Words of Wisdom from The Phantom Tollbooth

The other night in my book club, the question of "What book have you read more than one time?" came up.  For me, the one book that stands out to me and falls into this category is The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster.  For 8 years I taught 5th grade, and each year I taught two sections.  With each class I used this book to explore various skills in language arts. So, if I calculate correctly, I read this book at least 16 times (if not more!). So when the Blog a Month topic of reflecting on a quote came up - this is the first place I thought to look.

There are so many quotes to reflect on that I could probably write an entire blog dedicated just to this topic, but I will focus in this post on the few that have stayed with me and become a huge part of my life since I first read this novel back in the year 2000.

At the end of Milo's journey he talks about how he made so many mistakes along the way - and explains apologetically how he could have finished the quest earlier had he not.  The character Reason explains to him:

"You must never feel badly about making mistakes, as long as you take the trouble to learn from them.  For you more often learn by being wrong for the right reasons, then for being right for the wrong reasons."  

Learning from our mistakes is at the very core of learning and growing.  It often takes more than one time to get the answer we are looking for.  And sometimes, we may never even get there.  Empowering kids to understand this is very essence of what we do. 

Another of my favorite quotes is when Milo reaches the top of the Castle in the Air and he asks the King why he didn't tell him his quest was impossible.  And so wisely, the King replies:

  
"So many things are possible, just as long as you don't know they are impossible."  

Wow!  This quote often led to amazing discussion with kids about believing in yourself no matter what, in not backing down when something seems hard, and ultimately in always giving something worth doing a try.

"Expect everything so that nothing every comes unexpected".  

I loved this quote because of the sheer play on words that could be discussed with the kids. I especially loved it since this quote is said in a city called Expectations.  But now reading it in isolation it makes me think of positivity.  It reminds me that it is important to have an open mind about everything because you never know what you can expect - so maybe we should just expect everything and be happy with whatever comes our way.

These quotes all have personal and professional meanings for me.  Taking risks, learning from mistakes, staying positive and having an open mind, are keys all to success, in both life and work. While The Phantom Tollbooth, in the classroom, is an incredible vehicle for teaching about figurative language, characterization, story elements etc.  It is even better for learning about life!  

“But I suppose there's a lot to see everywhere, if only you keep your eyes open.”

What I am Thankful For

This holiday season I was asked by the #blogamonth community to reflect on what I am thankful for. There were many prompts to use.  

• Who has helped you grow as a teacher?
• What are you grateful for learning about yourself the past year?
• What challenges have you been faced with, and what did you learn as a result?
• How can we say thank you more often?

While I could come up with bright, insightful answers for each of these and write an introspective and thoughtful blog post, instead I am going to blog about Pinterest.  How does Pinterest fit into the equation of who has helped me grow as a teacher?  Or how I am grateful for what I have learned about myself this past year, or challenges I have faced?  Well, that's easy. Without Pinterest, my creative side would never have been sparked.  

My whole life I have been SOMEWHAT creative - being a teacher you have to be. But bulletin boards, cutesy posters and pretty homemade flashcards were never my strength.  With the discovery of Pinterest though, my whole world changed.  The creativity I have had inside me all along, but hadn't really seen since I was a kid or a first year teacher, was unleashed.

Veggie Turkey

Pokemon Snacks

Pinterest, for me, acts as a spring board for ideas.  It is here that I learned about my desire to make themed food. Hence, my "veggie turkey" for Thanksgiving, dreidel treats made from chocolate kisses for Hanukkah, a watermelon cut up to look like a frog to represent the plagues for Passover and Pokemon related snacks for a school tech fair party.

It has also made me a better mom.  My kids have had gone dressed to school for book character day as Fly Guy, Pippi Longstocking, and Pete the Cat.  Not only do I feel good about their outfits, they feel GREAT! And I couldn't be happier to send them to school confident and excited about what they love to read.  Pinterest is also responsible for assisting me coming up with ideas for at home crafting, STEM challenges, and makerspace projects.  

And of course I have perused Pinterst for countless ideas for work.  The Media Center benefits from my Pinterest use because now I am inspired to make cool bulletin boards, book displays, and get thousands of ideas for Marvelous Mornings, where I greet kids each morning before school.

So what I am thankful for this year?
I guess Pinterest is the simple answer.
The more complicated, introspective one,
is that I am thankful to
be in a world,
work in an environment,
and live in a home,
where creativty is valued, and celebrated,
and most importantly - shared! 

My Educational Soapbox

So I knew that there was a blog a month hashtag on twitter and have been using it to spread the word of my blog, only to realize this month, that there is a specific #blogamonth challenge!  Now, that I am aware of this, I will not only continue to blog on my own, but am excited to have a topic handed to me to help me keep writing.

