A Night For Us...

I hurried through my day at school, not caring about the things that would normally get me in a tizzy on a Friday afternoon. I had to get home, my mother would be arriving, I didn't want to be late! My mother arrived, two children excited about their overnight adventure greeted her at the door. Getting their shoes on they chattered away happily about what they wanted to accomplish in our absence.

My husband and I loaded up into the family mini van and off we went. We arrived in Chicago by 9:00 pm. The city was lit up like they were expecting our arrival. I chattered on about the beauty of the city, delayed in traffic we waited, and waited and... Finally, we arrived at the hotel, placed our things on the counters, vegged out on the TV, happy to be together.

Saturday arrived bright and early we readied ourselves, ate a continental breakfast, and took the shuttle to O'Hare airport. From this destination we took the blue line to the red line to downtown Chicago. We tooled around Chicago, popping in and out of stores. We watched street performers, and drank expensive drinks that we don't typically purchase. We went into the only "holiness" on Michigan Ave, the First Presbyterian Church, we joked about renewing our vows here. It was lovely.

We purchased two brownies from the Hershey store, mine minty and delicious his covered in chocolate.

We ate at Gino's East where we didn't worry about a 25 minute wait for pizza. We sat and discussed, watched the other customers, time was on our side.

Finally, we loaded the subway back to our stop, waited for the shuttle, and went to find some old dear friends. We ate dinner, conversed, again, time was on our side. Leaving Chicago we promised to return at the holidays for a weekend among friends, a new tradition, one were building for our children.

Our children... when we returned home we found them sleeping, we kissed them and smelled their familiar smell. We gazed at one another, whole and renewed, we were ready for these two little girls. Today we awoke to their wonderful voices, they snuggled down into our bed, and again, we were a family.

Ahhh, much better!

Confering is going much better during that Independent Reader's Workshop time. Students are far more accepting of my invasion. We have discovered that we have some really great things to discuss even! Today though, I just sat back and watched...
We have a new student in our classroom and he has been getting adjusted to the routine of how things are done in this classroom. I am sure it is quite the adjustment, but he is doing great! Today, I watched as he and the rest of the class settled into the routine.
-Two girls were reading Green Eggs and Ham together, the inflection was incredible!
-One of my boys has moved from Flat Stanley to Flat Stanley Invisible. He is so in to the books! Finding an author that you really enjoy makes a huge diffence.
-Babymouse-how can one describe what joys this series has brought to our classroom? We are really sharing these books. I see trading, discussion, and boy is that mouse funny!
-Mighty Robots by Dave Pilkey has been another hit in our room! Today I actually had to break up an argument about who's book it was. We compromised and resolved a situation but it was humorous to see arguing about books!
Sitting back in reflection I saw them as readers today. They have come so far, working with a student who has no background in Reader's Workshop you see how far they have come. I was really proud of them!

Why We Confer

Today, after much deliberating I posed my problem to my students during my mini lesson:
"Boys and Girls, last week I really struggled to get you to confer with me during Independent Reading time. I would pull up next to you and try to pry you from your reading!"

"Well, Mrs. Amick, we just love our books, and we don't want to come above water." commented one of the boys. The rest of the class nodded their heads in agreement.

"Well, I think we need to confer, what will I do during that time if I can't discuss your books with you?" I asked.

Together, we discussed the importance of conferring, and why I needed to do this simple task with them. Together, we came up with a list of questions, things that I would be asking them when I pulled up next to them. Here, is my student generated list of things that I am going to be asking them:
-What is your book about?
-Do you like the book?
-What level is this book for you? Is it easy, medium, or hard? (1, 2, or 3)
-Can you read some of it to me?
-What strategy are you using with this book? (we made a list of comprehension or monitoring strategies)

We talked about how important it would be for them to be thinking about their reading and what I may be asking of them. However, if they really wanted to share something specific with me during that time then they could go ahead and do that instead.
Overall, I was impressed, it was a very student led conversation. I just simply wrote their suggestions down while they discussed. I also discovered that they know exactly what I am asking of them. They get it!

"Oh, just leave us alone!"

