2004-2014... "Ten years of teaching have passed already?"  Or should I ask, "Only ten years of teaching have passed?"

Packing up the classroom for summer vacation of 2014 was confusing.  On one hand, I could hardly believe how fast ten years had flown by.  On the other hand, I felt a bit like a failure-- should I have done more in ten years?  My tenth year, in particular, was a difficult one.  It seemed like anything positive was disappearing in my memories, and only the negative ones were coming through.  My positive flame was burning out.  I needed fuel, and I needed it fast.  Was it gone?  I spent the summer thinking about what drove me to become a teacher.  I looked pretty far, but I found that fuel.

In 1987, I had the best kindergarten teacher in the world, Mrs. Eckenrode. In addition to academics, I learned how to be a "good person" in kindergarten.  There are no standards for that, but those lessons stuck with me forever.  In 1988, Mrs. Lander was the best first grade teacher.  She made everyone feel special, and she let you sit in her big rocking chair if you were brave enough to read to the class.  Mrs. Ransom was the best second grade teacher.  When she read, The Boxcar Children, her voices were right on point, and the whole class was whisked away on adventures when she read aloud to us.  She was so smart; I remember that she could spell O-l-y-m-p-i-c-s without even looking it up.  (My ambition up through second grade was to be an Olympic gymnast.)  In third grade, I met Mrs. Reed.  Her room was a town, complete with town meetings and a mayor.  We ran the classroom, so we thought.  It was a family, and Mrs. Reed facilitated everything perfectly.  The songs we sang every morning made me really excited to go to school.  We also earned money, had auctions, and memorized poems.  Most of all, I remember loving to read and write.  We talked about books we read, and I even read stories I wrote to the class.  That year I changed my ambition from Olympian to teacher.  I wanted to be a third. grade. teacher... just like Mrs. Reed! My love for the teaching profession did not stop at third grade.  Mr. Morgan had a couch in his room in 4th grade, and he made me LOVE science.  Early finishers could learn BASIC computer programming, and I will never forget the day I made the robot pick up an eraser!  I still remember every single teacher I have ever had, and each of them is a small part of THE TEACHER I WANT TO BE everyday.  

That is my fuel!

In 1990, I decided I wanted to be a third grade teacher, just like Mrs. Reed.  Believe it or not, I am a third grade teacher.  The disappointing part for me, is that I am not just. like. Mrs. Reed.  I know I cannot be JUST like her, but after ten years, you would think I would feel less of a failure.  I try really hard to be the teacher I always wanted to be (since 1990), but there is no way.  Times are different, and things have changed.  

Again, I was faced with a decision.  Was my fuel gone?  Have I burned out?  

Education has changed since the 1990's; there is no doubt about it.  I could write 100 pages of things that have changed (that need to change back).  To summarize those thoughts, I believe that, as much as political systems in education feel they have the best interest of students in mind, they do not.  As a teacher, I have no control of those things, and it is frustrating!  Just thinking about it makes it hard to breathe. Am I burned out, trying to be a teacher from the 90's in the 21st century?

I now realize that I am not burning out; I am suffocating. 

I still have a passion, and it is strong!  I REALLY WANT to give my students experiences that are equal to (or better than) the ones I had.  My teachers were (and still are) my fuel, and I want to be that for my students.  To do this, I need to step back and breathe.  All the obstacles are sure to be around for a while, but I will take my focus away from those suffocating challenges to make a real difference in my students' lives.  While a day of third grade in my classroom will not be identical to a day in my dear Mrs. Reed's room, it will be the best day I can possibly arrange for my students.  

Today I made a point to KNOW my students better-- to listen, to sing, to play, and to laugh.  We still "got through" everything in my lesson plans, but today was different.  It was memorable.  We took time to breathe.  

A fan to the flame was all I needed.  Tomorrow will be bright.

 Vocabulary. Definitions. Examples. Sentences.  Does this sound exciting? 

 When the clock hits 2:15, my class comes to life.  It is time for science!  The students have their notebooks out and are ready to move to their science seats before I even finish explaining the upcoming experiment.  They hang on every single word I say.  How do I know they are listening?  There are no questions about what to do.  Not one.  The experiments are being executed perfectly.  Even my student with the shortest attention span is caught telling her lab partner EXACTLY how many drops of liquid need to be applied to make a chemical change visible! So why do they listen SO well in science class, but have such trouble remembering vocabulary from reading class after days and days of review?

 Science matters to them-- right now!  They are in charge of the science experiment's success, and they want to see results! They care!

 How do I get students to care about vocabulary in reading class? 

