Road Trip in My Mind

Teacher's Road Trip

Moving down the highway into blue sky, billowing clouds and lots of green scenery; its a road trip! The wind through my window gentlely tugs at my hair matching my mood of freedom from style and constraints. I can just feel all my worries and issues behind me as I surge forward.  Rythamic movement pulls me down the highway and away from it all.  I follow the road as it gentlely turns and twists through the countryside when suddenly a big red octagon shaped sign pops up in my line of vision.  On the sign are the words:  STOP! It's August 27th Back to School! 
Yes, it was only a road trip in my mind as I try to escape the reality of summers's end and the fact it is time to return to school.  Regretfully, I can't hide from the reality any longer and I awake to the jarring ringtone on my cell phone's alarm.
The first 3 days will be teacher meetings and some allowed time to get classrooms ready.  As the days go by and classrooms are whipped into shape the excitement will grow and we will be ready to welcome our students and the magical chemistry the blend of their personalities bring.  It is here and I am ready for it.

 The road trip will just have to wait until next summer because Back to School here I come!

#Loyalty

Happy National Dog Day

 

Dogs.. Our most loyal friend.  This is my new "puppy".  She is 8 months old and she has wiggled her way into the hearts of our family.  There have been challenges with her as we soon learned being the owner of a German Shepard is much different than that of a Labrador retriever.  Our previous dog of over 11 years was a docile overly friendly lab.  This pup is definitely a pack dog and needs us to be assertive pack leaders.  She is smart, affectionate and loving to our family; however she is very aloof and on guard with strangers.  After a close call where she attempted to nip at a neighbor we began working with a trainer. He actually "trained" us.  It has involved a lot of rethinking on our part as far as dog training goes.  Our dog experience was limited to our laid back lab and this truly was a different breed and personality. We learned how to teach her basic commands such as heel, down and sit.   Working with the trainer taught us the importance of consistency, patience, and taking control.  Ironically all the same important strategies and techniques in discipline and guiding children (no, I am not comparing children to dogs).

Every time I walk in the door her delighted greeting melts away my cares of the day and I am so glad we have her. The daily training and consistency has paid off and she follows commands beautifully.  So, before I go on and on about my wonderful "puppy" I will close with "Happy National Dog Day" to all dogs and dog owners.  Give your dog an extra treat today!

 

Are You a Scaredy Squirrel?

Teachers, what is your Monday Motivation?  What gets you out of bed and out the door at the beginning of the week.  We like to focus on the positives that motivate us.  A passion for teaching, improving students' lives, and providing skills and opportunities for our students are some of the many reasons we are motivated to teach.  Let's be honest, we are also motivated by fears and anxieties.  We all have bills to pay and lives to maintain as well as that of our families and those fears are motivators too.  What motivates our students on Monday morning?  What gets them out the door and into the school?  Sadly, many of our students have other things that get in the way of any motivation to attend school.
When you go to school do you think of the fears and anxieties your students experience regarding school and how it impacts their ability to learn?  Test anxiety, math anxiety, and social anxiety are just a few of the many issues that impact our students' learning style.  Many students shut down and learning stops.  I am amazed how some of my toughest older students who daily face challenges in their day that would devastate me don't even blink an eye about their situation.  The violence, death and drugs are their "normal" and yet when faced with a difficult math problems they quit and refuse to try.  They feel threatened when school presents academic challenges and they hide from facing the possibility of failure in their noncompliant behavior or refusal to work.
What can we do for our students who lose all motivation because of anxiety and fears in school?  Talking to students, building relationships, and helping them to strengthen their confidence are all effective techniques to help them overcome their fears.  There is always that one who is so badly scarred by past failures they refuse to respond to your best efforts.  So with this question in mind I had a sudden insight during my bedtime story reading with my son.

Like many parents, we have had a nightly bedtime story at our house since day one.  Now that my son is 8 years old it is sometimes silent reading and sometimes read out loud at bedtime.  The other night he elected to read Scaredy Squirrel by Melanie Watt.   If you haven't read the book, Scaredy Squirrel is a somewhat neurotic squirrel who is so fearful of the the world and its imagined dangers he refuses to leave the safety of his tree.  He fears a variety of dangers some realistic(poison ivy) and some are very impossible dangers(sharks).  Scaredy squirrel had a packed emergency kit, structured daily schedule and an emergency exit plan.  As my son read the story I was struck by the parallel to life, particularly school life. Actually, it reminded me of myself at times and fears I didn't want to face yet life forced me out of my "tree".
 I thought back to my search for other techniques to reach students who did not want to discuss the impact their fears had on making progress in school.  I realized how books could be a strategy to reach these students.  A simple read out loud with stories like Scaredy Squirrel could start the conversation so many found difficult.
As an adult I found myself relating to the struggles Scaredy faced with his fears and the limitations it placed on his life.  I was reminded of many people I knew as we read about his rigid schedule and rules he placed in his life to create a feeling of security.  Yes, it is a story for younger children and yet it could be a powerful tool with older students who can analyze and explore the similarities between Scaredy Squirrel and themselves.  In the story's end Scaredy Squirrel  accidently falls out of his tree only to discover that "nothing horrible happened to him in the unknown world."  A simple but powerful analogy for students to discuss and relate to life. 
I have used some children's books in a similar way with 8th graders in the past and found it to be successful.  There are always a few who scoff at being read a picture book however after the first couple of pages they are quiet and engaged as the magic of the story and its illustrations sweep them up.
Scaredy Squirrel can just be a starting point for a literature study of books related to struggles and facing fears.  There are many excellent books at a variety of grade levels that relate to this issue.  Within the safety of a book children can explore and face their fears.  They can see they are not the only one with these feelings and they can read about triumphs in the battle to overcome their anxieties instead of staying stagnant in the security of not approaching the "unknown".  Powerful discussions can take place in the analysis of the story's plot and details.
As a special education teacher who works with students from 1st to 8th grade with a wide variety of labels I wondered how this analytical discussion could be approached with younger students. This was the inspiration for my newest TPT product.  I developed materials that would help younger ones explore these topics as they worked on a Scaredy Squirrel theme in math, reading, and writing activities.  The writing and reading work focuses on story details and explores the fears Scaredy Squirrel faced.  If you are interested please check it out at: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Literacy-and-Math-Fun-with-Scaredy-Squirrel-2025556.

