Sunshiny Days in the Yard

It was so lovely to get outside and enjoy some sunshine working in my flower gardens.

This is MomMom's goose. She used to sit on MomMom's front porch greeting everyone with her seasonal outfits. Now she sits next to my back porch welcoming us home or bidding us good-bye each day. I love having her to remember my grandmother. She's going to be receiving a new coat of paint in the very near future.

We took a trip to the garden center to pick up some bags of mulch for the flower beds. Matt figured we needed 16 bags of brown mulch. Who would've guessed that Lowe's was having a sale on mulch, four bags for $10. Yippee! We bought our 16 bags, and I backed the car up to where some helpful employees loaded it up. These bags were huge! It's a good thing Michael decided to stay home and play otherwise he would be riding on the roof. The trunk was packed to the gills as was the back seat. I couldn't see out the back window so I let Matt drive home. We took the back way along the lakeshore instead of the freeway. It was slow-going. Our poor car, we really should get a truck for as much hauling as we do.

We started with the largest of the flower beds under Michael's "moon window" in the front of the house. Michael loves marigolds so before mulching we added some to the front corner in front of the boxwood. I love the smell of boxwood. It reminds me of Williamsburg.

Pansies are a perfect spring-time flower. This purply one looks like she's got a little face peeking out at us.

This is Peter Rabbit. He's a new addition to the front flower bed. He also came to our house from MomMom. I hope he likes his new home.

Sadly I had a jasmine bush where this Southern Comfort plant nows sits. I forgot to bring the jasmine in before winter. Ooops. Jasmine doesn't fare well in northern Ohio, especially in the winter.  I don't much care for the beverage Southern Comfort (that's another story), but I do love the color of this plant.

This is the end result of the front flower bed. Ta-dah! I still need to add some annuals for more color. But we're going to wait because the weather hasn't been cooperating around here.

Next came the second of the front flower beds. This one I'm nervous about. Jack, my black lab who never listens, likes to walk in this particular bed and wrap his lead around my Bluebeard bush. That would be the rather twiggy looking thing to the left. Over this past year I have found numerous pieces and parts left laying in the yard or caught in Jack's lead. I would rather tie him out back, but Matt doesn't want Jack's poop where we spend most of our time. I guess the poor mailman doesn't rank and therefor must maneuver through the landmines in our front yard. A new chore for Michael, scooping the poop! Sorry Michael, but somebody has to do it, and I know I scooped my fair share growing up. Then I used a shovel. Now they have actual scoopers with claws that grabs it up. I wonder if Lowe's carries pooper scoopers? I digress. I hope my Bluebeard bush rallies.

We continued our mulching down the side of the house where my lovely rosebushes reside.

On around the corner to the back stoop where Mr. Toad lives under the Hastas.

I love this goose planter. Matt found it in the rafters of the garage when we first moved to our little blue cottage of a house.

Isabella was a huge help today. She kept me company while I dug in the dirt, planted flowers, and spread mulch. We used my little red wagon to haul the flowers from bed to bed.

My little red wagon was tucked away in the garage at MomMom and PaPa's house. My aunt found it for me. Yes. It's old. At least 45 years old because PaPa used to pull me around in it behind the tractor while he mowed the lawn. I used to squeal with delight when he turned a corner. I couldn't wait to drive the tractor myself. Once he did teach me, I mowed the lawn any chance I got. Yea, I know. I'm weird. I would ride around for the two hours it took to mow listening to music on my walkman and singing at the top of my lungs. I don't think the neighbors appreciated that much.

While we were working the first sun tea of the season was brewing. When we finished we poured ourselves a tall glass of tea over ice and walked around the yard admiring all of our hard work.

Ups and Downs

This past year has been one of ups and downs, much like the BlueStreak at Cedar Point. To get back into my blog I'm going hi lite a few of the ups and downs.

Before leaving for Syracuse,
 I went to a stylist
 for my new professional haircut.

Up - In September I found myself training to be a coach for the Literacy Design Collaborative. This collaborative has been established by a grant from the Gate's Foundation. It's to help educators who teach in the common core, math, science, and social studies, to cover the literacy standards.  Basically taking the pressure off the English teachers to cover ALL of the literacy standards for EVERY core subject, plus all of our other standards. Not only does it help cover the literacy standards, but more importantly it benefits students to learn different content reading and writing. If students are reading and writing in ALL core subjects then their reading and writing will improve across the board. Being an LDC coach takes me to new places like Syracuse, New York to work with elementary and high school teachers. I must say I have an energetic group of teachers that I'm coaching. They are quite passionate about teaching and have tremendous ideas. I also work with other coaches from the Columbus, Ohio area. These teachers are a wealth of information and support. I've enjoyed sharing in their passion and enthusiasm for teaching. I was already a strong proponent of kids reading and writing, and now I can share that with my colleagues and teachers across states. This brings me to number two on the list of ups and downs.

