NAPDS Days 2-3

Day 2 began with a light breakfast followed by an awards ceremony. After the awards, Alex Dixon and her mother took the stage. They shared Alex's story, which is a great example of how having grit can be more important to a child's growth than any other factor. 

The short version of Alex's story is that she suffered a stroke during an emergency brain surgery, which left her with none of her previous academic knowledge. She couldn't remember how to say her name, or even the alphabet. She worked hard to get herself to the point where she is now, an advanced math student who has overcome most of her physical disabilities. She's still working hard to become a better reader, and to regain full use of her right hand, but among other accomplishments, she has passed her high school exit exams. Overall, their presentation served as a great reminder of the power of perseverance.

In the afternoon of day 2 and all of day 3 I was able to go to several sessions, including two on closely related topics that I have dabbled in and have a lot of interest in pursuing further; service learning and Firefox Projects. The ideas of student choice in how they learn, bringing in the community to learn from, and serving the community in some way are all really appealing to me as a teacher.

I'd love to think more on how I can implement some of these concepts into some of the project based learning stuff we already do in my classroom. Have any of you ever done a Foxfire project?

NAPDS Day 1

I am very fortunate to have been given the opportunity to attend and present at the National Association for Professional Development Schools conference in Atlanta this year!

My team did a study on the perceived effectiveness of Penn State's preparation of new teachers regarding readiness to teach in classrooms with high diversity. Phwew, that's a mouthful! Basically, we wanted to know if the new teachers who were graduating from Penn State felt ready to teach in a classroom that had cultures different than their own. Our findings were really interesting, but hard to sum up in less than a 45 minute presentation! The basic theme we found was that the interns felt exceptionally well prepared to teach in general, but a little underprepared when it comes to authentic experiences with students in low socioeconomic situations, and with ELL students. 

We were lucky to be given a Thursday presentation slot, so now I get to sit back and enjoy attending all the other presentations!

Thursday's keynote speaker was Ron Clark from the Ron Clark Academy and also known from the movie The Ron Clark Story (where he was played by Matthew Perry)! And yes, I did just type Ron Clark three times in one sentence.

There is no doubt that Ron's presentation was highly engaging. He is full of energy, he's funny, he has a lot of great stories...but I left the conference room with mixed feelings.

Ron had a great analogy when it comes to the different kinds of teachers you find in schools. He described a school as a Fred Flintstone style bus. To keep the bus moving, you have to put your feet down and provide momentum. 

He described four types of teachers; Runners, Joggers, Walkers, and Riders. You've got the runners, who teach above and beyond. These are the people who take on every job, go to every dance recital, stay late, get there early, serve on a million committees...and do it all with a smile. Next, you've got your joggers, people who go above and beyond, usually THINK they are runners, but aren't actually doing everything they possibly could. The walkers are being dragged along by the runners, trying and usually failing to keep up with teaching trends, etc. Finally, the riders are the teachers that are sitting back and waiting it out until their retirements doing the same things they've done for 25 years.

I get the analogy. I've been a runner or a jogger for my entire career. This is where my mixed feelings came in. Ron said every teacher needs to be a runner all the time. If the people in your life aren't helping you run, he said you need to kick them off your bus. He said this applies to fellow teachers, administrators, and even wives and husbands. He said that if teachers on his bus want to jog or walk sometimes that they can get on a different bus...

I WANT to be a runner all the time. And I really try to run as much as possible. But I also have to recognize that my life has to consist of more than just my teaching. I invest much more time into my teaching than I think is healthy already! I love my kiddos, and I value them more than most other things in my life. But I do have other things in my life that also deserve my time and attention.

I also don't have the resources that Ron seems to have. He mentioned several lessons that he did with his kids, most of which seemed to be highly dependent on a gimmick of some sort that's purpose was to increase student engagement. Will I steal some of these ideas to do as a special activity? Absolutely, yes! I loved his ideas. But I simply can't afford to go out and buy 20 lab coats and goggles or 20 pairs of sunglasses or whatever material for 180 days of school, 5 subjects a day... And I don't feel it is reasonable to expect me to do that.

