I'm So Confused!

Confusion....is it really a bad thing?  I saw a quote by Sheridan Blau over the holiday that read, "Confusion is where the learning begins."

For years, I have thought that if I have a confused student, then it is a sign of bad teaching...that I am not clear in my teaching.  But is this really the case?

Many times, my students are afraid to make mistakes; however, those are the moments in which I am actually able to teach them something.

Can I'm confused also be that teachable moment?

Thankfulness of Perspective

This arrived in my inbox a few minutes ago from a colleague of mine...

     "Having lived through much upheaval in Latin America—and having  a few friends and relatives exiled, imprisoned, tortured, and shot for their political views—I believe Americans have cause for gratitude this Thanksgiving.  Hey, and we’re all still smiling at each other. This place is heaven."

The 2012 Presidential Election is over, the Halloween candy has hopefully been eaten, winter crops are planted, and I am planning for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Everything in our lives is based on perspectives.  It is really based on which lens you look through.


My son will be home two weeks from tomorrow for the first time since he sent off to college.  I guess that in itself is good in that he has "flown".  On the other hand, I miss him dearly.  I miss many things about him,....his laundry and his dirty room for example.  Now when I do laundry, which is now about half of what it used to be, I see his bed made, clean floor, and lack of dishes.  (His room is across from the laundry room.)

I am thankful for all of the laundry I have done, and I am thankful for the lightened load.  I look forward to the additional noises in our home, the electric guitar, the kid's car being on empty, and empty cereal boxes in my cupboards.  I look forward to being a short order cook and being "eaten out of house and home".

In the spirit of perspective, I remember the day I found out what my dad used to tell my mom when I would pull out of the driveway after weekend or holiday visits...

"It is great to see her come home, and it is even better to see her leave."  I think I am understanding perspective.

How Do I Want My Students to Remember Me?

I made a comment this week to my students about how I wanted them to remember me.  I said that I hoped they would say that I taught them to think.

I told them that I honestly do not care whether they use Times New Roman, Arial, Tahoma, etc, but I do hope that they think before they turn a paper in as to whether the font, size, and color are appropriate to the task at hand.

I also do not care whether or not they get every homework answer correct, but did they learn something?  If my students are getting every homework answer correct, am I challenging them?

It reminds me of Kelly Gallagher's thoughts that he writes in the beginning of his current book Write Like This.  Gallagher writes:

"You are walking down the street twenty years from now, and a former student recognizes you and rushes up to you.  Excitedly she blurts out, 'Oh, it's good to see you!  I was hoping to run into you some day so that I can tell you that I am still writing essays that analyze the author's use tone.  I keep a 'Tone Journal' at home, and I apply that skill you taught me twenty years ago in the tenth grade to everything I read today!  Let's have lunch some day so I can share all the essays I have written recognizing the author's tone found in all books I have read since high school graduation.'
     I don't know about you, but if it happened to me, I would run for safety.  Instead consider an alternative scenario:  You are walking down a street twenty years from now, and a former student recognizes you and rushes up to you.  Excitedly, she blurts out: 'Oh, it's good to see you!  Did you see my letter in yesterday's Los Angeles Times challenging the governor's proposed budget?  I was so incensed I sent a copy both to the governor's office and to my state senator.  By the way, have you seen my blog?'  That is an outcome that would make any teacher proud."

Since reading this, every time I sit in planning or introduce assignments to my students, I think about whether we are doing this because we have always done it, or is it truly in the best interest of my students?

A Letter to Myself

Dear Debbie,

Thank you for all that you do! It is now time to be kind to yourself.  This year, I would like for you to do some things for yourself.

Go hiking!
Workout after school!
Cook fun foods!
Go biking!
Read a book for fun!
Get out of town!
Live simply!
Blog!

You are one person who has made a difference in many people's lives; however, as much as you would like, you cannot fix the world...
but you can fix your world.

Enjoy this year.  You deserve it!
Your Inner Voice

Friendship Garden

This summer, Jennifer and I rode to see the Friendship Garden and Friendship Trays.  It is located near Dilworth and is so very cute.  All the produce gathered by Friendship Gardens is used to make the meals that Friendship Trays makes and delivers. 

