A (School) Year in Review

I am about to wrap up my 8th year in education- a number that frankly seems impossible, because the time has flown by.  Although I have worked at two schools (soon to be three- but I'll get to that later), I have spent all 8 years in Berwyn South School District 100. I consider this district to be my little niche of happiness. I am allowed and encouraged to be myself and to flourish- and yes- teaching is hard- but I get through it with the amazing friends and work family I have created over the years.

I like to consider myself a very reflective teacher- it's something that I consider vital for growth in any field- but especially the land of education. Because of this, I wonder why, until this post, I have yet to sit down at the end of a school year and record my thoughts. Getting ideas down on paper is so powerful, and maybe because this year has been so full of changes (good and bad), I am excited to embark on this journey.

This blog, which I only started last year, has given me so much. It has provided a place to grow, learn, share, be vulnerable, be excited, make connections, and more! It has given me an audience to listen and share with, that in turn, I have read blogs and learned with and from people around the globe. Things I never would have stumbled upon before have entered my life because of blogging- and I am forever grateful for that.

So without further ado- I know you’re dying to actually get down to the nitty gritty and hear about this school year. SO much has happened, some things are changing, and some things will always stay the same.

Let’s start with some really positive and exciting events. This was the inaugural year of #D100bloggerPD, which I co-founded with fellow D100 Reading Specialist Colleen Noffsinger. Safe to say that if you have read my blog before, you know about #D100bloggerPD.  This is where we select books (from all areas) and do a blog book study (kind of like a jigsaw) with other members (both teachers and admin) from around D100. We have done 3 books this year: Reading in the Wild by Donalyn Miller, Move Your Bus by Ron Clark, and Hacking Education by Mark Barnes and Jennifer Gonzalez. Each one has gotten better and better and the impact of #D100bloggerPD has been amazing. We have involved so many teachers, from within D100 to all the way across the country, and we are all learning and growing together. Even though the school year is ending, #D100bloggerPD will keep going- in fact, we just announced our next blog study, and it will be on the book What Teachers Make by Taylor Mali. Even better news: Taylor Mali heard about our blog study via Twitter and had reached out to help and participate in a Twitter Chat. Hello, power of Twitter! And the power of good people getting together to learn and improve themselves. Not for pay, not for recognition- just for the purpose of learning. 

Also exciting this year was I continued doing something I love- presenting at #edtech conferences- and this year I got to bring my husband in on it! We co-wrote a presentation called “Educator Expectations in the 21st Century” and were able to share this with audiences at Illinois State University’s T21CON (Teaching in the 21st Century Conference) in

September, Waukegan Google ’n More in January, and ICE (Illinois Computing Educators) in February. I love this presentation because it’s not about one buzzword in education. It’s about motivating people to be the very best they can be while fusing in some 21st century skills along the way.

There is no “trick” to teaching. There’s just good teachers who never give up and surround themselves with a PLN (professional learning network) of other like minded individuals, and then they all make a vow to never stop improving. And yes, that is as hard as it sounds. But you work at it. Constantly. I also attended EdCamp Chicago- which was held at my husband Peter’s school (Churchville Middle School in Elmhurst, IL) back in April with some D100 friends and some of my extended D205 family. It was a fantastic day of learning and growing (organized by the amazing Ben Hartman and his EdCamp Chicago Team) and days like that make it very obvious why EdCamps are so popular! 

Speaking of conferences, I get to knock something off my bucket list next year thanks to my proposal acceptance to present at the IRC (Illinois Reading Council) Conference. As a reading specialist, this conference is the top of my ladder. All the best voices in reading attend and present at this conference- and I am MORE than excited that this will be me next year. I will be presenting on Using Technology to Improve Reading Instruction- a presentation geared towards Pre-K to 3rd grade teachers that will focus on infusing technology into the core building blocks of reading instruction.

To keep the trend of getting good news going, I found out early May that I will be awarded the Outstanding Young Alumni Award from the Illinois State University College of Education in the fall during the Homecoming festivities. This is a HUGE honor and one that I am more than humbled to receive. My husband won this award two years ago and wholeheartedly deserved it- so to not only follow in his footsteps but also blaze this trail of my own is amazing. I consider ISU to be my home- a place that molded me into a student/teacher/person who never gives up and keeps growing. The motto, Gladly We Learn and Teach, sums it up perfectly. We must always keep learning in order to be the best teacher we can possibly be. I just really can’t put into words everything this University and the College of Education has done for me.  If you are a regular on my blog, you also know that Illinois State is where I met my husband (an amazing educator who I talk about ALL the time- sorry!), which is just another reason to love my alma mater. Plus, being able to be ‘lovebirds’ (the ISU mascot is the Redbird) is pretty adorable!

