Another One!

Ok, so I am trapped at a ski lodge with limited internet...so why not blog?  I have already Facebooked and Skyped and Tweeted.  I was thinking on what might make a good hook for my blogging, then my phone lit up...my Dictionary app delivering the Word of the Day.  I love words.  Why not use one as a theme for my blogging?  It's worth a short right?  I think Mary from work would approve.  It is very teachery of me to use a new word each day to guide my blogging efforts.  Any child who has ever been in my class knows I love words.  I harp on vocabulary and word choice all the time.  So it seems the thing to try when trying to get myself interested in regular blogging.  I almost typed "daily" just then...had to delete that...I don't want to commit to daily blogging...maybe weekly and for sure monthly.  I am going to try to avoid the 8 month gap again.  Mary would appreciate that. ;)

Ok so what glorious word did my Dictionary.com app deliver to me today?

Adventive - adjective - not native and usually not yet well established, as in exotic plants or animals

What the....  Ok, so maybe today was not the day to start my new blogging hook...

Well that is what I thought at first, then I remembered that I am a creative and insightful individual and I can make it work.  So...adventive...not native...exotic.  Being Puerto Rican is exotic right?  I am not native to California, though most would find that surprising I think.  I was born in Brooklyn, New York and have been in California since I was 5 years old.  I consider myself native in the sentiment of the word if not literally.  Not well established?  Well that wouldn't describe me...I do consider myself to be pretty well established in a general sense.  I am where I want to be in my profession, I am married, have a happy healthy son, have a home, a car, I enjoy my life on many levels, so yes I would consider myself established.  So adventive is not a word I would use to describe me and seems the definition aims at it being an adjective for plants or animals.  Hmmm...teacher mode here...how would I use that word in a sentence?

Polar bears are adventive in Southern California.

Not my best, but it will do.  I could always switch to the Spanish Word of the Day....hmmm...then I would have to blog in Spanish...Oh my, the Spanish Word of the Day is:

claro - adjective - clear, obvious, light

There is no way I am blogging in Spanish, no matter what message Spanish Word of the Day is sending!  Claro que si!

It really has been too long!

Mary at work is great when it comes to my blog. Periodically she will ask me "When are you going to post next?" I smile and say "Soon." Well as I log back in to my blog and see that my last post was at the end of March, I have to chuckle. It really has been too long. I blame the National Boards. That took so much mental power and writing out of me, I just had to veg for months! But now that we are at the end of another year, and I am off work with time to myself I feel inclined to write.

One of the things hat has been on my mind this holiday season are societal expecations. As I get older I find I am less inclined to do much for the holidays. I am not completely sure why this is, but I do know this does not make me a bad person. I know I have a 7 year old son, and I don't deny him the festive fixings. He wants lights and decorations? We do lights and decorations...on a small scale. He picked out his very own lil tree and decorations, and we put it on an end table by our door. He was thrilled to do it, and it wasnt taxing for me...a win-win!

Then there is the craziness of shopping and holiday cards. Let me address shopping first. Any who know me know I LOVE TECHNOLOGY. I hate shopping. I hate crowds. Does that make me a scroodge? No. Due to finanaces I can only afford to get gifts for the kids in my family and my parents. Unfortunately the amount I can spend on each is not a huge, but I do what I can. In the end that is what the holiday is about right? Showing your love and appreciation for loved ones? Huge expensive gifts should not be a requirement. I was asked several times this season if all my shopping was done or my house decorated. I smiled and nodded not engaging in much of a conversation over it as it isn't something that is a huge deal for me. I do what I can for those I love and they know I love them. Is my house done up in lights? No. Do I have a huge tree with a ton of gifts spilling out from underneath? No. Do I love my family? Of course I do.

