Immersion Therapy

A day spent wrapped up in blankets, drinking warm coffee and eating snacks. A day of raindrops on rooftops and sunshine splitting the clouds. A day filled with books, technology, music, and thinking. A day that follows a random pattern, such as:

read
annotate
tweet
reflect
blog
tweet
text
read
collaborate
ponder
read
think
text
read
annotate
tweet
read
#chat
strategize
read
synthesize
smile
change
celebrate

For many of us, a day like this is quite therapeutic. Or as Ann would eloquently call it: Immersion Therapy.

~Celina

Thriving on Collaboration

Ann and I thrive on collaboration. Do you???

We could not imagine our daily work without the inspiration acquired from:

• Conversations on the fly
• Lunches with people who share moments of support and laughter
• Emails that make us think deeply, smile, and share jokes
• Recommendations for books, and conversations through book clubs
• Twitter #chats (#21stedchat, #5thchat, #4thchat, and #gtie chatters- we always enjoy the collaborative spirit!)
• Connections made with other educators
• Formal collaborations, meetings, and trainings driven by conversation and learner needs, not agendas ;)
• Blogs we follow, and comment conversations that lead to new ideas
• Conferences, emails, and conversations with parents
• Connecting with students, getting excited about books, concepts, themes, and laughs

As we approach the Thanksgiving Break, we just wanted to say THANK YOU to those who support us, celebrate with us, and encourage us to grow.  Your inspiration helps us to be courageous, but also humbles us in your presence, support, and conversations.  You matter.

~Celina and Ann

A Star Moment for our Students and Us

Image found here

 

Yesterday, Celina and I had the opportunity to share what we do in our classroom with others at a presentation for empowering learners.  We spoke about the 5 powerful strategies that are the basis for our program: choice, reflection, self-assessment, students as teachers, and student voice.  The 4 ½ hour return trip was spent laughing and reflecting on all that we have been able to accomplish with our students in the last year and half.  How we have grown as teachers, how our students have grown and how our program has evolved into creating an environment for learning that could work in a multiage context or any straight grade setting.

Why does it work?  It is a mindset, a way of thinking.  It is not a canned program or a prescription, it is about starting with the students first, considering what they need, and focusing solely on all of the ways we can meet those essentials.   We start with our students, determine the standards they require, and then pull from our curriculum and other resources in order to meet those needs.

No matter what the standards are, or what the curriculum is, you cannot make it happen without starting from where the kids are and what they still need.

Thinking in this manner, with this mindset, means that the standards and curriculum you work from are basically irrelevant!  They just become a set of “building blocks;” they are those elements that you scale on the path to becoming an accomplished learner. We started our program last year with the state standards, but easily transitioned to CCSS when they were put into use.  In the past few years our district has implemented new curriculum in Art, Social Studies, Math, Spelling and World Languages.  While this could have easily overwhelmed us, we instead chose to look at these materials as just a new set of basic resources from which we could pull (or our students could seek) the knowledge that was needed.

We pass this mindset on to our students. The realization that they can achieve anything they set their minds to, they can grow from where they are, take charge of their learning, and be empowered in their abilities and choices.

We returned today to our classroom tired, but exhilarated and eager to share and celebrate with our students all that we have experienced, shared and received in response. Our students were so proud, so happy that their Brain Books were shared, so excited that “THEY” were our topic of conversations.  Overall though, I felt awe in them and from them, the awe in knowing that their words and work have the power to transform education for all the administrators and teachers who were at our presentation and eventually all the students who will be impacted by this new learning. They have the power to change the world for others as they have changed it for us. It starts with the students and the learning never ends.

~Ann

 

PS Thank you to "our people" for making it possible!

Opening Minds Chap. 1-3

July is half way through and I am reveling in the long days and hot temperatures that have me finding a quiet place to keep on reading.  This week I tackled chapters 1-3 of Opening Minds by Peter H. Johnston. This book has been on my “To Be Read Pile” for a couple of months, so the #cyberPD was just the prodding I needed.  I have to say though now that I have started this is a book that is not easy to put down.

My take-away thoughts:

·         Using “Already”: that one little word suggests that what a student knows has the potential to be ahead of what is being assessed, and at the same time establishes that there is “nothing permanent about what is known and not known.” (pg. 2)

·         Mistakes happen at the edge of what we can do, when we are learning! So helping students to be comfortable with accepting mistakes as part of the learning process is essential.

·         MINDSET keeps coming at me from so many different directions! (Carol Dweck’s book Mindset is waiting for me on my Kindle ap.) I was fascinated by the idea that fixed mindsets tend to choose performance goals and dynamic mindsets tend to choose learning goals.(pg. 12) 

·         Influence: as a teacher I can contribute to my students developing a dynamic mindset in the ways I use feedback and praise, the way I frame activities, and lastly in continuing to teach students about how the brain works. (pg. 18) While I work hard with the last one, the first two are definitely areas I can grow and improve.

·         The Power of “YET”: “I am not very good at my multiplication tables, YET!”  Helping students to understand that they can achieve it, that they can grow and learn. (pg. 27)

Next steps:

·         I feel like I want to list some phrases to refer to for easy access until I have them imprinted on my brain. 