PaPa heading into the press box to
keep time for the football game. The
pressbox was named in his honor;
between his father and him they have
100 years of keeping time for the school.

Down - Sadly PaPa became really ill just after Christmas. Actually, right around Thanksgiving he began eating less and less. PaPa told me he was afraid he'd choke. My family watched helplessly as he gradually became thinner. We told him every day that he needed to eat three meals a day at the very least, but there's no telling PaPa what to do. Since I'm more than an hour away from him, I wasn't able to be with him nearly as much as I wanted. My aunt spent time with him every day, helping by driving him to numerous appointments, cleaning the house, mowing the yard, trying to get him to eat, ... In January PaPa complained that his foot hurt him. The doctor said he had gout and prescribed gout medicine. It seemed to help temporarily. By February PaPa rode in the ambulance to the hospital. There we were told his foot didn't have gout, but that the medicine he had been taking caused his kidneys to worsen. From the hospital he was sent to a nursing home for rehabilitation. We thought he would be home within a month. PaPa told all of us he couldn't wait to go home. He wanted to be ready for officiating high school track. Within weeks he was gone. We were shocked. I am glad that I was with him in his final minutes on earth. I held his hand while my aunt and mom held his other hand. He was surrounded by his family. SInce the funeral we have been spending every weekend going through PaPa's house. Last weekend we finished. Now it's time to get ready for the auction. I don't know how I'll hold up watching MomMom and PaPa's belongings sold to the highest bidder.

My Reader's Notebook.
Each student kept a notebook
and read every day this year.

Up - Remember I read the Book Whisperer by Donalen Miller? Because of that book and Nancy Atwell's The Reading Zone I had my students keep Reading Notebooks this year. I devoted ten minutes to reading for fun for each class, each day of the week. That totals 50 minutes a week for reading, if my math is correct. I tested my students in reading at the beginning of the year to get a baseline. I then tested them at the end of the first nine weeks and repeated this process for each consecutive nine weeks.  I HAPPY to report that the majority of my students' reading scores have improved, some by five grade levels since we first began in the fall. ASTONISHING! I can't wait to see the results at the end of the year. I wanted to collect data, test results, to prove to myself and my administrators that reading for fun can improve a child's fluency and comprehension, thus improving their grade level reading. Some of my ninth graders were reading at a fourth grade level. Now many of them read at a ninth grade reading level. I hope the next teachers my students encounter will continue with reading for fun. I would love to see them graduate reading at a college level.

The Eifel Tower from a trip
I took with my best friend
as her French students.

Down-Up - Our school like many across the state must pass an operating levy next week. If the levy doesn't pass more teachers will lose their jobs. Earlier numerous teachers were RIFed in order to save money. One of those teachers was my best friend. The board and our superintendent decided to eliminate her program. She teaches French at the high school and middle school. When word got out that the French program was going to be cut, students cam out in mass to support her one of the board meetings. In fact so many people showed up that they had to relocate the meeting to the cafeteria. Students and parents spoke about why the French program was so important and what my best friend meant to them as a teacher. It's a good thing I brought tissues. Parents and students also inundated the superintendent and board members with emails and phone calls. Happily, as a result of the outpouring of support, the superintendent and the board are keeping the program in place, at least for now.

Much more happened since I last wrote in September, but that brings us up to speed. I've missed blogging. It's good to be back.

Reader's Notebook

We're going into our fifth week of school. Believe me my mind and body feel it. I'm excited though because this year I'm trying the Reader's Notebook with my kiddos. Just before the end of summer vacation, I reread the Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller and The Reading Zone by Nancy Atwell. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE both of these books.

In a nut shell, kids need to read books of their choice in order to improve in reading. I always wonder when the love of reading stops. I've been watching my son who is in the seventh grade now to see when he will begin to dislike reading. So far so good, but he doesn't seem to read as much as he used to. I tack that up to how busy his life has become with football practice and games, school, homework, church youth group, and family. However, there were times last year when he would come home and tell me what a boring story they were reading in English. He would do well on the tests, but some of the stories just weren't grabbing his attention and keeping it. I think our children begin to dislike reading when they have to read a story, answer questions about that story, and then take a test about the story. Is that fun?

