2 Stars and Wish...using documentation to push student learning

Holy Doodles!!!  I just had an amazing weekend.  I spent my days travelling to visit 2 schools (specifically 3 educator spaces) and then went to a conference in Niagara Falls.  Although it was a lot of driving, it was well worth it!

I had the pleasure of visiting Jocelyn Schmidt and her DECE partner Ashley in York Region District School Board.  If you do not follow Jocelyn's blog you can check it out here.  They are amazing educators who are identified as a "Learning@School" classroom for their Board.  In a nut shell, this means that they are identified and supported by their board as a classroom that is open to visitors.  It is easy to see why as their passion, their partnership and their commitment to student achievement is so evident.

I thought a quick and easy way to sum up my visit would be to share a few of my favourite things.  Similar to an earlier post sharing great ideas from educators that I have visited this year. (You can check it out here)

By far (I think...as I am typing I am flooded by memories of great things...) my favourite "take-away" from my visit was the "2 stars and wish".

 

Although I have used this approach with providing feedback to students, this was a new way of using it for me.  I LOVED how Jocelyn and Ashley used it to review the previous day's learning, and inspire further learning the next day.

At the end of every day (it only takes about 5 minutes) one of the educators prepares a PicCollage of the days learning.  If you do not know about this app, check it out.  It is free and super user-friendly.  They title it "Our Learning Collage" with the date underneath.  The educator puts in about 5-8 photos of different happenings from the day (a child writing a book, students exploring caterpillars, students outside noticing their shadows, building a structure, etc.) and she writes a sentence of explanation with each one.  The following day they show this to the whole class during a group meeting.  They asks the students involved to explain their learning and what was happening in each photo.  Some students may actually read the note she has written on the page, but many just orally retell what was happening in the picture.  Side note:  the educators also upload this PicCollage to their class website at the end of the day so parents can be involved in the learning.  They can ask their child questions about specific things that are happening in the classroom. LOVE that!  If you do not have a class website or blog, consider making an email list with parent emails.  It would be one click of the button :)  I have found a website that has similar "Learning collages"  check them out here for a visual :)

We saw this practice being used in 2 different classrooms.  One classroom had the stars up on the board without sentences starters.  Each day the children would look at the documentation of the previous day and come up with 2 things they did well (the stars) and identify one wish (the magic wand) for what they wanted to work on or do better that day.  I thought this was a great way to involve students in the documentation, focus them on the importance of learning while at "centres", as well as develop oral language.  In the other classroom, the 2 stars had a sentence starter with them.  The first star said "We worked hard..." and the second star said "We practised..." and the magic wand said "We can learn more about.."  The students used these prompts to frame their thinking.

As you might be able to see, the students then found words from their word wall and circled them :)

If you'd like to give this a try I have provided links to images of stars and magic wands for you to use.  As always, check copyrights of images and so before use :)

Have fun!  Let me know how it goes :)

This blog post has been edited:  I was just surfing around on Jocelyn's website and found a post she did about this very activity.  I referenced her blog earlier, but here is a direct link to the post talking about it :) http://ljpskindergartenteam.blogspot.ca

Ideas for Early Years Classrooms (part 1)

In my new role I am fortunate enough to see a lot of classrooms, chat with hundreds of educators, and have amazing resources come across my desk (so to speak of course...my desk is now the trunk of my car).  I find myself trying to remember so many of the ideas and materials that I am seeing, but I worry that when I return to the classroom I will forget it all  (and be kicking myself for the next 10 years).  So my solution was to write a list.  I bought a cute little notebook - in the colour turquoise of course :) and began to write.  The other day I was mentioning my "ideas book" to some DECEs in our board.  They immediately asked if I would share it with them.  And this got me to thinking...I should share it!  I would love to see a collection of ideas that have been tried and tested or have sparked the interest of other educators.  So here is part 1, of what will likely be a big collection over the years.

I will try my best to elaborate, but if you have any questions about any items please leave me a comment and I will try to get back to you.

My list of AWESOME-NESS from my journey:

1.  "Wilderness Fridays" or "Forest Fridays".  Spend day outside - covering all subjects through nature and environment.  Use the natural curiosity website as a resource.  I posted about this idea here

2.  Put scissors and post-it notes at block centre.  Encourages labelling, fine motor, creativity.  I had done pencils and paper...but not scissors!  Love the idea of using this off and on to keep interest alive.

3.  Designate an area in the classroom for snacks - "The cafe".  In the beginning you may need to have a sign-in to keep track of who has visited the snack area.  As the students begin to be able to self-regulate their hunger you may no longer need it - but I recommend tracking it so that you know every child has eaten :)

4.  Provocation activity:  Put a box on each table filled with open-ended materials (random really).  give groups a few minutes to play.  Have them explain to other groups what they did with materials.  compare thinking and creativity.

