Do you ever read the on-flight magazines offered on planes?  On a recent flight, I found myself reading the same magazine on both legs of my trip – sadly, I didn’t straddle the end and beginning of the month which would have meant a switch of magazines.  Nevertheless, one article captured my interest – Think Customers Hate Waiting?  Not so fast…  You can read the entire article here.  Basically the article indicated that transparency is good and people like it.

There are moments in one’s life that alter them for the better and sometimes even for worse.  Being introduced to Cadbury Creme Eggs, for example, has altered my life – for better – can I get a yum? … and for worse — thankfully those calories only come around once a year.  As an educator, Fountas and Pinnell’s Guiding Readers and Writers (1st ed.) altered my literacy instruction.

Summer has officially started for me…I spent a final 4 hours in my classroom yesterday getting it packed away.  It may have taken longer than 4 hours (there were many 4 hour stints prior to that day) on that final day yesterday except Windows 7 was being installed on all computers.  Now, you may be thinking, “Yay for Windows 7, but what does that have to do with speed packing?”  But others may be thinking, “What? No computer?  What did Amy listen to?”  And there, my friends, is the crux of the the problem.  Left with no Internet radio, I was forced to dig out a boom box (do people even say that anymore?) and listen to … the radio …  with an antenna (gasp).  Yes, that was the fastest that I’ve packed up for summer in a looong time!

There are many education blogs out there — so many, in fact, that I sometimes sit down to research an idea at night and end up blearily rubbing my eyes three hours later, wondering where the time has gone.  Yes, there are a lot of teacher blogs out there.

My students are currently working on their last Writing Workshop piece — a mystery. I am so very proud of them, as they’ve included real-life examples (thanks to the many CSI shows they watch!) and fabulous vocabulary…we’ve been focusing on vocabulary and solving mini mysteries for many weeks as mentor texts.  I think that the MindWare Belle Mystery decks I picked up a few years ago have been really helping students keep a reader hanging during the mysteries.  Our conferences for their last writing piece have been a joy — listening to them reflect about their writing and learning.  I will miss these students when I say good-bye to them on Friday!

How are you? Are you nearing the end of school? Here, we’re not at the point where students are counting down the days; however, I know that some of you may have students doing that!

I wanted to share a group work board/mat that I created that has really helped students know their jobs in an activity — particularly the Fan N’ Pick activity. My students love Fan N’ Pick (and wanted my assurance that I’d share the following information with teachers in the blog world: “We really like Fan N’ Pick because it expects us to verbalize our thinking.” (as quoted by a student yesterday). In fact, when I reminded students yesterday that we’d done Fan N’ Pick before and we were going to do it in Math, several students launched into the list of which lesson topics we’d used it on. Wowsers!

Perhaps it’s time to find your clock buddy?  As the end of the year approaches and students get excited about the warm weather, I like to use our clock buddies as a way to partner students.  Although I often strategically group students based on my specific objectives for the lesson, our clock buddies are a nice way to group students with a bit of spontaneity and some structure thrown in.

My students had been asking if we could change seats.  I try to change seats up every month or so, but Spring Break got us off our seat schedule a bit.  With the end of the year quickly approaching (can you believe it?), I decided to switch it up.  I let students be completely in charge.  Now, my students are in charge of their learning and are often the teachers, but this time I let the students take complete charge of their personal learning space.

Graphic Organizers, Thinking Maps, Webs … It’s lingo, jargon, best practices.  Name it what we will.  But do our students get it?  That’s the question.  A few years ago, I asked myself that question.  After many a reflective moment and a few probing questions to students, I determined that my students saw so many different planning and thinking tools that they couldn’t keep them straight in their heads, much less apply them effectively and independently.  And so began my obsession with limiting the number of organizers I use with my students!

The above is perhaps not the most apt title for the post, but I’ve had Let’s Hear it for the Boy running through my head for the past 30 minutes (you’re wondering why, I know…as am I my friends, as am I!) and thought that perhaps writing such a title would rid my mind of the song.  A song – by the way – that climbed to the Billboard #1 spot in 1984!  The 80s-what a decade!  But what does this have to do with my post today?

Early last week, one of my students asked me this question near the end of the day, “Ms. Straus, why do we do Reflection Logs?”  I (of course!) launched into the researched-based benefits of students remembering and reflecting on their learning and this seemed to satisfy the student.

How do you assess student understanding at the end of a lesson?  Do you question students on content?  Have you considered having students work in groups at the end of a lesson?  You can do all of the above using Send a Problem!  Send a Problem is a great technique I like to often use ~ in fact, I used it last week ~ that allows students to use their language and content skills in a collaborative way.

With a large number of English Language Learners in my class, I like to have them using multiple language domains as much as possible.  Despite limited English, however, I also want my students using higher order thinking skills.

This week I used a quick activity that did just that: HOTS, multiple language domains, and movement for students.

4 corners is an activity where students self-select which  corner they will move to — based on a teacher criteria.  For me this week, it was “choose the corner with the topic that you feel you know the most about from yesterday’s lesson.”

Using the handy dandy IWB visual (see above), students know which corner to go to.

For example: Corner 1 is “I know the most about Puritans” near the Writing Center.  Corner 4 is the Mayflower Compact near the Aquarium.

To add to their higher order thinking, I added an evaluation task – ‘the important thing’ – while in their corner group, students had to discuss and evaluate the information they’d learned about their topic.  Then, student groups had to determine the most ‘important thing’ about that group.

There was much discussion and debate about the important thing.  Although all groups were able to succinctly list off the details of their knowledge about the topic, the discussion of the important thing was challenging and thought-provoking for students.

After a few minutes of discussion student groups shared out on their important thing.

I adore four corners.  It’s easy to implement, pushes students to think critically, make decisions (about which corner to go to), and engages students in discussion.

What ideas do you have for 4 corners in your classroom?

Have a wonderful weekend…the weather is warming up around here (yipee)!

How often is it that we rush into the grocery store after school to pick up a few items and also grab a a smattering of items off the displays at the front of the store?  S’mores you say?  Sure, I will make some now that you’ve so nicely made the graham crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate conveniently available.  Or better yet, how often have we gone into Trader Joe’s to pick up some Fair Trade coffee and walked away with the chocolate covered espresso beans…because they were ‘oh so conveniently’ located above the decaf?  If it’s me we’re talking about, the answer to both questions is: too many times, my friends, too many times.

Coffee.  My addiction began in Italy.  Go figure.  I guess if you’re going to become a coffee addict, it’s best to start in the country where coffee is the national breakfast.  I hadn’t touched a drop of coffee until that fateful week in Italy.  And then, I couldn’t put it down.  It was cappuccino, to be exact.