Now cards. I officially stopped doing them this year. I used to do them here and there, but in the end the stress of doing them was too much. I will not be penalized for not doing them. Will my friends think less of me for not doing them? Maybe. And if they do, then I imagine we are not very close. Will my family think less of not getting a card in the mail from me? They shouldn't. We get together, give gifts to the kids, spend time together. Again, they should know I love them whether or not a card arrives in the mail. I get less cards now that I stopped sending them and that is ok. Holiday cards seem like an obligation. Do I think less of people who don't send them? No.

So why write about all this? Because it has been on my mind. Why ask rhetorical questions? Because I want to. ;) This is my blog, I can say what I like and that is awesome.

So Mary, I hope you have enjoyed the holiday entry of my blog. Now that I have my thoughts on societal holiday norms off my mind, we shall see what I blog about next. I plan on trying to blog again before 8 months pass.

Oh and by the way for any who did not know, on November 18th I learned that I did achieve National Board Certification. Thank goodness. That THREE YEAR journey was a painful one, but in the end it inspired me to be a much better teacher.

Thank you Dr. Seuss

My writing battle rages on.  I am happy to report that I finally have completed HALF of my writing entry.  I missed my first self-imposed deadline, and have April 9th set as my next deadline as it is the last chance I will have for any support providers to look over my writing.  Over the last few days I have finally felt the urge to write, after I sorted through my inner demons regarding this subject.  I found an odd moment of inspiration as I read a story to my son tonight.  I read him a Dr. Seuss story that I had purchased for our new iPad.  I have downloaded several Dr. Seuss books for our iPad for him to enjoy, but he only ever picks "Green Eggs and Ham."  So tonight I decided to pick my favorite for him "Oh the Places You'll Go."  I first heard that one at my high school graduation and found it surprisingly appropriate.  So I chose this one to read to him just for kicks and found that it was quite appropriate to my writing situation at the moment.  Particularly this part of the text...

I'm sorry to say so
but, sadly, it's true
that Bang-ups
and Hang-ups
can happen to you.

You can get all hung up
in a prickle-ky perch.
And your gang will fly on.
You'll be left in a Lurch.

You'll come down from the Lurch
with an unpleasant bump.
And the chances are, then,
that you'll be in a Slump.

And when you're in a Slump,
you're not in for much fun.
Un-slumping yourself is not easily done.

The story goes on with adversity being overcome and good winning out in the end of course, and I found that to be just the right pick-me-up to get this second part of my writing entry done.  I have two more parts to go, and I think they are easier than the first two...or maybe that is my long lost optimism talking...I don't know, but what ever motivation is behind that statement, I am embracing it, finishing this writing and reclaiming my life!  Thank you Dr. Seuss!

I WILL Win...

Ok so I had hoped to get this writing monkey off my back by the end of my Spring Break.  Sad to say it still clings to me.  It seems this writing project is a deep seeded battle raging inside me.  I have made peace with it on this last day of my break and I have a new deadline.  I MUST be done with the writing of this my April 9th.  That day I have my last support meeting and I could really benefit from having a complete paper for the support providers there to look at and give feedback on.  I am also taking an assessment center exercise on reading, so one the writing is done I must focus on doing all the reading and reflecting I can on best practices in teaching reading and assessing reading issues for students in grades 3 through 7.  Thankfully I can take my assessment center exercise as late as June and I can pretty much schedule it when I like.  It is easily the less stressful of the two things.

So in the end I have learned something about myself.  When I really don't want to do something, I REALLY don't want to do it, so forcing the writing only stressed me out.  I know I need to do it, I know I can do it, but I have to do it in my own time.  Now I realize doing something in my own time AND having a deadline can be problematic.  But I am hoping that with the first deadline missed and a new deadline in place before the REAL deadline (April 15th) that I can conquer this and crank out some writing.  I am going back to teaching tomorrow so that will give my days more structure, but after that I just need to be able to do as I will, writing where and when I feel I can.  I let various things stress me, and really it is my own fault.  So I am giving myself license to do what I will in order to get this done.  I will not fail.

