This summer has been a great time for me to catch up on both professional and recreational reading. I was especially excited for my summer read The Zen Teacher by Dan Tricarico. I was attracted to the title as I personally strive for creating focus and simplicity as a teacher, mom, wife, and my many other adult roles I carry in life. I have a history of burning myself out mentally in the past so presence and awareness has been a main priority. Thus...The Zen Teacher seemed rather fitting for a person like myself. The book starts off by giving a general explanation of Zen and focuses on some of its primary elements. After each short chapter you are asked to complete a Zen teacher assignment such as taking 5 minutes to do nothing, finding what your happy place is, decluttering a room, or even taking time to notice something different. These may sound like simple tasks but sacrificing the time is hard to do in our fast paced world. With the help of this book and completing the tasks I was able to recognize what Zen practices I have already aligned in my life. These include writing in my journal every morning, running, yoga, knitting, 5 minutes of meditation/breathing daily, etc. Ok, great right?! But what really struck me and got me thinking was...I can share these simple practices with my students! I haven't thought about Zen in my classroom or how I use it because I have been primarily focused (and overwhelmed) on how to use the programs/technology I teach in my classroom. I have only been teaching at my new position for one year so still learning and getting comfortable with it. In order to understand what my day is like picture this; I teach Digital Arts to grades 7&8 for 5 periods a day in a room with no windows, in the dark, in a room filled with 35 desktops and an overhead projector! Definitely not "Zen"! And definitely not in an environment I am accustomed to teaching in! This has me some motivation to inspire and lead my students into some guided Zen moments before gazing into the computer screen for 45 min. This could include drawing or writing in our handmade journals, taking a quick walk outside, doing some brain yoga (below is a you tube tutorial), or even just stretch! I will let this organically happen next year and listen to what my students want to do. The less structure and planning that I do the more meaningful and inspiring moments take place. Kacey
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After reading through chapters 5-6, I found myself jotting many reflections as I read chapter 5. I was first interested in thinking about the idea of in media res and the many texts that young readers ( I am thinking 1-2) can be challenged by because of the events and and relationships that the writer often alludes to and assumes the reader can infer. The Magic Treehouse is one that comes to mind for the new readers I've known. I was nodding with Vicki when she wrote that readers have to know when they are confused and I thought about about how key interactive picture book read alouds are for my first graders in building classroom conversations where kids encounter confusion and discomfort but are excited to solve the notice and wonder thinking the entire class brainstorms. Then I began to ask myself which books have first graders thinking... Wolfie the Bunny, Happy Like Soccer, Specs for Rex and Beekle are some of their favorites for thinking, charting and talking about. In Vicki's section: Core Practice: Choosing a Text, I noted her thinking and thought further as an educator who works with many primary readers. She has us consider the text at the word level and this can be overwhelming when choosing a text for whole groups discussion when some students have just started to decode and others are on the proficient end. I think that primary students (K-1 including our early readers and ELL students--and beyond !) can all enter into a books that have pictures. Often learning to read begins with hearing stories and enjoying repeated readings of favorite books. The rhythm of story and repeated reading in my mind can act as a scaffold for enjoying them and thinking about a book in the earliest grades. I was thankful that she gave us permission to not offer a teaching point each day. This to me supports with the message of her book that when we put kids first, we are listening to them and allowing this problem based approach to happen. She also writes of the: you, we, I and listening to students when chunking text, keeping our voice in check and trusting ourselves and our students--all of which I feel also support her message. This quote spoke to me on pg.79: I choose to trust that when we slow down, students can put the pieces of a text together in ways that allow them to see connections, relationships, and patterns of interaction. The only thing I struggle with is levels. Does real choice include students choosing within their level? And, maybe I missed something or this thought will be addressed as I read on, but is just letting kids choose between different books at their level really bring readers into the full picture of texts they can handle? How can we build their identity and agency for choosing without a level? So glad to be a part of this! --Katie What you hear [students say] will give you even more insight into the kinds of problems different students might need help solving... Listening carefully also helps you see how much students are strengthening their identities and sense of agency as readers and thinkers... Vicki Vinton (p27) Dynamic Teaching for Deeper Reading These words written by Vicki spoke most to me as I read the first four chapters of her book. If we begin with the premise of listening to our readers, we can guide them towards independent thinking. I believe this and was excited to read the list of questions she uses to guide her scaffolding when students are stuck: What kind of problems is this reader facing? What kind of text does this reader need? How can we help this reader develop a more complex vision of reading? (Vicki Vinton) Her thinking also had me asking questions like what does it look and sound like when we listen to a reader who is facing