, in a sing-song voice say, "Yep, I got'chu K! I win! I told you I'd prank you back!"

Only problem now is that his teacher told me he has his heart set on getting me back again....so I'll get back to you about what happens next! But....so fun with this kid!

Taking a shot at University teaching!

My former principal teaches at Dominican University. Last spring, she had me, along with a few other teachers come present their content areas to her TFA cohort. When she asked again for this spring, I said, "L, do you think I'm qualified to teach my own section? I'd really like to try and teach at the University!"

Within two weeks of that conversation, I had met with the Dean and a lead teacher and next fall I'm going to teach an elementary Language Arts methods class, all of my own, to a new cohort of TFA teachers and I'm so, so excited! It's a job that I'm so excited to do, and I get paid a little bit to do it. All that money? Vacation fund!



Well, that's all for me here. How was your week? You should write a top five and link up!

Have a good weekend!

Confessions

I've been thinking about this post all the way home. It started when Raise 'Em Up came on (Keith Urban and Eric Church). Take a listen if you have time, or skip it for now, cause I'll cite the part that I love below...

Here's the verses that got me thinking today:

Raise 'em up

You got a voice, you got a choice

Go make some noise

Don't ever let 'em tell you

who you are

Raise 'em up

Fist black and blue

Fight for the truth

It's what you do

Hand on your heart

for the stripes and stars

See, recently I've become almost obsessed with the state of education policy/reform in our country. If you've been following me for the last few weeks at least, you've heard me mention Diane Ravitch - and I've started her book, and it's testing season...and yeah. The more I read, the more agitated I get!


And then there's Twitter. The thing they don't tell you about Twitter are all the people you're going to begin following once you start with it. (Expect to spend the first week sucked in reading post after post after post!) Twitter has connected me to so many people that have a similar set of beliefs, including the BATs. I give you their acronym first, because the A of the acronym is an inappropriate word. For a long time I felt like I couldn't talk about this kind of thing here on my blog - because of this word first, and also, I have a lot of strong opinions about what I'm reading, but I don't know everything, so I don't want to start debates without having all my facts straight. But the thing is...the state of education in our country is bothering me so much because of how much I love my career.

The things that I love - (here are the confessions) - all the things I love....I love them to the nth degree. Like crazy fierce.

My family.

My friends,

who may as well be my family.

My boyfriend.

My profession.

Teaching kids.

Literacy,

everything and anything involved.

People,

talking, laughing, collaborating.

Writing.

Reading.

These things - I love them so deeply and with such conviction. This is why today, after hearing about how I have a voice and it's okay to use it - I decided to let you in on the (confession) Badass Teachers Association (BATs). Here's a few videos that tells you who they are and what they believe in:

My big issue is that so many decisions are being made about education and teachers aren't being asked. I don't know why billionaires think they know best! It bothers me immensely that corporations want to profit off our our kids and our profession. Additionally, it makes me so angry that some people think that they could walk into a class of fifth graders, eighth graders, or kinders (hardest working people *ever*) and teach all day! It is an art and a science, this job we do!

So, I just had to get that off my chest. Maybe you already follow the BATs? Maybe you've organized something with them? I'm very interested in the work they are doing, and for the first time in my life, I feel compelled to raise my voice for education....which I care about with a 'freakish intensity.' (Thank you Curmudgucation for that one!)

Ahhhh....now that feels good.

Your thoughts?

Happy Tuesday!

a very late Five for Friday!

Hi all! So my fave time of the week - Saturday morning, coffee in hand, doing laundry, reading my blogs and now writing! Hope you had a great week! I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching today to share five awesome things about my week that just ended. Hope yours was great, too!

I love the Internet. Funny memes, BuzzFeed, and awesome blogs make me laugh about the ins and outs of our field. Here's a buzzfeed that had some super amazing protest signs teachers were carrying. This one was my fave:

Today on my facebook feed, a teacher friend posted this and it made me laugh, too:

idk who that lady is on the right - but I can't get her out of the pic!

