#clearthelist part 2

      So, if you have found this blog by accident, then you should read the first post about the #clearthelist movement.  I have had more thoughts on this topic that just haven't gone away, so I am writing about it again.
      As I thought about posting my list, I thought, "I really can afford all to buy most of this. Maybe not right at this minute but overtime, I can get it all." But, I posted my list any way as so many others had.  My son, peering over my shoulder, wondered aloud the same thought I had. Would anyone actually buy me a package of dry erase markers?  And, if they did, would I feel guilty about asking my social media (and real) friends for help?  The answer to both is yes!
      My circle came through in a big way. Over the last week, it has felt a little like Christmas around here.  My daughter sent me a text each day, begging to open the four or five boxes the amazing UPS man dropped off at our house.  I honestly couldn't believe it.  People I have known most of my life, former students, other teachers all took the time and money to help clear my list.  I realized in that moment there is still good in this world, and people still believe in the work we do for children.  That's all it took to renew me, a new set of Sharpie pens, some amazing books for my library, and a few office supplies.  I am beyond blessed.  I have taken the opportunity I was given and chose to bless others.  The amount I was planning on spending on my back to school supplies, I am using to buy for other teachers.  I know how important it is to support those who are in the trenches along with me.
      If you have a teacher friend who doesn't have a list, trust me on this, send him or her some new pens, cool paper clips, or even a favorite book with a note telling how much you appreciate what's being done for students.  I promise you will impact not only a teacher but a classroom as well.

     
     
 


   

   

#clearthelist

There is a movement sweeping the social media world as we prepare to head back into our classrooms.  No, it's not all of us posting our pinterest (or not, but that's another post entirely) ready classrooms or first day of school outfits.  It seems to have started with a teacher in Arizona who reached out across social media for help with school supplies, not supplies for students but for teachers.  #Clearthelist is being used by teachers coast to coast. Celebrities and musicians have gotten behind it.  Communities are coming together to show support for their teachers. Teachers are posting a wishlist on Amazon and sharing it with the world (or at least their own little corner of the world).
While parents are struggling with kids' back to school lists, teachers are shucking out money for their own paper clips and dry erase markers. I have to ask, "What other profession on the planet requires its employees to buy their own paperclips?" And, I am not talking about the cute colored ones. I am talking about the boring silver ones.
Now don't get me wrong. Most teachers have their basic supplies covered. Most don't have to buy their own copy paper or pens, but what isn't provided, teachers are buying themselves.
So, here is my million dollar question.  Why does a person who spent four years getting a degree to be in a professional career find herself in the school supply aisle at Wal Mart? I'll give you a hint. It isn't entirely because I have a weird obsession with school supplies. It's because I know the best prices on school supplies happen before school starts. I also know that when the supply of staples runs out in the workroom around February, there won't be any more until the next school year.  I know the dry erase markers I will be given to start the year will last only until Christmas. I know that at some point students are going to need pencils. I know that some can't afford to buy any more, and it was really hard to get the money together to buy some to start school. So, I plan for that.  I buy pencils for my students, crayons when they are a quarter, and glue and composition notebooks when they are 50 cents.  I don't "sell" these things to my students. I give them away.  Research has shown us that when students have what they need, they are more successful.  Common sense tells us that when teachers have what they need, they, too, will be successful.
For all of you helping #clearthelist, I thank you.  I thank you from the very depth of my heart.  We love kids; we love our jobs, but what we really love is when people notice how hard we are trying to make our world a better place not just by teaching reading and math and science and social studies and vocational skills and a love for the arts, but by simply loving kids, seeing their potential and doing what we can to help them realize their dreams.
If you have no idea, what I am talking about, just search #clearthelist on any social media platform. If you don't have social media but want to help a teacher out, cute colored paperclips will always make us smile!
Here's to a great 2019-2020 school year!

Early morning thoughts...

The alarmed fog horned that it was 6:45 CT, anxiously set the night before. The big event? A facebook live chat with two of my all time favorite author/teachers. Penny Kittle was going to chat with Kelly Gallagher about their own writing and what they were putting in their notebooks this summer.  Technology was not my friend as I anxiously awaited the feed to go live. I had the dreaded black screen and spinning wheel of death. I switched from my phone to my laptop and huddled in the hotel bathroom to listen to the wisdom these two had for me on this early, non-school day, summer morning.  It was over in less than 20 minutes. I sat there a bit stunned. That was it? I got up for 20 minutes. YES, I did! Of course, I could have watched it later in the day, but I wanted to be on when they were on. Stalkerish? Maybe.  But, more of "they are up and talking and no one is watching" kind of support.  I will add there were two of us watching it live. Dozens more will watch later and comment, but it was kind of exciting to be one of the only ones watching...okay, that does sound like a stalker.  So what did I gain by getting up early and listening to these two for a mere 15 or so minutes.
Nothing.  I learned nothing.  So it was a waste of my time, you ask?  You would have rather slept in? Never!  Listening to the discussion reiterated the importance of what I am trying to do in my classroom.  Without knowing who I am, these two have given me the green light to continue to teach writing, real writing the way it should be. They have given me confidence in knowing that I am not alone when I say students should have writing choices, just as they have reading choices, and I have to not only do it with them, but I have to give up the power to want to correct every single mistake they make along the way.
Writing is so much more than knowing where to put a comma or having subject-verb agreement.  Writing is about getting words, real words, authentic words on a page.  As teachers, we have robbed students of their own voices long before they even knew they had a voice. We have taken the imagination and curiosity and magic they began with in elementary and squashed it into the five paragraph essay.  No magic. No beautiful words. No student voice.  We are graduating students who have no writing identity, who have very few thoughts of their own, and have lost their imagination.
I will continue to swim upstream against this trend. I will continue to create a space in my classroom where students freely choose what they want to write about, and I will continue to do it right beside them.  The magic is still there. It's just gotten a little lost...