He also focused a LOT on how his methods impacted his state test scores. It really turned me off that he put so much effort into talking about test scores because I felt like he was validating them as a viable measure of teacher effectiveness...which they aren't.

On the other side of things, he did say some things that I think are very reasonable. Don't sit on your stool. If kids are in the classroom, you aren't on a chair. Move around. Smile. Do something that engages the kids as much as possible. Have high expectations for your kids and hold them to them. Don't "wussify" them. Teach to the top, not the middle. Don't spread poison in your school. Administration should celebrate their runners a bit more and get rid of the riders.

All in all, I enjoyed his presentation, and whether I'm fully on board with all of his thinking or not...it did get me thinking. I wish I had the $700 it takes to visit his school for two days so that I could make a better judgement. 

Have any of you had the opportunity to hear him speak or visit his Academy? I'd love to hear your comments!

Quick Idea for a Reader's Workshop Strategy Group

After talking with my kiddos at their reading conferences over the last few weeks I've started to notice that a good portion of them have trouble pointing out the main idea for a piece of non-fiction writing. I have to admit, this surprised me. A lot of the time I noticed they would latch on to one of the first details mentioned in the piece, and not take in the information from the entire piece to make their claim about what the main idea actually was. 

Even my strongest students needed practice with citing evidence from the text to back up why they had made their claim about what the main idea was for the piece they were reading. They could usually find one piece of evidence, but that was it. But again, they would often get hung up on one small detail that was mentioned in the piece. 

I was already aware of this Freebie my friend Jivey has in her store, and it seemed like a great resource to use to address the strategy of drawing conclusions about main idea by citing evidence. I figured I'd also be able to throw in a little "comparing information from different texts" and the idea of footnotes (text feature) while I was at it. 

One thing I liked about this freebie is that one of the passages is actually about epidemics, but begins by engaging the kids with talk about a zombie outbreak. I figured it'd be perfect to see if kids latch on to the zombies or if they get the overall ideas of epidemics and preparedness. 

I chose to copy the passages side by side, half-sized, to save paper and to make it easier for the kids to look between them. I wish I had flipped them because I wanted to do "Are You Prepared?" second! Aargh! But the size was perfect.

So, after doing a close read of the "Germs" passage, I asked my kids if they were familiar with the concept of hashtags. They were, but I reviewed briefly by showing them a picture on my phone, and asking them if different words/phrases would be appropriate hashtags for that image. Once we were all definitely on board...and the kids were thoroughly confused as to why I was showing them a beach vacation photo and talking about instagram... I asked them to hashtag the passage they had just read. It was funny to see the kids' faces go "Aaaaaah...Mr. Reitz wasn't just being off task..."

Here are the hashtags on one of my kids' "Germs" passage:

The kids came up with clever hashtags that were totally on point! After sharing a couple of their hashtags as a group, we talked about how we could boil down their hashtags to make a claim about what the main idea of any passage might be. 

I DIDN'T show them this image because I
didn't want to thoroughly confuse them.

When we moved on to the passage about epidemics, I knew that some kids would want to hashtag "zombies" or something like that. We talked about how in my original photo there was a guy in the background wearing a t-shirt, and while this is related to the idea of it being summer and me being at the beach...it's not important enough for me to say #appropriatetimetoweartshirts because that's not what the photo is about. 

In the end, the kids were able to make the exact claims that I hoped they'd make. This piece is about what epidemics are, and how you can prepare for them. Success!

The downside? For an entire afternoon my kids made this hand symbol and said things like, "Hashtag: yessity yes" when I tried to get their attention or "Hashtag: stamina" when I sent them off to Read to Self.  :) Eh...let's just call that a by-product of Whole Brain Teaching and call it a day!