And, a new blog that I love: Curmudgucation. This guy is HILARIOUS. Yesterday he was writing about the Washington Post interviewing Michelle Rhee. This part was just great - you'll see when you get to the 'freakish intensity' part. Michelle Rhee was quoted about in italics, and then his reply follows:

I mean, this is how I feel about literacy stuff - I have a freakish intensity about it and it's so true. Book talk books to fifth graders? Yes please! (See same kids in hallway three days later and ask all of them what they're reading...yup!) Do running records and then feel giddy about any teacher who wants me to show them how I track the data? omg! Plan word study lessons to get kids to differentiate short from long vowel patterns? The stuff of dreams! The possibility of teaching as an adjunct at a University - I just. hit. the jackpot! (I have an interview on Wednesday!) (Forever grateful, LH!)

Freakish intensity? Yep, and proud of it!

The Stripes Store - Tiger Tickets - and our Amazing Parents:

We use PBIS at our school and Tiger Tickets. Kids save up their tickets and then get to "shop" at the Stripes Store. Our parents are so awesome....in addition to all the events they do - Valentine's Dance, Movie Night, Book Fairs - they also help run our Stripes Store. The kids love it - one boy, A, bought vampire teeth and then left them on my colleagues' desk with a note. He actually stopped by the other day to ask her if she still had them, and there they were on her desk. Anyways, it does take a village and I'm so thankful for the awesome collaboration that happens with the families of our kiddos!

The Someday List

Do your kiddos use a Someday List? It's just a list they keep in their notebooks of the books they want to read someday. Keeping this list helps kids become readers who can figure out everything on their own. When they finish a book, they don't need to go to their teacher to ask what to read next, because if they are keeping a Someday List, they know right where to look! The key is getting them to think about it each week. I used to do this as part of my "Do Now" when I taught middle school. Kids would come in and their instructions (maybe once a week) would be to read their friends' blogs and then add to their Someday List. The constant reminder of the list helps kids remember how to direct themselves as readers!

"Ms. Brezek, I LOVE this book!"

Get ready for freakish intensity - I had the kids in my RtI group take Love That Dog home for Spring Break, and then J came back loving it, so I gave him Hate that Cat. We don't even read our independent reading books in our RtI group, but he brought it with him every day, and on the first day back, he was just ecstatic about the book. This is what makes me love literacy and get so excited about it. If we can get all our kids to be this excited about it - we're doing exactly what we should be!

Speaking of my kiddos....

Three fourth graders and three fifth - these are kids in one of the two groups that I see every day. I seriously love kids. Not only do I get to hang out with them for 40 minutes every day, but we also get to read lots of books together and work on our reading. Win - Win!

Yesterday we were talking about passions and after I asked them about theirs they asked about mine, and so this blog came up. I told them about it, they wrote down the title, and wanted to go looking. I told them I'd put their pic up, so here it is. As a 1:1 district, our kids are all over the technology, so it's pretty cool. The girls seemed interested in writing, so perhaps I'll have them blogging with me very soon!

And, you know we have to do a funny face picture, too:

That's all for me today. Gators play at 5...we're one game away from the finals! Woop-woop!

Have a fab weekend!

I'm "Daring Greatly" and Writing Poetry!

I've been toying around with the idea of poetry in my mind ever since I heard Nancie Atwell speak at the IRC. I have since bought her book Naming the World: A Year of Poems and Lessons and participated in a poetry blog hop - you know, since April is National Poetry month! Then, today in my second and third grade collaborative plan meetings, both grade levels decided to do poetry so I thought today would be a good idea to try it out. It makes sense - try out what we want our students to do? And if we are expecting our students to read poems and then write them, why shouldn't I be expected to do so, too?

Additionally, I recently read this blog post about being vulnerable. I also bought the book she reviewed, but haven't got that far into it just yet... In thinking about putting myself out there with poetry, I'm thinking about how much vulnerability it's going to take to do so. While you put yourself out there for compliments, you also put yourself out there for criticism and judgment. And then, I opened the book and read this quote:

So after reading that, I was sold. Here's my first stab at poetry.

Have you read the Wheelbarrow poem? It's in one of my favorite poetry books, Love That Dog, and I'm going to mimic it with my own version below, but first the original...

