"The Waterfall"

After sluggish class participation on a reading activity, I paused and calmly stated to my class, "Don't think I can't see who the workers are in each group. As I stand in the front of this class or float around the room, I can see who is working, processing, and writing down responses they have personally generated. Those of you who are waiting on the 'thinkers' to write down their answer so you can copy them, I know you. I see you waiting 'busily' and patiently to reap the success of your classmates. I want to show you all what I discovered last night at a meeting at the high school. We had what is called a Vertical Alignment meeting. English teachers from 5th grade through 12th grade attended and shared information, strategies, and goals with each other so that we can better assist you in making the transition from grade to grade." I placed an AP literature response prompt on the ELMO. I read the difficult prompt aloud then looked around the room at the faces of my students. One girl broke the silence and said calmly, "I'm scared." I replied, "You should be. You should be concerned about the level of skill you need to be able to perform at this level. Some of you are working so hard, and I am extremely proud of you. Others of you are sitting back, allowing the hard working students to provide you with answers. I would like to share an analogy with you. Imagine the entire 8th grade student body as a river: moving, dynamic, full of life, twisting around curves, pouring over boulders, and finally, coursing over the edge of a cliff pushing its way to its ultimate goal-the sea. Those of you working hard are an active part of the river itself. It is not easy, and there are challenges. Finally, the river's triumphant dive over the cliff into the sea is met with pride and happiness at having accomplished your goal. Then... what do you see along the side of the river on the bank...kids reaching out with cups - stretching out over the riverbank as far as they can in an attempt to catch some of your water in their cups. They didn't tumble over boulders and push their way around the bends. They didn't produce life and sustain the student body along the way. They just want to reap the rewards at the end. They want to catch whatever 'extra' success they can from those who have worked hard and payed their dues. What kind of student are you? Do you want to push your way through and arrive at your goal with skills that will guarantee your success? Or do you want to arrive at your goal with a half empty cup, wondering, "What do I do now?" Believe that you are worth the trouble...dive in."

"Come on in. The water is fine."

While re-reading my very first blog entry, I remembered that scared/excited feeling I had when school first began. Honestly, I was really scared to death. Before school began, I felt as though I were standing on a deserted beach at the water's edge. As I looked out over the water, I could see a Tsunami wave heading right toward me. That first day of school, I braced myself for the impact; instead, I found that the water eased me into its swells. At times, I have had to swim hard, fighting for every breath. At other times, I have become lighter and more buoyant as I am lifted up by the successes of my students. As certain as I was that teaching was the right transition for me, I was still afraid of the unknown. This first semester as a teacher has been tough in conjunction with my UAM requirements, but I do feel as though I have grown. As this first semester nears its end, I am thankful for the experiences I have been allowed thus far. Each one has brought me a bit closer to being the teacher I really want to be for the kids. That is encouraging because my greatest desire as a teacher is to be effective and provide a dynamic, challenging, safe environment in which students exceed not only mine - but their own expectations. Although I cannot say I have achieved the "truly effective teacher" status, I can safely say there is no Tsunami wave crashing through my classroom. What I will say is, "Come on in. The water is fine."

Get Off The Fence About Verb Tense!

With W.6.8.6 ~verb conjugation~ looming before me a couple of weeks ago, my stomach was in knots. You see, all my life I have straddled the fence when it come to knowing my verb tenses. It's like I never really nailed it down. Well, with verb conjugation in my rear view mirror, I have one question for you...What would you like to know about verbs? Ha ha! I am officially off the proverbial fence! The SIMPLE truth is that everything is PERFECT when you remain PROGRESSIVE about verb tense; I am EMPHATIC about it! :) So, let's take a look at the words I just shouted at you in the last sentence: SIMPLE, PERFECT, PROGRESSIVE, and EMPHATIC...the verb tense families. Simple past, simple present, simple future, past perfect, present perfect, future perfect, past progressive, present progressive, future progressive, past emphatic, and present emphatic are securely in my bag of literacy tools. The most significant detail about that week of lessons...my students tested very well. I have decided there is hardly a sweeter sound in the world than a scantron sheet whisking silently through a scantron machine! I wanted to share this game with you; however, I was unable to upload the game into one of the available gadgets in this blog. If you would like to have a copy of this game (I also have one for Figurative Language and Sentence Structure) just email me at kim.mcfarland4@gmail.com. I would be glad to shoot a copy your way.

I'll take "Blog Project" for $500. Let's see... the answer is "AWESOME!!!!" To that I say, "What is ~How do you feel when you make your last blog entry? :)

D.E.A.R. time!!