The kitchen is staffed by people attending culinary school who need a second chance in their life.  They are learning a skill and will hopefully use this skill to help become independent and productive in their lives.  They have many volunteers who come to put the trays together and distibute them around Charlotte.

The actual garden on sight is their teaching garden, and with our addition, they now have 31 gardens around the Charlotte area contributing produce.  We got the idea from a student in our gardening club while working in our community garden this year.  Conveniently, the Charlotte Observer ran an article on Friendship Gardens, and we are now connected!  I am excited for the kids to get back and start gardening again.  They will be so excited to know their ideas are being put into action!

One Last Hurray!

I have spent the last few days in Winston Salem at the Education Resource Group's "Comprehension x3" with Stephanie Harvey, Debbie Miller, and Chris Tovani.  It was a fabulous experience!  Not only was I able to hear these gurus speak on literacy, but I had my three team mates with me! 

I have decided that this is the way to "do" a professional development.  I have gone to many professional developments where we take representatives from different areas of the faculty.  Although this idea is good in the theory that  the representatives will share,  realistically, it seldom happens as everyone is busy with the job at hand to learn something new.  We are all on the same page and have all heard the same message as we forge into our new school year.

Another wonderful part of this workshop was that we were with the lower school faculty!  Being that our middle school is on a different campus, we rarely have quality time to learn what exactly the lower school does.  Every afternoon we "debriefed" about the day's session and were able to hear the prospective of different grade levels. We were able to think about our student's thinking through different lenses...what a wonderful opportunity! Not only did we learn about their classrooms, we also made new friendships...the fun part of teaching!

(Next summer the speaker is Kelly Gallagher, one of my favorites!  Check out ERG.  This wonderful group, based in Winston Salem, put on a fantastic workshop.)

Summer Institute

It was apropos  that Christin had us draw the thinking that led to our inquiry.  The inquiry I decided upon  during the Summer Institute is Independent Reading and the 21st Century.  Below is the map of my thinking.
Inquiry

What About Silence?

As Renatta began her Demo on "Silence," I was reminded of this post a friend's post on Pinterest.


Renatta reminded us that from silence comes speech. 


Every child is an individual in his or her own way.  The color of their hair... their signature...their thinking.  Some are vocal and some are quiet.  Both are correct.  As I move into this next year, I want to be  mindful as to the different way children think.  So that they can do just that...THINK!

My Blueprint

What am I?  What make we tick?

I am a teacher, a mother, a sister, and a daughter.

I am "Debbie, Debbie, Debbie" to my niece.

I am a friend, a colleague, and a volunteer.

I am a writer, a painter, a gardener, a carpenter, and a designer.

What makes me tick?

My children.

My students.

Butterflies.

SEC Football.

especially the Gamecocks!

Independent Reading Meets the 21st Century

Last year, I read The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller.

This book reaffirmed my belief in the importance of independent reading.  It also empowered me to take a long look at the independent reading I was requesting of my 6th graders.  Mrs. Miller is also a 6th grade teacher who inspired her students to embrace academic rigor in their personal readings.  Her students were being required to read 50+ books during the school year.  Mine were being asked to read one a month.

I then read Kelly Gallagher's Reading Reasons (Stenhouse 2003) and saw this astounding statistic:

Students in the top five percent of the national reading scores read 144 times more than students in the bottom five percent.  The average time spent reading for all grades is 7.1 minutes a day in public schools and around the  nation.  There is a strong correlation between time spent reading and higher test scores. In a study of fifth graders by Anders, Wilson and Fielding, the following correlation was found:

Percentile rank	# of minutes reading text per day	Estimated number of words read per year
98	90.7	4,733,000
90	40.4	2,357,000
70	21.7	1,168,000
50	12.9	601,000
20	3.1	134,000
10	1.6	51,100

I began thinking....how can I as a reading teacher, compete against computers? Social networking? The internet? Computer games? And the list goes on...

Areas to Grow!