I'll be revisiting the passages this week to talk about how to annotate a text, and to look at the idea of footnotes as a text feature. I plan to ask my kids to practice making a few footnotes of their own. While doing this week's activities, I wasn't surprised to find that 95% of my kids had never even heard of the word footnote! I hope that the different annotations we make will help us further understand the text and make answering the included comprehension questions a breeze.

Whether you use this freebie this way, or another way, it's definitely worth a look. Jivey also has a paid set of paired texts in her store for $5 about Owls, Bats, and Spiders. I have this product as well, and am looking forward to using the passages with different groups in different ways in the future! I'd love to hear from you guys about other ideas and ways to use paired texts like this!

#funreadingplan #effective #easytodifferentiate #mainidea

UVA Conference - Day 3! Teacher Mindset

Yesterday morning and a portion of this morning we spent some time talking about Mindset. I've talked about mindset before, and I shared some of Carol Dweck's work with you in my last post, but I thought I'd highlight really quickly what I've learned about the advantages to having a growth mindset.

When a teacher has a growth mindset they:

-Shape student self-perception positively
-Build group trust
-Teach what they believe children can learn
-Do what it takes to make sure their kids are successful

Unfortunately, having a fixed mindset leads to the exact opposite. My principal pointed out today that it is just as important to make sure that parents know about this stuff. If you've ever caught a parent saying "Jenny just isn't good at spelling. Her dad is good at math, but she takes after me." That's cringe-worthy fixed mindset material! We've got to step in and teach parents sometimes. What you mean is, "Jenny isn't a good speller yet. We'll do what it takes to help her become one though!" "Her dad has always been good at math, she can be too if she puts her mind to it."

Here's a piece of food for thought. What if our rubrics only had two categories? Acceptable, and Above. Remember from yesterday? Sustained failure is not acceptable. If a student fails at something and isn't given the opportunity to try again and get better (with scaffolding) then that must mean that the task given wasn't important enough for them to need mastery. If that's the case, why was the task given at all? We should give our kids tasks that lead to understandings. We should do what it takes to make sure that they master those understandings. We know they can with the right help!

Another tidbit: Why do we have to be certain that our lessons are engaging? Because kids eat up knowledge when it's served as ice cream, and they ignore it when it's liver and onions! Engaging doesn't always mean fun, either! Sometimes you engage your kids by getting them angry. (Like when I showed my 5th graders last year the figure that represents the number of slaves still in today's modern world)  Sometimes you engage them with a mystery. Sometimes you give them a mission. If you truly connect the content to their lives and experiences, they'll be engaged.

Well, I know that was a quick check-in, but I'm a sleepy guy! We went out and toured Monticello this afternoon. It was super interesting...and super hot! Here's a picture of one of America's greatest geniuses ignoring me, much like he seemed to ignore the problem of slavery! It's hard to believe that Jefferson had such an amazing mind, yet owned over 600 slaves in his lifetime...some of which were actually his own children, nieces, and nephews. It was refreshing to see that the good people at Monticello have come to terms with his sordid past, and are portraying Jefferson as the complicated, enlightened, crazy-intelligent, and yet completely hypocritical man that he really was. 

If you're ever in Charlottesville, it's worth the trip! The house is truly intriguing, and the tour guides were both great! They definitely showed that passion for their content that is so important.

I'll check in tomorrow with a little about assessment and feedback!

UVA Conference - Day 2! Shaping Environment

This morning's talk focused a lot on Shaping Environment. Yesterday, we watched this touching 60 Minutes clip about Gospel for Teens. We discussed in more detail this morning. Both parts of the show add up to 30 minutes, but I dare you to try and watch it and not get misty-eyed! This lady is with it! The teaching world is hurting because she isn't in it full time! Whether she's read the research or not, Vi has done what it takes to make sure that her classroom environment has what it takes for student success. 

So what does it take? Well, I've taken some of the concepts we talked about this morning and added in my own take, and some other resources (not from the conference) that I've come across over the years! 