Drop Everything And Read! Those are our instructions every day at specific times. On November 5th, Crossett Middle School adopted the D.E.A.R program. Every day at a pre-appointed time, the following announcement is made over the intercom: "It's time to drop everything and read." Every day the teachers, students, custodians, principal, vice principals, counselors, resource staff, office workers...EVERYONE stops what they are doing and picks up a book for 20 minutes. I love it! The schedule is as follows: Monday 8:50 to 9:10, Tuesday 9:40 to 10:00, Wednesday 10:55 to 11:15, Thursday 12:50 to 1:10, and Friday 2:05 to 2:25. I love reading, and this is huge for our kids. The more the students read, the better their reading skills become. Great readers are usually great writers, so this is a combination for achievement and success! I am excited that our school makes reading a top priority. :)

Character Day

The faculty and students at Crossett Middle School participated in our first annual Character Day on November 5th. Almost every teacher participated. The students were shocked to see so many of the teachers dressed-up in elaborate costumes. Among the teachers was a queen, a princess, Juliet, Medusa, King Henry VIII, Dorothy from Wizard of Oz, a chimney sweep from Mary Poppins, Little Red Riding Hood, Thelma from Scooby Doo, The Wicked Witch, and many more. Several of my students dressed up. They were so cute! My class had their final exam on the book The Outsiders that day. In honor of that book, I dressed-up as a Greaser Girl. I spent the day with a bouffant hair-do, black leather jacket, 60s style sunglasses, black capris, black pumps, and RED lipstick. I used the best Greaser Girl attitude I could muster. Ha ha. My students seemed to have had a blast making fun of me. It was a lot of fun. Periodically throughout the day, three students from each grade level made their way around to each of the teachers to judge for the "Student Favorite." At the afternoon assembly in the auditorium, the three teachers that were judged "Student Favorites" were invited to the stage and given candy. There were judges present from the Educational Alliance, The Rotary Club, and other civic organizations to vote on the students' best character costumes. The first place student winner received candy and their name on a huge trophy that will sit proudly in our CMS showcase in the foyer all year. In conclusion, Character Day generated some welcomed school spirit and a great Literacy buzz about books! We are hoping next year will be even bigger!

What Are You Reading Good?

My school district has provided me the unique opportunity to participate in the Smart Step Literacy Lab Classroom Project, a professional development opportunity for teachers of grades 4 - 12. It is based upon current research that supports educational pedagogy. Literacy Lab is a compliment to a standards based curriculum, not a prescribed curriculum, and it requires a two-year commitment. It consists of seven days of training each year. Both years are broken into three days of training in the summer and two days of training in both the fall and spring. I have already attended the three day summer session which I enjoyed very much. Crossett School District gave me $600 to build my classroom library this summer. As much as I love books, I was in heaven! My students have been reading those books like crazy! I only wish they had sent another $600 with me this time. I mentioned that to my assistant principal today at the workshop...for some reason, he just gave me 'the look'. :)

This Tuesday and Wednesday (101210 and 101310) I returned to Harding University in Searcy, AR to attend days 4 and 5 of my Beta 2 year. Yesterday consisted of fluency instruction in a reading workshop environment and designing, maintaining and perpetuating classroom libraries. Today consisted of an introduction to Comprehension Strategy Instruction; review of research and identification of the strategies and best practices in teaching; and Gradual Release of Responsibility Model. His workshops are interactive as he encourages input and questions. He makes a point to spend a significant amount of time asking all the teachers his trademark question, "What are you reading good?" He encourages teachers to ask their students this question every day to encourage reading rich conversations. His workshop was very informative, and I can appreciate the fact that he insists he is not teaching anything new but sharing research-based strategies that others have proven true and effective. On our last Saturday class at UAM, I didn't get to tell Dr. Zimmerly this, but I could hear 'Stamatis' in her presentation even before we saw the film of him. I caught up with him at break and actually 'name dropped' and told him that Dr. Zimmerly was my instructor. He knew exactly who I was referring to and was very sweet to take a picture with me. I told him I would include his picture on my blog, and he was happy to do it. Right now, I am reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. What are you reading good?

Broken Hearted

Ok, time to blow off some steam... We are reading The Outsiders in my classes. On Tuesday, the students were given a Character Trait worksheet, on the character Ponyboy, worth 25 points to be completed by Friday of this week. We are covering chapters one through three, and those chapters are full of references to Ponyboy's character. When I gave that assignment, I was thinking, "This will be easy points for these guys." I gave reminders each day and even handed out a couple of extra worksheets to those unorganized students who had misplaced theirs. Luckily for them, I had already decided to let them put finishing touches on their Character Trait worksheets as their bellwork on Friday. I was shocked at their unpreparedness. As I walked around the room during bellwork time, so many students hadn't brought their worksheets AT ALL! I was so tempted to let them just suffer the consequences, but I love them too much and want so badly for them to do well. I just passed out the blank copies to those that didn't have theirs. One student even had the nerve to say, "You expect us to finish this in only 15 minutes?" My response was, "No, I expected you to finish in 3 days. The 'only 15 minutes' part is your fault." Having said all that, my question is this: How does a teacher NOT take it personally when students choose not to complete assignments? It literally hurt my feelings that so many made no attempt to complete the assignment. I don't know. I'm going to either become cold and indifferent, continue with a broken heart, or find some happy medium. Cold and indifferent is not my style. The only way I'm going there is involuntarily. Continuing with a broken heart is taking its toll on me, but I don't know how to reach that happy medium. Until then, I guess I'll just be broken hearted. On the flip side of the coin, am I enabling them to be irresponsible by repeatedly providing 'lost' material? I guess I am having a hard time drawing the proverbial line in the sand regarding my expectations of them. I know this is just a blog, but feel free to offer advice if you have any. I would love to get some feedback on this. Thanks!