Learning and Leading Together

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Remembering Today... September 11th.

I can hardly believe that today is the 10th anniversary of the September 11th attacks on the United States. Like many of you, I can remember exactly where I was and what I was doing that morning. I was teaching 8th grade math at Evans Middle School in Ottumwa, Iowa. I spent most mornings fluttering around my classroom preparing for the day. I shared an accordian-style room divider with our team science teacher, Steve Zimmerman. Steve's morning routine included watching CNN or other morning news, while he prepared for his day. We usually left the curtain open several inches on one side, and would move back and forth between rooms to collaborate.

This morning, Steve stepped into my room. "Kelly, turn on your TV."

I was watching the replay of the first plane as students started entering the room. This particular class was an Honors class and a pretty close group of kids. The typical morning included a lot of joking around and conferring with each other about homework. While I watched the television screen, trying to make sense of what had just happened, they quickly started gathering around me. We were all standing below the TV, mounted near the ceiling, trying to make sense of what was happening.

And then... they showed the second plane. In my mind I thought, "How could two planes accidentally fly into buildings?" My innate sense of human goodness created a fog that my brain had to fight through to truly understand what was happening. Then Steve was at the back curtain. He spoke quietly, "Kelly, did you see that?" I walked toward him. "I think we're under attack," he said.

"Under attack? How could the US be under attack?" I thought. And then the teacher in me turned on. "Ok students, take your seats." We talked briefly as a class about what we saw on television. We decided as a group that we would leave the TV on, but turn the volume down and start checking homework. We did our best to carry on our routine, pausing from time to time to see what newscaster was on and watch repeats. We were almost done discussing the homework when the third plane hit the pentagon.

It was such blur from that point. My class was now in full distress. Within minutes it was announced that all planes had been grounded.

Kris was sitting in the front-center seat. The color had completely drained from his face. "Kris, are you ok?"

"My dad is flying home today from a business meeting in Washington DC. His flight was supposed to leave this morning." Secretly, I wanted to vomit.

"I bet he made it out just fine. Did he have a connecting flight?"

"Yeah, in Chicago."

"I bet he gets to Chicago, and can rent a car to drive the rest of the way home."

Kris and his sister decided to go home and wait for news. He returned later that day. His dad decided not to attend his last meeting so that he could take an early fight home. He made it out of DC before the attacks, arrived safely in Chicago, and had rented a car to drive home.

There was a lot of controversy about whether or not schools should have watched the events unroll that day. My own children were in 1st and 2nd grade. They were aware that something had happened, but were shielded from the details at their school. My students were teenagers, 14-year-olds. We tried to have some "regular business" that day, but everyone was preoccupied with the thought that the US had been attacked. We had students who were physically sick by the events, and had to go home. As teachers, we kept double-checking with each other and our administrators... "How much are you letting them watch? What kinds of conversations are you having?"

As I reflect on the last ten years, I can't even count how many times I have thought of the students in my 1st period class from September 11th. The experience that we shared will forever connect me to them. It's a grounding experience in my teaching career. Whenever I think back to that day and those kids, it reminds me that the most important thing we have to offer as teachers is a human connection. Learning can't happen without it, for the kids... or the adults.

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Constitution Day

Did you know that September 17th is Constitution Day? On September 17, 1787, thirty-nine men signed our Constitution and changed the course of American history. This year, Fairfield Elementary students will celebrate Constitution Day on Friday, September 16th.

The National Constitution Center (http://www.constitutioncenter.org/) provides interactive web tours, podcasts, and activities to help us understand the Constitution. The Center writes, "Located on Independence Mall, the National Constitution Center brings the U.S. Constitution to life for the whole family through multimedia exhibitions, live performances, timely public programs and dynamic educational resources. As America's first and only nonpartisan, nonprofit institution devoted to the Constitution, the Center illuminates constitutional ideals and inspires acts of citizenship, so that "We the People" may better secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity."