 I can think like an adult, and lecture students about how knowing more vocabulary will make them understand more about what they read in the future. I could also remind students that they will be better writers in the future if they understand more vocabulary. Those involve "the future" reasoning, and as a kid, that kind of reasoning just is not enough. 

 How do I make students understand the importance of vocabulary "right now" in their lives?  Grades! That's it. No.  While it is true that learning vocabulary will help grades, does it make the students want to REALLY LEARN the words?  My students do care about their grades.  They do their sentences, participate in class, and get excellent grades.  However, I can tell my students really do not care.  They figure out the system, use those test taking strategies (I taught them) and they ace their tests. Parents are happy, students have As, but I know they still just went through the motions. A few students write really nice sentences, and they seem to enjoy the process, but this is a small portion of the class population.  HOW CAN VOCABULARY COMPETE WITH CHEMICAL REACTIONS?

 PLAY!  We easily lose track of the fact that our students are KIDS!  Let's play a game!  Make students WANT to CARE.

 This morning, we played a game I made up called, "Draw, Sculpt, or Act!"  I need a better name, but this one includes directions in the name, so it works quite efficiently in my jam-packed days.  Students work in groups to get their teams to guess the most vocabulary terms in a given amount of time.  They can draw, sculpt with play-doh, or act out words charades-style. This gets students out of their seats.  If they use one strategy, and the team is not guessing, they are forced to get the point across in other ways.  This is far from regurgitating definitions and forcing words into lackluster sentences.

 During today's game, ALL students were engaged.  They quickly found out that if they had recently studied the words, it was easier to guess.  Students worked together.  If one student could not think of the word, but they knew what the person was trying to show, they would describe it.  For example, "Oh, that is a planet going around and around!  It is that little invisible thing that goes through the planet!"  Another team member heard this and was able to guess, "Axis!" The students all seemed to have a rush of adrenaline (fun).  The winning prize was small-- a simple sticker.  The winning team was proud, but other teams did not feel deflated.

 The most important part of the game came afterwards. We reflected on the words that were easier to guess versus the ones that were challenging.  They were fairly common across groups.  For the most challenging words, we brainstormed ideas to help people guess them better.  I told the students, "You will see these words again when we review, so remember these tips!"

 After the game, I gave students the vocabulary assessment.  Compared to other weeks, the students finished in about half the time!  It is hard to prove if the game gets all the credit.  It just seemed that students really knew the words, and took less time relying on test-taking strategies!  As a teacher, I prefer standardized-style assessments to take LESS of my class time. 

This could be good news for students:

 More Time Playing Games = Less Time Taking Tests

 Is it too good to be true?

Games do make it matter "right now" for students.  We just need to be sure that the games we choose:

• Engage all students,
• Challenge students to think,
• Create opportunities for students to make connections,
• Are as effective, or more effective, than another learning opportunities,
• Allow for opportunities to reflect or "debrief" about the content,
• "Trick" students into caring about that content,
• Make it memorable-- make it matter.

When forced to think about whether or not we have "time" to play games in the classroom, we need to think about what will matter most to our students now.  It may even make their futures brighter!
 
We play a lot of games.  Jeopardy, math card games, and computer games are some of our favorites.  What are yours?

  Yesterday we celebrated a student's birthday.  With that, comes the opportunity for the birthday student to dress up with items from our birthday box.  One of the items was a colorful feather boa.  Throughout the day, feathers kept falling out of that boa.  Each time a feather fell out, a student would stop to pick it up.  One student was even caught blowing a red feather around the room, completely lost in his own game.  Needless to say, the boa became quite a distraction, leading to its retirement from the box of birthday costumes.  This series of events caused me to step back and examine other possible "feathers in the room" that were keeping my students from being engaged in learning. 
   During this observation, I realized that I could probably make a boa from all of the distractions my students encounter in a day!  Typical distractions included physical items like erasers, pencil grips, retainers, and books that were just too exciting to put away.  What surprised me, were the distractions that were not so obvious.  I realized that while I was teaching, I was also creating distractions.  For example, while building up to the exciting part of a lesson, I told a student to turn her paper to the correct side.  I also reminded a student to put his glasses on, prompted a boy to put his book away, and asked if a student could wait to use the restroom.  While all of these side comments were brief and subtle, I realized that they were, indeed, distractions.  Each time the focus was taken off the lesson content, more students became disengaged.  In the future, I will not allow these minor distractions to get in the way of my lessons.  I will wait until there is a "break in the action" to address the issues of individual students. I am also going to make more effort to keep students engaged, even if it means rethinking an entire lesson.  While I cannot eliminate every distraction, I will do my best to keep the focus on what is important so that my students will learn more effectively.  What are the "feathers" in your classroom?