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.

Adventures from Camp Mommy

I have been a teacher longer than I have been a mother, and until I had kids I worked every summer (camp, learning centers etc).   Once I had a child, it made more sense to stay home with said child rather than work, where I would then have to pay for summer camp or babysitters.

Fast forward 11 years, and I now have 3 children, ages 11, 6 and 4 and I can't remember the last time I worked at anything over the summer but what my kids like to call "Camp Mommy".  Last summer my oldest went to a sleepaway camp for 2 weeks and the little guys did about a week or so of camps (gymnastics and the such), and the few summers before that my oldest would go to day camps for a few weeks a summer, but this summer we have NO CAMP AT ALL!

So begins the adventures of a summer of a true, total "Camp Mommy" experience.  Now, I am not here to brag or gloat about how I am keeping my kid's minds totally occupied all summer so they do not get "summer brain drain" or whatever you call it, or to post about the schedule we are keeping, in fact it is just the opposite.

We wake with no alarms, we lounge around until noon (granted the two older girls have had swim team practice in the mornings, which interrupts our lounging), but once they are done our day begins. Since my summer break officially began three weeks ago, we have visited Zoo Atlanta, gone to the movies (Inside Out of course), went bowling (Stars and Strikes Kids Bowl Free for the summer is awesome!), went roller skating (what a workout!), visited the High Museum of Art (Mo Willems exhibit our main focus), and have gone to the pool (multiple times a day!)  We have played countless board games, jumped through the sprinkler, competed in building challenges, read a few books, had playdates and sleepovers, watched movies (kids all got hit by a stomach bug and there was more of this last week than I would like to admit - probably not our best moments this summer), we  have cooked meals, baked treats together, gone to a real live bookstore, and have just HUNG OUT.

Do I want some time to myself when I am on vacation for the summer? Of course I do, and I try to carve out time to exercise and to read on my own curled up in my bed, hopefully even falling asleep into a nap.  I have even found time to write a blog post.  Do I want to make sure my kids don't suffer from "summer brain drain" as so many articles and posts warn me about?  Of course I do - but without a lot of thought and scheduling, I have done the exact opposite. A lot of what we are doing is in fact FEEDING their brains, not letting them be drained.  They are experiencing life and figuring out how to get along with each other and in all this they are practicing all the 21st century skills we educators are so concerned about these days.  But most of all, they are HAVING FUN!!!

Overall, I couldn't be happier with hanging out with my kids all summer considering the alternative, which includes shlepping them back and forth to camps all day (probably more than one since they are all different ages), and then mostly just filling in the time until they return.  I wouldn't trade "days off" for the memories we are making together for anything in the whole world.  Because I know one of these days (probably not to far in the future), "Camp Mommy" will be a thing of the past.

And the summer isn't even half over yet - so there is still more adventure to come and I can't wait!

Rediscovering Learning Styles

My daughter is 10 years old and is in fifth grade.  I taught 5th grade for almost 10 years.  So naturally, you would think that I would know how to help her succeed right? This is easier said then done.  After many attempts at assisting my child in studying for tests, and not seeing A+ results, I felt like I had failed.  Keeping in mind that the only real mistake is the one from which I do not learn (see my first blog post), I tried to figure out what the mistake was.  What was my daughter not doing when she studied?  What could I do to help her?  How could we fix this "mistake" and boost her confidence for her to succeed on future tests.  Then suddenly, I had a revelation and realized I needed a blast from my past!

Old School Inventory

Learning styles!  I spent the entire first month of school every year I taught fifth grade helping students figure out their personal learning styles and then we brainstormed ways they could study based on the way they learn best.  Why had I not thought of this earlier when my own daughter first entered fifth grade?  I immediately ran to my old teaching materials (see pic to the right) and found what I needed, but also quickly realized that these materials were outdated (clearly). Thank goodness we are now in the 21st century!  With pretty much the click of a button I tried a few different sites and I came up with what I needed: 

ONLINE LEARNING STYLES INVENTORY

I took the test myself first, to find out what I already knew; I am visual.  Then, I had my daughter do the same.  Her results yielded that she was equally tactile and auditory (40% each).  We had an amazing conversation about how my learning style was different from hers, and if I continued to dictate her study habits, it wouldn't benefit her because my strategies were not the ones that helped her learn best. Instead, we looked up tips for studying for the different learning styles.  The next thing I knew, she was up in her room making up songs and cheers about the Lusitania and how it led to World War I and the difference between nationalism, militarism, and imperialism.

PowerPoint Table of Contents Slide

Not only did she learn the material from her study guide - she did it independently.  We didn't fight. We didn't cry (and I say "we" because often times it really was both of us crying over studying).  And now suddenly there was less of a "we" learning the material, and a motivation for her to learn and succeed for herself.  In addition to the songs she made, she created a PowerPoint Presentation with the sample essay questions, linking each question to a different slide and then back to the slide of question - modern day flash cards!  

Needless to say, she did very well on the test (not an A+), but she made a huge improvement from how she did prior.  I was so proud of her accomplishment, but realized that most importantly, she was proud of herself and her confidence in her ability to retain information soared!  

Reflecting on this experience reminds me that by remembering what worked for me in the past, will help in the present, and motivates me for the future  I am excited to see what else I can rediscover and modify it for the 21st century!

The Only Real Mistake

The only real mistake is the one from which do not learn.  

My All Time Favorite Poster

This is what my all time favorite poster said that hung in my classroom year after year.  Yet, learning from failure and making mistakes is seen as a new, #futureready, concept.  How is it then that I had this poster for so many years and I referred my students to it hundreds of times?  Does that mean I was #futureready before this was even a thing?  

I am currently a Media and Instructional Technology Specialist.  I began my career as an educator the same as everyone else.  I went to college to "study teaching", took a test, and got certified to teach.  I student and assistant taught with outstanding forward thinking teachers in New York.  I taught 3rd grade for a few years at a Yeshiva in Brooklyn straight out of college.  Then, I moved to Atlanta where I found the Epstein School, which has become my second home for the past 16 years.  Here I taught first 5th grade, then 2nd, then back to 5th for year until I transitioned into the Digital Learning Department and have been there ever since.   There I work primarily with students and teachers in our ECP and Kindergarten to integrate Media and Technology skills.  I am also a part of a team of people who are pushing the school forward with the use of a Blended Learning model.

My transition to this department was a classic case of "failing forward".  While I knew it was time to exit classroom teaching and follow a new path and renew my passion for teaching and learning, at the time, I was conflicted about the change and scared about what lay ahead of me in a new role. I get asked all the time by my old students: "Don't you miss being a teacher?" I always answer the same way, "I am still a teacher and always will be",   In fact, I often feel more like a teacher now than I ever was.  Today, I am able to facilitate learning in ways I couldn't never do when I was in the classroom, stifled by rigid objectives and time limits.  Now I am able to constantly explore, try new things, inspire children with books I read aloud, as well as help them find their own passion for reading, and encourage kids to question and create.  And yes, I have more room to fail, make mistakes, and ultimately learn from them.

So, when I think about where I am today, and I think of the #futureready ideas like learning from our mistakes, I am constantly reminded that these are not just thoughts of the future for me, they are actually thoughts from my past.  Join me on my adventures in this blog as I reflect on my own teaching and learning, as a teacher who is ready for the future BECAUSE of her past!