5.  Put documentation out in community.  For example, if Students did an inquiry on bikes, put it out on community bike path.  If students explored baking, display at local bakery.

6.  Use overhead transparencies to put documentation on students work without writing right on it.

7.  Pass along project work or collaborative projects to next year's teachers.  For example, grade 1 teacher could display the number line the Kinder class made last year.  Creates a sense of connection and familiarity for September.

8.  During an inquiry of colour, have student name paint colours.  (ex. fire engine red, banana yellow).  You could use the crayons with names to provoke thinking.

9.  Hidden alphabet.  Go on a letter hunt for hidden letters.  Corner of bulletin board is letter L, lines in the bricks make letter H.  Extension: as gifts for families, print our the letters for child's last name and frame.  There a lot of books that you can use to spark this inquiry.

10.  Create a space for each child to show their development over the year.  Could have a hand print, several self-portrait drawings throughout the year, evolution of name printing, etc.

So many more to share...but baby steps lol.  I have to keep my mind organized...not an easy task ;)

Chat again soon,
Carly

Early Math...math racks and reckenreks

Last year our board gave each kindergarten teacher a list of math manipulatives and asked us to choose what we felt our classrooms needed (amazing, I know!).  I remember our Student Success Teacher (a system leader that is assigned to a group of schools to support PD and student achievement) came to me with my list in hand and said "You didn't sign up for any Reckenreks!?!", to which I responded, "I didn't ask for any because I actually have no idea what they are!" (I felt a little vulnerable admitting this, but that was the truth.  I had never heard of them before).  She promptly said "Well, you need them!  I'll put you down for a full class set, and I'll show you how to use them.  You'll love them!".  (funny side note: when I left my classroom for this new position, she is the teacher that went into my room...so she is REALLY happy that we ordered them lol).

I have read the book "Number talks" by Sherry Parrish (click here for link for book) and they use them in there.  I thought that they were useful, and understood how to use them in that context.  But I saw them as limited.  I didn't see them as an invaluable resource.

Over the past 2 days I have had the pleasure of being at a conference with Cathy Fosnot.  If you have not heard of her, check out her website (http://www.newperspectivesonlearning.com/).  She is a well known leader in early math education.

She shared many things with us, in particular the use of "Math Racks" or Reckenreks.  She developed this manipulative many years ago, and now has a company that produces them for her.  When I checked out the prices I was pleasantly surprised :)  (link to Math Racks from Cathy Fosnot's site).  Now, of course budget is always an issue.  If your school is unable to purchase these racks for you, there are many ways to DIY. Here is a link to one teacher's idea (DIY math rack).  Fosnot recommended that if you are going to build your own, keep the colour beads the same as the racks used in the rest of your school.  For example, her racks have red and white beads starting with 5 red.  She mentioned that it would derail learning to have different colours (even in different grades over the years).

One of my biggest learning moments came when she was talking about Math Racks of 5 and 10.  I didn't know that they came in racks of only 5 or 10.  She said that these are the racks we should be using in Kindergarten and early grade 1.  She continuously emphasized the need for students to have a very solid understand of the landmark number 5.  Only once they had this knowledge, then we move to 10.  This left me with realizing that I need to know more about how to discern when a students truly understands 5.  I think so often, we rush this.  We make the jump to 10 because we know we are on a fast moving train with high expectations.  We need to slow down, and ensure this step is not cut short.   I am very interested to look through her units of study and see how she has introduced the model and build students' capacity with them.

There was great discussion about whether Math Racks are better/worse as ten frames.  I know in our board we have put great emphasis on the 5 and 10 frames.  According to Fosnot, the frames are limiting. It is easier for children to imagine the numbers moving, sliding over to compensate (as opposed to on the ten frames where kids have to take it off the frame and then put it back.  With the Math Rack , it is always there, they see if moving.  I don' think this means that we should abandon the 5/10 frames, rather just be conscious not to limit our teaching to this one model.  However, Fosnot would definitely argue (I think) that the Math Rack is a better tool.

Cathy Fosnot has developed 4 units of study for K-1 classrooms (she has ones for higher grades as well), that use solid research into developing mathematics in young learners.  In these units she uses Math Racks, 5/10 frames, and many different models and strategies.  I have not used these myself, but I am excited to share these with some educators in our board and see how they work.

