Hello Readers! Tomorrow I'm going to host a linky for all of you who have some down time to write! This one is going to be all about whatever it is that you are currently loving at the moment!
Maybe it's your friends and family or music, great cookie recipes, trips or traditions you're making happen this break - no matter what, feel free to get a quick list together and link it up with me! Hope to see some of you tomorrow! I'm off to write my list now!
SHARE a link to your post in the comments section.
GIVE comments to at least three other SOLS bloggers.
The little guy who I do a Tier 3 intervention with was absent for like five school days in a row right around our five day Thanksgiving holiday. He missed a lot of school! And crazy thing, I really missed him! I never thought when I first started working with him last year that I would feel like this, but it's the holiday season and I miss him a little bit. So I was thinking about him, which got me to remembering this little SOL I'm about to share with you! The day he returned after his 10 day hiatus, I saw him for our 15 minute 1:1 right away in the morning. We kinda reviewed what we had been doing prior. Then he was on his way to class, knowing he would return at 11:30 for our small group. Not too much longer, he was back in my room, feeling better, calling out, back to his old self. He's a touchy-feely kinda kid, and he was touching my arm at the time when I was becoming more and more annoyed. I mean, he was gone all that time and I really missed him and now, here we were again and just like that, annoyed! So I barked, "Buddy, why are you touching me? Grab your pencil, com'on and let's get to work," to which he replied, "well, I just missed you." and then my heart melted. That's the thing with kids and all of our most special relationships - when you're close like this, you're like family, and sometimes you are loving your family like nobody's business and other times you are about to be out of you mind because they're getting on your nerves. But no matter what, that kid is special, and I'm so thankful I get to be a part of his journey at school. Who are your special people? Share a Slice of Life Story with Two Writing Teachers today!
Write to people or inanimate objects and then link up below.
Don't forget to leave some love for the other Letters Bloggers!
Dear Readers, I'm totally on break...a day late on the letters, even! Thank you for helping me create such an amazing community around our blogs! I love the friendships I've made because of BigTime Literacy and wish you all a very Merry Christmas! Love, Michelle Dear Mentees A & G, You are the highlight of my year, this year. Thank you for sharing your first years with me -- you make me a better teacher through our collaboration and I really enjoy the moments we spend together. Merry Christmas, Newbies! Hugs, Mentor Dear Amazon, How I love thee. Two day Prime Shipping? Yes, please! And I can avoid all the traffic and crazy crowds! xo, a happy shopper Dear Nutcracker, I loved the dancing and the glitter and the ballet shoes tapping on the stage. My first trip to the ballet, success! Sincerely, your newest fan Dear Self, Perhaps you can try and *not* fall next time you sign up for a month of Crossfit? Foot is still weird and I'm thinking maybe a doctor's visit would be a good idea. Sigh. If only there were time! Sincerely, a last-minute Christmas person Dear Teacher Friends, If you're not writing letters with your students, I highly encourage you to do so. One of my favorite things is to write letters with students, and then bind them into a lovely book to save memories for years to come. It really is the best gift we can have kids give us, and authentic literacy, too! Sincerely, Writing Teacher Dear Jennie and Jill, Thanks for being so awesome to work with, and creative, too. I love your little Christmas gifts...so clever and cute! Merry Christmas! Love, Michelle That's all for me...please write your own letters and link them up with me! Merry Christmas!
A career in education, by it's sheer nature, creates a litany of events each day that has the potential to ruin our day:
An unexpected meeting
An (expected) meeting that ran too long
Forgot your lunch
A child getting hurt or bullied
A disagreement with a colleague
A student who talks back
A broken copy machine
Gossip
Technological difficulties
Not putting things back where they belong
Fell and hurt your foot
The list goes on and on....but notice I said there is potential to ruin our day? That's because it's up to each of us every day to make our day great. We are human, so it's normal to find ourselves in negative thinking patterns or feeling anxious for a various amount of reasons. But, if you can change the way you think about things, you can change how you feel.
Driving home today, I realized that I have a few things that I always turn to when I'm feeling bad or overwhelmed or stressed or angry, and I thought it would make a good blog post, because as educators, you all know what I'm talking about when I say there are 1,000 reasons to be negative. I choose positivity. Here's how I get there:
Music
I listen to a few songs that always snap me out of my bad moods. One of them? Shake it off by Taylor Swift. This song really does a number on me (for the better!) I listen to this song to remember:
"But I keep cruisin' can't stop won't stop movin'
It's like I got this music in my mind saying it's gonna be alright!"