-A love for your content (at least one subject area). Kids need to see passion in their teachers! This makes me think back to Teach Like a Pirate! 

-Understanding, but not accepting, failure. Kids will fail sometimes. Failure is part of the learning process sometimes. We get that. But failing forever is not okay. As Carol Dweck or Angela Lee Duckworth might say, you've got to have grit! Here's a great video about grit!

-Kids (and teachers) need to leave their baggage at the door. No one said this will be easy. But it's necessary! This is where some mindful practices, anchor breathing, or yoga might come in handy!

-Connecting the curriculum to kids' lives is key! It's age old teacher knowledge that you've got to have kids make connections, and see the content as relevant.

-Teachers have to believe in their kids. We have to have that growth mindset that says that all kids can become smarter. You read that right, not JUST "All kids can learn," but "All kids can become smarter!" Words like high-ability, low-ability, etc. just serve to perpetuate the idea in kids' minds that ability is a fixed thing. I really like the term "readiness levels" instead. If a kid is at a low readiness level, that just means he needs scaffolding to help him be at a higher readiness level. Imagine a kiddo thinking to themselves, "I have low ability." Now imagine that kiddo thinking, "I'm not ready, yet." That last word makes all the difference. Check out this short video of Carol Dweck talking about the Power of Yet!

-Teachers have to take every opportunity to understand their students. You need to study your students! Like I mentioned before, having a strong teacher-student relationship can have one of the hugest impacts on student growth! See what this thoughtful young teacher did in her school!

I'm still enjoying the conference! I really feel like there just won't be enough time to suck up all the knowledge that is being offered. I love the fact that research and decades of experience are backing up my beliefs on teaching. I'm looking forward to working even harder to make sure that I am doing everything possible to have a respectful, and effective learning environment. I'd love to hear your thoughts about the videos, and how you think they might go over at a back to school in-service day!

I'll check in again tomorrow!

Day 1 - UVA Differentiation Conference

I have the luck to be one of the few hundred teachers and administrators at the University of Virginia's Summer Institute on Academic Diversity, which is focusing on Differentiated Instruction. The conference is being led by the amazing Dr. Carol Ann Tomlinson. 

Each day the conference begins with a talk given by Dr. Tomlinson, and let me tell you...she does a great job of making that 3 and a half hours fly by. I call it a "talk" and not a "lecture" because she really makes you feel like she is talking to you, and that you are free to contribute or ask questions at any time. 

Some things that stuck with me that I'd love to share are:

The idea that the connection between the student and the teacher has been proven over and over again to be a leading contributor to student growth.

We looked at some of the research done by John Hattie (a meta-analyses that involved 200+ million students!) that showed that in over 50,000 research studies that ability grouping actually led to less growth than would have happened in a classroom without it.

The same study showed that a good teacher student relationship often doubled growth. Giving effective feedback could also double or even triple growth!

I think one of the great things Dr. Tomlinson said was, "Give yourself permission to start (and grow slowly.)" She's referring to introducing differentiation practices. We all know that it can take time to put together and gather those resources. Sometimes we have to accept the fact that it will take us a few years to become experts. There will be some trial and error. I know personally I can drive myself crazy trying to implement everything all at once because I know it is what's best and I want what's best...but sometimes we have to give ourselves permission to take it slow!

The afternoon of each day is spent in break out sessions. I first went to a session about how to give effective feedback on students' writing in math. It was great to get a checklist of ideas for giving feedback that actually benefits the kids, especially those that are getting it. Sometimes, "Great Job!" just doesn't cut it! Asking them to explain their reasoning, provide alternate solutions, explain who they might do it next time, etc. will get them thinking about how to take the math to the next level. 

The second session was all about building community and classroom management. I have to admit...I feel like both of these areas are strengths of mine...so I didn't get as much new information out of this session as I hoped. But I did have a principal try to recruit me to her school! So I'll take that as a compliment! Haha.