This week has been a truly great week. We have truly been into the schedule, we have met together as small groups, whole group, and we have been reading! We received two packages from Scholastic Book Clubs where I spent all my classroom PTA money on books for my pumpkins. I showcased them all from the boxes and we made it quite the spectacle. We got some really great titles that my kids are thrilled about reading! Here is the problem:
Twice this week I have pulled up next to some kiddos ready to confer about their books. Ready to hear what they have to say about their connections, their inferencing, etc... They don't want to confer! They don't want to talk, my talking to them is pulling them up from under the water! I have kids asking if they can take books out to RECESS because apparently the 20 minutes I have squeezed into our schedule for reading independently is not enough for them! Conferring is the last thing they want to do because they are to into their books! (I even had eye rolling!)
What would Carl Anderson say? How about the great Debbie Miller? Any ideas?

Inferring through the garbage

I am in love with a new book called Comprehension Connection. This book was recommended by one of my colleagues last year but my principal purchased it for us for a book talk. I am already using its contents. One of its contents was an activity on Inferencing. The author recommends bringing in garbage so the children can examine it and make inferences about the people that it belongs to, here is our conversation:
"I walk by a house everyday, they have the most beautiful yard, they have pretty flowers, and they have nice cars. Their house is immaculate. The thing is, I've never seen the people who live there. So, last night when I was walking by their trash, I took some!"
Here is where every jaw in my classroom dropped to the floor and they stared at me in astonishment. Their teacher had done the unthinkable...taken trash!
"So, I was wondering if you could help me solve the mystery of my neighbors?"
Every head nodded, still, no sound coming from their lips.
Inside the bag I had a Better Homes and Garden magazine, a coffee cup and lid, a tea bag, some receipts to very expensive places, and a band aid. Here are their inferences:
-The people who live there have no children. People with children don't have their "nice" things just out, they keep it up until their children are grown.
-The people who live here are older because they keep things so nice, they don't have to go to work a lot because their so old. That is why their stuff is so nice and why I never see them. They get up very early and they go to be very early at night.
They drink expensive teas and coffees because they don't have children.

About five minutes into this activity one of my boys says,"I don't think that you can get in trouble for stealing someone's garbage, they already put it out, they don't want it, I think it's okay."
Another little girl, "Mrs. Amick, you should get up early and go and knock on those people's door and introduce yourself. Then you should tell them that you took their garbage, because that is the right thing to do."
Have you ever been disciplined by a seven year old? I told them today that I really didn't take someone's garbage. I could see the relief on some of their faces!

A Whole New World

Last Friday, at approximately 3:00 I received a package of 100 red worms. Worried that they would die over the weekend I went into a panic. I have never taught 2nd grade Science and so I was concerned about their well being! My other colleagues assured me that they would live in that box over the weekend and be just fine. Today, after forgetting my dirt at home on Monday, we "planted" our redworms. The concept of the whole experiment is to show students the work of the worms. We placed them in containers, watered the dirt, and gave them some compost that we collected in our school's woods out back. We also had a lot of worms and dirt left over and I put them in an aquarium that I stored in the attic. Many of my children are very interested in the changes that will take place in our containers. My surprise came during Writer's Workshop:
"What sort of work are you doing today as a writer?"

Many of my students that I conferred with today were writing about their worms, and the project. They were making predictions, giving them names, writing about the things they had seen, heard, smelled...
One boy discussed with me at length his learning. "You know Mrs. Amick, we created their world right here in our room! They have everything they need right there in that container! Isn't it cool to think that right now there are 100 worms working and doing their thing while we are here doing ours?"

I guess I didn't see it as that important! I really just thought that I was putting some worms into some dirt to watch them eat compost and poop it out! Boy, was I ever wrong!

Tomorrow: intensive group of students working on creating "worm like" words for stretching them into a story about a worm, or perhaps even a poem about what we're learning.
We'll see, the possibilities are endless!

New Blogs!

So recently I stumbled upon the Stenhouse Blog by Stenhouse Publishers and I was impressed. Not only do they have some pretty great articles to read that I am completely interested in reading, but they have also created a really great Blogroll! I have been checking some of them out, they are mixed with just normal reflective pieces like mine, author's websites, and then great lesson ideas like at The Two Writing Teachers. Anyway you slice it, it is a great blog to add to your perusing! Check it out!