I know that this post isn't giving you the answers of what to do or how to use math racks, but I don't have the answers yet.  My head is swimming with questions fo where to start, how to know when to move on, etc. My hope is that if you have a few moments you will look into Cathy Fosnot's work and contact your board systems leaders to see if you can get your hands on the Cathy Fosnot resources (If you are in my board - all of our SSTs were at the conference this week, so you can chat with them about Cathy Fosnot as well).

I think you will find it time well spent.

Identity Study

To see how a child perceives him or herself is a glimpse into his or her observational mind.  In a self-portrait, we see what children value about their physical selves and their general self-perceptions.

Over time, as we compare the differences in their portraits, we can see the cognitive and fine-motor development of the child.  By noticing similarities in the pictures, we see the aesthetic of the child's work - although the pictures become much more detailed and complex as the child develops, we are able to see the progression of the child's artistic style.

 - Lois Malaguzzi

We wanted to start the year by having the children get to know themselves.  To really stop and take a look at themselves.  And then to begin to notice similarities and differences between them and their peers.  We believed that if they truly began to look at themselves physically, they may begin to look at themselves in terms of their interests, their strengths and their weaknesses.  We wanted to lay a foundation for a year long Identity Study.

We set out mirrors around the room, some big, some small, and left paper, pencils and pencil crayons beside them.  We didn't give any instructions of what to draw.  Some students drew pictures of lowers or cars, but many of them drew pictures of themselves.  This big mirror and the free standing one below drew a lot of attention.  Without even realizing it students were watching themselves in the mirror, making faces, smiling at themselves, etc.  It was a lot of fun just to stand back and watch.

It also made me a little sad to see how some students did not like to look at themselves in the mirror.  They avoided these centers, or if they were there it was a quick glance with no smile.  This made my wonder...why is that?  Do they not like their own reflection?  Maybe they don't have access to a mirror at home at their height and so it is a whole new experience and therefore a little uncomfortable?  Does it mean nothing and would be considered "normal" behaviour?  I have no idea, but I hoped our Identity study this year would lead them to a place where they got to know themselves and truly like who they were.

The awareness of being and the means of expressing ones "me-ness"...the face discovers its own image..."  - Lois Malaguzzi

In about October/November, of last year, a colleague and I had the pleasure of going to visit the Hawkins Exhibit and attend a workshop on "messing about".  The host school let us tour their classrooms and we came across this idea that tied so perfectly into our Identity study.  We printed an 8x10 headshot photo of each student and then placed an overhead transparency on top.  We had the children trace themselves with a sharpie marker.  Intially I had planned on calling 3 or 4 students at a time and sitting with them in small group to do this.  I had envisioned me do more trouble shooting and encouraging, but after the first group I quickly realized the rich learning opportunity this was.  The kids were engrossed with the details of their face.   It was like they were discovering things about themselves for the first time.  They had so many questions and comments:  "Why do I have hair in my nose?"  "Why do I have so much hair in my eyebrows?"  "My hair is messy today!"   "My eyes are shaped like a moon".  I could go on.  It was wonderful to be a part of this self-discovery.  What we thought would be finished in a few days took almost a week and a half.  But it was well worth it.

Sample of the transparency drawings

Prior to doing this activity we had begun an identity board for each child.  It has a photo of them, their handprint, they wrote their name and there is a spot for a self-portrait drawing.  We had them do their first self-portrait drawing earlier in the year.  The day after they finished this detailed portrait using the transparency we asked them to do a second drawing for their board.  The increase in detail was remarkable.  

Where does an inquiry come from?

I am not sure about you, but this is a big question for me.  As I began my journey into inquiry-based and play-based learning this was a scary thing.  What do you mean you just listen to students?  What if I don't hear anything?  What if we get no "sparks"?

Today I met with a teacher who is new to inquiry-based learning.  She is fabulous!  Like many of us, she knows where she wants to be, she knows what vision she has for her class, but there is that big question - "How do we get there?"

When I arrived today the educators in the room had provided several pumpkins and gourds.  I noticed that they had intentionally placed a basket of click cubes beside the pumpkins.  I immediately was drawn here, and sat a listened to what was happening during play.  As I observed, I tried to think about what my "intentionally interruption" should be.  I am trying to hone my skills of listening and interrupting only to further learning.  This is tough for me....I like to chat :)  I also like to get in there and play, but I am learning that when I do that, I can sometimes stop or change the direction of play.  I am working on it :)

So we can see below that these little explorers were beginning to measure using the cubes (YES!!!  It is like they read their teachers' minds lol)

Hard at work lining up the cubes.  It was interesting to note who included the stem as
part of the height, and who only counted the orange pumpkin.