Speaking of my husband, being married to a teacher has its perks. And this year- the perks lined up (for only the 2nd time in 8 years) and we had the same spring break.

We were able to take our baby birds (get it…lovebirds have baby birds…) on a spring break road trip-visiting various museums over the span of five different states. I know what you’re thinking- those poor kids get to go to a bunch of museums while other kids get to go to Disney! But seriously- they loved it! Being the kids of two teachers has definitely shaped them into little adventure-loving learners. We are so proud of the kids they are growing up to be. This year, more than ever, I have noticed them growing up way too fast. 

Brayden (our oldest) just finished Pre-K and therefore starts Kindergarten in the fall. This is impossible. My baby just can’t be turning 5 and going off to elementary school. I just don’t get it.

And Olive….our feisty, take charge, run the world 3 year old- she’s keeping right up with her older brother.

It’s hard to believe (but wonderful) that we are over and done with with all things baby. No more bottles, diapers, cribs, making baby food, and sadly, no more sleepy baby snuggles in the middle of the night. Those days might be gone- but I know I can speak for Peter and say that we cannot wait to fill those days with new memories and new adventures. Watching your kids grow up is a pleasure I didn’t fully understand until now.

So many positive things happened this year that it’s hard to remember them all. I almost forgot to mention the amazing #edtech conference that my district hosts- iEngage! This is an amazing event that just wrapped its second year- both of which I was in charge of all things registration.

This includes the registration website, the schedule website, the logistics of how much food to order (eek! can’t mess that up!), and how many seats to lay down. I wrote a reflection post last year which sums up a lot of the emotions and craziness of organizing this conference. This year the conference was, again, a huge success- due in large part to the fantastic iLead team led by Jordan Garrett. We all had a role and worked together to execute the conference beautifully- of which hundreds of educators from in and out of Illinois came to learn. 

This year iEngage was a little rough for me because, unfortunately, my grandma was admitted to the hospital on the Thursday before the two day conference which happened Friday 4/29 and Saturday 4/30. I spent the evening of that Thursday in the hospital with my family, left late and arrived in Berwyn at 5am to get ready for Friday. Friday was a huge success and at the end of the day, I drove back to the hospital. Stayed late again and was back in Berwyn by 6am Saturday for day 2 of iEngage. Once again, a huge success and then my husband and I drove back to the hospital. This time we spent the night with my family in the room, and sadly, in the middle of the night, surrounded by her loved ones, my grandma passed away. I couldn’t even write in this blog post the millions of things this woman has done for me in my lifetime. I couldn’t possibly put into words the feeling you have when you experience the first death of someone close to you. I have learned to look at this in a positive light. I was only born with 2 grandparents living and I made it until I was 30 years old before they both passed. Another positive- my grandma got to know my kids and vice versa.

This lady who had such a hand in raising me got to enjoy my kids growing up. She will forever be in their memories- in fact- they talk about her often. About her love of corn dogs, banana shakes from Culver’s, playing with toys at her house, and getting to hug and kiss her goodbye. Those memories are priceless. 

After her passing, I was so fortunate enough to be able to lean on so many friends and family to get me through this hard time. Being surrounded by people who love you is a blessing- and I am lucky to say I have a lot of people who love me. A husband who is my rock, kids who, while crazy, are my world, a family of strong people, and friends who would drop anything for me. A lot of those friends are people I work with, and have come to consider family, after working at Pershing the last two years. Being able to work in a school and a district that cares about you is not something I take lightly. 

This brings me to my last change. This is, likely, my last post as a Pershing Panther. I will be moving next year to Hiawatha, another elementary school in our district. I’m excited for change and the new opportunity, but it goes without saying that I will miss the people I have gotten to know these last two years. But I’m really only going about ten minutes away- so hopefully they won’t forget about me and we can grab lunch sometime!

If you’re still reading this- wow! That was so much! When I started out, I didn’t think I had much to reflect on this year. Turns out A LOT has happened. I didn’t intend for this post to get this long, but I’m kind of glad it did. Like I said, reflecting is key to growth. Writing everything down has a sort of healing power to it and it allows me to clear my mind for summer and next year. 

I can’t wait. 

What’s next? I’m going to go enjoy the end of the school year and summertime. You’ll see me back here at the end of June when we start to promote our next #D100bloggerPD- and that will begin July 21st! 

Reading Strategies Book: Goal 12 Reflection

Welcome back, readers! First let me say that I am very sorry that this post is a day late! I explained in my last post (read it here) that it was a crazy week for me with my husband having shoulder surgery- but it was also an adorable week because my kids started preschool yesterday. So between taking a half day to get them to school and then getting back to my own job after a few days off- it all just got away from me. But hey, considering we are on goal 12 or 13- I am pretty impressed that I stayed on track this long! So even though these pictures are not reading strategy related, they are incredibly cute and I feel the proud-mommy need to share them with you all. 