Hope you find this to be an interesting and effective approach for some of your challenging students.  An analysis of Scaredy Squirrel could easily be incorporated into literature and writing time.  Building strong positive relationships with our students are critical to the learning process and discussion on this topic is one step in that multifaceted relationship.

Vocabulary's Important Role in Teaching Math

As teachers we all recognize the importance of vocabulary in reading and writing, yet sometimes we neglect the important role it plays in math.  We get very focused on teaching skills and strategies when we are teaching math however for some of our students mastery of math vocabulary impacts their success in math.  Many of my special education students struggle to recall math terms that we use in math, especially the higher grade levels.  I found that by creating math fluency strips students had a tool for quick visual reference of terms.
  I laminated the math terms we were using for our unit on triangles and angle relationships.  I attached the strips to a binder clip and had it available as a tool for students who had difficulty remembering the difference between an isosceles triangle and an equilateral triangle.  Each math term has a definition with a visual representation. 

In addition to the first set of strips I created a second batch of fluency strips identical to the first set; however these strips had blanks in the definition.  These strips I used in my math centers for additional practice of the terms.  Students practiced individually or with a partner on the “fill in the blank” set in math centers.  My students began to gain confidence with their knowledge of the terms through this repeated practice. 

Students were able to refer to the fluency strips as we completed classwork.  Students were also able to take the strips home to use for reference when doing their homework. Students began to display more confidence and success through the use of the math fluency strips. The fluency strips have definitely had a positive impact on many of my students' math progress and I am currently in the process of developing more for my other math units. 

Click on the link to try out my triangles and angles fluency strips for FREE with your students: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Math-Fluency-Strips-for-Triangles-and-Angles-Vocabulary-1765089

Say it isn't so....Back to School is Here

My Monday Morning reflection is the realization that summer is coming to an end and I plan to wake up early to enjoy and appreciate every last moment.  The sun breaking through the morning haze as birds chirp their daily greeting are memories I want to hold on to for the cold days of winter ahead.

 Some profess to be so excited to be going back to school, but I am not a fan.  Going back to school means so much more than going back to work, it means summer is ending. I don't want to think about the cold season ahead so I avoid the back to school ads with their amazing deals on notebooks and crayons.  I don't want summer to end.

 I don't mind the fall, it is colorful and the weather is pleasant. However, after the glory of a colorful fall winter comes creeping around the corner.  Winter...lovely at Christmas but then it just needs to go away.  Subzero temperatures and eyeballs up to snow is not my idea of a fun time.
I love summer and the endless possibilities of the outdoors that it brings.  I practically live outside in the summer but when winter comes I am only outside for the seconds it takes to run to my car.  I have lived in this tundra like winter climate always however winter seems to get more difficult with each passing year.  I just want to be able to start my day with breakfast on my deck and end it grilling my dinner.  Winter robs me of that opportunity, so when the ads bombard me with "back to school" sales I am sad as I am awakened to the end to summer.  I guess that best strategy is to focus on the new school year and all the exciting new challeges it will bring.
As I come to terms with the reality of summer winding down I have started working on some of the back to school activities I plan to use with my students.  While reading Back to School, Splat by Rob Scotton to my 8 year old I began to think of activities to align it to Common Core Standards and yet make it engaging and fun for students.  The result is Back to School Literacy and Math with Splat the Cat.  Splat is so much fun and I hope by incorporating Splat into math and literacy more students will be motivated by his curious spirit to explore math and literacy.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Back-to-School-Literacy-and-Math-with-Splat-the-Cat-2017256

Enjoy your Monday Morning as we wind through the last lazy days of summer.

Monday Morning and I am taking time to...

Taking time to smell the roses...

No roses but I have a beautiful hibiscus!  Yes, summer school is over and I finally have some time to enjoy a little bit of summer before school resumes.

This Monday is the first Monday that I didn't have to get up at 5:45am for work.  Howevcr from a summer of being conditioned to wake up at that time I was up by 6:00am despite my best intentions to sleep late.
I had the luxury of being able to eat a leisurely breakfast on my deck while listening to bird songs and enjoying the garden scencery surrounding me.  This is how a Monday morning should start!  No rushing and mentally going through my checklist of all I had to do as I fly out the front door.  I am still making a "to do list" in my mind but at a relaxed pace. I have time to revise it and think deeply about goals. It is really more powerful to have the oportunity to mindfully plan while surrounded by nature.

One of my plans is to work on more items for my TPT store.  Actually I don't consider that work.  It is a creative outlet for my art and writing skills and the process is fun and rewarding.  The next two days Teachers Pay Teachers is having a store wide "Back to School Sale". If you use the code:  BTS15 you can receive a 28% discount on any purchase.  I know I don't want to think about back to school already, especially on my first day of vacation this summer.  However, in a couple of weeks it will be a reality and being prepared does make the transition smoother.
There really are some excellent products designed by teachers for teachers.  If you have time check it out: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Mondaymorning
Time to put the lap top away and go back to my first leisurely Monday morning in months.  Hope you find some time in your day to enjoy your Monday!