They spent quite a while doing this.  Although there was rich discussion and sharing of findings, I was wondering if I could push them to consolidate their thinking.  What should I say, if anything?  I decided to ask them if they had finished measuring all the pumpkins.  When they had, I asked them if they thought they would be able to line them up from tallest to shortest.  This made their eyes pop out a little bit, and sent them frantically to work lol.

I loved to watch as some of the students remeasured using the cubes, other students resorted to using their hand to compare (see pic below) and sometimes they just picked up 2 pumpkins and compared them visually.  I left them on their own for a few minutes and asked them to come and find me when they were done.

Note the 3rd and 4th pumpkin from the left.  There was good discussion about these 2.
Which was taller?  Should we include the stem as part of the pumpkin?

After this task was complete the boys went on playing with the pumpkins.  Some tried to roll them (**perhaps an inquiry into ramps and inclines???), while other began to build with the cubes, not concerned with the pumpkins any more.  I thought about ways to extend this learning and exploring about measurement.  So I asked some student who were around if they thought they could order the pumpkins by weights?  They  immediately began picking up pumpkins and using their judgement to determine which was heavy, which ones were light.  They began to sort them into 2 group: heavy pumpkins and light pumpkins.  I asked them if they knew of a tool that could help us weight them.  They didn't really give me a response so I offered the idea of a scale.  One of their teachers said they knew the other class had a scale, and so we went to borrow it.

We discovered quickly that it had to be quite heavy to register a weight.
They explored putting different combinations of pumpkins on the scale to see if it would work.

I went and grabbed a smaller scale to see if we could explore weighing the smaller items.  This was a new tool for the students, and so I let them freely explore the tool, and took the opportunity to discuss how to use it safely and gently.  I think they may continue to explore these scales and the concepts of weight :)

It was so wonderful to be back in the classroom laying on my belly taking notes and tons of pictures!  I love my job :)  As Early Educators we really do have the best job in the world!!

Chat again soon,

Carly

Back in to the swing of things

Hi everyone,
I have been away for a looooong time!  My last post was in June (yikes!).  I had these great plans to do lots of posting over the summer.  I wanted to get all of the amazing stuff that happened in our classroom throughout the year down on paper (well...sort of... digital paper I guess lol), as well as documenting the things that we tried that weren't so awesome - after all that is just as important :). I was so excited to reflect on the year and start preparing for the next one.  I had visions of me sitting on the back deck, sipping a pepsi, writing blogs....ha!  That was a cute idea ;)

But all of that changed a few days after my last post. My dream job was posted in our board -  a kindergarten consultant position.  In our board this position did not exist...until now!!!  So I frantically prepared my resume (what is that?!?!  I had not made a resume since graduating 12 years ago!)  I am so thankful for the amazing team of educators I was working with.  They encouraged me, helped me, revised and edited my application with me, and so on.  I was FREAKING out!!!  Within a few days I heard back that I got an interview....now I was really freaking out!

On a side note:  I was SO overwhelmed by the support I received during this process.  Everyday I was blown away by the calls, emails, texts and so on from colleagues, other administrators, and parents of students who had heard about the position, and wanted to make sure I knew about it and offer me good luck.  I was so humbled.  Even today, months later it brings tears to my eyes.  Never have I felt so supported and encouraged.  It really made me think about myself as a parent...do the wonderful teachers who care for my own kids at school truly know how much I appreciate them?  Do they know that I notice all the extras?  Right then I resolved to make sure that each of my kids' teachers know how much we appreciated them.

I have loved my journey of rethinking Kindergarten, and rethinking my whole role as the teacher in the classroom.  It has been so motivating and freeing!  If there were such thing as a "PD junkie" that would be me.  I love learning new things.  I love hearing and seeing what is going on in other classrooms.  We were so fortunate this year to have over 40 educators come and visit our classroom.  In some cases we got release time to meet with them for part of the day and discuss our journey.  That is where my love for working with teachers truly sparked.  I knew I loved it (as I said, it was my dream job), but now there was no doubt.

So, as you can probably guess, I GOT THE JOB!!!!!  (insert choir of angels singing, and me jumping up and down crying....seriously, it was quite the scene) - Do you think it's bad that I started to cry on the phone when the Superintendent called to offer me the job????  Yep...that happened.  I just can't describe it....I am still pinching myself, and can't believe that I am here.

So...it's been 8 weeks on the job.  It has been a whirlwind, and I am loving every minute.  I have so much to share with all of you.  I am so blessed to be in a position to visit so many different classrooms and learn from so many other educators.  I am trying to keep an "ideas" book for when I return to the classroom, but to be honest I am not even sure how to organize that.  There is so much great stuff going on.