·         I am going to add the charts on pages 17 and 23 to our work with growth and fixed mindsets with our students.  While last year Celina and I worked this into some groups we saw struggling with challenging themselves, this year I feel like it will be essential information for all of our learners.  I also want to talk to our class about what they think it means to be smart.

·         Spend more time focusing on causal processes (pg. 31) “Causal process comments are the most effective way of promoting the belief that the important information is how someone did (or could do) something, because that’s what we learn from.”  I am going to try this one out on my own kids this summer! (Action-based research!)

·         Ah, and now to blog hop the others reading this book and then on to chapters 4-6!

~ Ann

Thinking Ahead

Now that summer is in full swing (and even the weather is cooperating with 84 degrees in the PNW) both Celina and I are reflecting and thinking over where we go from here.  We are mulling over the possibilities for next year.  What worked?  What do we want more of?  What did we learn?  Where do we want to go and grow?  It is probably typical that just a chat about something mundane (the schedule) has us talking for an hour about what we want to see more of in our classroom next year.  So, a top five of our ideas, so far. . .

Infused Teaching

It is funny to think that the school year just barely ended, yet I feel that new learning and past experiences are beginning to fuse together as I am to a simmering stage already.  I honestly did not expect to be in this place until the beginning of August, but here I am:  ready and willing. 

As I approached our week learning how to infuse art into our daily teaching and learning, I was giddy about the prospect of new information.  Now I am giddy about the connections that are occuring.  Ann and I had a big AH-HA moment yesterday, during our training, when we were in a session that was covering a variety of teaching models:

Discipline-Based Teaching = Subjects/classroom disciplines are taught separately
Thematic Integration = Two or more subjects using the same theme at the same time
Multi-Disciplinary = Two or more subjects joined together for relative concepts
Infused Teaching = A concept shared by multiple disciplines, with the concept meaning also being shared

Giddy

Yep, that's me... giddy about the upcoming Professional Development opportunity ahead of me this week.  And let's be honest, Ann is too.... I know this because we have shared a few giddy texts back and forth today.  And actually she is probably more gaga than giddy, because this week we are attending an Art Impact Institute :  5 full days of hands-on, interactive training. Yahoo!!

In the beginning I said no to participating in the opportunity, as it is a 2-year commitment (in conjunction to a grant) and I had planned on other commitments this summer.  However, as we were in desperate need of another person to attend (along with Ann dangling the carrot, because she has been syked for MONTHS), I agreed with excitement.  As the week approached and I had many days to rest and rejuvenate, I began to feel the excitement grow.  Then reading the schedule last week sent me over the moon!   I felt like Krissy Venosdale as she was counting down the days to Space Camp... Thinking about spending a week deeply engrossed in your passion is an incredible feeling. 

Ann and I (along with many other remarkable educators, trainers, and experts) get to participate in over 40 hours of Art, Theatre, and Dance.  Yep!  WE get to learn, dance, create, collaborate and perform!  It is so thrilling to prepare for a learning experience that is not a "sit-and-get".  Ooohhhh the possibilities!

So it leaves me thinking as I approach my week of learning... Do our students get giddy about coming to school and go gaga over the possibilities of what they are about to learn?  And how do we ensure that they do/are? 

Hmmmmm.... More to come, I'm sure of it, as Ann and I reflect together throughout the week.

~Celina

In Case You Missed It . . .

Yesterday, Celina and I had the opportunity to share the message of our multiage program.  Then today I took the time to catch up on all my favorite bloggers and came across the great post by Pernille Ripp, about apologies.  I instantly made a connection, because while the presentation went well as we talked a full 50 minutes about our growth and philosophy, I am finding myself thinking of the things I wish I would have said.  The things I wish I would have pointed out, those direct highlights that I hope everyone who was there took away from our presentation but am unsure that they were able to easily read between the lines since so much was shared.  So here it is, without apology (thanks Pernille for reminding me to stand tall):

5 Ways to Cause Your Own Personal Shift Towards “Research is Crucial”

Ann and I have found this “Shift in Thinking” {Shift #1} to cause us to travel down a different path, changing the course of our journey for the better.  Here are 5 suggestions to make the “Shift”:

1)      Partnership for 21st Century Skills This national organization advocates for 21st Century readiness for all students.  If you have not utilized their website www.p21.org, we highly recommend you doing so.  The Framework is thought provoking and may change your perspective, and possibly even your philosophy.

Digital Literacy

This school year I set out with several personal growth areas:  Science, Brain-based Learning, Student Book Clubs, and Formative Assessment.  I can proudly say that I am making strong gains in all 4 areas, as I devour literature on these topics any chance I get and apply my learning directly in my classroom with my students and alongside my teaching partner.  But one additional area snuck its way into my daily life through my own personal growth process; Digital Literacy is now on the forefront of my mind.  In my professional life, as well as my personal life, I am now “connected.”  I finally feel like I understand our present technological world, and I am more prepared than ever before to face the future advances that technology will have to offer.