I was already looking forward to the conference, but after today I'm extra excited for the rest of the week!

Back to the Archive - 7/23/13 - Advice for New Teachers

I'm popping in from the past again with another Back to the Archive post! This one is from last year! I'm giving out some sage advice to all the new teachers out there! ;)

So...let's go BACK!

I'm tripling up and linking up with the "Loving Wisdom for New Teachers" Linky from Fabulously First, the Let's Get Acquainted - Teacher Advice Linky from Flying into First Grade, and this linky from Miss Kindergarten:

To do a little linky alchemy, my ten things are in the form of advice, gleaned from my observations and personal experiences + mistakes + successes over the years. (Also, I've thrown in some photos to break up my wordiness.)

Me as a fresh-faced first year
teacher! Bwahaha! Look at that
cool guy...

Well, this next year will be my lucky 13th year of teaching and I have definitely noticed some trends, and learned quite a bit in that time. I'm going to try to not repeat too many of the great ideas I've already read in these linkies. If I do repeat a bit, sorry! I'm afraid some of these will come off as preachy or know-it-allish, please know that that's not my intention! I've definitely even been guilty of a couple of these. But that leads me to my first one...

#1 - Don't ever think you've mastered it. I once worked with a guy who told me that he was planning to move into a principal position because he had "completely mastered" teaching. He'd been teaching for all of 5 years. I refrained from punching his lights out, but I did imagine doing it. If there's one thing I've learned from teaching, it is that one can never master it. You should always be striving to become a better educator.

#2 - Don't let people or "things" steal your passion. Less than desirable trends, admin, parent interactions, curriculum programs, NCLB, etc will come and go. Close your door and do what's best for your kids. Easier said than done sometimes, I know!

#3 - Love what you teach, and if you don't...pretend or at least still love how you teach it. Like our friend Dave Burgess will attest, enthusiasm is key. If you have to teach American History up to the Civil War to 5th graders and couldn't care less about history... pretend. If asked, my students would say I'm crazy about history. In reality I didn't have any interest in it...until I started to act like I did and used full fledged, in depth simulations to teach it. Now it's actually interesting to me!

#4 - Share. Seems simple, but I've found that it's not. If you do something cool in your room, share it! I want to believe that the reason teachers don't share is because they are shy about their ideas. (But I know that some just don't like to share the limelight of a good idea. :(  ) The students always benefit when teachers share. So don't be shy, and don't wait for a colleague to ask you! If your colleagues don't like your ideas they won't use them. Afraid you'll look too proud of your own ideas? Who cares? You SHOULD be proud. The end.

Don't fall into the trap of
being a screamer.

#5 - Keep control. We've all had kids with behaviors that are...less than perfect. We've all known teachers who are screamers. (Or maybe you're lucky and haven't!) Don't be that teacher. If you're screaming, you've lost control...don't blame it on your kids. 

#6 - Have high expectations for learning and behavior...AND enforce them. If you don't back up your expectations then they're meaningless. I think a lot of teachers who struggle with classroom management tell their kids that they have high expectations but then when the kids don't meet them they just let it go. 

#7 - Plan. I know that many of you will read that and think, "duh!" But in my opinion planning is not just smart, it's our duty. Kids deserve their days/lessons to be well thought out and planned with them specifically in mind. Taught it 12 times before? Not to these kids you haven't. "But I want to be flexible in my teaching." Great! But being flexible is not NOT having a plan...I've heard that from teachers across my career and it's a pet peeve of mine.

Freebie!

#8 - Fair is not the same as equal. Our society stresses that everyone should be treated equally. And in many cases that is true. But I think when it comes to education it's more important that people are treated fairly. Everyone should have the equal opportunity to reach their full potential. Click my poster over there to download one for yourself for free! Check out my band-aid lesson post for more on this topic.