For my "educational soapbox" challenge I would like to talk about morning work in the elementary school classrooms.  Each morning students arrive in their classrooms and complete "morning work". What does this mean?  What are they doing?  Is this work only to be completed in the morning? What about when there is a dual curriculum and students show up mid-day?  Is it now "afternoon work".  And why is it almost always in worksheet form?  

When I was a classroom teacher for grades 2 and 5, each afternoon before I left for the day, I set up my classroom for students to know what they could do when they came in the next day.  Each day I had brainteasers on the board, along with other word/mind puzzles like rebuses and what I called plexers.  The kids were always excited to come in and see if they could figure them out and then before we began the scheduled day we would go over the answers and have a quick discussion.  This was their "morning work".  Looking back on it, I don't know if I ever put out worksheets to complete, and if I did they were fun (if there's such a thing).  I remember giving them more "chore like" things to do around the classroom that got them moving around - not seated quietly writing on a sheet.  Or maybe they would be reading, or finishing up something from the day before.  

I get it, kids are walking in to school at different times so there needs to be something for those early arrivers to do and it needs to be something that the late ones aren't "missing" anything important.  So, my rant goes like this - instead of having these kids fill out useless worksheets (more commonly known as busy work because this is all it is), get them into the habit of entering the classroom ready to really think!  Why not engage kids from the very start of their day?? Put out STEM challenges, brain puzzles, snap circuit kits, games to play.  Whatever you have on hand that is easy and quick - but most importantly it should be engaging.  If you set up your classroom to be exciting very first thing in the morning, it's possible those kids who usually come later, might actually want to get to school on time!!!

This is my experience  with Marvelous Mornings in the Media Center where students who arrive to school early get to do all the things I am talking about in this blog.  Usually, I few students each day lingering and loitering, and definitely NOT running to get to their classroom.  If their classrooms were set up where they were presented with activities to use their brains going first thing, they may change their minds.  I am often told that Marvelous Mornings is their favorite part of the school day and the parents are coaxed into getting kids to school early just so they can attend - well let's bring some of that to the classrooms!!  

This concept of getting students excited about school is not new, nor original.  Then why do so many teachers still give out worksheets each morning (and the same one to each kid no matter what their learning style or academic achievment is).  It is time that classroom teachers change their mindset to see that engaging children from the very beginning of their school day will result in more enthusiastic and excited learners.  I feel I have always had a sense of this, and it is reminds me that I am truly a future ready teacher from the past!

#afterschoolwiththekids

Walk on the Trails

I am lucky that my schedule at work allows me to come home everyday and experience #afterschoolwiththekids - MY KIDS! Each day I leave work with enough time to head home to meet my kids at the bus.  I have written in a previous blog that my favorite part of my day was the half hour I spend with a group of students before school official starts during Marvelous Mornings. But this is my favorite part of the SCHOOL day.  My favorite part of my day as a whole is that 10 seconds when the bus pulls up, my kids get off it, give me hugs and kisses and run into the house to begin our afternoon together.

Carpool Run

Contrary to popular opinions on this subject, I allow my kids to watch TV when they first get home from school. At first I fought this - but then I thought about what I like to do after a long, hard day at work and it is definitely NOT more work or to exercise!  So I have given in and they watch 20 or 30 minutes of a show or play a computer game while eating a snack, and then guess what?  It's still only about 3:00!!! There are still several hours before dinner, bath, and bedtime.  Plenty of time to run around outside, go on errands, play a sport, make play dates, drive carpool for their older sister, help make dinner and generally have a good time.  Also, in the time I allow them to wind down, I get to do the same.  I can read or listen to my book, take a power nap on the couch, or even write this blog!  

Lego club at the library -
Good Free Fun!

I am not a huge believer in over scheduling my kids - in fact sometimes I can be accused of UNDER scheduling.  Because of this I think my kids are less stressed and honestly enjoy spending time at home.  Our afternoons consist of all the things I would have liked to have done after school as a kid - playing outside, going for walks and adventures in the creek in our backyard, playing with friends (we live in the most amazing neighborhood for this), going to the library, going to after school activities once or twice a week, doing homework, and making things.  Every so often, especially on rainy afternoons, you will find us cuddled on the couch watching an 80's movie from my childhood that I am sharing with them.  E.T. was a hit, Gremlins, I probably should have thought through a little better.  But in the end, we are able to discuss each one and share the experience together.  Here are some other shared experiences:

A trip to the car wash -
one of our less exciting adventures

A scavenger hunt through the neighborhood

Even though my days are SUPER full, from sun-up to sun-down, and many days the kids drive me crazy, as long my job allows me this flexiblity, I am going to cherish every
afternoon I have with my kids.    