Constitution and Citizenship Day was added to law on May 24, 2005 by the Office of Innovation and Improvement in the Department of Education. Their summary states, "The Assistant Deputy Secretary for Innovation and Improvement announces that, pursuant to legislation passed by Congress, educational institutions receiving Federal funding are required to hold an educational program pertaining to the United States Constitution on September 17 of each year." If you are interested in receiving a pocket-sized copy of the constitution, or an app for your iPhone or iPod, go to http://www.constitutionday.cc/

“Democracy is based upon the conviction that there are extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people.”
— Harry Emerson Fosdick

Thoughts About Preschool

I have extended a lot about my understanding of preschool this week. Through the years, I have taken a deep interest in curriculum, instruction, and assessment. My work with writing curriculum-based measures taught me a lot about the bias that testing items may have. Bias in how an item is written can impact students' ability to demonstrate their knowledge about the actual concept that we want to measure. For example, if a math problem uses a a set of culturally specific terms, some students may not be able to demonstrate the math because they get lost in the context.

In preschool (and lower elementary) assessment, teasing out the metacognition from the behaviors we are assessing can be tricky. Asking students to, "Tell me about strangers," means students have to have two sets of skills to answer the question. First, they need to actually understand what a stranger is, and second, they need the ability to articulate their thoughts about the concept of strangers.

As a preschool team, we are looking at the portion of the Creative Curriculum indicators which we have selected as end of the year 4-year-old behaviors. We are writing assessment tasks to use with all children in the 4-year-old class in the fall, and then again in the spring. It is a tricky thing. As with any assessment, we will probably use questions that provide unintended results. Sometimes though, unintended results can tell us a lot about what students know about a concept. For example, last spring I asked students, "What is a leader?" The younger students all talked about leading a line, leading a race, winning. It provided a lot of insight to me about students' development of the concept of a "leader." I'm sure that as we work on common assessments for our preschoolers, we will uncover insights about their thinking, as well as our ability to provide opportunities for students to demonstrate their abilities in the four domains.

This week our preschool team worked with the indicators in the four preschool domains - physical, social-emotional, cognitive, and language - some indicators are easy to design assessment items for, and others behaviors are difficult to stage to observe. The most important thing is, we still need to try to assess all if the indicators in some way. We made a lot of great progress this week!

Here are a few quick links related to this post:
Assessments for Young Children
Developmental Screenings with Emphasis on Social Emotional Development
Early Language and Literacy As Indicators of Future Academic Success

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Congratulations to ITEC Presenters

Three proposals from Libertyville and Washington Elementary Schools in the Fairfield Community School District were selected to present at this year's ITEC (Iowa Technology and Education Connection) Conference in October.

Presenters include:

Shelley Carter & Brianna Thornton, 2nd grade teachers
Brandi Strickler, Kindergarten teacher, with John Grunwald, Music Teacher
Kelly Schloss, Principal

Stay tuned for updates about their presentations.

http://www.itec-ia.org/

Friday, August 26, 2011

We're Off to a Great Start

It was an energizing week for me! Throughout the short week with students, I was reminded of several things.

1) Remember and treasure their innocence. It's easiest to see in the kindergarten students. They are learning so many new routines, and trying so hard. The rudimentary drawing of a fork and spoon that I had drawn on the silverware buckets at lunch had worn off since I drew them on last year. I noticed that our new cook had written "Forks" and "Spoons" on the bucket. She smiled when I asked to borrow her marker to draw the symbols on again... "Some of 'em can't read yet," I said. She nodded.

One afternoon, I walked past the girls' bathroom. I heard a small voice say, "How does this work..." Then SPLOOOSSHHHH... The same voice said "Oh!" I smiled to myself, thinking of all of the little things we "just know."

As a staff, we watched Van Harden's reading of the Dan Valentine poem, "I Trust You'll Treat Her Well," which I enjoy listening to each fall before school starts. I reminds me to treasure the innocence.

2) Students remember how we treat them. When I asked the students, "What is my job? What is the principal's job?" Most of them started with the regular, "takes care of naughty kids." Several students, ones who have actually been to the office, said, "She helps you solve problems."

This morning I was visiting a 2nd grade classroom where students were working on math. One little boy motioned me over and whispered, "I need help on this one. It's big." It was a word problem.