#9 - Remember your real job. I almost think the hidden curriculum is more important than the actual academic curriculum. Public education was created to make people into better citizens. If I help make my kids into good people, give them good life experiences, provide them with a place that they feel safe and loved, plan exciting and engaging lessons, and get to know them as people...the test scores and all that will work itself out.

I met Killer B when she was a resource teacher
and taught in the classroom next to mine. I
eventually tricked her into marrying me!

#10 - Keep an open mind. Whether you've heard rumors about a kid on your roster, think you can't learn anything from a professional development meeting, think your methods are already good enough, etc...chances are, you're wrong. Sometimes it's easy to go into something with a fixed mindset rather than a growth mindset. And when you do that, you're bound to miss out on some wonderful opportunities. 

My contribution to Let's Get Acquainted!

So I hope that didn't come off as too soapboxy. A lot of those served as great reminders to myself! Hopefully there are some new teachers and veterans out there that at least can read this and think, "Right on!" 

Didn't win? It's just $5! Click the image to get one!

So, Killer B picked a winner at random (she didn't even know what I was asking her about!) for my pin it to win it for the Book of Awesome Tasks, and it was Joanne M.! I've already e-mailed your prize to you, and I hope you love it as much as I do!

Don't forget to link up this summer!

An InLinkz Link-up

Back to the Archive! - 7/3/13 - Modified Cafe Menu

So, I'm bringing a post back to the future from exactly a year ago! This one was originally posted on July 3rd, 2013! I chose it because it's a good example of how I've set up my Reader's Workshop, and includes a freebie! 

So, without further ado...let's go BACK TO THE ARCHIVE!

I'm linking up with Workshop Wednesday from Ideas by Jivey for her July Workshop topic - setting up, before the kids arrive.

I'll be sharing a bit (and a couple freebies!) about how I do my Reader's Workshop this time because if you like it you'd need to prep before the kids arrive. I have a relatively non-traditional (but becoming more popular!) way of teaching reading, but I think it really works. I've heard a lot of good things from others about it too, so I feel like I'm on the right track.

It'd be crazy to talk about everything I do in this post, but I think a lot of the backbone to what I do stems from how I group, and my modified Daily 5/CAFE Menu.

Me with a mixed ability reading group -
from footage taken for an instructional video on teaching
using a reader's workshop! I'm famous! ;)

I do a combination of strategy groups (2-5 kids) that change consistently, mini-lessons, and one-on-one conferences. I do not have static leveled reading groups. The kids in my groups can be "high" or "low" or whatever...the common factor isn't their reading ability or the book they're reading. It's the skill/strategy they need to work on. When a kiddo masters a skill/strategy they move into a different group or I start a new one for them. Some kids are in two groups. Some groups I see once a week, some I see every day. Some kids move groups quickly, some don't. Sometimes we use a passage for "close reading," sometimes the kids have their good fit books.

It all goes back to the age-old Band-aid lesson. (Maybe you've seen a pin on pinterest about it!) The first week of school I "cut my finger" accidentally and then procede to hand out band-aids to the whole class and insist that the kids put them on their fingers. They think it's silly that everyone should get one. This leads to a discussion about how I want my classroom to be based on equity, not equality. Everyone gets what they NEED, not everyone is treated the same. Some kids need me to be more hands-on than others when it comes to mastering reading strategies. The kids get it, and I never hear a complaint about "how come you met with Austin 3 times and me just once?"

Whole group mini-lesson (keyword mini) on figurative
language, using Wonder by RJ Palacio.

In order to help facilitate the madness, I give every kiddo a CAFE menu and we highlight all over it as the year goes by. I also keep pretty crazy charts in my pensieve about who is in what group, and when I last conferenced with each kid. Every student is usually working on at least 3 strategies - the one that the whole class is doing as part of my whole group mini-lesson, the one they are working on that I identify during their one-on-ones, and the one their strategy group is working on. Occasionally these will overlap.

My intern conferring with a student one-on-one. So nice to
have another adult to double up on these. Sadly, I don't
think I'll have one next year.