The Red Wheelbarrow
so much depends
upon

the red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens
-William Carlos Williams

And now...here's my wheelbarrow poem!

Standardized Testing
so much depends
upon

the scores of
standardized tests

complete with school
labels

listed in the town
newspaper.
-Michelle Brezek


Can you tell I have been reading too much Diane Ravitch? :-)

Okay followers - who wants to write poetry and dare greatly with me tonight? If you do, please leave a comment with a link to your post so I can read yours!

Happy Wednesday!

Currently April

Hello readers! I feel ashamed (kinda). I did the Slice of Life Writing challenge with Two Writing Teachers all of March. I wrote every day until like the 20th or so, then missed a few days. I got back to it, but then missed again a few times. Then last night I was too tired even write the last day....

That being said, it was still a great experience! I learned that I really *love* writing and I got connected with some great bloggers. I love reading their posts! And, a teacher at my school did the challenge too, so we always have something to talk about now. Congrats, Jennie - You completed the challenge! I'm so glad we are bloggers together!

Anyways, challenge completed or not, I'm back for more writing today with Farley's Currently! Glad you could stop by and see what I'm up to!

 A few weeks ago my BFF posted a status staying how this song by Pharrell annoyed her so much, but me? I love it! I just don't let things get to me too much! I can usually change my thinking enough to let go of thoughts that don't serve me. And, I've been reading lots of stuff about public education and ed reform and that can get me angry and confused and well, whatever! As Pharrell says,

Here come bad news talking this and that, yeah

Well, give me all you got, and don't hold it back, yeah

Well, I should probably warn you I'll be just fine, yeah

No offense to you, don't waster your time

Here's why

Because I'm happy!

So what I'm loving is this note I saw in one of our fifth grade classrooms:

I always carry my phone around for this exact reason - you never know when you're going to see amazing things wherever you are. I found this letter framed and on a table in the front of her classroom when I covered her class so she could do a quick training. It was so clear that this letter meant something to her kids - you can tell by the way they behave when their teacher isn't there. So respectful, engaged in their work, sharing with one another and me, and just yeah - awesome. Plus, if you have been reading my blog for any length of time, you know that building relationships is one of my fave parts of teaching. If I still had my own classroom, I would totally steal this idea! Love it, Miss F!

I've been following Diane Ravitch on Twitter for the past few weeks and reading a lot of her ideas about the state of public education. Today, I got a new book from amazon by her:

I just started it, but her purpose is to answer these four questions:
1. Is American education in crisis?
2. Is American education failing and declining?
3. What is the evidence for the reforms now being promoted by the federal government and adopted in many states?
4. What should we do to improve our schools and the lives of students?

This is her last book:

This one talked about a lot of the problems public ed is facing but didn't offer solutions. So, in her new book, that's the idea. Anyone out there reading it? Thoughts? I'm excited to get into it later on tonight!

To go back to Eataly! It's this huge marketplace/restaurant/wine bar downtown Chicago. I went on Sunday after my bowling league with some friends, but randomly just to check it out. It's huge! Two floors of food and wine and basically just a huge market! We got a glass of wine on the second floor and then walked around, but only for about an hour. There's so much to eat, see, shop for....a nutella station? Yes please!

Yes! Red wine, please!

Needing...I don't really need anything right now, but I said that I need the Gators to keep winning March Madness! I am an honorary Gator...of course I'm first and foremost a Sun Devil, but the boyfriend is a Gator so I cheer for them whenever they are not playing ASU - which is almost always! They just made the Final 4 last week and are set to play UConn next Saturday...

My contract hours are 7:50 - 3:00 and I usually work pretty close to those hours. Sometimes I have projects or events after school and so I might have a week here and there with longer hours, but I stick to these hours more or less.

I'm not sure when my last day is - I think it might be June 4th or 5th? Was supposed to be May 30th, but then Chiberia was around this winter so it's pushed back a ways...




That's all for me this April! Hope you're doing well, that those state tests run smoothly, and you are having a lovely spring wherever you are!

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Until next time,