Planning and Thanksgiving Break

It is time. The weather has turned cooler.  The leaves are beginning to fall, and Thanksgiving is right around the corner.  Literally.  It is next week and with that comes an entire week off, a whole blissful, relaxing week to sleep in and lounge around in yoga pants with a hot cup of coffee and a great book.  Who am I kidding! It's a week filled with football or basketball practices (fingers crossed it will be football).  But, it is also a week to plan, to read, and then plan some more. 

I do this every break we get from school. Thanksgiving. Christmas. Spring Break. Summer. I use the majority of the time reading and researching and planning.  I gave benchmarks this whole week to my classes (7th grade and 10th grade) that are still on the STAAR test timeline. There is data to break down and figure out who really still needs what.  I also need to take a look at my teaching and see where I came up short.  Although I want to think every single lesson I teach rocks, the reality is while I may think I did a great job, my students data will show me the truth. It's ugly and there might be a few tears, but it is necessary.  

My American Literature class is about to start The Crucible, and I need this break to get all my materials organized.  One of these days, I will gather all this into a binder and be the ultra organized teacher who can just grab the binder and go.  But, if you read my first post, you know how I rarely keep anything the same from year to year.  And, if I do, it is most likely lost in the abyss that is my haphazard filing system.  Think Dorie, when I come across that great activity! Oh hey, look at this awesome...wait, that looks familiar.

So, while I am looking forward to yoga pants every day and the alarm not going off at 5:30 a.m.,  (Caution: nerd alert ahead!) I am really looking forward to time away from my classes to plan...for my classes. And, shopping for a binder!

No More Scrapping

Do you ever feel like you are running behind?  I don't mean the kind of behind that makes you late for work or picking your kids up.  I'm talking about the kind of late where you realize you have been teaching for years but you just now really figured it out...23 years in.
How doest his happen?  I feel like I have attend solid professional developments.  I have seen Donalyn two or three times, even before the books.  Teri Lesesne, never missed the chance to see her. Stalked Lucy Calkins, Tanny McGregor, and Laura Calder. So, how is it that I never really realized how important it was to give my students choice, real choice, not teacher made up choices.
As teachers, we do that.  We make up the choices and then offer our choices to our students.  Now, stay with me. I completely know the importance of teaching literary terms, but I also knew there had to be a better way.  A way that would give students ownership of their own reading and writing.  Writing in my class had become what I chose, closely monitored and meticulously developed writing that lacked style and voice BUT scored high on state tests.  What a horrible disservice to my students!  I was creating robotic writers who were unable to create their own voice, or to even find their own voice.

Each and every summer, I scrap everything I did the previous year and replan.  I spend the summer, not resting and recharing but reworking my curriculum.  I think I have also known that something was missing.  I just wasn't sure what.  Fast forward to this past summer.  I got brave and finally attended my first literacy conference.  Oh my!  Why had I waited so long to do this?  I have no idea, other than maybe I just didn't realize such a thing existed.  I know in 23 years you would think I would have found this.  I also bought my first professional development book, 180 Days by Kelly Gallagher and Penny Kittle.  I have read several PD books but never felt like I needed to actually buy mine own, mark it up, and wear it out! If you haven't bought this book, you should. I could go on and on about it, but that's not what this post is about. After reading this book, I realized what has been missing from my classroom, a love for reading and writing, not my love, student love.  My students were missing out on a love for all things literature.

While all my students might not love reading and writing in my classroom, they are finally getting choice, choice about what they read, choice about what they write about.  That only has empowered my students.  It has empowered me as I write along beside them.  The writing alone has taught me about myself in ways I could never imagine.  It has given my students a place to express their own thoughts and feelings. In short, they have BLOWN me away. They have written about heart break, family situations, loss, triumph, insecurities. They have opened up their hearts to me.  And, the most amazing thing has happened.  Their academic writing has shown great improvement, even though we are only 12 weeks into school, and I haven't even begun to teach academic writing.
This may be the first summer in 23 years that I don't scrap a single thing.