Because I was new to 5th grade two years ago I basically scoured the internet for everything I could find about using D5/CAFE in the upper grades. In the end I discovered a couple 5th grade CAFE menus that were almost what I was looking for. (I honestly have no idea where I found those original ones.) Over the last two years I've made a lot of adaptations to the merged menu I made, and I think it is in a good place now for me.

DISCLAIMER: It is not formatted identically to the "sisters' menu." I made some executive decisions. I went with the A for Awareness instead of Accuracy (I think accuracy is part of fluency anyway.) I also added/expanded on several strategies to the menu that were missing(imho), and removed some of the ones that I thought were too young for older kids. 

Please check it out (freebie of course!) to see if you think you could use it or any aspect of it! 

I'm moving to a 3/4 multi-age next year and I think that even though I made this with 5th in mind I am going to definitely use it with my 4th graders, and maybe tone it down a smidge for my 3rd graders. (Any 3rd grade experts out there want to chime in on that?! I'd appreciate it!)

Anyway, even though this is more work, I would find it incredibly difficult to go back to the way I was teaching reading 4 years ago at this point. (Four 20-minute rotating leveled guided reading groups, all kids had the same book, etc.) And I think a big part of that is the value I see in my one-on-one conferences and the fluid grouping. I feel like I know my kids' needs much more deeply now. I am in no way saying that what other teachers are doing is not just as effective or valuable, btw! I just finally found a good fit for my style and my particular kids' needs!

I use a pensieve like the sisters recommend. I have conferring pages in the notebook for every student, but I often find it more convenient to take my conference notes on a sticky label and then put them into the notebook later. Here is a link to the document I use to print them out on the 14 per page Avery brand labels! It's just like the D5 provided sheets, just printed on labels. It beats hauling my pensieve around the classroom.

A brand spankin' new linky this week is Win, Loss, & Cost from Third Grade Galore and Digital: Divide and Conquer!

Win :)
My recent win would have to be our delightful vacation to Savannah and Tybee Island. Check out recent posts (or join me on instagram, people!) for more info on that.

Loss :(
I've been neglecting my TpT store a bit to focus on other teachery things and now I've got a bunch of half finished projects going on and I'm getting overwhelmed by it all! I need to sit down and finish one soon!

A Thing of Cost $
To tie in with the Workshop stuff. Here is an example of something I might have my kids do at the teacher and independent stations to practice some of the CAFE skills! Check it out!

That's it for now! I'm looking forward to seeing all of the other workshop ideas! I'm always looking to improve how I do things, and I know I'll need to make some adjustments for 3rd/4th next year. I do a reading, math, and writing workshop in my room, so this linky was made for me!

And don't you think Win, Loss, & Cost is pretty fun too? Looking forward to seeing everyone else's!


I hope you enjoyed that blast from the past! And I hope you'll link up this summer too!

An InLinkz Link-up

Zero Waste Parent Night Success!

Recently I hosted a Zero Waste Parent Night at our school and I'm happy to report it was a huge success! The parent night came about because I was a person in need. As I've talked about before, I'm one of the school's leaders when it comes to our efforts to become more green. 

My team came up with this "Are you sure?" viral campaign,
and Liz and her kids made these giant signs. It really got the
kids talking. Later we introduced smaller signs throughout
the school with the same message. A week later we added
the terracycle items to the signs so that people would get the
message, "Are you sure that you're putting your trash where
it belongs?" It's been a great success!

Beyond serving on my school's Zero Waste Team, I am the originator and the person in charge of all of my school's terracycling efforts. If you haven't heard of terracycling, check out some of my previous posts or read about it on the website! 

The other members of my team all have their own projects. Liz handles the k-cups and misc. plastics, Ron handles the curbside recyclables and helps with misc. plastics, and Brenda has us all working on reducing our paper towel usage and trains kids to become Earth Heroes! 