I can never say thank you enough to the educators in our Board that open up their classrooms to me, and invite me to be a part of their learning journey.  I definitely don't have all the answers, but I am so pumped be on this journey of learning with them!

I am also excited to share my learning experiences with all of you.  I am really going to try and post as often as can, and perhaps you can find inspiration, or find something that pushes your thinking.  I know that I am pushed everyday :)

Chat again soon,
Carly

Changing how I teach the ABCs

When I first switched to kindergarten 5 years ago I remember spending HOURS (literally, hours!) every week preparing letter activities.  I remember searching for clip art, tracing and cutting out paper for the corresponding letter craft each week.  I remember photocopying the letter search sheets and letter colouring pages.  HOURS upon HOURS of preparation.  Anyone with me on that one??? (please say yes, so I know I wasn't alone)

As I began my learning journey into the Reggio approach to Early learning, I began to rethink how I taught my students letters and sounds.  I began to understand that students learn best when it is meaningful to them.  Authentic learning.  This really resonated with me, and I believed it to be true.  But I still had this big question weighing on my mind..."HOW does it happen?"  I remembering worrying "What if my students don't care about learning their letters or sounds?  What if they don't respond to the provocations and encouragement we offer?".  I had so many "what if..?" situations running through my mind.  Is that a teacher thing???  Do we all do that, or is that just a special gifting of mine?? LOL.

Anyhow, as my ECE teaching partner and I were setting up the classroom this past August we began to chat about how we wanted to teach letters and sounds.  Since it was our first time working together I didn't know what her thoughts were about this, and I wasn't sure that she'd be too thrilled when I suggested we do away with the traditional methods of teaching letters.  But, since she is seriously just about the most easy-going person on the planet (so thankful she is willing to join me on these crazy adventures) we decided to give it a go and jump in with both feet.  I'm not going to lie, we did sort of make a back up plan that if by mid-October we didn't see results we were going to bail LOL.  But I really believed in my heart that this approach was built on solid research and it just "made sense" to me.

So, on the first day of school we set out our first literacy provocation. We knew what we hoped the students would do, but had no idea if that would play out.  We put out a basket of big sticks, a basket of small sticks and a set of alphabet cards.  Plopped them right in the middle of our carpet.  Said nothing.  And waited...

within 5 minutes 3 kids were checking it out...

within 10 minutes we had 3 letters built out of sticks...

So, what did we do?....looked at each other with a smile (a probably a sigh of relief), and maximized the learning opportunity.  We walked over and asked the students playing there what was going on.  They explained that they were building letters.  Interesting to note, most of them couldn't tell us the name of the letter, but they knew it was a letter.  We asked them if they would leave them built on the rug at tidy up time so that we could share their wonderful idea with the class.  They beamed with pride :)

At the end of that play block we gathered the class on the carpet and shared what had been going on.  Students were shouting out the names of the letters they had built, and we sang songs about the sounds each made.  The kids who had those letters in their names were shouting out, it was wonderful, loud and exciting.  We then challenged the class to help us think of a way to attach the sticks together so that we could keep these "amazing" creations.  Some suggested glue (which was not out for the students yet), others said string, and then finally someone said play doh.  Since we had a play doh center out, we decided that this was the best choice.  We asked the kids if they thought having a separate container of play doh with the sticks would help, and they said yes.

Next play block...more letters.  We repeated the praise in front of the whole class, stopping kids at the centers to admire the newest letters made.  By the end of the first day we had about 6 letters made.  We told the kids that we would try to fasten them together so that we could hang them on the wall for everyone to see.  That night after school we used duct tape and twine to "permanently" secure the sticks together and taped them to the wall.  The other key thing we did was remove the letters already made from the basket.  That way the only letters remaining were the ones we needed for the wall.  After a few days the kids themselves began to note that we had almost made the whole alphabet.  They became motivated themselves to finish and make all 26 letters (which we counted, did subtraction and kept a running tally to see how many we had left to make each day).

It was no surprise to us that all of the letters with straight lines went first (A, E, I, T, W, etc.)  By the end of the week it was only a few students who were highly motivated and really enjoyed this challenge who tackled the letters S, Q, B, C and so on.  But they did it!  And man were they proud of themselves.

We had so many rich discussions with students about the shapes of letters, which letters were almost the same looking, which letters were easy to make and why some were really hard.  All of this in the first week of school...we were shocked.

The final product??....check it out!  This is probably the first thing everyone comments on when they come in the room - well that, and the lighting, but that's another post for another day ;)

Talk again soon,
Carly