This first one is of both of my kids- Brayden, who is 4 and Olive, who is 2.5. They really don't totally like each other this much- but they can at least turn it on for pictures!

Here's Olive. She's our little ham. The world needs to watch out for her; she's fearless and determined while being adorable silly at the same time. This is her first ever day of school- and it's safe to say she was very excited! No tears at all!

Here's Brayden. He's our shy, tender-hearted little boy- who, when his sister isn't making him crazy, is pretty much the sweetest, nicest boy you'll ever meet. This is his first day of Pre-K and his second year of school. He went last year as a 3 year old- but didn't go to 2's like his little sister.

As you can see, both share a deep love and admiration for Paw Patrol!

Now that you've met the reason why I am a day late on this reflection- let's get right to it! Today we are here discussing the next Goal in Jennifer Serravallo's The Reading Strategies Book which is Goal 12: Supporting Students' Conversations: Speaking, Listening, and Deepening Comprehension.  As Serravallo puts it, "When kids talk well about books, the conversations can be invigorating, engaging, and enlightening. When they don't go well, kids get bored and off task and time is wasted. What kids most often need is instruction into how to talk well, period, and also how to talk well about books." (Page 324). I love that this quote really explains that kids do talk. They talk a lot, actually. We just need to focus on giving them the right strategies to talk about books in the right ways. If you think about it, 50% of our job is already done. The kids already talk. Now just spend 50% more time making sure it's about the right stuff and it will be 100% awesome!

Here's another long quote- but again, this really explains perfectly what's happening here. Serravallo says, "There are two sides to the productive conversation coin. First, students need to have a hearty repertoire of conversational skills. Second, they need good stuff to talk about, meaning that their comprehension of the text and the depth of their thinking can impact the conversation." (Page 324). This. Is. Perfect. Just reread it and think about it. We have to teach them how to talk properly (hence the upcoming strategies), but we also have to give them meaningful things to talk about. We, as the teachers, are not without responsibility in this task.  

As you can see, this week's focus strategies for Goal 12 are 12.2: Listen and Respond, 12.10: Sentence Starter Sticks, and 12.20: Power Questions. Remember that there are so many more strategies in the text- for readers of all levels and for skills of all types. Be sure to check them all out because your needs and likes might be different than mine! 

I listed both pictures right away for this strategy because I think the visual does a fantastic job of explaining what is happening with this strategy. As much as this goal focuses on getting students talking, we must also be sure they are listening (now and always!). This strategy really helps student be good listeners to their peers and then construct their responses. I also like that this strategy comes with the nice little symbols for each prompt. This way I could nod to students as I am walking around the room and this would act as a reminder queue for them to be sure they are doing the same with their partner.

Next up is 12.10: Sentence Starter Sticks. I have to admit, I love manipulatives. I don't use them as much as I'd probably like to because I kind of have a rule about not making the learning about the manipulative rather about the learning- but there are absolute times when they are needed. Let's say you somehow have those kids who really don't talk (having taught middle school I don't think this is really possible) but if you do, these sticks would definitely come in handy! Just bring the cup over to the students and have them select a stick and start talking. This is great, too, because you control where the conversation begins- which is a very powerful tool.

I also chose this because I used to use a strategy where I taped little visual cues for reading on the end of sticks to help my struggling readers. I would tape an ear on the stick and hold up that particular stick if I wanted the student to ask themselves if it sounded right. Or I'd tape a magnifying glass and hold it up if I wanted the student to look for clues in the sentence to try and figure out the word. I loved those sticks and students did too. Eventually I didn't need to hold up the stick, they would say, "Oh, what does it sound like?" and eventually they would just internalize the strategy altogether. Mission accomplished!

Last up is 12.20: Power Questions. As Serravallo explains, "Power questions are often ones that begin with why and how and won't have a simple yes-or-no answer. Think about what you wonder- about the book or about another person's ideas- and consider sharing your question, not just a statement." (Page 347). I like to think of power questions with the following "mom" scenario. If I just ask my kids, "How was school today?" they can get off easy with a one word answer. But if I make it a power question, maybe something like "Tell me something that made you think at school today." and poof, I'll get a much more magical answer.

I also like how in the visual it breaks down types of questioners- so students can remember that they don't always need to be a "detective" and sometimes they can be a "judge" and this will help differentiate their thoughts and responses. 

That's all for Goal 12! Be sure to check back on Tuesday 9/15 for the final goal reflection from Jennifer Serravallo's The Reading Strategies Book which is Goal 13: Improving Writing About Reading. 

As always, thanks for reading and be sure to add your thoughts/comments/questions in the space below!