Maps!

I can buy maps!

I guess I know that I'm a teacher... My final project for my M.A. was to write a unit for Social Studies. I wrote the unit, and then applied for a grant from the district's Educational Foundation. I did good enough work that they gave me almost $500! I am ordering books with primary source documents, DVDs, videos, and MAPS! The maps are raised relief maps, so you can feel and see the landforms of the United States. They are super cool because you can write on them with dry erase markers to trace things like the path of the Underground Railroad.

When I got home tonight from receiving the check at the school board meeting, I was daydreaming about the day the maps arrived at school. It will be a "Stop the Presses!" moment and we'll be ripping them out of the boxes to use immediately. Then I thought about my students' reactions... while they will be excited, I'm sure they will also laugh at what a dork their teacher is.

PLC

Our district is in its third year of the PLC program. (Given the current financial situation in the district, it's probably the last year, too. But I digress.) PLC stands for Professional Learning Communities, and it's based on a model by the DuFours. The program is designed to give teachers common meeting time to address instructional needs as well as provide extra lessons in problem areas to students.

So every third day, a teacher comes to my room to give my kids an extra lesson in math or language arts. I meet with the other 4th grade teachers and plan ways to teach better. Each marking period, we're required to have a goal for our students and monitor how they are doing towards the goal. Right now, we are working on teaching the skill of writing a paragraph.

At any rate, the time has been invaluable to our team. We are very productive and work well together. When you look at the difference between schools in the U.S. and schools in China/Japan, one major difference is the amount of time given to teachers to plan instruction. Many of the teachers in the district do not like PLC time, though. They would rather be working with their students, and don't get along as well with their team or don't see the value in meeting. It's been an uphill battle of trying to get the others to see the value in the time before it's taken away from us.

Post-Election at School

I teach two classes of Social Studies, and since the beginning of the year we've been following the election. I don't share my views with my students, although I get questioned relentlessly. Several of my outspoken African-American children have assumed that I supported McCain, but I haven't been able to get them to give me a reason why they think so. It was pretty obvious from the way it was stated that most made that assumption due to the fact I am white...

So this morning the students came in bouncing off the walls. Many of them supported Obama, and talked about how happy their parents were and how they were kept up all night for election results. Others were obviously disappointed. I was impressed when one student of mine walked in first thing this morning and said "Congratulations" to the kid next to her, an avid Obama fan. I asked, "Did you support McCain?" and she told me, "No, but my Dad did."

Today in class, we colored in the electoral college map and tallied up the numbers for both candidates. We kept the TV on for an hour and anytime anyone interesting was speaking (namely the candidates, but that also included Oprah and people in the town of Obama, Japan) we tuned in. We talked about being gracious winners and good losers. They pestered me again about who I voted for, but I said, "The important thing is that I voted. It doesn't matter today who I voted for- what matters is that I'm ready to support the next president." We looked at the 62 million votes Obama got (as of this morning) and the 55 million McCain got. We talked about how 55 million people woke up disappointed this morning, and what effect that has on the country.

It gave me a ton of hope to watch the kids quiet each other to watch Obama, and to a lesser extent, McCain, speak (no matter whom they supported before, Obama won, and kids like winners). They were totally engrossed in what was going on. So many of them have a lot of faith in Obama. Hopefully he won't let them down.

A few quotes from 4th graders during election season:

Student 1 (watching TV): "There's the White House! That's where Obama will be living!"
Student 2: "President Bush had better pack his bags."
Me: "He still has 77 days in office."
Student 2: "He still better pack his bags!"
Me: "President Bush has until January to finish his job. Obama isn't inaugurated until January... he won't move in until then."
Student 2: "Pres. Bush better start packing his bags."
Me: "It doesn't take 77 days to pack up your house."
Student 2: "He'd better start packing his bags."
Me: "If Obama isn't reelected, he'd also have 77 days to... oh, nevermind. I guess the new president does have interior decor to pick out. Maybe packing does start now."

A student to the dad of one of my students this morning (he's in his late 30s with thinning hair): "You look like John McCain!"
Me: "That's almost as bad as when students told me I had wrinkles two years ago!"

That same student: "My mom says that if Obama wins someone will probably kill him."
(I didn't have an eloquent response to that one.)

Student: "Obama's daughters are hot!"

***

I was able to go in this morning with a huge smile on my face that had nothing to do with the presidential election. We've tried three times in the district to get voters to approve building/renovating the high school, and it finally passed this time! The building was put up in the 1910s and hadn't had major work done to it. I'm so thankful that the kids will be in a better environment.

Teacher Tube

I spent way too much time on here tonight... trying to find things to keep antsy 4th graders happy. What a great resource.

This is my first attempt to load a video...

Broke as a Joke

Taking a big vacation and making major home improvements are tough on the pocketbook...
Better pics and more information to come (someday, I promise). I'm just feeling the strain today!

What Worked

In an effort to salvage a year that is going downhill fast, I am going to try to blog about things that are going well in the classroom. Hopefully I'll get to this every day, but we'll see.

Today, writing went well. As usual! It takes a few minutes for the students to settle in, but once they are wrapping their brains around a piece of writing, I can usually get 40 minutes of quality learning time in. I love teaching writing according to the writing process in a workshop approach. It gives the kids responsibility for their writing, and ultimately teaches them to be good writers. Many students will spend three weeks on a piece of writing- planning, drafting, revising, editing, revising again... and I love their final projects. Today was a good day- we started writing by writing to the pen pals the students currently have. Around Valentine's Day each year, we start a post office in the school. Kids are required to buy postage and address their valentines to send them to each other. We also pair them up with students in another room to write letters back and forth.

Writing for a purpose always works well. Actually, when there is a clear purpose, students do most anything well. They get engaged in what they are doing and want to do their best. Today they did a great job, and for once when I was traveling around the room it was commenting on writing instead of behavior. We've started a time for "Author's Chair" each week, and students with a final published copy of a piece of writing can read it aloud (or have me read it aloud) for the class to hear.

Yup, I think writing about the good will help me out.