Goals and Objectives

I can't help but think of being evaluated by my principal as I typed the title of this post.  I am being evaluated this year by the way, but that is a post for another time.  Tonight's writing focus was on the Goals and Objectives of my writing instructional plan.  I have never had to really put it into writing before, as so much of that is done for us by the district, but it was interesting to do it for this entry.  Here is what I came up with...


My writing instructional plan:

Utilizing the 6+1 Traits model of teaching writing in conjunction with the Open Court Reading language arts curriculum, I will develop the innate desire to write that all children possess, giving them a strong foundation by teaching the traits of writing so that they are able to think and write for different audiences and purposes.


Goals of my writing instructional plan:
 
My students will:
Create a paragraph that has a topic sentence, supporting facts and details

Progress through the stages of the writing process

Write compositions that describe and explain familiar objects, events, and experiences

Use grammatically correct sentences and proper conventions in writing and speaking

Understand and use a variety of complete, correct sentences in both writing and speaking (e.g., interrogative, declarative, exclamatory) 

I feel some more goals are in order as I think on what my students need in writing as a whole.  And you can't have goals without objectives, so those of course are still missing.  But it is a start I am feeling good about, it is something I can work with.  I look forward to what the new day brings.  I am hoping for the less resistive and angry mood of this evening to carry over.  For now I must rest and dream of teaching writing and writing a fabulous report on how I teach writing...

I am not resentful...was Garfield resentful?

Ok...so I have NOT been motivated to write.  I have been caught between stressed and angry that I still have to do this...and on my Spring Break no less.  I have been doing a lot of self talk...the rational side of my mind telling the angry side of my mind that anger will get me nowhere.  That I must write and finish so that I can achieve what I have wanted for so long.  That I am worthy of National Board certification and so very close to it now.  That to give up now would be more aggravating than anything.  I don't want to spend my days agonizing over this anymore.  I just need to write.  So while I have toyed with taking down the previous post in case the National Board police see it or something, I am going to leave it up, but not post the rest of my entry in such a detailed way.  Why not take the previous post down you ask?  Well I like it.  It is part of the picture of my frustration and struggle to achieve National Board certification.

So I finally starting writing to the second part today.  I didn't do it yesterday because I had a lot going on and didn't want to think about it.  I had a wisdom tooth pulled, my son had a cavity worked on, we has soccer practice, I had various other house related things interrupt...so ya, no entry writing.  I find I enjoy the late evenings to write when everyone is asleep so I can just write without interruption.  So here I am again at nearly midnight, working on part two of my entry... Planning and Teaching Analysis ...  YAY!

I carry around a binder with my notes and such on this entry.  Often times I don't even look at it while I am out.  But I have odd childhood flashbacks when I do this.  For some strange reason I recall a poster from my youth...a silly poster sold either at a book fair or from a book order form...I may have even had this poster...but it is Garfield the cat, with a book on his head, and the printing on the poster said something like "I learn by osmosis."  Perhaps you know the poster of which I speak, perhaps you even owned it.  But I feel like Garfield the cat with the book on his head...maybe if I carry around my National Board binder long enough, a fabulously written, national board certifiable entry will be produced by osmosis.  I imagine me instead of Garfiled...National Board binder on my head..."I write cohesive, insightful reflections on my teaching practices by osmosis."

[After I wrote this I went to see if I could find the poster online and I did!  So here it is for you to enjoy if you didn't know what I was talking about!]

Entry 1: Writing - Thinking through the Process [Instructional Context]

What is the point of this entry you ask??
"This entry captures your ability to demonstrate your use of writing to develop students’ thinking and writing skills for different audiences and purposes."

So these are the questions I have to answer for this part of the written commentary (there are 4 parts)...and in the end it is only to be ONE double spaced page...

What is your school setting (e.g., preschool, middle or high school, or alternative school)?
What are the number, ages, and grades of the students in the class featured in this entry, and what is the subject matter of the class? (Example: 32 students in grade 5, ages 10 and 11, Social Studies)

My reply...