In Melissa's Demo today on poetry, I realize that I need to add more poetry to my classroom.  Actually, I don't do poetry.  I had a really hard time picking a poem for our Poetry Walk.  I found myself on The Poetry Foundation website wanting to read more and more poetry.  I finally settled on the following poem:




Do I need to add poetry to my teaching? Yes. 
Is it outside of my comfort zone?  Yes.
Would I like to grow in this area?  Yes

This is one thing I have loved about the Writing Project.  Learning... thinking...and writing through the process. Discovering me, not only as a teacher but, also, as a writer.

I'm Becoming One of My Students!

As we look ahead to documenting our summer in the UNCC Writing Project, we are looking at the Teacher as a Writer, a Leader, and an Inquirer.  We have divided into three groups and are instructed to brainstorm what we need to make this "documentary" happen.  What is the "stuff" we need?  Pictures?  Video?  Also, we need to discuss style ideas.

As we are instucted to do this, I wonder...
How many points?  What should it look like?  What font size? When is it due? Is this for a grade?

Learning to Write

As a child, I hated writing.  Fact of the matter, I was never taught to write.  It was not until I learned how to teach writing that I learned to write and became a writer!

Below is a timeline about me as a writer, or perhaps at times, not being a writer.

The History of My Writing on Dipity.

What If....

What if we abandoned all rules?  What if there was no lined paper?  No rubrics? No specific prompts?
What if students could read what they want? Read how they want? No left to right....no top to bottom?
Would students be able to take risks because they wouldn't be wrong?

Yes, and yesterday, as we wrote into the day, Steven Johnson visualized how creativity and ideas come to be.  With no teacher restraints, would students develop hunches?  Would they explore them?



Yes, and Lacy made us think in her presentation, "Where Words Go," about this as we explored the lined paper society pushed upon schoolchildren as we teach them to write.  It was a totally out-of-the-box way of thinking.  It was the thinking that we would love to instill in our students.

Yes, and how do our "rules" impact student creativity?

Yes, and what if we abandoned rules and gave students a trusted writing community? What if students develop bonds and trust with a few fellow classmates who reflect and give non-judgemental feedback as Cindy and Steve describe in their "Peer Writing Groups" presentation?

Yes, and what if we try something new as teachers, just as we encourage our students to do in our classrooms?

Yes, and what if...?

UNCC Writing Project

For the next few weeks, I will be participating in the UNCC Writing Project....something I have been wanting to do for several years. We got started this past week with activities we can use with our classes:  Writing Timeline, Mapping Childhood Home/Community,  Murray Cards,  and Mentor Texts.

Mapping the Classroom and the School was a great self-reflection  activity that I would like to do with my English department.  As I mapped where student writing goes after the students finish a piece, I  realized that I could expand the ways students publish their writings to make their writing more authentic.

I am very intrigued with 21st century literacy, so I am thinking about using this topic for my Demonstation and Inquiry. My passion with the topic began a while back as I was reading an article in which the author said that in order to teach 21st century learners, we must speak their language.

Below is an example of  21st century literacy that can be used in classrooms.  It is an Xtranormal video that I made about the Writing Project. Xtranormal is neat digital storytelling site. Kids love writing scripts and making these robotic movies!

Writing Project

by: debbie.biggers

So,  this week, I will be working on my self-selected writing piece (about me), a digital timeline about me as a writer, a book review, my inquiry, and my demonstration.  I was told this week that Peter Elbow says that writers should work on multiple pieces of writing at the same time, and one can give inspiration to another....I hope he is right! 



Monarch Cookies

Monarch Monarch Cookie Ingredients:


3/4 cup softened butter
3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 3.4-oz package Jello vanilla instant pudding (Not the sugar free or stove top version)
1 egg

1 3/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda


Chocolate variation:
use chocolate pudding and add 1/2 tsp of cinnamon


Preheat oven to 350. Beat butter, sugar, dry pudding mix and egg in a large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Combine remaining dry ingredients. Gradually add to pudding mixture, beating until well blended after each addition. Form into ball. You may refrigerate up to 1 hour if dough is soft, but I did not find necessary. Roll out dough on lightly floured surface to 1/4 inch think. Cut into shapes, place on parchment paper on baking sheet. Reroll scraps and cut additional cookies. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until slightly firm. Cool on wire racks and decorate as desired.

