Focusing on the process...

First of all, I want to say that I cannot believe this is my last blog of the quarter. It went by so fast! Dr. Smith, is there any way the program could move your class to an earlier quarter in the two year program? I learned so much in this class and I wish I had been able to get this information before I was in the classroom. Just a thought on a blog!

Now onto the real response to the blog prompt! There were so many rich ideas in both of these chapters. One of the ideas that I was thankful to see in chapter seven was how to actually teach spelling. I recently received an email where almost every word in the text was misspelled but I was still able to read it and make sense of it. Of course that was the point of the email, but in class and in writing, and especially on assessments, spelling matters. However, Routman discusses this in a positive light. We need to let the students focus on what they want to say and then we can help them with spelling. In my own class we really ignore this aspect of the writing process, but then again we ignore a lot when it comes to writing instruction. However, one of the things that I can do is encourage my students to look at the word wall, choose words that say what they are feeling, and even better than all of that I can model this for them. I also thought, while reading this, that our word wall needs some revision. There are words on the wall that all of the students do know, but there are others that I am sure we can add. Not only that but I think they could benefit from having their own word walls.

Routman discusses revising our own writing in front of your students and verbally going through the process with them. I have finally figured out the Smart Board and this is one of the things I want to try with the class. I want to write with them and model the revision process with them. I struggle with writing as well. I do not always make the best word choices and my writing needs to be revised. I think if the students can go through this process with me they can do it in groups or on their own as well. I am SO excited to try this in the classroom!!

Ringo and Paul

Ok….so it has been a LONG time since I have been blogging but I am back. The reason for absence is simply this: SCHOOL! It takes up a lot of time and there are more assignments than I actually have the brain capacity to complete. Since we last talked I have been spending time in a fifth grade classroom in Bellevue. It was a month filled with exciting opportunities and challenges. Thirty-one fifth graders in one class will provide some life changing moments. I know some of you are reading this and wondering how that can happen in one month, but trust me it has.



I found out a student wants desperately to become a doctor some day. That was a lofty goal so I asked him why and he looked at me with meaning and tears in his eyes and said, “To save my mother.” I nodded and kept walking with him. This student has a lot of obstacles to tackle to become a doctor, but looking at him when he said that to me…I believed he could do this. I truly believe in him. After we got back to the classroom I dismissed myself to the back side of the school where I cried for a good fifteen minutes, dried my eyes, and then returned to the classroom hoping no one would notice that I was gone and that my eyes were red. I realized that English Language Learners get extremely excited to hear a teacher speak their language, but they have learned that to get ahead in this world you MUST speak English. However, all English speaking is thrown out the window when a five on five soccer game is started out on the field during recess. With Spanish being yelled at the top of their lungs, they have a look of relief to be able to, not only run at top speed playing a game their families identify with, but to be able to yell in their native language to one another.



I found out that there are people who become your friends that you never really expected. My teaching partner across the hall is the cutest, sweetest, young lady on the planet. She is so different from me, yet I find in her a solace and a friendship that I was not expecting. When I saw her for the first time in a few weeks I ran to hug her. I missed seeing her. I missed talking to her and listening to her ideas, her life experiences, and what she hopes for. Did I mention she is newly married and the background picture on her laptop is from her wedding day? My wedding day was ten years back now and seeing that picture always reminds me of the day I pledged my heart and love to my husband.

I even found out that those little buggers that you spend most of your day wrangling back into their seats or asking a million questions to make sure they stay engaged in the classroom are the ones you do not LEARN to love, but that you JUST LOVE THEM. Not only that, but you MISS them. How did that happen? That was the question I was wondering two days after I left the classroom and found myself praying for those students during a quiet moment in the car.

Lastly, in my new placement I found that a man a little older than me and from England can have the best advice, the best life stories, and the best classroom management I have ever seen. Sure he carries a lunch box with Paul and Ringo on it, but that just makes him that much more cool! He is a Biology guy and I am a biology gal, but he can teach physics. If you are wondering, how the heck did that happen don’t feel bad. I was wondering the same thing, but in the past two days I finally figured out how positive and negative charges are identified with a neon light bulb and that he can use his cat as an example during a test review. Pretty cool!!!

See you next time in the blogosphere!