I teach third grade at a public elementary school in a large, predominantly Hispanic, middle-class, suburban community. My school educates preschool through 5th grade. My class consists of 28 students, 14 male, 14 female, ranging in age from 8 to 10 years old. Multiple subjects are taught, with the emphasis placed on Language Arts, Math, and English Language Development as mandated by the district. 

A bit of advice I got from another teacher...don't say you do things because the district says so or state standards dictate it...hard not to say that when it is true. More true however, is that I set all that aside to do what I know is good teaching.  Essentially that is what the National Board is after...good teaching...go figure.

What are the relevant characteristics of this class that influenced your instructional strategies for this theme or topic of concern: ethnic, cultural, and linguistic diversity; the range of abilities of the students; the personality of the class?

My reply...

My instructional strategies have been influenced by the grouping of students I have been assigned.  The class has been clustered with ability level in mind.  My class is considered the “challenge” group, as the class is mostly made up of students who have demonstrated themselves to be “gifted,” “proficient,” or “advanced” per district guidelines.  My class consists of 10 challenge students, 10 benchmark students, 6 strategic students, and 2 intensive students.  I have three identified GATE students (Gifted and Talented Education) as well as one student with an Individualized Education Plan (IEP).  I also have 8 English Language Learners (ELL), three of which are at the early advanced stage of English fluency and five that are at the intermediate level. 

Personality of the class?  Not sure how to answer that.  They are great kids, eager and excited to learn.  They have their issues like we all do, but in the end they are your typical 8 year olds...curious, imaginative, recess-loving... 

What are the relevant characteristics of the students with exceptional needs and abilities (e.g., the range of abilities and the cognitive, social/behavioral, attentional, sensory, and/or physical challenges of your students) that influenced your planning for this theme or topic of concern? Give any other information that might help the assessor “see” this class.

I'll be honest and say up front that I struggle in answering this one. Not sure why, but here is my reply...

My students are able to write grammatically correct sentences, but struggle with cohesive paragraph writing.  They are very creative and imaginative, and have no difficulty expressing themselves verbally, but struggle when it comes to capturing that same creativity on paper.  Aside from  minor difficulties with grammar and conventions, their writing often lacks voice and organization.

What are the relevant features of your teaching context that influenced the selection of this theme or topic? This might include other realities of the social and physical teaching context (e.g., available resources, scheduling of classes, self-contained classroom, etc.) that are relevant to your response.

My reply...

There are two very relevant features of my teaching context that influenced the selection of "Money" as the theme for my writing instruction.  First, I am to use a prescribed Language Arts curriculum mandated by my district.  Secondly, and more importantly, money is a huge area of interest for my students.  They are quite aware that money is a necessity and that they often need more of it to acquire the things they desire.  Through the exploration of this theme, my students had the opportunity to strengthen their foundation in reading, writing, listening and speaking.


What particular instructional challenges do the students chosen for this entry represent?  Explain the particular dynamics of the class an assessor needs to know to understand how you involve students in establishing a supportive and stimulating community and how you used your topic of discussion to assist students in accomplishing this goal. This might include, but is not limited to, a description of your students’ skills, knowledge, and previous experiences that relate to your teaching.

My reply...

The students chosen for this entry represent the gifted English Language Learner and the English Only high achiever in my class.  I have observed over the course of my teaching career that writing is an area of weakness for most students, and the two students I have chosen to highlight in this entry are no different. The gifted ELL student has demonstrated mastery of third grade standards in both Language Arts and Math consistently all school year.  While he is quite able to compose a grammatically correct paragraph, he is unable to properly harness his humor, leaving his writing feeling rather disjointed.  The high achiever consistently scores well in both Language Arts and Math as well.  When it comes to his writing specifically, he struggles with voice, and development of his ideas.  He quite often rushes through his writing, just to get it over with.  The instructional challenges they present are in their ability to express themselves clearly and in a way that their audience will understand and enjoy.