Cause the
Player's gonna play play play play play
and the
Hater's gonna hate hate hate hate hate
Baby I'm just
gonna shake shake shake shake shake
Shake it off, Shake it off"
Seriously though, I can only control my actions, my responses, my choices. So why am I going to let anyone else make me feel bad?
Add to my Pinterest "Positivity" Board
I love quotes. Especially quotes that have been created all cute in little memes online. So when I'm angry/anxious/upset, I go to Pinterest and add to my board. Here's a few I added today:
Does this work for anyone else or just me? Searching through Pinterest for this reason makes me feel so much better. Like light years better. It reminds me of the big picture, of why I go to the career I chose every day...for the kids and the amazing relationships I have with my colleagues.
My go-to book: The Book of Awakening
This daybook provides it's reader a passage a day - to be read in order, or if you're like me, you look up what's troubling you and then read those passages until you feel better. I've used this book more in thinking about my personal relationships and my growth as an individual, but it can be totally applied to our teaching careers. It's a book that I feel every teacher should have at their bedside - to wake up to and begin your day on a positive note or to read as they reflect on their day before bed. Here's a passage I came across yesterday....
The Ground We Walk
Walker, there is no path,
you make the path as you walk.
-Antonio Machado
I listened carefully as he described his little girl's first steps. He encouraged her to keep her eyes on him, and only when she didn't, did she stumble. Only when she lost her focus, when she became too conscious of the steps she was taking, did she fall. I was afraid he was going to declare some parental primacy, that without his loving presence, his little girl wouldn't be able to make her way. But to my surprise, he understood her first steps more deeply as a wisdom that effects us all. He stared off, offering slowly, "She made me realize that when I stop looking for a sense of truth, I stumble. When I lose my focus on what really matters, I fall." This small story has stayed with me. For aren't we forever taking first steps, again and again? Don't we uncover a mystery of strength by looking out before us and bringing into focus a deeper sense of truth? Isn't balance, in reality, the ability to step quite naturally, like this little girl, without too much thought into everything larger than our fear? (p. 292) Which brings me back to number 1 and another song....
Music
Carrie Underwood has a new song out that I just love, a song that makes me understand the bigger picture. Yes, life is made up of all the drama, all the crap of the day-to-day grind. But, the older I get, the more I understand the importance of spirituality. Whatever form of this you practice - meditation, church, prayers on your own - it's so important for the balance we must keep to be at our best, for our colleagues, for our students, for our families. Listen to her lyrics:
And now I'm singing along to amazing grace
Can't nobody wipe this smile off my face
Got joy in my heart, angels on my side
Thank God almighty, I saw the light
Gonna look ahead, no turning back
Live every day, give it all that I have
Trust in someone bigger than me
Ever since the day that I believed I am changed
And now I'm stronger...
And her video, if you are so inclined...
I don't know. It just speaks to me. I listened to it about 8 times today, and at full blast on the way home, singing at the top of my lungs (and I'm sure Randy Jackson would say, "That was kinda pitchy.") But I don't care. It makes me happy and I have so much to be thankful for. Writing on this blog and my readers being two of them. How do you stay positive? Leave me a note in the comments!
I've been working with my Tier 3 kiddo for over a year. I see him for 30 minutes a day for a Tier 2 intervention (either 1:1 or in a group of three depending on his schedule) and then for an additional 15 minutes 1:1. In our small group, he gets Leveled Literacy Intervention - reading fluency, comprehension, and word study. During his Tier 3 intervention, he gets Intensive Phonics. In our Intensive Phonics, we've finally gotten to sight words. I've been teaching those explicitly in conjunction with guided writing. This week, transfer was highlighed to perfectly clear to me! We all hope to teach our students strategies and skills that will transfer to their independent work. For example, when I was teaching middle school, I taught the reading strategies, hoping my students would begin to use them always when they read independently to better understand whatever they were reading. But transfer doesn't just happen because you teach something. Case in point: The way I've been doing sight words is by beginning with a review. I have my kiddo write the ones I've explicitly taught each day when we begin - kinda like a spelling test. Then, I'd instruct one or two more (by asking my kiddo, "What phonics rules does the word follow? What rules does it break?" and then using Jan Richardson's strategies for sight words.) Finally, we would end our 15 minutes with guided writing, where I'd have him write dictated sentences composed of sight words he has learned. One day last week, he wrote his words and then we moved on to sentences. I dictated, "Did your friend come home with you?" He wrote, "Did yor frend cum home yif you?"