Blogging my beginning experiences at Phantom Lake

I have been taking a break since March from my blog to focus on school work and I must say that I have actually missed it. When my professor first mentioned doing a blog I actually groaned. I must say that I actually did not groan as loud as when she told me I would have to use a Mac in her class. For those of you who are Mac users I know this may sound foreign, but I am truly a PC. Bring on the brown suit and glasses!! I can not help myself. I am married to an IT Network Administrator who also groaned when I told him I would be using a Mac in that particular class. Now here it is July of 2009 and I have done two things somewhat successfully: I started a blog and I figured out how to at least turn on a Mac and save a document on it. Now onto the news and musings that you may have missed since I last wrote in March!

I am in the teacher certification program at The University of Washington and since I last wrote many teachers have been laid off in our state. The state of Washington, like so many other state in the union, are simply broke. Within our state’s government, teachers took the largest hit. In a class last quarter at the UW (please pronounce u-dub or we will get slightly offended), we even had a few teachers sit apprehensively and angrily as they waited for lay-off notices in their districts to be handed out. I sat in that class, with another member of my cohort, wondering if there will even be jobs for us when we graduate next Spring. The answer: probably not. Fear struck my heart. I DO NOT want to go back to the medical field. What do I do?

The answer: you can not deny a calling in your life and you need to go forward. So here it is, Summer, and I am stuck in class that I really could live without and a professor who made us stand on one foot because one of us snickered in the middle of class. Really?! Yes, really! However, one bad apple does not ruin the whole bunch! (Anyone know where that saying comes from?) I have learned so much form my previous professors and look forward to seeing some of them again in the Fall! Not to mention I spend time with some really great people who are in my cohort. As an aside: HAPPY BIRTHDAY MELISSA!!!

September Experience starts soon and here is the skinny on my assignment. I have been paired with Cindy Jourdan who has been teaching for nine years and often times has me in stitches. She is already someone I know I will know for the rest of my life and look to for help as I start my own classroom. Fifth graders!!! Can I tell you how relieved I was to find that out? I was scared I was going to end up in a kindergarten classroom.

They frighten me. The kindergarteners do. With their little backpacks, inability to communicate fully, snotty noses, and need to be helped in the potty. Frightening. For those of you who take this challenge on you have my respect. Fifth graders, as I found out the last few weeks of school, present their own challenges but I must say Cindy Jourdan is a pro and she has her students respect. Now that is something to write about, but more on that in future blogs. I will be at Phantom Lake Elementary located in Bellevue, Washington. The school was rebuilt in 2004 and is beautiful. The downside: it takes almost an hour to get there in traffic. The upside: innovative programs, a school that believes in the whole student approach, seniors who help out in the classrooms, and a master teacher who believes in getting there BEFORE traffic begins. A woman after my own heart! Now if only I can surmise whether or not she appreciates chocolate croissants lightly dusted with powdered sugar. We will see!!

I like their writing...

One of the things I asked my master teacher recently was what model does the school use to teach writing. The response was that they use the six traits. We had just discussed this in class at Juanita and it was interesting response. Routman refers to the six traits as a rubric, not as a teaching tool that helps you teach students become confident writers. My master teacher even had the six traits copied onto a 4 x 6 card for me and laminated. I looked at the card and had my own thoughts but kept them to myself. I then sat at the back table where we graded a set of writing samples from our students. She had a rubric and told me she taught them how to write this sample using the six traits.

As think about the rubric we used that day in reference to Routman’s own ideas of a rubric I began to ask questions about how I graded the writing samples that day. The rubric was not very student friendly, but it did fit Routman’s definition of a content rubric. I was also informed that the students had the rubric to refer to. I then asked if the students had a piece of writing to refer back to that was exemplary and if the writing was modeled before-hand. The answer was no to both. They had the rubric and they had a direct instruction lesson to teach them how to write the sample. I sat there grading using the rubric with my master teacher next to me and my heart was heavy. Only a few of the students in the class received a 4 on the writing sample, which was the highest score, and more than half received a 3 and lower. What made my heart heavy was that I saw such great potential in the writing I was looking at for ALL of the students to receive a 4.

I had yet to read the article written by Peter Elbow at this time. However, I resonated with the idea of evaluation over the idea of ranking. As I think back on the numbers I placed on the rubric that day, there was not a piece of useful information in the number. I even watched as the students received them back and their faces became drawn. One student even looked at the score and then placed his head on the desk. How are these students supposed to become better writers when there is no evaluation? I also resonated with the idea of being determined to like the writing that comes across my desk. It is not the same as evaluating, as Elbow points out, but I found that day that when I was looking for the good in the writing I could see where the students could really improve the writing. I could see the possibility of what the writing could be. Maybe this writing sample was not perfect. Maybe the end result would not be either, but with more evaluating, small group writing sessions, and a chance to conference with the students the writing had great possibility.