Decorating:
We used 4 colors of Wilton Cookie Icing in the 10 oz bottles (red, yellow, white and black). Michael's sells them; see attached photo. Mix yellow and red together to make 2 shades of orange. With a clean flat paint brush, paint the yellow-orange shade on the 2 bottom "wings", and paint the darker shade on the top wings. Allow to dry -- about an hour. Then squeeze the black heavy lines for the border of the 4 wings. You may also put black in a baggie and cut a tiny hole in the tip to make the thin veins within the wings' borders. When the black is dry -- make the white dots on the wing borders; we used the baggie technique to make tiny dots.

Monarch Teacher Network

Day One

Sarah and Mike are working hard!

As many of you already know, I am a butterfly enthusiast!   Monarch Teacher Network  came to our school last week.  We certainly had a great time sharing our passion, and hopefully, created a few more butterfly enthusiast, as well!


The workshop was wonderful! We made cages to hold catepillars and to hold the butterflies once they emerge from their chrysallises.
We learned to care for the butterflies, and what their needs are depending on their stage of development.

We even had some time to play!

Threading the needle may have been the hardest part!

We spent the afternoon playing games....many great School in the Woods ideas!

Day Two

Butterflies enjoying their Juicy Juice!

On day two, after feeding the butterflies, we loaded the bus and headed out to find milkweed. Our first stop was the McMullen Creek Greenway. Here we were able to see a large milkweed patch! We were also able to see dogbane and compare it with actual milkweed. We saw many of the little creatures that live in milkweed communities.

We then headed to Beth Henry's home. Beth is a native gardener with a plethora of information. Here we were able to see milkweed and many native plants that are useful in home and school gardens

See why it's called the Cup plant!



The "Cup" Plant

This is the book Beth highly recommends!

Ellie with her beautiful, and yummy monarch cookies!

We then headed across the street to Ellie's home. Here, we were greeted with beautiful homemade monarch cookies.

Wonderful Story

My colleague shared a wonderful story with us last week about her sister.  Her sister had been at home all day with her sick child.  When her husband arrived home, she went to get a pedicure to have a little "Me" time, and I am sure there are many of us who can relate.

As she slipped her feet into the bowl of warm water, the stream of water was diverted into her lap.  Immediately, the staff brought her towels to wrap around her, as they put her wet clothing in their drier she continued along with her pedicure.  The staff was very apologetic.  They continued with their sorries during the pedicure.  Her sister totally understood that these things happen and told them that everything was alright.  She continued with her kindness and understanding, and at this point, she was reassuring the staff that everything was good and that she was happy and content.

A few minutes later, the lady sitting next to her, who had witnessed the entire event, slipped her sister a note.  The note stated, "I don't know you- but so appreciate the woman you are. What an example you will be to your 1 year old! Your kindness and forgiveness are not found in many humans anymore. Have a great evening!"

Her sister immediately text messaged the incident to her two sisters and her mother.  She thanked her mother for raising her to be the kind person she is.

In reflecting on this entire event, I realize that a person's actions are able to make or break a person's day.  In this chain of events, everyone chose kind actions.  Her sister chose kind actions despite the fact she was physically tired and emotionally drained from a day with a sick child.  The stranger chose kind actions with a small action that reaffirmed the kindness always wins. My colleague chose kindness in sharing the story with us this morning.

Everyone is able to chose how they will handle a plethora of situations on any given day.  The world is most certainly a nicer place when we choose kindness.

I think I will go put a cute notepad in my purse!

Day 1 of summer did not seem much like summer vacation.  The three language arts and social studies teachers who remain from this year met with out new team member to begin planning for next year.  Since we are continuing our work on creating and implementing standards, we began with writing our "Enduring Understandings" for language arts....what do we want our students to remember that we taught them twenty years from now.  Neat thing is that we all seem to be on the same page, and all of us want to create a love of learning.
On another note, my two children left with friends to go camping for the weekend...it is so hard seeing your children grow up and not "need" you any more.  I know they still need me, and I can't wait to hear the stories of what they forgot and such.  I am sure these are the experiences that teach them about the real world.  How I would love to save them from some if these lessons!It seems like yesterday we were packing their bag for first grade.
So, here's to new beginnings for me and for them!

Here I Go!

I am learning to blog!  I have wanted to blog for many years now...so, here I go!