(Sidenote: He hasn't learned your as a sight word or the vowel combo in friend.) Now, this was after he came back from missing a week of school, so when I said, "Buddy, how come you missed that word, come?" He got all mad telling me, "Ms. Brezek, I was sick all those days and didn't practice!" I said, "But look back at the sight words you wrote - you spelled it right five minutes ago!" He was kinda shocked! This is what I'm saying about transfer: My kiddo had the word in the way I was assessing - like a spelling test, but he did not have it when it was applied in another context. I can't assume that because I teach him how to spell a sight word that he will use it correctly in Writer's Workshop or as he writes for other purposes. Now, if I'm a specialist meeting 1:1 with a kiddo and am reminded of transfer, what does this mean for the other interventions I've given, or for that matter, all the ways I have taught in the past?
I'm constantly reminded of these lessons and know that I will never know everything. I'm glad this happened this week, because I am no longer doing the long spelling-list type assessment. Now, he's writing many more dictated sentences and I'm going to assess his knowledge of sight words that way. And, I want to see his Writer's Notebook! Did you learn something new this week? Leave a comment and join the conversation!
Write to people or inanimate objects and then link up below.
Don't forget to leave some love for the other Letters Bloggers!
Dear Emerson PTA, I'm always impressed with everything you do, but the Breakfast with Santa yesterday was so awesome. I didn't get many pictures (I was working in the photo booth with Santa (which I'll post more about later!)) but there were craft vendors, a pancake breakfast, pictures with Santa, Letters to Santa - so amazing what a group of dedicated parents can do for a school and community. So impressed and happy to work with you! :-) Sincerely, Proud Teach
Dear Bridesmaids, You're hilarious, every time I watch. I can always count on a few laughs from your movie, exactly what I need right now! Love, lol Teach
Dear Facebook, Consider this *our* break up . I can't continue wasting time with you, or seeing a stream of things that are just, as to quote the video below, a "pageantry of vanity." Love, Concerned Citizen
That's all for me. Two weeks till winter break - hope yours go well!
I seriously can't believe it's December! 2014 is just about up and so is half of a school year. I remember going back to work at the end of August thinking my next summer vacation was so far away, and now...it's right around the corner! Here we are again for Farley's Currently - a great time to get together each month and catch up with all our blogging friends! So here's what's been going on with me over at BigTime Literacy!
Listening to...Christmas Music
Okay so I haven't listened to any really until today...I've been holding out until I was ready to get down with the Christmas season and today is the day. I came home from work today with hopes of starting to get the Christmas tree up, but I really want the boyfriend to come over and decorate with me so I tried to do some Cyber Monday shopping instead. Bought one thing for a friend (and one for myself, too...bad shopper!) Anyways, all evening I've had the tunes going and it's lovely. And a candle that smells like cookies. 0 calories...winning!
best album ever!
Loving my bffs!
They're awesome. Three of them called me today and another one texted. Love them all and can't imagine my life without them!
Thinking about Christmas break...
I've been counting down the days all day - in the form of 'get-ups,' how many days I have left of benchmarking kids in our school in reading, in the form of funny memes. I have break on the brain and doing any work doesn't sound fun at all.
Wanting to put up my tree!
Are you getting the drift here? All I want to do is have fun: tree, make cookies, decorate my house, go to the Christkindlemarket downtown, do Christmas craftivities, visit the Art Institute and go ice skating, go to Zoo lights, watch Elf and Home Alone....I'd be happy to start with the tree though! Crossing my fingers for tomorrow!
Needing to begin the shopping!
It is my personal goal to do all my shopping online this year. I bought one thing this evening, but am hoping to do all the rest online, too. No stores, no waiting in lines, just me on my couch bathed in the pretty lights of my tree. Blissful!
Giving...comments!
Well, my students will be! I have about 15 student bloggers in a club that I meet with once a week. Some of them are very active (writing almost every other day!) and others are on their blogs once a week. I really want to keep them going - commenting on one another's blogs, so this week, I'm going to have them draw three names to focus their commenting - that way we spread the love all around. I'm also looking for other student bloggers - anyone out there have student bloggers? My kiddos are fourth and fifth graders, so close in age would be great, but really any audience I can build for them would be amazing! Please leave me a comment or shoot me an email (bigtimeliteracy@gmail.com) if you'd like to get our kiddos in touch via their blogs! You can find my kiddos' blogs off to the left hand side of this website! Well, that's all for me this month. Have a fab December! I'm running my Letters Linky this coming Sunday if you'd like to link up - check it out! Easy blog to write and super fun! :-)