Whew! This is the most complete this section of my writing has been.  I would like to thank those friends of mine to whom I have complained to about this...and who have been patient and caring enough to guide me.  You know who you are... *wink wink*

STAY TUNED!

Tomorrow Melanie will have to... provide evidence of her planning and teaching, and of her ability to describe, analyze, and evaluate student writing to develop students’ writing ability, and use
student work to reflect on her practice!

I am sure you cannot wait for that one...neither can I...

I am my own worst enemy

I have a confession.  I am an avoider.  If there is something I just don't want to do, even though I HAVE to, I will make it soooo hard on myself.  National Boards for example.  It is the latest thing I am avoiding.  I have done the teaching required for the entry I am redoing, but I just don't want to write about it.  So I think I have to trick myself into it.  It is only one entry.  The teaching was awesome.  I was ONE stinking point away from passing last time.  I CAN do this.  Yes, that is me pep-talking myself...but as I have titled this post, I am my own worst enemy, so I have to be my own cheerleader as well.  I have to counter-act the negative self talk going on in my head right now.  I have avoided writing ALL DAY.  And here it is 8 minutes to midnight.  I told myself I will not sleep until I write something significant, something I can use.  A rambling, ranting blog post doesn't count.  So I think I am going to use this blog to help me sort my answers to the questions.  Feel free to interject!  I hadn't realized until tonight that anyone was leaving comments on the blog itself rather than just Facebook, so I will be sure to read them.  So I am about to collect my thoughts and try to get something meaningful written in the following posts...

Writing

Spring Break is finally here...well after Thursday it will be. I have been hard at work on my National Boards. While the process of it can be quite grueling, the teaching it requires of you is amazing. I have had some powerful writing lessons with my students these last several weeks. The things I have seen in my classroom from both my students and myself remind me of the things I was taught in my teacher credentialing program, but didn't fully get to see in my "scripted" classroom. I will say openly that in order to teach writing they way best practices suggest, to teach writing in a way to support, encourage, and strengthen student voices and communication, I have made our mandated Language Arts curriculum second to teaching writing. I was worried about this at first, but once I saw my students responding, and writing, I found it thrilling and worth whatever risk it might carry. So with one teaching day left before break, my class remains a writing room, where my students enjoy expressing their creativity and discussing their work not only with me, but with their peers. I will be compiling their work into a class book and am thinking on making it virtual as well so it can reach a broader audience.

Over the break I must finish the bulk of my write up on this experience for my National Boards. I have hoped to write the entire thing up over break, but a bit more teaching remains to be done after the break. Teaching writing cannot be rushed.

I realized yesterday when I spoke to my colleagues about my writing project and eventually to my principal, that so much of what we do in teaching is regulated or monitored in some way that it is easy to go on auto-pilot and not think outside the box. For the first time in a log time I felt passion for something...passion for teaching my students to create art...in writing.

[This blog post was posted from my phone.]

Warning! Teacher Rambling Ahead!

I am a rambler, I have known this for as long as I can remember.  Maybe it is because I am female, maybe it is because I am Puerto Rican, maybe it is both, I don't know, but you are warned I feel a rambling post coming on!

Teaching is hard work.  I am not complaining, that is just a statement of fact that I dare any to challenge.  I love what I do and I love it so much I am always looking to better myself.  Being a teacher really is being a life long learner.  So two years ago I set out to become a National Board Certified Teacher with 5 colleagues.  Unfortunately for me, I did not achieve that my first try.  The second time I went it alone, trying my hardest to raise my score, only to miss passing my one point.  So here I am on my third try, my last try as after this my previous scores are lost.  I went to a meeting today for other "Advanced Candidates" like myself and it was invigorating.  I was given so much to think on.  It put me back in "the zone" and I foresee many more Panera visits in my future.  Why Panera?  Well there is just something about having some great food and great wifi that get my creative juices flowing.  It really puts me back in the college frame of mind really.  Getting out of my life for a few hours just to focus on something academic, it just works for me, that is all I can say.