Last year, when he was a first grader, I noticed that he was supposed to be working on math and had a huge pile of bear counters in front of him. I saw that he was pushing them around and acting busy. I kneeled down and quietly asked him to read the first problem, "7-3= ". He said, "Seven, three." I explained the symbols to him, and we reread the problem together. Then I modeled that 7 meant that we start with 7 bears. I counted out seven, and pushed the rest aside. Then, we took three away. We counted the leftovers. After another problem, I was on my way to the next classroom. That afternoon I wandered into music class. He wiggled and wiggled. Finally, there was a break as students were putting materials away. He turned around and said, "Mrs. Schloss! I finished ALL of my math!"

Back to this morning. We read the problem together. Mother baked 6 chocolate chip cookies. She gave two cookies to Kevin. How many did she have left? I whispered, "Do you remember last year when we worked with the bears?" He nodded. I said, "If we counted out bears for the cookies, how many would you count out?" He said, "6." "So, how many does Kevin get?" "2." "Great, can you see them in your mind? Moving two away? How many are left?" "4!" "Right!"

3) I am part of an awesome team. Repeatedly this week, adults came together to get things done. There were duties, and planning. New students, open house, and classrooms to get ready. Students who weren't sure what buses to get on. It was busy, busy, busy... Nonetheless, every time that I walked into a classroom, a meeting, or down the hallway, my teammates were smiling and teaching students, connecting with families, and working to provide the best education for each student. Many people had their flexibility tested this week, and I am very thankful for their positive team approach.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Getting Ready, With Passion

from Edutopia

Edutopia shares words of wisdom to re-ignite your passion for education.

Outstanding in Your Field: What It Takes to
Be a Great Teacher
Ben Johnson ponders what it means to be excellent in education.

Why Do You Teach? What Sustains Us in
Our Work
Elena Aguilar reflects on what keeps educators in the classroom.

Just Get Out There!
Andrew Marcinek reminds us to put aside excuses and take a risk or two.

Friday, July 1, 2011

Summer Reading Lists – A Way To Stay Cool On Hot Days

It's finally getting hot outside. If the kids are indoors cooling off, here are some books and activities to keep them reading. This website, education.com, provides grade level reading lists for preschoolers through third grade. They also suggest several fun activities such as creating a kids' book club, having children illustrate a famous book, and pretending to be characters in the story they're reading. There are also tips for parents to help “sneak and asked her reading.”

Research shows that students who do not engage with books during the summer often halve “summer learning loss.” This tends to be more true for students who do not have access to books, or, simply take a break from school during the summer. Our Fairfield Public Library is a wonderful resource for summer reading materials and activities. Parents, family members, and family friends can encourage students to read in everyday situations. Young students often use context clues, the beginning letter of words, in the shape of words to guess what word is. For example, children recognize signs, advertisements, and labels of common household items, and often infer what word is. This is a great strategy!

It is also important for children to interact with other types of print such as magazines and books. In primary grades, teachers assess “concepts of print.” Here are some examples and questions you can ask your child regarding concepts of print.

Does the child recognized the front of the book?

Say: Show me the front of the book.

Does the child know that the print, not the picture, is what is to be read?

Say: I will read this book to you. Show me where to read.

Does the child know that print is from left to right?

Say: Which way do I go?

Does the child know that at the end of the line they should return to the next line?

Say: Where do I go after that?

Does the child have one-to-one matched with voice to print?

Say: Point to the words as I read.

Does the child understand the concept of first and last?

Say: Show me the first part of the story. Show me the last part of the story.

Does the child know that the left page is read before the right page?

Say: Where do I start reading?. (After opening the book to a page with words on the left and right pages.)

Does the child know the meaning of a question mark?

Say: What is this for? (Pointing to a question mark.)

Does the child know the meaning of a period?

Say: What is this for? (Pointing to a period.)
Feel free to stop by the school Facebook page and share what you're reading! Maybe you'll find others with similar interests who are looking for a good book. Have a great summer! Mrs. Schloss

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