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.