Marvelous Mornings - Year 2

This year I am continuing to run the pre-care program in the library before school begins.  Each day students are allowed to be dropped off at 7:30, and school begins at 8:00.  At this early morning hour students are provided with several options.  They can go to the gym where they run around and play games, the art room is open some days for work on projects/open art studio, many students in grades 3-5 are involved in the band program, or they can come to the library where I am "on duty" each and every day (BEST DUTY EVER!  See my blog post on this very subject).  

After a year of cultivating a new idea of what these mornings in the library could be, it is finally in a place that I comfortable calling them "Marvelous Mornings" because they truly are MARVELOUS! At any given point you will see students creating, thinking and collaborating.  This is largely due in part to cultivating an environment where students can come in and explore what they are interested by presenting them with a variety of STEM challenges, guiding them towards books in the library where they can learn how to do something new (like how to draw a horse or make a paper airplane), providing organized materials to pick from for the purpose of making and creating, and last but not least, encourging innovation.

What's next for Marvelous Mornings?  This year it is a goal of mine to continue to enhance this program so I am currently enrolled in a MOOC on Coursera about the Art of Tinkering from the gurus over at the Exploritorium in California.  Here, I am getting new ideas of how to continually improve this program I have created and adding in another level of makering and tinkering. So far we have a successful makerspace with limited supplies and money - and I have gotten approval to purchase items like motors, lightbulbs, wires, etc that will help grow our Marvelous Mornings.  I am so inpsired by the "Art of Tinkering" and the course I am taking to learn what tools I can add for specific projects with the addition of an actual budget.  I will update my blog once I finish my wishlist, order the supplies, and begin to implement some of the ideas I get by engaging with the MOOC (which I already have some and it's only week one!)  

Working in a school library, which is a central part of most school communities, we have the opportunity to be changemakers, to model and showcase new ideas of learning and teaching.  Many times, a teacher/tutor/parent/administrator will walk into the library during Marvelous Mornings and comment on how engaged and excited the kids are.  They are often curious about what they are doing.  I am hoping that the marvelous time we are having is contagious and begins to infect the classrooms, or at the very least, teachers see there is a space in the library where they can bring their students for a different kind of learning - but (IMHO) the very best kind!

The zipline they have been working on and constantly improving. 

A typical Marvelous Morning!

Organized materials are the best materials!

Library Love

I am a library lover.  Always have been, always will.  I will wait a year for a book on hold at the library and get super excited about it when it finally comes in.  I download audiobooks to listen to on my commute.  My kids and I have been frequenting the public library's children's collections and have attended countless programs there for the last 12 years..  And oh yeah, I teach in one.



Just recently, a trip to the library initiated learning about specific authors with my kids - our at home "author study".  For the first one we checked out books by Eric Carle, then watched a video of him demonstrating his special technique to create his drawings.  At home we recreated his works!  It took several days of painting, drying, then cutting and collaging - but the results were worth it!  They looked amazing and the kids (and me) were so proud of recreating this technique.

The next author we studied was Dr. Seuss.  For this author we went to see a performance at the public library done by a local theater that was producing Seussical the Musical. Here they performed Horton Hears aWho.  Then at home we stretched our thinking by rewriting the ending. Which led to amazing discussions about this book.  

Finally, we checked out books by Amy Krause Rosenthal, one of my personal favorites.  The kid's fell in love with Duck! Rabbit! and argued their points about whether they thought the character in the book was a Duck or a Rabbit, then used the app My Story on our iPad to explain their thinking. We tweeted it out to the author and illustrator and Tom Lichentenheld responded!!!

Learning does not have to be complicated and hard.  You can find something to learn about it every experience you have - especially trips to the library!

#Summertimewiththekids

It's 9:00 am on a Friday and once again I have woken up before my three kids (ages 12, 7 and 5).  It must be summer!!  With only a short time left before school begins, and with a little extra time to myself in the morning, I have found time to reflect on what the kids and I have done this summer, what we have learned, what we have accomplished.  Only, when I first think about it, I am riddled with guilt that maybe we have not done much, have learned just a few new things, and accomplished very little.
Immediately I am anxious, faced with the idea that I have failed my kids.  I have failed at giving them the most fantastic summer ever.  I have failed at teaching them countless lessons about life and history and whatever their spongy little heads will absorb.  I have failed at making them more productive citizens.

But then I quickly realize that the exact opposite is true. I have succeeded in the most important thing of all - having fun with my kids, getting to know them even better than I already did, and hanging out experiencing life together.

When I self doubt myself and I think we are being lazy for sleeping so late and I think about how I have definitely let me kids have too much screen time, I need something to reassure myself that this is not true.  So, I look back at my tweets about #summertimewiththekids and see what we actually HAVE DONE, what my kids HAVE LEARNED, and that we have actually accomplished A LOT!   