I understand that with high stakes testing and grade level curriculum that most of us feel we have to teach reading this way. This year I'm expected to teach The Odyssey, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, To Kill a Mockingbird, Night, and Left to Tell. And I will teach them. But in addition I'm trying something new - for me. The Reader's Notebook.

Each student purchased a composition notebook for the year. The notebook is divided up into the following sections: Table of Contents, Books I've Read, Someday Books, Genre Notes, Guidelines for Reading Workshop, Letters to Mrs. Wallace, Book Recommendations, Other Important Information.

In the books I've Read section students list the number of the book (whether it's their first book or their 20th), title, author, genre, date completed, and if it's Easy, Just Right, or Challenging. I had them begin their list with the summer reading book. Each student had to read either Quicksilver or Quiver by Stephanie Spinner. I'm setting the bar at 18 books for the year that each student must read. That's nine each semester. Breaking it down even further that's four books the first and third nine weeks and five books the second and fourth nine weeks. I think we can handle that. Yes. I said WE. I'm reading too and have my own Reader's Notebook.

In Someday Books students write the title, author, and genre of books that sound interesting to them, and they might want to read some day. Each week I give a book commercial about two to three minutes. Brief. Students will be doing book commercials as well beginning the second nine weeks. If a student hears about a book they want to read they add it to their Someday list. This way when they finish with their current book they can refer to their list and select their next book.

The Genre Notes are just that. Notes on different genres. Here are the genres I chose to use. Traditional Literature, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mystery, Adventure, and Biography, Autobiography, and Memoir. I chose these because most of the books on my classroom shelves can be easily distributed among these genres. After we discussed the different genres and they wrote the definitions in their Reader's Notebook, I had each class take the tubs of books off of my shelves and categorize them by genre. They had no idea that they were putting their notes into practice. They just thought they were helping me organize our library.

The Guidelines for Reading Workshop was a handout that we cut apart and glued or taped into our notebooks. This is information about reading requirements, how to choose a book, how to write a friendly letter, how to proofread, suggested topics for their letters, due dates for their Reader's Notebooks, and the rubric for grading their Reader's Notebook.

At the completion of each book my kiddos will write me a letter. It must be three paragraphs in length. It must also tell me something important about their story; not just plot development. I've given them a huge list of ideas to write about their book. Here a just a few examples: How did the main character change throughout the book? Describe in detail the setting of your book and how it fits with the story? Who was the culprit and explain how he/she was a good choice. Explain how the book reminds you of yourself, people you know, or of something that happened in your life. Do you agree with the point the author is making and why? ... Some of these I thought up on my own, but others I begged and borrowed from other teachers.

In Book Recommendations students will obviously write a book recommendation about each book they complete. They will initially write it in their Reader's Notebook, but then they will also type it up and print it out so we can add it to our classroom binder of Book Recommendations. This binder is just one more place students can go to find a good book to read.

I'm keeping the Reader's Notebooks in containers by alphabetical order in my classroom. They sit on the bookshelf. Students may get their notebooks at any time during independent class time to work in them. The containers also make it easy for me to carry the notebooks home since they have a lid with a handle.

So how are we going to read all of these books? We read for the first 10 minutes of class each day. On block day once a week we read for 20 minutes. So that is 50 minutes each week. My students know when they come through the door that they have entered the ZONE and must quietly sit down, get out their book of choice, and READ. They also read whenever they complete their assignments, quizzes, or tests. Plus I ask them to try to read for 30 minutes each night of the week. After I take attendance, I read with them. This coming week, I'm going to begin circulating around the room each period and ask what they're reading and where they are in the book.

So far, just through my observations the majority of my kiddos are reading and in the zone. I have a few that read for awhile and then stare at the wall. I've placed several different books into their hands, but as of yet nothing has hooked them. I'll keep trying to find just the right book for each of them.

What I like about the Reader's Notebook besides all of the reading is that students will also be writing. Writing letters to me about their books is like writing a literary analysis. Writing book recommendations is persuasive writing. They're writing about their reading. LOVE IT! Of course this won't be all of the writing they will do this year. I also like the conversations that have already been happening in class. My kids are talking about and sharing their books! Can you believe it?! "This is such a great book. You've got to read it." "I'm at the part where..." "Can I read it after you?"

I pray this works. I want my kids to fall in love with books all over again or maybe for the first time. I want their reading to improve. Please keep your fingers crossed.

Update: Reader's Notebook Turns Blog - A Teaching Moment