My team has also eliminated the use of plastic utensils in the school. Kids eat breakfast in our classrooms, and for some reason every kid that buys breakfast used to get this little spork with a straw and napkin in a plastic wrapper. Half the time the breakfast was a toaster strudel and the spork, straw, napkin, and plastic went right into the trash can. What a pointless waste! Now the kids get a piece of real silverware and we collect them in the room and then return them to the cafeteria for washing. So simple!

We also pulled a sneaky trick on our fellow teachers! This year when everyone came back from summer vacation, a little change had occurred. Maybe they didn't even notice...but all of their trash cans had been replaced with smaller ones! We're sending the message, "You shouldn't NEED a giant trash can."

Look what we are getting installed with some
of that saved money! Filtered water bottle
refilling stations are going into each of my
school's hallways! Hurray for even less waste!

These are just a couple of our victories. Our total combined efforts have led to us being able to cut our dumpster tipping down from 5 days a week to just 2! That saves our school district over $250 a month in garbage collection fees! Not to mention all the diesel involved in hauling our trash to the landfill for 3 less days!

How did we get here? Well, it started small. For me, it all started about 5 years ago when I introduced my students (at that time I was teaching 1st/2nd grade multi-age) to our new service learning project and we began collecting ziploc bags and juice pouches at my school. That year I considered our efforts to be wildly successful. We collected a lot of stuff, did a lot of math, wrote some great persuasive pieces about which charities should get the money we earned, etc. Ron and Brenda has their own individual things going on too. Finally, we decided to join forces! Our principal has been a strong supporter of our efforts, and even gives us some covered half-days to do some of our work! 

See all our awards?! Our Zero Waste Zone is located front
and center in our school's lobby! As soon as you walk in
you know how serious we are about going green!

Fast forward to the present...we have now greatly expanded our efforts, and combined them with the efforts of my fellow teachers in other "green" endeavors. We now collect elmer's glue products, plastic tape dispensers, solo cups, dairy tubs, used markers, toothpaste tubes and brushes, and of course...the dreaded juice pouch.

I had four giant bags like this one just
full to the brim with rotten juice
pouches. Yuck!

Now, this is where the trouble starts. The students in my school have become AWESOME at terracycling. That means that instead of the 10-15 pouches a day we used to collect, we are now collecting closer to a hundred or so each day. Each one of those pouches has at least half a sip of juice in them that need to be squeezed out. Sometimes they're half full of juice! :( 

Before you know it a week has gone by and we haven't had time to squeeze the pouches. Fruit flies come for a visit. Juice ferments. Gross. Now that they're nice and gross, no one wants to squeeze them, so they just pile up more and more! Aagh!

So, I decided to host an hour long event after school one evening to have parents come and do the dirty work! I also had a few other teachers, kids, and interns stop by to help. By the end of the hour we had completely caught up on all of the nasty juice pouches! 

We stuffed this huge box with all of the now empty and flattened pouches. When I took it to ship it, it weighed over 45 pounds! That's going to go a long way towards making some money that my kids will give to various charities at the end of the year!

As a bonus, I had parents come and catch up on my colleague's pet project...k-cups. Did you know that k-cups are becoming a HUGE waste concern? The really horrible thing about that is that they shouldn't be! The foil top and plastic cup are recyclable, and the coffee grounds and filters are compostable! K-cups should be a zero waste item...but most people just throw them away! We collect them at my school instead!

Liz's class weighed up the waste we kept out of the landfill.

I'm pretty impressed with the amount of work we got done in just one hour. I wasn't sure that any parents would come to be honest! It's nice to know there are parents out there that care enough about our school's efforts and our planet to take some time to help!

What are you doing at your school to help conservation efforts? It can be a lot of work, but it's worth it!

And lastly, have you heard about the TpT Sale going on? You can get 28% off everything over a dollar in my store! Now's a great time to grab up some stuff to end this year with a bang, or to get ready for next year! I hope you'll stop by my store and give it a look!