Everything we have done has been organic, unplanned, and relaxed.  For one thing, we visited the library a ton - resulting in the idea to study specific authors like Eric Carle and Dr. Seuss.  We have completed countless DIY art projects (here is pinterest page to prove it).  As a family we went camping for 5 days, and lived almost completely unplugged (except for the one phone call/text to my mom to check in of course :).  Living on a budget, we took advantage of groupon to go to the Fernbank Planetarium, cashed in our kids bowl free from Stars and Strikes, and saw $1 movies from Regal's Summer movie express.  We also used technology purposefully using apps like Pic Collage  to synthesize information and pictures from an activity such as a digital scavenger hunt.  We took a 10 day trip to Florida where my kids had quality time with multiple grandparents, along with fun day trips to places like the South Florida Science Museum's grossology exhibit (I skipped this one), the Sandoway House Nature Center and Butterfly World .

Probably my biggest triumph this summer was discovering and then installing the Chore Monster app on each of my children's devices.  Using this app, they complete a given chore and are given points upon completion.  I have it set up that I have to approve each time (so they don't just rack em up).  So far, they have earned hundreds of points by doing chores (that I probably would have made them do anyway, but now they are earning points for it!).  And we visited 5 Below two different times to cash in their "reward" for 200 points earned.  In all they have collectively done more than 100 chores this summer.  Chore Monster FTW!

Not every minute of every day has been the most fun or productive of course (like the time we came home from a camping trip to find a tree fell down in our front yard), or when my kids fought over everything, or the many trips to the grocery store where I had to bribe them with tic-tacs to behave, or when we went to the dentist.  We have to admit that there was at least once when we spent the whole day binge watching our own shows on Netflix.  But, pretty soon we will waking up to the dreaded alarm clock each day, regulate screen time more, and we will all have (UGH) homework,  I realize that no matter what we did this summer, we spent it all together making memories - and that is the what #summertimewiththekids is all about!

https://twitter.com/search?q=%23summertimewiththekids&src=typd

Marvelous Mornings in the Media Center

Each morning I leave my house around 6:30 am in order to arrive to school early to prepare for Marvelous Mornings in the Media Center.  Since this is a service my school provides for students who arrive at 7:30 before the first bell which is at 8:00, it is considered a "duty", and sounds like it should be a lot of work, but in fact it is the exact opposite.  The 30 minutes I spend in the library each morning is consistently my favorite part of the school day and I look forward to seeing smiling faces walk through the library each and every day.

Students arrive at a variety of times, from a variety of grades, each one with different interests and skills.  A few years ago, if you walked into the library in the early mornings kids would all be on computers playing online video games, some of which were somewhat educational.  Last year, with the renovations on our library, and the computer lab that once lived in there was now gone, our department was provided with an opportunity to introduce activities each morning that went beyond the computer and engage children in meaningful learning experiences.

This year I am the only teacher "on duty"5 days a week in the library and I seized an opportunity to provide consistent programming for these kids who arrive early each and every day.  On any given day you will see students using their brains first thing in the morning to create and innovate.  Each week is theme based, and each day I prepare a suggested activity, but there is always the freedom to do/make/create whatever you want from materials we have on hand in the Media Center for this purpose.  And of course there are a few kids who visit the library early in the day to checkout and/or read ACTUAL BOOKS.  Some days a parent will even be seen in the library participating in the activities alongside the kids.

To document the activities I did, as well as to share them with my PLN on twitter, I started tweeting using #marvelousmornings.  Looking back on all the Marvelous Mornings at school I am reminded of some of my favorites.

I put out outdated floppy discs and the kids had a ball taking them apart and
creating new objects out old ones.

I introduced Snap Circuits to the kids, integrating the theme of light for Hanukkah.  The kids loved the Snap Circuit kits so much, that they chose to use them for a week and a half straight, each morning completing the different projects.    

Sometimes we need to use our resources in order to be inspired to create.  So during Autumn Week, I logged into my Pinterest account that morning and typed in fall acorn crafts and let students troll through the dozens of pages and found projects that interested them and then executed their version of it. 

So why are Marvelous Mornings consistently my favorite part of the day?  It is because the students arrive each morning excited for learning and fun.  I love that they feel ownership of the time and give me suggestions, and I allow their interests and ideas guide the activities day to day or week to week.   When it is time for school to begin, I tell them to have a great day and I am happy to say that the majority don't go running out the second they hear the bell.  I love that some of them "help me clean up" just so they can hangout a few extra minutes finishing up their project and talking with me. How many teachers do you know who say the best part of the day is their day is their "duty"?  I know only one, and it's me.