2015 National Teacher of the Year, Shanna Peeples

Shanna Peeples, 2015 National Teacher of the Year, leaving the podium after giving her keynote address at the 2015
 Educate Maine Symposium held at The Holiday Inn by the Bay in Portland, Maine.

On Friday, December 11, 2015, I was an honoree for becoming a NBCT at the 2015 Educate Maine Symposium held at The Holiday Inn by the Bay in Portland.  From the menu of session choices, I selected two sessions that explored the topic of early childhood education from different angles.  First, I learned about Social Impact Investment in Utah and Boston, and then I learned about some regional best practice exemplars in preschool education in the State of Maine.  I was impressed that Regional School Union One (my district) was used as one of the models during the presentation for best practice because of our wide array of choices of programs, curricula, and locations for preschools within our district.

I went to the conference promising myself that for this day only,  I would not take notes on anything, but just enjoy the day without feeling like I had to meditate and muse over the contents of the presentations.  Well, that promise flew out the window as soon as I heard Shanna Peeples, the 2015 National Teacher of the Year, from Amarillo, Texas, give her keynote presentation after lunch.  I quickly grabbed the nearest notepad of paper on my table, and began taking notes.

My notes from Shanna's speech

Shanna began her speech with an anecdote from her childhood in which a stray cat got stuck in the engine of an old car at her childhood home.  Her family members each had a solution for the conundrum. Her mom screamed while holding the bloody cat and her dad ran to get his gun. Her grandmother got a cloth bag in which she inserted the cat to calm it down, then she wrapped it in a cloth towel while she examined its injuries.

She made an analogy between her grandmother's creative, calm solution and the innovation needed to solve three of the problems in education: attracting and retaining teachers, the lack of a connection between what teachers need as professional development and what is forced upon them, and less and less time with more and more educational mandates.

Shanna then outlined three innovative solutions, which she called "The Three T's." Teachers as Coaches is her first T.  Shanna and her principal created a hybrid role for Shanna which allowed Shanna to mentor new teachers in addition to her instructional duties.  Time is Shanna's second solution.  She advised us to be creative with time; in her school, the doors are open at night in order to accommodate the schedules of both the students and adults in her community.  "My principal stepped back and gave me the time I needed." Finally, Trust.  Shanna believes that some teachers are not trusted for the professionals they are and aren't always given credit for their positive, giving nature.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from her speech:

"Innovation is not technology.  Innovation is thinking creatively of a solution."

"Equity and innovation go together."

"So much responsibility with so little say."

"He haunts everything I do," when referencing a student, Michael, who predicted that he would be in jail in five years, and he was.

"I want to teach these kids the same way I want my own kids to be taught."

"When you rip out your public schools and your teachers, you have ripped out your future."

"Teachers are how our communities transmit to everyone else, that we believe in the future."

"Thank you for always pushing back and being willing to speak for the most vulnerable people in society."

Happy Holidays From Us!

Back to Back Box Tops Champs!

We've collected about 1400 Box Tops total, which means we've contributed about $140.00 for the playground!  Thanks for all your support to all the box tops snippers out there!

Author's Tea Preparations and Holiday Celebration

Yesterday my students and I hosted an Author's Tea and Holiday Celebration.  My students have been writing in the non-fiction genre in writer's workshop and everyone had a book they authored and illustrated to share with their parents and the families of the other students.  Most of the books were about different kinds of animals.  They read their book to their family members and the parents of their classmates and then we all enjoyed healthy snacks that my students' parents provided.  

There were lots of preparations for the event.  First, students picked their topics.  We encouraged them to pick a topic that they already knew at least five facts about.  Then, Mrs. Hernandez, the school librarian, and I found books for each student that matched the topic they chose.  We tried to find books that had large teaching illustrations and books with text that students could read.  A parent volunteer, Mr. Powers (an Ed Tech who comes in during writing time), and myself listened to the students read the books and/or read the books to the students.  This process provided lots of background information for students which made it easier for them to author their books.

While we were building their schema, they were concurrently writing their books and going through the editing process.  Finally, the big day came!  They spent a few minutes before their families came practicing reading their books.  Here is a video of some of the students practicing.

 

Thank you to everyone who attended.  Your first graders were so excited to be hosts and hostesses for this very special event.  

Another DonorsChoose.org Project Funded!