For those of you unfamiliar with the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (which I assume many of you are) let me take a moment to explain.  I am perusing the certification as a "Middle Childhood Generalist" which is made up of four written entries and an assessment.  The four areas are (1) Writing: Thinking Through the Process, (2) Building a Classroom Community through Social Sciences, (3) Integrating Mathematics with Science, and (4) Documented Accomplishments: Contributions to Student Learning.  My overall weakest entry was the one on writing, so I have chosen to focus on it.  Becoming nationally certified is quite a journey is professional development.  I had always suspected my instruction in writing wasn't the greatest and this seemed to confirm it.  So I have set out to learn what I can about effective writing instruction only to be frustrated and overwhelmed.  After today's meeting for "Advanced Candidates" I am feeling a bit more focused and driven.  I have an idea of what I should be reading and how my entry should look different.  I was able to read an entry from another candidate who had a top score on her writing entry and found that to be very useful and I was also able to speak to other teachers like me, as well as those that have earned their certification and are present to serve as mentors to the rest of us.

So now I sit at Panera, processing all the wonderful information I received on how to move forward with my entry.  I am feeling much more focused and optimistic and I am sure I will be blogging more about this in the future as I don't have all that long to get my last attempt at certification written (it is due April 15).  I will be able to attend at least two more meetings in that time and come the next one I hope to have a significant amount of writing done.  I have some reading and planning ahead of me, but what's new?  Teachers read and plan a lot...I just have a hard deadline to deal with.

I would continue on and ramble about the state of the economy in California and how we are looking at even more cutbacks that lay off teachers and may have those who get to keep their jobs paying out the nose for health benefits, but I'll stop.  I don't enjoy gloom and doom and while I am not one to stick my head in the sand, I am also not one to worry myself to death.  I take each day as it comes and make the best of it. So I am going to make the best of this day and focus on becoming nationally board certified.  I know I can do it, I have to.

This one's for you Mary!

So I have been thinking on what to blog. My sister is a prolific blogger and I just can't do the daily sort of blogging she does. I don't mean to stop blogging for as long as I do, I just sometimes feel the words don't come to me right.

So today when Mary commented to me in the ladies room at work that I hadn't blogged in a bit I thought a few things: 1. My husband said that to me not too long ago.
2. Aww, someone reads my blog!
3. My next blog post would be dedicated to Mary!

So thank you Mary, for caring enough to say something and getting my writing juices flowing again! More posts coming soon!

[This message was sent to you from my phone.]

Happy New Year!

Wow, it has been longer than I meant since my last post.  I have started to post a few times then deleted it, mainly because I felt I didn't have much to say.

Maybe my blogging hesitation has been because I am really enjoying my break.  I have 3 weeks off for the winter, and I am in my final week.  My break started off busily because of my son's 6th birthday, then Christmas Eve and Christmas, then it slowed down some for me to just relax instead of running around before New Years.  I am not one to go on and on about what I did over the holidays, but lots of fun was had!

I am vacationing now in Big Bear with my family, and soon will be in Seattle visiting my best friend.  I am getting my head back into work mode by finally doing some lesson planning and grading in this final week as I just chill...literally it seems!  Sure is cold out!

I have enjoyed not thinking about work and I really miss my trimester breaks.  My summer break will be a long one...8 or 10 weeks or something.  I hope to do some traveling then too.  Discovery conferences are always the highlight of my summer breaks, but this break is sooo much longer than I am used to another trip might be in order if I can afford it.

Weight-wise I have been doing well.  Some fluctuations, but I am on a downward trend.  I am only 6 pounds away from my 10% weight loss goal and I know I will hit it soon, I hope by the end of January!

I hope your 2011 is off to a great start!  Mine seems to be so far!