Ten Favorites to Celebrate

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The end of the school year brings cheers, smiles, hugs, tears, and laughter in abundance.  It is a time to honor the memories of shared experiences; our classroom community moments built from a strong foundation and trusting relationships. 

Together, Ann and I made a big shift in our practice last summer after we accepted the positions of Multiage Teachers.  With our students we took off on the learning journey, promising one another to WORK HARD each and every day.  We were COURAGEOUS as we approached bumps in the road and supported one another in the face of challenges.  Throughout the year we consistently encouraged each other, taking every opportunity possible to CELEBRATE GROWTH.   And what a year the 52 of us had with this motto guiding our daily learning!!

Reflective Again

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Ann and I began our blog in November of 2011 as a way to be reflective about our practice and document our experiences as Multiage Teachers.  Within the first 2 months of the school year we were quickly inspired by the wisdom of our 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th graders as we embarked on our learning journey together.  They were thoughtful in their day to day work as we empowered them within our learning community.  As their insight unfolded we soon recognized how many incredible moments were passing us by undocumented, and thus Work Hard, Be Courageous, Celebrate Growth was born.

Incredible Us

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As we returned to school yesterday from our spring break, we dove into our third and final theme:  SOAR.  Our students began the year working hard building their own unique STRUCTURE for learning and developing a plan of relevant personal goals.  In the winter, they were courageous as they began to BLOOM.  Students were excelling in their goals, and continued to raise the bar for themselves.  Now they are ready to celebrate their growth and SOAR.

Yesterday we began decorating our classroom with inspiration to encourage us all to SOAR.  They worked individually to decorate a star that represented their personal goals and aspirations for the remainder of the school year.  In teams they developed banners for the windows to inspire others in our school community to SOAR.  We reestablished routines and rituals to help us SOAR to success.  And above all, students reevaluated their personal goals to SOAR to new achievements. 

Today our school Social Worker and her amazing Intern came in and shared a beautiful story, “Incredible You”, written by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer.  They share in our desire for students to believe they can SOAR to new heights and celebrate their amazing achievements.  The book explains 10 ways to let your greatness shine through, which was a perfect tie-in to our theme.  As I thought about each of these, I connected them with the overarching philosophies that Ann and I remind each other of daily; the words of wisdom we truly live by.

1.       Share the Good:  Attempt to inspire others, and seek out inspiration around us.

2.       Find What You Love:  Be passionate and never allow fear to guide us. 

3.       You are Filled with Love:  Extend our compassion and empathy to others.

4.       Find a Quiet Place Inside:  Be mindful and find ways to calm our thoughts to process clearly.

5.       Make Today Great:  Live in the moment and treasure the day we are standing in.

6.       Change Your Thoughts to Good:  Recognize the good and presume the best.

7.       Take Care of Yourself:  We must be healthy and happy to support others.

8.       Picture What You Want:  Honor our vision.

9.       Everyone is Special, Especially You:  Take time to celebrate ourselves and our students.

10.   Good Thoughts Give You Energy:  Thrive on positivity, novelty, and humor.

Ann and I model our Building Blocks to Success (Work Hard, Be Courageous, Celebrate Growth) for our students every day, and these 10 ways allowed me to reflect on how even as adults we must allow our greatness to shine through.  As we work hard, courage is necessary to help us celebrate our own personal growth.  We must soak up our moments of greatness and be careful to not minimize the work we have accomplished.  Every goal reached is a stepping stone on our personal journey, and valuing our own personal successes gives us the momentum to keep going through the ups and the downs. 

Ann and I attribute our incredibility to our students.  They inspire us often and give us the courage to keep going each and every day.  They help us believe.   Incredible Me… Incredible You… Incredible Us… 

~Celina

And the Rockstar Award Goes to...

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What a week!  I had a lot of so called “downtime” due to the circumstances at home, but seriously there was NO mental break.  I am ending the week actually more tired than most and I only made it to work 1.5 days out of 5.  So that is why my AMAZING, GENUINE, INSPIRATIONAL teaching partner is receiving the Rockstar Award!  Ann totally rocked the week:

·         She faced each day with resilience

·         She was calm in the face of unpredictability

·         She juggled 50 students, the needs of colleagues, and parent concerns with care

·         She welcomed 3 guest teachers into our classroom (2 of which had never subbed for us before)

·         She maintained her humor amidst the changes in routine

·         She attended 2 trainings, finding inspiration and courage

·         She assisted me in preparing for our first observation of several in the days to come

·         She put into practice a new routine to meet students social/emotional needs

·         She mentored our university student and a new teacher throughout the week

·         She mothered my daughter through the stress she was facing

·         She lesson planned on her own, creating engaging lessons and activities to meet students’ needs

…but most of all, with all of this on her plate she maintained her contact with me through texts, photos, emails, tweets, and phone conversations.  She kept me up to date, but also was a dear friend showing empathy for my personal situations. 

I am so very thankful...Everyone give her a shout out please!  She deserves it.

~Celina

Transforming Projects to Experiences

Project-Based Learning is a favorite instructional approach within our Multiage Program.  Our attempt, in the beginning, at developing purposeful projects to support science and social studies standards has truly transformed into meaningful EXPERIENCES.  We have learned to let go (a lot) in order to step back and let the students dig into the rich information using the variety of resources at their fingertips.  We have had incredible success thanks to Ann’s choreographed genius.  Students had complete choice during our most recent 3 week unit of focus, and we celebrated their amazing projects with a culminating event in which they had the opportunity to share their new knowledge and teach kindergarten students.  Their excellence was displayed through a variety of individual and partner presentations:  videos, PowerPoints, posters, paragraphs, discussions, experiments, songs, skits, and art.  Diversity, such a beautiful thing!!!

Superpowers

Yesterday we began with a Brain Breakfast asking the questions:  Who is your Superhero?  What is your Superpower?  (As we were both, of course, dressed in our Wonder Woman tee-shirts…)  

We hooked another....

Well, we did it... We captured another student recently... Hook, line and sinker! With our group we are realizing that there are some that have very deep rooted issues, inhibiting their positive personal belief system.... students Mrs. Ripp references in her post.

Redefining Nerd

According to Dictionary.com a nerd is a “dull person devoted to a nonsocial pursuit”.  It also discusses the origin of this word coming from 1940’s slang for a “crazy person”.  All of this makes us laugh… Since our team-teaching endeavor began (in relation to our new program) we may act a little crazy in our pursuit for knowledge, but we have had nothing but a social experience.  We read/research, reflect, discuss, and collaborate regarding every book we that ends up in our hands. (…and when we don’t have a book in our hands we buy another…)

We are joked with frequently for being "crazy nerds" who read books, research, websites and blogs for fun in our free-time.  We are happy with it, we love the title and wear that crown proudly!!  Our take on Nerd Day was the true defintion of a Nerd... two teachers celebrating, "We're nerdy and we know it!"

Our new definition for the 21st century:  A nerd is a person who is Notorious for Enthusiasm, Reflection, and Discussion in regards to a specific topic.

We encourage you to celebrate your “Inner 21st Century NERD"!!