It only took three days for my latest DonorsChoose.org project to be funded!  I wrote for non-fiction guided reading books published by Pioneer Valley Books from Northampton, Massachusetts.  I was fortunate to secure a dollar-for-dollar match promotion from DonorsChoose.org, which means that for the first seven days that my project was live, every dollar donated was matched by Disney.  I received donations from the parents of my students as well as some family members.

This project marks the fourteenth project that I have had funded by DonorsChoose.org. In the past, I have written for my classroom whiteboard, easel, bulletin boards, countless books across all genres, bean bags, tables, plastic magnetic letters and a host of other materials.  My project total for the fourteen projects is $7,773.  This means that my classroom, school, and district now has $7,773.00 in materials that they would not have had if I hadn't received financial support from my friends, family, and the parents of my students through the years.  I was one of the first teachers in Maine to have a project funded - my first project was funded on October 21, 2008!  DonorsChoose.org was founded in 2000 but was not available in Maine schools until 2008.

Very coincidentally, yesterday I received an email from DonorsChoose.org offering me the opportunity to be a Teacher Spokesperson for 2016.  It read, "as one of our most knowledgeable and experienced teachers we would like to offer you the opportunity to be a Teacher Spokesperson for DonorsChoose.org."  After all DonorsChoose.org has done for my students, how could I say no?  

Two Bulletin Boards

This week I put up two new bulletin boards.  I included an "I can" statement that summarizes the learning goal of the lesson in first grader friendly language in each bulletin board.  The I can statement helps students identify what their learning goal for the lesson is. It's easier for them to monitor their learning if they know what they are supposed to be learning.

Both of the I can statements on the bulletin boards support our Everyday Math curriculum.  Here are the I can statements from the first bulletin board:

 

For this bulletin board, I brought in enough 30" to 40" sticks for each student. Students had their choice of non-standard materials with which to measure the stick.  Next, they finished the sentence stem, "My stick is _____(number) ______________(non-standard unit) long" by typing on my computer with a parent volunteer.   

Here are examples of their work:

Students measured their sticks with paper hearts, cut out apples, circles, snowmen, and yellow diamond shapes.

Students measured  their sticks with gingerbread people, stars, hearts, and snowmen.

Students measured their sticks with letters, yellow diamonds, miniature hearts, apples and gingerbread people. 

In the second bulletin board, students used wrapping paper cut up in different lengths to make holiday trees.  They had to put the strips in order from longest to shortest in order to form the triangular shape of the tree.  Here is the I can statement:

 Here are some examples of their work:

Students enjoy seeing their work displayed in the hallways of their school.   It gives them a sense of accomplishment and pride in their work. 

First Graders as Volunteers

One of the parents of my students coordinates special events at a local nursing home, and she invited my class to visit the residents.  Thankfully, the school district in which I work supports these kinds of events by providing buses.  Because this visit went so well, I am also thinking about having them return in February or March.  I had already made arrangements to return in the spring for another visit. 

I scheduled three activities during this visit.  First, my students would either read a book they self selected from school to the residents, or have a resident read a book my students brought from our classroom to them.  Two students chose to have a resident read a book to them and the remainder read to the residents.  Each student read the book of their choice to me before we left; I wanted to be sure they could read the book fluently so that the residents could enjoy the story and the first grader would feel confident when they read.  

The second activity was a snack provided by the special events coordinator.  Both the residents and the first graders enjoyed munching on grapes, eating cookies, and drinking bottled water.

Finally, my class sat in a circle on the carpet and we discussed what they enjoyed about the visit.  The residents were sitting on the outside of the circle in chairs and wheelchairs.  I wanted the residents to hear the positive impact of the visit from the first graders themselves.  Some of the first graders' responses were that they liked reading to a grown up and they thought the snacks were good.  They also said that they liked hearing the compliments of the residents ("She said I was a good reader.  I like it when people say that.") and it was fun to take field trips in school.

Here are some pictures:

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Special thanks to the grandparent of one of my students who brought this in today as a special treat for my first graders.  It was delicious!  The turkey was brought in by the same grandparent who brought in the healthy banana-ghosts and nectarine-Jack-O'Lanterns for Halloween.  My student told me to, "You can eat the head!" so I did!

Gobble!  Gobble!  Gobble!