problems ... how to do this and how it sounds with different learners? I was excited to to see we would be reading the how, when and why to offer her problem based approach in the next section! Vicki reminds us to be thoughtful about the texts we read aloud and the texts we put in student hands. Listening to our students and to ourselves is what I am taking away and truly believe. With my first grade readers, I think about this on a daily basis. I plan for this a number of ways. She has me thinking about how I do that in my own classroom. I anticipate...what will they want to read? So I'm grabbing newest picture books off the shelf of the library and placing them out each week. I also stalk picture book blogs, librarians and teachers on twitter who share new books all the time. I am a believer that most readers don't need level books to learn to read. I listen and notice their interests --What are they picking up? --Can I work it into a read aloud or when can I just slip this one in during the day because of their excitement? (Many of my students will ask knowing I will read aloud what they love ). When kids aren't ready to conference yet (especially at the beginning of the year) because they are so new to accessing the words and they need time to build their agency and read pictures----I'll read some patterned and song books with a small group of kiddos who need the same practice and they automatically have a book they want to read again and add to their book bin. I try not to talk much. I leave little to no opinion and commenting in books I read aloud---I often just listen. Later I'll jot their thinking. Later naming their thinking and organizing their understanding. And when they are ready to problem solve words (because their are so many early and emerging readers in first grade), I ask them: what can you do to help yourself or we'll meet as a group and kids will share what works. There is so much motivation and agency when kids listen to kids. Vicki writes, Students find pleasure in activities where they have some choice and opportunity to explore and discover for themselves. I couldn't agree more and I have found that not only are my students happier figuring things out, but I feel happier and more energized by the learning each day. I think this mindset takes practice. After 21 years of trying to figure out how to best help children learn and think, the continual practice with a problem based approach to teaching makes a difference. I am thankful to be reading Vicki's insights to inspire more for next year. -Katie Thinking about Katie's previous post made me stop and think about conversations I have had recently with my own students. I teach middle schoolers who love to chat with one another but I am thrilled when they actually want to talk to me! My recently redesigned classroom encourages conversation and collaboration where I hope small ideas will be created.
Last week, as we were wrapping up group presentations, I had one particular student sit next to me in this newly designed space. He's usually the first one in my class and on the computer right way making stuff, but instead he was next to me so I could tell he wanted to talk. I sparked the conversation by asking him what programs he liked working with best this year...we wrote down a list of things that were important to learn for both Digital I and Digital II (classes I teach). I asked him, "What programs could we use for our new poster printer and what could we create?". He got on the desktop and started tinkering with some different logo design programs. As our conversation developed, he suggested making posters for the teachers in our building. The students role would be acting as hired graphic designers who would interview teachers, collect data, and design posters that would represent their subjects they teach. The energy flowing between us and our conversation was on fire! The possibilities starting feeling endless now... As I reflect on this, as a teacher I see the importance of conversation. The act of taking a moment and recognizing a students need for conversation is what opened doors for me. As I give over control of planning on my own, it opens doors for conversations that ignite fire and possibilities. -Kacey I love when conversations and energies just flow. Not forced. Not coerced. Just present.
-Dau Voire Some of the best moments in my classroom happened this year when my students and I just talked. Whether chatting about recess, what book a student was loving or talking together through a new idea to reflect on, the conversation was where the lightbulbs went on and the learning began. Knowing young children and their natural desire to jump in and out of conversation, just chatting can be challenging sometimes. Often the conversations we have near the end of the year feel most productive because they've practiced enough together that they are all invested and are able to understand how to process and share their thinking (without all the crashing of voices). So it was awesome to listen to my students talk about what growing means to them in the last weeks of school. They thought about what growing means as a learner--"to change" one said, "try new things" another added. And then they came up with a web of ideas that I jotted on the whiteboard that represented areas of their growth. The discussion and thinking they had after understanding this idea of growing as a learner, energized their writing, reading and creating in the last few weeks of school. Students began to rehearse their favorite picture books with partners. Other students partnered (or joined groups) to write about an idea or make a book they were yearning to create. And others wanted to just write ideas they hadn't tried yet on their own. Our simple discussion about growing ( and lots of choice) set a tone for engagement and kids set off to create purposefully the last few weeks of school. Don't we want this everyday?! To help begin this as soon as possible next year, I 'll start with lots of listening at the beginning of the year and time to just talk about simple ideas that can help them grow. |
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