Everyday Math Counting

Students complete a page called "Math Boxes" in their Everyday Math journals for every lesson. Yesterday my students had to count the number of posters in our classroom to complete one of the Math Box problems.  This is a video of my first graders counting.  You can see how engaged and appropriate they are while they count.  What a great group of first graders!

National Board Certification - Looking Backwards and Forwards

National Board Certification is a rigorous national teacher credential that is recognized nationwide. It currently consists of four components that are blended together and taken as a whole to assess a teacher's entire practice:  effective and reflective practitioner, teaching practice and learning environment, differentiation in instruction, and content knowledge.  Each component requires deep analysis of the architecture of accomplished teaching.

As November 15 approaches, my first anniversary of Board-certification, I find myself reflecting again.  Maybe it's because I remember so well the feelings I had a year ago this week while waiting for my scores to arrive in my portfolio. . . the anxiety and the waiting and the wondering.  I think about my colleagues nation-wide who are going through the same process right now as I type this, and I know that a majority of them will not pass.  I wonder if I would have had the courage to try again had I not passed on my first attempt.  

While my first year was passing by, a document was created that clearly defines the advantages of Board certification. Michelle Exstrom, the Education Program director at the National Conference of State Legislatures, authored Today's Board Certification for Teachers, Answers to Legislators' Questions.  She relied on the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards for assistance with the content of the document.  The entire document is here.  Some of my key take-aways after reading the document include the following:

1. During the past decade, research from multiple states across the country has shown that students taught by Board-certified teachers learn more than students taught by non-certified teachers.  In addition, student gains in high-needs, high-poverty schools is greater.  This is relevant to my practice because I teach in a school with a diverse population, and some of that diversity is marked by high needs. 
2. National Board Certification "screens" applicants.  Teachers who achieve Board-certification out perform teachers who attempt to become Board-certified, but fail.  This was new learning for me, I had incorrectly believed that if a candidate did not pass, it was possible that the candidate could be as effective as a Board-certified teacher, but simply could not "prove it" within the structures in the process of becoming Board-certified. 
3. Capitalizing on the expertise of Board-certified teachers is a part of the mission statement of the National Board.  There is a blog posting that I recently read that speaks to this piece of the mission statement.  Thank you to fellow NBCT, Mike Lee; I couldn't have said it better myself. 

Finally, I want to be clear that this posting is not an indictment towards teachers who are not NBCTs, but more of a summary of my reflections on my first year as an NBCT.  

Champions!

Thank you to all parents who sent in Box Tops!  We collected 920 Box Tops, which means that our class contributed $92.00 for new playground equipment. This banner is hanging outside our classroom door.  Great job, everyone!

Surprise! Pumpkin Pancakes on Halloween!

Every year my husband and I have a surprise pumpkin pancake Halloween breakfast for my first graders.  I am not sure how much longer we can keep the surprise up. . .it's becoming quite popular and one of these days the second graders in my school are going to let the black cat out of the bag and tell one of my first graders about the surprise!

Here is the pumpkin pancake flipper. 

And the pancakes:  You will notice that the pumpkin pancake flipper is still wearing shorts, even though it is the end of October in Maine. 

And a healthy fruit snack sent in by one of the grandparents of my students:

There were four stations: a reading Halloween books station, a puzzle station, an eating pancakes station, and a craft station.  Here are pictures from each station.

These first graders are reading Halloween books:

Here are some pictures of the puzzle makers:

The pumpkin pancake eaters:

And first graders making Halloween crafts:

Everyone had a wonderful time.  Thank you to all parents for keeping this a secret, and a special thank you to the grandparent who sent in the goodies and also volunteered at the craft station!

At The Lake!

Usually I don't post anything personal on my blog but, after four years of blogging,  I am going to make an exception.  My husband and I purchased a four season home on a lake here in Maine last month.  It is a fairly new log home and garage on three acres on a very clean medium-sized lake. Because I teach first grade, I have about nine weeks in the summer to myself.  Since my husband only needs internet for his job, we can maximize the time we spend at the lake house, which is only one hour from our home.

One of the benefits of the lake house (besides all of the rest and relaxation and extra time with my children that I am enjoying) is time to think about what I might try in school to increase the learning of my students.  It's amazing how all the fresh air, long walks, hearty breakfasts, and relaxation contributes to the time I spend thinking.

So, here is a picture of our view.

More Pictures From The Beginning of School. . .